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Henry Fieldings

Don Quixote in England

INAUGURAL-DISSERTATION

ZUR

ERLANGUNG DER DOKTORWaRDE

DER

HOHEN PHTLOSOPHISCHEN FAKULTAT

DER

UNIVER81TAT/BERN

VORGELEGT

VON

Ernst Dolder

von Flawyl (St. Qallen).

V

ZURICH

Buchdruckerei Qebr. Leemann & Co.

Verlag der „Bcademia".

1907.

B 2 603118

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Henry Fielding's

Don Quixote in England

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INAUGURAL-DISSERTATION

ZUR

ERLAKGUNG DER DOKTORW0RDE

DER

HOHEN PHILOSOPHISCHEN FAKULTAT

DER

UNIYERSITAT BERN

VORGELEGT
VON

Ernst Dolder

von Flawyl (St. Qallen).

ZURICH

Buchdmckerei Qebr. Leemann & Co.

Verlag der „Rcademia".

1907.

Von der philosophischen Fakultit auf Antrag des Herm Prof. Dr.
MULLEB-HESS angeaommen.

Bern, den 28. Juni 1906. Der Dekan :

Prof. Dr. G. Huber.

..^Xfe^

Meinen lieben Eltern

'vt^

Contents,

I. Bibliographical Index.

II. Don Quixote in universal literature.
III. Chronology of English translations and imitations of

Cervantes' Don Quixote.
rV. Fielding's admiration for Cervantes.

V. Fielding's "Don Quixote in England":

a) Dedication, preface and introduction,

b) Summary of the play,

c) Characters and sources.
VI. Fielding and Walpole.

VII. Fielding's attempt as a dramatical writer.

I. Bibliographical Index.

Adams, A dictionary of the drama, London 1904.

Addison, Sir Roger de Coverley (from "The Spectator**), Lon-
don 1711—12.

Baker, Biographia dramatica, London 1812.

Becker, Die Aufnahme des Don Quixote in die englische Lite-
ratur, Palaestra XIII, Berlin 1906.

B e 1 j a m e , Le public et les hommes de lettres en Angleterre
au 18e siecle, Paris 1897.

Cervantes, El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha,
Madrid 1605.

Cervantes, Segunda parte del ingenioso cavallero Don Quijote
de la Mancha, Madrid 1615.

Chalmers, Bibliographical Dictionary, London 1812.

Chesterfield, Characters of eminent personages of his own
time, London 1777.

Coleridge, Literary Remains, London 1836.

Coxe, Memoirs of the life and administration of Sir Robert
Walpole, London 1798.

Dibdin, A complete history of the English stage, London 1800.

D 0 b s 0 n , Henry Fielding, New - York 1900.

D 0 r e r , Cervantes und seine Werke in Deutschland, Leipzig 1881.

Ewald, Sir Robert Walpole, London 1878.

G e n e s t , Some account of the English stage, Bath 1832.

Gosse, The works of Henry Fielding, Westminster 1898.

H a y w a r d , Lord Chesterfield, London 1854.

H a z 1 i 1 1 , A manual for the collector and amateur of old
English plays, London 1892.

Hazlitt, Lectures on the English comic writers, London 1819.

H e r v e y , Memoirs of the reign of George II, London 1848.

H e 1 1 n e r , Literaturgeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts, Braun-
schweig 1894.

Juleville, Petit de, Histoire de la langue et de la litt^rature
fran§aise, Paris 1896.

K e i g h 1 1 e y , On the life and writings of Henry Fielding (in
Eraser's Magazine), London 1858.

K o 1 b i n g , Englische Studien, Heilbronn 1877.

Lawrence, The life of Henry Fielding, London 1855.

Lindner, Henry Fielding's dramatische Werke, Leipzig und
Dresden 1895.

Macau lay, Comic dramatists of the Restoration, New- York
1861.

M a c k 1 i n , Memoirs, London 1804.

Mahon, The letters of P. D. Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield,
London 1845—53.

Maynadier, The works of Henry Fielding, Cambridge U. S.
1905.

Moliere, L'Avare, Paris 1669.

Moliere, (Euvres, Paris 1682.

Montagu, Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, London
1861.

Murphy, The works of Henry Fielding, London 1762.

P 6 r 0 n n e , Ueber englische Zustande im 18. Jahrhundert nach
den Romanen von Fielding und Smollett, Leipzig 1890.

R o s c 0 e , The works of Henry Fielding, London 1840.

Saintsbury, The works of Henry Fielding, London 1893.

Sharp, Dictionary of English authors, London 1904.

Scott, Biographical memoirs, Edinburgh 1841.

Stephen, Dictionary of national biography, London 1889.

Stephen, The works of Henry Fielding, London 1882.

Thackeray, The English humorists of the 18th century, Lon-
don 1853.

T i c k n 0 r , History of the Spanish literature, Boston 1888.

V i a r d 0 1 , Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Cervantes,
Paris 1837.

Waller, The imperial dictionary of universal biography, Lon-
don 1857—63.

Walpole, The letters of Horace Walpole, London 1857.

W a 1 p 0 1 e , Memoirs of the reign of George II, London 1848 — 51.

Watson, Life of Henry Fielding, London 1807.

Wiese e P^rcopo, Storia della letteratura italiana, Torino
1900.

n.
Don Quixote in Universal Literature.

A. W. Schlegel, the famous Shakespeare-trans-
lator, says in one of his writings : "Don Quixote** is
the perfect masterpiece of higher romantic art". Indeed,
there are few works in universal literature more
worthy of their fame than the great novel of Cer-
vantes. All over the world we find translations and
imitations of "Don Quixote% testifying of the high
popularity he enjoys with all peoples and nations. To
grve an idea of its growing fame, I should like to
pass in review the most important editions, translations
and imitations of the book.

The first edition of the First Part of "Don
Quixote" was printed with this title : „E1 Ingenioso
Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, compuesto por
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, dirigido al Duque de
Bejar, Marques de Gibraleon etc. Ano 1605. Con
Privilegio, etc. En Madrid, por Juan de la Cuesta*,
4° in one volume.

Three editions more appeared in the same year,
namely one at Madrid, one at Lisbon, and the other
at Valencia. These with another at Brussels, in 1607
— five in all ~ are the only editions that appeared

— 10 —

till he took it in hand to correct some of its errors.
Such corrections appeared in the Madrid edition of
1608, 4<^. This edition, as the only one containing
Cervantes' amendments of the text, is more valued
and sought after than any other, and is the basis on
which all the good impressions since have been founded.
After this an edition at Milan, 1610, and one at Brussels,
1611, are known to have been printed before the
appearance of the second part in 1615. So that in
nine or ten years there were eight editions of the First
Part of Don Quixote, implying a circulation greater
than that of the works of Shakespeare or Milton,
Racine or Moli^re, who, as of the same century, may
be fitly compared with Cervantes.

The first edition of the Second Part of Don
Quixote is entitled: „Segunda Parte del Ingenioso
Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, por Miguel de
Cervantes Saavedra, autor de su primera parte, diri-
gida a Don Pedro Fernandez de Castro, Conde de
Lemos, etc. Ano 1615. Con Privilegio, en Madrid,
por Juan de la Cuesta", 4*. It was printed separately,
Valencia 1616, Brussels 1616, Barcelona 1617 and
Lisbon 1617, after which no separate edition is known
to have appeared.

Thus eight editions of the First Part were prin-
ted in ten years and five of the Second Part in two
years. Both parts appeared together at Barcelona in
1617 in two volumes 12^ and from this period the
number of editions has been very great, both in Spain
and in foreign countries, nearly fifty of them being
of some consequence.

Of all these the 5 following editions may be
considered the best:

— 11 —

1. Tonson's edition, London 1738

2. The edition of the Spanish Academy, Madrid 1780

3. Bowie's edition, Salisbury 1781

4. Pellicer's edition, Madrid 1797—98

5. Clemencin's edition, Madrid 1833—39.

In other countries the Don Quixote is hardly less
known than it is in Spain. Down to the year 1700,
it is curious to observe, that as many editions of the
entire work were printed abroad as at home, and the
succession of translations from the first has been
uninterrupted.

The first French translation of the First Part of
Don Quixote was made by Cesar Oudin and was
published at Paris in 1620. The Second Part was
translated by F. Rosset and was printed in 1633. In
1677 there appeared another translation by Filleau de
St. Martin (here the story is materially altered, so as
to permit Don Quixote to survive for other adventures).
His work, left unfinished, was taken up by Robert
Challes. The most read of the numerous French trans-
lations has been that of Florian (1799), though Louis
Viardot's (Paris 1836—38) is a much better one.

Don Quixote has been a great favourite with
German writers, both in the 17^** and in the 18*** cen-
tury. Of German translations I note :

Pahsch Basteln von der Sohle, C5then 1621

Johann Ludvdg du Four (Verleger), Genf 1682.

Fritsch (Verleger), Leipzig 1734

Frankfurter und Leipziger tJbersetzung 1734 — 36

F. J. Bertuch, Weimar 1775

Ludwig Tieck, Berlin 1799—1801

D. W, Soltan, K5nigsberg 1800

Quedlinburger und Leipziger Ubersetzung 1825

— 12 —

H. Mtiller, Zwickau 1825

Heinrich Heine, Stuttgart 1837 38

A. Keller und F. Notter, 1839

Edmund ZoUer, Hildburghausen 1867—68.

All countries have sought the means of enjoying
the Don Quixote, for there are translations in Latin,
Italian, Dutch, Danish, Russian, Polish and Portuguese.
But better than any of these foreign translations
is the admirable one made into German by Ludwig
Tieck, eight editions of which appeared between 1799
and 1876 and superseded all the other German ver-
sions. It ought to be added that in the last halfcen-
tury more editions of the original have appeared in
Germany than in any other foreign country.

As to prose imitations of Don Quixote, I only
Tvant to point out the most important of them:

a) In Spain:

Avellaneda ("Secundo Tomo dellngenioso Hidalgo

. . .") Tarragona 1614 [translated into French

by Lesage 1704 and Germon de Lavigne 1853].

Anzarena ("Empresas Literarias del ingeniosissimo

. . .«) Sevilla 1767
Delgado ("Adiciones a Don Quijote**) Madrid
Ribero y Larrea ("El Quijote de la Cantabria")

Madrid 1792
"Historia de Sancho Panza", Madrid 1793—98
Sifieriz ("El Quijote del siglo XVIII), Madrid 1836
"Napoleon o el verdadero Don Quijote de la
Europa"), Madrid 1813

b) Out of Spain:

Out of the great number of foreign imitations, the
most valuable, according to modern critics, are:

- 13 —

Ward, "Life of Don Quixote, merrily translated
into Hudibrastic Verse, London 1711

Wieland, "Don Sylvio von Rosalva", Ulm 1764

Meli, "Don Chisciotte", 3^ and 4*^ volume of
"Poesie Siciliane", Palermo 1787

Smollett, "Sir Launcelot Greaves", London 1762

Don Quixote has often been produced on the stage.
There are Spanish plays on Don Quixote by different
authors: Francisco de Avila, Guillen de Castro, Cal-
deron (lost), Gomez Labrador, Francisco Marti, Val-
ladares, Melendez Valdes, Ventura de la Vega.

There are several old French plays on Don Quixote,
long since forgotten :

"Les Folies de Cardenio" by Pichot 1623

"Don Quichotte de la Manche" by Guerin de
Boucal 1640

•Le Gouvernement de Sancho Panza" by B. 1642

"Le Curieux Impertinent ou le Jaloux", 1645

"Don Quichotte de la Manche", tragicom^die par
C. D. 1703.

A very amusing fact concerning Don Quixote
connected with the French stage is, that in a play
arranged by Madeleine Bejart and called "Don Quichotte
ou les Enchantements de Merlin" Moliere played the
part of Sancho and the ass, who had not thoroughly
learned his part, came on the stage too soon in spite
of his poetical rider and created a great uproar of
merriment (Guimarest, Vie de Moliere).

German plays and operas about Don Quixote have
been written by :

Hinsch, Hamburg 1690

Mtiller, 1722

F. J. H. Soden, Berlin 1788-91

— 14 —

B. Schack, 1792

Dittersdorf, 1796

Heusler, Wien 1803

A. Bode, Leipzig 1804

Paul Taglioni, Berlin

A. Rubinstein, Leipzig.

All these different editions, translations and imi-
•tations, which for above two centuries have been
poured out upon the different countries of Europe,
give still but an imperfect idea of the kind and
degree of success which the extraordinary work has
enjoyed, for there are thousands and thousands who
never have read it and who never heard of Cervantes,
to whom nevertheless the names of Don Quixote and
vof Sancho are as familiar as household works.

III.

Chronology of

English translations and imitations

OF Cervantes^ Don Quixote.

No foreign country has done so much for Cer-
vantes and Don Quixote as England, both by original
editions published there and by translations.

As to English translations, the first was written
by Shelton, 1612—20, which was followed by
John Philips' in 1687
Motteux's , 1700

Ward's . 1711—12

Jarvis' „ 1742

Smollett's „ 1755

Wilmot's „ 1774

and the anonymous one of 1818, which has adopted
parts of all its predecessors.

The English imitations of *'Don Quixote" are very
numerous, as will be seen by the following chrono-
logical table:

1611 Beaumont and Fletcher's "Knight of the
Burning Pestle"

— 16 —

1654 Edmund Gay ton's "Pleasant Notes upon Don

Quixote"
1656 Holland's "Don Zara del Fogo"
1663-78 Butler's "Hudibras"
1694-96 D'Urfey's "Comical History of D. Q."
1711 Edward Ward's "Life of D. Q."
1734 Fielding's '^D. Q. in England"
1741 Pope's, Swift's & Arbuthnot's "Martinus

Scriblerus"
1752 Mrs. Lennox's "Female Quixote*
1762 Smollett's "Sir Launcelot Greaves"

1773 Graves' "Spiritual Quixote"

1774 Piguenit's "D. Q."

1797 Cross's "Harlequin and Quixote"

1808 Moser's "D. Q. in Barcelona^'

1833 Almar's "D. Q."

1846 Macfarren's "D. Q."

1867 Hazlewood's "D. Q."

1869 Killick's "D. Q."

1876 Paulton & Maltby's "D. Q."

1895 Wills' "D. Q."

1899 Percy Milton's "D. Q."

C. W. Hazlitt in his "Manual for the collector
and amateur of old English plays" (London 1892)
speaks of a comedy "The history of D. Q. or the
Knight of the ill-favoured face advertised at the end
of the New World of English Words 1658 and of
Wit and Drollery 1661 as in the press, not at present
known." On making inquiries, M"" Hazlitt writes me
that up to the present day no further information
about this play has come to his knowledge.

There are some anonymous imitations of *Don
Quixote" to be mentioned, viz.:

17

1673 "Don Quixote Eedivivus"

1678 "The Mock Clelia or Madam Quixote"

1761 "Tarrataria or Don Quixote the second".

1763 "Fizgigg or the Modern Quixote"

1785 "The Country Quixote"

1789 "The Amicable Quixote"

Of all these works Butler's ''Hudibras"' was for
a long time considered the best imitation of Cer-
vantes' hero. However it would be going too far
calling it "The English Copy of Don Quixote", as
Joseph Warton has done in N° 133 of the "Adven-
turer". Though its plan is entirely original, the lea-
ding idea may in some measure be referred to Cer-
vantes "Don Quixote" ; but as the object of Butler was
totally different from that of the immortal Spanish
humorist, so the execution is so modified as to leave
the English work all the glory of complete novelty.

The earliest of these imitations was Beaumont
and Fletcher's comedy "The Knight of the burning
pestle" (1611). Intended as a parody on Thomas Hey-
wood's ''The four prentices of London" (1601), its
principal hero, Ralph, is a second Don Quixote whose
victorious struggle against the giant Barbarossa and
the liberation of his prisoners are a combination of
similar adventures in Cervantes (Chapter XXI and
XXII). Sancho Panza is happily imitated in Tim,
apprentice, and even Susan, the cobbler's maid in
Milk-street, bears a certain resemblance to fair Dul-
cinea del Toboso.

IV.
FIELDING'S ADMIRATION FOR CERVANTES.

There can scarcely be mentioned a writer ot
ancient or modern times who at all approaches Cer-
vantes in the wide extent of his popularity and the
universal reception which his great work has had in
every portion of the civilized world.

Though Shakespeare's name is now probably a
familiar one in every quarter of the globe and his
works are as widely diffused as his race, still, at
present no one would venture to assert that any charac-
ters of his are pictured to the eye with the same
clearness as those immortal photographs of Cervantes'
pen which in course of time have been transferred to
almost every European literature.

Of all English poets none certainly professed a
more sincere admiration for Cervantes than Fielding.
There is no doubt that long before publishing his
•* Joseph Andrews" he admired in Cervantes the master
of comic novel writing. From his boyhood he had
fastened with eager delight on the immortal creations
of Cervantes. They were the loadstars of his fancy,
the fairy forms which had led captive his youthful

— 19 —

imagination. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that
the rude comedy "Don Quixote in England", written
at Leyden in the first transports of youthful ardour,
was a favourite with its author, for the idea had
taken deep root in his mind. Though Fielding's prin-
cipal object in the composition of "Joseph Andrews"
was to caricature "Pamela" by presenting a picture
of male virtue in humble life, as a ludicrous counter-
part of Richardson's sketch, another and much higher
design was included in his plan. He endeavoured to
imitate the manner and catch a portion of the spirit
of his master. To present an English parallel to the
adventures of the chivalrous Don suggested itself to
his mind and he created a hero calculated to afford
amusement to his readers, without ever forfeiting their
esteem. Upon its title-page "Joseph Andrews" is
declared to be "written in imitation of the manner of
Cervantes". There is no doubt that, in addition to
being subjected to an unreasonable amount of ill-usage,
Parson Adams has manifest affinities with Don Quixote.

Taking Fielding's ideas about the ridiculous into
careful consideration, it will be easy to find out the
affinities existing between these ideas and his study
of Cervantes. He calls affectation the only source of
the ridiculous ; affectation again has its origin in
vanity or hypocrisy. Fielding now goes on to say
that it is just the contrast between the pretention of
vain or hypocritical people and the sound reality that
makes these people ridiculous. Fielding considered
the "affecting false characters in order to purchase
applause" as the main comic idea in Cervantes' "Don
Quixote" and so he made the true copy of those
human errors the object of his novel- writing. It is for

— 20 —

this reason that Fielding always looked at his novels
as imitations of Cervantes, to whom he owes much
in this regard.

It is interesting to notice that literary critics
thought Fielding a worthy imitator of the great
Spanish poet. Throughout Europe the fame of Fiel-
ding as a novel-writer is such as to allow him to be
placed beside his great ideal Cervantes. Of all the
numerous imitators and followers of Cervantes Fiel-
ding is by far the worthiest as the most original and
most independent of them. The imaginative faculties
as well as the knowledge of men and matters are
quite his own ; all, that belongs to the creating artist,
is his own property. It is only in the art of com-
posing he looks to Cervantes as his master and ideal.
With regard to the leading idea he goes even farther
than his model: Fielding regards the affectation based
on hypocrisy as the worthiest subject to treat with.
Cervantes* comic consists in putting forward human
vanity, Fielding adds the study of human wretched-
ness with a view to the ethical side of the matter.

It would be an injustice to call Cervantes a spe-
cific Catholic and Fielding a specific Protestant poet.
This to say would be to misunderstand the cause of
the immortality of their work, which lies in the fact
that both Cervantes and Fielding stood high above
their generation. Both were national poets in the best
sense of the word, but their highest aim was to re-
present mankind in general. Cervantes owes the depth
and originality of his work to his own genius whereas
Fielding is indebted for the broad-mindedness and
freedom of his ideas to the uprising of civilisation
and the liberal tendencies of his century.

— 21 —

However, if any novelist of the world deserves
to stand besides Cervantes, it is certainly Fielding who
in his comic novels reaches the same classical height
of perfection as his master Cervantes.

V.
FIELDING'S **DON QUIXOTE IN ENGLAND".

a) Dedication, PrefcLce and Introduction.

In April 1734 a comedy called "Don Quixote in
England" and written by Henry Fielding was acted
at the New Theatre in the Hay-Market.

This comedy was begun at Leyden in the year
1728 and after it had been sketched ont into a few
loose scenes was thrown by and for a long while no
more thought of. "It was", says Fielding in his pre-
face, originally written for my private amusement,
as it would indeed have been little less than
Quixotism itself to hope any other fruits from attemp-
ting characters wherein the inimitable Cervantes so
far excelled. The impossibility of going beyond and
the extreme difficulty of keeping pace with him, were
sufficient to infuse despair into a very adventurous
author". He soon discovered that his small experience
and little knowledge of the world had led him into
an error. He found it very difficult to vary tho scene
and give his knight an opportunity of displaying him-
self in a different manner from that wherein he ap-
pears in the romance. "Human nature", says Fielding,
•*i8 everywhere the same and the modes and habits

— 23 —

of particular nations do not change it enough, suffi-
ciently to distinguish a Quixote in England from a
Quixote in Spain".

Booth and Gibber, then managers of Drury Lane,
on examining the play of Fielding advised him not
to produce it on the stage. However, on the soli-
citations of the "distressed actors at Drury Lane", he
tried to improve it by adding some scenes in which
Don Quixote is introduced to the remarkable humours
of an English election. The piece was rehearsed, but
it was delayed by various accidents until no longer
needed at Drury Lane. Fielding's services as an author
were no longer required, whilst Macklin's, his friend's
engagement came to an end. Fortunately, the two
friends managed to engage a small company, where-
upon Fielding's "Don Quixote in England" was brought
out at the New Theatre in the Hay-Market.

It may be worth while to mention that an enig-
matic phrase in Fielding's preface about the "Griant
Cajanus" is explained by the fact that "Mynheer Ca-
janus" seems to have been a Dutch actor or harlequin,
who appeared as Gargantua in a piece called "Cupid
and Psyche", the performance of which was one of
the obstacles to the representation of "Don Quixote".

Fielding's play was dedicated to the "Right
Honourable Philip Earl of Chesterfield, Knight of the
most noble Order of the Garter" and author of the
famous letters.

In his dedication. Fielding dwells with much com-
placency on the wholesome tendency of the "election
scenes", which he had engrafted upon it. "The most
ridiculous exhibitions of luxury or avarice*^, he writes,
"may have little effect on the sensualist or the miser,

— 24 —

but I fancy a lively representation of the calamities
brought on a country by general corruption might
have a very sensible and useful effect on the specta-
tors". Fielding's object was laudable enough and his
exposure of electoral corruption is characterized by
wit and vigour; but he must have been a Quixote
indeed who could have conceived it possible that any
amount of satire and sarcasm would have induced
Sir Robert Walpole to have abandoned the system of
wide-spread corruption by which he carried on the
government of England at this period.

The Introduction to "Don Quixote in England"
begins with a dialogue between manager and author.
The former complains of there being no prologue to
the play, whilst the audience would never do without
it. That affords a good opportunity to Fielding to
attack the bad use of prologues and epilogues with
a certain class of play-writers. One of them begins
with abusing the writing of all his contemporaries,
lamenting the corrupt state of the stage and assuring
the audience that this play wasw ritten with a design
to restore true taste. The second is in a different cast :
The first twelve lines inveigh against all indecency
on the stage and the last twenty show you what it
is. A third class of authors is so sensible of the de-
merits of their plays that they desire to set the au-
dience asleep before they begin.

This interesting dialogue is interrupted by a player
who entreats the manager to begin at once with the
performance of the play, the audience making such
a noise with their canes that if the actors did not
begin immediately the public would surely beat down
the house before the play begins. The manager then

— 25 —

orders to play away the overture immediately and
takes leave of the author who retires to some part of
the house to have a look at the performance.

h) Summary of the play.

Act I. Scene I.
Scene: An Inn
Guzzle, innkeeper, speeks to Sancho, squire of
Don Quixote, complaining of his staying at his house
without paying any retribution. He threatens to get
a warrant for Don Quixote, if he did not pay at once
his bill. Sancho replies that knights-errant like his
master are above the law and freed from paying any-
thing. Guzzle assures Sancho that his ass as well as
his master's beast shall have no more oats at his ex-
pense; never, he says, were masters and their beasts
so like another. The scene closes with an air sung
by Sancho:

"Rogues there are of each nation

Except among the divines

And vinegar since the creation

Has still been made of all wines".

Scene II.
Don Quixote calls Sancho. He tells him that
there has arrived at the castle (i. e. the inn) one of
the most accursed giants marching at the head of his
army. Sancho, astonished, says that it were but a
country gentleman going a- courting and having with
him a pack of dogs. Don Quixote furiously rejoins
that he knows nothing about that and says that this
must be the enchanter Merlin whom he knows very
well by his dogs. — A sweet love-song is heard
behind the doors.

26

Scene IIL

The innkeeper comes in and tells Don Quixote
that horse and ass are saddled. The latter replies
that he does not want to leave him. Guzzle again
asks for the payment of the bill, whereupon Don
Quixote orders Sancho to pay the innkeeper a thou-
sand English guineas. Sancho confesses not to have
seen any money for a fortnight. His master won't
believe it as he certainly must have got plenty of
money out of the spoils of so many plundered giants.
Quixote commands Sancho to present himself at once
at the court of Dulcinea del Toboso.

Dorothea, a young lady and guest of the hostelry,
sings within. Don Quixote addresses her as the prin-
cess of the castle whom he supposes to be held cap-
tive by a cursed enchanter. He calls out commanding
the enchanter to open the castle-gates. As nothing
is done he attacks the walls and breaks the windows.

Scene IV.
Guzzle enters crying out that they were beating
down his house. Quixote steps forward and requires
him to deliver at once the princess whom he detains
to rob her of all plates and jewels. A mob is gathering
round the inn laughing at the madness of Don Quixote.

Scene V— VH.
Dorothea in her chamber is seen talking to Je-
zebel, her maid. She is waiting for her lover, finding
fault at his slowness. Sancho enters and inquires after
the enchanted lady. Dorothea presents herself as the
princess Indoccalambria and asks to see his illustrious
master Don Quixote. Sancho entreats her to prevail
on his master not to send him home to Spain after

— 27 —

his lady Dulcinea, as he is very fond of English
roastbeef and strong beer. Now follows Sancho*s
famous song of the "Roast Beef of Old England" ^):

"When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food

In ennobled our hearts and enriched our blood

Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good.

0 the roast beef of Old England

And Old England's roast beef!
Then, Britons, from all nice dainties refrain
Which effeminate Italy, France and Spain
And mighty roast beef shall command in the main.

0 the roast beef of Old England

And Old England's roast beef!"

Dorothea hearing that Sancho had once imposed
a certain lady for Dulcinea on his master, will fit
out Jezebel for this purpose. Sancho says this would
be the best as there were no Dulcinea to be found
in Spain ; he continues to tell her that he would never
have followed his master if it had not been for the
sake of a little island of which he was to be the
governor. Dorothea charges him to inform at once
Don Quixote of the arrival of his sweet lady Dulcinea
del Toboso.

Scene VIII— X. A Street.
The mayor of the town accompanied by his neigh-
bour is seen walking through the street. The mayor
suggests that Don Quixote has come in town in view
of the approaching parliamentary elections ; he is quite
convinced that he wants to buy votes to be sure of
his election as a member of parliament. He fears

*) Hichard Leveridge took Fielding's first verse, added others
and set the whole to music (Hullah's Song Book 1866, No 39).

The first verse is also to be found in Fielding's "Grub-Street-
Opera" (Air 45), which appeared in 1731.

— 28 —

that the corporation candidate, Sir Thomas Loveland,
will meet with no opposition. He smells a plot to
«ell the whole town to the corporation; but rather
than to suffer this he would ride all over the king-
dom for a candidate. He thinks of Don Quixote as
a member fit for parliament; as for his being mad,
it does not matter. His neighbour is of the same
opinion; though Quixote has brought no money with
him, he is supposed to have a very large estate.

Guzzle the innkeeper is coming up and invites
the mayor to have a drink with him. The mayor in-
quires about Don Quixote and informs Guzzle of his
intention to propose Quixote as member of parliament.
He thinks it necessary to get an opposition candidate
who is ready to spend his money for the honour of
his party. He adds that these times come but seldom
and they ought to make the best of them. Guzzle
agrees and they are going to empty a bottle in honour
of the coming election.

Act II. Scene I— III.
Scene: A chamber in the inn.

Sancho, weary of the dangers of knight-errantry,
begs his master to make him a landlord which seems
to him a very thriving trade in England; anything,
he says, would be better than to be looked upon as
a madman. Don Quixote says that he is not concerned
at the evil opinion of men. "If we consider who are
their favourites, we shall have no reason to be so
fond of their applause. Virtue is too bright for their
eyes and they dare not behold her. Hypocrisy is the
deity they worship. Look through the world: what
is it recommends men but the poverty, the vice and
the misery of others ? Instead of endeavouring to make

29

himself better, each man endeavours to make hi^
neighbour worse. Each man rises to admiration by
treading on mankind. Sancho, let them call me mad ;
I am not mad enough to court their approbation."

Guzzle enters and tells Don Quixote that the
mayor of the town has come to pay him a visit. Don
Quixote welcomes the mayor asking him to let him
know the object of his visit. The mayor says that
the whole town is highly sensible of the honour he
intends them. He assures him of the entire success if
he stands against his rival: however, he continues,
there is nothing to be done without "bleeding" freely
on these occasions. Don Quixote replies that he is
not afraid of "blood" and that he will preserve the
town from any insults. He wishes to know the knight
whom he is going to fight. The mayor informs him
that he stays now at Loveland Castle with 600
freeholders at his heels. Don Quixote now begins to
denounce his adversary as a deflowerer of virgins, a
debaucher of wives, whereupon the mayor, surprised,
ventures to say that Sir Thomas Loveland, his rival
is rather a good-natured and civil gentleman. He goe»
on to say that the whole is a matter of money and
that he who spends the most will carry it. Don
Quixote, on hearing this, starts up and calls him a
caitiff. "Hence from my sight", he cries, "or by the
peerless Dulcinea's eyes, thy blood shall pay the
affront thou hast given my honour ! "

Scene IV-VII.
Squire Badger and his huntsman Scut enter the
room. Squire Badger wants some company. The inn-
keeper is very sorry not to be able to comply with his
demand, the only guests of his being for the moment

- 30 —

a young lady and her maid, a madman and a squire.
Then he tells Badger all he knows about Don Quixote
and Sancho Pansa. Squire Badger is highly amused
at his tale and wants to see the famous knight at
once. Don Qaixote is presented to him and having
exchanged compliments with him, reveals him his
secret that he has just discovered a beautiful princess
in this castle. Squire Badger, who is very fond of
music, invites his huntsman fco entertain them with
one of his hunting-songs. This song is remarkable for
its beauty ; it begins with the fine verse :

"The dusky night rides down the sky

And ushers in the morn

The hounds all join in glorious cry

The huntsman winds his horn."
Dorothea comes in and is introduced to Don
Quixote by Squire Badger who calls her the finest
woman in the world. Don Quixote, indignant at this
preference given to another lady than his peerless
Dulcinea, arises to protest against this abuse. He calls
him a rascal ; Squire Badger, in his turn, insults Don
Quixote and a serious contest arises. At this moment
Sancho comes to the rescue of his master, who has
been badly treated by Squire Badger.
Scene VIII XII.
Fairlove meets Squire Badger and wants to know
the cause of his dispute with Don Quixote. Badger
tells him all about when they hear from the court-
yard a dreadful voice crying : "Avant, caitiff! think
not, thou most accursed giant, ever to enter within
this castle to bring any more captive princesses hither!*
All inquire about the noise arising from the yard
when M'^ Guzzle rushes in crying out for help. She
tells them that Don Quixote won't suffer the stage-

31

coach to come into the yard. On arriving there, they
see Don Quixote, armed cap-a-pie, his lance in his
hand, standing before the gate. Nobody dares to ap-
proach him until Guzzle comes up and succeeds to
open the gates.

Scene XIII— XIV.
The stage-coach enters the court-yard and M'" Brief,
lawyier, D'" Drench, a physician and M^ Sneak with
family alight from the carriage. As they are enter-
ing the house, they are welcomed by Don Quixote
as most illustrious and high lords. He congratulates
them upon their delivery and hopes they will repair
immediately to Toboso to present their respects to his
lady Dulcinea. The doctor and lawyier at once per-
ceive the madness of Don Quixote and are discussing
the best means to cure his insanity. Meanwhile Sancho
is looking out for his master. He rather finds that
knight-errantry is a dangerous profession; if it were
not for the island his master had promised him, he
would leave England at once. If ever he should happen
to be governor of an island, he would do like other
wise governors and plunder as much as possible.

Act in. Scene I-V.
Scene: A room.
Fairlove and his sweetheart Dorothea, Sancho
and M^s Guzzle admire the fine dress of lezebel who
is to represent the lady Dulcinea del Toboso before
Don Quixote. Sancho says that he has never seen
such gorgeous fine lady in all Toboso; he tells
lezebel that his master is informed of the approach
of his mistress. All are longing for the moment to
see Don Quixote receive his lady. In the meantime
Sir Thomas Loveland, father of Dorothea, enters with

— 32 —

M** Guzzle. Sir Thomas wants to see Squire Badger
whom he considers a very advantageous match for
his daughter considering the great estate he is told
to possess. Squire Badger is presented to him and
they exchange the usual compliments. Squire Badger
tells of his merry London life; he says, if he had
known as much of the world before, he would scarce
have thought of marrying. He invites Sir Thomas
to a „ cherishing cup".

Scene VI-XIII.
Scene: The yard.
Don Quixote asks Sancho how far the advanced
guards were yet from the castle and what knights
attended to her presence. Sancho replies that he saw
more than a dozen of rich coaches and a great number
of maids of honour. As soon as lezebel approaches,
Don Quixote kneels down, addressing her as his most
illustrious and mighty princess and expressing his
thanks for the infinite goodness shown to him. le-
zebel, all smiling, bids him to rise ; she will be his
eternally, provided she is assured of his constancy.
At this moment Dorothea rushes in crying out for
help, a mighty giant pursuing her. Don Quixote at
once asks leave to protect her, while Sancho, fearing
for his bones, is stealing away from the scene. Sir
Thomas Loveland appears. Don Quixote, supposing
him to be the giant, is on the point to attack him,
when Dorothea, fearing for her father, throws herself
between them and succeeds to calm the rage of Don
Quixote. Sancho meanwhile has been in the pantry
where he stuffs his belly as if he had never seen
any food before. Though he likes English beef and
pudding, he wants to get out of this cursed fighting

— 33 —

country. M*"^ Guzzle is lamenting over the mischief
done by Quixote. She says that the house is ruined
for ever, that all windows are broken, her guests
crying, swearing and stamping like dragoons.

Scene XIV-XVL
Squire Badger, heated with wine, appears; he
insults Sir Thomas whom he charges as a liar. He is
not ashamed to ask Dorothea for a kiss. Don Quixote,
seeing this, comes up to protect her. He addresses
her father, Sir Thomas, beseeching him, not to con-
fide his daughter to a man like Squire Badger. Do-
rothea confesses her father that she never loved and
never would love Squire Badger, though he might
be the richest man of the world. Squire Badger departs
with new insults against Sir Thomas who finally sees
the wrong he was doing to his daughter. He no more
opposes the union of his daughter with Fairlove who
is quite happy to carry home his sweetheart. Brief,
the lawyer, enters ; he says that he has been abused,
beaten, hurt, disfigured and defaced by a rogue, rascal
and villain. D^* Drench, on his side, declares his ad-
versary to be a madman who should be blooded and
cupped to cure him of his frenzy. The cook appears,
haling in Sancho, who has been surprised stuffing his
wallet with everything to be found in the kitchen,
Don Quixote is ashamed of his squire and calls him
a slave and a caitiff. Sir Thomas, however, says a
few words in favour of poor Sancho and Fairlove is
ready to pay Guzzle for all the mischief done by the
squire and his illustrious master. Sir Thomas invites
Don Quixote to his daughter's wedding and promises
to do the best in his power for his entertainment.
D^ Drench hopes, Sir Thomas won't take a madman

34

to his house. Don Quixote in his turn declares doctor
and lawyer to be mad as well as himself, both living
at the expense of honest people. The scene closes with
the air:

"All mankind are mad, 'tis plain

Some for places

Some embraces

Some are mad to keep up gain

And others mad to spend it".

Since your madness is so plain

Each spectator

Of good nature

With applause will entertain

Don Quixote and Squire Sancho."

c) Characters and Sources.

However absurd in design or unfitted for the
stage, Fielding's '^Don Quixote in England" will never-
theless be found both readable and entertaining.

If Don Quixote and his trusty squire are not very
felicitously introduced on English ground, yet their
respective characters, as developed in Cervantes' ro-
mance, are admirably preserved.

Fielding's Don Quixote is the identical Don of
the Spanish romance : the very soul of honour, a mo-
nomaniac, it is true, but a man of rare wit and wis-
dom. Whilst his acts are those of a madman, his
language is that of a philosopher. He mistakes a pack
of dogs for an army, but he denounces in no measured
terms the social anomalies and vices which most revolt
a chivalrous nature. He wages war, not only against
giants and monsters, but against hypocrisy, servility,
cunning and corruption. In fact, a happy mixture of
sense and extravagance distinguishes the hero of the

— 35 —

comedy as well as of the romance. Take the following
passage, in which the coarse characters and amuse-
ments of the country squires of the eighteenth cen-
tury are felicitously satirised:

Don Quixote : "There is now arrived in this castle
one of the most accursed giants that ever infested the
earth. He marches at the head of his army that howl
like Turks in an engagement".

Sancho: "Oh, lud! oh lud! this is the country
squire at the head of his pack of dogs".

Quixote: "What dost thou mutter, varlet?"

Sancho : "Why, Sir, this giant, that your worship
talks of, is a country gentleman going a-courting and
his army is neither more nor less than his kennel of
foxhounds. "

Quixote: "Oh, the prodigious force of enchant-
ment ! Sirrah, I tell thee, this is the giant Toglogmo-
glog, lord of the island Gogmogog, whose belly hath
been the tomb of above a thousand strong men."

Sancho: "Of above a thousand hogsheads of strong
beer, I believe."

Quixote: "This must be the enchanter Merlin. I
know him by his dogs. But thou idiot! dost thou
imagine that women are to be hunted like hares, that
a man would carry his hounds with him to visit his
mistress ? "

Sancho : "Sir, your true English squire and his hounds
are as inseparable as the Spaniard and his Toledo. He
eats with his hounds, drinks with his hounds, and lies
with his hounds; your true errant English squire is
but the first dog-boy in his house."

Quixote: "'Tis pity then that fortune should con-
tradict the order of nature. It was a wise institution

— 36 —

of Plato to educate children according to their minds,
not to their births; these squires should sow their
corn which they ride over. Sancho, when I see a gent-
leman on his own coach-box, I regret the loss which
some has had of a coachman; the man who toils all
day after a partridge or a pheasant might serve his
country by toiling after a plough; and when I see
a low, mean, tricking lord, I lament the loss of an
excellent attorney.*

The character of Don Quixote himself is one of
the most perfect disinterestedness. He is an enthusiast
of the most amiable kind, of a nature equally open,
gentle and generous, a lover of truth and justice and
one who has brooded over the fine dreams of chivalry
and romance, till they had robbed him of himself and
cheated his brain into a belief of their reality.

The character of Sancho is admirable in itself,
but still more as a relief to that of the knight. The
contrast is as picturesque and striking as that between
the figures of Don Quixote's steed and Sancho*s ass.
Never was there so complete a "partie quarr^e": they
answer to one another at all points. Nothing need
surpass the truth of physiognomy in the description
of the master and man, both as to body and mind:
the one lean and tall, the other round and short; the
one heroical and courteous, the other selfish and ser-
vile; the one full of high-flown fancies, the other a
bag of proverbs; the one always starting some ro-
mantic scheme, the other trying to the safe side of
custom and tradition. The gradual ascendancy, how-
ever, obtained by Don Quixote over Sancho, is as
finely managed as it is characteristic. Credulity and

37

a love of the marvellous are as natural to ignorance
as selfishness and cunning.

Don Quixote is not merely to be regarded as a
Spanish cavalier, filled with a Spanish madness and
introduced on English ground — he is also the type of
a more universal madness — he is the symbol of ima-
gination, continually struggling and contrasted with
reality. He represents the eternal warfare between
enthusiasm and necessity, the eternal discrepancy bet-
ween the aspirations and the occupations of man, the
omnipotence and the vanity of human dreams.

Cervantes' design in writing his famous romance
has been, as he says himself at the very beginning
of his work, to break down the vogue and authority
of books of chivalry. Fielding's object in writing his
comedy was to give "a lively representation of the
calamities brought on a country by general corruption."
As will be pointed ont in the following chapter, Fiel-
ding did not succeed in his enterprise. However, the
election scenes, in which Don Quixote is brought into
contact with the corrupt rulers of the borough, which
he is solicited to stand for as a candidate, exhibit a
dramatic skill and humour which few of English
comic writers have excelled. These scenes, though but
slightly attached to the main story, are keenly satirical
and considering that Hogarth's famous series of kind-
red prints belongs to a much later date, must certainly
have been novel, as may be gathered from the follow-
ing little colloquy between M'* Mayor and M^^^rs Guzzle
and Retail:

Mayor (to Retail): ... *! like an opposition,
because otherwise a man may be obliged to vote
against his party; therefore, when we invite a gent-

-. 38 —

leman to stand, we invite him to spend his money
for the honour of his party; and when both parties
have spent as much as they are able, every honest
man will vote according to his conscience.

Guzzle : "M"* Mayor talks like a man of sense
and honour and it does me good to hear him."

Mayor : , Ay, ay, M^ Guzzle, I never gave a vote
contrary to my conscience. I have earnestly recom-
mended the country interest to all my brethren, but
before that I recommended the town-interest, that is
the interest of this corporation, and first of all I re-
commended to every particular man to take a parti-
cular care of himself. And it is with a certain way
of reasoning, that he who serves me best, will serve
the town best and he that serves the town best, will
serve the country best."

Fielding was anxious to maintain as much as
possible the characters of Don Quixote and Sancho
as they are present to us in Cervantes' romance.
However, to delineate the character of Don Quixote
was no easy task for Fielding, as he could hardly
hope to reach his model. And still, we dare say, he
has made the best of it. As in the romance, the hero
suffers only of partial madness ; his fantastical love
for Dulcinea, his imaginary ideas of enchanters, kings
and princesses are a result of his enthusiasm for knight-
errantry. All actions and discourses are therefore,
however absurd they may be, the logical outcome
of his fixed ideas. As to the rest, he is very reason-
able and has a deep insight in human nature, to put
to shame even those who assume to possess a good deal
of common sense and sound judgment. Act III, Scene
14, affords a very good instance of it. Don Quixote is

— 39 ~

quite indignant at Sir Thomas' behaviour who intends
to give his daughter to the rich but heartless Squire
Badger rather than to accept poor honest Fairlove,
whose love is shared by Dorothea. "Do you", he ad-
dresses Sir Thomas," marry your daughter for her
sake or your own ? If for hers, sure it is something
whimsical to make her miserable in order to make her
happy. Money is a thing well worth considering in
these affairs, but parents always regard it too much
and lovers too little. No match can be happy, which
love and fortune do not conspire to make so."

The source of this scene is very likely Moliere's
"Avare" (Act I, Scene 7), where Valere says: . . .
"II y a des gens qui pourraient vous dire qu'en de
telles occasions I'inclination d'une fille est une chose,
sans doute, ou Ton doit avoir de I'egard . . . Ce n*est
pas qu' il n*y ait quantity de pferes qui aimeraient
mieux manager la satisfaction de leurs filles que I'ar-
gent qu'ils pourraient donner et qui ne les voudraient
point sacrifier a I'int^ret . . . ."

All this clearly shows that Don Quixote is in
every respect a high-minded man and we fully adhere
to the opinion of Sir Thomas Loveland, when he says :
'^I don't know whether this knight, by and by, may
not prove us all to be more mad than himself."
(Act m, Scene XVI).

Don Quixote's fantastical design was to reesta-
blish in his own person knight-errantry with all its
merits and defects. In his brain the imaginary ad-
ventures and noble deeds of an Amadis and other
heroes were taking shape as of flesh and blood.
Once we have fully acknowledged this fact, we per-
fectly understand that he takes guests arriving at

I

- 40 -

the inn as giants or knights, that he sees in Dorothea
an enchanted princess, that he believes that Jezebel,
Dorothea's maid, is his beloved Dulcinea del Toboso,
that he attacks a stage-coach and smashes the windows
to pieces in order to deliver the enchanted captive
princesses.

As to Sancho, he is the same fainthearted, greedy
and indolent fellow as in Cervantes' romance. Like
his prototype he has a certain predilection for Don
Quixote, hoping to be finally rewarded with the
promised island; he also expresses his realistic opi-
nions in floods of proverbs. He is somewhat infected
by the partial madness of his master, but his ideas
are on the whole very rational and full of common
sense. Almost every feature of Sancho's character is
traced from the original. There is only one action not
to be found in the original: Sancho's robbery in the
last scene of the S^ act.

Fielding has succeeded very well in introducing
the famous knight and his squire on English ground,
with the object to ridicule English vices and corrupted
manners. He could not do it better than by showing
that people of world and manners, the very repre-
sentatives of their class, were even inferior in reason-
able judgment and noble feeling to a man who by
all the world was looked upon as a madman.

Squire Badger too, a rudimentary Squire Western,
is vigorously drawn. The song of his huntsman Scut
(act II, scene V), beginning with the fine line "The
dusky night rides down the sky" has a verse that
recalls a practice of which Addison accuses Sir Roger
de Coverley ("The Spectator" 1711—12):

— 41 —

"A brushing fox in yonder wood

Secure to find we seek ;

For why, I carry'd sound and good

A cartload there last week.

.... And a-hunting we will go" etc.

From the history of the stage it appears that
Macklin, Fielding's partner, when starting a new
company at the Haymarket, was very successful in
acting Squire Badger. This figure must have been quite
popular with Englishmen, for in 1772 a certain D^
Arne brought out a burletta "Squire Badger '^ with
music composed by himself. This play, whose cha-
racters and design are taken from Fielding's "Don
Quixote in England" was reacted in 1775 under the
title of "The Sot\

Gusde is a copy of Cervantes' landlord in chapter
16 ff. of the 1^^ part; he shows the same irritation at
Don Quixote's refusal not to pay his debts.

Dorothea reminds us that she bears the same name
as the girl whose story is narrated in the I^^ part of
the romance.

Sir Thomas Loveland ant the mayor, as well as
Squire Badger, are quite original figures of Fielding
and exhibit his rising power of delineating charac-
ters. They are the first step to his development as
a painter of characters which we admire in his great
novels "Tom Jones", "Joseph Andrews" and "Ame-
lia". Already in his dramatical pieces, written in the
first part of his life, we find Fielding a keen observer
of English life and manners and we cannot follow
his literary career without studying these dramas.

G. Becker in his "Aufnahme des Don Quijote
in die englische Literatur* (Palaestra XIII, pag. 129)
thinks that Fielding's Don Quixote has still more

— 42 —

affinity with Moli^re's "Misanthrope" than with Cer-
vantes' work. Fielding's hero is, like Moliere's Alceste,
the only moral person in a corrupted society where
selfishness reigns instead of truth and justice.

Fielding's Don Quixote, compared with Beaumont
and Fletcher's "The Knight of the Burning Pestle" and
D'Urfey's "Comical History of Don Quixote*^ marks a
real progress : Don Quixote is no more a comical figure,
but a serious dramatical character; the action is con-
form to his character.

The weak side of the drama are the many epi-
sodes which serve to put the hero in contrast to the
other characters of the comedy.

Fielding's comedy, though well written, is ill
calculated for the stage, because mere knight-errantry
without spectacle never had success upon the English
theatre. M"" Dibdin, in his "History of the Stage "^
(vol. V, p. 43) says: "If Fielding had carried Don
Quixote to any other part of the world and intro-
duced a few elephants or camels and made him fight
half a dozen tigers, and had decorated the stage with
castles that lose their battlements in the air, about
fifteen feet from the ground, the whole an outrage
upon nature and art, the redoubted knight, as mad
as his audiences, might have acted every species of
extravagance to the admiration of full houses".

VI.

Fielding and Walpole.

The first time in Fielding's life we hear of Sir
Robert Walpole, is in 1730, when Fielding addresses
a poetical epistle to the prime-minister. In this rymed
petition Fielding makes pleasant mirth of what no
doubt was sometimes sober truth — his debts, his duns
and his dinnerless condition. So he says in one of
his verses (cf. Miscellanies, vol. I. p. 42):

"The family that dines the latest

Is in our street esteemed the greatest,

But latest hours must surely fall

Before him who never dines at all."

"This too does in my favour speak

Your Levee is but twice a week

From mine I can exclude but one day

My door is quiet on a Sunday."
In 1731 Fielding dedicated one of his plays „The
Modern Husband" to Walpole, in whom he recog-
nised, amongst other more plausible characters, a
"foster-son of the Muses".

With regard to Walpole's character in private and
public life, Chesterfield says in his "Characters of
eminent personages of his own time" (Appendix to
Miscellaneous Works p. 31 jff.) : "In private life he was

I

44

good-natured, cheerful, social, inelegant in his manners,
loose in his morals; he had a coarse strong wit,
which he was too free of for a man in his station,
as it is always inconsistent with dignity. He was
yery able as minister, but without a certain elevation
of mind, necessary for great good or great mischief.
Profuse and appetent, his ambition was subservient
to his design of making a great fortune (Walpole did
not die a rich man ; it is plain then that he disdained
the accumulation of riches which could not be ob-
tained but by the oppression of his country). He had
more of the Mazarin than of the Richelieu — he would
do mean things for profit and never thought of doing
great ones for glory. He was both the best parliament-
man and the ablest manager of parliament that I be-
lieve ever lived. Money, not prerogative, was the
chief engine of his administration and he employed
it with a success, which in a manner disgraced hu-
manity. Besides this powerful engine of government,
he had a most extraordinary talent of persuading
and working men up to his purpose — a hearty
kind of frankness, which sometimes seemed impru-
dence, made people think that he led them into his
secrets, whilst the impoliteness of his manners seemed
to attest his sincerity. He was loved by many, but
respected by none, his familiar and illiberal mirth
and raillery leaving him no dignity. He was not
vindictive but on the contrary very placable to those
who had injured him the most. His good humour,
good nature and beneficence in the several relations
of father, husband, master and friend, gained him the
warmest affections of all within that circle. His name
will not be recorded in history amongst the best men

45

or the best ministers, but much less ought it to be
ranked amongst the worst."

In 1734 Fielding wrote his *'Don Quixote in Eng-
land", in which ~ as he tells Lord Chesterfield in
his dedication — he designed to give a lively repre-
sentation of the calamaties brought on a country by
general corruption."

The opposition to Walpole was gathering strength.
No opposition arrayed against a powerful ministry
ever included a larger share of the talents of the coun-
try, both political and literary, than that which opposed
the later years of Walpole' s authority. Pope and Swift,
Johnson and Fielding, Glover and Akenside may be
counted as sympathising for various reasons with the
opposition. Walpole was regarded as the centre of all
corruption and men fancied that the overthrow of his
power would of itself instil purity to the political
body. But the system of government was far too deeply
rooted to be dependent upon one man's power. It
is true that Walpole was the conspicuous represen-
tative of that system of which Fielding's Mayor and
Corporation (cf. Act II, Scene III) were a natural pro-
duct, that is to say, of a system in which the gover-
ning classes themselves formed something like a close
corporation for the distribution of places and powers,
not very sensitive to a healthy public opinion and with
very shortsighted views of anything beyond immediate
commercial profit.

In the "Pasquin* (1736) Fielding pursues the theme
already suggested in "Don Quixote in England" and
gives a forcible description of a contested election, a
new attack upon corruption. His next comedy, "The
Historical Register for 1736" proved a much bolder

— 46 —

and more objectionable performance even than "Pas-
quin" and its representation led to important con-
sequences as regarded the interests and independence
of the stage. Sir Robert Walpole himself was intro-
duced in the piece under the name of "Quidam", silen-
cing some noisy patriots with a bribe and then dan-
cing off with them.

The frank effrontery of satire like the foregoing
had by this time begun to attract the attention of
the Ministry and it has been conjectured that the
ballet of Quidam and the Patriots played no small
part in precipitating the famous "Licensing Act",
which was passed a few weeks afterwards. About
this time Giffard, the manager of Goodman's Fields,
brought Walpole a farce called „The Golden Rump"^)
which had been proposed for exhibition. Whether he
did this to extort money or to ask advice, is not
clear. In either case, Walpole is said to have "paid
the profits which might have accrued from the per-
formance and detained the copy". He then made a
compendious selection of the treasonable and profane
passages it contained. These he submitted to inde-
pendent members of both parties and afterwards

') "The Golden Rump" has never been printed, although its
title is identical with that of a caricature published in March 1737
and fully described in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for that month.
If the play at all resembled the design, it must have been
obscene and scurrilous in the extreme. Horace Walpole in his
"Memoirs of the last ten years of the reign of George II" says: „I
have in my possession the imperfect copy of this piece as I found
it among my father's papers after his death." He calls it Fielding's,
but no importance can be attached to the statement. There is a
copy of the caricature in the British Museum Print Room (Political
and Personal Satires No 23271).

— 47 —

read them in the House itself. The result was that
by way of amendment to the "Vagrant Act" of
Anne's reign a bill was prepared limiting the number
of theatres and compelling all dramatic writers to
obtain a license from the Lord Chamberlain.

It is alleged that Walpole himself caused the farce
in question to be written and to be offered to Gif-
fard for the purpose of introducting his scheme of
reform; and the suggestion is not without a certain
plausibility. Meanwhile the new bill passed rapidly
through both Houses. Report speaks of animated
discussions and warm opposition, but there are no
traces of any divisions or petitions against it and the
only speech which has survived is the very elaborate
and careful oration delivered in the Upper House by
Lord Chesterfield. He opposed the bill upon the
ground that it would affect the liberty of the press
and that it was practically a tax upon the chief pro-
perty of men of letters, their wit. He dwelt also
upon the value of the stage as a fearless censor of
vice and folly and he quoted with excellent effect the
famous answer of the Prince of Conti to Moliere,
when "Tartuffe" was interdicted at the instance of M.
de Lamoignon : "It is true, Moliere, Harlequin ridicules
Heaven and exposes religion, but you have done
much worse — you have ridiculed the first minister of
religion". Although in Lord Chesterfield's speech Fiel-
ding is ironically condemned, it may well be that
Fielding, whose "Don Quixote" had been dedicated
to his Lordship, was the wire-puller in this case
and supplied this very illustration. But the feeling
ot Parliament in favour of drastic legislation was
even stronger than the persuasive periods of Chester-

— 48 —

field, and on the 2P' of June 1737 the bill received
the royal assent.

With the passing of the "Licensing Act" Fiel-
ding's career as a dramatic author was practically
closed. In his dedication of the "Historical Register"
to the public, he had spoken of his desire to beau-
tify and enlarge his little theatre and to procure a
better company of actors and he had added: "If
nature has given me any talents at ridiculing vice
and imposture, I shall not be indolent, nor afraid of
exerting them, while the liberty of the press and
stage subsists, that is to say, while we have any liberty
left among us." To all these projects the "Licensing
Act" effectively put an end and the only other plays
from his pen which were produced subsequently to
this date were "The Wedding Day" (1743) and the
posthumous "Good-natured Man* (1779), both of which,
as is plain from the Preface to the Miscellanies, were
among his earliest attempts.

VII.

FIELDING'S ATTEMPT AS A DRAMATICAL
WRITER.

An ingenious English writer has passed a jud-
gment upon Ben Jonson, which may be justly applied
to Fielding, though our great novelist did not attain
the same dramatic eminence as the author ol "Vol-
pone the Fox". "His taste for ridicule", he says,
"was strong, but indelicate, which made him not over-
curious in the choice of his topics. And lastly, his
style in picturing his characters, thoug masterly, was
without that elegance of hand which is required to
correct and allay the force of so bold a colouring.
Thus the bias of his nature leading him to Plautus
rather than Terence for his model, it is not to be
wondered that his wit is too frequently caustic, his
raillery coarse and his humour excessive".

Arthur Murphy, Fielding* s friend and first bio-
grapher, attributes his failure as a dramatist to his
want of refinement. "Without a tincture of delicacy",
he says, "running through an entire piece and giving
to good sense an air of urbanity and politeness, it
appears to me, that no comedy will ever be of that
kind, which Horace says will be particularly desired".

— 50 —

There seems to be little or no doubt that this want
of refinement was principally owing to the woun-
dings which every fresh dissappointment gave him,
before he was yet well disciplined in the school of
life; for in a more advanced period with a calmer
and more dispassionate temper, we perceive him
giving all the graces of description to incidents
and passions, which in his youth he would have
dashed out with a rougher hand. Perhaps the aspe-
rity of Fielding*s muse was not little encouraged by
the practice of two great wits who had fallen into
the same vein before him : Wycherley and Congreve,
who were in general painters of harsh features, atta-
ched more to subjects of deformity than grace. These
two writers were not fond of copying the amiable
part of life; they had not learned the secret of gi-
ving the softer graces of composition to their pic-
tures by contrasting the fair and beautiful in charac-
ters and manners to the vicious and irregular and thereby
rendering their pieces more exact imitations of nature.

There is another circumstance respecting the
drama, in which Fielding's judgment seems to have
failed him: the strength of his genius certainly lay
in fabulous narration and he did not sufficiently con-
sider that some incidents of a story, which, when
related, may be worked up into a deal of pleasantry
and humour, are apt, when thrown into action, to
excite sensations incompatible with humour and ridi-
cule. To these causes of our author's failure in the
province of the drama, may be added that sovereign
contempt he always entertained for the understandings
of the generality of mankind. It was in vain to tell
him that a particular scene was dangerous on account

51

of its coarseness or because it retarded the general
business with feeble efforts of wit; he doubted the
discernment of his auditors and so thought himself
secured by their stupidity, if not by his own humour
and vivacity.

These are the principal causes of Fielding's fai-
lure in dramatical composition. And yet, it would
be injust to deny that even his plays show a certain
tendency to progress. A continual improvement is to
be stated in his comedies as well as in his novels.
The mere fact that his plays are the first step to the
accomplishment of his famous novels, renders them
interesting and valuable to the literary world. The
whole of his dramatical productions may be justly
compared to a collection of episodes of a great novel
representing all classes of the society of his time.
Hence the great affinity of characters and situations
in his plays and novels. — However, Fielding has
never attained the height of Molieres "Misanthrope**
and "Tartuffe". In many plays of the later period
he has entirely freed himself from the influence of
Wycherley, Congreve and the French school and
only his predilection and eminent talent for the novel
has prevented him from climbing the highest pitch
of dramatical perfection. Still, his productions are
on the whole very good, considering the bad condi-
tions of the stage at this time. They certainly have
contributed a good deal to the improvement of the
taste and manners of his contemporaries. Each of
his plays has some good scene and all exhibit a pro-
found knowledge of human nature. They give a
splendid description of the vices and virtues of men ;
they are singularly efficient by their delineation of

52

characters, the comic of their situations and their
humour. We remark with pleasure that all this is the
spontaneous expression of his inmost thoughts and
feelings. Without possessing the grace and elegance
of Addison and Goldsmith or the lightness and viva-
city of Lesage, Fielding was master of a vigorous
manly and truly English style, though occasionally
incorrect. His most remarkable peculiarity is the
constant employment of "hath" and "doth" for "has"
and "does". This occurs, as far as I know, in no other
writer of the eighteenth century.

One of Fielding's most remarkable qualities in
playwriting is his satire.

In no other play is Fielding's satire so manifest
as in "The Tragedy of Tragedies" or "The Life and
Death of Tom Thumb the Great".

This tragedy, acted in 1730 and altered in 1731,
is supposed to be written by H. Scriblerus Secundus
whose annotations to the play are of great literary
interest. Fielding has never written a better satire
on the ^hoity-toity tone of the tragedy of that day",
as Lawrence says in his biography (p. 35). It may be
considered a worthy continuation of Buckingham's
„ Rehearsal" (1671), being directed as well against Dry-
den's later productions (still more French than his earlier
ones) as its numerous imitations by different authors.
Even at the time of Fielding Dryden's style was still
admired by many and we perfectly understand that
Fielding wished to have done with this so-called clas-
sical style of a very doubtful merit.

As we may guess by the annotations annexed to
the play, the most important tragedies aimed at are:

— 53 —

Banks: Earl of Essex, Cyrus the Great, Mary-
Queen of Scots, Anna Bullen, Virtue betrayed.

Dennis: Liberty asserted.

Dryden : State of Innocence, Don Sebastian, Aureng^
zebe, Cleomenes, Duke of Guise, Conquest of Granada,
Albion, King Arthur, Indian Emperor, All for love.
Love triumphant.

Johnson : Victim.

Lee : Sophonisbe, Lucius Junius Brutus, Gloriana,
Mithridates, Caesar Borgia, Nero, Duke of Guise.

Otv^ay: Marius, Don Carlos.

Rowe: Bajazet.

Tate: Injured love.

Young : Busiris, Revenge.

The principal characters of „The Tragedy of
Tragedies" are properly described in the dramatis per-
sonae: Tom Thumb the Great, a little hero with a
great soul, something violent in his temper which is
a little abated by his love for Huncamunca ; Princess
Huncamunca, daughter to their majesties King Arthur
and Queen Dollallolla, of a very sweet, gentle and
amorous disposition, equally in love with Lord Grizzle
and Tom Thumb, and desirous to be married to them both.

The spring of all this is the love of Tom Thumb
for Huncamunca which caused the quarrel between
their majesties in the first act, the passion of Lord
Grizzle in the second act, the rebellion, fall of Lord
Grizzle and Glumdalca, devouring of Tom Thumb by
the cow and the bloody catastrophe in the third act.

Aristotle, according to Dryden, defines tragedy to
be the imitation of a short but perfect action, con-
taining a just greatness in itself. Scriblerus secundus
however tells us that the greatest perfection of the

— 54 -

language of a tragedy is that it is not to be under-
stood; which granted, it will necessarily follow that
the only way to avoid this is by being too high or
too low for the understanding. What can be, he con-
tinues, so proper for tragedy as a set of big sounding
words, so contrived together as to convey no meaning ?

Fielding succeeds to ridicule the authors by imi-
tating them ironically. I don't think that the great
public so easily understood what he really meant —
many of his contemporaries actually believed in his
extravagancies.

The catastrophe of the tragedy (act III, scene 10)
is a fine parody of Dryden's "Cleomenes". In „Cleo-
menes" the curtain covers five principal characters
dead on the stage; in ''Tom Thumb" there is a general
slaughter, all actors killing one another, the king, as
the last, killing himself with the words:
**So when the child whom nurse from danger guards.
Sends Jack for mustard with a pack of cards,
Kings, queens, and knaves, throw one another down,
Till the whole pack lies scatter'd and o'erthrown;
So all our pack upon the floor is cast,
And all I boast is — that I fall the last."

To Dryden's statement ("Essay on dramatic po-
etry**): .... "Our countrymen will scarcely suffer
combats and other objects of horror to be taken from
them** Fielding remarks sarcastically: .... "Nor
do I believe our victories over the French have been
owing to anything more than to those bloody spec-
tacles daily exhibited in our tragedies, of which the
French stage is so entirely clear" (Scriblerus Secun-
dus^ annotations).

— 55 —

Fielding not only satirizes the contents but
also the form of the heroic tragedies, so when he
wants to ridicule the alliterations too often used by
those tragedians:

Act I, scene 6:
"I'll rave, I'll rant, I'll rise, I'll rush, I'll roar*'

Act II, scene 7 :

"Tempests and whirlwinds rise, and roll and roar".

The similes, m imitation of the ancients, are

remarkable by their humour. Act I, scene 2 affords

a very good example, the king inquiring about the

queen's melancholy:

"Whence flow those tears fast down thy blubber'd

[cheeks
Like a swoln gutter, gushing through the streets?"
or in act I, scene 3, where Glumdalca laments the
loss of her twenty husbands:
"My worn out heart

That ship, leaks fast, and the great heavy lading,

My soul, will quickly sink".

A parody of ghosts as they frequently occur

with Dryden and his followers, is act III, scene 1,

the ghost of Tom Thumb's father appearing to King

Arthur :

"Hail! ye black horrors of midnight's midnoon!
Ye fairies, goblins, bats, and screech-owls, hail!
And oh ! ye mortal watchmen, whose hoarse throats
Th* immortal ghosts dread croakings counterfeit,
All hail! — Ye dancing phantoms, who, by day
Are some condemn'd to fast, some feast in fire,
Now play in churchyards, skipping o'er the graves,
To the loud music of the silent bell.
All hail!"

— 56 —

Fielding's "Tom Thumb", certainly one of his best
dramas, was a great success, the play being acted
forty nights without interruption. Walter Scott asserts
that still at his time "Tom Thumb" was read with
delight and even Lawrence states that in 1855, more
than hundred years after the play had been written,
"The Tragedy of Tragedies" still kept possession of
the stage.

Fielding's plays are of a real historical interest,
as they reproduce, as well as his novels, the conditions
of the different classes of society in the first half
of the eighteenth century.

Fielding deserves well of his country, as he was
one of the first to ridicule the stupid imitation of
French manners and customs in England, at a time
when French vice and superficiality were spreading
all over the United Kingdom. He not only repu-
diated foreign vices but fought energetically against
all sorts of evil inclinations likely to delay the deve-
lopment of national English life. Not the secret
toleration of these evils seemed to him true patri-
otism, but the open war against everything that was
vile and mean. Many prologues and epilogues to his
plays contain passages entreating his fellow-coun-
trymen to return to plain English life and to look to
their own heroes as the worthiest and best. So he
says in the epilogue to "Pasquin" :

•Can the whole world in science match our soil?

Have they a Locke, a Newton or a Boyle?

Or dare the greatest genius of their stage

With Shakespeare or immortal Ben engage?"
Fielding's plays had but temporary success, be-
cause they had been written only for his time and

- 57 -

his contemporaries. As far as he could do it without
giving offence to his moral sense, Fielding followed
the taste of his time. Of course, if he had acted other-
wise, he would have lost his favour with the public,
and his constant efforts to instruct and elevate the
masses would have been all in vain He often com-
plains of the preference given to the Italian opera, so
in his epilogue to the "The Intriguing Chamber-Maid**,
where he says :

** English is now below this learned town
None but Italian warblers will go down
Though courts were more polite, the English ditty
Could heretofore content the city :
That for Italian now has let us drop
And Dimi Cara rings through every shop
What glorious thoughts must all our neighbours

[nourish
Of us, where rival operas can flourish."
Another protest against this kind of entertain-
ments was his farce *-Tumble Down Dick." The stage-
writer of those days was a knave to the public opi-
nion; to please the public, he had to write prologues
and epilogues to each of his plays. It was no use
protesting against this custom of the Restoration -period:
Fielding had to comply with if he wanted to live on
the stage. But his prologues and epilogues, as well
as his dedications are no disguised adulations so com-
mon in those days, but moderate and worthy addresses
to the public, his friends and protectors.

If our poet sometimes goes too far in making
concessions to public taste, he never forgets his higher
design to show his contemporaries a mirror of their
vices. This ranges Fielding high above all his fellow-

— 58 -

playwriters ; going through his comedies we soon dis-
cover that with regard to morals and esthetics he far
surpasses Wycherley and Congreve, his masters of old.
In this noble design he was the true follower of
Moli^re. Like the immortal author of "Tartuffe" he
^'scoffed at vice and laughed its crimes away" to show
his countrymen the true path of humanity and to pre-
pare the way to new ideals, to a higher standard of life.

Zum Schlusse spreche ich

Herrn Professor Dr. MtTLLER-HESS

fUr sein freundliches Entgegenkommen bei AusfUhrung
dieser Arbeit meinen warmsten Dank aus.

;^: