Despite the play's clear egalitarian sympathies, it seems excessive to characterize Dodsley's work as "revolutionary" and to be reminded too forcibly of the coming events in France. And yet, as has also been suggested, things might now look different had there been a revolution in England. Plays like Dodsley's discomforted the government. As Fielding notes in the dedication of _The Historical Register, For the Year 1736_, the _Gazetteer_ of 7 May 1737 had accused his play and Dodsley's _The King and the Miller of Mansfield_ of aiming at the overthrow of Walpole's ministry. "Bob Booty" reacted to this threat from the stage by enacting legislation in June requiring that all new plays and all alterations of old plays be approved by the Lord Chamberlain; in contrast, the reaction of the monarchy to Dodsley's work was much more ingenious. The third performance of _The King and the Miller of Mansfield_, that from which the author was to receive the proceeds, was held "By Command of their Royal Highness the Prince and Princess of Wales." Both royal personages were present to honor the apprentice from Mansfield. "The Boxes not being equal to the Demand for Places, for the better Accommodation of the Ladies, Side Boxes [were] made on the Stage."[10] Although the production of Dodsley's best play, _Cleone_ (1758), was still twenty years in the future, it seems safe to regard this night as the height of Dodsley's dramatic career. _Auburn University_ NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION 1. Leo Hughes, _A Century of English Farce_ (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956), 126. 2. _The London Stage 1660-1800: Part 3: 1729-1747_, ed. Arthur H. Scouten (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1961), 457. 3. Ibid., 458. 4. Ralph Straus, _Robert Dodsley: Poet, Publisher and Playwright_ (London: John Lane, 1910), 35. 5. Jean B. Kern, _Dramatic Satire in the Age of Walpole_, 1720-1750 (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1976), 149. 6. Allardyce Nicoll, _A History of English Drama 1660-1900_, 6 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955-60), 2:204. 7. For a survey of attempts to characterize sentimental drama, see Arthur Sherbo, _English Sentimental Drama_ (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1957). 8. John Loftis, _The Politics of Drama in Augustan England_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), 116-17. 9. Laura Brown, _English Dramatic Form, 1660-1760: An Essay in Generic History_ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 148. 10. _London Stage: Part 3_, 635. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE _The Toy-Shop_ (1735) is reproduced from the copy of the first edition in the Henry E. Huntington Library (Shelf Mark: 152063). A typical type-page (p. 23) measures 135 x 72 mm. _The King and the Miller of Mansfield_ (1737) is reproduced from the copy of the first edition in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (Shelf Mark: *PR3409/D7K5). A typical type-page (p. 13) measures 145 x 73 mm. THE TOY-SHOP. A Dramatick Satire.