Susannah Dobson née Dawson (c. 1742Temma Berg: ''The Lives and Letters of an Eighteenth-Century Circle of Acquaintance'' (Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006)
Retrieved 19 May 2017
p. 56. – 29 September 1795) was a translator from the south of England, the daughter of John Dawson of "the parish of St Dunstan, London".Antonella Braida, "Dobson, Susannah (d. 1795)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004
Retrieved 7 October 2014, pay-walled.
/ref> She was notably concerned with the 14th-century Italian

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credite ...

Life

Susannah Dawson married in 1759 a physician and medical writer, Dr Matthew Dobson of

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, where she wrote her ''Life of Petrarch''. He died in Bath, Somerset in 1784. Their three children were Susannah (born 1764), Dawson (born 1766), and Elisa (1760/1761–1778). It has also been suggested that Susannah Dawson was born in

Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Dingle, and Edge Hill. The area w ...

, near Liverpool, in 1742.

Frances Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

mentions that in 1780 Susannah Dobson had ambitions to join Mrs Thrale's circle, but the latter was not keen: "Mrs Dobson... persecutes me strangely as if with violent & undesired Friendship; yet Mrs Lewis says She is jealous." One modern view of what Thrale wrote is that it implied Dobson was a lesbian. Burney wrote of her, "Though coarse, low-bred, forward, self-sufficient, and flaunting, she seems to have a strong masculine understanding." Her husband, Dr Dobson, had become Mrs Thrale's physician.

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

, however, praised her as a "Directress of rational conversation".'' The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'', ed. Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 299. Susannah Dobson died 30 September 1795, and was buried at

St Paul's, Covent Garden St Paul's Church is a Church of England parish church located in Bedford Street, Covent Garden, central London. It was designed by Inigo Jones as part of a commission for the 4th Earl of Bedford in 1631 to create "houses and buildings fit for ...

Works

In 1775 Dobson published in two volumes her ''Life of

, collected from "Mémoires pour la vie de François Petrarch"'' (by Jacques-François de Sade). According to a modern account, in "rendering down the Abbé de Sade's massive French original, she probes the actions and feelings of another age." Among her contemporaries who praised it were the novelists Clara Reeve and

Elizabeth Benger Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger (baptised on 15 June 1775 at West Camel, Somerset, died on 9 January 1827 in London) was an English biographer, novelist and poet. Some of her poetry had a strong social message. Early life and education Elizabeth was t ...

. It was reprinted in 1777, and several times up to a sixth edition in 1805. She claimed in 1780 that it had earned her £400. Dobson's second work was to translate and abridge Sainte-Palaye's ''The Literary History of the Troubadours'', which appeared in 1779. In 1784 she translated the same author's ''Memoirs of Ancient Chivalry'', and in 1791

's '' De remediis utriusque fortunae'', as ''Petrarch's View of Human Life''.British Library. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
/ref> Also ascribed to Susannah Dobson are the anonymous didactic ''Dialogue on Friendship and Society'' (1777) and ''Historical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry'', an original scholarly work published in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

(1795).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobson, Susannah 1742 births 1795 deaths English translators 18th-century British translators