William Dodd (29 May 1729 - 27 June 1777) was an English Anglican clergyman and a man of letters. He lived extravagantly, and was nicknamed the "Macaroni Parson". He dabbled in forgery in an effort to clear his debts, was caught, convicted, and, despite a public campaign for a Royal pardon, became the last person to be hanged at Tyburn for forgery. The Beauties of Shakespear was his most successful book and played a key role in reviving Shakespeare's popularity. This is a facsimile edition. From the author's preface to this collection of "Greatest Hits":
I shall not attempt any labored encomiums of Shakspeare, or endeavor to set forth his perfections, at a time when such universal and just applause is paid him, and when every tongue is big with his boundless fame. He himself tells us -
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess."
And wasteful and ridiculous indeed it would be to say anything in his praise, when presenting the world with such a collection of Beauties as per- haps is nowhere to be met with, and, I may very safely affirm, cannot be paralleled from the produc- tions of any other single author, ancient or modern. There is scarcely a topic, common with other writers, on which he has not excelled them all; there are many nobly peculiar to himself, where he shines unrivalled, and like the eagle, properest emblem of his daring genius, soars beyond the common reach and gazes undazzled on the sun.