Full text of "The history of Henry Fielding"

See other formats

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

PUBLISHED ON THE FOUNDATION

ESTABLISHED IN MEMOEY OF

WILLIAM McKEAN BROWN

THE HISTORY

HENRY FIELDING

BY V|VT

WILBUR LfCROSS

AUTHOR OF

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH NOVEL
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LAURENCE STERNE

VOLUME THREE

NEW HAVEN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON • HUMPHREY MILFORD • OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

MDCCCCXVIH

COPYEIGHT, 1918, BY
YALE UNIVERSITY PEE8S

FIRST PUBLISHED, SEPTEMBER, 1918

611160

CONTENTS
VOLUME THREE

Chapter Page

XXVI. Last Illness ........ 1

XXVII. A Voyage to Lisbon 22

XXVIII. The End of Life 52

XXIX. Library and Manuscripts .... 75

XXX. Survivors 112

The Fame of Fielding :

XXXI. The Shadow of Arthur Murphy ... 125
XXXII. Old Controversies over Fielding's Art and

Morality . . . . ... 151

XXXIII. Fielding in France and Germany . . . 177

XXXIV. Defamers and Apologists .... 195
XXXV. Later Biographers and Critics . . . 226

XXXVI. Fielding as He Was . . . . . 258
Bibliography :

I. Fielding's Published Works .... 289

II. Uncertain or Doubtful Authorship . . . 335

III. Works Erroneously Attributed to Fielding . 340

IV. Dramas on Fielding or His Works . . . 350
V. Letters and Manuscripts .... 358

ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME THREE

Fielding's Tomb at Lisbon .... Frontispiece

From a photograph, March 1918.

Facing page

View of Ryde in the Isle of Wight 34

From an engraving "by Samuel Eawle after a drawing by John
Nixon.

Frontispiece to Sir John Fielding's Jests: "Representing
the Worshipful Author and his Companions in High
Mirth and Jollity over a Flowing Bowl at the Bedford-
Arms" 114

From a copy in the Library of Yale University.

Arthur Murphy, Esq. ....... 126

From an engraving by William Eidley after a painting by
Nathaniel Dance.

Reduced Facsimile of a Page from Tom Jones, Comedie

Lyrique ........ 182

From a copy in the Library of Yale University.

Title Page of Tumble-Down Dick 300

From a copy in the Library of Yale University.

Title Page of The Crisis 304

From a copy in the Library of Yale University.

Title Page of Reise nach der andern Welt . . . 326
From a copy in the Library of Yale University.

Title Page of Aventures de Roderick Random; par Fielding 344
From a copy in the Library of Yale University.

Autograph Receipt for Twenty Pounds in Payment for the

Despairing Debauchee and the Covent-Garden Tragedy 360
From the original in the Adam Collection, Buffalo, N. Y.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

CHAPTER XXVI

LAST ILLNESS

The magnificent constitution with which nature endowed
Fielding began to show signs of strain as early as the
winter of 1741-1742. At that time occurred, so far as we
have any record of it, his first serious illness. The portrait
of the dissipated Fielding which his enemies drew is quite
unjust. Fielding was most liberal in his diet and he drank
freely. There were times when he felt the pinch of poverty :
but as a rule he was able, it would appear, to keep his larder
and his cellar adequately supplied with all things necessary
to his generous mode of living. Indeed, concern for what
he should eat and for what he should drink, is almost
humorously manifest in parts of his "Voyage to Lisbon'*
to be quoted in the next chapter. While writing for the
stage, he passed several months each year at East Stour
in hunting and other physical recreations; but those long
vacations had to be given up when the Licensing Act
effectually blocked his dramatic career and he was forced
to turn to general literature for the support of his family.
He thereupon sold his farm. Subsequent visits to Bath
and Salisbury, however conducive to rest, could not afford
him the opportunity for the exercises to which he had been
accustomed since youth. His literary labours now became
incessant. At one and the same time he worked hard at
the law and, with the aid of Ealph, conducted "The
Champion. " His usual hour for going to bed seems to have
been one or two o 'clock in the morning. No body was ever
built to withstand abuse like this. Free indulgence of the

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

appetites, insufficient physical exercise, late hours, intense
application to literature and study — all these, combined
with the declining health of a wife and the death of a
daughter, will do the business for any man who ever walked
this earth. Nothing else is needed in order to explain why
Fielding was laid low with the gout in the thirty-fifth year
of his age.

Thenceforth Fielding was subject to periodic attacks of
this painful disease. There is no evidence that he ever
permanently altered, in consequence of them, his manner
of life in any essentials. The gout would put him to bed,
its acute stage would pass with rest, and he was the old
Fielding again. The truth is, only one. physician of the
time consistently pursued the proper treatment of the dis
ease. That was the great Boerhaave of Leyden. He took
all meat, alcohol, and acids from his patients, and put them
on a milk diet varied with bread and butter, vegetables,
cooked fruits, grains or cereals. It was a moderate regimen
certain to benefit if not to cure anyone who tried it. Eng
lish physicians, while they paid some heed to the practice
of Boerhaave, habitually beat the devil round the bush.
If they advised a temperate use of meat in general, they
made an exception in favour of venison. Milk they thought
good, but they would mix the milk whey with an equal
quantity of old canary. The drink at meals should be,
according to one authority, a pint of red port added to a
quart of Bristol water; and if the sufferer were advanced
in years, he would do well to substitute rum for port in the
same proportion. Likewise many of the current "tinc
tures" for the gout had, whatever else they might contain,
alcohol as the basis. Quite naturally, in this state of medi
cal opinion, Fielding was not certain of any connection
between high living and the disease with which he was
afflicted. To him the gout, like jealousy, was a constitu
tional humour in the blood, which worked itself out at in-

LAST ILLNESS

tervals in pain. He so described the disease in 1746 while
writing "Tom Jones," where, like Lucian, he was facetious
over its torments.

But within the next three or four years, recurring attacks
compelled him to take a sober view of his condition.
During that period he spent some thousands of hours on
"Tom Jones," endeavouring to put into it all the genius
that God had given him; and immediately after the novel
was completed, he began to devote his days and nights to
the administration of justice. The issue was inevitable.
Late in the autumn of 1749, he became very ill of gout
accompanied with fever.* While the torments were upon
him, he called in Dr. Thomas Thompson. That story I have
partially told elsewhere. This man was nothing but "an
empiric," or quack, who had the reputation — whether de
served or not is immaterial — of letting his patients die of
minor diseases. He had been physician to Frederick Prince
of Wales; and when Fielding employed him, he was the
medical adviser of the Duke of Roxborough, the Earl of
Middlesex, and other gentlemen of fashion. Though a
general practitioner, he claimed most success with gout
and smallpox, on which he wrote treatises. When Field
ing's fit of the gout had run its course, the patient attributed
his recovery not to nature, but to the remedies of Dr.
Thompson, or "Dr Thumpscull" as Dr. Smollett called
him. In sheer gratitude, not only did Fielding, as has been
related earlier, make him physician to all the people who
fall ill in "Amelia"; he again recommended him to the
public in "The Covent-Garden Journal," wherein he is
extolled for his character and for his skill. In a suit
brought by Thompson against an apothecary for slanderous
words, it is said there, a gentleman declared on oath before
the Chief Justice of England "that out of near fifty persons
for whom he had known the Doctor to prescribe, not one

•"The General Advertiser," Dec. 28, 1749.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

had failed while under his hands."* Fielding's trust in the
advice of this ignorant man was most unfortunate. The
cure effected by the quack proved to be quite illusory.

On his feet once more, Fielding plunged into work with
greater zest than ever. He wrote a novel^ he wrote pam
phlets, he conducted a newspaper, he issued proposals for
a translation of Lucian directly from the Greek, he drafted
measures for the Pelham Ministry, he reorganized the
metropolitan police, and presided over the principal police
court of Middlesex. When Hurd met him in March of 1751,
he was only a shadow of his former self. A life of dissipa
tion and a life such as Fielding lived, though quite different,
end in the same way. As other moralists sometimes do,
Hurd discovered vices where there were none as an easy
explanation of physical wreckage. Despite the inroads of
gout and its train of evils, Fielding still went on in the old
way, not yet apprehending the imminent danger. When
he dedicated " Amelia" to Ealph Allen in December of the
same year, he wrote as if he expected, in the natural term
of man's life, to survive his friend. Neither bandaged legs,
nor crutches, nor the invalid's chair could break his spirit.

At this time Edward Moore, the young dramatist and
journalist whom Fielding helped into happiness and fame,
saw much of him. In a letter, unfortunately without date,
Moore wrote to John Ward, a dissenting minister of
Taunton, with reference to an introduction to Fielding.
As planned, the three were to pass an evening together in
Moore's rooms; but the meeting had to be postponed on
account of Fielding 's illness. Informing Ward how matters
stand, Moore says:

"It is not owing to forgetfulness that you have not heard
from me before. Fielding continues to be visited for his
sins so as to be wheeled about from room to room; when

*"The Covent-Garden Journal," April 18, 1752.

LAST ILLNESS

he mends I am sure to see him at my lodgings ; and you may
depend upon timely notice. What fine things are Wit and
Beauty, if a Man could be temperate with one, or a Woman
chaste with the other ! But he that will confine his acquaint
ance to the sober and the modest will generally find himself
among the dull and the ugly. If this remark of mine should
be thought to shoulder itself in without an introduction you
will be pleased to note that Fielding is a Wit ; that his dis
order is the Gout, and intemperance the cause."

If due allowance be made for the fact that one dissenter is
here writing to another, this is doubtless a fair portrait of
the convivial Fielding in his physical decline. In the lan
guage of formal piety, jocosely employed by a pious gentle
man in addressing one still more pious, Fielding was a man
overtaken by his sins. He might teach temperate habits,
but he could not pursue them for long. If Fielding ever
spent an evening with these Pharisees, we may be sure that
they outdrank him.

With this patient Dr. Thompson had clearly failed.
Perhaps Fielding had lost confidence in his claims ; for he
ceased to praise him and he took him out of " Amelia."
From the quack he turned to an old remedy for the gout,
then known in England as the Duke of Portland's Powder,
because it had been recommended by the Duke of Portland.
This preparation, to be had at the apothecary's, consisted
of birthwort, gentian, germander tops and leaves, ground
pine, and centaury, dried, powdered and sifted. It was
supposed to be a formula of Galen's. Beginning in the
summer of 1752, Fielding took the celebrated powder for
a year; during which time all the symptoms of his gout
disappeared, though he did not regain his former vigour.
These were rather strenuous months. He kept up for a
time "The Covent-Garden Journal," elaborated his plan

*Miss Godden, "Henry Fielding," pp. 214-215.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

for the improvement of the poor, and became involved in
the perplexities of the Canning Case. The newspapers tell
of a raid which he made with his constables in March, 1753,
at four o'clock in the morning, on a masquerade where
highwaymen were suspected to be. The justice compelled
all present to unmask; but he discovered no highwaymen
among them, for these gentlemen, being informed of their
danger, had quietly slipped away.* He had come, he says
in the noble paragraphs closing his "Provision for the
Poor," to take a calm and philosophic view of what the
future might have in store for him. He there aptly quoted
a passage from the ode which Horace addressed to Thaliar-
chus, whom some trouble had overtaken in an inclement
winter such as then held London in its grip-
Quern sors dierum cunque dabit, lucro
Appone . . .

and he added with equal aptness a line from the same poet's
epistle to Tibullus —

Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora.

These two precepts, comprising, he says, his "great
master's advice," he had endeavoured to reduce into a habit
of life. Still, strive as hard as he might, he was unable
quite to dispel the gloom; for he felt that the approach of
death could not be long delayed. If his enemies should see
in his project for a Middlesex hospital a scheme to build
a fine house in which he himself might live, he would remind
them that such a design would be contrary to his master's
express injunction ; that it would be in truth —

Struere domos immemor sepulchri.

"Those who do not know me," he concludes, "may believe
this ; but those who do, will hardly be so deceived by that
chearfulness which was always natural to me; and which,

•As quoted in "The Gentleman's Magazine," March, 1753, XXIII, 145.

LAST ILLNESS

I thank God, my conscience doth not reprove me for, to
imagine that I am not sensible of my declining constitution.
In real truth, if my plan be embraced, I shall be very easily
recompenced for my trouble, without any concern in the
execution. Ambition or avarice can no longer raise a hope,
or dictate any scheme to me, who have no farther design
than to pass my short remainder of life in some degree of
ease, and barely to preserve my family from being the ob
jects of any such laws as I have here proposed." .

The ablest medical advice Fielding ever received came
from Dr. Ranby. Circumstances, however, prevented him
from following it. The symptoms of the gout, despite the
Duke of Portland's medicine, all reappeared in August,
1753. Ranby then advised him "to go immediately to
Bath" for the waters and rest. Accordingly, on that very
night Fielding wrote to Mrs. Bowden of Bath to engage
suitable lodgings for him. But a few days later, just as
he was preparing to set out on his journey, though fatigued
almost to death by five murder cases brought before him
during the week, he received a summons from the Duke of
Newcastle for a conference on the suppression of robbery
and murder in the metropolis. Being then very lame,
Fielding felt unable to wait upon the Duke, whose house
was at some distance in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and he frankly
so informed Mr. Carrington the messenger. The next
morning came a more urgent summons; with which Field
ing at once complied, though he was completely exhausted
and in great pain from his gout. In truth, there was
nothing else for him to do without offending his Grace ; for
a summons was a command. On Fielding's arrival at New
castle House, the Duke treated him abominably. He let
him wait for him some time in an ante-room; and then,
instead of a personal interview, sent a gentleman to tell the
justice what was expected of him. The demand that Field
ing should rid the town of murder was almost as prepos-

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

terous as would have been a demand that he eradicate from
human nature original sin.

Fielding, nevertheless, concentrated all his faculties on
the problem, and in four or five days submitted a plan to
the Duke, which, though it failed to put a final end to
murder, did prove, as has been related, adequate for the
time being. All through the ensuing winter, the public
suffered, the newspapers said, fewer outrages than had
happened in any winter for twenty years. After his famous
plan was adopted by the Privy Council, Fielding had to
remain in town through the autumn to see that it was
carried out. At first it was misunderstood by those in
power as well as by the general public. There still exists
in the author's own hand the rough draft of a memorial*
which Fielding addressed to the Duke of Newcastle in
favour of seven special constables who had been deprived
of the rewards to which they were entitled, on the ground
that they were only thief-takers. By the time Fielding
had accomplished his purpose, he was so weak and ex
hausted that he could not endure a journey to Bath — "a
ride of six miles only," he says, " being attended with an
intolerable fatigue." A cold which he caught in going to
Newcastle House resulted in jaundice; asthma attacked
him; and dropsy developed in his legs and abdomen. All
these diseases, he adds, united ''their forces in the destruc
tion of a body so entirely emaciated, that it had lost all
its muscular flesh." Fully aware of what he had done,
Fielding became a voluntary sacrifice to the good of the
public, in the hope that his name would be honoured and
that, out of gratitude for his services, some moderate pro
vision would be made for a family which he was leaving
behind him.

The trip to Bath out of the question, Fielding went, just
before Christmas, a short distance into the country, where

* Two pages, folio. Sold by Sotheby, Feb. 25, 1918.

LAST ILLNESS

he remained until the middle of February. It was an ex
ceedingly cold winter, which put an end to " numbers of
aged and infirm valetudinarians"; and Fielding himself
became so depressed that he almost wished that he might
die also. Those dismal weeks he probably spent, though
he does not expressly say so, at Fordhook on the Uxbridge
Road near Ealing. Nothing but death itself could keep him
from labour. When he laid aside the editorial pen which
had amused the readers of * ' The Covent-Garden Journal, ' '
he intimated that he might employ it in revising his former
works. As a literary artist he doubtless wished to leave his
novels as nearly perfect as might be; as a man whose af
fairs, he says, were in a desperate state, he hoped to gain a
fresh sale for his books through revision. The nearer the
end approached, the more his mind dwelt upon the sad for
tunes which awaited his wife and children. He had already
revised "Amelia" in anticipation of a day which never
came when Millar would be ready to enter into an agreement
for another edition of that novel, cured of all its faults.
There was, however, still to be considered " Jonathan
Wild, ' ' which had never quite had a chance to bid for popu
lar favour. No London reprint of it had appeared since its
inclusion in the "Miscellanies." In those expensive volumes
it lay buried, though perhaps it might be purchased by itself
without taking the rest of the set. The plan now was to
publish the novel separately in a duodecimo volume which
could be sold for three shillings. In this form, "The Life
of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great ' ' was brought out by Millar
on March 19, 1754.* It was described on the title-page and
in the newspapers as "A New Edition with considerable
Corrections and Additions. " An "Advertisement from the
Publisher to the Reader," prepared by Fielding himself,
whimsically warned all unversed in the black art not to
search for an allegory where perhaps there was none ; and

* "The Whitehall Evening Post," March 16-19, 1754.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

a leaf, printed on both sides, displayed, with a few others,
the books of Fielding and his sister with which Millar could
still supply the public. This revision of " Jonathan Wild"
in furtherance of a design to add to his income was, I take
it, the work that engaged Fielding's attention during his
absence from London.

How thoroughly he performed the task has been shown
in a chapter on the "Miscellanies," — how he cancelled
two chapters which time had rendered obsolete, how he
blunted in many cases the satire on Walpole by the substi
tution of "Statesman" for "Prime Minister," and how he
adjusted the phrasing in general to the new times. The
lapse of a decade had taken the edge from the author's
hostility to the Administration of Walpole long since dead.
Moreover, Fielding was no longer in the Opposition.
Henry Pelham, the head of the Ministry, was a personal
friend, whose policies he had defended since the Jacobite
insurrection. Accordingly, the old parallel between the
careers of Jonathan Wild and a Prime Minister had lost its
point. It must now become a parallel between a thief -taker
and a great statesman of former times. The result was, of
course, not a new "Jonathan Wild" but one that almost
appears to have been written in 1753 instead of 1743 or
earlier. If the novel lost much of its political character by
this change of atmosphere, it gained enormously as a piece
of social satire — universal in scope — on which time can in
flict no further ravages. And let it be remembered that
when Fielding made over "Jonathan Wild" for posterity,
he was, in the opinion of all men, near the point of death.

A new book also came from the Fielding household at
this time. It is "The Cry: a New Dramatic Fable," in
three volumes, which Dodsley brought out during the same
month in which the revised "Jonathan Wild" appeared.
It was written by Sarah Fielding in collaboration with Jane
Collier and perhaps her sister Margaret also. Such evi-

LAST ILLNESS

dence as we have indicates that the Collier sisters had
lived more or less with the family for several years. At
times they seem to have depended upon Fielding for their
support. They were, it will be remembered, daughters of
Arthur Collier, the philosopher and divine of Salisbury,
who died in 1732, leaving his family in poverty. One of his
sisters, then dead also, had married in her youth Richard
Hele,* the schoolmaster of the Cathedral Close who sup
plied some traits for the portrait of Roger Thwackum in
"Tom Jones." The spinsters who wrote "The Cry" had
educated themselves in Fielding's library. The books,
ancient and modern, which they most quote were all on his
shelves. They reproduced, too, many of his ideas, and they
tried to imitate his style. They sometimes refer to "Tom
Jones" or "Joseph Andrews," and often tell their readers
what "an ingenious author" — meaning Fielding — has
somewhere remarked. For Fielding they say the last word
before his death in defence of Parson Adams against "the
malicious rather than ignorant absurdities" which they
have heard vented on the character. As a voice from the
Fielding household, the passage is worth quoting. After
observing that many readers fail to interpret Don Quixote
aright, they proceed:

"Nor less understood is the character of parson Adams
in Joseph Andrews by those persons, who, fixing their
thoughts on the hounds trailing the bacon in his pocket
(with some oddnesses in his behaviour, and peculiarities in
his dress) think proper to overlook the noble simplicity
of his mind, with the other innumerable beauties in his
character; which, to those who can understand the word
to the wise, are placed in the most conspicuous view.

"That the ridiculers of parson Adams are designed to be
the proper objects of ridicule (and not that innocent man

* Robert Benson, "Memoirs of the Rev. Arthur Collier," 1837, pp. x and
210 ff.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

himself) is a truth which the author hath in many places
set in the most glaring light. And lest his meaning should
be perversely misunderstood, he hath fully displayed his
own sentiments on that head, by writing a whole scene,* in
which such laughers are properly treated, and their char
acters truly depicted. But those who think continual
laughter, or rather sneering, to be one of the necessary in
gredients of life, need not be at the trouble of travelling out
of their depths to find objects of their merriment : they may
spare themselves the pains of going abroad after food for
scorn ; as they may be bless 'd with a plenteous harvest ever
mature and fit for reaping on their own estates, without
being beholden to any of their neighbours. ' 'f

The sprightly hand that held the pen here perhaps be
longed to Jane Collier, the author of ''The Art of Ingen
iously Tormenting." Taken as a whole "The Cry" is a
curious production, composed of a series of dramatic
scenes divided into five parts. A prologue introduces each
part, and an epilogue concludes the whole. With a novel
so artificial in its design as this Fielding could have had
little or nothing to do, although it was intended as a variant
on his own procedure in "Tom Jones." It is, however, not
improbable that he assisted in some of the prologues. But
the outstanding fact is that while he was revising "Jona
than Wild," his sister and Jane Collier, possibly with the
aid of Margaret, were completing their novel. They were
all, I daresay, at work in the same house at Ealing.

In Fielding's absence, the affairs of the Bow Street court
were managed by his brother John and that able constable
Saunders Welch. On these two men he relied for the re-,
lentless pursuit of robbery and murder. His constable
was so successful in the part assigned to him that Fielding,
apprehensive of death, thought the time had come to make

* "Joseph Andrews," Bk. Ill, Ch. VII.
t "The Cry," III, 122-123.

LAST ILLNESS

him a justice of the peace. To this end he wrote to the
Lord Chancellor, his friend the Earl of Hardwicke :
' * My Lord,

As I hear that a new Commission of the Peace is soon
to pass the Great Seal for Westmr give me Leave to recom
mend the name of Saunders Welch; as well as to the next
Commission for Midd'x. Your Lordship [will] I hope, do
me the Honour of believing, I should not thus presume,
unless I was well satisfied that the Merit of the Man would
Justine my Presumption. For this besides a universal
Good Character, and the many eminent services he hath
done the Public, I appeal in particular to Master Lane;
and shall only add, as I am positive the Truth is, that his
Place can be filled with no other more acceptable to all the
Gentlemen in the Commission, and indeed to the Public in
general. I am with the highest Duty and Respect,
My Lord,

Your Lordship? most obedient and
most humble servant,

HENRY FFIELDING.
"Deer 6. 1753
To the Lord High Chancellor."*

It was not Fielding's desire that Saunders Welch, whom
he and Thomas Lane, then a Master in Chancery, recom
mended to the Lord Chancellor, should be his successor.
This position he reserved in his mind for John Fielding.
Welch was to be John's assistant, just as John had been
his own in previous years. Together they were to admin
ister justice on the efficient lines which he had established.
In accordance with this plan, John Fielding took the oath
as justice of the peace for the county of Middlesex at the
general quarter sessions held at Hicks 's Hall on January
15, 1754. With the aid of the Duke of Bedford, he was able

* British Museum, "Additional MSS.," 35604, f. 127.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

to swear to the possession of * ' six houses in Lambs Conduit
Passage in the parish of St. George the Martyr and one
house in Monmouth Street in the parish of St. Giles in the
Fields, being leasehold," having altogether a clear yearly
value of £100.*

On his return to London, Fielding tried to imagine that
he was somewhat better, but his friends shook their heads.
Resuming his duties, he held out for a fortnight or more.
To be exact, the newspapers record warrants and commit
ments in his name during the last ten days of February.
Then the necessary treatment for his dropsy incapacitated
him. He dismissed Dr. Thompson and summoned the noto
rious Dr. Ward, renowned for a pill and a drop, which,
it was said, had cured as many people as they had killed.
The quack was known as * * Spot Ward, ' ' because of a claret-
coloured mark on his left cheek, or because his remedies
were supposed to go direct to the spot they were intended
to hit. He appears, surrounded with the emblems of death,
in Hogarth's "Consultation of Physicians" or "The
Undertakers' Arms," and again in "The Harlot's Prog
ress," where the patient dies while Dr. Ward and Dr.
Misaubin are disputing. His nostrums, which were often
"dissected and examined" by hostile members of the
faculty, seem to have been compounded mainly of anti
mony and arsenic in quantities that rendered their free use
very dangerous. And yet, as a general practitioner, Ward
had his good points. He had treated many similar cases,
and he would take no fee from Fielding. If he looked grave
when he saw his new patient and wished that he had been
called in earlier, he knew that there was but one thing to do.

By his advice, Fielding was tapped in the abdomen and
relieved of fourteen quarts of water. * ' The sudden relaxa-

* Record Office. ' ' Middlesex Guild Hall. Oaths taken by Justices of the
Peace, 1750-1763," p. 59. Saunders Welch took a similar oath on April 9,
1755. Ibid., p. 69.

LAST ILLNESS

tion," says Fielding, " which this caused, added to my
enervate, emaciated habit of body, so weakened me, that
within two days I was thought to be falling into the agonies
of death. I was at the worst on that memorable day when
the public lost Mr. Pelham [March 6]. From that day I
began slowly, as it were, to draw my feet out of the grave ;
till in two months time I had again acquired some little
degree of strength; but was again full of water. During
this whole time, I took Mr. Ward's medicines, which had
seldom any perceptible operation. Those in particular of
the diaphoretic kind, the working of which is thought to
require a great strength of constitution to support, had so
little effect on me, that Mr. Ward declared it was as vain
to attempt sweating me as a deal board."

Through the month of April, while Dr. Ward was trying
to sweat out the dropsy, Fielding occasionally took part in
the criminal proceedings of his court. He received special
praise for his share in breaking up a fresh gang of robbers
and for bringing to the gallows a highwayman who had
lately created a panic "in the polite part of the town."
But towards the end of April his examinations and commit
ments came to an end. Early in May, he again submitted
to the trocar. "I had," he says, "one quart of water less
taken from me now than before; but I bore all the conse
quences of the operation much better. This I attributed
greatly to a dose of laudanum prescribed by my surgeon.
It first gave me the most delicious flow of spirits, and after
wards as comfortable a nap." About a week later, he re
tired to Fordhook. Fielding's days in the fetid air of a
court room were now over ; and his brother, who had been
acting as the principal justice at Bow Street for five months,
definitely took his place. In anticipation of Fielding's re
tirement, several newspapers expressed at the same time
regret for his continued illness and satisfaction with the
probable reconstruction of the Bow Street court. Of Field-

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

ing's effective method of dealing with violent crimes, it
was said: "The whole plan, we are assured, is communi
cated to Justice John Fielding, and Mr. "Welch, who are
determined to bring it to that perfection of which it is
capable; so that if the publick do not, by the most gross
supineness, continue the evil, street robberies will so6n be
unknown in this town."

At Fordhook, Fielding did not materially improve.
Ward's remedies having been discarded, he made a short
trial of the milk diet advocated by Boerhaave, but that
regimen, he says, did not agree with him. Of course it did
not agree with him; a Fielding could not long subsist on
milk with a little bread and a few vegetables. He then had
recourse to the most widely known panacea of the eighteenth
century. Many years before, he had read, out of curiosity,
Bishop Berkeley's first letter on the virtues of tar-water
and had kept a copy of the pamphlet ever since in his
library. Tar, as one may see in Pliny, was a remedy some
times used by the ancients; but water impregnated with
tar was, according to Berkeley, a medicine discovered by
the North American Indians. While living in Rhode Island
the bishop heard of the cures effected by this tar-water, and
afterwards put it to the test among the poor people of
Cloyne during a severe winter when Ireland was visited
by famine and disease. Berkeley never positively declared
that tar-water was the universal medicine which philoso
phers believed to be existent somewhere in nature, but he
apprehended that it might be such. His conjecture was
interpreted by the public as a certain conclusion, and thou
sands of people — the sick and the well — began drinking tar-
water. At the suggestion of Charlotte Lennox, "the inimi
table and shamefully distress 'd author of the Female
Quixote," Fielding looked into the claims of the popular

*"The Evening Advertiser," March 30-April 2, 1754.

LAST ILLNESS

remedy; and found on rereading the bishop's treatise that
it was good for the very diseases with which he was
afflicted.

Compared with Ward's drop and pill, tar-water was a
harmless drink. In accordance with Berkeley's prescrip
tion Fielding took half a pint of it every night and morning,
with beneficial results, beyond his most sanguine hopes.
His appetite increased and he grew stronger. Still, the
acetic acid and creosote contained in tar-water could not
stay the progress of his dropsy. Near the end of May he
again submitted to the trocar. This time he endured the
operation with little or no faintness, and only ten quarts
of water were drawn from him. For these reasons he felt
encouraged. Nevertheless, he began to fill again, and his
asthma became more troublesome. On June 20, a London
newspaper announced that Fielding was dead. In denying
the report two days later, another newspaper assured the
public that his health was " better than it had been for some
months past." The truth is that, while the symptoms of
his disease varied from day to day, the patient was really
declining. " Indeed," says Fielding, "so ghastly was my
countenance, that timorous women with child . . . ab
stained from my house, for fear of the ill consequences of
looking at me."

It will be no surprise to those who know the indefatigable
Fielding in contrast with the idle and self-indulgent gentle
man of tradition, to be informed that he was employing
such strength as still remained to him, in the most difficult
piece of writing that he had ever undertaken. On the very
day that Pelham died, David Mallet brought out the col
lected works of Henry Saint-John, Viscount Bolingbroke,
the politician and deist. The coincidence was marked by
Garrick in an ode having the clever stanza :

* For the report and its denial, see ' ' The Public Advertiser, ' ' June 22, 1 754.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

The same sad morn to Church and State
(So for our sins 'twas fixed by fate)

A double shock was given:
Black as the regions of the north,
St. John's fell genius issued forth,

And Pelham's fled to heaven!

Bolingbroke 's insidious attack in many essays on the
Christian religion threw the clergy — both Anglican and
nonconformist — into consternation. They denounced him
in the newspapers, in pamphlets, and in longer treatises.
To them and to the public at large, Bolingbroke was the
arch-atheist, a blasphemer and hypocrite, who like all
godless men recanted during his last illness and met death
with abject fear of the torments in store for him. The
philosopher did indeed suffer intense pain in the days pre
ceding his death, but it came from a cancer in his face, not
from his conscience. He did indeed remark, when he bade
farewell to Chesterfield, "God who placed me here will do
what He pleases with me hereafter, and He knows best
what to do " ; but this was no recantation, for Bolingbroke
was never an atheist; nor do his last words display any
anxiety about the punishment that awaits him in another
world. Fielding, disregardful of apocryphal tales, set out,
as soon as he was able, to expose the fallacies of Boling
broke 's philosophy.

He went about the task with characteristic thoroughness.
In the first place there were five folio volumes to look into,
of which the last, containing the essays, had to be read with
the minutest care; and then to buttress his arguments, he
thought it necessary, according to Murphy, to go through
"the Fathers and the most eminent writers of contro
versy." The circumstances in which he prosecuted these
studies were described in "The Evening Advertiser" for
April 16-18, 1754. Though the paragraph writer doubtless
overdrew the picture somewhat for effect, he expressed the

LAST ILLNESS

general concern that Fielding might not live to complete
the work upon which he was employed:

"It must always be remembered to the honour of Mr.
Fielding, that, while he is sinking under a complicated load
of dangerous disorders, and is so near the verge of eternity,
that at night there is but little probability of his surviving
to the next day ; he devotes the whole strength of his facul
ties to the honour of God, and the virtue and happiness of
the human soul, in detecting the pernicious errors of the
late Lord Bolingbroke; who, as long as his memory shall
be transmitted to posterity, must be considered as the dis
grace of his country, and the enemy of mankind. That Mr.
Fielding's efforts, if the exertion of them is permitted to
continue, will be attended with general success, there is
great reason to expect; but the manner in which Lord
Bolingbroke is said to have quitted life, will always be a
more efficacious confutation of his principles, than can be
produced by the confederated strength of human intellects. * '

The long extracts which Fielding made from philosophers
and divines for his answer to Bolingbroke were preserved,
says Murphy in 1762, by his brother John. These papers
have since disappeared; but so much of his refutation as
he wrote out has survived. As published after the author's
death, under the title of "A Fragment of a Comment on
Lord Bolingbroke 's Essays," there are of it twenty-seven
pages and a half. These show Fielding's mind in his illness
working smoothly and logically in a graceful and subdued
style. They are pervaded with that philosophic wit and
humour which Fielding had learned from South and
Shaftesbury — which, we see from his confession in "The
Covent-Garden Journal, ' ' he had come to prefer to the wild
play of Cervantes, or Lucian even. He lays down a few
principles for his guidance and then proceeds to examine
Bolingbroke 's essays one by one, bringing to the front his
lordship's contradictory assertions, and undermining his

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

philosophy by showing that his authorities said exactly the
opposite of that which Bolingbroke declared they said.
The method is subtle ridicule. His conclusion is that
Bolingbroke was insincere in his opinions, that his lordship
wrote but in jest. Becoming ironical, he finds ' ' the noblest
conservation of character" in this man who made "the
temporal happiness, the civil liberties and properties of
Europe" the game of his earliest youth, and could dis
cover "no sport so adequate to the entertainment of his
advanced age, as the eternal and final happiness of all
mankind. ' '

Fielding did not get far in his examen of Bolingbroke 's
essays, hardly beyond the first of them in the fifth volume.
It was clearly his intention to complete the work while at
Fordhook. But this design was upset by the necessity of
leaving England. The physicians whom he consulted told
him that his only chance of life was a long rest through the
summer in order to gather strength against the ensuing
winter. But there was no summer in England this year.
A cold, wet spring had followed a severe winter. "In the
whole month of May," says Fielding, "the sun scarce ap
peared three times. So that the early fruits came to the
fulness of their growth, and to some appearance of ripeness,
without acquiring any real maturity; having wanted the
heat of the sun to soften and meliorate their juices." Like
wise June came, and still summer lagged behind. If Field
ing were to have the benefits of a warm season, it was now
certain that he must go south in search of them. At first
he thought of Aix in Provence; but consideration of this
place was soon abandoned, for no ship was about to sail
from London to Marseilles or to any other neighbouring
port in the Mediterranean, and it was impossible for him
to endure the journey overland, to say nothing of the ex
pense of it. In the end he settled upon Lisbon, which was
easy to reach owing to the large number of merchantmen

LAST ILLNESS

engaged in the Portuguese trade. If winds were favour
able, he might make the voyage in two weeks.* At Lisbon,
Fielding hoped to find the warmth he longed for, and to
escape, by remaining there, the inclemency of another Eng
lish winter.

*"The Jacobite's Journal," March 19, 1748.

CHAPTER XXVII

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

One day, apparently the twelfth of June, his brother John
sent him word that excellent accommodations might be ob
tained on "a ship that was obliged to sail for Lisbon in
three days ' ' ; that is, on Saturday the fifteenth. The vessel,
which lay by the London docks at Rotherhithe, was "The
Queen of Portugal," and the captain was Richard Veal
(or Veale). Though the time was extremely short for
making the necessary preparations, Fielding instructed his
brother to engage passage for himself and those members
of his family who were to accompany him, and thereupon
began to set his affairs in order for the voyage "with the
utmost expedition." One of the first things to do was to
make his will, if indeed he had not already made it since
coming to Fordhook. The document, indicative of haste,
for it bears no date, reads as follows :

"In the Name of God Amen — I Henry Fielding of the
parish of Baling in the County of Middlesex do hereby give
and bequeath unto Ralph Allen of Prior Park in the County
of Somerset Esqr and to his heirs executors administrators
and assigns for ever to the use of the said Ralph his heirs
&c all my Estate real and personal wheresoever and what
soever and do appoint him sole Executor of this my last
Will — Beseeching him that the whole (except my shares in
the Register Office) may be sold and forthwith converted
into Money and Annuities purchased thereout for the lives
of my dear Wife Mary and my daughters Harriet and
Sophia and what proportions my said Executor shall please

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

to reserve to my sons William and Allen shall be paid them
severally as they shall attain the age of twenty and three
And as for my Shares in the Register or Universal Register
Office I give ten thereof to my aforesaid Wife seven to my
Daughter Harriet and three to my daughter Sophia my wife
to be put in immediate possession of her shares and my
Daughters of theirs as they shall severally arrive at the Age
of 21 the immediate Profits to be then likewise paid to my
two Daughters by my Executor who is desired to retain the
same in his Hands until that time — Witness my Hand —
Henry Fielding — Signed and acknowledged as his last Will
and Testament by the within named Testator in the
presence of — Margaret Collier — Richd Boor — Isabella
Ash"*

Eleanor Harriot (or Harriet) was the only surviving
child of Fielding's first marriage. Though no registry of
her birth or baptism has yet come to light, she was prob
ably sixteen or seventeen years old. William had passed
his sixth birthday in February; and Sophia was midway
in her fifth year. Allen, named from Fielding's friend, was
a mere infant, having been baptized at St. Paul's, Covent
Garden, on April 6, 1754. The prospective birth of this
child explains Fielding's great concern for the future of
his family. Four children and a wife were the hostages
that he must entrust to fortune and Ralph Allen.

More leeway than at first expected was given him to
arrange for his departure. Captain Veal several times
postponed the date of sailing in the interest of a full cargo.
Indeed, Fielding invited him out to Fordhook for dinner a
full week after the day that the captain had first set to
weigh anchor. The interval enabled Fielding to work out
all details for a long absence. Richard Boor, one of the

* Miss Godden, ' ' Henry Fielding, ' ' p. 308. This will, discovered in the
Prerogative Court of Canterbury by Mr. G. A. Aitken, was first published in
"The Athenaeum," Feb. 1, 1890.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

witnesses to the will, was to look after the little farm at
Fordhook. There were harvests to gather, and pigs to
be slaughtered. This Boor, who lived near Fielding, ap
pears to have been a sort of bailiff or steward of small
degree. Of the children, all but Harriot were to be left
behind in charge of Mrs. Daniel, their grandmother. ^Be-
sides Fielding and his wife and oldest daughter, the party
was to consist of Margaret Collier, going as a companion
to Harriot and Mrs. Fielding, of his wife's maid, Isabella
Ash, and of a footman named William. For conveying
these six passengers safely to Lisbon, Fielding agreed to
pay Captain Veal thirty pounds.

The date eventually fixed upon for embarking was
Wednesday, June 26. "On this day," says Fielding, "the
most melancholy sun I had ever beheld arose, and found
me awake at my house at Fordhook. By the light of this
sun, I was, in my own opinion, last to behold and take leave
of some of those creatures on whom I doated with a mother-
like fondness, guided by nature and passion, and uncured
and unhardened by all the doctrine of that philosophical
school where I had learnt to bear pains and to despise
death." All that morning — from four o'clock onward — he
spent with those children whom he scarcely hoped ever to
see again. Nature, he admits, played the woman with him
and made him suffer during the eight hours passed in their
company more than during the entire period of his illness.

Precisely at noon, he was helped into a coach, followed
by his wife who bore herself "like a heroine and philoso
pher, tho' at the same time the tenderest mother in the
world." Then entered his eldest daughter and the rest
of the party. Friends gathered round to wish him a bon
voyage. Two of them — Jane Collier and Saunders Welch —
accompanied him on the twelve miles' journey to "The
Queen of Portugal" lying off Eotherhithe. If he followed
his plan, he took a wherry near the Tower. As he was in

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

a perfectly helpless condition, it was necessary to carry
him into the boat, and afterwards to hoist him aboard ship
in a chair lifted with pulleys. These transfers were skil
fully managed by Saunders Welch amid the jests and jeers
of sailors and watermen, which awakened in Fielding some
indignation, but more sorrow for the cruelty and inhu
manity inherent in the nature of man. Besides himself
there was a great quantity of personal luggage to be taken
aboard. Moreover, though by the terms of the contract,
Captain Veal was required to sustain his passengers during
the voyage, it was whispered to Fielding that the table
would be provided with no luxuries unless he went down
further into his own pocket. Taking the hint, he supplied
the ship's stores with a large hamper of wine, a quantity
of hams and tongues, a coop of live chickens, and several
sheep — mostly, it seems, from his farm at Fordhook. Nor
did he forget his books. How many of them he took from
his shelves, we do not know; but in the selection which he
made were one or more volumes of that splendid folio edi
tion of Plato, in Greek and Latin, which Stephanus brought
out at Paris in 1578. He took with him also his collectanea
for the refutation of Lord Bolingbroke ; for he had not yet
given over the completion of that congenial labour. Bol
ingbroke was merely laid aside for the lighter task of keep
ing a journal during the voyage to Lisbon — a most intimate
log-book with reflections, from which I have quoted and
on which will rest most of the remaining narrative of the
voyage.

The captain, despite solemn promises, had no intention
of sailing the next morning after his passengers went
aboard. He slept on land that night, and delayed in the
hope of additions to his cargo. For more than three days
the ship still lay at anchor between Wapping and Eother-
hithe — between two shores which resounded with bawling
fishwives and vociferous sailors and watermen. Nor were

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

the odours wafted across the Thames those from "Araby
the Blest. ' ' Other passengers mentioned by Fielding were
an illiterate Portuguese friar who knew no language but
his own, and a rude schoolboy of fourteen on his way to
meet his father in Lisbon. The cabin was small and the
meals were ill dressed. Withal the dropsy was becoming
burdensome. Accordingly on Friday, Fielding sent for his
friend William Hunter, "the great surgeon and anatomist
of Covent-garden, ' * who had probably used the trocar on
him before. This time ten quarts of water were removed,
and the patient felt at ease in his great arm-chair on deck.
A few hours later his wife came down with a violent tooth
ache lasting several days, and her husband forgot his own
serious condition in his sympathy with her excruciating
pain, which no surgeon could relieve. There were also hot
altercations between Fielding and the captain ; after which
the traveller decided to submit, for the present, to the
master of the ship, though a "tyrant" and a "bashaw."

This man Fielding closely studied as he had studied other
queer people in real life for his novels. What he had heard
of Captain Veal, what he saw of him, and what he learned
from conversations with him, he combined into a rare por
trait, the main features of which began to appear in the
records of the voyage covering the days before the ship
left her moorings. "He had been," says Fielding, "the
captain of a privateer, which he chose to call being in the
king's service; and thence derived a right of hoisting the
military ornament of a cockade over the button of his hat.
He likewise wore a sword of no ordinary length by his side,
with which he swaggered in his cabin, among the wretches
his passengers, whom he had stowed in cupboards on each
side. He was a person of a very singular character. He
had taken it into his head that he was a gentleman, from
those very reasons that proved he was not one; and to
shew himself a fine gentleman, by a behaviour which seemed

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

to insinuate he had never seen one. He was, moreover, a
man of gallantry; at the age of seventy he had the finical-
ness of Sir Courtly Nice, with the roughness of Surly ; and
while he was deaf himself, had a voice capable of deafening
all others. ' ' Of his seventy years, forty-six had been spent
on the sea, and more than thirty of them in command of
his own vessel.

Notwithstanding his arrogance, Captain Veal was a
brave and experienced seaman. Though strict in his dis
cipline, he was humane in dealing with his men, and he
showed a tender heart towards all dumb animals — his cats
and his kittens. He loved his ship as if she were his wife,
and his boats as if they were his children. "He spoke,"
in one of his conversations with Fielding, ' ' of a ship which
he had commanded formerly, and which was long since no
more, which he had called the Princess of Brasil, as a
widower of a deceased wife. This ship, after having fol
lowed the honest business of carrying goods and passengers
for hire many years, did at last take to evil courses and
turn privateer, in which service, to use his own words, she
received many dreadful wounds, which he himself had felt,
as if they had been his own. ' ' But when he was in his cups,
his conduct became outrageous. If the winds were con
trary, he defied them, though in vain. If it blew a gale, he
cursed the storm. His life he regarded as an unending
contest between himself and the witches that ruled the sea
with their spells.

One misfortune in the captain's career Fielding failed
to mention. Sometime in October, 1745, we may read, an
English privateer, called "The Inspector," sailed with a
full crew out of the river Thames on its mission of piracy.
She had twenty-two carriage guns besides swivels. Her
commander was "Richard Veale." By ill luck, the good
ship was wrecked on the fourth of the next January in
Tangier Bay off the coast of Barbary. Those of the crew

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

who escaped drowning — eighty-odd of them — were taken
prisoners and driven inland to Fez to become the slaves
of the Emperor of Morocco. His majesty, Muley Abdullah,
set them to the useless labour of building up and pulling
down castle walls from sunrise to sunset for seven days
in the week. He gave them little to eat but bread and water,
and supplied them with no shelter. After various negotia
tions, the captives were redeemed by the British Govern
ment in December, 1750, and a few months later they were
brought to Portsmouth on a man-of-war. Some of them,
however, had made their escape in the autumn of 1748 and
had safely reached London via Gibraltar. Others who at
tempted flight at the time had their heads cut off. Among
those who succeeded in the desperate encounter with their
guards, was Captain Veal, for we find him the next year in
command of "The Queen of Portugal" bringing into port
from Lisbon a treasure of thirty thousand Spanish dollars
for the merchants of London.* Why Fielding never re
ferred to this Moroccan episode is an enigma. Did he
regard it as too generally known? or had he never heard
of it?

The old pirate, who had hitherto made promises only to
break them, unexpectedly weighed anchor on Sunday morn
ing, June 30; and "The Queen of Portugal" floated with
wind and tide down to Gravesend. As the ship passed
Deptford and Woolwich, Fielding was profoundly stirred
by the noble sights which he saw there. In the docks were
the great ships on which Britain depended for her suprem
acy over the sea; and riding at anchor were several India-
men just returned from their voyage, and whole fleets of
smaller vessels engaged in the American, African, and

*"The St. James's Evening Post," July 22-23, 1749. On the ill-starred
"Inspector" and her crew, see Thomas Troughton's "Barbarian Cruelty,"
1751; "The Ladies Magazine," for 1750-1751, II, 143, 206, 219, 222, 238,
254, 268, 302; and "The Gentleman's Magazine," for 1748, XVIII, 413, 482,
531; also XIX, 3; and XXI, 282, 382.

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

European trades. As these symbols of the British Empire
lay all spread out before him, he felt beyond his wont the
exaltation of the patriot. A subdued tone, however, per
vaded his emotions. Invincible as was his country's rule
of the sea, her armies, he reflected, were unequal to the
French or the German in excellence and splendour. His
equanimity, too, was disturbed by a needless accident to
the ship; and he regretted that his wife, still confined to
her cabin with the toothache, could not share with him the
gaiety of the scene on the river. His troubles, however,
were borne easily under the inspiration of a bright morning,
and a succession of agreeable objects which met his eye all
the way to Gravesend, where the captain cast anchor.

After dinner the next day, Saunders "Welch and Jane
Collier, who had remained with the party until this time,
took their leave and returned to London by post-chaise.
Just after they left, Fielding had a sharp encounter with
two custom-house officers, one of whom he rebuked for ap
pearing in the presence of Mrs. Fielding without removing
his hat. The gentleman was compelled to beg the lady's
pardon before he could transact any business with her hus
band. Towards six in the evening, the captain once more
weighed anchor and fell down to the Nore for the night. The
passage thither, says Fielding, ''was extremely pleasant,
the evening being very delightful, the moon just past the
full, and both wind and tide favourable. ' ' The next morn
ing they again set sail, and skirted along the shore of Kent
until three o'clock in the afternoon, when the wind turned
squarely against them, and they were forced to anchor in
the Downs, two miles off Deal. That evening his wife fell
asleep, exhausted by the pain of her tooth, which a surgeon,
summoned from Deal, had failed to draw ; his daughter and
Margaret Collier retired seasick to bed; and Fielding was
left to himself without a companion. To pass one's time
alone for an hour or two would seem to be no great hard-

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

ship; but Fielding when not at work was never contented
unless there was someone to converse with. In desperation,
he invited the deaf captain to sit down with him to a small
bowl of punch, over which they both fell fast asleep. Thus
ended the first day in the Downs. This may not have been
the best way for a man afflicted with the gout to conclude
a lonely evening; but in the circumstances there was no
other way for Henry Fielding.

For more than five days, ' ' The Queen of Portugal ' ' was
held near Deal by contrary winds. This was from Tuesday
evening, July 2, to Monday morning, July 8. Most of the
time, the ship rolled about there in a tempestuous sea, to
the great inconvenience of all on board. Twice the captain
hoisted sail, only to return, after vain attempts to beat
against the wind, to his former station. Fielding sent his
man ashore for fresh vegetables, and dispatched a letter,
apparently lost, to his brother John. The ladies suffered
so much from seasickness that he felt justified in asking
the captain of a man-of-war, lying at Deal, to conduct the
entire party in a long-boat to Dover, some seven miles away.
The request, made on Friday, was discourteously denied,
though Fielding intimated in his letter to the captain that
the favour would be appreciated by "the wife of the first
lord commissioner of the admiralty." This "great lady's
name" which Fielding presumed to use in his distress, was
Lady Elizabeth Yorke, the daughter of his friend Lord
Hardwicke; in 1748 she had become the wife of that Lord
Anson who made a famous voyage round the world, taking
untold treasures from the Spaniards. By Sunday the wind
abated, and they all entered into the sport of fishing for
whitings. But for the miserable days thus ending pleas
antly in the Downs, we should never have had "The
Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon. ' ' As Fielding had nothing
else to do, he then first seriously thought of such a book,
and it is most probable that he then and there began its

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

composition. Thereafter, we may see Mm occasionally at
his work. "Some of the most amusing pages, if indeed
there be any which deserve that name," says Fielding,
"were possibly the production of the most disagreeable
hours which ever haunted the author. ' '

At six o 'clock on Monday morning, * ' The Queen of Portu
gal" left her station off Deal. The wind was not yet very
auspicious, but the tide helped her along past Dover.
Shakespeare's cliff to the west of the town, Fielding de
cided, owed its fame not at all to nature but to the genius
of the poet and to what Mr. Addison had written of it. As
viewed from the sea, the cliff failed to make Fielding dizzy,
and he thought it would be much the same were he to look
over the edge. Evening found the ship beating the sea off
Sussex, in sight of Dungeness. The breeze died away, and
the heavens, with scarcely a cloud, were all lighted up by a
most brilliant moon. The same fine weather continued
through Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a fresh gale
north-northwest, which brought the good ship on Thursday
morning in sight of the Isle of Wight. Though the captain
swore that he would keep the sea against the evil intentions
of the wind, he was eventually forced to tack and stand in
for the shore. At three o'clock in the afternoon of Thurs
day, he came to anchor at Ryde, then a small village, on the
north shore of the island.

In this safe harbour, the ship lay wind-bound for a full
week — from Thursday, July 11, to Thursday, July 18. On
Friday the ladies went ashore for tea at an alehouse, and
Fielding made use of the opportunity to write the following
letter to his brother. In a characteristic manner, he keeps
in the background all the annoying incidents of the voyage.
The letter runs :

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

"On board the Queen of Portugal, Rich<J Veal at anchor on
the Mother Bank, off Ryde, to the care of the Post
Master of Portsmouth — this is my Date and yr Direc
tion.

July 12 1754

"Dear Jack, After receiving that agreeable Lre* from
Messr.8 Fielding & O, we weighed on monday morning and
sailed from Deal to the Westward Four Days long but
inconceivably pleasant passage brought us yesterday to an
Anchor on the Mother Bank, on the Back of the Isle of
Wight, where we had last Night in Safety the Pleasure of
hearing the Winds roar over our Heads in as violent a
Tempest as I have known, and where my only Consideration
were the Fears which must possess any Friend of ours (if
there is happily any such), who really makes our Wellbeing
the Object of his Concern especially if such Friend should
be totally inexperienced in Sea Affairs. I therefore beg
that on the Day you receive this Mrs Daniel may know that
we are just risen from Breakfast in Health and Spirits this
twelfth Instant at 9 in the morning. Our Voyage hath
proved fruitful in Adventures all which being to be written
in the Book you must postpone yr Curiosity. As the Inci
dents which fall under yr Cognizance will possibly be con
signed to Oblivion, do give them to us as they pass. Tell yr
Neighbour I am much obliged to him for recommending me
to the care of a most able and experienced Seaman to
whom other Captains seem to pay such Deference that they
attend and watch his Motions, and think themselves only
safe when they act under his Direction and Example. Our
Ship in Truth seems to give Laws on the Water with as
much Authority and Superiority as you Dispense Laws to
the Public and Examples to yr Brethren in Commission.
Please to direct yr Answer to me on Board as in the Date,

* Livre.

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

if gone to be returned, and then send it by the Post and
Pacquet to Lisbon to

Yr affect Brother

H. FIELDING

"To John Fielding Esq. at his House in
"Bow Street Cov. Garden London."*

The next day, Saturday, July 13, the ladies, who disliked
the ship, persuaded Fielding that it would be a good plan
for him to go ashore with them and remain there until a
shift in the wind should permit them to sail. The problem
which confronted captain, passengers, and crew was a safe
conveyance for a man who could not walk. They all saw
that it would be difficult to transfer him to one of the ship 's
rather small boats, and then to carry him over the long
mud-flat which intervenes between the water and the shore
at Byde. While they were devising various schemes to
this end, fortune came to their aid by sending them that
afternoon a large hoy, almost as big as a ship, which drew
up by the side of "The Queen of Portugal." On the deck
of the vessel lay a buck, or half of one, which had been pro
cured for Fielding from the mainland. The invalid was
placed aboard the hoy, from which he was afterwards
hoisted into a small boat in order that he might be rowed
as near as possible to the edge of the flat. Thence two
sailors carried him through the mud to dry land and a
quarter of a mile up the hillside to "a house, which seemed
to bid the fairest for hospitality of any in Byde." The
mop of the landlady, however, in anticipation of her guests,
had rendered the main room of the inn so damp that they
chose her barn for their dinner. "This was," says Field
ing, "a dry, warm, oaken floored barn, lined on both sides
with wheaten straw, and opening at one end into a green
field, and a beautiful prospect. ' ' There the cloth was laid.

* From the autograph formerly owned by Mr. Frederick Locker-Lampson, as
quoted by Miss Godden, ' ' Henry Fielding, ' ' 295-296.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

The little company, after consuming the beans and bacon
which they had brought from the ship, ordered soles, whit
ings, and lobsters from a fisherman, with which, declares
the dying man, "we completed the best, the pleasantest,
and the merriest meal, with more appetite, more real, solid
luxury, and more festivity, than was ever seen in an enter
tainment at White 's." That night the happy Fielding slept
in an apartment of the inn built from the materials of some
ship long ago wrecked upon those shores. He imagined
the room to be all that was left of an ancient temple dedi
cated to Neptune in honour of the blessing which the in
habitants had received from that defunct god of the sea.

Fielding's account of what he saw at Ryde is filled with
interesting local colour. He had traversed the island, he
implies, on some previous visit ; but no more delightful view
ever met his eye than the one at Eyde, "extending to the
sea, and taking in Portsmouth, Spithead, and St. Helen 's. ' '
A fleet of ships, such as he observed riding at anchor in the
roadstead, he thought "the noblest object which the art of
man hath ever produced." The parish then contained, he
says, some thirty houses scattered along the hillside, many
of them shaded with "large and flourishing elms" which
formed natural groves, avenues, and lanes. Everywhere
the verdure was extraordinary; and yet the soil, being
gravel on a gentle slope, was so dry "that immediately
after the most violent rain, a fine lady may walk without
wetting her silken shoes." In one of the fields, a quarter
of a mile up the hill, stood a little chapel overlooking the
sea. It had been built in 1719 by Thomas Player, who then
owned the manor of Ryde, on a piece of free land called
Picket Close, and it was dedicated to St. Thomas.* Thither
the ladies, "more from curiosity than religion," repaired
for divine service on Sunday morning, under the escort of

*"The Victoria History of Hampshire," ed. by W. Page, 1912, V, 178.
The chapel is shown in the illustration facing this page.

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

1 'the captain in a most military attire, with his cockade in
his hat, and his sword by his side." The ladies were dis
concerted by the stares they received from the curate and
the congregation, but the captain preserved his composure.
The old beau, though Fielding did not yet suspect it, was
trying to make an impression on the youthful heart of
Miss Ash.

During that Sunday the characters of the innkeeper and
his wife began to disclose themselves. This worthy couple,
who bore the name of Francis, were near their grand
climacteric and had lived in the house for forty years. In
temper they were the direct opposite of each other. Mr.
Francis was a mild man of a round, smiling face, without
any opinions of his own on any subject whatever. Under
the direction of his wife he looked after the farm, and left
wholly to her the management of the inn. Mrs. Francis
was a perfect shrew. ' * She was, ' ' says Fielding, ' ' a short,
squat woman ; her head was closely joined to her shoulders,
where it was fixed somewhat awry; every feature of her
countenance was sharp and pointed ; her face was furrowed
with the small-pox; and her complexion, which seemed to
be able to turn milk to curds, not a little resembled in colour
such milk as had already undergone that operation. She
appeared indeed to have many symptoms of a deep jaundice
in her look ; but the strength and firmness of her voice over
balanced them all; ... Though vocal be usually put in
opposition to instrumental music; I question whether this
might not be thought to partake of the nature of both ; for
she played on two instruments, which she seemed to keep
for no other use from morning till night; these were two
maids, or rather scolding-stocks, who, I suppose, by some
means or other, earned their board, and she gave them
their lodging gratis, or for no other service than to keep
her lungs in constant exercise." Her house was ill
furnished; she had little with which to supply her guests,

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

and for that little she charged exorbitantly. From her the
Fieldings obtained poor bread, poorer beer, the worst sort
of tea, a spirit resembling rum for their punch, and an
occasional bottle of the native wine denominated wind,
which it was impossible to drink. Though Fielding resented
her impositions which increased day by day, he would have
few or no words with her. He silenced her tongue by
settling the bill whatever it might be. In this wretched
house, where he paid for what he did not get, Fielding
regaled himself with his own tea, his own claret, his own
venison, and with fruits and vegetables presented to him
by a lady living near Ryde.

The name of this Lady Bountiful, Fielding kept to him
self. He describes her estate, says she was a widow, and
comments on her generosity. There he stops. His de
scription of her seat, which he must have seen at some time,
is embroidered with an interesting account of how her hus
band had acquired it. Here in full is the curious piece of
local history which someone told him, if indeed he did not
know a part of it already:

"At about two miles distant from this parish, lives that
polite and good lady to whose kindness we were so much
obliged. It is placed on a hill, whose bottom is washed by
the sea, and which, from its eminence at top, commands a
view of great part of the island, as well as it does that of
the opposite shore. This house was formerly built by one
Boyce, who, from a blacksmith at Gosport, became pos
sessed, by great success in smuggling, of 40000 1. With part
of this he purchased an estate here, and by chance, prob
ably, fixed on this spot for building a large house. Perhaps
the convenience of carrying on his business, to which it is
so well adapted, might dictate the situation to him. We
can hardly, at least, attribute it to the same taste with which
he furnished his house, or at least his library, by sending
an order to a bookseller in London, to pack him up 500

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

pound's worth of his handsomest books. They tell here
several almost incredible stories of the ignorance, the folly,
and the pride which this poor man and his wife discovered
during the short continuance of his prosperity; for he did
not long escape the sharp eyes of the revenue-solicitors, and
was by extents from the Court of Exchequer, soon reduced
below his original state, to that of confinement in the Fleet.
All his effects were sold, and among the rest his books by
an auction at Portsmouth, for a very small price; for the
bookseller was now discovered to have been perfectly a
master of his trade, and relying on Mr. Boyce's finding
little time to read, had sent him not only the most lasting
wares of his shop, but duplicates of the same, under differ
ent titles.

"His estate and house were purchased by a gentleman
of these parts, whose widow now enjoys them, and who hath
improved them, particularly her gardens, with so elegant
a taste, that the painter who would assist his imagination
in the composition of a most exquisite landschape, or the
poet, who would describe an earthly paradise, could no
where furnish themselves with a richer pattern."

One afternoon the ladies and the captain visited her
seat; "with the beauties of which," says Fielding, "they
declared themselves most highly charmed at their return,
as well as with the goodness of the lady of the mansion,
who had slipt out of the way, that my wife and her company
might refresh themselves with the flowers and fruits with
which her garden abounded." The next afternoon the lady
of the mansion called at the inn and left her compliments
with Mrs. Francis for the party, with the assurance that
they were most welcome to anything her house or garden
afforded while they remained wind-bound. The following
morning they sent a servant out to thank her for her ex
treme goodness. "He soon returned, in company with the
gardener, both richly laden with almost every particular

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

which a garden at this most fruitful season of the year
produces. " Again, when the little company were preparing
to leave Eyde, the family tea-chest, though afterwards dis
covered, could nowhere be found. Thrown into consterna
tion by the apparent loss of "this sovereign cordial," they
appealed to the generous lady, who sent them a whole can
ister of tea — quite enough for a voyage twice as long as
that to Lisbon.

Thus ended for Fielding the pleasant episode with the
lady of the island. After his death, however, Margaret
Collier and Sarah Fielding stayed for a time at Ryde,
whence they dispatched letters to their friend Samuel
Eichardson. Probably Jane Collier was with them also.
The poor spinsters were drawn thither by the cheapness of
living there and, no doubt, by the desire to be near a woman
whose charities were bounded only by her means. What
concerns us here of a very sad tale of poverty, destitution
almost, is the fact that Miss Collier, in her letters of 1755-
1756, discloses the name of Fielding's admirer. She was
a Mrs. Roberts* — perhaps the Miss Ann Reeves who in
1719 married Marmaduke Roberts, a gentleman of Gos-
portf Her seat was at Appley, a mile to the east of Ryde.
Some fifteen or twenty years before, the estate, consisting
of two hundred acres, had come into the Roberts family in
the manner related by Fielding.! The old smuggler, who
formerly concealed his goods in the cellars of the house,
was David Boyce, or Bryce. In the accounts of his ex
ploits, the name is given both ways, due to a twist of
the tongue or a twist of the printer. He died a miserable
death in 1740.§ Much as Fielding describes it, the smuggler

•Barbauld, "Correspondence of Eichardson," II, 72-112.

t ' ' Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licenses ' ' in the Publications of
the Harleian Society.

t "Victoria History of Hampshire," ed. by W. Page, 1912, V, 192.

$W. H. D. Adams, "The Isle of Wight," 1882, p. 176; and "Black's
Picturesque Guide to the Isle of Wight," 1873, p. 66. For engravings of

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

had built his house near the top of a gentle ascent, which
commanded a full view of Ryde, the surrounding country,
and the sea beyond a shore skirted with trees. In any de
scription, Fielding was always careful about distance.
From his inn to Appley along the shore and up the hill it
was, as he says, a walk of nearly two miles. When Miss
Collier was staying at Eyde in the autumn of 1755, Mrs.
Eoberts visited her mean lodgings, lent her books from her
own library, and took her under the hospitable roof of
Appley. Her winters Mrs. Roberts passed in London with
"her amiable daughters." She accordingly knew of
Fielding the Bow-Street justice, had read his novels, and
seen his comedies on the stage every season. It may be
that she was personally acquainted with Fielding, and was
but repaying some specific act of courtesy when she pro
vided him with the fruits of her garden.

Late Thursday morning, July 18, Fielding and his com
panions went aboard ship, and on a windless evening
drifted a few miles down to St. Helen's, where they
anchored. As they passed Spithead, they saw two regi
ments of soldiers just returned from Gibraltar and Mi
norca. In one of them Captain Veal had a nephew, a young
lieutenant, who paid his uncle Richard a visit the next day.
He posed as a merry fellow, always laughing before he
spoke as well as at everything he said, although there was
no jest in it. He slapped his uncle on the back, exclaiming
"D — n me, Dick," and otherwise treated the old man with
gross familiarity. His smartness pleased the captain but
it bored Fielding, who expressed relief when the wind,
springing upy towards evening on Friday, compelled the
coxcomb to go ashore. That night a brisk wind from the
north swept "The Queen of Portugal" away by the back

Appley House, see W. Cook, "A New Picture of the Isle of Wight," South
ampton, 1813, p. 72; and G. Brannon, "Views ... in the Isle of Wight,"
Southampton, new ed., 1825, plate 20.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

of the Isle of Wight and on by Christchurch and Peverell
Point. By noon on Saturday she was off the Isle of Port
land, " famous for the smallness and sweetness of its
mutton. ' ' In the evening and the following night the wind
blew "a perfect hurricane"; the captain lost his bearings
and became alarmed for his ship; while Fielding, in no
fear of death if it must come, sat quietly in the cabin. At
six o 'clock the next morning Berry Head was sighted ; and
within half an hour "The Queen of Portugal" lay safe at
anchor in Tor Bay, on the southeast coast of Devon.
Though Fielding does not give the name of the harbour, it
was clearly Brixham, where William of Orange landed
when he came to deliver England from the Stuarts.

Owing to high or contrary winds, the ship was forced
to remain there for six days — from Sunday morning,
July 21, to Saturday morning, July 27. The incidents of
those days Fielding describes with many details. All
that time he stayed on shipboard, looking towards the land
which he had known and especially loved since boyhood.
A few miles distant was Lyme Eegis, where in his youth
he had tried to run away with Miss Andrew the heiress.
When the Earl of Cromarty, after the insurrection of 1745,
was banished to Devonshire, Fielding remarked in "The
Jacobite's Journal" that to live in this paradise of the
West was no banishment; and he now repeated his former
comment while lying within a mile or two of the shore.
The first thing he did was to send his man into the country
to purchase three hogsheads of cider from Mr. Giles
Leverance of "Cheeshurst" — probably Churston Ferrers—
on the coast near Dartmouth. One of the hogsheads he was
to take with him to Lisbon ; while, the other two were to
be sent as a present to his friends in London — his brother
John, Saunders Welch, Andrew Millar, and Dr. William
Hunter. He thought that they would relish this pure juice
of the apple from "the garden of Devonshire" much more

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

than the mingled juice of apples and turnips sold in Mid
dlesex for cider. When he had finished the transaction,
he wrote his brother John the following letter about the
purchase and about Richard Boor's mismanagement of
Fordhook :

"Torr Bay, July 22, 1754.

"Dear Jack, Soon after I had concluded my Letter of
Business to Welch yesterday, we came to an Anchor in
this Place, which our Capt says is the best Harbour in the
World. I soon remembered the Country and that it was in
the midst of the South Hams a Place famous for Cyder and
I think the best in England, in great Preference to that of
Herefordshire. Now as I recollect that you are a Lover
of this Liquor when mixed with a Proper Number of Middx
Turneps, as you are of Port Wind well mixed likewise, I
thought you might for the Sake of Variety be pleased with
once tasting what is pure and genuine, I have therefore
purchased and paid for 2 Hdds of this Cyder where they
will be delivered in double Casks to yr Order transmitted
by any Master of a Coasting Vessel that comes from Lon
don to these Parts. You must send the very Paper inclosed
that being the token of the Delivery. The Freight of both
by a Coaster of Devon or Cornwall will be 8 shillings only,
which is I believe y? whole Expence. They stand me within
a few shillings at 4£, and the learned here are of Opinion
they are the finest of their kind, one being of the rougher
the other of the sweeter Taste. Welch will easily find al
most every day one of these Coasters in London, which the
Uncertainty of our Stay here and the Hurry which every
Veering of the Wind puts us in prevents my providing here.
It will be fit for drinking or bottling a Month after it hath
lain in your Vault. I have consigned it in the following
manner. Half a Hdd to yourself, half to Welch, half to
Hunter and half to Millar, and I wish you all merry over it.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

"In your last, there is only one Paragraph which I wish
better explained. // Boor be trusty. Pray let me know any
Shadow of a Doubt: for the very Supposition gives me
much Uneasiness. If he is not trusty he is a Fool ; but that
is very possible for him to be, at least to catch at a lesser,
and dishonest Profit, which is present and certain in Pref
erence to what is in all Eespects its Reverse. Pray give
me as perfect Ease as you can in this Particular. I begin
to despair of letting my House this Summer. I hope the
Sale of my Wine may be more depended on : for the almost
miraculous Dilatoriness of our Voyage tho it hath added
something to the Pleasure, hath added much more to the
Expence of it. In so much that I wish Welch would send a
20£ Bill of Exche by Perry? Means immediately after me;
tho I fear Boor? Demands for Harvest Labourers have
greatly emptied his Hands, and I would not for good
Reasons be too much a Debtor to the best of Friends. I
hope at the same time to see a particular Account of the
State of Affairs at Fordhook, and the whole Sum of Pay
ments to Boor from my leaving him to the Date of such
Letter, when I presume the Harvest, as to England, will
be pretty well over. I beg likewise an exact Account of the
Price of Wheat p Load at Uxbridge. I have no more of
Business to say, nor do I know what else to write you : for
even the Winds with us afford no Variety. I got half a
Buck from the New Forest, while we lay at the Isle of
Wight, and the Pasty still sticks by us. We have here the
finest of Fish, Turbot, vast soals and Whitings for less than
you can eat Plaise in Mddx. So that Lord Cromarty? Ban
ishment from Scotland hither was somewhat less cruel than
that of Ovid from Rome to Pontus. We may however say
with him — Quam vicina est ultima Terra mihi! Ultima
Terra is you know the Land8 End which a ten Hours Gale
from North or East will carry us to, and where yr Health

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

with all our Friends left behind us in England will be most
cheerfully drunk by

Y? affect6 Brother

H. FFIELDING.
"All our loves to my sister."*

If Fielding had ever known the taste of fish fresh from
the water, he had forgotten it long before the voyage to
Lisbon. Soles and whitings, which he mentions in this
letter, had supplied his table at intervals since the delay
in the Downs. These he thought excellent ; but at Tor Bay,
the next morning after he wrote to his brother, he pur
chased a John doree weighing four pounds, — a kind of fish
which, he was told, Sir Epicure Quin the actor had fed on
while visiting these parts. Somewhat sceptical of his
friend's reputed praises, Fielding had but to taste to be
convinced. No fish he had ever eaten possessed its deli
cate flavour. Not since the repast in the barn at Ryde had
there been so merry a dinner as when Fielding sat down
with his party in the cabin to their doree and claret.

The glorious meal, however, concluded with some excit
ing scenes. While they were in the midst of it, Tom the
captain's steward, alias valet de chambre, abruptly entered
and began, without begging pardon, to draw off a half -hogs
head of small beer into bottles. Fielding politely requested
the young man to wait until the dinner was over, but he
was met with a flat refusal. Thereupon he picked up an
empty bottle and threatened to throw it at the intruder's
head if he did not leave the cabin forthwith. The menace
had the desired effect, though it put an end to the good
cheer. At the time of the incident, the captain was dining
with a brother captain on board another ship in the har
bour. Being informed by Tom of what had happened,

* The letter as printed by Austin Dobson in ' ' The National Review, ' ' Aug.,
1911, pp. 985-986; and in "At Prior Park," 1912, pp. 132-135. From the
autograph formerly in the possession of the late Mr. George Fielding.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Captain Veal, somewhat elevated with champagne, at once
returned to his ship and poured upon Fielding's head a
torrent of abuse and blasphemy. Fielding, becoming very
excited, decided to go ashore, obtain a warrant for the
captain's arrest, and so give up the voyage. With these
intentions, he sent for a hoy to carry himself and family
to Dartmouth ; but as the boat approached the ship, Captain
Veal, frightened at the mention of the law against him, ran
into the cabin, tumbled on his knees before the man whom
he had insulted, and implored his mercy. "I did not
suffer," says Fielding, "a brave man and an old man, to
remain a moment in this posture; but I immediately for
gave him."

This angry encounter cleared the atmosphere. All on
board became more friendly than before the altercation.
Indeed, as if to atone for his own hasty temper, Fielding
wrote down in his journal every good characteristic of the
captain that he had observed — his skill as a mariner, his
love for his ship and his men, his whimsical tenderness
towards all things, animate and inanimate. As a precau
tion against further trouble with the dropsy, he summoned,
on the recommendation of Captain Veal, a surgeon from a
neighbouring parish, who proved to be as expert with the
trocar as were his brethren in London. There were two
quarts of water less than when Dr. Hunter last performed
the operation ; and the patient was hopeful that the dropsy
would now disappear. The ship was still held wind-bound
for another day — bewitched, the captain averred, by Mrs.
Francis of Ryde, because Fielding had not spent enough
at her house. The ladies went ashore with the captain,
and were entertained by a gentleman whom Fielding,
remembering his Homer, calls Axylus because of his hos
pitality — a name which he had given to a benevolent char
acter in "The Covent-Grarden Journal." The Axylus of
Tor Bay lived by the water-side near Brixham in whose

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

harbour ' ' The Queen of Portugal, ' ' except for one attempt
to sail without wind, had rested at anchor all these days.
The travellers took advantage of the calm to lay in stores
of bread and meat for the voyage and butter enough to
supply them long after they should reach Lisbon. While
the ladies were away on shore on Friday afternoon, Field
ing, relieved of his dropsy, fell into * ; a sweet and comfort
able nap" which lasted three hours. Never was there a
man of happier temperament. All expressions of anxiety
and pain here and elsewhere in the journal are for his wife
and her companions. There are none for himself.

Early Saturday morning, July 27, Captain Veal weighed
anchor, doubled Berry Head, and arrived off Dartmouth.
There being but little breeze, it seemed as if he could get no
further, and so he determined to put back to the place
whence he came. But to the surprise of everybody, the
wind soon declared loudly against this design, and "The
Queen of Portugal" was driven merrily towards the west.
All that morning Fielding was in high spirits. With his
friends he sat on deck under perfect heavens, and watched
his native land recede until he lost sight of it forever. By
Sunday noon, they were, according to the captain's reck
oning, ' ' thirty miles to the westward of Plymouth, ' ' and by
evening they were well beyond the Lizard. As the ladies
all became seasick, Fielding passed, without complaint, a
lonely day in meditation, broken only by prayers on deck,
which were impressively read by a common sailor. At noon
on Monday an observation showed that they were just
entering the Bay of Biscay, where they were to experience
for nearly five days the usual calms and storms followed
by contrary winds which threatened to drive the ship across
the Atlantic to Newfoundland. During the entire passage
through the Bay, they sighted only one sail, which appeared
to be a brig bound for a port of Galicia. At one time it
seemed as if they, too, must try to make a port in order to

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

save themselves. While the sea was rising into mountains,
the captain related to Fielding the story of his misadven
tures and hairbreadth escapes — enough to ' ' frighten a very
bold spirit from undertaking even the shortest voyage."
The day that Fielding most enjoyed closed with an evening
when a dead calm sank down on the ship a few miles north
ward of Cape Finisterre. For the first time he then felt
the approach of that warmth for which he had left England.
It is a notable passage :

"But here, tho' our voyage was retarded, we were enter
tained with a scene which as no one can behold without
going to sea, so no one can form an idea of any thing equal
to it on shore. We were seated on the deck, women and all,
in the serenest evening that can be imagined. Not a single
cloud presented itself to our view, and the sun himself was
the only object which engrossed our whole attention. He
did indeed set with a majesty which is incapable of descrip
tion, with which while the horizon was yet blazing with
glory, our eyes were called off to the opposite part to survey
the moon, which was then at full, and which in rising pre
sented us with the second object that this world hath offered
to our vision. Compared to these the pageantry of theatres,
or splendor of courts, are sights almost below the regard
of children.

' ' We did not return from the deck till late in the evening :
the weather being inexpressibly pleasant, and so warm,
that even my old distemper perceived the alteration of the
climate. ' '

Once out of the Bay of Biscay, the weather was serene
and bright. Never were there pleasanter seas than while
"The Queen of Portugal" skirted along the shore of
Portugal, at the rate of four to seven knots an hour. On
Sunday morning, August 4, the captain himself read the
service on deck, making, says Fielding, "but one mistake."
In the second lesson of the day, he turned Ellas into a lion.

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

This amusing slip of eye or tongue Fielding evidently
thought an unconscious revelation of the old mariner's
character. After prayers, the passengers were informed
that they were far advanced in latitude 42° ; and should sup
off Porte that evening if the wind continued. The next
morning they were in latitude 40° ; and at five o'clock in the
afternoon, they came up with the Burlings (sailors' English
for the Berlengas), the first land which they had distinctly
seen since they left Devonshire. Fielding observed, as he
passed by, that only three of these rocky islands show their
heads above water, and remarked that the Portuguese main
tained there a kind of garrison consisting of malefactors
banished thither for a term because of various small of
fences. This admirable policy of the Portuguese reminded
him of a similar custom related by Diodorus Siculus of the
ancient Egyptians. "That wise people, to prevent the
corruption of good manners by evil communication," the
Greek historian is said to have written, "built a town on the
Bed Sea, whither they transported a great number of their
criminals, having first set an indelible mark on them, to
prevent their returning and mixing with the sober part of
their citizens." Fielding's story about the Burlings, which
he doubtless got from Captain Veal, is not very trustworthy
in its details. According to the usual accounts, a garrison
was kept on the largest island to prevent pirates from land
ing there for fresh water ; but that the guard was composed
wholly or largely of malefactors is most improbable. Like
wise the anecdote of the Egyptians has never been dis
covered in Diodorus the Sicilian.

The next morning (Tuesday, August 6), "The Queen of
Portugal" passed the Eock of Lisbon (the Cabo da Roca),
and anchored at the mouth of the Tagus.* While waiting

* The chronology of ' ' A Voyage to Lisbon ' ' as originally given by Fielding
is correct until it reaches Eyde; but from that point onward it becomes con
fused. When, after leaving the ship, Fielding resumed his journal at the inn

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

there for the tide to convey her to Lisbon, Fielding listened
and observed. On the summit of the Rock of Lisbon, he
was told, dwelt an English hermit, a very old man, "who
was formerly master of a vessel trading to Lisbon; and,
having changed his religion and his manners, the latter of
which, at least, were none of the best, betook himself to this
place, in order to do penance for his sins." This is an
Englishman's way of saying that the old mariner had
turned Roman Catholic and been received there into the
beautiful monastery of the Hieronymites hewn out of the
rock. This proselyte, adds Fielding, had been regarded
with particular favour by the Queen Dowager — Maria Anna
of Austria, widow of the late King John, — who was accus
tomed to say "that the saving one soul would repay all
the endeavours of her life." As he surveyed the face of
the country from the ship, he commented on the absence of
large trees and on the dull appearance of the soil, which
resembled, in contrast with the verdure of England, "an
old brick kill, or a field where the green-sward is pared up
and set a-burning or rather a-smoaking, in little heaps, to
manure the land." At noon "The Queen of Portugal"
entered the Tagus under the guidance of a pilot, and came
to anchor three miles below Lisbon, at Belem, famous for
its great Hieronymite convent and the magnificent royal

there, he wrote down "Sunday, July 19," which is an impossible date, for the
nineteenth of July fell upon a Friday. From the context it is clear that he
should have written ' ' Sunday, July 14. ' ' Having once made the mistake, he
carried it on for a week, and thereafter dropped the day of the month al
together and simply put down the day of the week. Mr. Frederick S. Dickson
was the first to discover Fielding's error, and to work out the correct chronology
of the book. See his manuscript "Index to The Voyage to Lisbon" in the
Yale library, and incidentally his article in "The Library," Jan., 1917, third
series, VIII, 24-35. Fielding's own dates from the time his ship anchored off
Deal until it left the Downs may be confirmed by the ship-news in "The
Public Advertiser," July 5, 6, 9, 10. In the same newspaper for Aug. 29, it
was announced that "The Queen of Portugal" arrived off Lisbon, just as
Mr. Dickson had determined, on Aug. 6, 1754.

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

palace. Bather strangely, Fielding, whose ear must have
been slow to catch foreign sounds, persisted to the last in
writing "Bellisle" for Belem, pronounced Belain, the final
syllable being a nasal. Nor was he always quite accurate
in historical details. For the benefit of English readers, he
remarks that Catharine of Aragon, the divorced wife of
Henry the Eighth, lay buried in the convent at Belem, "one
of the most beautiful piles of building in all Portugal."
This unfortunate woman was in fact buried in the abbey
church at Peterborough. Evidently Fielding confounded
her with Catharine of Braganza, widow of Charles the
Second, whose tomb may be seen among those of the great
dead — Camoens and Vasco da Gama — in the beautiful
church of Santa Maria, forming a part of the extensive
convent of Belem.

Though interested in what he heard and saw at Belem,
Fielding was annoyed by the regulations to which the
Portuguese subjected ships before permitting them to
approach Lisbon. "The Queen of Portugal" was halted
at Belem by a salute from the fortress, which meant that
she must proceed no further until all ceremonies were com
plied with. First of all, the passengers were drawn up on
deck for the inspection of the health-magistrate, "a person
of great dignity. ' ' Fielding begged to be excused from the
ordeal because of his lameness, but his request was met
with a prompt refusal. Then insolent and corrupt customs
officers came on board, and took, unless properly bribed,
all the snuff and tobacco they could find, at the same time
stealing such small articles as they could lay their hands
upon. All formalities eventually at an end, Captain Veal
weighed anchor at midnight on Tuesday, and sailed up to
Lisbon with the tide. It was, says Fielding, "a calm, and
a moon-shiny night, which made the passage incredibly
pleasant to the women, who remained three hours enjoying
it, whilst I was left to the cooler transports of enjoying their

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

pleasures at second-hand." Tired out, Fielding kept to
the cabin.

In the morning (Wednesday, August 7) the city, of which
Fielding had enjoyed a distant prospect from Belem, he
now saw close at hand. His first impressions were not
altogether favourable, though the sight was novel. He
writes in his journal :

"Lisbon, before which we now lay at anchor, is said to
be built on the same number of hills with old Rome; but
these do not all appear to the water; on the contrary, one
sees from thence one vast high hill and rock, with buildings
arising above one another, and that in so steep and almost
perpendicular a manner, that they all seem to have but one
foundation.

"As the houses, convents, churches, &c. are large, and all
built with white stone, they look very beautiful at a dis
tance, but as you approach nearer, and find them to want
every kind of ornament, all idea of beauty vanishes at once.
While I was surveying the prospect of this city, which bears
so little resemblance to any other that I have ever seen, a
reflection occurred to me, that if a man was suddenly to be
removed from Palmyra hither, and should take a view of
no other city, in how glorious a light would the antient
architecture appear to him? and what desolation and de
struction of arts and sciences would he conclude had hap
pened between the several aeras of these cities f ' '

At noon, Fielding sent his man ashore to engage, with the
aid of the captain, a suitable place to dine and lodge that
night and to procure a chaise to convey him to the inn.
Three hours later, William returned with the information
that "there was a new law lately made, that no passenger
should set his foot on shore without a special order from
the providore; and that he himself would have been sent
to prison for disobeying it, had he not been protected as the
servant of the captain." It would be necessary, he said

A VOYAGE TO LISBON

further, to wait some time for the permit as "it was then
the providore's hour of sleep, a time when no man, except
the king himself, durst disturb him." But like all good
things, the providore's nap came to an end, and Fielding
was allowed to leave the ship. "About seven in the even
ing," he writes, "I got into a chaise on shore, and was
driven through the nastiest city in the world, tho' at the
same time one of the most populous, to a kind of coffee
house, which is very pleasantly situated on the brow of a
hill, about a mile from the city, and hath a very fine prospect
of the river Tajo from Lisbon to the sea." It was just six
weeks since he had been driven in an English chaise from
Fordhook to London to embark on "The Queen of Portu
gal. ' ' At that nameless inn, evidently in a western suburb
of Old Lisbon, "we regaled ourselves," he adds, "with a
good supper, for which we were as well charged, as if the
bill had been made on the Bath road, between Newbury and
London." As he overlooked the Tagus famed for its golden
sands, he thought of those other golden sands which once
greeted Aeneas with his shipwrecked crew in a Libyan
harbour ; and then in joyful mood, as if untouched by dis
ease, he concluded his book and his voyage with an apt
quotation from Horace ending the journey to Brundisium :
— hie finis chartaeque viaeque.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE END OF LIFE

With the voyage to Lisbon, likewise nearly closes the
story of Fielding's life. He may be clearly followed for
only three or four weeks more, when he dispatched by a
packet-boat a letter to his brother John filled with details
concerning family affairs. It is a long ship-letter written
apparently on several days, undated and mutilated. Parts
of it, including a whole sheet, have been lost and other parts
are almost if not quite illegible. When the letter came to
light in 1911, Mr. Austin Dobson at once published the
greater portion of it and summarized the more difficult
passages.* This is our last full view of Fielding. In
continuation of his journal, as it were, the letter begins :

"I am willing to waste no Paper as you see, nor to put
you to the Expence of a double Letter as I write by the
Packet, by which I would have you write to me every Letter
of Consequence, if it be a single Sheet of Paper only it will
not cost the more for being full and perhaps you have not
time even to fill one Sheet for as I take it the idlest Man in
the World writes now to the busiest, and that too at the
Expence of the latter.

"I have recd here two Letters from you and one from
Welch. The money I have tho I was forced to discount the
Note, it being drawn at 36 days Sight upon a Portugese
who never doth anything for nothing. I believe as it was

* "The National Keview," Aug., 1911. From the autograph left by the late
Mr. George Fielding. Eeprinted in "At Prior Park," 1912, pp. 139-148.
Certain passages omitted by Mr. Dobson have been placed in my hands by
Mr. J. Paul de Castro.

THE END OF LIFE

in Portugese neither you nor Welch knew this, and it was
the Imposition of the Drawer in London. Your letter of
Business I have not yet seen. Perhaps it is lost, as if it
came by a Merchant Ship it easily may, for the Captains
of these Ships pay no Regard to any but Merchants for
which Reason I will have all my Goods even to the smallest
Parcel consigned to John Stubbs Esqr (as I mentioned be
fore, and hope will be done long before y° receive this)
marked with the large red F. — Pardon Repetition for abun-
dans Cautela non nocet, and tho I mentioned my orders, I
did not give the Reason I believe either to y° or Welch, at
least all my Reasons for these are Several but this is most
worth yr Notice. The Truth is that Captains are all y6
greatest Scoundrels in the World but Veale is the greatest
of them all. This I did not find out till the Day before he
sailed, which will explain many Things when you see him as
perhaps you may for he is likewise a Madman, which I knew
long before I reached Lisbon and he sailed a few Days ago.
I shall not, after what I have said, think him worth my
Notice, unless he should obiter fall in my Way.

" In answer to yours, if you cannot answer . . . yourself,
I will assure you once for all I highly approve and thank
you, as I am convinced I always shall when y° act for me.
I desire therefore you will always exert unlimited Power
on these Occasions.

"With regard to the principal Point, my Health, which
I have not yet mentioned, I was tapped again (being the
5th time) at Torbay partly indeed by Way of Anticipation,
the Day before we sailed wanting one of three Weeks since
the Operation in the Thames. Nine Quarts of Water were
now taken away, and possibly here I left the Dropsy, for
I have heard nothing of it since and have at almost six
Weeks Distance not a drop of Water in me to my Know
ledge.

"In Short as we advanced to the South, it is incredible

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

how my Health advanced with it, and I have no Doubt but
that I should have perfectly recovered my Health at this
Day, had it not been obstructed by every possible Accident
which Fortune could throw in my Way."

At this point, there is a break in the letter. But enough
remains to let one see that among the accidents which
Fielding charges against fortune was the illness of his
whole family " except myself, Harriot, and Bell." This
is a strange way of saying that his wife, Miss Collier, and
his man fell ill. For himself Fielding felt no great concern,
for nearly six weeks had elapsed since he was last tapped !
William, it appears, had aggravated his malady "by drink
ing too much wine"; and in mortal terror of dying and
being buried in a foreign land, had sailed home with Captain
Veal. After expressing his contempt for "the miserable
cowardly driveller, ' ' Fielding goes on :

1 1 In the next Place I found myself in the dearest City in
the World and in the dearest House in that City. I could
not for my Soul live for less than 2 Moidores* a day and
saw myself likely to be left Pennyless 1000 miles from
Home, where I had neither Acquaintance nor Credit among
a Set of People who are tearing one another's Souls out for
money and ready to deposite Millions with Security but not
a Farthing without. In this Condition moreover I saw no
Likelihood nor Possibility of changing my Position. The
House I was in being the cheapest of the three in which I
could get a Lodging with* being poisoned.

"Fortune now seemed to take Pity on me, and brought
me by a strange Accident acquainted with one Mr. Stubbs,
the greatest Merchant of this Place, and the greatest Corn
factor in the World. He hath a little Kintorf or Villa at
a Place called Jonkera,t 2 miles from Lisbon and near
Bellisle§ which is the Kensington of England, and where

* Tiie moidore was equivalent to 27 shillings,
t Quinta. \ Junqueira. $Belem.

THE END OF LIFE

the Court now reside. Here he likewise got me a little
House with* any manner of Furniture not even a Shelf or
even a Kitchin Grate. For this I am to pay 9 Moidores a
year, and hither I boldly came with scarce suff* Money to
buy me the Necessar[ies] of Life. ..."

Again, Mr. Dobson was compelled to give the substance
of several paragraphs most difficult to make out. To quote
his summary:

"In furnishing the 'villakin,' Fielding's funds sank to
the lowest ebb. But a well-timed bill arriving from his
brother, the tables were turned, and his expenses became
moderate.* Instead of two moidores a day, he found he
could live for less than a moidore per week, and with diffi
culty exceed it. 'Where then,' he asks, 'was the Misfortune
of all this? or what was there which could retard my Re
covery, or shock a Philosophy so established as mine which
had triumphed over the Terrors of Death when I thought
it both certain and near. ' The answer is — that Mrs. Field
ing, who, as we know, had fallen ill on landing, was still
ailing in spirit. The climate of Portugal did not suit her :
she was home-sick; and probably yearning for her little
family at Fordhook. 'She is,' says Fielding, 'I thank God
recovered ; but so dispirited that she cries and sighs all Day
to return to England,' where she believed her husband
might complete his convalescence just as well as at Lisbon,
since he could not there readily command a coach, or see
after his children and his home. This, to Fielding, who felt
himself daily growing stronger, was most disquieting; and
far more wearing than it would have been to a more selfish
or less warm-hearted man. Matters, moreover, were fur
ther complicated by the proceedings of that ambiguous
'another' (the word is Fielding's own), who, either as com-

* Fielding '& words are : ' ' When I was thus settled my Money being all gone
even to tapping the last 36s Piece I received your Bill with which I discharged
all Debts and about nine Moidores remained in my Pocket."

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

panion or confidante, plays so disturbing a part in many
domestic difficulties. She is not named; but she must, we
fear, be identified with Margaret Collier. She was poor;
she was pushing and clever; she had become a 'Toast of
Lisbon'; and she was apparently steadily setting her cap
at the English Resident, one Williamson, a friend of
Andrew Millar. Probably knowing that if Fielding went
home with his wife and daughter she also would have to
accompany them, she seems to have originated the insidious
suggestion that Mrs. Fielding should go back alone; and
that she (Miss Collier) should remain behind in charge, as
companion to Harriot. One can easily imagine the intense
vexation that, as hope revived and the pressure of neces
sity decreased, these unpalatable propositions must have
caused to Fielding. 'By these means,' he says, 'my Spirits
which were at the Top of the House are thrown down into
the Cellar.'

"The passages immediately succeeding deal with plans
for defeating Miss Collier's machinations. They show much
excusable irritation — and even some incoherency. It is
obvious, however, that Fielding has not the slightest inten
tion of prejudicing his last chances of recovery by return
ing prematurely to England. One of the things he wishes
his brother to do, is to send him out a 'conversible Man to be
my companion in an Evening, with as much of the Qualifi
cations of Learning, Sense, and Good humour as y° can
find, who will drink a moderate Glass in an Evening or will
at least sit with me till one when I do. ' He does not know,
he goes on, anybody more likely to grow better than him
self; he has now vigour and elasticity in his limbs; gets
easily in and out of a carriage ; when in it, can ride the whole
day ; but all this will be lost if he goes back, or if the schemes
of 'another' are allowed to prevail."

The letter contains references to presents for his friends
at home. By Captain Veal had already gone half-chests

THE END OF LIFE

of onions to his brother John, Mrs. Daniel, Millar, Welch,
and Peter Taylor.* For Millar and a Mr. Rose went also
two half -hogsheads of calcavella. "I will," Fielding adds,
"in November which is the right Season send you some
Orange Trees as you desire, Lemons and some Wine, Port
or Lisbon which you like best." In the meantime some
other gift was to go to John by Captain Allen, "who sails
next week." There was a present even for Dr. Arthur
Collier, "who had an Execution," says Fielding, "taken out
against me for 400£," and "whose very name I hate." In
return Fielding gives directions to John with reference to
his own comfort — clothing and provisions — for the winter.
In anticipation of regaining the flesh lost by disease, he
asks that his clothes be cut broader in the shoulders. Other
articles he needs also, if he is properly to receive and return
the visits expected of an English gentleman. Accordingly
he writes:

1 1 Let me have likewise my Tye and a new Mazer Perriwig
from Southampton Street, and a new Hat large in the Brim
from my Hatter, the corner of Arundel S*. I have had a
Visit from a Portugese Nobleman and shall be visited by
all as soon as my Kintor is in order. Bell follows Capt
Veale to England where he hath promised to marry her.
My Family now consists of a black Slave and his Wife, to
which I desire you to add a very good perfect Cook, by the
first ship, but not by Veale. Scrape together all the Money
of mine you can and do not pay a Farthing without my
Orders. My Affairs will soon be in a fine Posture, for I
can live here, and even make a Figure for almost nothing.
In truth the Produce of the Country is preposterously
cheap. I bought three Days ago a Lease [i.e. leash] of
Partridges for ab* 1.4 English and this Day 5 young Fowls
for half a Crown. What is imported from abroad is ex-

»' 'Peter Taylor of Bond Street, Esq." died April 27, 1757 ("The Gentle
man's Magazine," 1757, p. 241).

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

travagantly dear, especially what comes from England as
doth almost all the provision of Lisbon. I must have from
Fordhook likewise 4 Hams a very fine Hog fatted as soon
as may be and being cut into Flitches sent me likewise a
young Hog made into Pork and salted and pickled in a Tub.
A vast large Cheshire cheese and one of Stilton if to be had
good and mild. I thank Welch for his, but he was cheated :
God bless you and yrs H. Ffielding

mil annos &c. ' '

A postscript, parts of which are missing, deals with his
man and his wife 's English maid. William, besides desert
ing his master, had proved to be dishonest. Instead of
settling a bill for £3 12s., he kept the money in his own
pocket and sailed away with it to England. This amount
Boor must deduct from a draft of ten pounds which William
will present for the payment of his wages, and thereupon
strip him of his livery. On the other hand Fielding consigns
Isabella Ash to his brother's compassion. The Universal
Register Office should provide her with a new place, for
she is "only a fool" deluded by Captain Veal.

Altogether this interesting letter depicts a household
torn asunder. Mrs. Fielding may be excused for her home
sickness, for she was ill, and all her children including her
baby were in England. It was for her a trying situation.
An infatuated maid, of course, was nothing more than an
ordinary incident in all families; without Isabella Mrs.
Fielding could get along with the aid of Harriot. On the
other hand, William's conduct deserves unmeasured cen
sure, for he left in the lurch a sick man dependent upon him
for all the duties of a valet. The case of Margaret Collier
is still worse, inasmuch as she should have had a higher
sense of honour than a footman. Except for Fielding the
spinster would have been compelled long ago to go out to
service or to starve. Fielding befriended her, and took her
under his own roof ; and she afterwards repaid him, as we

THE END OF LIFE

shall see, by insults to his memory. About her Mr. William
son, however, Mr. Dobson was under some misapprehension.
The man in question was the Rev. Dr. John Williamson,*
who became in 1748 chaplain to the British Factory at
Lisbon. The next year he was elected to the Royal Society
for his discoveries in mathematics. Fielding thought him
"the cleverest fellow" he had ever seen, and made him his
"chief companion." Though Williamson "almost miracu
lously ' ' survived the earthquake of 1754, he failed to marry
Miss Collier, who rightly connected with Fielding her frus
trated hopes of wedlock.

Irritated by these vexations, Fielding was nevertheless
not dismayed. A wise man, he proceded to set his house in
order once more. In place of William and Isabella, he pro
cured, we see, a black slave and his wife, and directed his
brother to provide him with a cook and a decayed gentle
man capable of intelligent conversation and a mild bowl of
punch after supper. It is to be observed that Fielding, for
obvious reasons, avoided Lisbon as a residence. If not
"the nastiest city in the world," it was the nastiest in
Europe. Again and again it was visited by bubonic plague
brought from the Orient. The little house which Stubbs
obtained for Fielding at Junqueira was to the west of
Alcantara, a suburb of villas and country houses pleasantly
situated in full view of the Tagus. Among his near friends
and neighbours were, besides Stubbs and Williamson, a
"Mrs. Berthon and family," and doubtless a much larger
English colony. There he settled, on a year's lease, with
the determination to win back that health which he still
averred had been lost in the service of his country. So far
as the symptoms of his disease were concerned, he might
well hope for a happy recovery. His dropsy had disap
peared, he had regained the full use of his legs, and the

*Mr. J. Paul de Castro, "Notes and Queries," 11 8. XI, 251 (March 27,
1915); and Barbauld, "Correspondence of Richardson," II, 94.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

jolting of a Lisbon chaise no longer tired him. As if he
expected to live long, he asked his brother to send out a
Mrs. Hedley as a housekeeper, and a Mr. Jones as an
amanuensis.

At Junqueira, Fielding prepared for the press his " Voy
age to Lisbon." The journal proper, begun while "The
Queen of Portugal" lay off Deal, had been written under
the vivid impression of the incidents as they occurred.
Within a few days after his arrival in Lisbon, this part of
the book must have been complete. How closely Fielding,
to use a phrase of Richardson, wrote "to the moment" is
indicated by an entry under the Tuesday before he dis
embarked. He there, as we have related, comments on the
zeal of "the present queen dowager" in making converts
to Romanism. The Queen Dowager died on the Wednesday
of the following week. Of this event, succeeded by a great
state funeral, Fielding must have been aware; and yet he
made no alteration in his manuscript in consequence of it ;
for to have done so would have been, from his artistic point
of view, a positive error. The Queen Dowager was alive
when he wrote the passage. It was, as will become mani
fest, John Fielding who afterwards substituted "the late
queen dowager" for his brother's words. Still, there re
mained to be written a preface and an introduction to the
book before it could go to the printer. That both were com
posed in their proper order during the next weeks, there
can be no doubt ; for in the preface Fielding expressly says
that he is writing in a land nowhere excelled for the * * pomp
of bigotry," and in the introduction, descriptive of events
preceding the voyage, he pleasantly refers to a rule laid
down in the preface for the guidance of travel-writers.

The preface is a brief essay, not too serious, on the art
of the traveller's tale, quite analogous to the preface to
"Joseph Andrews" on the art of the novel. In both cases
Fielding explains his procedure and declares himself an

THE END OF LIFE

innovator. He denounces the liars, who like Pliny fill "their
pages with monsters which no body hath ever seen, and
with adventures which never have nor could possibly have
happened to them." Indeed, absurdities of this kind he
had long ago burlesqued in the first edition of "Jonathan
Wild." Even old Homer in the Odyssey was too much of
a romancer to please Fielding. He preferred Herodotus,
Thucydides, and Xenophon. Nearer his ideal of the voyage-
writer were Burnet and Addison; but the former was
perhaps more of "a political essayist" and the latter more
of "a commentator on the classics" than one expects to
find among travellers. My Lord Anson's "Voyage round
the World" he thought unexcelled for truthfulness. That
famous book, published only a few years before, he says
playfully, is the only competitor of his own.

This delightful rambling foreshadows the conclusion that
the voyage or the travel-sketch, like the novel, is but history
illumined by the imagination. In both genres, one of the
aims is entertainment. Hence it is necessary at times to
extend fact by fiction ; but no incident must ever be admitted
unless it has some foundation in what really occurred. This
is a variation from exact truth always granted to the his
torian. "We are not to conceive," observes Fielding, "that
the speeches in Livy, Sallust, or Thucydides, were literally
spoken in the very words in which we now read them."
Eemove from these great historians their felicitous style,
and the loss of pleasure to the reader would be immense.
Still, hardly secondary to entertainment is instruction.
Accordingly, a good voyage-writer moralizes upon events
as they arise whenever he is certain that he can convey
useful information. In every case good sense alone must
determine when to give and when to withhold comment.
As a rule, one should exclude all those trivial incidents
which fill the letters of young gentlemen making the grand
tour, such as the quality of the wine and the tobacco, for

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

example; and yet some occurrence of no great importance
in itself may lead to a train of reflections at once amusing
and instructive. A well-written voyage or journey, Fielding
would thus imply, is a novel without a plot, and as such it
approaches a step nearer contemporary history. The hero
is the narrator, to whom, if he knows his business, he will
properly subordinate his companions and everybody else
whom he may meet. Around Fielding gyrate his family,
Captain Veal with his nephew and steward, and the little
company at Ryde besides many others. The most essential
difference between the journey of a Tom Jones up to Lon
don and Fielding's own voyage to Lisbon lies in the fact
that in the former case the author was hampered by anxious
thought of a denouement somewhere ahead, while in the
latter case he was free to introduce any incidents he wished,
certain that his own personality would lend to the narrative
sufficient unity.

Fielding also felt at liberty to digress whenever he
pleased. His digressions read like little essays such as he
had written for his newspapers or like sections in his pam
phlets. They are, however, never quite independent of the
narrative; they are always evoked, in accordance with the
principles laid down in his preface, by some immediate
occurrence. Thus, when seeing the abundance of fish along
the English coast, he cannot refrain from considering the
fish monopoly in London and the best means of putting an
end to it. He would hang, if necessary, the fishmongers in
order that the poor may not starve. Again, he writes on
British liberty or the rule of the mob as he views it in the
insolence of watermen, and discusses at length obvious de
fects in the maritime laws of his country which the legis
lature might easily cure. He is at his best when relating
some anecdote like that of the old rogue of the sea whom
justice failed to get into her clutches.

The crux of all Fielding's observations is one which he

THE END OF LIFE

made at his departure from Ryde concerning Sir Robert
Walpole, the statesman whom he had pilloried in "The
Champion" and "Jonathan Wild." In memory of the
prospect as he looked from Ryde over the sea towards the
mainland and saw ships of all kinds passing or riding at
anchor, he remarks: "When the late Sir Robert Walpole,
one of the best of men and of ministers, used to equip us a
yearly fleet at Spithead, his enemies of taste must have
allowed that he, at least, treated the nation with a fine sight
for their money. ' ' The phrase * ' one of the best of men and
of ministers" has been sometimes quoted to show that
Fielding, just before death, recanted his lifelong opinion
of Walpole. This is a misapprehension. The phrase, as
may be seen from the sentences which follow it, was used
in irony just like similar phrases in "Jonathan Wild."
Fielding always regarded Walpole as the head of a body
of plunderers who deceived the people by shows like the
one at Spithead every year.

Less attention has been paid to Fielding's final comment
on Richardson. Since his burlesque of "Pamela," Field
ing had several times commended the work of his sober
rival, especially "Clarissa Harlowe." Now in the conclud
ing paragraphs of his preface to "A Voyage to Lisbon,"
he returns to the man whose art he had praised not long
before in "The Covent-Garden Journal." If the reader,
he says, finds "no sort of amusement in the book," there
may be derived from it large "public utility," which in
Mr. Richardson's opinion should be the primary end of all
romance, delight in the narrative being only incidental. If
some saturnine critic is disposed to censure the humorous
treatment of grave questions, he has also ready a reply.
"I answer," he says, "with the great man, whom I just
now quoted, that my purpose is to convey instruction in the
vehicle of entertainment; and so to bring about at once,
like the revolution in the Rehearsal, a perfect reformation

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

of the laws relating to our maritime affairs : an undertaking,
I will not say more modest, but surely more feasible, than
that of reforming a whole people, by making use of a vehicu
lar story, to wheel in among them worse manners than their
own." This retort to an imaginary gentleman is a loose
parody of a paragraph in Richardson's preface to "Cla
rissa Harlowe," where the author declares that, however
interesting his story may be, it should be considered mainly
"as a vehicle to the instruction." That the manners of
Richardson's characters were worse than those in real life
was probably Fielding's candid opinion.

The preface and introduction to "A Voyage to Lisbon"
were the last words Fielding wrote for publication. In the
very last sentence his mind was on his home at Fordhook.
There were, however, subsequent letters to friends in
London. In "The Public Advertiser" for October 16, 1754,
we read:

"Letters by the last Mail from Lisbon advise that Henry
Fielding, Esq. is surprisingly recovered since his Arrival
in that Climate. His Gout has entirely left him, and his
Appetite returned."

Of these latest letters, only one besides the long ship-
letter to his brother John has survived ; and it is said to be
of no importance.*

Fielding's career was now ended. There are signs that
his condition since reaching Lisbon had been much more
desperate than he apprehended. A reader must take with
large allowance the story of improved health, for it comes
from a man of the most sanguine temper. One who saw
the manuscript of his journal speaks of "a hand trembling
in almost its latest hour"; and as Mr. Dobson says, certain
passages in his long letter from Lisbon show "some inco-
herency." Family affairs vexed him, he lost his spirits,
and perhaps became downright despondent with the waning

* Mr. J. Paul de Castro, "Notes and Queries," 11 S. X, 214 (Sept. 12, 1914).

THE END OF LIFE

of nervous energy. The struggle could be kept up no longer.
How it all happened, nobody knows. In cases like Field
ing's, the immediate cause of death is sometimes cerebral
hemorrhage ; but in this particular instance we have perhaps
a better clue in the words of his first biographer, who simply
says "his strength was now quite exhausted." There was
probably a gradual decline ending in painless death at
Junqueira on October 8, 1754.* The warmth of Portugal
had been able to keep Fielding alive for but two months and
a day. He was in his forty-eighth year.

Fielding was buried in the British cemetery at Lisbon,
which had been laid out some forty years before by the
British Factory in the northwest part of the town, prob
ably not far from the house where he had spent his first
night after leaving "The Queen of Portugal." The mer
chants chose for their dead a beautiful hillside, lower down
which has since risen the great Basilica of the Heart
of Jesus. Here lies Fielding's body near the centre of the
cemetery having in Portuguese the name of Os Cyprestes
because of the numerous cypresses which border the ave
nues. Everywhere the graves are shaded by laurel and
other flowering shrubs. Everywhere scarlet geraniums
grow in profusion. It is the home of the nightingale whose
note may be heard in the thick foliage at noontide.

The place where Fielding's friends laid him to rest,
beneath two overhanging cypresses, they marked with a
stone of some kind. In after years, when they themselves
were dead or were growing old in England, the grave was
suffered by the English Factory to fall into complete
neglect, to the surprise of an occasional pilgrim to the lit
erary shrine. Nathaniel Wraxall, while staying in Lisbon
in 1772, had difficulty in finding the grave at all, which, he
says in his "Memoirs," was "nearly concealed by weeds

* « ' The Public Advertiser, ' > Oct. 28, 1754.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

and nettles." He mentions a tombstone; but as he fails
to describe it, we may conclude that it was only a plain slab
containing nothing more than Fielding's name with the
date of his birth and burial. In 1795, another English trav
eller, James Cavanah Murphy the architect, observes that
when he visited Lisbon, six or seven years before, the grave
of "the celebrated Henry Fielding" was "without a monu
ment, or any other obsequious mark of distinction, suitable
to his great talents and virtues." Murphy's ambiguous
phrases may mean either that there was then no stone by
Fielding's grave or merely none worthy of his genius. In
view of Wraxall's positive statement, we must infer that
Murphy intended to convey the latter impression unless
indeed a fallen stone had become so completely covered with
overgrowth as to be invisible. In 1786, Murphy goes on to
say, the French consul at Lisbon, the Chevalier de Saint-
Marc de Meyrionet, offered to erect a monument to Fielding
at his own expense. The memorial was no sooner prepared
than it was refused admission into the cemetery on account
of its "contemptible design" and "unappropriate and
unpoetic" epitaph written in the French language. So
Fielding's French admirer had the monument placed in the
cloisters of the old Franciscan Convent, now the home of
the Bibliotheca Publica, where Murphy saw and condemned
it. t Four quatrains deplore the oblivion that has overtaken
Fielding, with an implied rebuke to his countrymen for
their indifference towards one of their own race whose work
future ages will applaud, f Obviously no monument with
such an inscription could be countenanced by the British
colony.

A similar fruitless attempt was made to honour Field
ing's memory by John of Braganza, the Queen of Portu
gal's uncle. This nobleman, as illustrious for his virtues

* N. W. Wraxall, "Historical Memoirs," 1836, I, 54.
t J. C. Murphy, "Travels in Portugal," 1795, p. 173.

THE END OF LIFE

as for his rank, thought it but an act of courtesy to rear a
monument over the grave of a great writer who had died
while a guest of his country. Of his project there has sur
vived a Latin inscription prepared for him by the Abbe
Correa da Serra, secretary to the Academy of Sciences at
Lisbon, and afterwards Portuguese minister to the United
States. The memorial was to have been dedicated, in the
name of humanity, to Henry Fielding, an Englishman,
whose ashes lay unhonoured until John of Braganza pro
vided a monument in order that Portugal might not seem
inhospitable to the Muses (ne Musis inhospita haec tellus
videretur*). Not the British Factory, but the Church, it
is said, intervened. No Roman Catholic, however exalted
his birth, could be allowed to pay so generous a compliment
to a heretic. Alas, poor Fielding !

If Fielding was ever to have a monument it was now clear
that it must be erected by his countrymen, whose reluctance
to do justice to the author of "Tom Jones" amused as well
as irritated both the French and the Portuguese. The first
step was taken two or three years after the rejection of
Meyrionet's memorial, when a member of the British colony
requested an English artist, then in Portugal studying "the
antiquities of that kingdom," to design an appropriate
tomb. This unnamed artist was, without doubt, none other
than James Cavanah Murphy who, as we have just seen,
was at that time on a mission to Lisbon. Murphy's design,
engraved by William Thomas, was put into circulation as
a print in London and was published in "The European
Magazine, "t with the hope that it would be observed by
some generous admirer of Fielding. The appeal, however,
met with no immediate response; and during the next
quarter-century Fielding's grave become almost if not

*" Notes and Queries," 8 S. IV, 164 (Aug. 26, 1893).
t June, 1793, XXIII, 408.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

quite obliterated, so that there were few or no distinct
traces of it.

Such was the situation when towards 1830 funds were
collected by the Rev. Christopher Neville, the British chap
lain at Lisbon, for a dignified memorial somewhat on the
lines of Murphy's design, and for the purchase of an adjoin
ing plot of ground in order to give the monument a con
spicuous setting. The tomb, standing near the place where
Fielding was buried, was built upon solid masonry which
should withstand the ravages of time for many centuries.
A rectangular base (fourteen feet by eleven) supports an
oblong block of stone, upon which rests a sarcophagus sur
mounted by an urn. It is all of marble, giving the effect of
massiveness rather than beauty. On the side towards the
west is the inscription :

MEMORISE SACRUM

EXIMIUM PROMERENTIS HONOREM,

IMPENSIS SUIS, OLYSSIPONE DEGENTES

HOC MARMOR, HEU SATIS DIU NEGLECTUM,

EXIGENDUM CURAVERE

BRITANNI

MDCCCXXX

(Sacred to the memory of one meriting distinguished
honour, the British living in Lisbon have completed at their
own expense this marble tomb, alas! too long delayed.)

On the southern face are the famous words :
FIELDING

LUGET BRITANNIA GREMIO NON DARI
FOVERE NATUM

(Britannia grieves that she is not permitted to fold her son
within her own bosom.)

On the opposite face of the tomb are words not so well
known:

THE END OF LIFE

HENRICI FIELDING

A SOMEESETENSIBUS APUD GLASTONIAM OBIUNDI
VIEI SUMMO INGENIO

EN QUAE EESTANT:

STYLO QUO NON ALIUS UNQUAM

INTIMA QUI POTUIT COEDIS EESERAEE MOEES HOMINUM

EXCOLENDOS SUSCEPIT.
VIETUTI DECOEUM, VITIO FOEDITATEM ASSEEUIT, SUTJM CUIQUE

TBIBUENS;

NON QUIN IPSE SUBINDE IEEETIEETUE EVITANDIS.

AEDENS IN AMICITIA, IN MISEEIA SUBLEVANDA EFFUSUS,

HILAEIS, UEBANUS ET CONJUX ET PATEE ADAMATUS,

ALIIS NON SIBI VIXIT.
VIXIT: SED MOETEM VICTEICEM VINCIT DUM NATUEA

DUBAT DUM SAECULA CUEEUNT.
NATUEAE PEOLEM SCEIPTIS PEAE SE FEEENS
SUAM ET SUAE GENTIS EXTENDET FAMAM.*

The Rev. Christopher Neville's Latin, beginning well,
then stumbling into impossible grammar, and finally re
covering itself, may be paraphrased to read in English :

1 ' Of Henry Fielding, sprung from the people of Somerset
shire and born near Glastonbury, a man of the highest
genius, behold all that remains! No other man so well
unlocked with his pen the recesses of the heart, or with
greater zeal undertook to improve the conduct and char
acter of men. He showed virtue her grace, vice her de
formity, giving to each her due, though he himself was at
times enmeshed in follies which he ought to have avoided.
Ardent in friendship, generous in relieving distress, of a
cheerful temper, courteous and affable in bearing, beloved
both as husband and father, he lived not for himself but for
others. His mortal life is at an end, but he has won a vic
tory over victorious death which will last as long as nature
endures and the ages run their course. Displaying in his

•"Notes and Queries," 8 8. IV, 314 (Oct. 14, 1893). The inscription, as
usually given, contains one or more errors in transcription.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

works the offspring of nature, he will extend his own fame
and the fame of his race. ' '

Though far from a literal translation, this is what the
Latin means to say. No one can fail to notice that some of
the original phrases represent an endeavour to put into
Latin Hamlet's advice to the players, where the prince
declares that the purpose of the actor should be "to hold,
as 'twere, the mirror up to nature ; to show virtue her own
feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
the time his form and pressure." The application of the
famous passage to Fielding's art is as apt as it is striking.
But as a lofty eulogy on the character of Fielding, the epi
taph is marred by an unjust sentiment. That one line —
Non quin ipse subinde irretiretur evitandis ("not but that
he was himself sometimes ensnared by things he ought to
have shunned") — places the inscription in the category of
a funeral sermon over a genius whose vices the world must
lament. Burns had as his biographer a physician who was
a teetotaller. Fielding had as his eulogist in marble a
parson whose occupation was to save sinners. It is uncer
tain whether Burns or Fielding was the more unfortunate.

This is "the cold tomb" that George Borrow kissed, and
asked all other English travellers to kiss also, if they would
pay due homage to "the most singular genius which their
island ever produced."*

Fielding never sat for his portrait, though Hogarth, it is
said, often requested the favour, only to be put off by vague
promises. There is a very fine picture by Hogarth, known
as "The Green Eoom, Drury Lane," in which one of the
seven persons has sometimes been taken for Fielding. The
identification, however, can be but imaginary, for the group,
composed of the living, was painted after Fielding's death. f

* ' ' Bible in Spain, " Ch. I.

tMr. J. Paul de Castro, "Notes and Queries," 12 S. Ill, 181 (March
10, 1917).

THE END OF LIFE

Again, his figure appears at full length, as we have
seen, in several political caricatures of the period. But
these cartoons make little attempt to reproduce form and
feature; they merely give a few peculiarities of dress and
appearance, just sufficient to identify the man in the midst
of others. They are not portraits; they are only remote
likenesses. Nor was any cast of Fielding's face taken after
death. Both Fielding and his family were indifferent to
the curiosity of a public not yet born. Probably they never
thought that far-distant readers of "Tom Jones" would
be inquisitive to see the face of the man who wrote that
book. They thus failed to enrich pur literary annals with
a portrait which would have had surpassing interest.

It sometimes happens that posterity is indebted to a book
seller for a portrait which they otherwise would not have.
There is, for example, the anecdote concerning Smollett.
When a bookseller, so the story goes, was preparing to bring
out an edition of this novelist's works, he could find no
portrait for a frontispiece, and so commissioned an engraver
to make one. The engraver, having nothing else at hand,
took a portrait of George Washington, reworked the
features somewhat, and produced a Tobias Smollett.
Though there are several authentic portraits of the Scot,
the transformed George Washington has ever since passed
current. The case is not so bad with Fielding. When
Andrew Millar, with the assistance of Arthur Murphy,
issued in 1762 the first collected edition of Fielding's works,
he felt the same need of a portrait to adorn the first volume.
Quite naturally, Hogarth was asked to supply the necessary
adjunct. According to the usual account, Hogarth drew
from memory a pen-and-ink sketch of Fielding's head while
the painter's wife and another lady, Mrs. Mary Lewis, were
sitting by. Two anecdotes about the incident were long in
circulation. One of them is that Garrick, to aid Hogarth,
impersonated Fielding, even putting on a suit of his

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

clothes, and thus sat for the painter in place of their old
friend. This detail is preposterous; the only truth lying
behind it is that Garrick urged Hogarth to make the por
trait. The second anecdote was told by Murphy himself
while Hogarth was still living. He says that a lady sup
plied the painter with a paper mask of Fielding's profile,
which she had at some time cut out with a pair of scissors.
It later transpired that this unnamed lady was Margaret
Collier. The silhouette, such as she is said to have placed
in Hogarth's hands, would of course have given him merely
the dimensions and outlines of the face ; but these measure
ments were very important. Though this anecdote like the
other one is now commonly set down as an idle tale, it is,
I think, in the main true. It seems probable that Margaret
Collier had a silhouette of Fielding and gave it to Hogarth.
This opinion is in agreement with the view taken by the late
H. B. Wheatley, who remarked that "a portrait entirely
from memory is scarcely likely to be a profile and the accen
tuation of the nose reminds one of a silhouette. ' '*

The portrait, giving head and bust, was engraved in
facsimile by James Basire, already a master of his craft,
though but a young man. So fine was the etching that
Hogarth, it has been said, mistook a proof of the plate for
his own drawing. One of these early proofs was published
by John Ireland in the first edition of "Hogarth Illus
trated" (1798), and has been occasionally reprinted since.
It is the Fielding whom we all know in his wig, with massive
shoulders and chest. The profile shows a prominent nose
and less prominent chin ; the brilliant, deep-set eye appears
to be dark; and the receding upper lip indicates that loss

* Besides Murphy, see John Nichols and George Steevens, ' ' Biographical
Anecdotes of Hogarth," third edition, 1785, pp. 385-386; "Genuine Works of
Hogarth," 1817, III, 350; John Ireland, "Hogarth Illustrated," second
edition, 1804, III, 283-284, 357; J. B. Nichols, "Anecdotes of Hogarth," 1833,
pp. 269, 341, 399; Austin Dobson, "William Hogarth," 1900, p. 254; and
H. B. Wheatley, ' ' Hogarth 'a London, ' ' 1909, pp. 235 ff.

THE END OF LIFE

of teeth of which Fielding often made a jest but never quite
complained. Subsequent to the first sketch, Hogarth placed
his portrait in an oval frame having the inscription "Henry
Fielding, JEtatis XL VIII.", beneath which rest on a table
the symbols of Fielding's fame in law and literature. When
finished for Millar, it was a highly ornamental frontispiece
in the best manner of the period.

Hogarth himself, however, set small value upon a por
trait dependent for details upon memory. When he saw
Basire's engraving, he threw the original drawing into the
fire, from which it was recovered in a scorched condition by
Mrs. Lewis. It should now be in the possession of some
collector. A tracing of Hogarth's sketch on oil paper, sup
posed to be Basire's in preparation for his engraving, was
purchased long afterwards by Mr. George Barker of Bir
mingham, from whom it passed to George the Fourth for
the Royal Collection. Some years ago, one of Basire 's first
proofs, without the border and accessories, was discovered
by Mr. W. F. Prideaux, who on first sight took it for the
original drawing in pen-and-ink.*

From Hogarth, notwithstanding statements to the con
trary, have been derived through Basire all existing por
traits of Fielding. Such, for example, is the one formerly
in Ralph Allen's collection at Prior Park, and now in the
Royal Mineral Water Hospital at Bath. Basire's engrav
ing, after it had served for two editions of Fielding's works,
was faithfully reduced for the third edition (1766) by Isaac
Taylor, the painter; and the next year a poor plate was
executed by Thomas Phinn for an unauthorized edition that
appeared in Edinburgh. A very pretty miniature, which
was engraved by James Roberts for the author's family,
is now in possession of Mr. Ernest Fielding. It was first
published, by permission of the novelist's grand-daughter,
Sophia Fielding, in Nichols's "Literary Anecdotes of the

* "Notes and Queries," 7 S. VIII, 289 (Oct. 12, 1889).

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Eighteenth Century."* In this instance, the artist en
deavoured to transform Hogarth's Fielding into a much
younger man. The result, though creditable, was not quite
satisfactory. In 1883, a bust of Fielding was unveiled in the
Shire Hall at Taunton, the county seat of Somersetshire.
The sculptor, Miss Margaret Thomas, sought to bring into
prominence the suggestion of ironic humour which one may
perhaps see in the curling lip of the Hogarth portrait; but
it was a mistake to try to do this in marble.

Of the many artists who have attempted to improve upon
Hogarth should be mentioned Samuel Freeman, who en
graved in 1840 the frontispiece to Thomas Boscoe 's edition
of Fielding's works. It is a sumptuous gentleman in velvet
and lace, with strongly marked features which arrest the
attention; but the drawing is rather crude. And yet, if
anybody wishes to see how far removed from the original
a portrait may be, he should rather look at the frontispiece
engraved in 1811 by James Hopwood for the fourth volume
of Mudford's " British Novelists," or at the one — Hop-
wood's redrawn by Tucker — which adorns an edition of
Fielding's works published at Philadelphia in 1836. Either
of these portraits would serve equally well for Smollett or
Sterne. Both are freaks coming from Basire's Hogarth
through the intermediary of a fanciful engraving by a
Frenchman named Cazenave.

For Fielding somewhat as he was, we must always return
to Hogarth's portrait, which those who knew the novelist
pronounced "a faithful resemblance."

'"Literary Anecdotes," 1812, III, 356.

CHAPTER XXIX

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

Within a fortnight after the death of Fielding, his widow
sailed for home with her daughter and Miss Collier. His will
was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on No
vember 14, 1754. Ralph Allen, to whose care Fielding left
his family, renounced both the execution of the will and the
administration of the goods of the deceased. As a matter
of form, the same action was taken by Mrs. Fielding.
After these preliminaries, John Fielding was appointed
administrator of the estate and guardian of the children.*
There is no hint of the valuation then placed upon Field
ing's estate; but we know that it was small. The author
of "Tom Jones" had clearly failed to make the provision
he wished for his family. Of his twenty shares in the
Universal Register Office, ten were given to his wife, seven
were to be held in trust for his daughter Harriot, and three
for his daughter Sophia. All the rest of his property, real
and personal, was to be sold and converted into money and
annuities for his widow and daughters, except such sums
as might be set apart for his two sons, William and Allen,
until they attained the age of twenty-three.

Among Fielding's "goods and chattels," was that private
library to which frequent reference has been made in this
biography. No one familiar with Fielding's works need be
told that he was widely read in law and in literature, ancient
and modern; but until the discovery was made by Mr.

*Miss Godden, "Henry Fielding," p. 309.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Austin Dobson,* it had escaped notice that he possessed an
extensive library of his own. Pursuant to the general tenor
of Fielding's will, this library was sold by the administrator
for the benefit of Mrs. Fielding and the children. The sale
took place at the house of Samuel Baker, auctioneer, in York
Street, Covent Garden, on four successive evenings begin
ning with Monday, February 10, 1755. The previous Thurs
day, Baker published, as an aid to prospective purchasers,
a ' * Catalogue of the Entire and Valuable Library of Books
of the late Henry Fielding, Esq," and announced that the
collection was open for the inspection of the public.f A
copy of this catalogue, containing price entries, found its
way to the British Museum,t where of the moderns Mr.
Dobson was the first to see it. Undoubtedly the British
Museum copy, the only one known to exist, was prepared
by the auctioneer himself for the administrator. This
annotated catalogue is a full record of the sale, except that
the names of the purchasers are not usually given. As
numbered, there are six hundred and fifty-three distinct
entries ; but several additional items were written in later,
and a few errors occur. The list as corrected increases
the number of entries to six hundred and sixty-four. The
volumes that may be counted number one thousand two
hundred and ninety-eight. § Besides these there are five
lots of pamphlets, ''waste," and broken sets, which, on a
conservative estimate, bring the grand total up to one thou
sand four hundred volumes. The sum realized on them, as
I make it out, was £365 12s. 9d., or nearly £100 more than
Dr. Johnson's library brought after the lexicographer's
death. Fielding was not a bibliophile like the famous Dr.
Mead, whose collection of rare books Baker also had the

* " Bibliographica, " Vol. I, 1895, pp. 163-173; reprinted in "Eighteenth
Century Vignettes," Third Series, 1896, pp. 164-178.

t "The Public Advertiser," Feb. 6, 1755. | B. M. P. M. Catalogues 2.

$ See the photograph of ' ' Fielding 's Library, ' ' with annotations by Fred
erick S. Dickson, in Yale University Library.

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

honour of knocking down with his hammer. Fielding's
books, representing the accumulation of a quarter-century,
were purchased solely for their use. They were read, some
of them were annotated, and then they were placed upon
his shelves for reference. In this way Fielding acquired
the largest working library possessed by any man of letters
in the eighteenth century, surpassing even Dr. Johnson's.
His law library comprised more than two hundred and
twenty-eight volumes of which seventy-five were reports
(" almost all" that then existed), and one hundred and
fifty-three were text-books ranging from jurisprudence to
practical guides for pleaders and justices of the peace.
Bracton and Grotius are there as well as Dalton's " Country
Justice" and Cowell's "Law Dictionary." The most val
uable single item was Rymer's "Foedera" in twenty vol
umes, which sold for £15 10s. Next came thirty-four folios
of the "Statutes at Large" at £10. Exclusive of books
pertaining to the law, there were, then, one thousand and
seventy volumes plus a certain number of pamphlets not
separately listed. Nobody should be surprised to find
among them many modern historians: such works as
Mezeray's "Histoire de France," the "Historia sui Tem-
poris" by Thuanus in seven volumes, Rushworth's "His
torical Collections" in eight volumes, Somers's "Tracts"
in sixteen volumes, Thurloe's "Collection of State Papers"
in seven volumes, Holinshed's "Chronicles," Clarendon's
"History of the Rebellion," Burnet's "History of his own
Time," "The History of England" written by his quondam
friend James Ralph, and those volumes of Echard and
Rapin with which Squire Western's sister cultivated her
mind. Lying with them cheek by jowl were nearly all
their ancient brethren — for example, Herodotus, Thucydi-
des, Polybius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Diodorus the
Sicilian, Arrian, Herodian, Livy, Sallust, Tacitus, and
Suetonius. All these historians entered largely into the

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

reading of the man who claimed that his novels were but
the history of contemporary manners.

None of the great writers of antiquity are absent. Lucian
leads with seven editions in Greek and Latin and two trans
lations, one into French and the other into English. Homer
follows with six editions, if we count translations, and
Horace with five. Next to these three favourites come
Virgil, Plutarch, and Lucretius. Plato and Aristotle re
ceive nearly equal honours, except that the latter is accom
panied by the Greek scholiasts. Sophocles takes prece
dence over Aeschylus and Euripides; and Plautus over
Terence. But to call the roll of the ancients in Fielding's
library would be to name most of the minor as well as the
major poets, orators, rhetoricians, and geographers whose
works have survived. Among these, to proceed alphabeti
cally, would be Aelianus, Anacreon, Apuleius, Aristophanes,
Athenaeus, Catullus, Cicero, Claudian, Demosthenes, Iso-
crates, Juvenal, Longinus, Martial, Ovid, Pausanias, Per
seus, Petronius, Pindar, Pliny, Plutarch, Propertius, Quin-
tilian, Seneca, Silius Italicus, Stobaeus, Strabo, Theocritus,
Tibullus, Valerius Flaccus, and Xenophon. The list should
end with the ' l Bibliotheca " of Photius, containing epitomes
of three hundred works which were read by this great
scholar of the Greek Church but which afterwards went
down in the wreck of the middle ages. Like Browning's
grammarian, Fielding wished to know all, text and comment.

With Fielding there was no quarrel between the ancients
and the moderns. He knew of that fierce controversy, pos
sessed much of the literature upon it, and on the whole pre
ferred the ancients to the moderns ; but he never contended
that literary merit is confined to any time, race, or civiliza
tion. The best of the moderns he placed with the best of
the ancients. He read Montaigne, Corneille, Racine,
Moliere, Fenelon, Boileau, and Pascal. Of the Elizabethans,
he was familiar with Shakespeare, Bacon, Spenser, Ben

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher. Milton he knew inti
mately, both his poems and tracts, also Cowley, Harrington,
Fuller, Walton, Sir Thomas Brown, Butler, Suckling,
Waller, and Denham. His library contained most of the
dramatists of the Eestoration — Dryden, Lee, Wycherley,
Congreve, Otway, Southerne — and thereafter Steele, Van-
brugh, and Farquhar. With these wits was Jeremy Col
lier's denunciation of the immorality of the English stage
bound with Congreve 's angry reply to the parson. There
were also Shaftesbury's ' ' Characteristicks, " and ''The
Tatler," "The Spectator," "The Guardian," and "The
Freeholder" by the side of Temple and Swift, the English
Cervantes and Lucian in one. Fielding liked books of
travel, especially by antiquarians. He had Leland's "Itin
erary," and John of Glastonbury's Latin history of Glas-
tonbury Abbey as edited by Hearne. The last of these
books which he added to his hbrary was "The Ruins of
Palmyra" (1753), the cuts in which he remembered when,
on first seeing Lisbon, he drew a contrast between ancient
and modern architecture. Nor should we forget his many
books on the history and doctrines of his church, and on
the controversies with the deists, in treatises, pamphlets,
and sermons. Among these divines are Barrow, Chilling-
worth, South, and Tillotson; but the only modern philoso
pher that Fielding cared much for was Locke. The Bible,
or parts of it, he possessed in several editions — in Greek,
Latin, French, and English, with concordances and the
commentators including Grotius. For all his wit, Fielding
was a very sober gentleman.

Few novels of the time he thought worth preserving.
"Pompey the Little" and "The Female Quixote" appear in
the catalogue, probably because they were gifts from the
authors ; but there is no Defoe, no Marivaux, no Richardson,
no Smollett — no copy of "Joseph Andrews" or "Tom
Jones" or "Amelia." Cervantes is represented only by

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Jarvis's translation of "Don Quixote" in the reprint of
1749. The only one of his own novels offered for sale was a
copy of the "Jonathan Wild" which he had recently revised.
With this went a broken set of his * ' Dramatic Works, ' ' the
first and third volumes of the "Miscellanies," and "An
Enquiry into the Increase of Robbers." It may be that
members of the family made reservations for their own use.
But they were not many. Baker advertised for sale the
* ' entire ' ' library, not a part of it. Again the inference must
be that Fielding and his family were careless of his fame.

This conclusion is enforced by the fact that John Field
ing gave over to the auctioneer books annotated by his
brother in his own hand. He let him have, for instance,
two editions of Hawkins's "Pleas of the Crown" — the two
folios of 1726, and the four octavos of 1728. Of these two
sets, taking us back to the time when Henry Fielding began
the study of the law, the former had "a great number of
MSS. Notes by Mr. Fielding" and the latter was "inter
leaved with MSS. Notes by Mr. Fielding." Likewise his
edition of Wood's "Institute of the Laws of England" was
interleaved with innumerable notes. Not only did Brother
John dispose of these books to the highest bidder, but he
sold for thirteen shillings the "Law Manuscripts, by Mr.
Fielding," in five volumes. Altogether, the miscellaneous
manuscripts and annotated editions brought only £4 8s.
The ' * Institute of the Laws of England ' ' was knocked down
at 5s. The value of no item was appreciably enhanced by
Mr. Fielding's comment.

None of Fielding's annotated books have ever come to
light ; but about two of them there is a mystery which may
be partially cleared up. They are Robert Ainsworth's
"Dictionary of the Latin Tongue" "with MSS. Notes by
Mr. Fielding," and the "Lexicon Graecum" of Benjamin
Hedericus "cum Notis MSS. Henr. Fielding." Revised
editions of these standard dictionaries were published, with

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

prefaces, under the name of William Young — the fourth
edition of Ainsworth in 1752 and the third edition of
Hedericus in 1755. Of the two, it will be sufficient to de
scribe here Hedericus — a work consisting of two parts.
In the first and major part we have Greek words with their
meanings in Latin; while the second part, reversing the
process, gives the Greek equivalents of Latin words. In
a brief Latin address to the reader ("Lectori Salutem"),
Young says that he consented, much against his will, to
revise Hedericus "nearly three years ago" at the urgent
request of the booksellers. He discovered many errors due
to the compositors and to previous editors, all of which he
corrected. The citations, which were often so corrupt as
to be unintelligible, he collated with the original Greek, and
added many fresh ones. Everywhere the Greek was so
poorly translated into Latin, he claims, that he was com
pelled to substitute new renderings or new definitions. All
this was excellent and perhaps well-deserved self-praise in
the best manner of the eighteenth century. These facts
explain why Fielding annotated Ainsworth and Hedericus.
Like any other scholar, Fielding might make an incidental
correction in a dictionary, but he was not a man who would
go through Ainsworth and Hedericus methodically without
some practical end in view. In a word, he collaborated to
an unknown extent with Parson Young. All this hack
work he undertook at a time when he was presiding over
the Bow Street court, when he was editing "The Covent-
Garden Journal," when he was writing "Amelia" and legal
pamphlets. There are, however, limits to the labours that
even a Fielding can perform. It seems probable that he
and Young gave up in the summer of 1752 their project for
translating Lucian because of the intrusion of Hedericus,
following closely upon the heels of Ainsworth, who had
been put out of the way in November, 1751. Somewhere
in the folios of Parson Young's revisions of Hedericus and

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Ainsworth are incorporated definitions and citations, Greek
and Latin, of Henry Fielding the lexicographer.

In a number of instances, the auctioneer's clerk entered
the surname of a purchaser on the margin of the catalogue.
Occasionally an initial or a title before the name renders
the identification complete. A man named Hull — presum
ably a young lawyer — took many of the law books and re
ports, but he was outbid on Eymer's "Foedera." The first
night of the sale, Cooke and Woodward each invested a
few shillings in the classics. Perhaps they were Thomas
Cooke the translator and Henry Woodward the comedian,
who wished a book each to remember their friend by.
Upton — was it John Upton, afterwards the editor of
Spenser? — attended the third night, bidding in Shadwell
and Southerne and "Pompey the Little."* Dyson paid
£5 15s. for Thuanus. This gentleman of means should be
Jeremiah Dyson who had purchased, some years before,
the succession to the clerkship of the House of Commons
for £6,000. Dr. Taylor— without doubt Dr. Eobert Taylor,
physician to the King — made several purchases, which in
cluded Homer, Demosthenes, and Strabo. Dr. Askew — Dr.
Anthony Askew, of course, scholar and collector — picked
out an Aldus for 19s. It was 1 1 Olympiodorus in Meteoro-
logica Aristotelis" (Venice, 1551). Sir Eoger Newdigate,
the antiquary and benefactor of Oxford University, ob
tained the " Opera" of Lipsius (6 vols. Antwerp, 1605) for
5s., and "Cato, Varro, Columella, and Rutilius de Re Rus-
tica" (Paris, 1533) for 8s. 6d. Against the name of Sir
Paul Methuen, formerly British Ambassador to Portugal,
appear three modern volumes ending with Dodwell's
"Epistolary Discourse, proving that the Soul is Mortal."
This little book to which Fielding sometimes alluded, the
auctioneer let go for a shilling.

Several other purchasers may be partially, though not

* It was the third edition with a dedication to Fielding.

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

certainly, identified — John Wilkes, Daniel Wray the an
tiquary, and General Eliott, afterwards the defender of
Gibraltar. A few books were lost or stolen; and twenty-
odd remained unsold. No one, for example, wanted the
Venerable Bede's " Ecclesiastical History"; and a gentle
man who failed to find what he expected in Dr. Hill's
" Review of the Works of the Eoyal Society," returned it
to the auctioneer and got his money back. Apparently the
books which Fielding took with him to Lisbon were left
there as gifts to his friends. At any rate, the volume of
Plato from which he quoted in his journal and the edition
of Bolingbroke 's works which he was subjecting to a critical
examination are both missing. Of his own works, Mr. Hull
purchased "An Enquiry into the Increase of Robbers,"
and Dr. Taylor the two volumes of his plays. Where the
"Miscellanies" and "Jonathan Wild" went, where the
annotated books and the law manuscripts went, the cata
logue does not say. According to Murphy, John Fielding
kept two manuscript volumes in folio dealing with crown
law. It is uncertain whether they formed a part of the five
volumes of manuscripts sold at public auction. Of course,
though there is no positive evidence either way, John Field
ing may have bid in all his brother's law manuscripts, one
of which he subsequently published. The others may have
been lost or destroyed, or they may still lie concealed in the
library of a collector.

The manuscript of the journal kept on the voyage to
Lisbon, as it had a commercial value, was prepared for
immediate publication. Preliminary notices in "The Pub
lic Advertiser" and elsewhere, beginning on February 6,
1755, congratulated the general public on the pleasure in
store for them and sought to awaken the personal interest of
Mr. Fielding's friends in a work to be published and sold for

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

"the benefit of his widow and children." With the same
end in view, John Fielding dispatched brief notes to people
of consequence about town. Three lines, on the eve of pub
lication, to the Rev. Dr. Birch — Dr. Thomas Birch, the his
torian and acting-secretary of the Royal Society — requested
him to assist the volume through the beau monde by his
recommendation.* The next morning, February 25, 1755,f
duly appeared * * The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon ... by
the late Henry Fielding, Esq. ' ' The little book was printed
for Andrew Millar and it sold for three shillings. Though
the addition is not mentioned on the title-page, the journal
proper is followed by "A Fragment of a Comment on L.
Bolingbroke's Essays." A "Dedication to the Public,"
rather apologetic in tone, commends to "the genuine
patrons of extraordinary capacities ' ' the posthumous piece,
meaning the journal, "of a genius that has long been your
delight and entertainment."

However, that a reader might not be too expectant of en
joyment the candid gentleman who wrote the dedication
added: "It must be acknowledged that a lamp almost burnt
out does not give so steady and uniform a light, as when
it blazes in its full vigour ; but yet it is well known that, by
its wavering, as if struggling against its own dissolution,
it sometimes darts a ray as bright as ever." And again:
"If in this little work there should appear any traces of a
weaken 'd and decay 'd life, let your own imaginations place
before your eyes a true picture, in that of a hand trembling
in almost its latest hour, of a body emaciated with pains,
yet struggling for your entertainment; and let this affect
ing picture open each tender heart, and call forth a melting
tear, to blot out whatever failings may be found in a work
begun in pain, and finished almost at the same period with
life." Still preserving his condescension, the sentimental

* British Museum, Sloane MSS., 4307, f. 271.
t "The London Evening Post," Feb. 22-25, 1755.

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

gentleman said further: "It was thought proper, by the
friends of the deceased, that this little piece should come
into your hands as it came from the hands of the author;
it being judged that you would be better pleased to have
an opportunity of observing the faintest traces of a genius
you have long admired, than have it patch 'd by a different
hand; by which means the marks of its true author might
have been effac'd."

This last sentence means, if it means anything, that the
editor had not tampered with the manuscript. Accord
ingly, no one was prepared for the discovery made by Mr.
Austin Dobson, twenty-five years ago, that there were two
versions of "The Journal" bearing the date of 1755. Both
have the same title-page, neither being marked as the second
edition; both have the same dedication; both therefore as
sure the reader that the words of the book are Fielding's
own. But the two versions vary, here and there, all the
way through in phrasing; one of them contains long pas
sages not found in the other; in one the name of the land
lady at Ryde is Mrs. Francis, while in the other it is Mrs.
Humphrys. In a word, one version was unedited, and the
other was carefully edited by Fielding or by someone else.
Opinion has differed on which is the correct version, that is,
on which one Fielding intended for the public. The edited
text was reprinted at Dublin in 1756, and it was followed
by Miss Godden in her recent biography of Fielding. The
unedited text was chosen by Murphy for his edition of
1762, and it was eventually accepted by Mr. Dobson.
Murphy, the friend of Mrs. Fielding and Andrew Millar,
could have made no mistake in so important a matter.

With this question, however, is involved another. Which
text was first published? To the second question Mr. Dob-
son found the answer. "The Monthly Review" for March,
1755, he observed, describes the "Comment on Boling-
broke" as "a small introductory sketch, of only twenty-

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

seven pages." In the edited version the "Comment" oc
cupies twenty-seven pages and a half; or, if we deduct the
space required for the second title and what was lost by the
compositor just before the first section, there are exactly
twenty-seven pages of text; whereas in the unedited ver
sion, in which the type is more closely set, the * ' Comment ' '
occupies only twenty-two and a half pages. This simple
test renders controversy impossible. The version of "The
Journal" published on February 25, 1755, was the one
thoroughly edited — and thoroughly mutilated.

To this conclusion a curious detail has been added by
Mr. R. A. Austen Leigh, who met with the following entry
in the ledger of William Strahan, the printer of the book :
Jan. 1755 Voyage to Lisbon 10 sheets No 2500
Extraordinary corrections 17/.
do. 2nd ed No 2500 12 sheets.*

That is, in January, 1755, Strahan printed 2,500 copies of
"The Journal," using for the purpose ten sheets for each
copy. Subsequently, in the same month, he printed on
twelve sheets the same number of additional copies contain
ing the "extraordinary corrections" for which he made a
special charge of seventeen shillings — a comparatively small
sum, clearly insufficient to have met the entire cost of the
numerous alterations. This revised impression he desig
nated as a "second edition," although the words were not
placed on the title-page. An examination of the two so-
called editions shows that the unedited impression covers
nearly ten sheets, while the edited impression, owing to
more liberal spacing, covers about twelve sheets. In other
words, "The Journal" was first set up and printed directly
from Fielding's manuscript; then someone intervened, the
first impression was laid aside (but not destroyed, as we

* First published by Mr. J. Paul de Castro in "The Library/' April, 1917.
On the two editions, see further Mr. Frederick S. Dickson in the same periodical,
Jan., 1917, and Mr. Austin Dobson's introduction to the edited version, London,
1892. See also Mr. A. W. Pollard in "The Library," Jan. and July, 1917.

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

shall see), and for it was substituted a revised text which
went to the reviewers and of course to the general public
also. By this interchange, the second printed edition of
"The Journal" became the first published edition.

And but for an earthquake the chances are that we should
not now have the unedited text. Before the year was over,
the eyes of the whole world were turned towards Lisbon,
which during the first ten days of November was nearly
destroyed by an earthquake and the fires that followed.
Captain Veal, who bore a charmed life, whether on land
or sea, was there at the time and safely escaped with ' ' The
Queen of Portugal." By the end of November, the Lon
don newspapers were filled with letters of survivors de
scriptive of the terrible calamity, and Millar took advantage
of it to dispose of his surplus stock of "The Journal." As
if the book had never before been published, it was adver
tised in "The Whitehall Evening Post" for November 29-
December 2, 1755 ; and the price was put at two shillings and
sixpence, if one wished to take it "sewed" instead of in
boards. As there was no longer any appeal to the public
in behalf of widow and children, it is evident that the edited
version, which Millar sold as an agent of the family, had
become nearly if not quite exhausted, and that with their
consent he now placed on the market the impression which
had been suppressed. Probably he purchased the copy
right in the book. All told, Mrs. Fielding must have re
ceived for the two editions several hundred pounds. This
in brief is how it happened that we may now read "The
Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon" in the words which the
author wrote instead of in a text altered and expurgated.

Without doubt, the person who had tried to keep from
the world the true text was John Fielding. Though he
may have received some aid from Margaret Collier, he was
the responsible editor of the abridged version. He could

*«The Gentleman's Magazine," XXV, 559 (Dec., 1755).

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

not, however, have written the " Dedication to the Public"
common to both versions. John was a very cautious man,
but he was not a cheat or a liar. He would not have prom
ised an honest text and then proceeded to mangle it at will
when he sat down to work. The dedication, parts of
which are in harmony with Millar's preliminary announce
ments, was prepared by a writer in his employ. The author
may have been a publisher's hack, or he may have been
Arthur Murphy, who later patronized the novelist in the
same vulgar manner ; but he surely was not John Fielding,
who almost certainly knew nothing of the statements made
in the dedication. A comparison of the dedication in its
phrasing with the essay which Murphy prefixed to Field
ing's works in 1762 can leave little or no question that the
same hand wrote both. As soon as "The Journal" was
set up from Fielding's manuscript, an advance copy, I
take it, was sent to John Fielding for approval. As he
listened to the reading by some member of the household,
he was astounded at his brother's frankness and imme
diately ordered publication to be stayed until the book
could be properly edited. This task the blind man under
took himself, probably dictating to Miss Collier the multi
tude of alterations which he deemed expedient. A word
or a phrase which he disliked, he removed and substituted
for it another, in the interest of a faultless style. Passages
which reflected on persons still living, he ruthlessly deleted
or toned down to the commonplace. Incidentally, he sought
to protect his own character and that of his brother. From
the eighteenth-century point of view, he was justified in all
that he did, provided he did not know, as was probably the
case, of a dedication implying a contrary procedure. The
man on whom blame must be laid for an inconsistency which
amounted almost to a fraud, was Andrew Millar, who, in his
haste to bring out the book, used for the edited text a
preface which had been prepared for the unedited version.

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

John's refinements on Henry's English may be ignored
for the excisions and substitutions prompted by prudence.
And of these even, no full account can be given here. First
of all, John guarded the reputation of Captain Veal with
extreme care. This was most natural, for the old privateer
was now almost a personal friend, who had taken Henry
out to Lisbon and brought back letters from him. In the
circumstances, all his weaknesses should be concealed.
Accordingly, as made over by the editor, Captain Veal is
no longer a "tyrant" or a "bashaw"; he does not strut
about his ship, cursing his passengers and the winds, but
merely declares his opinions emphatically; when his cat is
suffocated under a bed he does not set up an " Irish howl, ' '
but expresses a concern which testifies "great goodness of
heart"; he does not boast of friendships with men above
him with whom he merely has an acquaintance ; he does not
dine with "inferior officers" on another ship, but with "the
officers " as if the highest in command sought his company ;
he does not break his word after the most solemn promises ;
he is not ignorant of everything except his ship; he does
not lose his* course when in a hurricane off Dartmouth; he
does not become outrageous in his conduct after drinking
heavily ; he does not remain on shore all night at Ryde when
he should be aboard his ship; he does not pass "two-
thirds" of his time at backgammon with the Portuguese
friar, but only his "leisure hours"; he does not stumble
over Elias in reading the service; nor are his ears quite
so impervious to sound as Fielding would make them out to
be. He is a gallant old sea-dog, a little odd in his behaviour.
To complete the portrait, John added several compliments,
of which one was taken from a letter of his brother, but
most were his own. It was John not Henry who said of
him that "whether the wind was fair or foul, he always
made the most of it, for he never let go his anchor but with
a manifest concern."

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

The editor's most extensive cuts deal with the visit which
Captain Veal received from his nephew off Eyde and the
scenes between Fielding, the steward, and the captain when
the ship lay in Tor Bay. But these lively passages are too
long for quotation. It will suffice to recall Captain Veal
as Henry sketched him before weighing anchor at Rother-
hithe, and then to present him as re-formed by John into an
exemplary character. This, the reader may remember, is
what Henry actually wrote :

"He had been the captain of a privateer, which he chose
to call being in the king's service, and thence derived a right
of hoisting the military ornament of a cockade over the
button of his hat. He likewise wore a sword of no ordinary
length by his side, with which he swaggered in his cabin,
among the wretches his passengers, whom he had stowed
in cupboards on each side. He was a person of a very
singular character. He had taken it into his head that he
was a gentleman, from those very reasons that proved he
was not one; and to shew himself a fine gentleman, by a
behaviour which seemed to insinuate he had never seen one.
He was, moreover, a man of gallantry ; at the age of seventy
he had the finicalness of Sir Courtly Nice, with the rough
ness of Surly; and while he was deaf himself, had a voice
capable of deafening all others."

And this is all that John left of him :

' ' He had been the captain of a privateer, which he looked
upon as being in the king's service; and in this capacity
he had gained great honour, having distinguished his
bravery in some very warm engagements, for which he had
justly received public thanks; and from hence he derived
a right of hoisting the military ornament of a cockade over
the button of his hat, and of wearing a sword of no ordinary
length."

John 's minor alterations have almost equal interest. The
real name of the innkeeper's wife at Hyde, Fielding defi-

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

nitely states, was Mrs. Francis. John changed it, probably
on the advice of Margaret Collier, to Mrs. Humphrys in
order that her ladyship might not take offence at the dis
agreeable portrait. In another place, he deleted a phrase
so that the reader might not identify the wife of Lord
Anson. On the other hand, he introduced a military inci
dent in the life of "a brother of mine" — either his half-
brother Edmund or his own brother William, both of whom
had been officers in the army. He removed a hit at the
window-tax, which was then resented by country gentle
men, and Henry's caustic remarks on the treatment he had
received from the Duke of Newcastle, in whose ante-room
he had cooled his heels and caught cold. Of course the Bow
Street justice must keep on friendly terms with the Govern
ment. "Quin the player," wrote Henry, if I may repeat
the profane anecdote, "on taking a nice and severe survey
of a fellow-comedian, burst forth into this exclamation, 'If
that fellow be not a rogue, God Almighty doth not write
a legible hand.' ' For "God Almighty" John the Puritan
substituted "the Creator." These are but instances in an
extended revision whereby the original manuscript lost
more than three thousand words. One excision, however,
does great credit to the heart of the editor. When a storm
was raging at sea, Fielding faced with tranquillity threat
ened shipwreck for himself and family, remarking of his
wife and daughter : " I have often thought they are both too
good, and too gentle, to be trusted to the power of any man
I know, to whom they could possibly be so trusted. ' ' John
would not permit the conclusion of this sentence to stand,
for he, if not his brother, knew there was a man to whom
wife and children could be trusted. That man was John
Fielding.

The manuscript of "The Journal," so far as is known,
no longer exists ; but as it was written in the trembling hand
of a dying man, much of it must have been difficult to make

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

out. Accordingly numerous errors crept into the text, due
to a misreading of Fielding's words as well as to the com
positors' want of care. Some of these mistakes were cor
rected by John ; but as he was blind, the greater part neces
sarily escaped him. A partial list of those which appear
in both impressions comprises "Sir William Petyt" for
"Sir William Petty," "couch" for "coach," "carelesly"
for "carelessly," "suppositions" for "superstitions,"
"to" for "too," "wherever" for "whenever," "ly" for
"ply," and "enroling" for "enrolling." Once in print
several of these and similar curiosities have persisted to
this day. Fielding still rides from Fordhook to the London
docks in a "couch"; boats still "ly" or "lie" instead of
"ply" between Chatham and the Tower of London, and the
Portuguese are still firm believers in the most absurd
"suppositions."*

This is the end of the story of the two versions. No one
at the time, not even the participants, seems to have been
troubled by the unintentional fraud. It was impossible for
an editor to take all the life and colour out of the book if
he left anything. Still, it is only in "the earthquake edi
tion ' ' that Fielding perfectly reveals his character with that
' * artless inadvertence ' ' of which Lowell once spoke. l i The
Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon" as Fielding wrote it, is
representative of that very highest literary art wherein art
appears to be one with nature.

Fielding's death made no material difference in the atti
tude of his contemporaries towards him. The very month
he died, he was accused by a facetious scribbler of conduct
ing the Bow Street court in the interest of disreputable
gentlemen to the detriment of the poor and innocent ;f and
when a few months later "A Voyage to Lisbon" appeared,

* F. S. Dickson, manuscript ' ' Index to The Voyage to Lisbon. ' '
t "Memoirs of the Shakespear 's-Head in Co vent -Garden, " dated 1755, but
published in Oct., 1754.

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

the book had to run the gauntlet of enemies as well as
friends. The reviewers who took it up in February or
March were, on the whole, kindly disposed. ''The London
Magazine" thought that the work of the late Mr. Fielding
was "far from doing discredit to his memory." "This
narrative," said "The Monthly Review," "tho' not greatly
abounding with incidents, we have perused with some
pleasure. The reflections interspersed in it, are worthy of
a writer, than whom few, if any, have been more justly
celebrated for a thorough insight into human nature."
Somewhat warmer praise came from "The Gentleman's
Magazine": "The captain, the seamen, the landlady and
her husband, and several other characters, which the par
ticular circumstances of his situation brought under his
notice, are described, with that humour in which he is con
fessed to have excelled every other writer of his age. But
this little book would be very valuable for the instruction
which it contains, if the entertainment was wanting; the
remarks upon his own situation, upon the manners of others,
upon many intolerable inconveniences which arise either
from the defect of our laws, or the ignorance of those by
whom they should be executed, deserve the attention not
of individuals only but of the public. . . . The fragment of
an answer to Bolingbroke, however short, will strongly
incline every man who has a taste for wit, and a love of
truth, to wish it was longer. ' ' The unknown author of this
notice reflected a very general interest in Fielding's keen
philosophic insight and his denunciation of the existing
maritime laws. Some years later, as Fielding urged in his
digression on the exploitation of the poor, Parliament
struck a blow at the fish monopoly in London and West
minster.*

On the other hand, his cousin Lady Mary regarded the
book as a trivial performance. "The most edifying part

•"Statutes at Large," 2 Geo. Ill, Cap. 15.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

of the Journal to Lisbon, ' ' she wrote to her daughter from
Italy, "is the history of the kitten: I was the more touched
by it, having a few days before found one, in deplorable
circumstances, in a neighboring vineyard. I did not only
relieve her present wants with some excellent milk, but had
her put into a clean basket, and brought to my own house,
where she has lived ever since very comfortably." Lady
Mary had in mind the story of Captain Veal's cat which
escaped drowning in the sea only to be smothered under a
feather bed. That is all the book meant to her, though, to
say the truth, no incident in the voyage is related with more
delightful humour. Similarly, Horace Walpole, who read
a few pages, described "Fielding's Travels" as nothing
more than "an account how his dropsy was treated and
teased by an innkeeper's wife in the Isle of Wight, "f

Quite naturally Mrs. Francis, though disguised as Mrs.
Humphrys, derived no pleasure from the faithful descrip
tion of herself and her inn by a master hand unaccustomed
to gloss the truth. It so happens that we know just what
she said. Within a few weeks after the publication of "A
Voyage to Lisbon," she received a visit from a group of
travellers, who looked over her house, told her what Mr.
Fielding had written of Byde, and inquired about his be
haviour while he was staying at her inn. When she heard
the story, "the old woman," overflowing with gall, fell into
a rage. She gave the lie to the account, and presented her
compliments to the memory of Mr. Fielding, ' ' the strangest
man in the world, whom it was impossible to please," who
cursed her husband because he inquired about the sick
man's disorder when he was expected to talk about crops,
who ransacked "every place for the means to gratify his
depraved appetite," and yet paid his bills "no more than

* ' ' Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ' ' edited by Wharn-
cliffe, third edition, 1861, II, 283.

t ' ' Letters of Horace Walpole, ' ' edited by Toynbee, III, 294.

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

he chose." While at Ryde, he never dined in a barn, but
always in his own chamber, where "he cook'd his victuals,
dressing as much as he could of it by a chamber fire; and
making the sauce himself." The room was the best in the
house, decently furnished with "two good beds in it, and a
handsome looking-glass, ' ' over which he had a napkin hung
so that "he might not be struck with his own figure, while
he was exaggerating that of others." His story of the
miraculous venison was a mere fiction; it was not sent to
him as a present ; it was purchased of a man at Southamp
ton, whither he dispatched his servant with a' half -guinea to
pay for it and fetch it to Ryde.

All this was put down in a letter of one of the visitors,
dated at Ryde, March 31, 1755. There is no signature, but
on the back is the inscription in another hand, supposed to
be Samuel Richardson's: "On Mr. Fielding's story Isle of
Wight, March 31 1755, Miss Peggy Collier." The writer,
however, could not have been Margaret Collier; for she
was with Fielding at Ryde the year before and so knew all
that occurred there ; whereas the author of the letter writes
as one on a visit to the inn for the first time. A phrase or
two, such as "tormenting himself, and all about him" rather
suggests Jane Collier as Richardson's informant, if indeed
the letter was written for that man 's delight. « Of two sisters
seen much together, correspondents both, it is quite easy
for a mature gentleman, in docketing their letters, to slip
in the name of the one for the other — to credit to Peggy
what really belongs to Jenny.*

* The letter from Byde was published entire with comment by Mr. J. Paul
de Castro in "The Library," April, 1917, pp. 157-159.

It is still possible to test one of the landlady's statements. In his letter to
his brother from Tor Bay, Fielding says that he obtained the venison from ' ' the
New Forest" (less specific only than "Southampton"). In the "Voyage"
he does not give, for literary reasons, this detail. There he describes the venison
playfully as a gift of fortune, in that it came with the hoy much sooner than
either was expected. There is no contradiction, for Fielding never meant to
imply that the venison was an actual present from a friend. As in this instance,

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

As has been related earlier, Margaret Collier neverthe
less went to Ryde in the autumn of 1755 for the winter;
where she was met with the rumour that not Fielding but
herself was the author of "a very dull and unentertaining
piece," which seemed to rise hardly above a woman's
understanding. "I was sadly vexed," she wrote to Rich
ardson on the third of October, "at my first coming, at a
report which had prevailed here, of my being the author
of Mr. Fielding's last work, 'The Voyage to Lisbon': the
reason which was given for supposing it mine, was to the
last degree mortifying, (viz that it was so very bad a per
formance, and fell so far short of his other works, it must
needs be the person with him who wrote it) ... Alas ! my
good Mr. Richardson, is not this a hard case?"* Margaret
does not give the name of the person who called Fielding's
last work a very bad performance ; but her friend and pro
tector at Ryde was Mrs. Roberts, who would have made no
such remark. Surely the good lady had no reason to resent
her charming portrait drawn with every regard for a noble
woman's delicacy. Neither she nor her daughters, we may
be certain, failed to detect in the new book the same genius
that wrote "Tom Jones" and "Amelia." Undoubtedly
the truth is that Margaret Collier, who, as I have said,
probably assisted John Fielding in his mutilations, magni
fied what she had done, and thus occasioned the rumour
of which she complained. It has all turned out as she pro
fessed to wish. No one long ascribed to her a work sufficient
unto eternal fame.

Margaret Collier's hostile tone must be discounted at
all points. Perhaps she was piqued because she was not
mentioned in * ' The Journal ' ' ; she was certainly angry be
cause Fielding interfered with her flirtations in Lisbon;

Fielding's account of his visit at Byde was, I believe, essentially true in all
respects. Whether he purchased a whole buck or half a buck is immaterial.
* Barbauld, ' ' Correspondence of Richardson, ' ' II, 77-78.

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

and above all else she was writing to a man touched to the
quick by Fielding's insinuation that Mr. Richardson's
novels were not conducive to the cultivation of good manners
in those who read them. From Richardson his correspond
ents took their cue. Even more submissive than Miss
Collier was Mr. Thomas Edwards, a "very good, pious,
and kind-hearted man," who may have sincerely believed
that the "divine Clarissa" had "tamed and humanized
hearts that before were not so very sensible." The vul
garity of Richardson's characters Edwards could not see.
Hence no one need be surprised to find the good man writ
ing to the great author on the twenty-eighth of May, 1755 :
"I have lately read over with much indignation Fielding's
last piece, called his Voyage to Lisbon. That a man, who
had led such a life as he had, should trifle in that manner
when immediate death was before his eyes, is amazing.
From this book I am confirmed in what his other works had
fully persuaded me of, that with all his parade of pretences
to virtuous and humane affections, the fellow had no heart.
And so — his knell is knolled."* Miss Collier, be it ob
served, said nothing against the personal character of
Fielding; it was reserved for a Richardsonian who had no
acquaintance with him, who doubtless never saw him, to
expose the hypocrite and profane jester in the man who,
like Cervantes, met his fate with no open defiance, no ill-
natured murmur, but with cheerful fortitude. Everybody
now agrees with Southey who said long afterwards : "Never
did any man's natural hilarity support itself so marvel
lously under complicated diseases, and every imaginable
kind of discomfort, "f

III

A hint in the preface to "The Journal" that further

* Barbauld, "Correspondence of Richardson," III, 125.
t ' ' The Correspondence of Southey with Caroline Bowles, ' ' edited by Dow-
den, 1881, pp. 184 and 198.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

manuscripts of Fielding awaited publication evoked a
moderate degree of interest. "We are given to under
stand," said "The Monthly Review," "that Mr. Fielding
hath left behind him some other pieces, which, we hope,
will follow this . . . posthumous volume of an author, who
long hath been, and will continue to be, the delight of his
readers." The next piece, the appearance of which was
long delayed, must have been rather disappointing to those
who expected wit and humour; for it was "A Treatise on
the Office of Constable," which Sir John Fielding (he was
knighted in 1761) included in a volume of "Extracts from
. . . the Penal Laws, ' ' first published in October, 1761, and
several times reissued. The treatise, running to forty-
odd pages, opens with an address by Sir John to the con
stables within the jurisdiction of his court, explaining its
origin and purpose. On the first point, it is said :

"The late Henry Fielding, who for some Time executed
the important Office of principal acting Magistrate for. the
County of Middlesex and City and Liberty of Westminster,
so much to his own Honour and so much to the Advantage
of his Country, observing from daily Experience the great
Difficulties and Dangers to which the Peace Officers were
exposed in the Execution of their Office, either from the
desperate Behaviour of Felons, the Cunning of Cheats, or
what is worse than both, the Attacks of litigious Persons
under the Influence and Directions of the lowest of Attor-
nies, who are ready on all Occasions to point out any
Irregularity committed by a Peace Officer, and to make
their Advantage of it, to the Injury, nay, often to the Ruin
of the Officer, resolved to draw up and publish a plain and
complete Account of the Office of Constable, which he
begun ; but by a lingering Illness, which put a Period to his
valuable Life, he was prevented from perfecting this useful
Work; and as several Constables have of late subjected
themselves to Prosecutions from Errors in their Judg-

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

ment, I have carefully collected and revised the Observa
tions found among my Brother's Manuscripts on this Sub
ject, and have made such Additions as may possibly render
the Work more useful, though I am far from offering it to
the Public as a perfect Treatise."*

Sir John 's additions were necessarily of a general nature,
for a writer without eyes has his limitations ; he can build
poems and essays, plays and novels even, out of his imagi
nation, but he cannot go far into history or the literature
of fact. Sir John always compiled rather than wrote books.
It was his custom to have some one make extracts for him,
and then he dictated the necessary comment. He could
never have written "A Treatise on the Office of Constable,"
which displays careful research into authorities and a study
and comparison of many statutes, with exact references.
Work like this requires eyes that can see. Accordingly, the
treatise in question must have been published essentially
as it was left by Henry Fielding. Moreover, it proceeds
by the method which he followed in "A Charge to the Grand
Jury" and in "An Enquiry into the Increase of Robbers";
but it is without the humour and wide sweep of these pam
phlets, for it was intended only for the guidance of con
stables. No one else would ever think of reading it either
for pleasure or for profit. As a body of instructions to the
police, having no literary value beyond clear and exact
statement, the handbook does credit to a faithful magis
trate who employed every means in his power to the en
forcement of the law and to the social welfare of Middlesex.

No more of Fielding's legal manuscripts were published
by his brother; but there still remained a play which had
never been performed. Back in the winter of 1742-1743, as

* Quoted from "Extracts . . . from the Penal Laws," dated 1769, pp. 321-
322. The edition of 1768, as well as that of 1769, is described as "A New
Edition." The first edition is announced in "The London Magazine," Oct.,
1761, XXX, 564.

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

has been related in an earlier chapter, Garrick, wishing to
appear in a new role, induced Fielding to revise for the
purpose "The Good-Natur'd Man," one of the comedies
which had been left on the playwright's hands when the
Licensing Act was passed. The play was accepted by
Fleetwood, the manager of Drury Lane, and " ordered to
be written into parts, ' ' when Fielding abruptly withdrew it
because it had glaring technical faults and contained no
role that would keep the great actor before the audience
throughout the performance. In its place was substituted
"The Wedding Day." Still, despite its imperfections,
Fielding had a high opinion of "The Good-Natur'd Man";
and not long before his voyage to Lisbon — perhaps towards
the close of 1753 — he submitted the manuscript to his friend
Sir Charles Hanbury Williams for that gentleman's criti
cism. A few weeks later, Sir Charles was sent abroad on
various diplomatic missions, which terminated in his ap
pointment as Envoy Extraordinary to St. Petersburg,
where he fell desperately ill, though he reached home for
the last dismal scenes of despondency and suicide. Field
ing on his own deathbed,* it was said, told his wife and
daughter that Sir Charles had the comedy; he evidently
looked forward to its performance for their benefit. The
story may be apocryphal, but the chances are that it is true,
and that it came from Mrs. Fielding. Subsequently the
family made many inquiries for the play. Did Sir Charles
take it with him into Eussia! or did he leave it at home? —
These were the puzzling questions. It was certainly mis
laid or lost; it could nowhere be found; all hope of ever
recovering it was abandoned.

The manuscript, contrary to a surmise of Sir John
Fielding, never had the honour of a journey into Eussia.
It had reposed all the time in the library of Sir Charles at
Coldbrook Park, his seat in Monmouthshire. Contemporary

*"The London Chronicle," Dec. 1-3, 1778.

100

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

accounts of its recovery differ considerably. I can only
give a consistent story, which may not be true in all details.
Sometime in 1776, John Hanbury Williams, nephew and
heir to Sir Charles, in looking over the library at Cold-
brook, came across "a tatter 'd manuscript play," and sent
it as a present to his brother-in-law, Thomas Johnes, mem
ber of Parliament for Cardigan, thinking that the squire
would like to add this piece of antiquity to his collection
of curiosities. The discoverer, who supposed the play to
be one of his uncle 's own effusions, did not hesitate to pro
nounce it "a damn'd thing." Mr. Johnes, however, was of
a quite different opinion. He had a copy made of the manu
script, which he placed in the hands of Mr. Albany Wallis,
a close friend of Garrick's, with the request that he show
it to the actor. Wallis waited upon Garrick, who, on casting
his eye over the manuscript, exclaimed: "The lost sheep
is found! This is Harry Fielding's comedy!" "With the
most amiable politeness," Mr. Johnes restored the found
ling to Fielding's family, and Mr. Garrick offered to take
it under his protection.

Unfortunately there had been a quarrel between Garrick
and Sir John Fielding, the spokesman of the family. It
arose in 1773 over the frequent performance of "The
Beggar's Opera" at Drury Lane Theatre, of which Garrick
was then the manager. Sir John almost demanded that the
play be suppressed on the ground that a humorous pres
entation of crime has a disastrous effect upon the audience,
especially upon young persons. An angry controversy
followed.* According to the newspapers, Sir John sug
gested that, if the play were to go on, Macheath be hanged
in the last Act ; and Garrick replied that he could not agree

* See ' ' A Letter to Sir John Fielding occasioned by his extraordinary re
quest to Mr. Garrick for the Suppression of the Beggar's Opera" (1773). On
Garrick and Sir John, see further John Forster, "The Life and Times of
Goldsmith," sixth edition, 1877, especially II, 36-37; and "The Private Corre
spondence of David Garrick," 1832, II, 169-170.

101

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

to this, for a theatrical manager, unlike a justice of the
peace, does not receive a fee for every man hanged in the
interest of public morals. Nevertheless, on Garrick's re
tirement from the stage in 1776, "amid acclamations and
tears," Sir John joined with everybody else in congratu
lating "the inimitable actor" on his splendid career. Half
withdrawing his former charge, he also praised Garrick for
his "exemplary life" and his "great service" as theatrical
manager, ' ' to the morals of a dissipated age. ' ' On the same
day, Garrick sent Sir John a handsome reply, in which he
expressed keen regret that "an old family connexion of love
and regard" had ever been disturbed by jealousy and mis
understanding. It was, however, on Sir John's part noth
ing more than a formal reconciliation; and so the quarrel
easily broke out again over "The Good-Natur'd Man." As
soon as Garrick, who was in no wise at fault, identified the
lost play, he visited Sir John, told him of the discovery,
saying that he could not have been happier had he found
"a mine of gold" on his land, and took upon himself all
the labour of preparing it for the stage. Sir John, says
Garrick, "thanked me cordially and we parted with mutual
expressions of kindness." But something subsequently
occurred. Apparently Sir John disapproved of proposed
alterations in the play, and feared that the actor would
work the mine of gold for himself rather than for a family
in distress. Garrick was overcome with grief by these
suspicions and remonstrated with Sir John for insinuating
them. He had but one aim, he declared, which was to make
the performance a perfect success, pecuniary as well as
artistic.

Eventually Garrick was given a free hand ; but owing to
persistent ill health if to nothing else, his alterations must
have been comparatively few. Certainly, he did not, as he
had first planned, reconstruct the entire play. That would
have been in any case an impossible labour ; for the design of

102

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

"The Good-Natur'd Man," whatever might be thought of it,
was perfectly consistent throughout, and could be modified
only to its harm. Any large rearrangement of its parts,
any change in the conclusion, would have meant an al
together different play. The result would have been Gar-
rick, not Fielding. It was observed by Genest that two of
the characters — Sir George and Mr. Boncour — were drawn,
with differences, from the two brothers in the "Adelphi"
of Terence. This relationship between the two plays, which
extends to many incidents, would indicate that Fielding
wrote out his first draft during the period when he was
experimenting with Latin comedy, or sometime between
"The Miser" (1733) and "Pasquin" (1736). From this
sketch, he completed the play during the first weeks of 1743,
when he was depressed by poverty and illness. Conse
quently, "The Good-Natur'd Man" assumed a very sober
and moral tone. Specifically, it reflects the mood of "An
Essay on the Knowledge of the Characters of Men," which
went into the "Miscellanies" of 1743. Indeed, it is in its
main intent a sermon on good nature and its final triumph
over the many impositions laid upon it by a cunning world.
All the bad characters are unmasked and properly pun
ished ; while the young country squire, who has been spoiled
by the grand tour, must be sent to school before he can hope
to win the hand of the charming heroine. Of course, there
are many gay scenes and many strokes of exquisite wit and
humour. More than all else a reader is almost startled to
find here a Squire Western long before he appeared in
"Tom Jones." Still, "The Good-Natur'd Man" is in the
main a homily by a very earnest preacher. Garrick when he
undertook to rewrite it, quickly gave up the undertaking. It
had to go to the theatre essentially as it came from the
hands of Fielding.

This is not to assert that no alterations were made. The
most cursory reader will see that Fielding's almost inevi-

103

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

table hath is modernized to has in many places. Moreover,
as the manuscript was " tatter 'd," words not Fielding's
had to be inserted. Editing such as this is self-evident.
Doubtless, too, there was considerable rephrasing, but no
one can say just where. An allusion, in the fifth Act, to the
war with France may have been an addition of Garrick 's
in harmony with the practice at the time; but even this is
very doubtful, for England and France were at war when
Fielding revised his play in 1743. Perhaps the apology at
the end for a comedy without a catastrophe is Garrick 's;
it hardly sounds like Fielding. The most suspicious places,
however, are the quarrels between Mr. and Mrs. Boncour,
particularly the one at the very beginning of the play.
These seem to have been retouched, not by Garrick but by
Sheridan — by the hand that created Sir Peter and Lady
Teazle. No doubt whatever can arise over a change in the
title. Fielding called his comedy "The Good-Natur'd
Man." Subsequently, after Fielding's death, Goldsmith
employed the same title for his first comedy. There could
not be on the stage at the same time two plays of precisely
the same name; and to prevent confusion, Fielding's title
was enlarged to "The Fathers: or, The Good-Natur'd
Man." The incident is curious rather than important.
Either title is appropriate enough. The two fathers are
Mr. Boncour and Old Valence, exactly opposite in disposi
tion and in their manner of bringing up their children — the
one nearly ruins them by indulgence, the other completely
ruins them by severity and meanness.

Sheridan, who had succeeded Garrick in the management
of Drury Lane, left nothing undone to make the appearance
of "The Fathers" a most brilliant occasion. He provided
new scenery and new costumes ; and in order to give room
for Fielding's play, he withdrew for several nights his own
"School for Scandal," then in its first glory. King, who
was playing Sir Peter Teazle, took the part of Sir George ;

104

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

while Bensley, the famous Malvolio, chose the role of Mr.
Boncour, the good-natured man. Parsons, Baddeley, and
Dodd — the Crabtree, Moses and Backbite of "The School
for Scandal" — were cast as Old Valence, Sir Gregory fresh
from his Somerset kennels, and his son who learned in his
travels abroad a few more oaths than he already knew.
All the actors belonged to that group of wonderful come
dians whom Lamb saw in his youth and immortalized in
his Elia. By this handsome treatment of "The Fathers,"
Sheridan cancelled his indebtedness to Fielding for many
a hint towards his own characters and scenes. It was the
noble tribute of one great author to the memory of another.
The first performance, set down for Saturday, November
28, was deferred until Monday, owing, the newspapers said,
to the "indisposition" of a principal actor. As a matter
of fact, the comedy was not ready for presentation until
Monday. That night Garrick occupied his box, with a party
composed of the "heavenly Lady Spencer" and her friends.
The anticipated presence of the great actor was in itself
enough to draw a large audience ; but there was a surprise
in store for all except the very few. The playbills an
nounced a prologue and an epilogue, but they did not name
the author. Both, however, were written by Garrick, who
finished the former on November 17, and sent it to Lady
Spencer for her criticism. Three days later she thanked
him for the compliment and accepted his invitation to go
with him to the play. The secret entrusted with Lady
Spencer and other close friends came out before the per
formance was over ; and the news was in all the papers the
next day. In his pleasant and rather whimsical prologue,
Garrick makes various characters in "Tom Jones" and
"Joseph Andrews" address the audience in praise of
Harry Fielding and his comedy. "It was delivered," says
"Lloyd's Evening Post," "by Mr. King with great humour,
and received with universal applause." "The epilogue,"

105

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

it is added, "was a facetious attack on gentlemen's hats,
in return for the sarcasms that have been thrown on ladies '
caps." The honour of speaking it fell to Miss Younge, a
vivacious actress who played the part of Miss Boncour.

Garrick's days were now fast approaching their end.
Probably he never again attended the theatre ; certainly he
never again contributed to it. Lady Spencer immediately
took him into the country for the Christmas holidays, where
he became critically ill. A few weeks later his friends
buried him in Westminster Abbey. Among the first of
Garrick's amateur parts on coming to London, it will be
remembered, had been Gregory in Fielding's "Mock
Doctor"; his last act connected with the theatre was to
bring out Fielding's posthumous comedy with prologue and
epilogue. The afterpiece on the first night was "The Irish
Widow, ' ' which Garrick had reworked several years before
from Moliere's "Mariage Force." Thus he completed
the perfect arch of mutual friendship and admiration.

"The Fathers" ran, not quite continuously, for nine
nights, beginning on November 30, and ending on December
12. At the third, sixth, and ninth performances, which
were for the benefit of Mrs. Fielding, unusual efforts appear
to have been made to fill the house; for we find Sir John
appealing for aid to William Hunter, the surgeon who had
attended his brother, in the following letter, written three
days before the second benefit was to take place :

"Sir John Fielding presents his compliments to Dr.
Hunter, and acquaints him that the Comedy of 'The Good-
natured Man' written by the late Mr. Henry Fielding will
be performed at Drury Lane next Monday being the
Author's Widow's night.

1 1 He was your old and sincere friend. There are no other
of his Works left unpublished. This is the last opportunity
you will have of shewing any respect to his Memory as a
Genius, so that I hope you will send all your Pupils, all

106

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

your Patients, all your Friends, & everybody else to the
Play that Night, by which Means you will indulge your
benevolent feelings and your Sentiments of Friendship

"Bow Street, Deer 4, 1778"*

So far as the newspapers give any clue, the play met with
approval. There was, however, a feeling that Sheridan
did not do full justice to "the most finished" comedy ever
written by Fielding. Bensley and Parsons were admi
rable in their roles; but on the whole the play was not so
well cast as "The School for Scandal." This disposition
to criticise the manager concluded a notice in "The St.
James's Chronicle," otherwise also most interesting as a
comprehensive statement of the attitude of the audience
towards the performance. Under the news from Drury
Lane, we read there:

"Last Night a Comedy called The Fathers, or The Good-
natured Man, was performed for the first Time at this
Theatre. It was written by the late Henry Fielding, one
of the first Geniuses that ever adorned this Island. Like
Persons of that Order, in all Communities, where Abilities
and Virtues are not the Instruments of Success, he was
often involved in Difficulties, and has left a Family, for
whose Advantage this Play is performed. This precludes
all Censure of its Irregularities and Defects. Indeed this
Reason is not necessary in the Case of the present Comedy.
The opposite Dispositions of two Fathers, whose Families
are inclined to unite, are delineated so exactly from Nature ;
the Sentiments of the Piece are so genuine; and the Dia
logue so easy and witty, that it cannot fail of pleasing, if
it be fairly and properly kept on the Theatre.

"The Comedy is not made the most of; the Strength of
the House being reserved to insure the Success of more
favourite Writers. ' '

The censure implied in the last paragraph was hardly

*"The Athenaeum," Feb. 1, 1890.

107

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

deserved. Doubtless Sheridan did the best he could in the
circumstances. According to the custom then prevailing,
a comedy as well as a tragedy was always followed the same
evening by a play in lighter vein. Besides Garrick 's own
"Irish Widow," the afterpieces to "The Fathers" were
Dibdin's "Quaker," Colman's alteration of "Comus,"
various pantomimes, and "The Camp," a very popular
medley based upon the romantic intrigues connected with
the camp at Coxheath. Part of the company had to be
reserved for these shows and entertainments; but in no
instance, so far as I can see, did Sheridan neglect the main
performance of the evening: The fact is, Fielding's comedy
came into competition with "The School for Scandal."
Excellent as it is in some of its scenes, it could not as a
whole stand comparison with Sheridan's perfect art. The
wonder is that it held the stage for nine nights.

On the day of the last performance, "The Fathers: or,
The Good-Natur'd Man" was published as a pamphlet,
selling at a shilling and sixpence. An advertisement to the
reader, almost certainly from the pen of Sir John Fielding,
relates how the play happened to be discovered, and at
tributes much of the applause with which it was received
to "the very liberal and friendly assistance of Mr. Sheri
dan, and to the Prologue and Epilogue, written by Mr.
Garrick." When was Sheridan not liberal! Altogether
Mrs. Fielding should have realized two or three hundred
pounds out of the entire transaction. A very appropriate
dedication, likewise from Sir John, to the Duke of North-

* Sir John Fielding's account of the discovery and performance of the play
needs to be corrected and supplemented. See "The St. James's Chronicle,"
"The London Chronicle," "The Public Advertiser," and "Lloyd's Evening
Post," for the period covered by the performance; Genest's "Some Account
of the English Stage, ' ' VI, 77 ; Forster 's ' ' Goldsmith ' ' as cited above ; ' ' The
Private Correspondence of David Garrick," II, 318; "Appendix to the Second
Eeport of the Historical MSS. Commission," 1871, p. 13; and Nichols's
"Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century," especially VIII, 446.

108

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

umberland, then Lord Lieutenant of the County of Middle
sex, justly calls the attention of the public to the fact that
Henry Fielding's work as justice of the peace, as well as
his writings, still lived after him. "The author of this
play," says the brother, "was an upright, useful, and dis
tinguished magistrate for the County of Middlesex; and
by his publications laid the foundation of many wholesome
laws for the support of good order and subordination in
this metropolis, the effects of which have been, and now are,
forcibly felt by the public. His social qualities made his
company highly entertaining. His genius, so universally
admired, has afforded delight and instruction to thou
sands." At the same time, Garrick's prologue, reprinted
with the epilogue everywhere in the newspapers, served to
recall to memory a man of extraordinary talents,

Whom nature prompted as his genius writ,

through a long succession of novels, essays, and plays.

As we ring down the curtain with the last words of Gar-
rick on Fielding, we may well combine with them the words
uttered long before by two other friends, of whom the one
followed Fielding's career from a distance and the other
knew him intimately in the last days. When Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu heard of her cousin's death, nearly a
year after it had occurred, she wrote to her daughter from
Lovere :

"I am sorry for H. Fielding's death, not only as I shall
read no more of his writings, but I believe he lost more than
others, as no man enjoyed life more than he did, though
few had less reason to do so, the highest of his preferment
being raking in the lowest sinks of vice and misery. I
should think it a nobler and less nauseous employment to
be one of the staff-officers that conduct the nocturnal wed
dings. His happy constitution (even when he had, with
great pains, half demolished it) made him forget every-

109

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

thing when he was before a venison pasty, or over a flask
of champagne; and I am persuaded he has known more
happy moments than any prince upon earth. His natural
spirits gave him rapture with his cook-maid, and cheerful
ness when he was fluxing in a garret. There was a great
similitude between his character and that of Sir Richard
Steele. He had the advantage both in learning and, in my
opinion, genius : they both agreed in wanting money in spite
of all their friends, and would have wanted it, if their
hereditary lands had been as extensive as their imagination ;
yet each of them [was] so formed for happiness, it is pity
he was not immortal."*

Lady Mary was here describing Fielding as she remem
bered him when he first came upon the town out of the
West. Of his great qualities of head and heart that
developed with the passage of the heats of youth, she had
no personal knowledge. She trusted too much to hearsay
and was too fond of piquant phrases. It never dawned
upon her that this man, who loved life more than most men,
cheerfully sacrificed it in the service of his country, raking
through those "lowest sinks of vice and misery." But all
that escaped her was seen clearly by Christopher Smart,
whom Fielding befriended in the poor poet's dark days.
What Smart saw, he put into the following " Epitaph on
Henry Fielding, Esq.":

The master of the GREEK and ROMAN page,

The lively scorner of a venal age,
Who made the publick laugh, at publick vice,
Or drew from sparkling eyes the pearl of price ;
Student of nature, reader of mankind,
In whom the patron, and the bard were join'd;
As free to give the plaudit, as assert,
And faithful in the practise of desert.

* ' ' Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ' ' third edition,
1861, II, 282-283.

110

LIBRARY AND MANUSCRIPTS

Hence pow 'r consign 'd the laws to his command,
And put the scales of Justice in his hand ;
To stand protector of the Orphan race,
And find the female penitent a place.
From toils like these, too much for age to bear,
From pain, from sickness, and a world of care ;
From children, and a widow in her bloom,
From shores remote, and from a foreign tomb,
Called by the WORD of LIFE, thou shalt appear,
To please and profit in a higher sphere,
Where endless hope, imperishable gain
Are what the scriptures teach and entertain*
•Smart, "Poems on Several Occasions," London, 1763, pp. 13-14.

Ill

CHAPTER XXX

SURVIVORS

A biography like a novel should contain, if it is to satisfy
curiosity, some account of the minor characters. The
summer Henry Fielding made the voyage to Lisbon, his
sister Sarah, being also in ill health, went to Bath to drink
the waters. Incidentally, this explains why there is no
reference to her in the introduction to her brother's journal,
and why she did not accompany him to Rotherhithe. A
letter to Richardson from Bath, dated July 6, 1754,* in
forms the great man that she is reading "Sir Charles
Grandison" and discussing the hero and heroine of that
famous novel with young ladies who come and sit with her
on afternoons. A lady of quality, she hears, who is "the
object of public admiration," prefers Sir Charles so far
above all her suitors that she has retired for several even
ings to the seclusion of her rooms in order to be alone with
this ideal gentleman. The waters seem likely to work in
Miss Fielding as "perfect a cure from diseases as an old
woman can expect." In those days ladies grew old much
faster than they do now; for Sarah was then only in her
forty-fourth year. She was again at Bath in 1758. During
this visit the Rev. Richard Graves dined with her several
times at Ralph Allen's, and afterwards stated that the
squire gave her an allowance of £100 a year.f Certainly
she soon settled near Bath under Allen's protection, and
he left her £100 in his will. It is a tradition that she — like

* Barbauld, ' ' Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, ' ' II, 68-70.
t K. Graves, "The Triflers," London, 1805, p. 77.

112

SURVIVORS

her brother Henry formerly — lived at Widcombe Lodge
below Prior Park. This tradition, as I have said earlier,
cannot be confirmed; but certain considerations render it
probable. The manor of Widcombe was then owned by
Ralph Allen, who made over the stately mansion known as
Widcombe House, long the residence of the Bennet family.
The neighbouring cottage where Sarah Fielding is sup
posed to have dwelt, formed a part of the estate; it was
really the old lodge of the manor house. Among her after
noon visitors in 1754, she tells Richardson, was a "Miss

B ." Very likely the manuscript of Sarah's letter, if

it were at hand, would give the name of her friend as Miss
Bennet ; and were the name written in full, it would be Anne
Bennet, to whom, as well as to Sarah Fielding, the owner of
the manor bequeathed £100. Probably the fact is that
Allen permitted the Fieldings to occupy Widcombe Lodge
whenever they so desired, and that it eventually became
Sarah's permanent home.

During her last years, Miss Fielding wrote a novel of
slight importance called "The History of the Countess of
Dellwyn" (1759), and translated from the Greek — with
annotations by her old friend James Harris of Salisbury —
"Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates" (1762), a piece of
work which was rightly thought to do great "credit to her
abilities, being executed with fidelity and elegance. ' '* Very
few women of the time could have made, I think, so good
a translation of a Greek classic. Withal, it was a fitting
book with which to close one's literary career. Sarah
Fielding died on April 9, 1768, and was buried five days
later in the little stone church at Charlcombe, dedicated to
St. Mary. It was the same church which Henry Fielding
and Charlotte Cradock chose for their marriage. Near
her grave, which is at the entrance of the chancel by the
rector's seat, a mural tablet bears the inscription:

* J. Nichols, "Literary Anecdotes," III, 385.

113

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Esteemed and Loved
Near this Marble lies
Mrs. SARAH FIELDING
She died April the 9th 1768

Aged 60

How worthy of a nobler Monument
but her name will be found written
in the Book of Life.

Her age is given only approximately. She was really but
in her fifty-eighth year. Subsequently another memorial
to Miss Fielding was placed in .the Abbey Church at Bath,
for which Dr. John Hoadly, the bishop's son, wrote the
epitaph. Here Miss Fielding's age is reduced to fifty-four,
and her father's name appears as Henry instead of
Edmund. But her clerical friend's ignorance of the details
of family history did not prevent a just estimate of Miss
Fielding's character:

Her unaffected Manners, candid Mind,

Her Heart benevolent and Soul resign 'd

Were more her Praise, than all she knew and thought,

Though Athens' Wisdom to her Sex she taught.

Sir John Fielding maintained the prestige of the Bow
Street court, carrying out his brother's plans for the sup
pression of crime, and imitating him in addresses and
directions to the public. What those plans were he de
scribed in " A Plan for Preventing Robberies within Twenty
Miles of London" (1755) and in "An Account of the Origin
and Effects of a Police," or, to give the sub-title, "The
History and Effects of the late Henry Fielding's Police"
(1758). The second of these pamphlets he dedicated to the
Duke of Newcastle, from whom he begged and three years
later obtained the honour of knighthood.* Like Henry, John
did not escape the unjust charge of venality ; nor did affairs
always run smoothly between him and his patron. In bear-

* Letter dated Dec. 12, 1757, British Museum, Additional MSS., 32876, f. 274.

114

FRONTISPIECE

'•> /ec /ft"/ < /H' JUSTICE
mm jH>n<//ii ('/</ \Vit rf/t
Jeits ft'/ '</<•/. />/«i/tt //v/^'Wif //'(//UK/
* sHr/t ff.t <>//) Lively' Pao^cs

',) Jovial Crew,

/./,'?-*' /<>. //}/('/<>// • 'f'r'/f ////(ft /f'J

SURVIVORS

ing he was somewhat over-formal, and he wore his moral
principles rather conspicuously. Always obstinate in his
opinions, he became, with advancing years, irritable and
difficult to deal with. But he was an honourable magistrate
having the instincts of a gentleman. In MacArdell's
mezzotint of the justice after a painting by Nathaniel Hone,
he appears in velvet and lace, with his right arm resting
on the Bible. It is a full, placid face indicating good nature
but some pride and aloofness. Abundant hair falls in curls
about the neck, and a black band across his forehead just
above the eyes tells us that he was blind. His efficiency,
despite his blindness, was perfectly marvellous. It is said
that his ear became so acute in distinguishing tones, that
he recognized people as readily by their voices as most
men do by the sight. If he once heard a man speak, he
always remembered him. At length the infirmities of age
overcame him. He died at Brompton, near Chelsea, where
he had resided for some years, on the evening of September
4, 1780, "after a long and painful illness, which he bore
with the utmost patience."* Subsequent to his death
appeared a collection of bons mots entitled "Sir John
Fielding's Jests." A frontispiece represents him sitting
at the head of a table at the Bedford Arms in the company
of the wits of bygone days. Pope is on his left ; and further
down the table, Henry Fielding, with Swift by his side, is
reading from one of his books. All are drinking 'punch.
The picture is wholly fanciful, for none of the jests can be
Sir John's. He was as deficient in humour as was Bishop
Warburton. On the other hand, he possessed a shrewdness
and practical sense which no one can claim in a high degree
for Henry Fielding.

*" Lloyd's Evening Post," Sept. 4-6, 1780. "The London Chronicle" for
Sept. 5-7, 1780, has an eulogy on the late Sir John Fielding as "a consummate
magistrate," who "was universally allowed to have had the head of a philoso
pher, the heart of a Christian, and the hand of a hero. ' '

115

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Sir John's prudence, however, did not restrict his chari
ties, the noblest of which was his conduct towards his
brother's family. By his will Henry Fielding left his wife
and children to the care of Ralph Allen, and it has been
taken for granted that Allen assumed the burden. Ever
since Fielding's death, statements to this effect have been
very common ; but they are quite misleading. John Field
ing, as we have seen, administered his brother's estate in
place of Ralph Allen, who had been named in the will as
executor ; and from the first he took the entire family under
his protection. On this point we have positive evidence.
Four years after her husband's death, Mrs. Fielding, who
perhaps found the dependency irksome, applied to Lord
Barrington, then Secretary of War, for a pension. As soon
as John Fielding learned of the request, he wrote to his
brother's old political friend:

"Bow Street Decemr the 16th

". . . before I conclude this Letter I must beg leave to
mention a circumstance that has given me some concern
I find that my late Brothers Widow has applied to your
Lordship for a thing which I have told her my Self was
irregular and could not be granted but I assure you she
did it without either my knowledge or consent least there
fore your Lordships humanity should suffer from a sup
position of her being in distress at present I thought it my
Duty to say a word or two on that subject when my Brother
died he left little more than would answer his just Debts
and left a Widow and Four children one of which is since
dead this Family I have taken to my self and hope from
my own Labours so long as I shall live to support them
handsomely and I do assure your Lordship that the ten-
derest regard is paid to their healths the exactest care
taken of their Educations and the most unwearied diligence
used by me to make her forget the loss of a Husband them
of a Father nor has she or them been deny'd one Earthly

116

SURVIVORS

thing in my Power Since my Brother's death but on the
contrary I have told her, her Friends and all my acquaint
ance that so long as I have one Shilling in the world they
shall have the same Share of it as if she was my own wife
they my own Children doubtless as life is precarious and as
their subsistence depends on mine it would make me very
happy if she could obtain some certain establishment for
her own Life but should be glad to be acquainted with the
nature of her applications. I hope your Lordship will ex
cuse this little piece of Family History from one who will
always take a particular pride in approving himself
My Lord

Your Lordships most dutifull
and the Publicks most faithfull Hble Serv*

J FFIELDING."*

This letter should not be taken to nullify the direct state
ment of Arthur Murphy in his essay on Fielding that Ralph
Allen for some time contributed annually "a very generous
donation" towards the education of the children — perhaps
as much as the £100 with which tradition credits him. On
his death in 1764, Allen bequeathed that amount to each
of the three children then living. The one who had died
was Sophia. William and Allen Fielding also received
legacies of £200 each from Andrew Millar, their father's
publisher, who died in 1768; while Harriot, who was then
dead, had been the companion of Elizabeth Chudleigh, the
Countess of Bristol. The fact nevertheless remains that
the responsibility for the support and education of the

* London War Office. In ' ' Letters, Miscellaneous, ' ' 1758, A to L. The letter
is endorsed "Decr 1756," which is, as the contents show, the correct date.
The main part of the letter consists of comment on the "Press Act," a copy
of which Lord Harrington sent to Sir John Fielding for his criticism. This
Act, called "An Act for the Speedy and effectual Recruiting of his Majesty's
Land Forces and Marines," received the royal assent on May 27, 1756. —
"Statutes at Large," VII, 625-631. Parts of the letter were published with
incorrect date in "The Athenaeum" for Nov. 25, 1905.

117

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

children was cheerfully borne by Sir John Fielding. Nor
does what he did for them and their mother rest upon
hearsay. In asking the Duke of Newcastle for his salary
as justice of the peace, he wrote on September 29, 1757:
"I hope your Grace will excuse my applying thus early
for this money as I allow my late brother's widow & chil
dren one hundred pounds a year out of my salary, payable
quarterly." Sir John conducted himself handsomely.

Sophia died too young to have any record left of her
appearance and disposition; but a brief sketch has sur
vived of Harriot. It comes, strangely enough, from the
pen of a footman named Thomas Whitehead, formerly in
the service of Evelyn Pierrepont, the second Duke of King
ston. After the death of his master, Whitehead became
a musician at Bath ; and having a facile and piquant style,
he made use of it to relate his reminiscences in a little book
entitled * ' Original Anecdotes of the late Duke of Kingston,
and Miss Chudleigh, alias Mrs. Hervey, alias Countess of
Bristol, alias Duchess of Kingston, interposed with Me
moirs of several of the Nobility and Gentry now living."
The date is 1792. When Miss Fielding associated with
Miss Chudleigh, the real character of this woman had not
been exhibited to the public view. Though some scandal
attached itself to her name, she still maintained her position
at Court; and her parties, the most lavish and splendid of
the time, were attended by everybody fortunate enough to
receive an invitation. Miss Chudleigh was, however, a
woman of coarse and vulgar fibre. She privately married
Augustus John Hervey, afterwards the Duke of Bristol,
and kept the marriage a secret even from her most intimate
friends. Everybody addressed her as Miss Chudleigh.

•British Museum, Additional MSS., 32874, f. 379. Millar's will, proved
June 17, 1768, is at Somerset House (P. C. C. 250, Seeker). The substance of
Allen's will, bequeathing £100 also to Sarah Fielding, is given in "The London
Magazine," Aug., 1764, XXXIII, 426, and in B. E. Peach's "Historic Houses
in Bath," second series, 1884, appendix, p. 149.

118

SURVIVORS

Following a quarrel with her husband, she became the
mistress of the Duke of Kingston, whom she subsequently
married while she was still the wife of Hervey. The evi
dence of her first marriage coming out, she was brought
before the House of Lords on a charge of bigamy and easily
convicted of the crime ; but she escaped the penalty of being
burned in the hand by pleading the privilege of her peer
age. Without other punishment, the Lords decided to leave
her to her conscience to do the necessary work.

According to Whitehead, Miss Chudleigh became "very
intimate ' ' with Sir John Fielding at the time she was living
with the Duke of Kingston after the separation from
Hervey. "She and the duke," says the footman, "seldom
missed the examination of any felon brought before the
magistrate. Indeed Miss C. 's carriage and the duke's were
as well known in Bow Street as any of Sir John's thief -
takers. Even the coachmen were ashamed to attend them,
waiting so many hours amongst a nest of thieves and thief-
takers." Amid these scenes of crime, which Miss Chud
leigh haunted out of a depraved curiosity, she discovered
Harriot and took her home with her. The Duke of King
ston must have known Harriot ever since her childhood,
for he was a distant cousin and an old friend of Harry
Fielding. It was doubtless at his suggestion that Miss
Chudleigh received her into her household. On one occa
sion, Harriot was invited to Pierrepont Lodge, the Duke's
seat in Surrey, for the Christmas festivities presided over
by Miss Chudleigh. It was a large party, consisting of
many well-known people who amused themselves by danc
ing every night for an entire month. There Miss Fielding
met "Colonel Montressor, Governor of Tilbury Fort"; he
proposed to her; and she accepted him. In relating the
incident, Whitehead gives us the little portrait of Harriot
to which we have referred. "Miss Fielding," he says,
"was of a good stature, about twenty years of age, a sweet

119

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

temper, and great understanding, but in a deep decline.
She had been a visitor and companion to Miss C. for some
years. Colonel Montressor, who was between fifty and
sixty years old, paid his addresses to her, and in a few
months afterwards they were married ; which so displeased
Miss C. that she never saw them after. If the colonel had
not married her I believe she would never have got a hus
band; being, poor lady, the colour of a ghost — a mere
skeleton."*

It is well to be on good terms with the servants, for they
may, equally with the bards, save us from oblivion. But
for a footman, there would have been no story to tell of
Fielding's daughter. It was a footman, too, who left the
only account we have of Sterne's death. The visit to
Pierrepont Lodge must have been at Christmas in 1765.
Harriot, who was then about twenty-eight years old, pos
sessed in a degree that beauty and amiable disposition
which distinguished her mother, the charming Charlotte
Cradock of Salisbury. Withal, ample provision, we see,
had been made for the cultivation of her mind. Her suitor
was James Gabriel Montresor, a distinguished military
engineer, who had designed some of the defences at
Gibraltar, had surveyed Lake Champlain and its fortifi
cations, and had built the roads for Braddock's army over
the Allegheny Mountains to Fort Duquesne. A son of
Colonel Montresor, by a previous marriage, served with
his father in America, and later became the chief engineer
with Lord Howe's army during the Revolution. It was
this Captain John Montresor who extended unusual cour
tesies to Captain Nathan Hale on the morning of the latter 's
execution. He took the young man into his tent, conversed
with him, supplied him with materials for writing to his
mother and a brother officer, and accompanied him to the

* ' ' Original Anecdotes, " p. 42 ; reprinted by C. E. Pearce in ' ' The Amazing
Duchess," 1911, II, 75-76.

120

SURVIVORS

place of execution. But for him there would be no authentic
record of ''the gentle dignity" with which Hale endured
the ordeal. When the elder Montresor danced with Miss
Fielding at the Duke of Kingston's, he had just passed the
age of sixty-three. They were married on August 25, 1766 ;
and four scant months later Mrs. Montresor was buried at
St. James's Church, Westminster. The entry among the
burials for 1766 is simply —

11 Dec. Harriot Montressor, W[oman].

Harriot was the only child of Henry and Charlotte Field
ing to reach maturity. With her death that line became
extinct. The two surviving sons were born of the second
marriage. William, bred to the law, followed in the legal
footsteps of his father. He entered the Middle Temple as
a student on May 5, 1770, and was called to the bar there
on November 22, 1776. He gained some eminence as a
special pleader, and travelled for a time the Western
Circuit with William Grant, who afterwards became chief
justice of the court of common pleas, and master of the
rolls. It was said by Lord John Russell, who may have
remembered him, that "he had much of his father's wit,
and was the delight of the circuit." But the promise of a
brilliant career such as awaited his friend Grant, was cut
short by a paralytic stroke when he was little more than
thirty years old. Still, though nearly deprived of the use
of one side of his body, he stuck to his profession and
eventually became the chief police magistrate at the court
in Queen's Square, Westminster. For twelve years he
administered this office "with impartial ability" and with
due consideration of the poor and unfortunate. He died
at his post on October 1, 1820, in his seventy-third year,
and was buried in St. Margaret 's churchyard, Westminster.
He left a widow and a son named William Henry, who ap
parently survived him for only a short period. Nearly all

121

the scattered references to William Fielding are comments
on his sense of humour. "He was allowed," according to
the obituary notice in "The Gentleman's Magazine," "by
those who knew him most, to have been one of the best con
versational men in the country." It was even said of this
son of Henry Fielding, that "in genius, imagination, and
pleasantry, he was worthy of such a sire. ' ' Eobert Southey,
who tried to find out all he could about the novelist and
regretted the loss of the correspondence which must have
passed between him and Jane or Margaret Collier, once
met William on a visit to London. Writing to Sir Egerton
Brydges in 1830, he says: "I was introduced one day in
St. James's Park to the Fielding of whom you give me
so lively an anecdote. He was then a fine old man, though
visibly shaken by time : he received me in a manner which
had much of old courtesy about it, and I looked upon him
with great interest for his father's sake: this must have
been in 1817." At that time William was breaking down
with gout and palsy; but like his father he bore all his
infirmities in cheerful resignation. In William Fielding,
great abilities — genius it may be — were weakened and
rendered ineffective by the misfortune of disease.*

His brother Allen — the infant that his father left behind
when he set out for Lisbon — was educated at Oxford,
graduating B.A. at Christ's Church on April 14, 1774.
Subsequently he received from Oxford the degree of Master
of Arts. Entering the church, he became Vicar of Shep
herd's Well in Kent and later of St. Stephen's near Canter
bury, where he was also master of East Bridge Hospital,

* See especially "The Gentleman's Magazine," for Oct., 1820, Vol. XC,
Pt. 2, pp. 373-374; "The Autobiography of Sir Egerton Brydges," London,
1834, II, 267-268; and "Correspondence of John, Fourth Duke of Bedford,"
edited by Lord John Eussell, 1846, III, 411. On September 14, 1708, William
Fielding qualified to take office as justice of peace for the county of Middle
sex. — Record Office. Westminster Guildhall and County of Middlesex. Ap
pointment Books of Justices of the Peace, 1804-1820, p. 47.

122

SURVIVORS

formerly a lodging for pilgrims visiting the shrine of St.
Thomas a Becket, but long since converted into a school
and retreat for the poor. On October 23, 1783, he married
Mary Ann Whittingham, an adopted daughter of his uncle
Sir John Fielding.* With or near him lived his mother,
Mary Daniel, who died at the age of eighty-one, and was
buried at St. Stephen's on May 18, 1802. His own death
occurred on April 9, 1823, three years after that of his wife.
Of his character, it has been written by a member of the
family: " Allen was greatly beloved by all, especially the
little children. ' ' He left four sons, all of whom took orders
in the Church of England. Concerning Charles, the second
and most distinguished of them, it has been written much
as of his father: "He had not only a heart that could feel
for others, but a heart that lived in giving." From Allen's
children have since sprung two other generations of church
men and lawyers. His eldest son Henry (1786-1863) held
for many years the vicarage of Blean, a country parish two
miles from Canterbury. Of Henry's three sons, the eldest
was named Allen (1828-1895), whose eldest son Henry
(born 1861) is the present head of this branch of the
family.f He is a lawyer of St. Brelade's, Canterbury.

It would be too curious to trace in the mixed blood of these
descendants the character of the man who wrote "Tom
Jones." Genius is rarely inherited; it is nature's gift
in union with profound application, and the hard cir
cumstances of life that force its expression. We may pity
the misfortunes of Henry Fielding. Without them, his life
would have been happier; without them he would have
been, like many other members of his family, who came

* Sir John Fielding was twice married, his second wife surviving him. No
children were born of either marriage.

t For Fielding's later descendants, see " Burke 's Peerage"; and J. E. M.
F[ielding], "Some Hapsburghs, Fieldings, Denbigha and Desmonds," pri
vately printed, London, 1895. Mary Daniel's age and the date of her death
as given here were taken from the parish registry of St. Stephen 's.

123

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

before and after him, a man of keen intelligence and a wit
to delight his companions ; he would have had a kind heart
responsive to the affection of children and compassionate
towards the poor in distress ; but all that he was would have
died with him; he would have written no books; the world
would now know nothing of him.

124

CHAPTER XXXI

THE FAME OF FIELDING

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

Misfortunes as great as any that encompassed Fielding
in life, followed him into the land of immortality. When
the twentieth century opened, few or none had any adequate
conception of the immense range of his literary work. True,
the biographers had referred to the four periodicals which
Fielding conducted and to various pamphlets which were
once attributed to him ; but there is no evidence that anyone
before Mr. Austin Dobson entered the field ever read them
with any degree of care, and Mr. Dobson 's acquaintance
with them had obvious limitations. All of Fielding's pro
ductions outside the novels and a few miscellaneous pieces,
it has been declared again and again, have no interest
except that they came from the pen of Harry Fielding.
They might have been written by any clever literary hack.
The consequence is that the modern world has no reason
ably complete edition of Fielding's works — not even, until
now, has there been a respectable bibliography of them.*

Concerning the major works which have been reprinted
times almost without number, critics and other readers
have expressed the most diverse opinions. Some have
accorded them the highest praise; others have denounced
them as a menace to public morals ; still others have striven

* Lawrence in his ' ' Life of Fielding ' ' has a ' ' List of Fielding 'a Works, ' '
containing several titles not found in Murphy's volumes; and the so-called
Henley edition of Fielding's works has an incomplete "Bibliographical List
of the First Editions."

125

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

for the golden mean. Throughout the long controversy,
extending through generations of men, the personal char
acter of Fielding has suffered unmeasured injustice. Long
ago the author of "Tom Jones" became an imaginary
figure quite unlike what he really was. Not until these
latter days has his genius surely won against the obstacles
set in the path of his fame. It is the story of Fielding's
fortunes and misfortunes since his death that I design to
relate in concluding this biography. The narrative can be
but a summary with few details.

At the very outset, Fielding was most unfortunate in
having Arthur Murphy as his first editor. This young
Irishman who had been assisted into periodical literature
by the author of "The Covent-Garden Journal," was, so
far as his nature would permit, an ardent admirer of Field
ing, whom he regarded as his master. Subsequent to
Fielding's death, he became an actor, and, failing in this
profession, he met with some success in making over old
plays for the theatres. He turned, for example, Fielding's
"Coffee-House Politician" into a farce — called "The
Upholsterer, or What News!" — which was brought out at
Drury Lane for Mossop's benefit on March 30, 1757. It
was a good farce superbly performed by Garrick and a
company which included Mrs. Olive, Woodward, Palmer,
and Mr. and Mrs. Yates. None the less, the piece was taken
mostly from Fielding — from his comedy and from "Joseph
Andrews." Mrs. Slipslop of the novel was transformed
into Termagant, a shrew who mispronounces or disarranges
her epithets, who has a fondness for "paradropsical"
statements. Neither in the prologue nor anywhere else
in the printed play, did the author acknowledge any in
debtedness to Fielding. Near this time, Murphy applied
for admission as a student at the Middle Temple, but was
refused on the ground that he was an actor, though he later
made his way into Lincoln's Inn. Fielding gone, he trans-

126

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

ferred his affections to Dr. Johnson, whom he sought to
please by his flattery. As he grew older, his character,
always weak, rapidly degenerated. It was said that he
borrowed money which he never repaid, and ate himself
out "of every tavern from the other side of Temple-Bar
to the west end of the town." This is the man, not yet in
his full moral decline, whom Millar employed as the most
available person to select and edit the works of Mr. Field
ing with a suitable memoir.

Murphy's edition of "The Works of Henry Fielding,
Esq." appeared in May, 1762. The collection was issued
simultaneously in two styles. There were four quarto
volumes in gilt for gentlemen who wished to adorn their
libraries; there were eight octavo volumes, well bound,
with gilt edges also, for people who wished to read the
books. Both sets had Hogarth's frontispiece. The pub
lisher, who knew his business, thus treated the memory of
Fielding handsomely. But the editor, though his intentions
were good, was thoroughly incompetent. He put in, of
course, the novels and other long narratives; he put in, of
course, the plays in their revised forms, several of which
continued to delight audiences at all the theatres. To his
credit, he printed "Amelia" from the author's revised copy,
and gave us the true "Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon."

Here praise must end. Murphy had at hand Fielding's
periodicals, his social and political pamphlets, and his
verse. From "The Covent-Garden Journal," he selected
twenty-six of the seventy-two leaders; from "The True
Patriot" ten out of thirty-three; from "The Jacobite's
Journal" only two out of forty-nine; and from "The
Champion" none at all, assigning as his reason that Field
ing's contributions could no longer be ascertained, though
in fact most of them were marked by letters adopted by the
author for the very purpose of identification. Instead of
bringing together, as he might have easily done, these

127

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

papers from "The Champion," which gave Fielding a
"reputation" in his early days, Murphy merely expressed
regret for their omission. Of the poems, he worked "An
Epistle to the Bight Hon. Sir Robert Walpole" into his
introductory essay, but discarded all the rest on the ground
that they were hastily written and displayed little or no
poetic talent. Of the pamphlets, we miss several which
appeared under Fielding's own name, such as "Bosavern
Penlez," "Elizabeth Canning," "The Detection and Pun
ishment of Murder," and "An Effectual Provision for the
Poor." All the anonymous tracts, though Fielding ac
knowledged the authorship of some of them, went by the
board. So, too, the * ' Preface ' ' to the ' * Miscellanies, ' ' which
next to "The Voyage to Lisbon" contains more direct
autobiography than anything else that Fielding ever wrote.
All these pieces were omitted by Murphy, "not being
deemed of a colour with works of invention and genius,"
however much they might do honour to Fielding the man
and magistrate.

Thus disfigured, Fielding's works were given over to
posterity. For more than a century, editors and publishers
followed, either directly or indirectly, the selection made
by Murphy with little or no discrimination wherever he
was called upon to use his judgment. In the numerous
reissues of Murphy's volumes, there were naturally some
variations. In 1783, Murphy himself found a place for
"The Fathers" in a new edition that came out that year;
and in 1806, the year after Murphy's death, Alexander
Chalmers, a London journalist and biographer, added also
"An Essay on Nothing." Since that time, all editions of
Fielding have derived from Murphy through Chalmers.
So far Fielding's works had usually been printed in eight
or ten volumes. To make them more accessible to "the
new world of readers" of 1840, Thomas Roscoe then com
pressed them into a single volume of eleven hundred pages,

128

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

with double columns and small type. Though Roscoe as
serted that his edition comprised ''the entire works of
Fielding," it really contained nothing new beyond a few
1 'specimens of the author's poems," which were given in an
introduction. This heavy volume, many times reprinted,
was the edition of Fielding most widely read by the Victo
rians before the appearance in 1871 of a handsome reprint
of Chalmers in ten volumes, under the editorship of Dr.
James P. Browne. Though Browne was not a great man,
he did read some of Fielding's pamphlets and other pieces
which Murphy had cast aside, with the result that he pub
lished in 1872 a supplementary volume entitled " Miscel
lanies and Poems by Henry Fielding, Esq." His additions
comprised the cases of " Elizabeth Canning" and "Bo-
savern Penlez," the ''Preface" to the original "Miscel
lanies" and all the poems contained in that collection. In
this Murphy-Chalmers-Browne edition, the best that had
yet appeared, most people of the generation now passing
have read their Fielding.

Then came, in 1882, Leslie Stephen with ''The Works of
Henry Fielding, Esq.," in ten sumptuous volumes. Not
withstanding claims made for this edition, it was based
mainly upon its immediate predecessor. Still, the editor
did show more respect for Fielding's periodicals than had
ever been shown by anyone else. From the two volumes of
essays reprinted from "The Champion" in 1741, Stephen
selected fifty-nine of Fielding's contributions. Moreover,
he actually examined the original folios of "The Co vent-
Garden Journal," from which he took eleven essays that
had never before been reprinted, thus making avail
able thirty-seven in all. Important as are these additions,
they were made mechanically, without that critical sense
for which Leslie Stephen was usually distinguished. ' ' The
True Patriot" and "The Jacobite's Journal" he left un
touched; and ignored all the pamphlets not found in

129

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Browne. To say the truth, it was a capricious performance,
quite unworthy of the name it bears.

Finally came, in 1903, sixteen volumes called ' ' The Com
plete Works of Henry Fielding, Esq." This compilation
is known as the Henley edition, because the late W. E.
Henley contributed to the last volume a brilliant critical
essay superseding all recent estimates of Fielding. Mr.
Henley, however, cannot be held responsible for the editorial
work, all of which was performed by other hands without
his guidance. In only one respect is Henley's edition
inferior to Stephen's, on which it was founded. It reprints
from Austin Dobson the mutilated version of "A Voyage
to Lisbon," as if that were the better one because it was
supposed to be the earlier. In all other respects Henley's
edition is superior to Stephen's. Here were restored to
Fielding, on the suggestion of Professor Lounsbury, ten
pieces which had been hitherto neglected. They comprise
poems, pamphlets, and the contributions which Fielding
made to the body of his sister Sarah's "Familiar Letters."
Nevertheless, the title which this edition bears is a mis
nomer ; it does not contain ' 1 the complete works ' ' of Henry
Fielding. A reader will look in vain in those volumes for
a number of items described in this biography. He will
find, for example, none of the pamphlets which Fielding
put forth during the Jacobite insurrection. "A Serious
Address to the People of Great Britain" is not there; nor
"A Dialogue between a Gentleman of London and an Honest
Alderman"; nor "A Dialogue between the Devil, the Pope,
and the Pretender." Of all these anonymous pamphlets
Fielding declared himself the author. A greater defect still
of the Henley edition was the failure to add a single periodi
cal essay to those given by Stephen. Over this as well
as over all other editions of Fielding's works hangs the
shadow of Arthur Murphy; it has partially lifted but it is
still there.

130

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

It would be a mistake to overestimate the literary value
of those works which have not yet been collected. The best
of Fielding we have, it goes without saying, in his novels
and the other narratives which the world has long known.
Still, how great the loss has been became apparent recently
when Mr. Jensen published from the original folios all the
leading articles of * * The Covent-Garden Journal. ' ' Doubt
less to the surprise of many, essays were discovered there
as fine as any of the initial chapters of "Tom Jones."
Equally rich treasures lie embedded in "The Champion,"
"The True Patriot," and "The Jacobite's Journal."
Of all the periodicals, the most interesting is "The Cham
pion." It would be but a simple act of justice to col
lect and arrange in chronological order all of Fielding's
productions. Though the result might not materially en
hance his literary fame, it would modify the traditional
views of his character. A biography of Fielding may show
that he was a man of action as well as a man of letters;
it may cast discredit upon many stories that have been
told to his dishonour; but a really complete edition of his
works would speak more directly, more convincingly, than
a book written about Fielding. The first questions which
a reader of that complete edition would put to himself
would be: "How could the self-indulgent Fielding of
tradition, dead before he was fifty years old, have accom
plished so much; how could he have acquired, amid those
'wild dissipations' to which Murphy refers, so vast a learn
ing ; how is it that his energy never flagged ; how is it that
he kept his pen ever going? ' ' Suspicion would be inevitable
that something is the matter with tradition.

Incompetent as was Murphy as an editor, he was a much
worse biographer. "An Essay on the Life and Genius
of Henry Fielding, Esq.," which he prefixed to his edition
of the author's works, is a curious production. Murphy
is probably the only biographer who ever set out with the

131

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

intention of relating no incidents in the life of Ms subject,
assigning as the reason a desire not "to disturb the Manes
of the dead." In accordance with this design, he gave in
his entire essay but two dates, one of which is exact and
the other only approximate. He says that Fielding was
born on " April 22, 1707," and died "in the year 1754."
That is all. No one but an Irishman would have called the
essay a life. The truth is, Murphy's aim was to display
himself on Fielding as a background in the manner of
Joseph Warton, who had published, not long before, the
first volume of "An Essay on the Genius and Writings of
Pope." Murphy defines genius, telling us just what part
is played by invention and just what part by judgment,
and then briefly illustrates his definition by references to
Fielding. He describes the Middle Comedy and the New
Comedy in Greek literature, and draws the proper analogies
between them and the plays which Fielding wrote for the
Little Theatre in the Haymarket. He examines the ancient
epics, and shows how profitably Fielding's novels may be
studied in their light, for Fielding as well as Homer and
Virgil paid due regard to "the fable" or "the action," to
"manners," "sentiments," and "style." From this dis
cussion "Tom Jones" emerges as the Iliad of the modern
novel, and "Amelia" as the Odyssey. The conclusion,
which is quite correct, does not appear, when taken by itself,
to be very illuminating.

Not all that Murphy said of Fielding's work was ex^-
pressed in these formal phrases of Aristotle and Longinus.
He had his own formal phrases, similes, and analogies,
several of which have entered into traditional criticism and
appreciation of Fielding. The plays, though they occa
sionally exhibit * * the talent of a master, ' ' failed as a whole
according to Murphy, not because Fielding lacked dramatic
talent; it was partly because he let his wit run away with
his judgment, but mainly because he did not expend enough

132

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

time and care upon them. So they may be neglected as the
offspring of haste and indigence. This easy disposal of
"Pasquin," "Tom Thumb," and the rest cleared the way
for an approach to the novels. To Murphy we are indebted
for the comparison between the flow of incident in "Tom
Jones" and the flow of a stream — a simile which Scott
appropriated as I have elsewhere quoted him. The course
of "Tom Jones," said Murphy, is "like a river, which in
its progress, foams amongst fragments of rocks, and for
a while seems pent up by unsurmountable oppositions;
then angrily dashes for a while, then plunges under ground
into caverns, and runs a subterraneous course, till at length
it breaks out again, meanders round the country, and with
a clear, placid stream flows gently into the ocean." Re
garded as a whole, Fielding's career as novelist was likened
to the journey of the sun through the heavens on a bright
summer's day. This figure required for its elaboration the
following paragraph :

"In the progress of Henry Fielding's talents, there seem
to have been three remarkable periods; one, when his.
genius broke forth at once, with an effulgence superior to
all the rays of light it had before emitted, like the sun in
his morning glory, without the ardour and the blaze which
afterwards attend him; the second, when it was displayed
with collected force, and a fulness of perfection, like the
sun in meridian majesty, with all his highest warmth and
splendour; and the third, when the same genius, grown
more cool and temperate, still continued to cheer and en
liven, but shewed at the same time, that it was tending to
its decline, like the same sun, abating from his ardour, but
still gilding the western hemisphere."

Morning, noon, and evening, it was explained, have
their correspondences in Fielding's three novels taken in
order — "Joseph Andrews," "Tom Jones," and "Amelia."
After them came the twilight of Fielding's genius in "A

133

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Voyage to Lisbon," wherein "the last gleams of his wit
and humour faintly sparkled." At last the evening twi
light passed into total darkness. Fielding died, in short.
The same conclusion was reached with a parallel drawn
between the growth and decay of a man's body and his
faculties. When the body weakens, the faculties weaken
also, and an "Amelia" must succeed a "Tom Jones."
These two similes of Murphy's, generally somewhat mixed,
have supplied the framework for many an essay on Field
ing down to the present day. They would be more appli
cable to a writer who lived to a greater age. As Fielding
died in middle life, there was no decline, corresponding to
physical decline, in his faculties. There were only those
altered views of art and life which come to every man with
experience.

Half the space which Murphy gave to rhetorical display
would have been enough for a concise statement of the main
facts in Fielding's life from boyhood to death. For such
a biography, as he says himself, information could have
been readily obtained. His phrase is a "prodigious number
of materials." Fielding's sister, brother, and widow were
still living; and they had, taken together, all the family
history. Allen and Lyttelton and Garrick were still living.
They were his most intimate friends; and together they
knew all the details of his literary career. They knew, too,
the heart of the man. Besides all these, there were the
bench and the bar, Andrew Millar, and many others who
could have told Murphy the truth about Fielding. His
claim that he consulted "the ablest and best of the author's
friends," is not borne out, except in the most restricted
sense, by an examination of his essay. From John Field
ing he learned that Henry left behind manuscripts on Crown
Law; either John or another member of the family placed
at his disposal the revised "Amelia." Some one of them
gave him the date and supposed place of Henry's birth, the

134

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

name of his first wife, and the names of General Fielding's
children, with incidental information. From Hogarth he
may have derived the story which he tells of Fielding's
portrait. Warburton and Lyttelton he quoted only at
second hand and Allen not at all.* Facts he despised unless
they were capable of embroidery. In short, his aim was
a striking portrait without too strict a regard to truth.

For such a portrait, Murphy had but to revise one that
already existed in popular imagination. Fielding became,
so to speak, a traditional figure before his death. Innumer
able stories to the detriment of his character were put into
circulation by his political and literary enemies. For these
tales they drew largely from his own writings. Many of
the plays and all the novels took the reader into low life
among people guilty of crime and all sorts of moral of
fences. Sex instinct was often perverted or subject to no
control. Moreover, whether it be a farce, a comedy, or a
novel, Fielding's manner was always realistic. He seemed
to belong to the very life which he described; not merely
to know it, but to be it. To this impression force was given
by personal allusions and by the complete absorption of
himself in his characters. When hardly more than a boy,
he wrote as if he were the young Wilding of ' ' The Temple
Beau" and the Luckless of "The Author's Farce"; and in
the poems which he then addressed to Sir Robert Walpole
he was the poor poet starving in a garret besieged by cred
itors. Subsequently all the follies and vices of Mr. Wilson,
Tom Jones, and Captain Booth were transferred to him.
Into his life must have come a Lady Bellaston, a Miss
Mathews, and numerous other accidental women. As the

* Warburton 's remarks occur in a footnote on the progress of romance, in
his edition of Pope's "Works," 1751, IV, 169. After saying that the French
transformed the old romance into the modern novel, Warburton adds : " In this
species of writing, Mr. De Marivaux in France, and Mr. FIELDING in England
stand the foremost. And by enriching it with the best part of the Comic art,
may be said to have brought it to its perfection."

135

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

protagonist in "A Journey from this World to the Next,"
did he not actually confess to the free indulgence in wine
and women? He was even identified with Jonathan Wild
as if he had been in his youth a pickpocket or a receiver of
stolen goods. Fielding suffered terribly from the realism
and the novelty of his art. It was not always understood
even by the most candid realers unless they were personally
acquainted with him. This could have happened only in an
age when the novel was in its beginning — never in an age
such as our twentieth century.

In fact Fielding's art, despite its autobiographic elements
such as I have attempted to point out earlier in this
book, was essentially dramatic. One never has with
certainty Fielding himself except in those works where he
speaks directly — in the "Preface" to the "Miscellanies"
and in "A Voyage to Lisbon." No such considerations,
however, were ever countenanced by Fielding's enemies.
As soon as he entered the political arena with his periodi
cals, came the deluge of abuse. Not only was he in turn
every bad character in his works, but the bad qualities of
them all were combined by his enemies into an immoral
monster which they labelled Henry Fielding. He might
protest, as he often did, against this usage, but it was in
vain. He was described as ill-natured and quarrelsome;
he was a "broken wit," a sponger on the great, a shifty
politician ready to write on either side for money, a rake,
a libertine, and a corrupt justice.

Perhaps no one ever really believed all this calumny
hurled against Fielding in the heat of party strife by oppo
nents whom he lashed into fury by his pitiless scorn and
irony; but he could not escape the immense damage that
these men did to the popular estimate placed upon his per
sonality and character. "There is no abuse," Hazlitt once
remarked, * ' so foul . . . but some part of it will stick. Ill
words break the charm of good deeds. Call a man names

136

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

all the year round, and at the end of the year (for no other
reason) his best friends will not care to mention his name.
It is no pleasant reflection that a man has been accused,
however unjustly, of a folly or a crime. We involuntarily
associate words with things; and the imagination retains
an unfavourable impression long after the understanding
is disabused." Literary history has no better example
of Hazlitt's observation than the case of Henry Fielding.
Hurd,'who met him in illness, described him as "a worn-out
rake." Edward Moore, who sometimes spent an evening
with him, took it for granted that his gout was the result
of " intemperance. " Smollett and Lady Mary, neither of
whom had ever seen the second Mrs. Fielding, called her
"a cook-maid"; and Horace Walpole, on the authority of
Eigby, gave her a worse name, because she was seated at
a table with Henry Fielding. They were all only repeating
what the newspapers had said many times over. Murphy
knew more than they of Fielding, incomplete as that knowl
edge was. His acquaintance with him began after that
dangerous illness which followed the publication of "Tom
Jones"; he was a witness of the vicious attacks upon
Fielding while conducting "The Covent-Garden Journal";
and he was aware that they proceeded from malice and
envy. But Fielding's early career was a blank to him; and
for that he depended, like others of his time, upon hearsay.
It was doubtless to Fielding's advantage that his biography
was written some years after his death, when the harsher
lines in his portrait were less insisted upon, when the notion
that Fielding was a reprobate was yielding to the view
of him as a great genius addicted to follies more than to
positive vices. In this milder atmosphere, Murphy sat
down to his essay on Fielding. The old phantom, however,
intruded upon Murphy's vision, and it has intruded upon
the vision of all his successors.

•Hazlitt, "Works," edited by Waller and Glover, 1904, XII, 371.

137

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

As he was bound to do, Murphy struck at the phantom
with the declaration that Fielding's enemies always began
with some misrepresentation or some discolouring of facts,
and then from these really false premises drew, with pre
tended reluctance, conclusions "to the utter destruction
of his moral character." It is not true, he says, that Field
ing was a corrupt justice; and "though disposed to gal
lantry by his strong animal spirits, and the vivacity of his
passions, he was remarkable for tenderness and constancy
to his wife, and the strongest affection for his children.''
Instead of quarrelling with his father as was sometimes
charged, "he . . . was never wanting in filial piety, which,
his nearest relations agree, was a shining part of his char
acter." His good nature, wit, and humour made for him
friends everywhere. Himself firm and sincere in all his
private attachments, he was grieved when anyone in whom
he placed his trust proved a dissembler. He was kind and
generous. Neither in his life nor in his works did he ever
betray the interests of virtue and religion. Though his
career was attended by disappointments, sickness, poverty,
and bereavements, they could not subdue him ; on the con
trary, difficulties "only rouzed him to struggle through
them with a peculiar spirit and magnanimity." "In
short," says Murphy in his summary, "our author was
unhappy, but not vicious in his nature; in his understand
ing lively, yet solid; rich in invention, yet a lover of real
science ; an observer of mankind, yet a scholar of enlarged
reading; a spirited enemy, yet an indefatigable friend; a
satirist of vice and evil manners, yet a lover of mankind;
an useful citizen, a polished and instructive wit ; and a
magistrate zealous for the order and welfare of the
community which he served."

It is to Murphy's honour that he removed several false
imputations against the character of Fielding. But by that
peculiar psychology which, with rare exception, has always

138

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

been applied to Fielding, Murphy eventually turned most
of his virtues into imperfections, follies, and vices. Nor
was he at all troubled by contradictory statements in dif
ferent parts of his essay, provided his rhetoric satisfied
him. Though learned, we are told, Fielding's mind was
i never properly disciplined by severe study. This is said
of a man whose works from the very beginning of his career
give evidence of that wide reading which afterwards be
came vast. It is doubtful if Eton had ever sent out a boy
with a better knowledge and appreciation of the classics.
Fielding appears in Murphy's essay as both "patient" and
"impatient" of disappointments. He was "above passion
ate attacks" on his enemies and at the same time harsh
and severe towards them. He was both good-natured and
"unhappy" — that is, peevish — in temper. His generosity,
praiseworthy in itself, led him into "imprudence" and
"prodigality." He squandered both his own patrimony
and his wife's fortune. Having exhausted his finances, he
lost that high sense of honour which he displayed when he
had money in his pocket, and wrote anything that he could
in the course of a few hours, in utter contempt of what the
public might think of it. At one time it was a play; at
another time it was a pamphlet or a newspaper. His social
qualities "brought him into high request with the men of
taste and literature, and with the voluptuous of all ranks."
With these men he wasted time that might have been
better employed in his profession and "launched wildly
into a career of dissipation." At length "excesses of
pleasure" and "midnight watchings" ruined the robust
constitution with which nature endowed him.

Such was the portrait of Fielding as redrawn by his first
biographer. Relieved of all the darker vices, Fielding ap
pears as a man of follies which should be lamented rather
than condemned, a man of quick sensations which his will
was not strong enough to control. The revised portrait

139

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

is nevertheless quite impossible. So long as Murphy relied
on his personal knowledge, he wrote with a sure hand; he
knew what he was about when he resented with spirit the
aspersions cast upon Fielding's character. But in place
of the old malicious stories, he substituted a collection of
lighter anecdotes which he had heard of Fielding's younger
days. Around a personality out of the ordinary run piquant
anecdotes always gather. They may bear some slight
relation to truth, or they may bear none at all ; their interest
lies in the fact that they reflect the popular conception of
the man about whom they are related. They should never
be admitted into a biography without stating precisely what
they are. Murphy's method was just the reverse of this.
His anecdotes all belong to the earlier part of Fielding's
career about which he knew nothing and about which he
took no pains to discover the facts. He dressed them up
with details having the appearance of truth and then pro
ceeded to base upon them the story of the wild and dissi
pated career of an unlucky author.

Several of these anecdotes were employed by Murphy, in
combination with reckless statements, to illustrate the
rapidity with which hunger and thirst drove Fielding's pen.
"Tho' such a writer as Mr. Congreve," we are told, "was
content in his whole life to produce four comedies and one
tragedy, yet the exigence of our author's affairs required
at his hand no less than eight entire plays, besides fifteen
farces, or pieces of a subordinate nature," most of which
were the work of six or seven years. A less number, it is
implied, would have meant starvation. "Pasquin" espe
cially, Murphy says, "came from the pen of an author in
indigence." This example is the very worst that Murphy
could have chosen for his purpose. As a matter of fact
Fielding was at the height of his dramatic fame when he
wrote * * Pasquin. ' ' The play ran for more than sixty nights.
Mrs. Charke, who was in the original cast, afterwards

140

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

referred to that season as the most prosperous in her career.
It may be assumed that Fielding, the manager of the com
pany, shared in the profits which he dispensed, to say noth
ing of his numerous benefit nights. Yet Murphy will have
it that Fielding derived from his plays "but small aids
towards his subsistence." From "our Author's own
account," the biographer adds, Fielding received hardly
fifty pounds for "The Wedding Day"; but he fails to state
that this comedy was among Fielding's least successful
pieces. The truth is that Fielding, between the ages of
twenty-three and thirty, put on the stage a full score of
plays. Some were damned ; others were immensely popular.
With their success and failure, he experienced, perhaps in
an unusual degree, the ups and downs of a practising
dramatist. He nevertheless supported himself and was
able to marry.

If his pockets ran empty, the young playwright, says
Murphy, "would instantly exhibit a farce or a puppet-show
in the Haymarket theatre, which was wholly inconsistent
with the profession he had embarked in." Of this state
ment every phrase is untrue. Fielding never produced a
puppet-show. Apparently Murphy had in mind "The
Author's Farce," to which was attached "A Puppet-Show,
called the Pleasures of the Town. ' ' The continuation, how
ever, was not a puppet-show except in name ; it was a satire
on the reigning follies. The profession to which Murphy
refers was the law. Fielding's so-called puppet-show was
first performed at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket in
March, 1730 ; he entered upon the study of law in November,
1737, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1740. Subse
quently two old plays — a comedy and a farce — which had
never been performed were brought out for him at Drury
Lane. That is all the connection Fielding had with the
stage, except as its critic, after he took up his new pro-

141

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

fession. He avoided the very inconsistency with which his
biographer charged him.

1 'When he had contracted," asserts Murphy, "to bring
on a play, or a farce, it is well known by many of his friends
now living, that he would go home rather late from a tavern,
and would, the next morning, deliver a scene to the players
written upon the papers which had wrapped the tobacco,
in which he so much delighted." Three mornings, it is
added, were generally sufficient for a farce. If Murphy had
considered this anecdote, he would have seen that it attrib
uted to Fielding a physical impossibility. No man who
ever lived could have written in three mornings any one of
Fielding's plays except "Eurydice Hiss'd" or "Phaeton
in the Suds ' ' ; and those pieces are not plays ; they are only
brief dramatic entertainments. No man who ever lived
could have smoked in three mornings enough tobacco to
supply the wrappers necessary to the feat; for a play of
average length it would have meant, according to a calcu
lation made by Mr. Dickson, nearly two hundred pipes each
morning. This is the humorous way he makes it out : * * Two
ounces of tobacco can be properly wrapped in a paper
8x8 inches. The tobacco will fill an ordinary pipe twenty-
eight times. Fielding's ordinary hand contained seven
words to the square inch. The paper had sixty-four square
inches, and so would contain 448 words to a side, or 896
words if written on both sides. ' The Old Debauchees ' con
tains about 18,000 words ; so it would require twenty pack
ages to produce enough paper, even if written upon both
sides, for this play, or a total of 560 pipefuls. As Fielding
is reported to have taken but three days to produce some
of his plays, he would be required to consume 186 pipefuls
a day. ' ' The shortest farce, I may add, that Fielding ever
wrote would have required fifty pipes a morning, and the
longest five or six times that number. Thirty-five or

142

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

forty pipes should be a good day's work for the hardest
smoker.

His plays once written out under the inspiration of
tobacco, Fielding could not be induced, it is said further,
to alter them. This assertion Murphy illustrated by an
anecdote concerning the first performance of "The Wed
ding Day," according to which Garrick pleaded with the
author, while the play was in rehearsal, to omit a certain
passage in his role, fearing that it would displease the
audience. Fielding's answer was: "No, d-mn 'em; if the
scene is not a good one, let them find that out." "Accord
ingly," says Murphy, "the play was brought on without
alteration, and, just as had been foreseen, the disappro
bation of the house was provoked at the passage before
objected to ; and the performer, alarmed and uneasy at the
hisses he had met with, retired into the green-room, where
the author was indulging his genius, and solacing himself
with a bottle of champain. He had by this time drank
pretty plentifully; and cocking his eye at the actor, while
streams of tobacco trickled down from the corner of his
mouth, 'What's the matter, Garrick?' says he, 'what are
they hissing now?' 'Why the scene that I begged you to
retrench ; I knew it would not do, and they have so fright
ened me, that I shall not be able to collect myself again the
whole night.' 'Oh! damn 'em/ replies the Author, 'they
HAVE found it out; have they?' It is not explained how
Fielding could chew tobacco and drink champagne simul
taneously. That would have been a piece of dexterity worth
seeing. The absurd anecdote obviously had its origin in a
facetious prologue written and spoken by Macklin, in which
Fielding is represented as drinking behind the scenes in
order to brace himself against the possible failure of his
comedy. It was all a jest which Murphy did not under
stand. Written before the first performance of the play,
the prologue could not have described anything that

143

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

actually occurred on that night. Indeed, it is doubtful
whether Fielding was in the green-room at all, for his wife
was then very ill. So far as we know, the objections which
were made to some passages in the comedy came, not from
Garrick, but from the censor, all of which Fielding removed
without remonstrance. If Garrick had fears for any part
of the dialogue assigned to him, we may be sure that he
struck it out on his own responsibility, for that was his
way. The anecdote has not the slightest foundation in fact.
Because Fielding had a quick mind and a facile pen,
Murphy jumped to the conclusion that he was a careless
writer. There were times when Fielding was forced to let
his work go before it completely satisfied him, but he was by
instinct and training a thorough artist. A case in point is
this very "Wedding Day," the story of which is told in
that "Preface" to the "Miscellanies" which Murphy did
not deign to reprint. Though the old comedy was accept
able to Garrick just as it stood, it appeared to Fielding to
have so many faults that he resolved to expend upon its
revision, not three mornings and the fumes of tobacco, but
an entire week, working "night and day." Unfortunately
the design was not carried out owing to Fielding's alarm
over the grave condition of his wife. He postponed for
another season what he was unable to do then. It was
always Fielding's custom, whenever a play met with partial
approval, to make it still better. Such, for example, was
the history of "The Author's Farce" and of "Tom Thumb
the Great." On some of the comedies — "The Modern
Husband," for instance — he laboured, off and on, for
months, and even then felt that he had not succeeded as
well as he hoped. Other plays, like "Don Quixote in Eng
land," were laid by for years. In a word, Fielding's dra
matic career gave him continuous practice in alterations
and readjustments. The same artistic sense of course
guided him in his novels and pamphlets. And yet, in the

144

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

face of Fielding's direct statement that "Tom Jones" cost
him "some thousands of hours," Murphy implies that the
novel was composed as a mere amusement while the author
was administering justice at the Bow Street court and
warning the public in pamphlets against crime. Fielding
took the oaths as a justice of the peace for Westminster on
October 26, 1748, and assumed the duties of his office six
weeks later. "Tom Jones" appeared on the twenty-eighth
of the following February. Hence the novel, according to
Murphy, was composed and put through the press within
the space of four months at the longest. This certainly
would be rapid work requiring the stimulus of an immense
amount of tobacco. Had Murphy cared to know the facts,
he might have learned that two or three years were ex
pended on that novel and that none of the legal pamphlets
were written until months after its publication.

On a par with these absurdities is the story of the manner
in which Fielding squandered his own and his wife's for
tune. After his marriage to Miss Cradock, Fielding re
tired, says Murphy, to a farm at East Stour which "de
volved to him" on the death of his mother "about that
time." It was then, we are informed, Fielding's intention
to bid farewell to the stage and all the follies of the town.
"But unfortunately," Murphy goes on to say, "a kind of
family-pride here gained an ascendant over him, and he
began immediately to vie in splendour with the neighbour
ing country squires. With an estate not much above two
hundred pounds a year, and his wife's fortune, which did
not exceed fifteen hundred pounds, he encumbered himself
with a large retinue of servants all clad in costly yellow
liveries. For their master 's honour, these people could not
descend so low as to be careful in their apparel, but in a
month or two were unfit to be seen; the squire's dignity
required that they should be new-equipped; and his chief
pleasure consisting in society and convivial mirth, hospital-

145

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

ity threw open his doors, and, in less than three years,
entertainments, hounds and horses entirely devoured a
little patrimony, which, had it been managed with oeconomy,
might have secured to him a state of independence for the
rest of his life."

An establishment such as Murphy describes in this pas
sage would have been impossible at East Stour. Five or
six servants, the number General Fielding employed when
he held the estate, were quite sufficient to manage the farm
and household. There were no neighbouring squires who
lived in splendour. The rich man among them was a miser,
and the rest were men of moderate means. All that Murphy
says is fiction with just enough alloy of fact to give it the
semblance of truth. Fielding had no fortune to waste. His
allowance of £200 a year from his father had long since
ceased, if indeed he ever received it. Nor had he yet come
into possession of the annuities bequeathed to him and his
wife by his uncle George, if indeed he ever came into pos
session of them. On the death of his mother in 1718, her
estate at East Stour, valued at £150 a year, was placed in
trust for the education of her children. As there were six
of them, Henry's share was only £25 a year. Not " about
that time," but nearly seventeen years later, on November
28, 1734, he married Charlotte Cradock, who by the death
of her mother in the following February inherited a small
fortune of uncertain amount. During two of the next three
years when Murphy has him carousing at East Stour, he
was manager of the Little Theatre in the Haymarket,
presenting "Pasquin" and "The Historical Register" to
crowded houses. For some time, Fielding had been spend
ing a part of the intervals between the dramatic seasons
at East Stour, which was his legal residence. This practice
he probably continued after his marriage until the final
disposal of the farm there in 1738, the year subsequent to
the passage of the Licensing Act and his enrolment at the

146

Middle Temple. Neither his own nor his wife 's estate was
consumed in riotous living ; they contributed to the support
of his family while he was studying law; for this purpose
the combined income proved inadequate and he was forced
into journalism ; he met the situation like a man.

But the hard facts of Fielding's life did not interest
Murphy. So he put fiction in place of them. The main part
of his story about Fielding the country squire was evidently
taken from the account related in " Amelia" of Captain
Booth's disastrous experiments in farming. Booth set up
a coach which was his ruin. Hence Fielding must have done
likewise with the same result. Other details, as was once
pointed out by Leslie Stephen, were derived from a pam
phlet on the career of a Robert Feilding, commonly known
as ''Beau Feilding" and ''Handsome Feilding," a rake who
survived from the reign of Charles the Second into that of
Queen Anne. According to the old tales, this notorious
namesake of a former age squandered his own and his
wife's property; and becoming a justice of the peace for
Westminster, he "hired a coach, and kept two footmen
clothed in yellow," in order to awaken the curiosity of the
crowd. It is difficult to believe that Murphy deliberately
transferred this anecdote from one man to another. He
probably had heard it told of Henry Fielding, and just took
it because it enabled him to add one more touch to a vivid
portrait. Fielding's great misfortune was not that his first
biographer was positively dishonest ; it was rather that he
was a credulous blunderer of redundant imagination, ready
to believe any story he heard and capable of adding to it
fresh hues.

A number of anecdotes, similar to those which Murphy
told, floated down the century and took lodgment in maga
zines, in gossipy biographies of various persons, and in
collections such as John Nichols's monumental "Literary
Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century" and W. H. Pyne's

147

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

"Wine and Walnuts," published under the pseudonym of
"Ephraim Hardcastle." Most of these later anecdotes are
so clearly apocryphal that it would be an insult to the intel
ligence of the reader to repeat them. There are, however,
two which passed muster with Nichols and which on his
authority have been generally accepted.

The first anecdote is a piece of conversation between
Henry Fielding and the Earl of Denbigh of his time.

" 'Why is it, Harry,' the Earl inquires, 'that your branch
of the family spells the name Fielding, whereas mine spells
it F eilding.'

" 'I cannot tell, my Lord,' answers Harry, 'except it be
that my branch of the family were the first that knew how
to spell.' "

This is an excellent repartee, quite worthy of Fielding, and
I have not hesitated to admit it earlier in this biography.
Still, the conversation probably never took place. The story
was told to Nichols by Dr. Kippis, who received it, as is
usual in such cases, from another friend. The fact is that
neither branch of the family had yet adopted an exclusive
orthography. While Henry signed himself Fielding, his
father and some of his cousins held to F eilding; and the
book-plate of a preceding Earl of Denbigh, engraved in
1703, bears the name of Basil Fielding.

The second anecdote, which Nichols quoted from "The
Gentleman's Magazine" for August, 1786, was intended
to illustrate Fielding's generosity at the expense of his
integrity. Fielding left unpaid, it is said, for a long time,
the parochial taxes due on his house in Beaufort Buildings
in the Strand. One day the collector appeared and told
him that there could be no further procrastination. Seeing
the visitor meant business, Fielding had recourse to Tonson
the bookseller, who gave him ten or twelve guineas in ad
vance payment on a book or pamphlet which he agreed to
write for him. On the way home with the cash, he fell in

148

THE SHADOW OF ARTHUR MURPHY

with an old school friend who was completely strapped,
and took him to a neighbouring tavern for dinner. There
they sat and talked together of old times through most of
the night. When Fielding heard the pitiful tale of his
friend's distresses, he concluded that his own were as
nothing when compared with them, and in quick response
to his emotions emptied all the gold he had received from
Tonson into the poor gentleman's pocket. A little before
dawn, Fielding parted with his nameless friend and set out
towards home, "greater and happier than a monarch,"
where he was greeted by his sister Sarah, who told him that
the collector had twice called since he left and was insistent
upon the immediate payment of the taxes. "Friendship,"
replied Harry, "has called for the money and had it; — let
the collector call again."

It is never safe to put into an anecdote so many details
as we have here. The only period when Sarah Fielding
could have been managing her brother's household was
between the death of his first wife and his second marriage ;
that is, between November, 1744, and November, 1747.
Neither then nor at any other time, did he publish through
Tonson. Nor did he ever, so far as can be ascertained, have
a house in the Beaufort Buildings, now the site of Savoy
Court leading to the Savoy Hotel, where a tablet commemo
rates the place of Fielding's supposed .residence. Still, it
was not until recently that the legend was completely ex
ploded.* Mr. J. Paul de Castro, a London barrister, in
following up a piece of litigation in which Fielding was
involved in 1745 as surety and counsel, discovered, as I have
already related, that he was then living in Old Boswell
Court in the parish of St. Clement Danes. An examination
of the original rate-books of the parish, made by Mr.
de Castro, shows that Fielding regularly paid his taxes —
either quarterly or semi-annually according to the needs

* "Notes and Queries," 12 S. I, 264 (April 1, 1916).

•149

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

of the parish. These Fielding entries begin in the last
quarter of 1744 and terminate in the last quarter of 1747;
in other words, they exactly cover the period from the
death of Charlotte Fielding to his marriage with Mary
Daniel, when he took a house at Twickenham. The over
seers of the poor note in their "Accompts" that some of
Fielding's neighbours were in arrears, but his own name
occurs nowhere in the list of these delinquents. Moreover,
Fielding was regarded at that time as good for a bond
of £400, which he paid when left in the lurch by Dr. Collier.
Instead of failing to meet his obligations, he appears
throughout all these transactions a man of strict integrity.
As in this case, Fielding anecdotes, when they can be thor
oughly tested, almost always reverse the truth. On the
whole, those which were fabricated by the popular imagi
nation subsequent to Murphy's biography are less worthy
of credence than his, for in his there is sometimes a trace
of fact. Fielding did indeed assist his friends, old and new,
to the extent of his power ; but he did not neglect his taxes.
Nevertheless, all the anecdotes about Fielding, whatever
their source, are essentially false. They have amused
generations of readers who have supposed that they de
picted the real characteristics of Fielding; whereas they
depict his characteristics in distortion or not at all.

150

CHAPTER XXXII

THE FAME OF FIELDING

OLD CONTROVERSIES OVER FIELDING 'S ART AND MORALITY

Except for anecdotes, very little purporting to give fresh
information about Fielding found its way into print for
many years after Murphy's performance. I do not mean
that there was nothing. His brother John, on every occa
sion that offered, wrote of him as an upright judge; and
Lyttelton, who also repelled attacks on his character, made
a remark to James Beattie, author of "The Minstrel,"
which the poet happily recorded. In the course of a con
versation, Beattie asked Lyttelton for particulars about
Pope, Swift, and other wits whom he had intimately known,
and then put some questions relating to the author of l i Tom
Jones." Quickly came the response: " Henry Fielding, I
assure you, had more wit and humour than all the persons
we have been speaking of put together."* With more
reserve wrote James Harris, who saw much of Fielding in
London and Salisbury. This learned man, whom Dr. John
son described as a prig and coxcomb, did not quite approve
of Fielding's free association with people on the streets
or in the shops — of his stopping to talk with mantua-
makers or watermen, for example. Harris's reminiscent
passage, from which I have already quoted phrases, is one
of the latest that came from anyone who had actually talked
and done business with Fielding. After remarking that
* ' a witty friend of mine, who was himself a dramatic writer,

* James Beattie, "Dissertations, Moral and Critical," 1783, p, 571.

151

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

used pleasantly, tho' perhaps rather freely, to damn the
man, who invented fifth Acts, ' ' Harris added in the formal
style for which he was distinguished :

"So said the celebrated HENRY FIELDING, who was a
respectable person both by Education and Birth, having
been bred at Eton School and Ley den, and being lineally
descended from an Earl of Denbigh.

"His JOSEPH ANDREWS and TOM JONES may be called
Master-pieces in the COMIC EPOPEE, which none since have
equalled, tho' multitudes have imitated; and which he was
peculiarly qualified to write in the manner he did, both
from his Life, his Learning, and his Genius.

"Had his Life been less irregular (for irregular it was,
and spent in a promiscuous intercourse with persons of all
ranks) his Pictures of Human kind had neither been so
various, nor so natural.

"Had he possest less of Literature, he could not have
infused such a spirit of Classical Elegance.

"Had his Genius been less fertile in Wit and Humour,
he could not have maintained that uninterrupted Pleas
antry, which never suffers his Reader to feel fatigue."

There are also several facts and incidents to be dis
covered in unexpected places such as Wraxall's "Me
moirs"; they are of interest, but they rarely concern the
personality of Fielding. Murphy, it was generally thought,
had done his work well. His essay was reprinted, with
numerous editions of Fielding, either in full or in abridg
ments made by hack-writers in the service of booksellers.
Naturally his portrait of Fielding was more and more
taken for granted as the novelist's friends one by one dis
appeared and his own figure receded into the past. Interest
in Fielding the man, though it still continued, was subor
dinated for a time to interest in his works. Critics and
moralists made them the subject of essays and lectures.

* J. Harris, "Philological Inquiries," in "Works," 1781, III, 163-164.

152

OLD CONTROVERSIES

Aspirants for literary fame imitated them. His novels
were translated into French, German, and other languages.
People became warm over the question whether the laurel
should go to Eichardson, Fielding, or Smollett. This was
the first period of Fielding's posthumous fame.

No controversy arose over Fielding's verse. Not only
was none of it, except a bare specimen, reprinted by Murphy,
but "The Monthly Review" assured the public that it had
all * ' been disapproved by Mr. Fielding himself, " as ' ' crude
and unfinished. ' ' Work thus doubly condemned by author
and biographer was not likely to meet with much favour.
In the circumstances, only the most curious would search
for Fielding's poems in the old volumes of the "Miscel
lanies." Of course the author himself, though he put no
high value upon his poems, never really "disapproved"
of them, for he collected and edited most of them. Time
has since quietly done him ample justice. It is now agreed
that Fielding, as he himself well knew, was not a poet, but
that he was a light and graceful versifier, becoming heavy
when he became serious. The late Frederick Locker-
Lampson included in his anthology of society verse called
"Lyra Elegantiarum" the two epistles to Sir Robert
Walpole, the lines on a halfpenny, and one of the Celia
poems. No other selection from Fielding would have been
quite so suitable for such a volume. "The Roast Beef of
Old England" is certain of a long life. It is something to
have fixed in the language an old song like that.

Nor was the controversy very spirited over the plays,
for Murphy's opinion was in harmony with the general
view. Several of them continued to delight audiences every
year. Goldsmith, who saw "The Miser" and "The Mock
Doctor" in 1759, was generous in his praise of the manner
in which the leading parts were performed.! These two

*"The Monthly Keview" for May, 1762, XXVI, 365.
t "Bemarks on the Theatres," in "The Bee."

153

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

comedies and ''The Intriguing Chambermaid" and "Tom
Thumb" survived the eighteenth century; but the prevail
ing opinion was that most of Fielding's other plays be
longed to the past — to the freedom of speech and ridicule
which characterized the period before the Licensing Act, for
the passage of which he was held responsible. They had to
be made over for the new age. Accordingly, as we have seen,
Murphy set to work on "The Coffee-House Politician";
and even before Fielding's death, his friend Dr. Benjamin
Hoadly drew from his "Temple Beau" for "The Suspicious
Husband." A scrutiny of the drama for the fifty years
after Fielding's death would reveal a very free use of hints
and scenes from his plays.* In 1772, Dr. Arne, who in his
youth had assisted in transforming "Tom Thumb" into a
comic opera, wrote the music and perhaps the words of
* * Squire Badger, ' ' drawn from ' * Don Quixote in England. ' '
The burletta (as it was called) was performed at the Hay-
market theatre, and subsequently revived, with alterations,
under the title of "The Sot." Both were in verse. In
1773, William Kenrick, Fielding's old enemy, purloined a
play called "The Duellist" from "Amelia," the very novel
he had once outrageously ridiculed. His production reached
the stage only to be hissed off by an angry audience. On
the other hand, Kane O'Hara made a lucky hit in 1780 with
a new burletta founded upon "Tom Thumb." It had a
first run of fifteen nights. Doubtless O'Hara 's songs
added to the entertainment, but he made only one alteration
in the plot. Instead of all the characters being slain or
poisoned for good in the last scene, Tom Thumb leaps from
the cow's mouth at the command of Merlin, and all the dead
are restored to life. Following the first night, "The Lon
don Chronicle" pronounced the original play "the best
and most successful dramatic ridicule that ever appeared
on the stage." "The burlesque," it went on to say, "is

* For several of these plays not mentioned here, see the bibliography.

154

OLD CONTROVERSIES

more genuine than in any other production of the kind,
because the ridicule is invariably levelled against actual
defects in dramatic composition. . . . The humour of it is
also infinitely more natural and easy, as was sufficiently
proved by the unceasing laugh which it produced through
the whole of its performance." "Tom Thumb," we see,
still exerted upon the audience the old power which it had
when Swift laughed for the second time in his life; but it
was necessary to adjust it to new dramatic conditions.

"Pasquin," too, was relished at that time. This piece
of dramatic satire had not been performed, I think, since
the passage of the Licensing Act; but it was still read.
Joseph Warton thought it "an admirable picture" of the
folly and meanness of an election canvass, containing amid
much trash ' ' the truest humour. ' 'f One day Fanny Burney
and her father, a little wearied by reading aloud the senti
mental and elegant Berquin, had recourse to "Pasquin,"
she says, "to put us in better spirits. And so we laughed."
As Miss Burney discovered, neither "Pasquin" nor any
other of Fielding's satires is quite suitable to the family
circle. She very properly remarks: "I must own I too
frequently meet with disgust in all Fielding's dramatic
work, to laugh with a good heart even at his wit, excellent
as it is; and I should never myself think it worth wading
through so much dirt to get at. Where any of his best
strokes are picked out for me, or separately quoted, I am
always highly pleased, and can grin most cordially; but
where I hear the bad with the good, it preponderates too
heavily to suffer my mind to give the good fair play."$
"Pasquin," like the rest, had to be relieved of its dross;
and the work was done by a master hand. Undergoing a

•"The London Chronicle," Oct. 3-5, 1780.

t "An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope," II, 1782, p. 126.
t Letter to Mrs. Phillips, Oct. 3, 1783, in "Diary and Letters of Madame
D'Arblay," 1904, II, 226.

155

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

sea-change, "Pasquin" emerged as Sheridan's ''Critic."
All the politics of the old piece disappeared; all that had
died with Sir Robert Walpole; the general situation of
author and critic at odds, however, remained along with
some close resemblances in the dialogue. Not to go into
details of differences, "The Critic" is the production of a
dramatist of the first order taking his cue from a wit of
equal brilliance who found the restraints of the drama
irksome, who broke through them and sometimes wrote a
novel when he thought he was writing a comedy.

Several other good things passed from Fielding to
Sheridan, from the great novels as well as from the plays.
That any of them should have come from the novels is a
little strange, for Sheridan once expressed a preference for
Sidney's "Arcadia" over all the novels of Fielding and
Smollett, saying : * ' For my own part, when I read for enter
tainment, I had much rather view the characters of life as
I would wish they were than as they are: therefore I hate
novels and love romance." But "Joseph Andrews" and
"Tom Jones" abound in dramatic situations and dramatic
characters, which caught the eye of Sheridan. "Did ever
poet, dramatist, or novel-writer," Samuel Rogers asked,
"devise a more effective incident than the falling of the
rug in Molly Seagrim's bedroom? Can any thing be more
happily ludicrous, when we consider how the actors in that
scene are connected with each other ? It probably suggested
to Sheridan the falling of the screen in 'The School for
Scandal.' "f Mrs. Malaprop in "The Rivals" clearly de
rives from Mrs. Slipslop either directly or through char
acters like Termagant in Murphy's "Upholsterer"; and
at the first performance of "The School for Scandal," it

•"Letter to Grenville," Oct. 30, 1772, in "Sheridan, a Biography," by
W. Fraser Rae, New York, 1896, I, 234-235.

t ' ' Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers, ' ' edited by Dyce,
1887, p. 230.

156

OLD CONTROVERSIES

was observed that Joseph and Charles Surface, though
quite different in many respects, were the Blifil and Tom
Jones of the new piece.* All that now remains of Fielding's
plays for the stage is what was taken over by Sheridan.
Except in private, the best of them could no more be per
formed now than could "The Beggar's Opera." Gay and
Fielding belong to a far distant past, when follies and vices
of a corrupt society could be depicted directly without
affronting the public sense of propriety. Both fought —
Fielding the more strenuously — for the perfect freedom of
the stage, and both lost. Since Fielding went down in the
conflict there has never been any chance for debate on a
question which was settled by law and custom. His plays,
however, will surely be read more and more as time goes
on, for they display his wit and humour in the full abandon
of youth.

The real controversy was over the novels. As soon as
Smollett had cooled his heels, he wrote handsomely, as I
have already quoted him, of his imaginary rival. Dr. Hill,
though he outrageously abused Fielding in the newspaper
warfare, really had the highest admiration for "Tom
Jones" and "Joseph Andrews." In his anonymous pam
phlet of self-praise, entitled "A Parallel between the Char
acters of Lady Frail and the Lady of Quality in Peregrine
Pickle" (1751), he awarded the honour of "inventing,"
so the phrase used to run, the modern novel to "Mr. Field
ing, one of the greatest genius's in his way, that this, or
perhaps any age or nation have produced. ' ' Even Horace
Walpole could, in a backhanded way, give Fielding his due.
But Richardson never became reconciled to Fielding's en
croachment upon domains which belonged to himself alone
by right of a prior invasion. After Richardson's death,
Dr. Johnson took up the cudgel for his deceased friend.
He always felt under great obligation to Richardson, who

» "The London Chronicle," May 8-10, 1777.

157

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

had, it is said, bailed him out of jail in the days of his
poverty. This and other great services a man of so sound
a heart could never forget. Accordingly, Johnson on every
opportunity acted as Richardson's champion against the
claims of an intruder.

What Johnson's unbiassed opinion of Fielding's novels
was no one quite knows, for he rarely had an unbiassed
opinion on any subject. I surmise that his first-hand knowl
edge of Fielding was very slight. He said himself that he
had never read " Joseph Andrews"; nor is there any evi
dence that he ever read "Tom Jones." He several times
told his friends that he read "Amelia" through "without
stopping." If this be so, it is the only book that Johnson
ever read through. The phrase in his mouth meant no
more than that he once turned the leaves of the novel and
then laid it aside for good. He saw enough, however, to
declare that "Amelia was the most pleasing heroine of all
the romances," Clarissa Harlowe not excepted. This was
probably Johnson's real opinion. When Miss Burney
published "Evelina," he was profuse in his praise of the
novel, exclaiming that both Richardson and Fielding
' ' would have been really afraid of her. ' ' And again :

' ' * Oh, Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith is the man ! ' cried he, laugh
ing violently. 'Harry Fielding never drew so good a
character ! — such a fine varnish of low politeness ! — such
a struggle to appear a gentleman!'

This was merely a rhetorical flourish, for the Mr. Smith
of "Evelina" in no way resembles any character in Field
ing's novels. In the interest of Richardson, Johnson called
Fielding "a blockhead" and "a barren rascal," meaning
thereby that Fielding's novels had no substance, that they
were superficial pictures of life, only "the shell" without
1 ' the kernel, ' ' when brought into comparison with Rich
ardson 's. There was as great a difference between the two

*" Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay," 1904, I, 72.

158

OLD CONTROVERSIES

writers, he often asserted, "as between a man who knew
how a watch was made, and a man who could tell the hour
by looking on the dial-plate." Fielding's novels, as I have
previously observed, were the watches which only the sharp-
eyed were able to read, while Richardson's were the dials
by which one might see at a glance where the sun stood in
the heavens. At other times he used to quote with appro
bation Richardson's remarks that "had he not known who
Fielding was, he should have believed he was an ostler"
because of the low breeding of his characters, and that * ' the
virtues of Fielding's heroes were the vices of a truly good
man." These striking phrases of Richardson he kept in
circulation and repeated them so often that he actually
believed Fielding's men were all libertines. His stubborn
misapprehension explains Johnson's terrible reprimand of
Hannah More for reading "Tom Jones." She wrote to
her sister in 1780 :

"I never saw Johnson really angry with me but once. . . .
I alluded rather flippantly, I fear, to some witty passage in
'Tom Jones'; he replied, 'I am shocked to hear you quote
from so vicious a book. I am sorry to hear you have read
it ; a confession which no modest lady should ever make. I
scarcely know a more corrupt work.' I thanked him for
his correction; assured him I thought full as ill of it now
as he did, and had only read it at an age when I was more
subject to be caught by the wit, than able to discern the
mischief. Of 'Joseph Andrews,' I declared my decided
abhorrence. He went so far as to refuse to Fielding the
great talents which are ascribed to him, and broke out into
a noble panegyric on his competitor Richardson; who, he
said, was as superior to him in talents as in virtue, and
whom he pronounced to be the greatest genius that had shed
its lustre on this path of literature."

The "Great Cham" of literature was altogether too

* W. Eoberts, "Memoirs of Hannah More," New York, 1835, I, 101.

159

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

violent to exert the influence lie intended in favour of
Richardson. Hannah More, then a mature spinster of
thirty-five, was evidently more frightened than convinced
by his outburst. Of others who were intimately associated
with him, several spoke well of Fielding's works. Mrs.
Elizabeth Montagu, the Blue Stocking, in an imaginary
conversation which she contributed to Lyttelton's "Dia
logues of the Dead" in 1760, makes a Modern Bookseller
describe to Plutarch those novels of Richardson and Field
ing which have taken the place of ancient biographies.*
Plutarch, after hearing of Clarissa's "perfect purity of
mind" and Sir Charles Grandison's "sentiments so exalted
as to render him equal to every public duty," inquires of
the Bookseller, who has just left the world, whether Rich
ardson has any compeer. To the question the Bookseller
replies :

"Yes, we have another writer of these imaginary His
tories; One who has not long since descended to these
regions; his Name is Fielding, and his works, as I have
heard the best judges say, have a true spirit of Comedy,
and an exact representation of Nature, with fine moral
touches. He has not indeed given lessons of pure and
consummate Virtue, but he has exposed Vice and Meanness
with all the powers of ridicule. ' '

From this estimate of Fielding, Mrs. Montagu was never
swerved by Dr. Johnson. In his very presence she declared
that Fielding was "admirable in novel- writing, " and re
ceived no rebuke, perhaps because she added that "he never
succeeded when he wrote for the stage" — a remark which
Dr. Johnson approved.

Likewise, Fanny Burney, though in the main a Richard-
sonian, continued to read Fielding in spite of Johnson's
tirades. In the preface to "Evelina," she dared mention
him along with Marivaux, Richardson, Smollett, and Dr.

* "Dialogues of the Dead," 1760, pp. 318-319.

160

OLD CONTROVERSIES

Johnson, as writers who had " saved the novel from con
tempt and rescued it from depravity." It was very pleas
ing to her to be told that her own novel surpassed anything
that Fielding ever wrote; and it was Mrs. Montagu's re
mark that he failed in the drama which led her and Dr.
Burney to discover for themselves whether the assertion
was true. Sir Joshua Reynolds, a member of Johnson's
own club, regarded ' * Tom Jones " as ' ' a work of the highest
merit";* and Goldsmith, though he no more than accorded
Fielding a place among the most reputable of modern
novelists, took from him the title of his first comedy, and
elsewhere did him the honour of imitation. Hazlitt rather
overstated the case when he said that Dr. Primrose is but
a variation on Parson Adams, and that the latter part of
"The Vicar of Wakefield" is "an almost entire plagiarism
from Wilson's account of himself, and Adams's domestic
history. "f Still, without "Joseph Andrews" there never
could have been "The Vicar of Wakefield." Finally,
"Johnson's excessive and inaccountable depreciation of
one of the best of writers that England has produced"
amazed Boswell, his famous biographer, at a time when
"Tom Jones" had "stood the test of public opinion with
such success, as to have established its great merit, both
for the story, the sentiments and the manners, and also
the varieties of diction." Boswell preferred "the neat
watches of Fielding" to "the large clocks of Richardson,"
and thought their dial-plates much brighter. "Fielding's
characters," he observes, "though they do not expand
themselves so widely in dissertation, are as just pictures of
human nature, and I will venture to say, have more striking
features, and nicer touches of the pencil." And on the
remark that Fielding's virtues were really vices, he justly

* Sir Joshua Keynolds 's ' ' Discourses, ' ' edited by Helen Zimmern, 1887,
pp. 222-223.

t "Standard Novels and Novelists," in "Collected Works," 1904, X, 34.

161

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

adds "that the moral tendency of Fielding's writings,
though it does not encourage a strained and rarely possible
virtue, is ever favourable to honour and honesty, and cher
ishes the benevolent and generous affections. He who is as
good as Fielding would make him, is an amiable member
of society."*

Only one of Johnson's well-known friends completely
agreed with him about Fielding. That person was Sir John
Hawkins, who had been associated with Johnson in the
early days on * ' The Gentleman 's Magazine. ' ' Educated as
an attorney, Hawkins became in the course of time a justice
of the peace for Middlesex, and the King duly knighted him
for his services. He was one of the original members of
Johnson's club. Hawkins wrote cantatas which were sung
at Vauxhall and Ranelagh; he wrote a history of music;
he wrote Johnson's will and ended his career by writing a
biography of the great man in rivalry with Boswell's.
Though Johnson declared him "an honest man at the
bottom," he was ill-mannered, ill-natured, and mean.
Whether Hawkins had a grudge against Fielding is not
known ; but he left a character-sketch of him which recalls
the vicious assaults of that old Argus of the Hundred Eyes
whom we have formerly met in this book. Probably John
son himself would have balked at the following description
of Fielding and his work:

"At the head of these [writers of fiction] we must, for
many reasons, place Henry Fielding, one of the most motley
of literary characters. This man was, in his early life, a
writer of comedies and farces, very few of which are now
remembered; after that, a practising barrister with scarce
any business; then an anti-ministerial writer, and quickly
after, a creature of the duke of Newcastle, who gave him a
nominal qualification of 1001. a year, and set him up as a
trading-justice, in which disreputable station he died. He

* "Boswell's Life of Johnson," edited by G. B. Hill, 1887, II, 49.

162

OLD CONTROVERSIES

was the author of a romance, intitled ' The history of Joseph
Andrews,' and of another, 'The Foundling, or the history
of Tom Jones,' a book seemingly intended to sap the
foundation of that morality which it is the duty of parents
and all public instructors to inculcate in the minds of young
people, by teaching that virtue upon principle is imposture,
that generous qualities alone constitute true worth, and that
a young man may love and be loved, and at the same time
associate with the loosest women. His morality, in respect
that it resolves virtue into good affections, in contradiction
to moral obligation and a sense of duty, is that of lord
Shaftesbury vulgarised, and is a system of excellent use in
palliating the vices most injurious to society. He was the
inventor of that cant-phrase, goodness of heart, which is
every day used as a substitute for probity, and means little
more than the virtue of a horse or a dog; in short, he has
done more towards corrupting the rising generation than
any writer we know of."

This is the ne plus ultra of malicious criticism. Per
haps it goes too far to be amusing ; whereas Johnson, whose
prejudices were honest enough, is always amusing. Horace
Walpole, on reading in Boswell that Johnson thought Gray
''dull," and disliked Prior, Swift, and Fielding, remarked:
"If an elephant could write a book, perhaps one that had
read a great deal would say that an Arabian horse is a very
clumsy, ungraceful animal. Pass to a better chapter ! ' 'f

There were also Smollettites, who degraded Fielding in
order to raise Smollett; but they are not so entertaining
as the Richardsonians because they were usually more fair-
minded. Thus Dr. John Moore, who wrote the first biog
raphy of the Scot, was without marked prejudices. A
compatriot of Smollett, he knew him well, having been his
lifelong friend and medical adviser. In his youth he had

* "The Works of Samuel Johnson," edited by Hawkins, 1787, I, 214-215.
t "Letters of Horace Walpole," edited by P. Toynbee, 1903, XIV, 439.

163

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

attended the lectures of Fielding's surgeon, William
Hunter, and had probably seen Fielding also. Moore was
known as the author of "Zeluco" (1786), a very popular
novel, written more in the line of Smollett than of Fielding.
In 1797, he published an edition of Smollett's works accom
panied by a biography and an essay on the commencement
and progress of romance. While he exalted Smollett, he
was impressed with "the great talents" displayed by "the
late Henry Fielding" in "Joseph Andrews" and especially
in the perfect workmanship of "Tom Jones." No Field-
ingite could have found much fault with Moore's whole
hearted estimate. Certainly the author of "Tom Jones"
received better treatment from Dr. Moore than he did from
Dr. Robert Anderson, another Scottish physician, who
brought out in 1800 a similar edition of Smollett's works
with a short memoir. On the great question at issue his
conclusion was that ' * after perusing the wire-drawn history
of 'Clarissa,' and the diffuse narrative of 'Tom Jones,' we
never quit them with so much reluctance as we feel in
closing the pages of Smollett, who, with less regularity of
fable, and without introducing so many observations of
a moral tendency, or so much of what may be called fine
writing, possesses, in an eminent degree, the art of rousing
the feelings and fixing the attention of his readers. ' '

The most ardent Smollettite in the South was William
Godwin, the father of Mrs. Shelley. Godwin began his
career as a nonconformist minister, but while still a young
man he lost his faith under the influence of the French
philosophers. His opinions, more radical than those of
any other reputable writer of the time except Baron
d'Holbach, were expressed in his "Political Justice"
(1793), where he denounced all the institutions of society.
Godwin was among the first of the English "perfecti-
bilians" — a philosophical sect that looked forward to a
perfect state of society, to a sort of millennium when there

164

OLD CONTROVERSIES

should be no houses of parliament, no courts of justice, no
church, no property rights, no marriage. In all his ways
of thinking he was just the opposite of the orthodox Field
ing, who championed the established order in church and
state with the zeal of a Burke. All that survived from
Godwin's nonconformist youth was a predilection for Scots
men. He was thus perfectly equipped to fall foul of Field
ing. This he did in ''The Enquirer" (1797), a series of
reflections on education, manners, and literature, of which
a section in the twelfth essay in the second part of the
treatise deals with the age of George the Second. Though
Godwin admitted that "Tom Jones," judged merely as a
piece of art, "is certainly one of the most admirable per
formances in the world," he had nothing but contempt for
its style and thought. These are Godwin's words:

"The style however is glaringly inferior to the con
stituent parts of the work. It is feeble, costive and slow.
It cannot boast of periods elegantly turned or delicately
pointed. The book is interspersed with long discourses of
religious or moral instruction; but these have no novelty
of conception or impressive sagacity of remark, and are
little superior to what any reader might hear at the next
parish-church. The general turn of the work is intended
to be sarcastic and ironical ; but the irony is hard, pedantic
and unnatural. . . . When Fielding delights us, he appears
to go out of himself. The general character of his genius,
will probably be found to be jejune and puerile."

By Fielding's "going but of himself," Godwin meant his
power to project himself into a Tom Jones or a Parson
Adams. Smollett he declared to be in most particulars
the direct reverse of Fielding. The Scot was as profound
as the Englishman was shallow. Again, these are the words
on Smollett:

"He has published more volumes, upon more subjects,
than perhaps any other author of modern date ; and, in all,

165

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

he has left marks of his genius. The greater part of his
novels are peculiarly excellent. He is nevertheless a hasty
writer ; when he affects us most, we are aware that he might
have done more. In all his works of invention, we find the
stamp of a mighty mind. In his lightest sketches, there is
nothing frivolous, trifling and effeminate. In his most
glowing portraits, we acknowledge a mind at ease, rather
essaying its powers, than tasking them. We applaud his
works; but it is with a profounder sentiment that we
meditate his capacity."

These parallels, in the manner of Plutarch, between
Smollett and Fielding, have never quite died out. One of
the most skilful was drawn up in 1821 by Sir Walter Scott
as an introduction to Smollett's novels for Ballantyne's
Novelists' Library. As a Scotsman, the author of "Waver-
ley" felt it a duty to prove, by well-balanced phrases, that
Smollett should be granted an equal rank with Fielding.
Here is an average passage in which Smollett gets the
better of the antithesis :

"If Fielding had superior taste, the palm of more bril
liancy of genius, more inexhaustible richness of invention,
must in justice be awarded to Smollett. In comparison
with his sphere, that in which Fielding walked was limited ;
and compared with the wealthy profusion of varied char
acter and incident which Smollett has scattered through
his works, there is a poverty of composition about his
rival. Fielding's fame rests on a single chef d'oeuvre; and
the art and industry which produced 'Tom Jones,' was
unable to rise to equal excellence in 'Amelia.' Though,
therefore, we may justly prefer 'Tom Jones' as the most
masterly example of an artful and well-told novel to any
individual work of Smollett; yet 'Roderick Random,'
'Peregrine Pickle,' and 'Humphry Clinker,' do each of
them far excel 'Joseph Andrews' or 'Amelia'; and, to de
scend still lower, 'Jonathan Wild,' or 'The Journey to the

166

OLD CONTROVERSIES

next World, ' cannot be put into momentary comparison with
'Sir Lancelot Greaves,' or 'Ferdinand Count Fathom.' :

Nothing more futile than this paragraph was ever written
by the great romancer. The most patriotic Scot of the
twentieth century would subscribe to none of the instances
given of Smollett's superiority over Fielding. Smollett
has been winnowed down to "Roderick Random" and
" Humphry Clinker." None of his other novels count any
longer in popular esteem, though a number of scenes in
"Peregrine Pickle" show his mind and art at the highest
point of their attainment.

The most zealous advocate of Smollett or Richardson
always conceded something in his case against Fielding.
Dr. Johnson, though he gave the palm to Richardson, could
find no heroine in his friend's novels so admirable as
Amelia. Sir John Hawkins in his attack on Fielding de
nounced also the entire brood of modern novelists. If he
placed the author of "Tom Jones" on a bad eminence, it
was one out-topping all others. Likewise Godwin and
Scott admired the wonderful constructive power displayed
in this masterpiece. In short, ' * Tom Jones, ' ' from the day
of its publication, was generally, though not invariably,
regarded as a most finished product of the human intellect.
The questions in dispute mostly lay outside its form and
structure; they concerned its characters, its humour, and
especially the morality of certain scenes and of the novel
as a whole. With "Tom Jones" were joined, in praise or
condemnation, "Amelia" and "Joseph Andrews." In
Godwin's view Fielding was a buffoon; while Joseph War-
ton, who had passed in youth two evenings with him, paid
a tribute to his learning, his "profound knowledge of man,"
and his "rich vein of humour," unequalled by any save
the world's greatest humorists.* In similar phrases,
James Beattie, who took his cue from Lord Lyttelton, de-

* "An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope," II, 1782, pp. 126, 404.

167

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

clared that Fielding "possessed more wit and humour, and
more knowledge of mankind, than any other person of
modern times." Most of all he liked Squire Western, Dr.
Harrison, and Parson Adams, "a character of masterly
invention, and, next to Don Quixote, the most ludicrous
personage that ever appeared in romance." Lord Mon-
boddo, the Scottish judge, who had also associated with
Lyttelton, was inclined to take exception to Fielding's
digressions with mock-heroics ; but had never read, he said,
any other book, ancient or modern, so alive with comic
characters as "Tom Jones." It was "an extraordinary
effort both of genius and art. ' Jf

And there is Gibbon, whose references to Fielding were
by no means confined to the eulogy involving a reputed
kinship to the House of Hapsburg. Though he was born
thirty years later than Fielding, he knew in his youth a
London which had not essentially changed since the novel
ist's death. He attended a course of lectures on anatomy
given by "Doctor Hunter" — either John or William, — and
thus may have had a more definite connection with Fielding
through this physician. In his "Autobiography," he
imitated the passage where Fielding plays with the fancy
that he may be read, in Gibbon's paraphrase, by "the
grandchildren of those who are yet unborn"; and in "The
Decline and Fall," he wrote of "Tom Jones" as "the
romance of a great master, which may be considered as the
history of human nature. ' ' And again, in his last word on
the novel he called it "the first of ancient or modern ro
mances." It was the massive completeness of "Tom
Jones, ' ' comparable to Gibbon 's own account of the decay
of an empire, that appealed to the historian.!

•" Dissertations, Moral and Critical," 1783, 571-573; and "Essays," 1776,
428, 586, 599, 685, 691.

t "Of the Origin and Progress of Language," 1776, III, 134-135, 298.

t See index to Gibbon's "Memoirs," edited by G. B. Hill, 1900; and the
' ' Decline and Fall of the Eoman Empire, ' ' edited by J. B. Bury, 1897, III, 363.

168

OLD CONTROVERSIES

On Fielding's morality were expressed the most diver
gent opinions. Hawkins, as we haye seen, discovered that
his orthodoxy had been contaminated by the weak phi
losophy of Lord Shaftesbury; whereas Godwin the icono
clast could see in his moral disquisitions only the most
commonplace homilies of a country parson. Bishop War-
burton linked Fielding with Marivaux among the foremost
writers "who have given a faithful and chaste copy of life
and manners." Vicesimus Knox, the head-master of Tun-
bridge School, found Fielding's scenes of real life equally
faithful and entertaining also; but he apprehended that
some of them might corrupt "a mind unseasoned by expe
rience."* Throwing the emphasis the other way, Hugh
Blair, the Presbyterian divine and rhetorician, felt that,
though Fielding's humour might not always be of "the
most refined and delicate kind," "the general scope of his
stories is favourable to humanity and goodness of heart, "f

As in these last two instances, there was usually some
qualifying clause when critics approached the conduct of
Fielding's characters. Their attitude reflected, in varying
degrees, the general run of public opinion. Colman made
over "the admirable novel of Tom Jones" into a comedy
called "The Jealous Wife," which met with "prodigious
success" at Drury Lane in the winter and spring of 1761.
The cast included Garrick, Palmer, Mrs. Pritchard, and
Mrs. Clive. Excepting the jealous couple, nearly all the
rest was taken from the novel; but Blifil is no longer a
hypocrite, and Tom has no intrigue with the Lady Bellaston
of the play. Eight years later, Joseph Reed, a less-known
dramatist, turned ' * Tom Jones ' ' into a comic opera for the
company at Covent Garden. Night after night, Shuter as
Squire Western kept the audience in continuous roar.
Reed, who was a Presbyterian rope-maker, refashioned

* "Essays, Moral and Literary," 1782, I, 69.

t "Lectures on Ehetoric and Belles Lettres," 1783, II, 409.

169

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

the plot of "the celebrated novel . . . replete with wit,
humour, and character," in accordance with extreme
nonconformist views. Squire "Western's most violent
oath is "Zounds"; Parson Supple, in order to avoid
offence to the clergy, is transformed into a country squire
who marries Diana Western instead of Mrs. Waters; and
Tom Jones, "stripped of his libertinism," becomes the
legitimate son of Squire All worthy's sister. By these
alterations, "Tom Jones" was brought into conformity
with "the refined taste of the present age."

A similar tendency to so-called refinement may be ob
served in the later imitations of Fielding's novels. Heaven
forbid that I should describe or merely enumerate here the
facetious histories, memoirs, and lives which followed imme
diately in the wake of ' ' Tom Jones. ' ' A few of them have
an interest in that they bear Fielding's own name on the
title-page. Such were "The History of Sir Harry Herald
and Sir Edward Haunch, by Henry Fielding, Esq." (1755),
and "The Life and Adventures of a Cat, by the late Mr.
Fielding" (1760). These and innumerable other imitations
are worthless, disgraceful alike to author and reader. But
George Crabbe the poet should never have destroyed a novel
which he wrote in the winter of 1801-1802 on the lines of
Fielding. Crabbe was an admirer of Fielding, whose in
fluence is apparent in the clergy of "The Parish Register" ;
and the poet-divine was known among his friends as a
second Parson Adams. In later life he argued all one
morning with the Scottish poet Campbell, trying in vain
to win him over from Smollett to Fielding.! The manu
script of his novel called "The Widow Grey," he burned
along with two others. It had a Dr. Allison, a benevolent

* See the author's preface to "Tom Jones, a Comie Opera," 1769; "Lloyd's
Evening Post," Jan. 13-16, 1769; and "St. James's Chronicle," Jan. 14-17,
1769.

t Een6 Huchon, ' ' George Crabbe and his Times, ' ' translated from the French
by Frederick Clarke, 1907, pp. 206-207, 394.

170

OLD CONTROVERSIES

gentleman, supposed to reflect Fielding's Dr. Harrison.
In lieu of this lost novel, we have one modelled on ''Tom
Jones" by Richard Cumberland the dramatist, entitled
"Henry," which appeared in 1795. There are twelve
books of it with introductory chapters on the history and
the art of fiction, on Fielding and the author's divergences
from his model. It was a work of "two full years." "The
inimitable composition of ' The Foundling, ' : ' Cumberland
remarks, "is fading away in some of its tints, though the
hand of the master, as the correct delineator of nature, will
be traced to all posterity." Cumberland aimed to give
the public a new Tom Jones, a virtuous young man who
resists Potiphar's wife; the result was a Joseph Andrews
taken seriously, as if Cumberland did not see the comedy
of the original. But the most significant fact is that the
character of Tom Jones was reworked so as to become
harmless.

Cumberland's fear, thus indirectly expressed, of the in
fluence of the real Tom Jones upon young readers kept
coming to the front in other writers. Hawkins, as I have
quoted him, declared that Fielding had corrupted an entire
generation. The whole subject was canvassed by Clara
Reeve, another novelist, in a sprightly dialogue called ' ' The
Progress of Romance. ' 'f Euphrasia and Sophronia are of
the opinion that the "mixed characters" of Fielding,
though virtue may predominate in them, do mischief to
"young men of warm passions and not strict principles"
in that such characters supply a shelter or excuse for con
duct not wholly exemplary. Hortensius, perhaps resenting
the personal insinuation, replies that in Fielding's works
"virtue has always the superiority she ought to have, and
challenges the honours that are justly due to her." With

* Initial chapter to Book V. See also ' ' Memoirs of Eichard Cumberland,
written by Himself," 2 vols., 1807.

t "The Progress of Eomance," 1785, I, 139-141.

171

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

this conclusion the ladies of classic names are persuaded
to agree, though somewhat against their will, for they still
prefer that characters should be so distinctly marked that
a reader may know at a glance which to admire and which
to condemn. Miss Reeve's quiet irony puts her among the
Fieldingites. On the other hand, Thomas Green of Ipswich,
who read Fielding's novels at the age of thirty, was dis
gusted, as he thought everybody else should be, with the
vulgarity of an author who could not soar higher "than the
lowest scenes of high life" and descended "con amore into
the vilest and most blasted depths of low life";* while
Thomas James Mathias, a satirist who scored Lewis's
"Monk" for its immoral scenes, recommended "Tom Jones,
that great comick Epick poem,"f to all who would improve
their minds and know life as it is. Jane Austen, like Miss
Burney and Hannah More, read Fielding in her youth, but
she never, so far as I remember, disclosed her personal
opinion of his works. In "Northanger Abbey," the
favourite novel of the girls is ' * The Mysteries of Udolpho, ' '
while Mrs. Moreland cares for none except "Sir Charles
Grandison." Only Jack Thorpe has looked into "Tom
Jones." Each of the company speaks in character; and
so the clever Jane Austen escapes without telling us what
we should like to know. In his earliest school-days, Words
worth read "all Fielding's works" along with "Don
Quixote," "Gil Bias," and parts of Swift, and in mature
life recalled with pleasure the advantages of this perfect
freedom, t It was much later when his sister Dorothy,
towards thirty years old, took down the volumes of Field
ing. Recording the fact in her diary under dates in Novem
ber, 1800, she makes no comment on "Tom Jones" and

•"Extracts from the Diary of a Lover of Literature," 1810, pp. 192,
198-199.

t ' ' The Pursuits of Literature, ' ' seventh edition, 1798, p. 59.

t ' ' Memoirs of William Wordsworth, ' ' by Christopher Wordsworth, Boston,
1851, I, 9-10.

172

OLD CONTROVERSIES

" Amelia," which she was then reading at Grasmere; but
observes that "the Michaelmas daisy droops, the pansies
are full of flowers. ' '

In contrast with the reticence of the demure Dorothy
Wordsworth, two very precocious boys spoke out with
delightful frankness. The one was George Canning, the
future wit, orator, and statesman, who conducted with a
group of friends at Eton a periodical called "The Micro
cosm," — the most readable publication of the kind ever
written by schoolboys. At the time Canning was but
seventeen years old. In an essay under the date of May
14, 1787, he offered an ingenious though false explanation
of how the novel derived from the romance, ending with a
general condemnation of both species of fiction, with the
exception of the works of Richardson and Fielding.
Though "there cannot be," he writes, "a more partial
admirer" of "Tom Jones" than himself, he thinks that
the novel is commonly put into the hands of children at
too early an age. That Tom "is a character," he explains,
"drawn faithfully from nature, by the hand of a master,
most accurately delineated, and most exquisitely finished,
is, indeed, indisputable. But is it not also a character, in
whose shades the lines of right and wrong, of propriety and
misconduct, are so intimately blended, and softened into
each other, as to render it too difficult for the indiscrimi-
nating eye of childhood to distinguish between rectitude and
error ?"f So on the whole it would be better, the boy con
cludes, for children to read "Sir Charles Grandison"
before taking up ' * Tom Jones ' ' at the ripe age, I suppose,
of sixteen or seventeen.

The other precocious boy came somewhat later; he was
Thomas Babington Macaulay. His father, Zachary Mac-
aulay, who belonged to an Evangelical body within the

* "Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth," edited by William Knight, 1897, 1, 57.
t Keprint of ' ' The Microcosm, ' ' 1835, p. 64.

173

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Church of England, edited "The Christian Observer," the
principal organ of his sect. These very strict people placed
all novelists under the ban as "the most fruitful source
both of individual and national vice. ' ' An especially rabid
article to this effect which appeared under the signature of
A. A. in "The Christian Observer" for August, 1815,
awakened the indignation of young Macaulay, who, despite
his father's protests, had read novels ever since he could
read at all. Tom was then only in his fifteenth year, rather
too young yet to cross swords with an antagonist of full
growth. The next year, however, he felt safe in entering
the lists with a direct and positive denial of everything
that A. A. had hurled against his favourite books. His hot
reply was published anonymously in his father's magazine
for December, 1816. "The man," declares the boy, "who
rises unaffected and unimproved from the picture of the
fidelity, simplicity, and virtue of Joseph Andrews and his
Fanny, and the parental solicitude of Parson Adams, must
possess a head and a heart of stone. ' ' On the larger ques
tion at issue, the lad of sixteen remarks : ' ' Perhaps it may
serve to console A. A., under his alarm for poor England,
that no age has been more fertile in deep philosophical and
scientific research, that in none has religion been more
reverenced at home or more widely diffused abroad — that
in none have our fair countrywomen . . . been more ac
tively benevolent than in the present. Severe indeed is the
cynic who would preclude the English ladies from any
lighter studies than Butler's Analogy and Hooker's Eccle
siastical Polity." This brilliant defence of Fielding and
the novel in general brought down upon the editor of ' ' The
Christian Observer," says Macaulay 's biographer, "the
most violent objurgations from scandalized contributors,
one of whom informed the public that he had committed the
obnoxious number to the flames, and should thenceforward

174

OLD CONTROVERSIES

cease to take in the magazine."* Before the tempest could
be stilled, Zachary Macaulay had to explain that the article,
as abhorrent to himself as to his readers, was sent in by
an anonymous contributor and inadvertently printed. Tom
confessed to the subterfuge, but could not be brought to
alter his opinion of Fielding, praise of whom had more
than all else raised the storm which threatened to over
whelm his father's periodical.

The question debated by these famous youngsters, by
Clara Eeeve, and by many others can never be settled to
the satisfaction of everybody. Not long ago ' ' Tom Jones ' '
was expurgated by a member of the Fielding family; and
more recently the trustees of a public library in England
incinerated their sole copy of the original novel. A very
moral professor of English literature in the University of
Pennsylvania once wrote for boys and girls an account
of our literature from Chaucer to Tennyson,! without even
mentioning Fielding's name; and long before him William
H. Brown of Boston published a novel called "Ira and
Isabella, ' ' in the preface to which he drew up a comparative
estimate of the greatest novelists; but in the list which
includes Defoe, Richardson, Smollett, and Sterne, there is
no Fielding, evidently because the author believed his
novels were not exactly suited "to allure the untutored
mind to the practice of virtue . . . and to deter it from
vice."! Similarly, Howells in his "Heroines of Fiction"
had no word for either Amelia or Sophia. So far as he was
concerned, they were non-existent. On the other hand,
Thackeray read "Joseph Andrews" in boyhood; and John
Oliver Hobbes (Mrs. Craigie, the novelist) thought that
"the epics of 'Tom Jones' and 'Amelia' ought to be given

* G. O. Trevelyan, < ' Life and Letters of Macaulay, ' » 1875, I, 68.

t ' ' Introduction to English Literature from Chaucer to Tennyson, ' ' by
Henry Reed, London, 3857.

t"Ira and Isabella; or the Natural Children," Boston, 1807. See "The
Nation" of New York for Dec. 23, 1915.

175

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

to every girl on her eighteenth birthday," on the ground
that they would save her from innumerable mistakes and
fears.* Not presuming to advise young ladies, Coleridge
gave Fielding a clean bill so far as his own sex was con
cerned. These are his famous words :

"I do loathe the cant which can recommend Pamela and
Clarissa Harlowe as strictly moral, though they poison the
imagination of the young with continued doses of tinct.
lyttae, while Tom Jones is prohibited as loose. I do not
speak of young women ; — but a young man whose heart or
feelings can be injured, or even his passions excited, by
aught in this novel, is already thoroughly corrupt. There
is a cheerful, sunshiny, breezy spirit that prevails every
where, strongly contrasted with the close, hot, day-dreamy
continuity of Richardson. Every indiscretion, every im
moral act, of Tom Jones (and it must be remembered that
he is in every one taken by surprise — his inward principles
remaining firm — ) is so instantly punished by embarrass
ment and unanticipated evil consequences of his folly, that
the reader's mind is not left for a moment to dwell or run
riot on the criminal indulgence itself. In short, let the
requisite allowance be made for the increased refinement
of our manners, — and then I dare believe that no young
man who consulted his heart and conscience only, without
adverting to what the world would say — could rise from
the perusal of Fielding's Tom Jones, Joseph Andrews, or
Amelia, without feeling himself a better man; — at least,
without an intense conviction that he could not be guilty
of a base act."f

* "Letters from a Silent Study," London, 1904, p. 229.

t "Complete Works of S. T. Coleridge," New York, 1884, IV, 380.

176

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE FAME OF FIELDING
FIELDING IN FEANCE AND GEKMANY

By this time Fielding had grown into fame across the
Channel. There is "a vulgar error" that he never counted
for much on the Continent, and especially in France, be
cause the manners which he depicted were so peculiarly
English that no foreigner could make anything out of his
characters. Nobody but an Englishman, it has been said
many times over, could understand him ; nobody could pos
sibly translate him. In some degree, all these statements
are true. A great writer is never completely translatable ;
his works never have half the direct effect usually claimed
for them upon foreign literatures. If he becomes more
than a name, he is most fortunate. If he has imitators they
follow him at a distance, taking and reworking to their
own purposes incidents and scenes which they imperfectly
comprehend. He is little more than a source of inspira
tion for something new. In course of time his influence
fades until it becomes hardly traceable except in those minor
writers whom no one ever reads. It was so with Richardson
in spite of the enthusiasm which greeted "Pamela" and
"Clarissa." It was so with Sterne despite his triumphant
passage through Parisian salons and the thousand flatteries
from philosophers and men of letters. Holding these
views, I can make no extravagant claims for Fielding's
permanent influence on French or German literature. I
rather seek to give him his proper place in the furor Angll-
canus during the period immediately succeeding his death,

177

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

when the intellectuals in Western and Central Europe,
affecting to ignore their own literatures, went mad over
England's new writers as well as over Shakespeare and
Milton.

The part played by Fielding in this passing phase of
literary history has been subordinated, by even so com
petent a critic as M. Joseph Texte,* to the roles of Richard
son and Sterne. True, Tom Jones was never received
abroad with the raptures with which people embraced Cla
rissa and Grandison; nor was Fielding's appearance so
bizarre as Sterne's. He was never feted in Paris, nor did
pious pilgrims, so far as we know, cross the Channel to
visit him and the scenes of his novels. Still, these novels
were all translated, worked over, and imitated. They were
probably as widely read, though by different people, as
were the novels of Richardson and Sterne. Nor were they
anywhere better known than in France, where, it has been
too readily assumed, Fielding's realism gave offence.

By 1872 there had appeared, according to an approxi
mate estimate made by Mr. Frederick S. Dickson, seventy-
one foreign (mostly Continental) editions of "Tom Jones"
to fifty-eight published in Great Britain; twenty-nine
foreign editions of "Joseph Andrews" to thirty-nine at
home; and twenty-one foreign editions of "Amelia" to but
twelve in Great Britain. The translations include French,
German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and Russian. For
readers who wished merely the story, "Tom Jones" was
condensed into a single French or German volume. In
behalf of neither Richardson nor Sterne can there be pre
sented such an array of translations. Surely Europe put
its stamp on Fielding. Moreover, the intermediary for the
earlier translations into other European languages was
nearly always France, the very country where we have been
told Fielding's novels were never welcome guests. France

*" Jean- Jacques Bousseau," translated by J. W. Matthews, 1899.

178

FIELDING IN FRANCE AND GERMANY

led the way in 1743 with Desfontaines's rendering of
''Joseph Andrews," revised the next year and many times
reprinted. A copy, dated "Amsterdam, 1775," was found
among the books of Marie Antoinette ; it now reposes in the
library of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. The Queen also had
"Amelie" and two sets of "Tom Jones." The first Ger
man translations of "Joseph Andrews," one at Danzig and
another at Berlin, bear the dates of 1745 and 1746; they
were made from the French. In 1749 the novel went into
Danish at Copenhagen, probably from the French also.

"Tom Jones" was translated into Dutch in 1749, and the
next year into French and German. La Place's French
version, first issued in London and Amsterdam, was pub
lished also at Paris, Rheims, Geneva, and Dresden; there
were twenty or more reprints of it ; and in 1757 it was turned
into Italian. A German translation of "Amelia," pub
lished at Hanover in 1752, reached a third edition in 1763;
and the next year a new one was brought out at Leipzig. A
Dutch version by P. A. Verwer, dated 1758, has an interest
ing foreword and address to the reader on Fielding the
novelist and delineator of men and women as they are. This
was succeeded in 1762 and 1763 by two French transla
tions — the first by Madame Riccoboni and the second by
De Puisieux.

The first German and French translations of "Jonathan
Wild" are dated 1750 and 1763; and of "A Journey from
this World to the Next," 1759 and 1784 respectively. Per
haps there was no immediate translation of "A Voyage to
Lisbon" into French, but there was one into German in
1764; and while Fielding's plays were losing their popu
larity in England, eight or more of them were adapted
to the German stage. During this period Fielding's Eng
lish works might be purchased at any of the large towns in

* P. Lacroix, ' ' Bibliotheque de la reine Marie-Antoinette au Petit Trianon, ' '
Paris, 1863.

179

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

France or Germany. A curiosity was an English "Tom
Jones" with a German foreword, forming a part of an
"English Library" published at Gotha. Before the eight
eenth century was over there were beautiful sets of Field
ing's works in small French volumes, labelled "Ouvres
Complettes," and comprising — besides the novels and "A
Journey from this World to the Next" — "David Simple"
and "Roderick Random." The very year of his death,
' ' The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, ' ' which Fielding
despised, was translated, as I have remarked, into German
as a new production by "the author of Tom Jones." He
was also credited with the "Memoires du Chevalier de
Kilpar" (1768) by Montagnac, which circulated widely in
both French and German. The ascription to Fielding of
these and other novels which he did not write is certain
evidence that his reputation had commercial as well as lit
erary value. "In France," says Texte, "though the full
significance of Fielding's work was not perceived, his name
was in every mouth."

The Gallic Fielding was quite unlike the real one. The
so-called translations were paraphrases in which Fielding
appeared as a facetious story-teller and jester. Shorn of
his digressions, his depth and dignity vanished; as soon
as his dialogue was abridged and altered, his irony and
humour lost their better part. There was really no reason
why he should not have been the author of "Roderick
Random" as well as of "Joseph Andrews," for both, when
made over, were picaresque novels in line with * ' Gil Bias ' ' ;
merely farcical adventures in low life. To the first re
viewer* of Desf ontaines 's translation, "Joseph Andrews"
seemed to be filled with "petitesses." If the novel be a por
trait of English manners, he said, it does little honour to
England. The character of Parson Adams he somehow
missed altogether; that gentleman as Fielding conceived

•"Biblioth&que Fran§oise" for 1744 (tome XXXIX, 201-215).

180

FIELDING IN FRANCE AND GERMANY

him did not reappear; his gravity, his learning, his lofty
ideals, were all made to minister to the tricks played upon
him ; he was made to look like a ^shabby country parson
created by a fantastic imagination, not like a real man
drawn from real life. The translator's defacement of
" Joseph Andrews" accounts in part, no doubt, for the com
paratively small interest which the French took in the novel.
La Place was no less unfaithful to the text of "Tom
Jones"; but the comedy of this novel, the picaresque ele
ment being slight, could not be reduced to farce. The trans
lator could not delete from the book, however much he might
try, Tom Jones and Squire Western, if he retained any
thing. As I have pointed out earlier, the character which
most perplexed the French was not Lady Bellaston ; it was
Sophia Western, whose disobedience and elopement in
search of her lover made her a dangerous model for French
girls ; the indiscreet conduct of this charming heroine and
nothing besides delayed for some days the publication of
the novel in Paris. More than all else, the French were
struck by the dramatic quality of * * Tom Jones. ' ' The novel
contained, said one reader, fifty scenes suitable for the
stage; it must be dramatized. Accordingly, Antoine Poin-
sinet turned the novel into a comic opera of three Acts,
called "Tom Jones, Comedie Lyrique," for which A. D.
Philidor wrote the music. Following an overture, Sophia
is seen sitting in the hall of her father's "chateau" by the
side of the King; she is at work upon a piece of tapestry,
while Honour on the other side of the hall is engaged upon
a piece of lace. The scene shifts, and Squire Western enters
with his huntsmen and sings to a lively air a song descrip
tive of the chase, beginning —

D'un Cerf, dix Cors, j'ai connaissance :
On 1'attaque au fort, on le lance;

Tons sont prets :

Piqueurs et Valets
181

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Suivent les pas de 1'ami Jones.

J'entends crier: Vole 'lets, Vole 'lets,
and ending —

L 'animal force succombe,

Fait un effort, se releve, enfin tombe.

Et nos chasseurs chantent tous a 1 'envi :

''Amis, goutons les fruits de la victoire;

Amis, Amis, celebrons notre gloire.
Halali, Fanfare, Halali

Halali."

The plot is of no significance; it serves merely as an
excuse for the songs and music. The scenes, though
designated as the chateau of M. Western and the inn at
Upton, are really the park and forest of Fontainebleau ; all
the characters, except for their names, are thoroughly
French ; and the stain of Tom 's illegitimacy is removed.

The opera was first produced at the Comedie Italienne
in Paris on February 27, 1765, with Joseph Caillot, the
noted bass, taking the part of Squire Western. ' * Never did
a dramatic work, ' ' said the reviewer, ' ' have a more singular
fortune. On the first night it completely failed; on the
second night it met with complete success."* The piece,
however, was condemned by the critic on the ground that
it was far removed from the spirit and intent of Fielding.
Particularly he could not bear to see a character so im
portant as Blifil merely introduced at the end to untie the
knot. The next season Poinsinet revised his opera, and it
became long popular on the Continental stage. Within
four years after its first performance, at least five editions
appeared in Paris alone; it was reprinted for the local
French theatres, at Avignon, Amsterdam, Dresden, Mann
heim, Frankfort, and Copenhagen; and it suggested to
Joseph Reed his English opera, for which he paraphrased
several of the French songs.

* "Journal Encyclop6dique, " April 15, 1765. In an earlier form, the opera
may have been performed at Versailles, the preceding year.

182

luL paritr Scut •

Jff Western,.

li J-aut

^rb curs&z d&rb asset ma.

S CENE "V?

Mf. Western Jud

affaire* ; la, terrt-> dc,
toucfic a, la, mifnne^; Cc- n!t-tb pa«> —
dc< t&t uru*y efi;
dc lew c0tc*tj£* — .
wit b~<)wsc> ch&z mot, jt> descend** cficz.
man gcttdres, cbj[crnbr(tfj'e-> mcuJdtc'

ARIETTB

~VLo.Ujw 2.?

¥* 1 P

|'U w,u u*1'^' • w

«r -&- -»

oil J fjlJJ
^^^i

l_j_ J' r.|

IP TT,

AN^

- ^

Alto col

* * r I* i'i ' • -*i *• ' • • — ^ —

t^AL . qtictptaistrjcm&frt omckf ' <fc. luLveucc cuuwi

^ Lu j |^ "
icer nwi-nutne*

— a^-p — ,

—P 1

l — =5:3B

,-v, »• : f ^^ i f *^r _ • r

^ jjj JH r rrr_:

A PAGE FROM TOM JONES, COMEDIE LYBIQUE

FIELDING IN FRANCE AND GERMANY

The company at the Comedie Italienne also brought out,
on October 22, 1782, "Tom Jones a Londres," a verse
comedy in five Acts by Pierre Desforges. For his varia
tions from the original plot, the author in a preface to the
play, refers the curious reader to M. Fielding's novel, now
"in everybody's hands," or to M. de la Place's "imitation
of it. ' ' As in the comic opera, the hero again proves to be
legitimate. The audience, it appears, objected to some
Latin phrases put into the mouth of Partridge and to the
racy speech of Squire Western and his sister in their
quarrels. These criticisms were met good-naturedly by
Desforges, and then his comedy succeeded to his entire
satisfaction. In the library of Yale University is an un
dated manuscript copy of "Tom Jones Comedie," dealing
with Tom, Sophia, and Lady Bellaston — the romance and
the intrigue. It is a five-act play in prose. Though it only
partially follows Desforges, it seems to have been prepared
from his comedy for an amateur performance by someone
who was puzzled by the English names, for the beautiful
manuscript abounds in misspellings. Subsequently, Des
forges wrote a continuation of his own comedy under the
title of "Tom Jones et Fellamar," which was produced at
the Comedie Italienne on April 17, 1787. His second
piece — likewise five Acts in verse — takes up Fielding's char
acters where they were left at the end of the novel. Lord
Fellamar, transformed from a libertine into a young man
of exemplary conduct, gets a place for Tom Jones in the
navy, where he soon reaches the rank of commodore. By
his wonderful skill and bravery, Commodore Jones wins a
great victory over Britain's enemies in the West Indies,
and returns home to become an admiral. All the news
papers are filled with his fame. Some years later, he gives
his daughter Sophia in marriage to Lord Fellamar and the
curtain falls upon a scene of perfect happiness.

There are indications that the French themselves were

183

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

not quite pleased with the freedom displayed by their
writers in the treatment of Fielding. In the Geneva edi
tion of Fielding's works (1781-1782), Madame Eiccoboni
was taken to task for her alterations and suppressions in
"Amelia," especially for making Booth rich and Dr. Har
rison a sort of Quaker. Likewise Citizen Davaux, in bring
ing out a new translation of "Tom Jones," in "the year
IV," or 1796, declared that the "Tom Jones" so well known
in La Place's version, in comedy, and in comic opera, bore
but little resemblance to the book which Fielding wrote.
No one dependent upon these mutilations would ever sur
mise, he said, that Fielding was a philosopher, psychologist,
and moralist who had studied closely the heart and human
nature; that he possessed the vis comica of the ancients;
that he was genial and gay and a man of the keenest intel
ligence. So Davaux undertook to give his countrymen the
real Fielding by restoring all the initial chapters and other
digressions suppressed by La Place as immaterial adjuncts
to "Tom Jones." The new translator, however, did not
always live up to his pretension. He wrote, I fear, with
La Place's despised volumes open before him; and when
he had to rely upon himself, he was often unable to read
his author. Almost always he missed the local colour and
the allusions. In the first chapter, he was staggered by
"eleemosynary," and he passed by "Mr. Pope," "Bayonne
ham or Bologna sausage" and "Heliogabalus." Here and
elsewhere all piquant phrases were washed out. It is
nevertheless true that in this translation and in its suc
cessors, of which there were at least seven during the next
half -century, France obtained a truer conception of Field
ing and his masterpiece.

The new conception appeared in "Le Portrait de Field
ing," a one-act comedy in prose interspersed with songs,
which was first performed at a vaudeville theatre in Paris
on April 23, 1800. The authors, who subscribed themselves

184

FIELDING IN FRANCE AND GERMANY

as Citizens Segur, Desfaucherets, and Despres, wove their
plot about the popular story of the way in which Fielding's
portrait was obtained. The scene is laid in Hogarth's
house, where Madame Miller has been installed as house
keeper and where Sophia, a beautiful girl of mysterious
parentage, is staying as the painter 's favourite pupil. For
three long years Hogarth has many times mused over the
features of his "immortal friend" without being able to
reproduce them on canvas. During the evening, Garrick,
aware of the painter's perplexity, walks in dressed as
Fielding; and though Hogarth is rather frightened by the
visitant whom he takes for Fielding's ghost, he preserves
sufficient composure to draw the portrait of the revenant.
Thereupon Garrick throws off his disguise with a laugh.
A comparison between the portrait and a medallion of her
father which Sophia wears about her neck reveals the same
face. Sophia is Harry Fielding's daughter by his wife
Amelia. The play closes with the marriage of Hogarth and
Sophia. Though no plot could be more preposterous, the
fine qualities of Fielding's character are everywhere in
sisted upon. He is a moralist of the first rank, a perfect
friend of perfect disposition over whose loss Hogarth and
Garrick deeply grieve:

Peintre de 1 'homme et censeur de nos vices,

Toi, qui laissas, en charmant tous les coeurs,

A tes lecteurs, d'eternelles delices,

A tes amis, d'eternelles douleurs.

Another one-act comedy, composed throughout in verse
and simply called " Fielding," exalted the novelist's gener
osity. This slight piece was written by Edouard Mennechet
for the Theatre Frangais, where it was produced on Jan
uary 8, 1823. It elaborated the exploded Tonson anecdote.
Fielding and a painter named Wilson occupy apartments
in the house of M. Scott, a rich Londoner. The landlord,
who is a widower, has a sister Mistress Scott and a daughter

185

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Sophia. For two years Fielding has been engaged upon
' ' Tom Jones ' ' while associating with the family and falling
in love with the girl. He puts Sophia into the novel and
also her father and aunt, who become Squire Western and
his sister. Wilson began his career by painting idealized
portraits of people of fashion and flourished exceedingly;
but when, altering his views of art, he strove to paint them
as they really are, he lost all his customers and was reduced
to penury. He cannot pay his debts and Scott threatens to
send him to jail. At the same time Fielding, by a proposal
of marriage to Sophia, awakens the indignation of the land
lord; and Mistress Scott becomes furious when she hears
that she is represented in the forthcoming novel as a ter
magant. So it is decided that Fielding must also go to jail
that morning unless he pays his arrears of rent before
night. In great distress he applies to Tomson [sic] the
bookseller, who gives him a paltry hundred pounds for the
manuscript of "Tom Jones." But when Fielding sees
Wilson setting out for jail, he turns the hundred pounds
over to his friend who, having a wife and children, seems
to need it more than himself, a wretched bachelor. The
moral of the play should be that realism in art and letters
does not pay ; but the heart of the dramatist softens in the
end. Not only does Wilson escape a debtor's prison, but
Fielding, as soon as his magnanimity is disclosed, wins the
admiration of aunt and father and the hand of the fair
damsel. So Mennechet shifts the moral to

C'est en nous arausant qu'on peut nous corriger.
These literary crudities show a genuine and widespread
interest in Fielding across the Channel. When a writer's
novels are adjusted to the manners and customs of another
race, when his masterpiece is converted into comedy and
comic opera, when anecdotes about him are dramatized for
vaudeville as well as for the regular stage, it may fairly
be said that he is undergoing the process of absorption

186

FIELDING IN FRANCE AND GERMANY

among semi-literary people. Such was clearly the case with
Fielding in France. More than this, the names of his char
acters were sometimes spelled in accordance with their
pronunciation in French. Thus we have "Tom Jone" and
"M. Alworti." Critical opinion of his work, however, was
quite as much divided in France as in England. Kousseau,
who was a Bichardsonian, nowhere mentions, I think,
Fielding. Probably the sentimentalist never read him.
Voltaire, who looked into "Tom Jones," saw nothing even
passable there except Partridge; and the novel was dis
missed by Freron as "low comedy." On the other hand,
Madame du Deffand was impressed by its truth to fact
and life. Whether a novelist should depict manners as
they are or as duly refined for people of taste was pleas
antly debated by this lady and Horace Walpole. "Tom
Jones" Madame du Deffand liked the best of all novels,
whereas her correspondent derived slight pleasure from its
burlesque and coarseness. Barthe, the poet and novelist,
wrote of Fielding: "No man in the world (without except
ing Moliere) was better acquainted with the shades which
diversify characters." To La Harpe "Tom Jones" was
"the first novel in the world." He also placed "Joseph
Andrews" above "Clarissa Harlowe." Stendhal, while
regretting in 1837 that "Tom Jones" was not so much read
in France as formerly, said that "this novel is to other
novels what the Iliad is among the epics. ' ' And ' ' a certain
French novelist," on reading the masterpiece, is reported
to have remarked in more personal appreciation : " Ce livre
m'attendait."*

The last potent voice on Fielding in France was Taine,

* ' ' Lettres de la Marquise du Deffand a Horace Walpole, ' ' edited by Toyn-
bee, 1912, III, 519, 525. "The Gentleman's Magazine" for Oct., 1770 (Vol.
XL, 455 ) , has a quotation from Barthe 's novel ' ' La Jolie Femme ou la Femme
du Jour" (Lyon, 1769). La Harpe, "Lycee ou Cours de Litt6rature, " Paris,
1816, VII, 271-274. "Memoires d'un Touriste par De Stendhal," Paris, 1877,
I, 39. Arnold Bennett, "Books and Persons," 1917, pp. 328-329.

187

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

the brilliant historian of English literature who, it has been
charged, escaped dulness by not reading the books which
he criticised. This was likewise the excellent formula of
Dr. Johnson. But the complaint against Taine will not
hold at all points. He had some acquaintance with "Tom
Jones," "Joseph Andrews," "Amelia," and "Jonathan
Wild," and he knew the anecdotes in Murphy's essay upon
Fielding. The trouble with Taine was rather that he must
adjust such knowledge as he possessed of an author to a
definite theory of literary development ; that he was a man
of science, whose perceptive powers had been trained at
the expense of the imagination and the primitive emotions.
Thus, to cite an obvious example, he depicted Sir Walter
Scott as a realist, calling him "The Homer of modern
citizen life"; and then proceeded to derive from him Jane
Austen, Dickens, and Thackeray, notwithstanding the fact
that "Pride and Prejudice" antedates "Waverley" and
that Dickens and Thackeray, except in their historical
novels, passed by Scott for Smollett and Fielding. Taine
felt none of the romance in Scott ; it was all a sealed book
to him. Still, his view of the romancer has its value. Scott,
when dealing with peasant life, was a realist of the older
type. At a time when this aspect of his art was being for
gotten, it was well to have it set forth eloquently, even
though the ensemble was essentially false. Taine 's method
with Fielding was similar, but less sympathetic. Prepos
sessed with the idea, in the main true, that Fielding pro
tested on behalf of nature against the formal morality of
Richardson, he developed his thesis to the conclusion that
Fielding and all his characters were animals actuated only
by physical passions. Addressing the author directly,
Taine thus reprimands him :

"We tire at last of your fisticuffs and tavern bills. You
flounder too readily in cowhouses, among the ecclesiastical
pigs of Parson Trulliber. We would fain see you have

188

FIELDING IN FRANCE AND GERMANY

more regard for the modesty of your heroines; "wayside
accidents raise their tuckers too often ; and Fanny, Sophia,
Mrs. Heartfree, may continue pure, yet we cannot help
remembering the assaults which have lifted their petti
coats. You are so rude yourself, that you are insensible
to what is atrocious. You persuade Tom Jones falsely, yet
for an instant, that Mrs. Waters, whom he has made his
mistress, is his mother, and you leave the reader long buried
in the shame of this supposition. And then you are obliged
to become unnatural in order to depict love; you can give
but constrained letters ; the transports of your Tom Jones
are only the author's phrases. For want of ideas he de
claims odes. You are only aware of the impetuosity of the
senses, the upwelling of the blood, the effusion of tender
ness, but not of the nervous exaltation and poetic rapture.
Man, such as you conceive him, is a good buffalo ; and per
haps he is the hero required by a people which is itself
called John Bull."*

Fielding, his characters, and the people who read him,
Taine means to say, are all "thick-skinned," a phrase
which he uses elsewhere specifically of Fielding. The truth
is, Fielding was thin-skinned, most sensitive to praise and
censure, quick to respond to all the finer emotions with
which man in his fulness has been endowed. But just as
Taine could discover no romance in Scott, because he had
none in himself, so the man of science who maintained that
"varieties of men" are analogous to "varieties of bulls and
horses," could see in Fielding only unadulterated animal
ism. He reduced Fielding to the requirements of a brutal
theory of man, not much different from the materialism
which the author of "Tom Jones" many times attacked and
ridiculed. To be completely misrepresented is one of the
penalties of fame.

* Taine 's ' ' History of English Literature, ' ' translated by H. Van Laun,
1871, II, 176.

189

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Fielding merely grazed the surface of French literature ;
he never penetrated it. French writers praised his wit and
humour, his insight into character, his genial philosophy
of life ; but they did not praise his art ; that was repugnant
to them. Though France has had ever since the seventeenth
century long novels, they have never been quite rated as
literature. Even the romances of Dumas, so widely popu
lar abroad, are almost negligible in a Frenchman's view.
They are tales written to entertain the masses; they have
no part in the glories of French literature. In France
the ideal novel approaches the conciseness of the drama.
There must be in both genres a situation clearly presented
in the form of a problem and afterwards worked out to a
logical conclusion. The cultivated French mind, absorbed
in the solution of the problem, becomes impatient of any
thing which impedes the course of pure logic. Author and
reader alike regard extraneity as a certain sign of bad art.
Hence La Place's excision of Fielding's digressions, which
later translators restored only in part. It would never
occur to a Frenchman to cast a novel in the Fielding mould.

In Germany no such rigidity has ever long prevailed.
The German mind moves in a very free artistic medium —
much less restricted, in fact, than the English. Men of let
ters across the Rhine wished to know Fielding as he was.
Those who had a reading knowledge of English soon de
tected the fraud lurking in the translation of " Joseph
Andrews" from the French, and they demanded that this
and Fielding's other novels be rendered directly from the
English. At Lessing's request, J. J. Bode, the translator
of Sterne, made an excellent translation of "Tom Jones"
in six volumes (1786-1788), in which all that Fielding had
written was retained with reasonable completeness. The
German imitators of Fielding, who followed in the wake
of the early translators, adopted everything that was re
jected in France. He was their model for novels divided

190

FIELDING IN FRANCE AND GERMANY

into books with introductory chapters on the novelist's art
and purpose. They interspersed their narratives, as they
went along, with addresses to the reader, with tales within
tales, and with moral, literary and theological disquisitions
of great length having little or no connection with the story.
Over the chapters they placed facetious headings. They
transplanted Tom Jones, Sophia, and Lady Bellaston,
Squire Western and his sister, Mrs. Slipslop and Parson
Adams. There was a whole flock of Partridges misquoting
Latin. And just as Fielding stopped to pay compliments
to Handel, Hogarth, Garrick, and many other friends, so
these imitators brought in the names of their contempora
ries, such as Mendelssohn, Gellert, and Goethe. At every
point the English author was outdone. The novel was so
stretched that it ceased to be, in the French sense, a novel
at all. While the French completely repudiated Fielding's
theory of fiction, the Germans accepted it without question.
Blankenburg's "Versuch iiber den Roman," published in
Leipzig in 1774, was frankly drawn from chapters on the
novelist's art in " Joseph Andrews" and "Tom Jones."
To several young writers just trying their pens Fielding
seemed to point the way to a national novel that should
worthily depict the manners of Germany.

Fielding's influence on German fiction of the day,
it ought to be explained, was a current which ran
counter to Richardson. At a time when Fielding was
a mere name on the Continent, Germany had taken
Richardson to her heart. Klopstock, author of "The
Messiah," in which angels weep, applied for the post
of charge d'affaires in London in order to be near
Richardson ; and his wife, on reading * ' Sir Charles Grandi-
son," wrote to Richardson: "Having finished your Cla
rissa, (oh! the heavenly book!) I would have pray'd you
to write the history of a manly Clarissa, but I had not cour
age enough at that time. . . . You have since written the

191

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

manly Clarissa, without my prayer; oh you have done it,
to the great joy and thanks of all your happy readers!
Now you can write no more, you must write the history of
an Angel. ' ' Richardson placed in the hands of weak aspir
ants for literary fame a precise and easy formula for the
construction of a novel. The plot — a seduction or an abduc
tion — ran on the simplest lines. The characters, with a
little shading here and there into real life, were all villains
or patterns of moral excellence. Consequently the number
of Richardson's followers in Germany became endless.
Writers of this class could not, were they so inclined, com
pose a novel, like any one of Fielding's, based upon their
own observation of men and manners, for they knew little
or nothing of life. The mere imitations of Fielding in
Germany are beneath contempt; they are only tales of
facetious adventure given the outward form of "Tom
Jones" or "Joseph Andrews." The place where Fielding
counted most was among writers of a better class who,
though imitators in varying degrees, were competent to
adjust Fielding's characters to the conditions of German
life. These men, in the main, led a reaction against the
futile Richardsonian novels which were inundating German
fiction. In their view, Fielding was the man at whose feet
the novelist should take his permanent seat.*

The first to assume a decided stand against Richardson
was Musaus, who published in 1760-1762 his "Grandison
der Zweite," in ridicule of "the cursed Grandison fever"
such as had attacked the Klopstocks. It was an amusing
parody of its namesake, though the author, then a very
young man, had not really divined the secret of "Joseph
Andrews " ; he rather followed the more direct and obvious

* Augustus Wood, "Einfluss Fieldings auf die Deutsche Literatur," a
doctor's dissertation, Yokohama, 1895. For Fielding's influence on the German
stage, this book should be supplemented by Carl Waldschmidt, "Die Drama-
tisierungen von Fielding's Tom Jones," Wetzlar, 1906.

192

FIELDING IN FRANCE AND GERMANY

method of the "Anti-Pamela," an English burlesque which
had been translated into German. Twenty years later
Musaus reworked the whim of his youth into "Der Deutsche
Grandison" (1781-1782), in which Richardson's characters
appear along with shadowy reflections of the immortals in
"Tom Jones." In the novel there is an enthusiast, who
regards "Sir Charles Grandison" as true history; he
makes a tour of the scenes in that famous novel and sends
home letters describing them. Of less interest are two
so-called novels by Hermes, entitled "Miss Fanny Wilkes"
and "Sophiens Reise," which likewise swarm with Rich
ardson's and Fielding's men and women in company. They
are the crude productions of a writer uncertain of his
master.

We come to something much better in Wieland, the
translator of Shakespeare, who began his literary career
in the camp of the Richardsonians. He once thought of
writing a series of letters from Sir Charles Grandison on
the subject of education, and he actually produced a play,
called "Clementina von Porretta." But while at work
upon his first novel, "Don Sylvio," he read Fielding
and at once cast aside Richardson, whose characters were
too virtuous for him. The presence of Fielding, visible
in this novel, became most apparent in "Agathon"
(1766-1773), which his friends hailed as "the German Tom
Jones. ' ' It was also highly commended by Lessing, Herder,
Goethe, and Schiller. Wieland had none of the talent of
the born story-teller; and "Agathon" is hardly a novel;
still it does contain, perhaps for the first time in German
fiction, characters delineated with some skill, united with a
refreshing outlook upon life. What is best in it was in
spired by Fielding.

More and more German criticism, after Blankenburg's
"Versuch iiber den Roman," came over to the side of
Fielding. Indeed there was never any decided hostility

193

towards him in Germany. Even Klopstock felt the charm
of Fanny and Sophia; and Lessing, though deeply in
fluenced by Richardson, admired and quoted Fielding.
Lichtenberg, whose zeal for Fielding knew no bounds, de
clared that he was "the greatest novelist in the world";
and not long before his death designed a novel on the pat
tern of "Tom Jones." Though the work was never com
pleted, Lichtenberg was known, because of his trenchant
wit and vast knowledge of men displayed in his miscella
neous writings, as "The German Fielding." To Schiller
Fielding was one of the world's geniuses with a place by
the side of Shakespeare and Cervantes. "Welch ein herr-
liches Ideal," he exclaims, "musste nicht in der Seele des
Dichters leben, der einen Tom Jones und eine Sophia
erschuf !" In more measured speech, Goethe inquired of
Eckermann in his old age: "Whence have come our novels
and plays if not from Goldsmith, Fielding, and Shakes
peare ? ' ' The German novel had really come from Fielding
direct and through Goldsmith. This was the view of the
man who had seen it all. Goethe perhaps had in mind
Wieland who brought the novel out of the wilderness into
a new and enlarged world, though he possessed neither the
art nor the knowledge of his people necessary to a work of
lasting interest. That art and that knowledge belonged
only to the author of "Wilhelm Meister," — a great dis
cursive novel which I shall not attempt to derive from
"Tom Jones."

194

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE FAME OF FIELDING

DEFAMEES AND APOLOGISTS

Fielding's fame, in spite of detractors, thus steadily in
creased at home and abroad for a half-century after his
death. English writers of the time who disapproved of his
works had to admit that his fame had "not declined"; that
Fielding's novels had maintained the great reputation they
enjoyed during the author's lifetime. "Tom Jones," I still
quote from those who professed to dislike the book, was
* ' a consummate production, " " a masterpiece of art, replete
with the most striking delineation of manners"; and Mr.
Fielding, though it may be lamented, was "the father of
novel writing in England. ' ' His novels interested France ;
and they wrought a revolution in German fiction. Inter
national recognition so extensive as this was Matthew
Arnold's definition of literary glory. Once attained, this
glory could not be taken from Fielding; but attempts were
made to remove all the bloom. For some years Murphy's
essay, many times reprinted, seemed to satisfy public
curiosity over the personality of Fielding. Not until after
1800 did anyone feel the need of a new biography. By that
time a number of writers, as we have quoted them, had
passed judgment upon the novels, several new anecdotes
were in circulation, and Mrs. Barbauld collected in 1804
the correspondence of Richardson containing, while much
else was omitted, nearly all that related to Fielding. If
the letters about Fielding told the truth, he was a despicable
character having the manners of a man bred in the stable.

195

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

These letters were published by Mrs. Barbauld, a clever
Richardsonian, without comment and with evident satis
faction. They were accepted by her nonconformist brother
Dr. John Aikin, who wrote of " Jonathan Wild" in his
sketch of Fielding for his " General Biography" (1804) :
"It displays a familiarity with the scenes of low profliga
cies, which it is extraordinary a person in decent life should
ever acquire. But there is no doubt that his [Fielding's]
course of early licentiousness and extravagance had laid
an unhappy foundation for too much knowledge of this
kind." There was, we see, a sort of reversion through
Richardson to the abuse that was heaped upon Fielding
during his lifetime. The defamers, however, mainly relied
upon Murphy whose sentences and phrases they lifted out
of their context and then gave them a meaning never in
tended by the author. And when they had sufficiently de
graded Fielding's character, it was quite easy to condemn
all that the man had ever written. Literary dishonesty
could go no further.

Fielding, whose first biographer had been an Irishman,
now fell into the hands of a Scot named William Watson.
This man, a Presbyterian still nourishing Jacobite preju
dices, was employed in 1807 by some Edinburgh jfoublishers
to write "The Life of Henry Fielding, Esq., with Observa
tions on his Character and Writings. ' ' The essay m ques
tion, besides forming an introduction to "Thej Select
Works of Henry Fielding, Esq.," which they were then
bringing out, was considered of sufficient importance to be
enlarged and published separately the same year. This
is the first biography of Fielding to appear in a volume by
itself. In preparation for his task Watson read the novels
but not the plays; he read two or three pamphlets more
than Murphy reprinted, but he did not read the "Miscel
lanies, ' ' no copy of which, so far as he could discover, then
existed; he sought to give the impression that he read

196

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

Fielding's newspapers, but his knowledge of them, and of
the controversies they occasioned, was derived wholly from
"The Gentleman's Magazine"; he read the preface to
La Place 's translation of ' ' Tom Jones, ' ' but he did not look
at the translation itself; he collected several of the hostile
estimates of Fielding, but neglected most of those that were
friendly; he searched the periodicals for some mention of
Fielding's death, but could find none (though "The Gentle
man's Magazine" and others had the usual notice), and so
he concluded that Fielding was almost forgotten after his
departure for Lisbon. "An estate at Stower," which
Fielding squandered away, was placed in "Derbyshire."
It was a simple undertaking to write a biography in those
days. Watson's aim was to show "that Fielding, though
immersed in pleasure and often enslaved by passion, pos
sessed after all, a latent worth, which in a great measure
redeems his character." Owing to his goodness of heart,
the author of * ' Tom Jones ' ' frequently performed, Watson
declared, "actions that would have done honour to those
who were more conspicuous for their virtue. ' ' It would be
unfair, he thought, to infer from Fielding's works as a
whole, however much some of them should be reprobated,
that they were produced by a man "familiar with the last
stages of vice. ' '

Watson had no difficulty in developing and proving his
thesis. With an air of perfect candour, he set out and went
on to the end through a series of antithetical assertions,
like those which I have just quoted and imitated; wherein
one part of the sentence tends to neutralize or destroy the
other. If it suited his purpose to reaffirm Murphy's state
ments, he reaffirmed them ; if they were at variance with his
thesis, he altered them by means of paraphrases that should
say what he desired or he substituted others for them. Nor
did self-contradiction have any terror for him. Eager to
prove that Fielding's plays were unpopular as well as

197

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

worthless, lie asserted that "not more than two or three of
his farces continued long to be acted, ' ' though Murphy said
in 1762 "that many of them are still acted every winter."
Not satisfied with having the young playwright compose
a farce in the course of two or three mornings, he added:
"It is even said, that he was known, more than once, after
passing the evening with his convivial friends, to have
shewn them in the morning a farce of three Acts, that he
had written during the hours they had devoted to sleep."
From dramatic pieces so hastily constructed, it is clear,
Watson went on to say, that Fielding "never derived any
very substantial benefits." And yet when the biographer
wished to describe the young man midway in an "unre
strained career of dissipation," he had to find the where
withal for the spendthrift; accordingly Fielding's plays,
we are then told, were "a source of great emolument to
him."

Fielding's novels, it was admitted, were superior to
Smollett's, but Smollett turned the laugh against his rival
in the newspaper war. Fielding was probably sincere in his
political opinions, but they were all erroneous. Watson
declared that Amelia was a portrait of Fielding's second
wife about whom nothing else could be ascertained, and
afterwards quoted, without comment, Lady Mary's remark
that the character was drawn from his first wife. In con
ceding an "amiable side" to Fielding's character, Watson
paraphrased Murphy: "Every circumstance connected
with the happiness of his family, seems to have warmly
interested him. His wife and his children appear always
to have been the first objects of his regard." But when it
became necessary to explain the profligate's intense grief
over the death of Charlotte Cradock, he devised a reason
out of his own wicked heart. He then remarked of Field
ing: "He could not but be alive to the justice of the reflec
tions which must have been thrown on him by mankind, of

198

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

having, by his imprudent and irregular way of life, em
bittered, if not shortened, the days of his wife : . . . Every
feeling of sympathy and regret, which was displayed by
others for the object of his affection, must have served to
awaken the recollection of his demerit, and to reproach
him with having sacrificed, for the most contemptible grati
fications, the welfare and happiness of one who should in
a particular manner have been the object of his care and
anxiety during life."

Three years after Watson's infamous performance, ap
peared the well-known series of " British Novelists"
edited by Mrs. Barbauld with a general essay on the
11 Origin and Progress of Novel Writing" and briefer es
says on the various novelists. Of Fielding she chose * * Tom
Jones" and "Joseph Andrews," omitting "Amelia," which
she held to be "inferior" to the others. Her "biographical
and critical" essay on Fielding she prefixed to "Joseph
Andrews." Mrs. Barbauld, the widow of a nonconformist
clergyman, was a very refined and well-educated woman.
She published poems and essays, popular in their day, and
she is still remembered, not only for her edition of Rich
ardson's letters but much more for her "Life," a noble
poem found in most anthologies. She was one of the Blue-
Stockings or "literary women" of the period. Like her
brother Dr. Aikin, she was rather sceptical of the religious
fervour of those who held to the Established Church and
she accepted the tradition of her sect that Fielding was a
very bad man. Evidence that he possessed some most
admirable qualities rather puzzled her; and to be on the
safe side she sometimes restated in more chastened phrases
Murphy's eulogy of Fielding's merits. She could not
understand, for example, how Fielding, being the wretch
that he was, could have been constant to his wife. Murphy's
words, as I have previously quoted them, were: "Though
disposed to gallantry by his strong animal spirits, ... he

199

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

was remarkable for tenderness and constancy to his wife,
and the strongest affection for his children." Mrs. Bar-
bauld paraphrased the sentence, her brother Dr. Aikin con
curring,* to read: "Though he might not be a very faithful,
he was a very affectionate husband, as well as a very fond
father. ' ' Thus by a little skilful jugglery, a strict moralist
converted a constant husband into a libertine. On the score
of Fielding's religion, Mrs. Barbauld immediately sub
joined: "By seeing much of the vicious part of mankind,
professionally in his latter years and by choice in his earlier,
his mind received a taint which spread itself in his works,
but was powerfully counteracted by the better sensibilities
of his nature. Notwithstanding his irregularities, he was
not without a sense of religion, and had collected materials
for an Answer to Lord Bolingbroke's posthumous works,
in which he would probably have been much out of his
depth."

The real source of Mrs. Barbauld 's animus against Field
ing appears in her discussion of the novels. She knew them
well and appreciated much in them, though her preference
lay with the more ideal characters of Richardson. Her
main quarrel with Fielding was over his treatment of the
literary woman. "Any portion of learning in women," she
remarked, "is constantly united in this author with some
thing disagreeable. It is given to Jenny, the supposed
mother of Jones. It is given in a higher degree to that
very disgusting character Mrs. Bennet in 'Amelia'; Mrs.
Western, too, is a woman of reading. A man of licentious
manners, and such was Fielding, seldom respects the sex. ' '
The occasion for this feminine outburst was the character
of Sophia Western, * ' very beautiful, very sweet-tempered, ' '
but very indiscreet in her conduct, due, it is implied, to a
mind unfortified by books. For Fanny Andrews, who could
not read at all, Mrs. Barbauld had no word of praise ; and

* See article on Fielding in his ' ' General Biography. ' '

200

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

Amelia, who placed the welfare of her husband and children
above literary conversation with Mrs. Bennet, she looked
upon with contempt as a profligate's " model of female
perfection." So she took care that the novel containing
the obedient housewife should not be included in her series.
With a parting thrust, Fielding's alleged dislike of learned
women was attributed to jealousy of "the coterie of literary
and accomplished ladies that generally assembled' at his
rival's house," that is, at Richardson's house in Hammer
smith. This is all very lively and clever ; but Fielding, who
aimed to portray women as they were in his time, could
not reasonably be expected to please a "literary woman"
fifty years after.

Mrs. Barbauld's essay is a thoroughly feminine produc
tion. Such offences as she committed against Fielding
ought to be condoned, for she should be allowed to vent her
spite on a writer who surely would have amused himself
with the Blue-Stockings had they existed when he wrote
"Amelia." She may be pardoned, too, for blackening that
man's character, even though a little downright dishonesty
be involved in the process. But the case is quite different
with William Mudford, who edited the next year a rival
series of "British Novelists" having biographical sketches
for each author and critical prefaces for each novel. Mud-
ford, who was then a young man, afterwards attained some
reputation as journalist and contributor to "Blackwood's
Magazine." He had already written two novels and had
shown in his "Critical Enquiry into the Writings of Dr.
Samuel Johnson" that "the 'Rambler' and other publi
cations of that celebrated writer have a dangerous ten
dency. ' ' The situation, then, was this. Johnson had feared
the corrupting influence of Fielding, and Mudford in turn
feared the corrupting influence of Johnson. It was this
man of impregnable morality who now directed his talents
to the misrepresentation of Fielding. He condemned his

201

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

character alike in youth and in maturity. "No man of
genius," he declared, " perhaps ever sunk deeper in vice
and folly than Fielding. There is every reason to believe,
however, that his errors were the errors of a man whose
passions were too strong for his virtue. He had what is
commonly called a good heart, but instead of regulating its
impulses by the sober application of his reason, he suffered
his reason to be subdued and blinded by them, till, at last,
what was originally only accidental deviations, became the
fixed and settled habits of his life." Fielding, it is said
elsewhere, lived without labour so long as he could sponge
upon his friends ; and when he was cast off by them he took
up in succession play-writing and novel-writing in order
to gratify the urgent appetites of the flesh. He was a man
steeped in sensuality.

Mudford likewise condemned, with minor reservations,
every one of Fielding's novels, every one of his characters,
his ungrammatical style, and his insipid moralizing.
Though he had laughed at the blunders of Parson Adams,
he was ashamed of himself for having done so. Tom Jones
was a detestable young man who prostituted himself to "the
superannuated desires of Lady Bellaston." Sophia West
ern was a voluptuary's ideal of a woman. Of Squire
Western, the moralist remarked: "I will not deny, that
there may be great truth in the outline, and great exactness
in the filling up : so there may be both of these in the de
scription of a brothel and its scenes ; but who desires to see
them faithfully exhibited?" To Mudford as well as to Mrs.
Barbauld all of Fielding's literary women were utterly
abhorrent. His surmise was that Fielding had perhaps
observed "the pernicious consequences" of "female learn
ing" in his sister Sarah, who, I suppose, let his stockings go
undarned or his dinner uncooked in order to finish her book.
For the complete failure of "Amelia," Mudford gave a
novel reason. "I do not wish," he said, "to degrade the

202

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

married state; but its dull and monotonous insipidity, its
unvarying qualities, and its undignified passions, suit but ill
with those scenes and descriptions which aim at seizing the
heart by a resistless appeal to the feelings." And against
the view of some critics who would exalt the style of Field
ing ''as a faultless model for imitation," he declared that
the novelist seemed to him "to have studied the art of
writing, with very little attention, ' ' else he would not have
sprinkled his pages with hath and doth and such phrases
as "to say the truth" and numerous other "inelegancies."
Finally, the reader was warned against Fielding's weari
some initial chapters. Thus concluded the admonition:
"Johnson has advised, that whoever would read Shakes
peare with benefit and delight, should never suffer his atten
tion to be distracted by the quibbles or researches of his
commentators; and whoever wishes to enjoy the narrative
of Fielding, will do well to abstain from perusing his pre
liminary patches of criticism and argument. ' '

If it be, as one may reasonably suppose, the object of a
critical introduction to whet the public appetite and so in
crease the sale of an author's works, Mudford's publishers,
I fear, met with some disappointment. The business of
editing was better understood by Alexander Chalmers, a
man of more serene temper. He was a Scot, well educated
and well read, who passed the greater part of his life in
London in journalism and miscellaneous writing. No other
man of the time edited so many books ; and none was more
expert at the work. When engaged to edit the works of
Fielding in 1806, he saw, though he knew more about Field
ing than any other man then living, that there was not
enough material at hand for a new biography, and so he
did the obvious thing. He reissued Murphy's essay as the
introduction, accompanied by such comment as he deemed
necessary. Chalmers's footnotes, marked with a C., have
long since become an integral part of Murphy's essay.

203

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Among other things Chalmers added a few facts — not
always facts — relative to Fielding's career, some of which
were taken from Murphy's original file of "The Covent-
Garden Journal" then in his possession. He scored Rich
ardson and his correspondents for their ill-natured remarks
on Fielding, and disagreed with the comparatively low esti
mate which Murphy placed upon "Amelia," a novel abound
ing "with exquisite touches of nature and passion." Six
years later his friend John Nichols included a sketch and
estimate of Fielding, admirable in tone, in the third volume
of his "Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century,"
and in 1814 Chalmers himself wrote for "The General
Biographical Dictionary," which he was editing, the best
short account of Fielding that had yet appeared. Though
these men were compelled to rely mainly on Murphy, they
had no motive to misread him. They collected such other
information as could be readily procured and seem to have
made use of an unpublished sketch of Fielding which Dr.
Andrew Kippis had prepared back in 1793 for the "Bio-
graphia Britannica" — a work which suspended publication
just before the name of Fielding was reached. Nichols
described Fielding as "an author of great eminence ' ' ; and
Chalmers as "beyond all comparison the first novelist of
this country."

With these opinions, most men of letters of the time
agreed. On them a Mudford or a Watson could make no
impression. Coleridge, as I have already quoted him, ac
cepted Fielding almost entirely, confining his criticism,
moral as well as literary, to mere matters of detail.* Byron
named Fielding "the prose Homer of human nature. "f
His friend Tom Moore, after reading "Joseph Andrews,"

•"Complete Works," edited by Shedd, New York, 1884, IV, 379-383;
"Specimens of the Table Talk of S. T. Coleridge," second edition, 1836, p.
310? "The Friend," No. 3, Aug. 10, 1809, pp. 44-45.

t Moore's "Life of Byron," 1832, V, 55.

' 204

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

similarly remarked, "How well Fielding knew human
nature"; and amusing himself on "a dreadfully wet" day
with "A Journey from this World to the Next," he noted
in his diary as he laid the book aside,* "Few things so good
as the first half of it. ' ' Southey, who considered Bichard-
son the immoral writer par excellence, chuckled over Field
ing's exposure of him in "Joseph Andrews." The real
Fielding, patient and triumphant over disease, he saw in
"A Voyage to Lisbon" and regretted that he had failed
to collect in his youth, as he then might have done, fresh
facts for a biography of him.f Hazlitt, who wrote more
at large on Fielding, praised him for the skill with which
he probed the eternal passions of mankind while maintain
ing perfect fidelity in all exteriors to the characters of men
and women "as he saw them existing." Of Fielding he
said:

1 1 He has brought together a greater variety of characters
in common life, — marked with more distinct peculiarities,
and without an atom of caricature, than any other novel
writer whatever. The extreme subtility of observation on
the springs of human conduct in ordinary characters, is
only equalled by the ingenuity of contrivance in bringing
those springs into play, in such a manner as to lay open
their smallest irregularity. The detection is always com
plete — and made with the certainty and skill of a philo
sophical experiment, and the ease and simplicity of a casual
observation. The truth of the imitation is indeed so great,
that it has been argued that Fielding must have had his
materials ready-made to his hands, and was merely a
transcriber of local manners and individual habits. For
this conjecture, however, there seems to be no foundation.

* ' ' Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence, ' ' edited by Lord John Russell,
1853-1856, II, 208, and IV, 250.

t "Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles," edited by
Dowden, 1881, pp. 184, 198; and "Selections from the Letters of Robert
Southey," 1856, II, 296-297.

205

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

His representations, it is true, are local and individual;
but they are not the less profound and natural. The feeling
of the general principles of human nature, operating in
particular circumstances, is always intense, and uppermost
in his mind. ' '

The moral of * * Tom Jones ' ' Hazlitt thought had been as
sailed " without much reason"; but he conceded that there
might be, inasmuch as manners had changed greatly since
Fielding's time, some objection "to the want of refinement
and elegance in the two principal characters." He foresaw
a time when, alehouses being no more, fastidious readers
would no longer find pleasure in Fielding ; but he adds :
"People of sense and imagination, who look beyond the
surface or the passing folly of the day, will always read
'Tom Jones.' Similarly, Charles Lamb, who was not
wholly at ease in the * * low life ' ' described by Fielding, felt
that the moral eye might rest satisfied on many of his char
acters. "One cordial honest laugh of a Tom Jones abso
lutely clears the atmosphere that was reeking with the black
putrifying breathings of a hypocrite Blifil. . . . One 'Lord
bless us!' of Parson Adams upon the wickedness of the
times, exorcises and purges off the mass of iniquity which
the world knowledge of even a Fielding could cull out and
rake together, "f

The time had now arrived when judgment was to be
passed upon Fielding by his peers. Naturally many minor
novelists besides Cumberland, Godwin, and others whom
I have quoted, had spoken for or against him. Charlotte
Smith, for example, in introducing to the reader the por
trait of a rascally attorney in her "Marchmont" (1796),
commended the zeal with which ' l the great master of novel-
writing" had attacked the legal pestilence raging in his

*" Collected Works," edited by Waller and Glover, 1904, X, 32, and XII,
374.

t ' ' The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, ' ' edited by Lucas, 1903, I, 83.

206

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

own day. And Mary Brunton in her ' * Self -Control" (1810)
let her characters discuss the question whether Tom Jones
would make a good husband. The conclusion seems to have
been that Tom was not religious enough for a safe trial.
"It is unfortunate for the morality of the book," says
Montreville, "that the reader is inclined to excuse the want
of religion in the hero, by seeing its language made ridicu
lous in Thwackum, and villanous in Blifil. ' ' But the casual
remarks of these writers, while interesting, are over
shadowed by the opinions of two novelists reckoned among
the foremost of the nineteenth century.

Sir Walter Scott the romancer was not a follower of
Fielding. He used to say that his novels dealing with
Scotch life were inspired by Maria Edgeworth; that his
aim in "Waverley" and the rest was to depict the charac
ters and manners of Scotland much as she had depicted the
national characteristics of Ireland. He admired, however,
the constructive art displayed in "Tom Jones," which he
despaired of ever attaining. He might lay out, he said, a
plot by compass and rule but he was never able to follow
it. So he allowed his novel to develop as it would in the
act of composition, and he left the consequences to chance.
He had reached, for example, the last chapters of "Rob
Roy" before he saw that if Francis Osbaldistone was to be
rewarded by the hand of Diana Vernon a fortune must be
found for the young gentleman. As it happened, the only
way to give him a fortune was to make him the heir to his
uncle Sir Hildebrand. But unfortunately several strong,
healthy sons of the old knight were still living. There were,
I think, five or six of them. The number, whatever it was,
did not daunt Scott. One by one he rid his plot of them,
letting them die a violent death or quietly in bed, until
they were all gone and the novel could conclude. On the
other hand, Fielding, trained in the drama, always had in
mind his catastrophe, which kept his characters from drift-

207

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

ing into situations from which they could be extricated only
by some clever device. This ability of Fielding to move
on, despite digressions, to his goal, Scott viewed with
wonder. Other novelists like Smollett and himself, he said,
arrived at a conclusion, only " because a tale must have an
end — just as the traveller alights at the inn because it is
evening." Probably one may see more of Fielding in
Scott's first novel than in any other. "Waverley" has the
same historical background as "Tom Jones" — the Jacobite
insurrection of 1745; and the situation of the lovers is
analogous in the two novels. Though the romancer in this
instance wound up with his premeditated conclusion, his
narrative had meanwhile fallen into the utmost confusion.
Scott possessed marvellous powers of the imagination be
yond the range of Fielding, but he yielded the palm to his
predecessor when it came to a natural and logical develop
ment of a story. Fielding, he said, was the first to trans
form loose adventures into a new and wonderful art. For
this reason he called him the " Father of the English
Novel."

Aside from this cordial tribute to his art, Scott rarely
warmed towards Fielding. The two men were of different
temper, different culture, and different country. Scott,
who read extensively in history and romance, disliked the
ancient literatures and thought Fielding a pedant for quot
ing and imitating them. Living in the past almost as much
as in the present, he could never forget Culloden, where
members of his own family had bled ; nor could he forgive
Fielding's denunciation of the Jacobites. ' ' Of all the works
of imagination, to which English genius has given origin,"
he said, "the writings of Henry Fielding are, perhaps,
most decidedly her own." These are fine words which
convey without offence the idea that Fielding was narrowly
English in sentiment and outlook. The man who wrote

* Introductory Epistle to ' ' The Fortunes of Nigel. ' '

208

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

"Tom Jones" was indeed intensely English, just as the
author of "Waverley" was intensely Scotch. Both were
extreme patriots. Hence Scott's absurd endeavour to make
out a case for Smollett against Fielding in that essay
on Smollett which he wrote for Ballantyne's Novelist's
Library. For the same series he contributed in 1820 an
introduction to Fielding's novels, which does the author no
credit as a biographer either on the score of accuracy or
candour. The truth is, Scott made but little effort to in
form himself about Fielding. He read Murphy and Watson,
collected a few details, hit-or-miss, from other sources, and
then sat down and paraphrased Watson, avoiding of course
that gentleman's excessive vulgarity.

According to Scott, Fielding was both "the only son"
and "the third son" of Edmund Fielding by his first wife.
This is all in a single paragraph. He began his London
career as "a man of wit and pleasure about town, seeking
and finding amusement in scenes of gaiety and dissipation."
In order to live this life, he had recourse to the stage for
which he wrote a number of plays ; and ' ' for a season ' ' he
was manager of a company composed of "discarded come
dians ' ' ; but his plays met with no success and his company
had to be disbanded. He married and dissipated a fortune
at Watson's "Stower in Derbyshire." He subsequently
studied law, but he had no business, for clients hesitated to
entrust their cases to a man of pleasure; "and it is said
that Fielding's own conduct was such as to justify their
want of confidence. ' ' Very soon ' * disease, the consequence
of a free life, came to the aid of dissipation of mind," and
Fielding's legal career was over. "Necessity of subsist
ence ' ' then compelled him to return to literature. He wrote
novels, conducted newspapers, and put forth pamphlets
without number. One of his newspapers was ' ' called ' The
Jacobite Journal,' the object of which was to eradicate
those feelings and sentiments which had been already so

209

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

effectually crushed upon the Field of Culloden." For the
zeal which he displayed in the interest of the House of
Brunswick, the long neglected patriot eventually "received
a small pension, together with the then disreputable office
of a Justice of Peace for Westminster and Middlesex, of
which he was at liberty to make the best he could by the
worst means he might choose."

Throughout his essay Scott sought to degrade Fielding
wherever he could, careless of inconsistency and contra
diction. He quoted the worst that Richardson said of
Fielding and rightly set it all down to personal animosity;
but he later declared that Charlotte Cradock was * * a natural
child" — an assertion for which Richardson was his sole
authority. On Fielding's deep grief over the loss of his
wife, Scott felt constrained to remark that "the violence
of the emotion, however, was transient." The story of
Lady Bellaston he regarded, we have seen, as evidence
"that Fielding's ideas of what was gentleman-like and
honourable had sustained some depreciation, in consequence
of the unhappy circumstances of his life, and of the society
to which they condemned him." As a matter of fact, the
Lady Bellastons belonged to those people of fashion for
whom Fielding had the utmost contempt. Again, Scott
quoted from Horace Walpole the Rigby anecdote; and
though he surmised that the "blind man" at Fielding's
table was really his brother John, afterwards knighted, he
employed it to give point to "the lowness" of Fielding's
' ' society and habits. ' ' If any further illustration of Scott 's
biographical method is desired, it may be found in his ac
count of the composition of "Tom Jones." This novel, it
will be recalled, was written during years of comparative
leisure and was nearly if not quite completed before Field
ing assumed the office of justice of the peace for West
minster. "The History of a Foundling," Scott said, "was
composed under all the disadvantages incident to an author

210

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

alternately pressed by the disagreeable task of his magis
terial duties, and by the necessity of hurrying out some
ephemeral essay or pamphlet to meet the demands of the
passing day." Then he immediately added: "It is in
scribed to the Hon. Mr. Lyttelton, afterwards Lord Lyttel-
ton, with a dedication, in which he [Fielding] intimates that
without his assistance, and that of the Duke of Bedford,
the work had never been completed, as the author had been
indebted to them for the means of subsistence while en
gaged in composing it. ' ' The first sentence was taken from
Watson; the second is an inaccurate paraphrase of Field
ing's own words. Scott never stopped to reconcile the in
consistency, but went right on to describe still further ' ' the
precarious circumstances," wholly imaginary, in which
' ' Tom Jones ' ' was given to the public.

Dismissing the man, Scott dealt out to the novels praise
and blame with a free hand. The unrelieved villainy of
"Jonathan Wild" he disliked; and the ascription of "a
train of fictitious adventures to a real character" he re
garded as bad art. Still, Fielding's peculiar genius shone,
he admitted, in the conversation between Jonathan and the
Ordinary of Newgate. The discovery of several very affect
ing scenes in "Amelia" came as a surprise to Scott, for men
like Fielding who are forced by circumstances to view
human misery close at hand, he said strangely, "become
necessarily, in some degree, hardened to its effects." The
suffering wife, however, failed to engage the reader's
sympathy because of "her unthankful helpmate, of whose
conversion we have no hope." Taken as a whole, then,
"Amelia" was "unpleasing" despite "the doughty Colonel
Bath, and the learned Dr. Harrison, characters drawn with
such force and precision, as Fielding alone knew how to
employ. ' ' On the other hand, ' ' Joseph Andrews ' ' received
Scott's full praise "for the admirable pictures of manners
which it presents, and, above all, for the inimitable char-

211

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

acter of Mr. Abraham Adams." Likewise "Tom Jones,"
the novel of Fielding's which Scott best knew, was com
mended at most points. Could he have had his own way,
he would have removed, however, the Man of the Hill. He
would also have deleted Lady Bellaston, and not permitted
Squire Western to take a beating, without resistance, from
the friend of Lord Fellamar. It was not altogether pleasant
for Scott to see a Jacobite gentleman given a touch of
cowardice though in jest.

With the moralists who feared the disastrous effect of
Tom Jones upon young men, Scott took issue, calling their
attention to the fact "that the vices into which Jones suffers
himself to fall, are made the direct cause of placing him
in the distressful situation which he occupies during the
greater part of the narrative; while his generosity, his
charity, and his amiable qualities, become the means of
saving him from the consequences of his folly." It was a
fixed belief with Scott that people overestimate the in
fluence of fiction for good as well as for evil. "The vices
and follies of Tom Jones," he said, "are those which the
world soon teaches to all who enter on the career of life,
and to which society is unhappily but too indulgent, nor do
we believe that, in any one instance, the perusal of Field
ing's novel has added one libertine to the large list, who
would not have been such, had it never crossed the press.
And it is with concern we add our sincere belief, that the
fine picture of frankness and generosity, exhibited in that
fictitious character, has had as few imitators as the career of
his follies. Let it not be supposed that we are indifferent to
morality, because we treat with scorn that affectation which,
while in common life it connives at the open practice of
libertinism, pretends to detest the memory of an author
who painted life as it was, with all its shades, and more
than all the lights which it occasionally exhibits, to relieve
them." This passage, written under the sway of sincere

212

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

emotion, atones for all the blunders and prejudices of Scott
which I have recorded. The pity is that he should have
supposed that "Tom Jones" could have been written by
the kind of man whom he had previously described.

Thackeray has been called another Fielding — or Fielding
properly refined to the standards of the mid- Victorians.
The world has long recognized the kinship of Jonathan
Wild and Barry Lyndon, Tom Jones and Arthur Pendennis,
Amelia Booth and Amelia Sedley, and of a humour that
unmasks affectation and a humour that unmasks the snob.
Thackeray read, as I have observed, "Joseph Andrews"
in his school-days, and illuminated his copy of the novel —
it was a first edition — with droll sketches of Parson Adams,
Joseph, and Lady Booby.* Fielding, however, meant very
little to Thackeray until 1840, when he was twenty-nine
years old. In that year he reviewed for the London
"Times" the new edition of Fielding's works issued in a
single volume with a memoir by Thomas Roscoe, the well-
known translator. Roscoe made greater use than anyone
else had done of the preface to the "Miscellanies," he ap
praised Fielding's poems at their full value, he examined
several of the pamphlets, and saw clearly that Fielding had
rendered distinguished public services as magistrate and
political writer. But he accepted, though he toned them
down, all the stories ever told about Fielding; he misread
his authorities, he neglected chronology, and so fell into
the most egregious blunders. In short, though he aimed
to present a just estimate of Fielding's works and char
acter, his memoir on the score of fact is utterly worthless.

In the summer of 1840, Thackeray took Roscoe 's pon
derous volume with him to Margate, whither he went with
his wife, who was beginning to show signs of that hopeless
malady from which she never recovered. He became so
absorbed in Fielding that he neglected for a full month "A

* < « Thackerayana, " 1875, pp. 74-77.

213

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Shabby Genteel Story," which he was then writing. He
used to walk out, he told Mrs. Brookfield long after, to a
little sunshiny arbour in a bowling-green, and there read
and write about Fielding, with no money in his pocket
though there were two little children besides a wife to sup
port; and then he would return home and wonder "what
was the melancholy oppressing the poor little woman. ' ' His
review of Roscoe's volume appeared in "The Times" for
September 2, 1840.* From this article he later drew for the
lecture on Fielding in "The English Humourists," first
given in the summer of 1851. Eeview and lecture do not
agree in all respects. Lady Bellaston, for example, he
slipped over in 1840, while she troubled him in 1851. But
on minor disagreements it is unnecessary to insist; it is
sufficient to say that Thackeray's' earlier appreciation of
Fielding was on the whole more buoyant and spontaneous
but far less complete than the one prepared for a public
audience in his full maturity.

Fielding's plays Thackeray merely looked at and pro
nounced them, on Roscoe's authority, "irretrievably im
moral. " " They are not remarkable for wit, ' ' he remarked,
1 1 even though they have a great deal of spirits : a great deal
too much perhaps. ' ' Thackeray could not have read ' ' Tom
Thumb," "Pasquin," and "The Author's Farce," pieces
where the wit never flags. "Joseph Andrews," which he
reread later, gave him then "no particular pleasure," for
it appeared to be "both coarse and careless." Of "Tom
Jones" he said in "The Times":

"Moral or immoral, let any man examine this romance
as a work of art merely, and it must strike him as the most
astonishing production of human ingenuity. There is not
an incident ever so trifling, but advances the story, grows
out of former incidents, and is connected with the whole.
Such a literary providence, if we may use such a word, is

*Beprinted in "Stray Papers," 1901.

214

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

not to be seen in any other work of fiction. You might cut
out half of Don Quixote, or add, transpose, or alter any
given romance of Walter Scott, and neither would suffer.
Roderick Random and heroes of that sort run through a
series of adventures, at the end of which the fiddles are
brought, and there is a marriage. But the history of Tom
Jones connects the very first page with the very last, and
it is marvellous to think how the author could have built
and carried all this structure in his brain, as he must have
done, before he began to put it to paper. "

But Thackeray 's favourite was always ' ' Amelia. " " The
picture of Amelia, in the story of that name," he wrote in
1840, "is (in the writer's humble opinion), the most beau
tiful and delicious description of a character that is to be
found in any writer, not excepting Shakespeare." In 1848
he declared in a letter to Mrs. Brookfield that she was "the
most delightful portrait of a woman that surely was ever
painted ' ' ; and in * * The English Humourists ' ' he elaborated
the same opinion, saying : " To have invented that character,
is not only a triumph of art, but it is a good action. They
say it was in his own home that Fielding knew her and loved
her : and from his own wife that he drew the most charming
character in English fiction. Fiction! why fiction? why not
history? I know Amelia just as well as Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu." And so we have Thackeray exclaiming in his
summary :

"What a wonderful art ! what an admirable gift of nature
was it by which the author of these tales was endowed, and
which enabled him to fix our interest, to awaken our sym
pathy, to seize upon our credulity, so that we believe in his
people — speculate gravely upon their faults or their excel
lences. . . . What a genius ! what a vigour ! what a bright-
eyed intelligence and observation ! what a wholesome hatred
for meanness and knavery! what a vast sympathy! what a
cheerfulness! what a manly relish of life! what a love of

215

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

human kind! what a poet is here! — watching, meditating,
brooding, creating! What multitudes of truths has that
man left behind him! What generations he has taught to
laugh wisely and fairly ! What scholars he has formed and
accustomed to the exercise of thoughtful humour and the
manly play of wit ! What a courage he had ! What a daunt
less and constant cheerfulness of intellect, that burned
bright and steady through all the storms of his life, and
never deserted its last wreck."

And on the man's character:

1 'Stained as you see him, and worn by care and dissi
pation, that man retains some of the most precious and
splendid human qualities and endowments. He has an
admirable natural love of truth, the keenest instinctive
antipathy to hypocrisy, the happiest satirical gift of laugh
ing it to scorn. His wit is wonderfully wise and detective ;
it flashes upon a rogue and lightens up a rascal like a
policeman's lantern. He is one of the manliest and kind
liest of human beings : in the midst of all his imperfections,
he respects female innocence and infantine tenderness, as
you would suppose such a great-hearted, courageous soul
would respect and care for them. He could not be so brave,
generous, truth-telling as he is, were he not infinitely
merciful, pitiful, and tender. He will give any man his
purse — he can 't help kindness and profusion. He may have
low tastes, but not a mean mind; he admires with all his
heart good and virtuous men, stoops to no flattery, bears no
rancour, disdains all disloyal arts, does his public duty
uprightly, is fondly loved by his family, and dies at his
work. ' '

This is the most eloquent tribute that had ever been paid
to the genius and character of Fielding. But the passages
which I have quoted do not give, when taken by themselves,
the prevailing tone either of the review or of thq lecture.
In both Thackeray was frankly apologetic of Fielding the

216

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

man. Even here at the height of his eulogy, he stains
Fielding's ruffles and laced coat with claret, though they
appear immaculate in the frontispiece to Roscoe's vol
ume. The man's handsome face, too, he describes as worn
by dissipation, and we are told that he probably had "low
tastes" despite his wonderful endowments of head and
heart. Elsewhere Thackeray dwells more upon Fielding's
imperfections, taking them as he found them in Roscoe or
giving them a new turn or interpretation. All those
splendid qualities which excited his admiration and love
as he read the novels, he had to adjust to Roscoe's account
of Fielding's career which he supposed to be true. So
Thackeray retold in his own beautiful English the old story
of Fielding's wild and dissipated life from youth to middle
age, with the addition of those many little details which
he thought necessary to a perfect work of literary art.
His attitude towards Fielding was not that of a biographer ;
it was that of a novelist. The portrait which he drew is so
fine as a literary creation that all the world, except for an
occasional doubter, has accepted it as the real Fielding.

His Fielding, however, was fashioned partly out of tradi
tion, and partly out of the lives of two characters in the
novels, whom he completely identified with their author.
"He is," he said of Fielding, "himself the hero of his
books; he is wild Tom Jones, he is wild Captain Booth;
less wild, I am glad to think, than his predecessor ; at least
heartily conscious of demerit, and anxious to amend."
Moreover, Thackeray put a piece of himself into his Field
ing. ' ' Doesn 't the apology for Fielding, ' ' he wrote to Mrs.
Brookfield, "read like an apology for somebody else too?"
And when all else failed, he gave free rein to his fancy.
Fielding, as Thackeray portrayed him, was a profligate, a
spendthrift, a heavy drinker, in youth noisy and quarrel
some over his cups, and the associate of loose women,
though he knew, for there is Amelia, a good one when he

217

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

saw her. It is taken as a matter of course that he was a
gambler. On how shaky a foundation Thackeray builded,
was shown a few years ago by Mr. Dickson.* Two or three
examples will illustrate the novelist's method.

"Harry Fielding," Thackeray said of the young play
wright, "began to run into debt and borrow money in that
easy manner in which Captain Booth borrows money in
the novel : was in nowise particular in accepting a few pieces
from the purses of his rich friends, and bore down upon
more than one of them, as Walpole tells us only too truly,
for a dinner or a guinea. To supply himself with the latter,
he began to write theatrical pieces, having already, no
doubt, a considerable acquaintance amongst the Oldfields
and Bracegirdles behind the scenes. He laughed at these
pieces and scorned them."

From 1730 to 1737, Fielding did live mainly by his plays,
just as a century later Thackeray lived by his miscellaneous
writings, complaining, just as his predecessor sometimes
complained, if he did not receive as much as he would have
liked for his work. "The Times," Thackeray wrote to
Mrs. Brookfield of his review of Eoscoe's edition of Field
ing, "gave me five guineas for the article. I recollect I
thought it rather shabby pay. " If it was not very credit
able, as is implied, for Fielding to write for the week's
bread, it was also not very creditable for Thackeray to do
likewise. And far from scorning his plays, Fielding re
gretted that his dramatic career was cut short by the
Licensing Act. Presumably Fielding like all men had to
borrow money, but there is no warrant for the assertion
that he was as reckless as Captain Booth in this regard.
He doubtless received the usual five or ten guineas for a
dedication, and probably Ralph Allen later made him a
handsome present ; but he did not bear down on his friend ;
for the two hundred pounds which Allen is supposed to

*"The North American Eeview," April, 1913, pp. 522-537.

218

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

have given him was sent, according to the story, without
solicitation. When he was at Bath, he dined, it is said,
almost every day with Allen, not because he was unable to
procure a dinner elsewhere, but because the two men
enjoyed each other's company to the utmost.

Had he wished, Fielding could not have been intimate
with "the Oldfields and Bracegirdles behind the scenes."
Mrs. Bracegirdle, though she survived until 1748, took final
leave of the stage in 1709, when Fielding was but two years
old. Mrs. Oldfield indeed played Lady Matchless in Field
ing's first comedy, "Love in Several Masques." But three
weeks later the young man left for Leyden, and the actress
died a few months after his return, in her forty-eighth year.
Mrs. Bracegirdle was then above sixty years of age, while
Fielding was just above twenty. Mrs. Oldfield he knew
slightly; Mrs. Bracegirdle he probably never met. If
Thackeray had stopped to think, he never would have hinted
that Harry Fielding had "a considerable acquaintance"
with these old women, perhaps had an intrigue with one or
the other of them. The only actress with whom Fielding's
name was ever linked was Miss Raftor, afterwards Mrs.
Clive. Each contributed to the success of the other. She
took the parts he wrote for her ; and after her marriage he
dedicated "The Intriguing Chambermaid" to "the best
wife, the best daughter, the best sister, and the best friend. ' '
Fielding evidently knew a good woman when he found her,
whether he wanted her for his home or for his theatre.
• Neither in his review nor in his lecture did Thackeray
give any evidence whatever for the statement that Field
ing led "a sad, riotous life, and mixed with many a bad
woman in his time." He read too literally Fielding's own
life in the careers of Tom Jones and Captain Booth. What
these men do he supposed Fielding had done also. No
novelist could long maintain his reputation as a gentleman
were the follies and vices of his characters to be trans-

219

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

ferred in this easy way to himself. How would Thackeray
fare under this treatment? May we endow him with all
the faults of Arthur Pendennis, Olive Newcome, and George
Warrington? Is his Captain Costigan evidence that he
preferred the haunts of the vulgar and the profane to the
company of decent people? Much might be said, too, of
the fact that when Thackeray tried, in imitation of Field
ing, to depict a perfect woman he gave the world Amelia
Sedley, who is more dead than alive; but when he essayed
the adventuress, the result was a superb character. If a
balance were struck between the good and the bad women
in Fielding and Thackeray, there is no doubt as to how the
scales would stand. Becky Sharp and Beatrix Esmond are
Thackeray's great feminine creations; Amelia Booth and
Sophia Western are Fielding's.

Equally fictitious are those descriptions of Fielding
drunk. "His muse," Thackeray said of him at the time
"Joseph Andrews" was written, "had sung the loudest
in tavern choruses, had seen the daylight streaming in over
thousands of emptied bowls, and reeled home to chambers
on the shoulders of the watchman." This is all sheer
rhetoric. As Mr. Dickson has pointed out, quoting
"Amelia," the watchmen of the period "were poor old
decrepit people," without the bodily strength necessary
for earning a living by any kind of work. "It required,"
he remarks, "the abounding imagination of a Thackeray to
see such a one bearing homeward the stalwart form of
Fielding." When Thackeray introduced the watch into
his picture he was thinking, of course, of the policeman of
his own time, a descendant of that efficient body of con
stables which was organized by this same Harry Fielding,
the young Mohawk, when he was chief police magistrate
for Middlesex. Thackeray's only semblance of an excuse
for the imaginary scene was a story which he read in
Roscoe or Murphy. These biographers said with slight

220

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

variation, when they described Fielding's eager pursuit
of the law : ' ' Nothing could suppress the thirst he had for
knowledge, and the delight he felt in reading; and this pre
vailed in him to such a degree, that he has been frequently
known, by his intimates, to retire late at night from a tavern
to his chambers, and there read, and make extracts from,
the most abstruse authors, for several hours before he went
to bed." This story, which may or may not be true, does
indeed bring before the imagination a convivial companion,
but it implies moderation rather than excess in drinking.
There was certainly no need of a watchman to help Field
ing to his chambers.

Reworked in another way the same anecdote was trans
formed by Thackeray in his review to read : * * They say he
used to come home from a supper party, and after tying
a wet cloth round his head, would begin to read as stoutly
as the soberest man in either of the Temples. This is very
probable, but there are still better ways of keeping the
head cool, which the author of 'Tom Jones' seems to have
neglected." Though it was not in the original story, the
novelist will have it that Fielding drank heavily on these
occasions. But Thackeray knew — for he, too, had been a
student at the Middle Temple with chambers near those once
occupied by Fielding — that a man with an over-heated head
cannot "read, and make abstracts from, the most abstruse
authors"; so he cooled Fielding's head "with a wet cloth,"
afterwards altered to "a wet towel," in order to make the
phrase more specific and striking. No one who has once
read Thackeray can rid his memory of this wet towel and
the other picturesque touches in the portrait of Fielding;
of a man in a tarnished laced coat streaked with wine,
staggering home from a late dinner under the guidance of
the watch, helped up the stairway by a boy who has sat
at the foot for hours for the honour, who opens the door for
him, and either puts him to bed or places him in a chair by

221

the table and provides a wet towel for an aching brain and
watches the hand of the master grow steady as it tran
scribes a passage from a law book or dashes off a leader
for "The Covent-Garden Journal." And yet for these
melodramatic details Thackeray had no scrap of evidence,
beyond the fact that Fielding would sit late with his friends
over wine or punch, often dined out like other men, read
perhaps more books than any other man of his time, be
came learned in the law, and wrote thousands of pages.

And there is another passage, hidden away in Thack
eray's works, where the romancer takes a wilder flight. The
watch, it seems, instead of always assisting Fielding to his
chambers, sometimes conveyed him to the roundhouse. On
these unfortunate nights we have a view of him sitting alone,
"fuddled, most likely," while "in the blandest, easiest, and
most good-humoured way in the world," he delineates,
taking them from real life, "a number of men and women
on so many sheets of paper." If we could look over the
master's shoulder we might get a glimpse, Thackeray im
agines, of the perfectly lifelike scenes as they are unfolded.
"Is not Amelia preparing her husband's little supper? Is
not Miss Snap chastely preventing the crime of Mr. Fire
brand? Is not Parson Adams in the midst of his family,
and Mr. Wild taking his last bowl of punch with the New
gate Ordinary?" On the outcome, Thackeray exclaims,
"0 wondrous power of genius!" And certainly it would
be a display of wondrous power, were it true that Fielding
composed his novels while "fuddled" and locked up in a
sponging-house. When he wrote that scene in "Amelia"
to which Thackeray refers, he was a justice of the peace
for Middlesex, and had published, only a few months before,
a pamphlet denouncing drunkenness as the chief source of
theft and robbery.

With the same disregard of truth, Thackeray also dark-

* "Caricatures and Lithography," in "The Paris Sketch Book."

222

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

ened the character of Tom Jones ; not in the review, where
he has little to say of him, but in the lecture, where he per
haps wished to win the moral approbation of one part of
his audience while amusing the other. After praising the
construction of the novel as " quite a wonder," Thackeray
went on to say:

"But against Mr. Thomas Jones himself we have a right
to put in a protest, and quarrel with the esteem the author
evidently has for that character. Charles Lamb says finely
of Jones, that a single hearty laugh from him 'clears the
air' — but then it is in a certain state of the atmosphere.
It might clear the air when such personages as Blifil or
Lady Bellaston poison it. But I fear very much that
(except until the very last scene of the story), when Mr.
Jones enters Sophia's drawing-room, the pure air there
is rather tainted with the young gentleman's tobacco-pipe
and punch. . . . He would not rob a church, but that is all ;
and a pretty long argument may be debated, as to which
of these old types, the spendthrift, the hypocrite, Jones and
Blifil, Charles and Joseph Surface, — is the worst member
of society and the most deserving of censure. . . . 'Amelia'
perhaps is not a better story than 'Tom Jones,' but it has
the better ethics ; the prodigal repents at least, before for
giveness, — whereas that odious broad-backed Mr. Jones
carries off his beauty with scarce an interval of remorse
for his manifold errors and shortcomings. . . . Too much
of the plum-cake and rewards of life fall to that boisterous,
swaggering young scapegrace."

The long list of protests closes with a lamentation over
Tom's "fondness for drink and play."

This is not the Tom Jones of Fielding's novel. Tom, as
his author depicts him, is a boy rather under medium size,
of hard muscles, strong enough to thrash a Blifil or unarm
an inexpert highwayman; but he does not swagger, nor is
he a big fellow with broad back, or "large calves" and

223

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

" broad shoulders," as Thackeray adds elsewhere. It was
Fielding who had the large calves and the broad shoulders.
This is where Thackeray found them for the young man.
Though generous when he has money, Tom is no spend
thrift. He displays no fondness for drink; so far as we
know, he has never tasted punch — that "liquid fire" which
Mrs. Honour pours down her throat. Rarely does he drink
wine ; if on one occasion he takes more than is good for him,
it is because of his joy over the recovery of Allworthy.
Fielding, as we may see in "The Voyage to Lisbon," took
wine, when he could get it, after dinner, and sometimes
a bowl of punch at night if there was anyone to drink it
with him. So Thackeray seems to infer that Tom must
have had the same habit. Tom does not taint the pure air
of Sophia's drawing-room with tobacco. On the contrary,
he is never seen in the novel with a pipe. It was Fielding
who, according to the stories told of him, smoked innumer
able pipes on a morning. Tom never gambles; nor was
Fielding ever accused of the folly by his worst enemies.
It is Booth who loses at play. Of course, young gentlemen
of the period as well as of later times have spent their nights
at the gaming-table. Thackeray, for example, dissipated
a fortune of £20,000, the last remnant of which, some £1,500,
was transferred to the pocket of a gambler at Spa who beat
him at ecarte. Apparently Thackeray felt justified in en
dowing Tom Jones with any folly or vice on which Fielding
is silent. Since Fielding nowhere says that Tom does not
smoke, does not habitually drink wine and punch, and does
not gamble, it may be assumed, Thackeray thought, that he
was fond of tobacco and drink and play. The only vice he
fails to give him is profanity.

In this gross misrepresentation of Tom Jones, that young
gentleman is not alone involved. ' i I can 't say, ' ' Thackeray
remarks, "but that I think Fielding's evident liking and
admiration for Mr. Jones shows that the great humorist's

224

DEFAMERS AND APOLOGISTS

moral sense was blunted by his life. ' ' And again, as I have
already quoted him, that Fielding is none other than "wild
Tom Jones." By his little fabrications and subtle inter
play between Tom Jones, his author, and himself, Thack
eray really did more than any other man has ever done to
stain the memory of Fielding. For art's sake he sacrificed
the artist.

225

CHAPTER XXXV

THE FAME OF FIELDING

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

Thackeray intended no harm. His appreciation of Field
ing's novels was whole-hearted and sincere ; it gave Fielding
a higher place in the republic of letters than he had enjoyed
at any time since his death. If Fielding had lived the dis
reputable life ascribed to him by the casual biographers
whom Thackeray read, no great injury, in the view of a
literary artist, could be done by touching up his vices and
inventing a few new ones, especially if they were described,
as Thackeray described them, on the whole lightly and hu
morously. Both the review and the lecture were compara
tively free from the moral indignation which Fielding's
career then awakened in most second-rate critics.

Take, for instance, such an estimate as the one which
E. P. Whipple contributed to "The North American
Eeview" for January, 1849. It was an honest piece of
criticism. The superb qualities of Fielding's work Whipple
saw with almost as clear a vision as did Thackeray. He
even went so far as to say of Fielding: "If we consider his
mind in respect either to its scope or its healthiness, we do
not see how we can avoid placing it above that of any Eng
lish poet, novelist, or humorist, of his century." But he
could not reconcile Fielding's mind with his temperament,
which was that of "a rowdy"; his works and his life could
not be made to match. It never occurred to Whipple that
the tales about Fielding might be untrue. Fielding's

226

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

"knowledge of the law," he said, "was principally ob
tained in experiencing the consequences of its violation";
and if the novelist was ill rewarded for his work, there was
consolation in the thought that the world "could not pos
sibly have lavished upon him an amount of wealth which
his improvidence would not instantly have wasted."

One of the anecdotes Whipple slightly amended. He
evidently saw, after thinking it over, that Fielding could
not have been chewing tobacco and drinking champagne
at one and the same time as he sat behind the scenes
waiting for the damnation of "The Wedding Day." In
the new version Fielding drinks the champagne, "envel
oped in tobacco smoke. ' ' The conclusion at which Whipple
eventually arrived, after being driven back and forth like
a shuttlecock between his own impressions and the biogra
phers, was that the author of "Joseph Andrews" must
have had in his heart "the germs of a philanthropy as
warm and all embracing as ever animated a human breast. ' '
It is indeed something to have virtue 's germs in the breast,
though they may not expand and grow for the lack of "high
moral and religious aspiration" to fertilize them.

Take also two or three other critics of the time. There
is George Gilfillan, the Presbyterian divine who edited the
old poets, wrote poems himself, wrote essays and biogra
phies, wrote in all a hundred volumes without neglect, it
is said, of his parish duties. This man, who had no leisure
to consider his subject, fell foul of Fielding in the third
series of his "Literary Portraits" (1854), depicting him
as "a sad scamp" who aimed to pollute the whole world
by reproducing his own vices in "Tom Jones," a novel
which "Mr. Thackeray seems to us to over-rate . . . amaz
ingly." "Tom Jones," he admits, "is a piece of admirable
art, but composed of the basest materials, like a palace
built of dung." It was Gilfillan 's prediction that a century
later "Joseph Andrews" would "alone survive to preserve

227

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Fielding's name." The next year the Rev. Whitwell Elwin,
whose moral fibre was not quite so coarse, had his say in
"The Quarterly Review" for December, 1855. Like
Whipple, Elwin found difficulty in understanding how this
"haunter of taverns and squanderer of thousands" could
have composed "Tom Jones," displaying that consummate
workmanship which requires time as well as skill; or how
he could ever have pursued the dry and arduous study of
the law, which in the end proved so "profitless" to him.
Not satisfied with the old story as it came to him of Field
ing's watches through the night, the critic made it read:
' ' He would sit up for hours on returning late to his cham
bers, and snatch from sleep the time he had given to riot."
With a stroke of the pen Thackeray's "supper party" thus
rose to the dignity of "riot." Elwin, who feared that a
man could not acquire very much law in the intervals be
tween sprees, must have been perplexed when he received
in the course of a few weeks a letter which asserted : ' ' There
are but two writers in our language who ever touch law
without showing their ignorance on the subject. These are
Shakespeare and Fielding. Walter Scott, a lawyer by pro
fession and by office, is no exception. ' ' The author of this
letter was M. Davenport Hill, the distinguished lawyer who
reformed the criminal laws of Great Britain.

Hitherto nearly everyone, except Richardson and his
friends, had admitted the high art of "Tom Jones." Even
Watson and Mudford conceded so much as that. It re
mained for an anonymous contributor to "Blackwood's
Magazine" in March, 1860, to annihilate every claim of
Fielding's pre-eminence. When compared with Walter
Scott or Jane Austen, Fielding was found to possess little
imagination and no humour — unless "a bloody nose" or
"the discovery of two persons breaking the seventh com-

* Elwin, "Some XVIII Century Men of Letters," edited by his son, 1902,
JI, 300.

228

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

mandment" be sufficient to raise a laugh, — to be " utterly
without seriousness," and "ludicrously incompetent to
portray any of the deeper emotional and intellectual forms
of life." "We must burn our pens, and abdicate the judg
ment-seat altogether," declared the anonymous gentleman,
"if we are to pronounce him a great artist, or a great
painter of human nature." And again: "The only point
which admits of something like demonstration is that on
which the critics have hitherto been most nearly unani
mous — namely, the construction of 'Tom Jones'; and on
this point we believe it may be said that we have proved
them to be wrong." So Fielding was deprived of his last
laurel. Thackeray, who read the article, rebuked the
"wiseacre" and "hypocrite" in a Eoundabout paper, and
once more paid his "respect, and wonder, and admiration,
to the brave old Master."*

None of the mid- Victorians except Thackeray can be said
to have taken Fielding as their master; nor was Fielding's
direct influence on more than one other novelist of the
period very apparent. In boyhood Dickens read "Tom
Jones ' ' and he must have read later ' ' Amelia. ' ' In one of
his letters, too, he referred to "a beautiful thought in
Fielding's 'Journey from this World to the Next' where
the baby he had lost many years before was found by him
all radiant and happy, building him a bower in the Elysian
Fields where they were to live together when he came."f
"Amelia," a novel designed in part to expose crime and
public vice, must be regarded as the forerunner of ' ' Oliver
Twist" and all those novels of criminal life which flourished
in the nineteenth century; but the humour of Dickens and
the numberless caricature portraits with which he enriched
English literature are more akin to Smollett's work than
to Fielding's. "Fielding," remarked M. Davenport Hill,

* ' ' Thorns in the Cushion " in " Roundabout Papers. ' '

t "Letters of Charles Dickens," New York, 1879, I, 461-462.

229

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

"never runs into caricature, although he sometimes ad
vances to its very edge, as in the lamentations of Parson
Adams at the absence of his sermon on Vanity." Bulwer-
Lytton wrote handsomely of Fielding and relied upon him
for disquisitions on the art of fiction ; but the novel of real
life such as Lytton wrote — "The Caxtons," for instance-
derives from Sterne rather than from Fielding. Poe the
American, who probably never read Fielding, expressed
contempt for him. In order to exalt Dickens at the expense
of everybody else, he could say: "For one Dickens there are
five million Smolletts, Fieldings, Marryatts, Arthurs, Cock-
tons, Bogtons, and Frogtons." James Eussell Lowell, I
have heard, shocked Harriet Beecher Stowe by suggesting
to the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" that she might im
prove her art by reading "Tom Jones."

On the other hand, the virile mind of George Eliot felt
no repugnance towards Fielding ; and she became a greater
novelist by far than her American contemporary. To her
Fielding was "a great historian" of human nature. Like
him she divided "Middlemarch," her most mature novel,
into books sometimes imitating his famous initial chapters.
Despite many differences, both George Eliot and Field
ing clearly believed that the true analogy to the novel
of real life was to be found in the Dutch masters. Field
ing's critics in his lifetime, when they wished to be particu
larly severe, called him nothing but a Dutch painter. The
charge he met, so far as we know, in silence. George Eliot,
for her supposed want of idealism, was also put into the
same category. Her spirited reply was that she gloried in
the comparison; that she was quite willing to leave the
Madonnas, the angels, and the romanced villains to others
while she herself pursued her humdrum way among quite
ordinary people, distinguished neither for their virtue nor

* Eeview of Lever's "Charles O'Malley" in "Graham's Magazine," March,
1842.

230

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

for their crimes. Hers were the mixed characters of a
Fielding.

Fielding's novels, it is perhaps needless to say, formed
no part of the Bronte library. In a charming letter of ad
vice to a friend during girlhood, Charlotte Bronte told her
that all novels by the side of Scott's were "worthless";
that as for herself she read the poets and biographers
mostly. "Omit," her injunction was, "the comedies of
Shakespeare, and the 'Don Juan,' perhaps the 'Cain,' of
Byron, though the latter is a magnificent poem, and read
the rest fearlessly; that must indeed be a depraved mind
which can gather evil from 'Henry VIII.,' from 'Richard
III.,' from 'Macbeth,' and 'Hamlet,' and 'Julius Caesar.'
Scott's sweet, wild romantic poetry can do you no harm."
A young woman whose delicacy was disturbed by "As You
Like It" or "The Merchant of Venice" could never have
read far in "Tom Jones." Such knowledge as Miss Bronte
possessed of Fielding came from Thackeray's lecture,
which she heard when it was first given in London and
which she afterwards read at leisure. Of her emotions
she wrote : "I was present at the Fielding lecture : the hour
spent in listening to it was a painful hour. That Thack
eray was wrong in his way of treating Fielding's character
and vices, my conscience told me. . . . Had Thackeray
owned a son, grown, or growing up, and a son, brilliant but
reckless — would he have spoken in that light way of
courses that lead to disgrace and the grave? . . . Had I a
brother yet living, I should tremble to let him read Thack
eray's lecture on Fielding. I should hide it away from
him." Three years before Miss Bronte heard the lecture,
she lost her brother Branwell, who, long habituated to evil
ways, had died at the age of thirty-one, a hopeless ine
briate. So quite naturally all that Thackeray said of Field-

* Elizabeth Gaskell, "Life of Charlotte Bronte," edited by Shorter, 1900,
p. 610.

231

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

ing's youth reminded her of her brother's wild years which
darkened and frightened the Bronte household. Thackeray,
in his account of Fielding, had indeed described an ine
briate and then lavished upon him excuses for the conduct
of a "miserable, weak-minded rogue." Had Fielding been
such a man, he, too, would have gone to the "piteous de
struction" that lay in wait for Branwell Bronte; he would
have travelled the road of Shakespeare's fellow play
wrights — the road of Greene and Peele and Marlowe.

When a Charlotte Bronte could infer from the words of
Thackeray, supposed to be the most favourable ever spoken
of Fielding, that the author of "Tom Jones" was really
an inebriate, the time had surely arrived for the trained
investigator to give his attention to the details of that
dissipated gentleman's career. The obvious reason why
no competent biographer of Fielding had yet appeared was
because few materials lay ready at hand. This was why
Southey, the indefatigable biographer, left Fielding un
touched. Neither he nor anyone else could find any large
body of intimate correspondence, the biographer's boon,
for there was none to find. Many contemporary references
to Fielding were scattered through letters, memoirs, maga
zines, and newspapers; but to collect them, sort them, and
make the proper use of them meant years of labor. The
pioneer in this work was Frederick Lawrence, a barrister
of the Middle Temple. For the three years preceding his
admission to the bar in 1849, Lawrence held a position in
the library of the British Museum, as one of the compilers
of the general catalogue ; and in this capacity he gained an
extensive knowledge of miscellaneous books and pamphlets
as shown by his many critical articles in the periodicals.
To "Sharpe's London Magazine" he contributed those
studies afterwards expanded into "The Life of Henry
Fielding; with Notices of his Writings, his Times, and his
Contemporaries" (1855), a volume of three hundred and

232

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

eighty pages. Lawrence went over Fielding's entire
career, correcting Murphy and his successors in many
places, and adding numerous hitherto unknown details ; he
sought to construct the proper social and literary back
ground; and he gave an interesting account of Fielding's
works so far as he knew them. If a number of publications
escaped his notice, it should be remembered that the Field
ing canon had not yet been established, and that Lawrence
was the first to make any essential additions to it.

Lawrence's biography, however, was not a thoroughly
good piece of work. His knowledge of "The Jacobite's
Journal," which he called, following Scott, "The Jacobite
Journal," was confined to the two leaders reprinted by
Murphy and to such abstracts of the others as were given
in "The Gentleman's Magazine." "We have not been
lucky enough," he said, "to meet with any original copy
of Fielding's paper." This ill luck on the part of a former
cataloguer in the British Museum seems incredible ; for the
library of that institution then possessed a nearly complete
file of the periodical, which it had acquired with the Burney
collection of newspapers as far back as 1818. Within * * The
Jacobite's Journal," which Lawrence could have made no
real effort to discover, lay concealed more new facts about
Fielding than in all the scattered pamphlets which the
biographer brought together. As in this instance, Law
rence was too prone to take his matter carelessly or at
second-hand. By a curious blunder, for example, he
identified Henry Fielding with Timothy Fielding, a third-
rate comedian, who with a company of cheap actors used
to amuse the town at the George Inn in Smithfield during
the time of the Bartholomew Fair. This Timothy Fielding,
who had a booth at Tottenham Court also, died on August
22, 1738, at his house, the Buffalo Head Tavern in Blooms-
bury. He was the "Mr Fielding" whose name appears
after Mr. Furnish, the upholsterer, in the original cast of

233

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

' ' The Miser. ' ' There was no other connection between the
playwright and the actor. But after the two men had been
made one, Lawrence was able to draw a graphic picture of
Henry Fielding designing entertainments for "holiday
folks" and perhaps exhibiting himself to the rabble in the »
early days of his reckless poverty. Had Lawrence pos
sessed any adequate conception of Henry Fielding's per
sonality he would never have fallen into so gross an error.
This brings us to the prime defect of the book. Diligent
as Lawrence was in research, he lacked critical insight ; and
owing to a fixed prepossession that Fielding's character
had been correctly set forth by Murphy and Thaqkeray, he
interpreted facts, whether old or new, mostly to substan
tiate, rarely to overthrow, his predecessors. From Field
ing's "chequered and wayward life," he thought, "many
instructive lessons ' ' might be drawn by the reader ; ' ' since,
at every stage of it, it will be seen how surely retributive
sorrow and suffering follow in the track of misspent hours."
To give point to this moral lesson, the biographer felt justi
fied not only in misrepresenting facts but in creating them
within the realm of his own imagination. Out of Fielding's
playful epistle to Sir Robert Walpole, Lawrence could get :
"Writing was a drudgery to which he only resorted when
impelled by necessity. . . . Never was poet or playwright
prouder of his debts, his garret, and careless expenditure. ' '
Out of an equally playful satire on Fielding called ' * Season
able Eeproof , ' ' he could get : " A strange alternation, there
fore, of light and shade did these early years of Fielding's
.life present. To-day, familiar with the sordid haunts of
poverty; to-morrow, gay in velvet, ruffles, and embroidery.
Now, dining at the tables of the great, and quaffing cham
pagne in ducal banquet-halls; and now seeking out the
cheapest ordinary; or, if dinner were impossible, solacing
himself with a pipe of tobacco. ' ' And again, with the same
disregard of fact, he could write of Fielding after the ap-

234

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

pearance of "The Miser": "He was as yet, be it observed,
not six-and-twenty, and the life of dissipation into which
he had plunged left him little time or inclination for study,
reflection, or mental improvement. Happy indeed would
it have been for him had it been otherwise." Within the
space of four years this dissipated young man had really
found time to write no less than fifteen plays, several of
which had met with immense success. No English play
wright, however sober, had ever shown greater industry.
In these misrepresentations the first Mrs. Fielding shared
with her husband. Bichardson's statement that she was
of illegitimate birth, Lawrence partially confirmed, he
thought, by the discovery that her maiden name — Cradock
or Craddock — sometimes appears in the genealogies as
Braddock and Brawicke, just as might be expected of a
natural child whose parentage was uncertain. Had he not
already settled the question in his own mind, he would have
seen that Braddock and Brawicke were merely the errors
of a scribe or a compositor; he certainly would never have
gone on to infer that Mrs. Fielding, perhaps inheriting the
weakness of her mother, was "a fond and foolish" woman
who began her married life by abetting her husband in the
follies which he was supposed to have committed at East
Stour. "Poor girl! her fortune was soon dissipated to the
winds; run away with by horses and hounds; lavished on
yellow plush inexpressibles for idle flunkeys ; banqueted on
by foolish squires, or consumed by other senseless extrava
gances." As a result of this marriage, Fielding's conduct,
we see, did not improve much. Though he was faithful to
his wife, he came in course of time to treat her with neglect.
"His business and pursuits," Lawrence imagined, "carried
him much abroad. When he was absent on circuit and ses
sions, she was frequently left for days alone with her maid
in their humble London lodgings; nay, it is to be feared
that in the season of their bitterest penury she had often in

235

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

such companionship worn away the weary hours whilst he
was the inmate of the prison or sponging-house. "

Her death first awakened him to his senses. Though he
had never been harsh or cruel to her in word or thought,
he had been so " practically in act and deed," for he had
brought upon her as well as upon himself misery and mis
fortune which common prudence might have averted. To
put Lawrence's phrases all together, Fielding became, in
the years subsequent to his wife's death, the prey of "re
morse," " self -accusation, " and " self-reproach"; and in
atonement for his selfishness and duties left unperformed,
he afterwards immortalized all her virtues in Amelia. Thus
closed the story of "retributive sorrow." Unable to pre
sent a summary of Fielding's "merits and defects as a
writer and a man, ' ' Lawrence subjoined in its stead a para
graph from Thackeray 's lecture and described in imaginary
scenes the reflections of Lyttelton and Hogarth and Garrick
when they heard that "the stormy life" of their friend was
at an end. Lyttelton mused over the happy boy whom he
had known at Eton, "the roistering host" of later years,
"the briefless barrister," and the "remorseful inmate" of
the sponging-house who received aid from him ' * for the sake
of weeping wife at home."

Lawrence's book was subjected to a thoroughly critical
examination by Thomas Keightley, the author of "Fairy
Mythology" and a "History of England" much read in
his day. Though not a great man, Keightley had the his
torical sense and he was not inclined to take statements at
second-hand without verification. It is clear that he had
read Fielding's major works very closely, perhaps with a
view to a biography — a project in which he was forestalled
by Lawrence. His strictures on Lawrence, entitled "On
the Life and Writings of Henry Fielding, ' ' were published
in "Fraser's Magazine" for January and February, 1858.
To these two articles he added a postscript in the June

236

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

number of this magazine and later gave in "Notes and
Queries" some further results of his investigations.
Keightley corrected his predecessor in several important
particulars and made a few brilliant discoveries of his own ;
but the real significance of his work lay in his interpretation
of the facts collected by Lawrence in their relation to the
traditional Fielding. These facts Lawrence employed, as
we have seen, to confirm all the errors of the tradition ;
Keightley employed them to expose the absurdities lurking
in the old stories. Of Lawrence, Keightley said justly:
"He fails to make the due use of his materials; he does not
always see what was, as it were, before his eyes, he fails
to draw inferences, or draws erroneous ones. . . . My ob
ject, then, is to do what he has left undone ; from his mate
rials and references to make correct statements, and deduce
just, or at least probable, conclusions, and if possible to
represent Henry Fielding as he really was."

Keightley was the first to cast doubt on the Fielding
pedigree, which has since been proved to be, as he antici
pated, a mere forgery, and on the story of a fortune dis
sipated at East Stour, which has likewise been shown to
be utterly false. A rough estimate which he made of
Fielding's probable income from his plays should have put
to rest forever the tales of the young dramatist's abject
poverty and the anecdotes of his sponging upon his friends
for a dinner. He set in their correct light the remarks of
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu about Fielding's improvi
dence and the report which Horace Walpole circulated of
Fielding's debased associates while a justice of the peace.
On the latter count, he had but to give the names of the
principal persons whom Fielding was entertaining at his
table when Rigby broke in upon the magistrate. ' ' There is
nothing," he added, "in his own works or in Murphy's
which might lead us to suppose that at this or any other
period of his life he kept low company; there is no'know-

237

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

ledge shown by him of the language and habits of the lower
classes that a gentleman might not have obtained without
descending from his position." " Jonathan Wild," which
had often been cited as evidence of Fielding's depraved
tastes, Keightley rightly described as a scathing political
satire aimed specifically at Sir Eobert Walpole. Against
''the malicious assertion" of Richardson, repeated by Law
rence, that the first Mrs. Fielding was illegitimate, he set
the tradition of Salisbury that she belonged to a "highly
respectable" family and the praise lavished by all who
knew her upon her character. Lawrence's cruel insinua
tion that Fielding neglected this charming woman and was
perhaps unfaithful to her, he treated with the contempt it
deserved. "Amelia," far from breaking Fielding's heart
while he composed it, as a reviewer of Lawrence had sur
mised, Keightley averred must have been written in a mood
where no remorse was, where love and admiration for re
membered worth and beauty predominated over all other
emotions. Though Keightley accepted the tradition of
Fielding's dissipation in youth, he gave him a clean score
on all other counts. Similarly he vindicated Tom Jones
against all the vices that had been fabricated against this
boy. If vice be a habit, as the moralists say, Keightley
could discern none in Tom. * * He did not drink, swear, lie,
cheat, game, oppress, malign, &c." This is doubtless an
overstatement ; but Tom had none of the deep-seated vices ;
his sins of the flesh were of the kind that Dante punished
in the first circles of the Inferno. They did not penetrate
and vitiate the character of the young gentleman.

Keightley 's sane observations, hidden away in a maga
zine, had little or no immediate effect upon the Fielding
tradition as fixed by Lawrence and Thackeray. To most
writers on Fielding during the next quarter-century
Keightley 's articles were unknown; and by the few who
knew of them, they were underrated or ignored. Again and

238

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

again the old dissipated profligate was tricked out anew by
critics and reviewers — by William Forsyth, for example,
in ''The Novels and Novelists of the Eighteenth Century"
(1871), and by J. Heneage Jesse in " Memoirs of Celebrated
Etonians" (1875), where we read: " Never, perhaps, has
there existed a sadder example of a man of illustrious
talents, and at the same time of an illustrious descent, being
reduced by his own indiscretions to so grievous a condition
of indigence and privation as fell to the lot of the once gay
and gallant Henry Fielding." Among the casual biogra
phers, Dr. James P. Browne was an exception to the rule.
Familiar with the major and many of the minor works of
Fielding, he read the author through these works rather
than through anecdotes and hearsay. Browne, however,
was not a man of letters ; his style was laboured and feeble ;
and beyond this, all that he said in the preface to his edi
tion of Fielding in 1871 was a good deal vitiated by his
reprint of Murphy's "able and critical essay," which
readers surely found more interesting than the physician's
protest against Thackeray's unfair treatment of Fielding
and Tom Jones, and his contention that the main effort of
Fielding, in all his works, was "to instil into the soul of
man the necessity of using graceful truthfulness and
benevolent urbanity of manner in social intercourse, with
detestation of all hypocritical dealing."

Fielding's moral measure was also soberly taken by
Leslie Stephen, Thackeray's son-in-law. In distinction
from Eichardson, ' ' a straitlaced parson out of the pulpit, ' '
Stephen described Fielding as a liberal Churchman whose
moral and religious ideas were in agreement with those of
Benjamin Hoadly, the latitudinarian Bishop of Salisbury
and Winchester, whom the author of "Tom Jones" reck
oned among his friends. In his "English Thought in the
Eighteenth Century" (1876), Stephen wrote:

"The ideal man of Fielding's novels is as far from being

239

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

a libertine as from being an ascetic. He is a full-blooded
healthy animal, but respects the Church, so long as the
Church does not break with common sense. Parson
Adams — probably his finest conception — drinks beer and
smokes pipes, and when necessity compels, takes to the
cudgels with a vigour which might have excited the envy
of Christopher North. He scorns the unborn Malthus, and
is outrageously impecunious in his habits. He is entirely
free from worldliness, and is innocent as a child in the arts
of flattery and time-serving. But it is not because he is an
enthusiast after the fashion of Whitefield, or has any high-
flown views of the sacerdotal office. Common sense is the
rule of his life, or, in other words, the views which commend
themselves to a man who sees the world as it is, who has
no visionary dreams, and who has a thoroughly generous
nature. Fielding would have Christianity freed from all
extravagances — that is to say, from those vivid imaginings
which subordinate the world of sense to the supernatural;
he thinks that a man should be a gentleman, but laughs
heartily at the extravagances of the fire-eating descendants
of the old romantic cavaliers ; he is for a stringent enforce
ment of the moral laws, which actually keep society to
gether, but has no patience with those who would attempt
any radical reform, or draw the line higher than ordinary
human nature can endure. Richardson is more of a senti
mentalist; De Foe is simply commonplace; and Smollett
content to observe the eccentricities of his race without
preaching about them. Fielding, though hardly an exalted
moralist, expresses the genuine sentiment of his time with
a force and fulness which make his works more impressive
than the whole body of contemporary sermons, because un
trammelled by conventional necessities."

And again with reference to the breadth and sincerity of
Fielding's art:

"Fielding announced that his object is to give a faithful

240

picture of human nature. Human nature includes many
faculties which had an imperfect play under the conditions
of the time ; there were dark sides to it, of which, with all
his insight, he had but little experience; and heroic im
pulses, which he was too much inclined to treat as follies.
But the more solid constituents of that queer compound,
as they presented themselves under the conditions of the
time, were never more clearly revealed to any observer.
A complete criticism of the English artistic literature of
the eighteenth century would place Fielding at the centre,
and measure the completeness of other representatives
pretty much as they recede from or approach to his work.
Others, as Addison and Goldsmith, may show finer quali
ties of workmanship and more delicate sentiment; but
Fielding, more than anyone, gives the essential — the very
form and pressure of the time."*

These views Stephen repeated, using other words, in an
essay on Fielding's novels included in the third series of
"Hours in a Library" (1879). Neither before nor since
has anyone else ever drawn so complete a portrait of Field
ing the preacher, who became, under Stephen's hands,
perilously near to being, what he was not, a pedlar of moral
maxims.

At the time Leslie Stephen thus dwelt upon Fielding's
honest art and homespun morality, he gave slight credence
to the account of Fielding's life as related by the biogra
phers. ' ' To describe him, ' ' he then said, ' ' as a mere reck
less Bohemian, is to overlook the main facts of his story.
He was manly to the last, not in the sense in which man
means animal ; but with the manliness of one who struggles
bravely to redeem early errors, and who knows the value
of independence, purity, and domestic affection. The scanty
anecdotes which do duty for his biography reveal little of

•"English Thought in the Eighteenth Century," New York, 1876, II, 378-
380.

241

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

his true life. . . . Really to know the man, we must go to
his books." One may wish that Stephen had never been
given an opportunity to reverse this sane opinion by writ
ing a biographical introduction to that edition of Fielding's
works which appeared in 1882 under his name. For the
undertaking Stephen made no independent research what
ever; he merely took and related as probable fact what he
had before condemned as more or less apocryphal. He
accepted not only most of Murphy's anecdotes but also, so
far as he knew them, the old slanders of Fielding's political
enemies which Murphy had expressly declared to be un
founded. Moreover, from Murphy's silence concerning
many things which we should like to know, he concluded
that * 'there were probably some points in Fielding's his
tory which neither he nor any one else would have regarded
as altogether edifying." Indeed, no one during Fielding's
life, said Stephen, took the trouble "even to draw his pic
ture." It should be, therefore, no cause for regret that
the greater part of Fielding's career is covered by oblivion ;
for "we know as much of him as is necessary to explain his
work"; and these familiar outlines "anyone may fill up
more minutely by such colouring as pleases his fancy."

By relying upon fancy rather than fact, Stephen fell into
many difficulties and contradictions. Nor did that common
sense for which he had praised Fielding come to his rescue
so often as it ought. Such anecdotes as still wore for him
a suspicious look he retold in a manner having a greater
resemblance to truth. This could be done by clipping off
or adding words and phrases. The "yellow liveries," for
example, in the East Stour story, he distrusted and subse
quently brought forward evidence to show, as I have re
lated elsewhere, that they belonged to a namesake, not to
Henry Fielding at all. Accordingly, he then removed this
detail, remarking, as he did so, that the rest of the account
of how Fielding consumed a fortune in the country was

242

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

probably true!, The natural inference should have been
that the whole story was probably false. Again, it was
hard for Stephen to reconcile the tradition, which he be
lieved, that Fielding wrote merely for money, regardless
of public approval, with the fact that his works show fewer
traces of haste than one would expect to find in books com
posed under the pressure of poverty. His conclusion was
that the novels were written with care when the author
enjoyed leisure; while the plays, about which the critic
knew less, "were poured out at full speed" under the inspi
ration of wine and tobacco. The bottle and the tobacco
were too often at hand. Likewise, after having taken it for
granted that Fielding associated in his younger days with
people of the kind described in some of the plays and in
"Jonathan Wild," men and women who broke all the laws
of society, the biographer was confronted with the fact that
Fielding, as appears from his criminal pamphlets, was
later "shocked and disgusted by the revelations brought
before him" as a justice of the peace. Oblivious of the
contradiction, Stephen remarked thereon that hitherto
Fielding * * had been familiar with a higher social stratum. ' '
It was clear to Stephen that Fielding had read at some
time, in spite of dissipation, many good books and few if
any bad ones; nevertheless he was not learned nor did he
really possess that knowledge of literature and law which
he was fond of displaying. "No one will doubt," he said
after perusing the poems, "that Fielding loved 'Celia'
seriously and even passionately," "though it is . . . stated
that she was illegitimate" and "we can hardly deny that
he probably permitted himself some questionable distrac
tions for which he afterwards did penance by writing
'Amelia.' In this fluent manner, alloying fact with
fancy, Stephen went on to the end as if he had no more
concern for his own reputation than for Fielding's.

There were times when Stephen let his fancy run still

243

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

wilder. Certain that Fielding could not have obtained from
his plays an income sufficient to have supported him in
"the reckless indulgence" of youth, the biographer had
to look elsewhere for an inexhaustible supply ; and he found
it in the most unlikely place in the world — in "the bounty
of Lady Mary." Lady Mary Wortley Montagu did, in
deed, help Fielding bring out his first comedy and she
accepted the dedication of another; but she was not noted
for generosity to her poor relations, nor did anyone before
Stephen ever hint that she opened her purse at the cry of
her cousin. When dying, Fielding like all men, caught at
straws and tried various questionable remedies. Stephen,
anxious to represent him as a prey to quack doctors
throughout life, surmised that the dedication of ' * The Mock
Doctor" in the full health of youth to Dr. John Misaubin
might not be, as generally supposed, ironical, but down
right serious. The truth is, not only that the dedication is
a piece of perfect irony but that the doctor in the play itself
is a burlesque of Misaubin — of his speech, his mannerisms,
and his pill.

It was admitted that "poor Fielding," after a youth
wasted in oscillating between taverns and the charity of
his friends, tried hard to do something as a justice of the
peace; that in the last months of 1753 he did actually, as
he took pride in declaring, free London of robbery and
murder; but to accomplish his purpose "he had to employ
very dirty tools." The persons wht>m Fielding really em
ployed, if his word is worth anything, were special con
stables, "all men of known and approved fidelity and in
trepidity," into whose hands a notorious gang of ruffians
was betrayed by a man whom we should now describe as
a detective though he was then called a thief -taker. It was
these men, all chosen from householders, whom Stephen
described as "very dirty tools." Fielding, as I have al
ready told the story, organized them into a most efficient

244

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

body of police. This was his great work as a practical
reformer from which Leslie Stephen removed the lustre.

Nor did the biographer stop here. In the underworld of
London there still flourished a set of wretches who made
it a business to induce simple people to commit crimes in
order to inform against them and obtain the rewards offered
by the Government. Of these informers, Jonathan Wild
had been in his day an illustrious example. That the courts
of justice might be rid of so disgraceful a traffic, Fielding
advised that the practice of advertising rewards for the
detection of crime be discontinued; and from funds sup
plied by the Privy Council he formed his body of constables
and detectives to the discouragement of professional in
formers, who of course died hard. One of these miserable
survivors, named MacDaniel, * ' falsely accused one Kidden, ' '
says Stephen, "of highway robbery, and procured his con
viction and execution for the sake of the reward offered.'*
The real facts afterwards came out; and MacDaniel was
convicted of his crime and transported. By a wild flight
of fancy, Stephen conjectured that MacDaniel was the man
whom Fielding engaged in the early winter of 1753 to trap
the gang of street robbers which was then terrorizing the
town. The reason for Stephen's suspicion was the coin
cidence between the name of the informer and the maiden
name of Fielding's second wife, both being, he said, Mac-
Daniel. ' * Were I writing, ' ' he concluded, l ' a life of Shakes
peare, I might base something more than a conjecture upon
such a fact. As it is, I will only say, that possibly Fielding
may have been giving employment to some of his wife's
poor relations." By this backhanded stroke, Stephen de
rived the mother of many children from the dregs of Lon
don. The fact is, Henry Fielding never made, his brother
John positively asserted, any use of MacDaniel whatever ;*
nor could the case of that villain have ever come before him

*"A Plan for Preventing Robberies," 1755, pp. 4-6.

245

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

in any of its stages. When MacDaniel informed against
Kidden, Fielding had resigned from the Bow Street court ;
and when MacDaniel himself was convicted, Fielding was
dead. The maiden name of the second Mrs. Fielding was
not MacDaniel; it was Daniel. The two names imply
descent as far removed from each other as Edinburgh and
London.

It is unnecessary to seek for any hidden motive to explain
Stephen's outrageous performance. A journalist and
editor by training, Stephen never acquired much aptitude
for independent research despite his sustained work on
the " Dictionary of National Biography." His talent lay
in collecting and restating what had been said by others;
that is, his sources of information were nearly always
secondary. If his account of Fielding is the worst biographi
cal sketch that he ever wrote, it is partly because his sources
were untrustworthy and partly because he fell into the
style and manner of his predecessors who felt that any
thing said in one sentence to the credit of Fielding must
be withdrawn not later than the next. ' ' Ever let the fancy
roam ' ' might have been taken as the motto of most writers
on Fielding with the exception of Keightley. Few of them
have given evidence of possessing that kind of judgment
which the world describes as common sense. Many of them,
when they touched upon Fielding, appear to have lost their
minds completely. But when they cast aside the mirror of
apocryphal anecdotes, they have sometimes seen Fielding in
his works as he was. After reading "A Voyage to Lisbon,"
where Fielding speaks in his own person, Stephen remarked
that the book ''makes us love and respect the writer." And
again: "If a good heart may show itself, even in a dying
man, 'in indomitable buoyancy of spirit, keen and kindly
interest in the living beings who share his fate, and warm
gratitude for every attention which he receives, we may
safely say that Fielding stands the test admirably. ' '

246

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

Leslie Stephen was the last of the brilliant defamers of
Fielding. Others, it is true, have since repeated the old
slanders in the old style ; but they are all ill-informed writ
ers without standing in the republic of letters. When, for
example, one Emanuel Green* tells us that Fielding was
"a most despicable character," that his works, although
much talked about, have been "but little read," and that
"the world has hardly derived either profit or benefit from
them," we set it down to ignorance. The man, above all
others, to whom the world is indebted for a more just view
of Fielding is Austin Dobson, who contributed in 1883 a
monograph on Fielding to the English Men of Letters
series. Though Dobson mainly depended upon Lawrence
for the outline of his story, he re-examined his predeces
sor's sources of information, subjected them to a critical
test which often resulted in a new interpretation, and added
on his own account a considerable body of fresh facts.
Towards the old tales about Fielding he took, though with
less pungency, Keightley's attitude of distrust, pointing
out their impossible or incongruous details and leaving it
to the reader to accept or reject the rest. Instead of fancy,
common sense was his guide.

Dobson 's book received the highest approbation in the
world of letters, which had been perplexed for more than
a century by the utter disagreement between the Fielding
whom one sees in the novels and the Fielding whom the
biographers depicted. If the reconciliation was still far
from complete, a serious endeavour at least was here made
to reach one ; and more light was ahead. In the years fol
lowing, some inaccuracies were corrected, some obscurities
were cleared up, and several new details of Fielding's
career were uncovered by scholars who corresponded with
Dobson directly or sent their contributions to "Notes and
Queries." The alterations thus made necessary were in-

* "Henry Fielding and his Works," London, 1909.

247

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

corporated by Dobson in later editions of his volume.
When the edition of 1900 appeared with several appendices,
it was the opinion of a most competent judge that " prob
ably no better thing than this will be done for Fielding."
Dobson 's elucidation of Fielding's career, however, did not
end with the last edition of his book. His essays on Field
ing which have since appeared possess very great interest.
In ''The National Review" for August, 1911, he gave, for
example, an account of two newly discovered letters of
Fielding, publishing one of them entire. These letters to
John Fielding, filled with personal incidents, are among
the last that the novelist ever wrote. It so happens, too,
that the most important of Dobson 's earlier discoveries
never found full entrance into his biography of Fielding. I
refer to the description of Fielding's library, based upon
the auctioneer's catalogue. This essay, which was first
presented to the public in "Bibliographia"* for 1895, gave
the last touch of absurdity to the opinion of Leslie Stephen
and numberless others that Fielding tried to display in his
novels and pamphlets an intimate acquaintance with books
about which he probably had little knowledge at first hand.
The results of Dobson 's studies have stimulated a number
of investigators to go much further than he went into the
details of Fielding's literary life. Frederick S. Dickson,
for instance, reprinted in 1907 with critical annotations
Keightley's essays on Fielding which had originally
appeared in "Fraser's Magazine," and contributed to "The
North American Review" for April, 1913, a paper on
Thackeray and Fielding which settled several old questions
in dispute on Fielding's character. Unfortunately Mr.
Dickson has been chary of publication. No one who has
not carefully inspected the Fielding Collection which he

* " Bibliographica, " London, 1895, Vol. I, Pt. II, pp. 163-173. Reprinted
in "Eighteenth Century Vignettes," third series, London, 1896, pp. 164-178.
Eeduced to a short paragraph in Henry Fielding, 1900, pp. 275-276.

248

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

gave to the Library of Yale University can form any just
idea of the scope of this scholar's work. Professor John
Edwin Wells, taking a hint from Keightley, has worked
out in detail Fielding's political purpose in "Jonathan
Wild" and thereby set right the relation of that book to
Fielding's personal career and his attitude of persistent
hostility towards the policies of Sir Robert Walpole. Dr.
Gerard E. Jensen has closely studied the controversies in
which Fielding was engaged while writing "The Covent-
Garden Journal," and has thus given the world the first
authentic account it has ever had of Fielding the editor.
Miss G. M. Godden, as the result of explorations among
the manuscripts of the British Museum and the Public
Record Office, has brought to light official letters which
Fielding wrote while a justice of the peace and, surpassing
all else in interest and importance, some of the documents
in the Chancery Case involving Fielding, his brother, and
sisters. These documents and most of the others concern
ing the case were later uncovered by Mr. F. J. Pope, who
was unaware that he had been anticipated by Miss Godden.
This old Chancery suit has necessitated the entire recon
struction of the story of Fielding's boyhood and youth.
Perhaps the most highly trained investigator that has yet
given his attention to Fielding is Mr. J. Paul de Castro,
under whose hand the traditional anecdotes about Fielding
are being fast overthrown by positive evidence against
them.*

Literary criticism has not always kept even pace with
discovery. It has been difficult for writers on Fielding to
throw off the incubus of Arthur Murphy. Dobson never

* See Dickson, ' ' The Life and Writings of Fielding, ' ' Cleveland, The Row-
fant Club, 1907; Wells, "Publications of the Modern Language Association,"
March, 1913; Jensen, "The Covent-Garden Journal," New. Haven, 1915;
Miss Godden, "Henry Fielding," London, 1910; Pope, "The British Archi
vist," Jan., 1914; and Mr. J. Paul de Castro, "Notes and Queries" for 1914-
1917.

249

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

had perfect faith in his own convictions. Though he scored
Murphy for " inaccuracies, " for " graphic tags and flour
ishes," he conceded, as recently as 1912, that Murphy's
"general estimate" was "well-enough."* The calumnia
tors had arrived at their gross portraits of Fielding by
exaggerating his features as they saw them in Murphy.
Dobson's method was to tone down what Murphy said and
to alter or suppress here and there a line that disfigured
Fielding's character. The outcome was a rather pale and
lifeless personality quite in harmony with the ultra-refine
ment and sense of propriety which dominated English
literature when Dobson's biography of Fielding first ap
peared. The reader of that book feels, when Dobson
approaches the character of Fielding, that something is
being withheld, that he is not being told all, and he becomes
irritated by an air of mystery where in fact there is nothing
that needs be concealed. A few years ago the world was
again grateful to Dobson for large extracts from the long
letter which Fielding sent from Lisbon to his brother John,
but everybody wondered why more of the letter was not
published. All Fielding ever asked of those who wrote
about him was that they should tell the truth.

An idea running through Dobson's work, though never
quite distinctly expressed, is that Fielding was endowed
with "a curious dual individuality." The reader is led to
surmise that if he knew all there would emerge a sort of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, except that the differences be
tween the two personalities would be less pronounced than
in Stevenson's romance. Murphy and his followers, he
half concludes, portrayed the Mr. Hyde; whereas Dobson
would give us the Dr. Jekyll or the man's prevailing per
sonality. That we all possess a better and a worse self,
that sometimes the one and sometimes the other is in the
ascendant, was discovered by the Greek philosophers ; and

* "A New Dialogue of the Dead," in "The National Review," Dec., 1912.

250

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

no one who has dealt long with mankind will be disposed
to question the assertion. But that Fielding's two self
hoods, so to speak, were more strongly marked than in
other men of sensitive natures who have fought their way
through life, is a doubtful assumption. To explain him in
this way is to resort to a crude psychology. Fielding was
merely human like the rest of us.

James Russell Lowell was the first to say just this. A
few months after the publication of Dobson's biography,
Lowell gave the address* when Miss Margaret Thomas's
bust of Fielding was unveiled in the Shire-Hall at Taunton.
There had been some objection on both sides of the Atlantic
to this proposed "tribute of respect and affection" to the
author of "Tom Jones." In allusion to the criticism,
Lowell spoke out boldly for "a great and original genius
who has done honour to his country," whose "character is
gradually clearing itself of the stains with which malice or
jealousy or careless hearsay had darkened it." Against
the stories told to Fielding's discredit, he set the evidence
of his writings, "that he had habits of study and industry
that are not to be put on at will as one puts on his overcoat,
and that are altogether inconsistent with the dissolute life
he is supposed to have led." "We may read," he declared
in closing, "Fielding's character clearly in his books, for it
was not complex, but especially in his 'Voyage to Lisbon,'
where he reveals it in artless inadvertence. He was a
lovingly thoughtful husband, a tender father, a good
brother, a useful and sagacious magistrate. He was cour
ageous, gentle, thoroughly conscious of his own dignity as
a gentleman, and able to make that dignity respected. If
we seek for a single characteristic which more than any
other would sum him up, we should say that it was his
absolute manliness, a manliness in its type English from

* Sept. 4, 1883. Reprinted in "Democracy and Other Addresses," Boston,
1887.

251

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

top to toe." And of Fielding's art, Lowell wrote for the
inscription beneath the bust:

He looked on naked nature unashamed,

And saw the Sphinx, now bestial, now divine,

In change and rechange; he nor praised nor blamed,
But drew her as he saw with fearless line.

This was a different Fielding from the' one Dobson drew.
Presumably, we are told, he had his "failings and lapses,'*
for he was a man; but the courageous life he lived stands
in no need of an apology. His character, far from being
"complex," was so simple and straightforward that no
one should mistake it who knows his works. Lowell set the
clock to the new time.

The public was not prepared for Lowell's address. Read
ers were surprised at its tone, and in some cases loudly
protested against its unqualified praise of Fielding's char
acter — of the bibulous man who, they supposed, had written
his books in the early mornings after nights spent in
taverns, who bilked landladies, who bore down on friends
for a guinea, who kept loose company, and left his wife and
children to thrive as they might. Lowell's sincere and pre
meditated words were attributed to a desire to say nothing
that should offend the admirers of Fielding who had
honoured him with a bust. The occasion on which the words
were spoken was held to be the only excuse for them.
Lowell replied by republishing his address ; and his friend
Professor Lounsbury, without exactly taking sides in the
controversy, declared that the time had come to reprint, for
the light they would throw upon the questions at issue,
those works of Fielding which his biographers under
estimated or despised because they had never read them.*

But without this aid enlightened public opinion was soon
disposed to welcome the new Fielding in place of that

*"The Century Magazine," Feb., 1884, XXVII, 634-636.

252

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

artistic creation which came from the brain of Thackeray.
It was perhaps a little hard for Leslie Stephen, when he
wrote in 1889 his account of Fielding for the * ' Dictionary of
National Biography," to revise and repudiate statements
which he had made earlier; but he acquitted himself with
little apparent reluctance, though he was still uncertain
whether the maiden name of the second Mrs. Fielding might
not be MacDaniel or Macdonald after all, despite the fact
that Dobson had produced the entry in the parish register
showing it to be Daniel. Professor Saintsbury also has
several times written admirably of Fielding, only once, I
think, lapsing into the old manner of the discredited biog
raphers ; and Edmund Gosse and Andrew Lang have more
casually stated the case for Fielding. Likewise Sir Walter
Raleigh, treating with contempt the sentimental apologists,
has dwelt upon Fielding's " splendid candour, his mag
nanimity, his tolerance," and his merciless attitude towards
all kinds of meanness. And the late Samuel Butler, though
sometimes fatigued by Fielding's "prolix" episodes,
thought the author of "Tom Jones" must have been a
delightful companion, and placed the great book above Job,
the Psalms, and the Prophets. What these and other men
have said, sometimes with eloquence, has helped immensely
to establish Fielding, the man, in popular esteem.

The last great word for Fielding was spoken by the late
W. E. Henley. He spoke twice — briefly in "Views and
Reviews"* (1890) and at large in "An Essay on the Life,
Genius and Achievement of the Author" prefixed to a
volume of "The Complete Works of Henry Fielding, Esq."
(1903). Making no claim to research, Henley took the
so-called facts of Fielding's life and drew his own inde
pendent inferences from them. Indeed, he was rather
inclined to underrate our knowledge of Fielding's career,

* Reprinted from a review of Dobson 's Book in ' ' The Athenaeum, ' ' April

28, 1883.

253

remarking as he went along that " nobody knows" what
everybody knew who had carefully read Dobson. In his
longer essay he relied mainly upon Saintsbury, nor in his re
statements did he pay much attention to exactness. More
over, his acquaintance with Fielding's works scarcely ex
tended beyond the four novels, "A Voyage to Lisbon," and
some of the plays. All this should be understood by readers
who take up the most brilliant essay on Fielding that has
ever been written. Henley's knowledge, however, was from
the very first quite sufficient to make him see that the biog
raphers before Dobson "somehow or other contrived to
misapprehend and misapply" the plainest facts of Field
ing's life; that they preferred to the evidence of their own
senses "the foolish fancies" of Murphy, "the brilliant
antitheses" of Lady Mary, and the malicious remarks of
Richardson, Smollett, and Horace Walpole. Everywhere
he found a "perversion of life, and character, and fact";
but most of all in Thackeray, who, "whether wilfully or
stupidly, misunderstood and mis-stated the Man," though
he was "in absolute sympathy with the Writer." Dobson 's
biography he thought "a brave book," though he lamented
its apologetic tone and the mid- Victorian mood of the
author when he wrote of "this great man apart from his
works." Against the defamers and the apologists, Henley
set his own Fielding. In more eloquent words than Lowell's,
he concluded:

' * Here is a man brave, generous, kind to the wth degree ;
a man with a great hatred of meanness arid hypocrisy, and
a strong regard for all forms of virtus, whether natural and
impulsive or an effect of culture and reflection ; an impas
sioned lover, a devout husband, a most cordial and careful
father; so staunch a friend that his books are so many
proofs of his capacity for friendship ; of so sound a heart,
of so vigorous a temperament, of so clear-eyed and serene
a spirit, that years and calamities and disease do not exist

254

for him, and he takes his leave of the World in one of the
most valiant and most genial little books that ever was
penned ; distinguished among talkers by a delightful gaiety,
a fine and gracious understanding, an inalienable dignity;
withal of an intelligence at once so vigilant and so pene
trating, at once so observant and so laborious and exacting,
that, without hurry as without noise, patient ever and ever
diligent, a master of life, a master of character, a master
of style, he achieved for us the four great books we have,
and, in achieving them, did so nobly by his nation and his
mother tongue that he that would praise our splendid, all-
comprehending speech aright has said the best he can of
it when he says that it is the speech of Shakespeare and
Fielding."

In these resonant phrases Henley permits no jarring
discord. There is no reference to "follies" such as the
English parson felt constrained to put into the inscription
on Fielding's tomb in far-away Lisbon; there is no face,
as Thackeray would have it, worn by dissipation ; there are
no claret stains; there is no wet towel. The twenty sane
years from Dobson to Henley removed from Fielding the
old marks of a penitent rake, and left undimmed the lustre
of all those rare qualities of head and heart which Thack
eray and the parson really saw and set forth with almost
equal eloquence. On these prime characteristics of Field
ing time and change can make no impression, for they are
embedded in his works.

Still, eulogy is not biography. Despite strains of just
and perfect eloquence, it is to be regretted that Henley did
not, on the whole, better inform himself concerning those
facts of Fielding's career which Dobson had reduced, to
use Lowell's phrase, "from chaos to coherence by ridding
it of fable." Really Henley did just what he accused the
incompetent biographers of doing, only he did it in his own
way in defiance of theirs. Like them he applied to Field-

255

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

ing's own life such incidents from the plays and novels as
he wished — by hint and suggestion, or by positive assertion.
In his heart he disbelieved the fables and malicious tales,
some of which he ridiculed, but he did not hesitate to em
ploy any one of them if it aided him to a brilliant or pic
turesque phrase. He denounced "the chaste and elegant
Mr. Richardson" for the slur cast upon the birth of Char
lotte Cradock; and immediately gave as his opinion that
it makes no difference whether she was ' ' a bastard or not, ' '
for she was a woman no less amiable than beautiful; she
was the girl whom Harry Fielding "had married; loved to
distraction; honoured with motherhood; spree 'd with;
starved with; betrayed (it may be; I know not) ; and seen
die." As here Henley placed fact and slander on the same
footing whenever such a course contributed to the vivacity
of his style.

At times he not only accepted the very worst that had
ever been said of Fielding, but defended and praised his
conduct. The moral crux of "Tom Jones" has always been
the young man's relations with Lady Bellaston. Remove
that woman or use her to ennoble instead of to degrade
Tom, and then the novel may be read with profit by boys
and girls. This has been the honest opinion of many critics
and moralists ; but the assertion that Fielding himself had
ever accepted money, "for value received," from a Lady
Bellaston, though it has been often repeated, originated
with his most scurrilous enemies. Whether what they said
was true or false did not concern them. They were en
gaged in a warfare to the bitter end. With these Grub
Street writers, Henley unawares aligned himself. He even
went further than they, for with Lady Bellaston he coupled
Miss Matthews and "this lady or that," whom he surmised
were a source of revenue to Fielding in the days when he
received little from his plays. "I no more doubt," wrote
Henley, "that the Matthews and Bellaston episodes were

256

LATER BIOGRAPHERS AND CRITICS

profitable to Fielding: profitable and deemed in no sort
reprehensible: than I doubt that their author wrote the
1 Journal of A Voyage to Lisbon,' every sentence in which
is stamped the utterance of a humane, stately and honour
able gentleman."

Henley's procedure here and elsewhere was a sort of
reversal of the one followed by the old calumniators. They
converted Fielding's virtues into vices, and then denounced
them. Henley converted the vices or follies attributed to
Fielding by his enemies into virtues, and then set the seal
of his approval upon them. His performance is so startling
as to leave one breathless; but the judicious reader, after
the recovery of his poise, is aware that the materials which
Henley skilfully manipulated might be turned no less per
versely to another issue. As much as the Watsons and
Mudfords, Henley displayed himself at the expense of
Fielding. These men wished to impress the public with
their own moral superiority; Henley wished to shock
middle-class respectability. He doubtless performed an
excellent service; but he had no business to use as his
weapon against Philistinism an imaginary account of young
Harry Fielding's career, based upon old slanders eked out
with conjectures.

257

CHAPTER XXXVI

FIELDING AS HE WAS

No biographer can leave Fielding where Henley left him.
At all points the brilliant essayist needs revision and
correction.

Fielding's youth, judged from the standpoint of the sober
citizen, was indeed wild; but that word has a connotation
inapplicable to him, and at best leaves the story but half
told. He was a large boy of perfect health and handsome
face. He grew up in the country with the ideals and habits
of the squirearchy, on which were superimposed the habits
and ideals of the aristocracy. In his descent from an Earl
of Denbigh the young man took pride and believed, as he
became older, that it should shield him against promiscuous
slander from those beneath him. He was a gentleman who
should enjoy the liberties accorded to gentlemen. This
insistence upon the privileges of birth is seen in the first
escapade of youth recorded of him, in all his controversies
with Grub Street, in his later pamphlets for decreasing
crime and improving the condition of the poor, in his journal
and everywhere else when he speaks in his own person. Call
it if you like class prejudice, for in a sense that is what it
was, and it made him over-sensitive to criticism. But class
prejudice with Fielding had its conspicuous limitations;
it resulted in no aloofness from people, however low their
rank, provided they possessed the personal qualities he
admired, or amused him by their absurdities. When his
friend James Harris remarked that he led an " irregular
life," the phrase was intended to say, as is clear from the
context, that he associated with all sorts and conditions of

258

FIELDING AS HE WAS

men and women from the aristocracy down to the trades
people in the Strand and the "blue stockings with red
clocks" of Covent Garden. The follies of each rank, he
observed more than once, illustrated the follies of all the
rest. No writer in our literature, Shakespeare not ex-
cepted, ever took a more intense delight in knowing all of
life to its very dregs. For breaking the barriers of conven
tion Shakespeare and Fielding were equally wild and
uncontrollable.

A convivial companion with his equals, Fielding had, of
course, some of the amiable vices — if that be not too strong
a word — of the class to which he belonged. Curiously
enough, he apparently did not fall in with the fashion of
taking snuff, for his most inveterate enemies in their en
deavour to give him a slovenly appearance rarely covered
his coat with its brown stains. Moreover, these caricature
portraits of Fielding "begrimed with snuff" — the phrase
is Henley's — all belong, with one exception, to the period
of his youth when he would be the least likely to have the
habit. Nor is it quite certain that he smoked tobacco,
despite the thick clouds in which the biographers say he sat
while writing his books. In no place where he lets us into
his daily life do we see him with a pipe. On the voyage to
Lisbon, for instance, he does not smoke after his meals or
with the captain in the evening. Nor can any safe infer
ence concerning his own use of tobacco be drawn from his
characters. Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews do not smoke,
because country boys of their age were not accustomed to
smoke. On the other hand, Parson Adams always carries
a pipe in his pocket because that was the way of country
parsons. Obviously, the man who was depicting others as
they were, could tell us nothing of himself. In short, all
the stories of his smoking have no other authority than
the anecdotes which Murphy collected of the novelist in
the days before he had ever seen him. He brought them in

259

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

to explain the rapidity with which Fielding composed the
plays of his youth, implying that tobacco kept his brain
going at a marvellous pace. Murphy does not assert that
Fielding was an inordinate smoker when he knew him, nor
that he smoked at all. Writers who smoke while they work
know that tobacco acts as a stimulant up to a certain point
and then becomes a depressant. It would have been im
possible for Fielding to have written his plays in the way
he is said to have done. That he was a smoker in his youth
may be a reasonable assumption based upon his sociable
disposition; it is, however, nothing more. The satirists
who pursued him, never gave him, so far as I recall, a pipe ;
but when he emerged in middle life as a defender of the
Pelham Ministry, they gave him a quid of tobacco, which
was represented as breaking the easy flow of his speech.
How far these caricatures were based upon fact must re
main uncertain. Fielding had none of the repugnance to
tobacco shown by Shakespeare, whose characters neither
smoke nor snuff nor chew the weed. It is on the whole prob
able that Fielding smoked when a young man, but after
wards laid aside his pipe and chewed when presiding over
the Bow Street court. There is, however, no indication that
he was ever immoderate in either habit. Nowhere in his
books did he write in glory of tobacco.

In his father's household at East Stour, water was held
to be an inappropriate drink even for children. The ser
vants of Henry's mother charged his stepmother with
cruelty because the beer provided was so insipid that
the boy of twelve years had to slake his thirst from
the spring. He was, as Hamlet says, to the manner
born. There was nothing unusual in this distrust of water.
Nobody drank water unadulterated if he could help it.
Wine was the drink of gentlemen who could pay for it. On
the voyage to Lisbon, the company had claret (which they
brought with them) and cider and beer, and rum to make

260

FIELDING AS HE WAS

the punch with. It does not appear from the narrative that
Fielding drank more than others of the party. As a matter
of fact, he seems to have drunk less than some of them.
What clearly appears is that he liked wine with his meals,
cider between times, and a bowl of punch before going to
bed ; but the wine or cider must be good, else he left it with
a bare taste, and he cared nothing for the punch unless
there was conversation to go with it. As Fielding was on
1 ' The Queen of Portugal, " so he must have always been, for
he was a man not likely to change his habits except upon
compulsion. Joseph Warton and a friend, the reader will
recall, once passed two evenings with him and his sister.
Sarah duly retiring, the rest sat up until one or two o 'clock
in the morning ; and very likely the drink was not confined
to water. And yet, Warton, who told the story, hinted at
no excess. He was charmed by Fielding's civil demeanour
and "inexpressibly diverted" by his conversation.

All we know of Fielding points to the conclusion that he
drank freely every day of the pleasant liquors when he
could obtain them, just as he ate freely of the viands that
gratified his palate. Of gin and other strong spirits he
many times expressed abhorrence because they produce
intoxication and so interfere with the orderly course of the
world's business, to say nothing of the crimes committed
under their influence. Doubtless Fielding's rule of life, well
enough for a country gentleman who lives in the open air,
was framed on too liberal lines for a lawyer and man of
letters who had little time or opportunity for physical exer
cise. Gout was the penalty which Fielding paid for the
indulgence of his appetites. This, I think, states the case
accurately ; but I would throw the final emphasis upon his
denunciation of the quick intoxicants, which, if he practised
what he preached, he avoided, certain that they must be let
alone if he were to give the best that was in him to law and
literature. And he did give his best. His achievements are

261

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

a complete refutation of the tradition that his novels and
plays were written, as Henley and others have said or
implied, in sober intervals between sprees.

The tales of Fielding's dissolute youth which have crept
into literature and grown with the fiction they have fed on,
have but the shakiest foundation. They originated in the
first instance with ' ' The Grub-street Journal, ' ' a periodical
as malignant and indecent as it was brilliant, which set out
to destroy the reputation of a young dramatist who be
longed to another set and aligned himself with another
party. Any shabby poet, any debauchee, any alehouse
ruffian that he introduced into a play this journal did not
hesitate to assert or insinuate, whenever it so desired, to be
Fielding or an associate. Any erring wife or any painted
girl of Covent Garden whom he depicted was known by
himself only too well; and any disreputable scene that he
placed in a tavern or a brothel was drawn from one of his
favourite haunts. In subsequent years the same method
of attack was pursued, as we have sufficiently seen, by
"The Daily Gazetteer" and "Old England," which raked
his works for characters and incidents that might be misin
terpreted to his disgrace and dishonour, even in those cases
where Fielding's purpose to ridicule folly and vice was
clearly manifest. Later writers, coming long after Fielding
was dead, when time had obscured the details of the old
slanders, sought to confirm the tradition of his profligacy
by their own examination of his works. More often than
any other passage they have quoted the one in "A Journey
from this World to the Next" where the protagonist, on
coming to the entrance of the Elysian Fields, and being
requested by Judge Minos to state briefly his claims to
admittance, declared that he * * had never done an injury to
any man living, nor avoided an opportunity of doing good, ' '
but must confess that he had indulged himself "very freely
with wine and women" in his youth. Now, Fielding does

262

FIELDING AS HE WAS

make the shade of this gentleman the mouthpiece of many
of his own opinions. He probably agreed with Minos that
a man against whom can be laid only the follies of youth
has earned enduring happiness; but there is no warrant
at all for the conclusion that Fielding intended to portray
himself in the shadowy figure. Because Fielding writes
in the first person, it does not mean that he is speaking of
himself, any more than it means that Daniel Defoe is
Robinson Crusoe because that novelist chose to write in
the first person. In both cases it is merely a question of
narrative art. As anyone may see who reads Fielding's
fantasy with ordinary attention, the author does not
identify himself with the fortunate gentleman who gains
quick admittance into Elysium. He is playing with a rather
naive shade, and with Minos also, who, for all his reputed
severity, is lenient towards the weaknesses of human nature,
perhaps in recollection of his own early days.

A dissolute life can be led only with dissolute compan
ions. Dissolute people enough may be found in Fielding's
works from the beginning to the end. He could write a
play without a single decent character, though that was
not his usual practice. He could write a novel in which all
the decent characters are kept in the background, though
that, too, was not his usual practice. As in real life, the
decent and the indecent mingle; and where the indecent
predominate, the social satire, present in all his novels and
plays, clearly predominates also. Fielding's own attitude
towards his characters is never obscure. He could not,
however, have described the contemptible wife, the con
temptible husband, the licentious young gentleman, the
bawd and her girls, without knowing them. He did know
them. They everywhere obtruded themselves upon his sight
and society in the Westminster where he lived and did his
work. In "The Covent-Garden Tragedy" he exposed on
the boards of Drury Lane the entire household of Mother

263

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Punchbowl; in ''Jonathan Wild," he depicted with a few
bold strokes the entire gang of a notorious villain. But in
neither instance did he display the intimate knowledge
which a man would have who was a part of what he de
scribed. His was surely not the knowledge of the under
world possessed by French and Russian realists of the
present day, not even that possessed by the author of
"Oliver Twist." It was the kind of knowledge shown by
Shakespeare in his Falstaffian plays, and within narrower
limits by Gay in "The Beggar's Opera." In short, it was
the knowledge of the keen and critical observer of people
and their ways. Fielding was, as one may say, usually well
informed; he had the information necessary to his art.
Nothing more.

Indeed it was not always so much as this. He cast aside
his first draft of "Don Quixote in England" because he felt
that the comedy betrayed "too small experience in, and
little knowledge of the world." And later, when his dra
matic career was long over, he remarked that he ought to
have begun writing for the stage at the time he left off.
All Fielding knew of Jonathan Wild and his men came
from reading an old pamphlet or an old newspaper which
he only half remembered. He reproduced but few authentic
details; he made but slight use of the slang which all the
thieves spoke; and so much as he did use he might have
heard any day on the street; nowhere did he re-create the
real atmosphere of crime. What he did was to ridicule —
satirize is too strong a word — fashionable society of his own
day. Wild and his crew were really the beaus, politicians,
and fine ladies of questionable reputation of the middle and
upper classes from whom he removed the masque of con
vention and pretence. When their motives were laid bare,
society was discovered to be the same in all ranks, for
human nature is everywhere the same. Fielding stripped
his fine ladies and fine gentlemen of their fine language,

264

FIELDING AS HE WAS

and let them give vent, as they no doubt often did in private
quarrels, to their emotions in the speech of Billingsgate.

Except in the language they use, there is no essential dif
ference between Lady Booby, Lady Bellaston, and the
Laetitia Snap who became the consort of Jonathan Wild — .
no difference except that Laetitia is the most amusing.
They belonged to no one class ; they belonged to the world at
large ; they might be met anywhere. Fielding saw them in
town and country ; he did not go to the haunts of a Jonathan
Wild to discover them. How certain this conclusion is any
one knows who has read the pamphlets dealing with crime
which he wrote after he became a justice of the peace. He
was appalled by what he then saw with his own eyes and by
what his constables told him. Hitherto Fielding's acquaint
ance with the lower strata of London life had been such as
any gentleman might have derived from the outside. If his
life was dissolute he did not find his associates there. When
Jonathan Wild retires to a night-cellar, the narrative al
ways comes to an abrupt end, presumably because Field
ing's knowledge had come to an abrupt end also. Only
in the most casual way was Fielding's name ever con
nected with any specific tavern or coffee-house. In the
Fielding tradition there is no Mermaid Tavern where
Pasquin sat and drank with his fellow playwrights ; there is
no Cheshire Cheese where his chair is exhibited to credulous
visitors. It was long after his death that he was shown in
a fanciful picture reading from one of his books at the
Bedford Arms in the company of Pope and other wits.
His custom was to entertain his friends in his own house.
There Eigby saw him; there Warton passed the two long
evenings with him. Likewise his friends entertained him
at their houses. His appointment with Edward Moore was
at the young man's lodgings; his dinners, so far as there
is any record or tradition of them, were always with gentle
men. All this does not mean that he did not frequent

265

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

taverns and coffee-houses; but it means, if it means any
thing, that he was not notorious for wasting his nights at
them.

It becomes necessary, then, to look higher up for his dis
solute associates. The friendships which Fielding made at
Eton and which may be followed through the greater part
of his life included, says Murphy, "many of the first people
in the kingdom." They were Lyttelton, Fox (that is, Lord
Holland), Pitt, Hanbury Williams, and perhaps Earl
Camden. During his dramatic career were added the Duke
of Richmond, the Duke of Argyle, the Duke of Roxborough,
and Lord Chesterfield. Then and later came the Bench and
the Bar who subscribed almost en masse to his "Miscella
nies," and with them Hogarth, Handel and Garrick, Ralph
Allen, the Pelhams and the Duke of Bedford, Dodington,
Dr. Ranby and Sanderson Miller, Bishop Hoadly and Dr.
Macldox, the Bishop of Worcester. Follow him on the
stage and you come not only upon Garrick but upon Wilks
and Booth, Colley Gibber, Mrs. Olive, and a score of other
actors and actresses whose art he approved. Follow him
among the citizen class and you come upon George Lillo
the dramatist, whom he loved for his honesty ; Mrs. Hussey
the mantua-maker in the Strand, whom he admired for her
beauty and good temper ; and the Whitefields who kept the
comfortable inn at Gloucester. Nor should we forget James
Harris and Christopher Smart, both of whom left their
impressions of the man. Incomplete as the list is, it is a
wonderful array of friends and it cuts right down through
English life. Not among tavern brawlers and gamesters
(though he could not escape them), but in his association
with these men and women whom I have named and with
many others among whom their friendship carried him,
Fielding learned the ways of mankind. Many of them were
most convivial companions; some were dissipated and
given to gallantry; some were of an austere virtue. Of

266

FIELDING AS HE WAS

them all the only one with whom Fielding is known to have
quarrelled was Colley Gibber, whom he charged with having
no sense of shame.

And this brings us to his dealings with women. In
Fielding's works appear all kinds of women. There are
prudes who pretend to abhor men, and these he exposes;
there are girls made happy by the prospect of marriage,
and wives devoted to their husbands, — and these he com
pliments and approves; there are the girls of Covent
Garden who seem equally happy in the prospect of a single
constant lover, and ladies who have lovers besides their
husbands, — and these he treats with humorous indulgence.
When he wrote his first two novels, a beautiful and honest
woman was by his side; when he wrote his last two, she
lived in his memory. Always her qualities, in varying
measure, passed into the novel he happened to be writing —
into Fanny Andrews, Mrs. Heartfree, Sophia Western, and
Amelia Booth. Many times he discoursed on love in the
tone of that well-known initial chapter to the sixth book of
"Tom Jones," where he considers the passion as youthful
desire, as the gross appetite of sensual manhood, and as "a
great and exquisite delight" when it has "gratitude and
esteem" for its basis. There is no idealizing; he takes men
and women as he finds them, adding the comment that ' ' the
amiable sex" is "treated with a very unjust severity by
ours, who censure them for faults (if they are truly such)
into which we allure and betray them." Women, it is
everywhere clear, were to him eternally interesting; for all
their whims he never lost respect for them; they were the
best part of God's creation, and it was a gentleman's duty
to shield them from insult. In his presence, as we see from
"A Voyage to Lisbon" and elsewhere, it was dangerous
for a man to obtrude upon a lady's privacy or to fail in
the etiquette which the world prescribed as her due. This
is the man whom Henley eulogized as a libertine.

267

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

What, to abridge it in a paragraph, was the course run
by Fielding in youth? In his veins flowed the blood of a
young army officer and a squire's daughter who married
the man she would have, against the will of her father and
mother. His mother dead, his father married again, he was
left to the indulgent care of an aged grandmother who could
have exerted no control over an impetuous and strong-
willed boy. Having acquired some Latin and less Greek
at Eton, he travelled with his valet through the West, visit
ing relatives and friends in search of recreation and pleas
ure. When but eighteen years old, the time had come, he
concluded, to marry; and he went down to Lyme Regis by
the sea and attempted to carry off the charming Sarah
Andrew — an heiress of fifteen summers, who had no father
or mother then living, no brothers or sisters to share the
estate. It was a glorious adventure for a high-spirited
youth. He won Sarah's heart, but the abduction mis
carried because of the strict watch set over her by an uncle
who wanted her for his own son. The Eton boy stormed
and raged, and threatened to maim or kill whoever stood
in the way to his possession of the lovely girl. All was in
vain; the passion and strength of youth could not prevail
against the stratagems of an older head. Such was the wild
and headlong dash of the boy when spurred on by the
romance and the animal within him. He was studious, too,
knowing his books much better than his own heart. He
opened his Juvenal at the Sixth Satire, paraphrased the
worst that the Roman could say of women, and supposed
himself rid of the inconstant sex forever. Thereafter he
wrote a comedy reminiscent of his failure with Miss
Andrew, submitted it to his cousin Lady Mary, and im
portuned her to aid him with the managers of Drury Lane.
No more than anyone else could this woman of the world
hold out against the handsome boy, insistent upon gaining
his ends, but withal perfectly mannered. His comedy

268

FIELDING AS HE WAS

having run the usual three nights, he went over to Leyden
for more Latin and more Greek; he sketched out another
play while there; and then returned to London with his
mind made up to win fame and money by writing for the
stage. He often visited his grandmother at Salisbury, at
tended the assemblies there, complimented the girls he
danced with, made sober love to the most beautiful of them
all, and married her, perhaps eloped with her, as soon as
he had gained a name. For ten years they lived together ;
then she died, and he mourned her loss to the verge of
insanity. Three years later, he married her maid, who
became the mother of all but one of the children destined
to survive him.

This is the story. I do not mean to enroll Henry Fielding
among the saints of this world, for their rigid discipline
and circumspection bored him; their lives lacked colour
and variety ; and many of them, he discovered, were hypo
crites. He was a gentleman who flourished in the reign of
George the Second, and it would be hazardous to give any
gentleman of that period a clean bill. One may argue, as
Dobson has argued, that a man of Fielding's temperament
must have been often overpowered by the sex instinct ; that
there must have been, as Henley has said, many " accidental
women" in the course of his career. But this conclusion
is not necessarily true. Against it stands the fact that there
is no evidence that Fielding ever consorted with lewd
women. His name was never associated with any woman
of questionable character. The sex instinct, however strong
and imperious, may manifest itself quite differently from
the ways surmised by Dobson and Henley. Among the
prime characteristics which Murphy gave Fielding was
unusual constancy in his attachments. So far as anyone
knows, what overmastered Fielding was the vehemence of
his passion at a given time for a particular woman. He
would marry Miss Andrew, whatever the obstacles; when

269

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

he failed there, he would marry Miss Cradock, whatever the
obstacles; when she died, Mary Daniel must become the
mother of his children. In all three instances, Fielding
asserted to the utmost the rights of his manhood in defiance
of custom. Grave people looked askance upon him in youth
and in age because he did not conform in his life and in his
works to the settled mores of citizen morality. But no dis
honour can be attached to his conduct. No woman, picked
up and discarded, has yet been discovered in his life; nor
any attempt to steal away the wife of a friend. What
Wordsworth did or what Thackeray did, has never been
recorded of Fielding.

Fielding's memory should also be eased somewhat of that
heavy burden of poverty which it has had to bear. It has
always been taken for granted that the playwright worked
and slept a good deal of the time in a garret. His poems ad
dressed to Walpole are of course the source of the legend.
Chaucer, as is well known, once complained to his royal
master that his purse was empty and averred that unless
it were filled he should die. But no biographer of Chaucer
has yet appeared so lacking in humour as to declare on the
authority of a half-serious poem that the poet's purse was
literally empty or that he was at the point of starvation.
Fielding's lines were equally playful. In his time the
garret was the abode of literary hacks in the employ of
booksellers. Fielding was not of them ; they were his butt
throughout his entire literary career. Had Fielding really
written his lines to Walpole in a garret, we may be certain
that the fact would never have been embodied in the poem.
He merely placed himself in a garret as a point of vantage
for taking the Prime Minister to task for his utter neglect
of letters. He was but following a literary convention such
as Hogarth followed in that sketch of the Distrest Poet in
a garret trying to write a poem on riches, while Pope in the
background is thrashing Curll, the pirate and scoundrel.

270

FIELDING AS HE WAS

Though some of Fielding's plays failed, they were on the
whole most successful. In general, he never had more
money in his pocket than while writing for the stage, with
no family dependent upon him. Especially abundant was
the harvest of 1730 when he described himself as locked
close in a garret besieged by duns and never dining. It was
the year of the immense runs of "Tom Thumb" and "The
Author's Farce."

The trouble came with his marriage, soon after which
the Licensing Act gave a quietus to his dramatic career and
he had to go through the long and laborious preparation
for the law while supporting at the same time his family.
He was then forced into journalism, from which he could
never permanently free himself. He began also to be
visited by attacks of the gout; his wife and daughter fell
ill and died; and he was sued for debt. Afterwards he
became surety for a friend to the amount of £400, which
the friend let him pay; and perhaps the sheriff appeared
and placed an attachment on his goods. These are all dis
tressing incidents; but too much may be made of them;
they do not give the true colour of his career. He made
money by his novels, pamphlets, miscellanies, and news
papers, two of which perhaps enjoyed the patronage of
friends in the Government. He had an additional income
from the law; and while a justice of the peace he received
a pension supplementary to the fees of his office. Only at
times did he feel the pinch of poverty ; there was no threat
ened starvation of which Henley wrote carelessly.

Ordinarily, we find Fielding, when we can get a glimpse
of him, living comfortably and spending money freely. A
boy home from Eton, he had his valet, and on the voyage
to Lisbon he was accompanied by a footman. His first and
his second wife were both provided with maids. In antici
pation of bringing Charlotte and the children up to London
in 1739, he asked his bookseller to procure a house for him

271

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

at an annual rental of forty pounds. He would take a lease,
he said, for seven years; but the house must have a large
parlour and be among the lawyers near the Middle Temple.
His wife dying at Bath some years later, he brought her
body up to London and buried her in the Vicar's vault in
the Church of St. Martin 's in the Fields. The twelve pounds
necessary to this honour he had at the very time when it is
supposed that he was at the nadir of his fortunes. Like
wise when his goods may have been distrained for the pay
ment of that £400, he was living in one of the best houses
in Old Bos well Court, a favourite quarter for the lawyers ;
and for some time he continued to live there and to go on
with "Tom Jones" which he was then writing. His house
in Bow Street was rated at sixty-three pounds.* The houses
associated with his name at Bath, Salisbury, and Twicken
ham were also such as befitted the residence of a gentleman.
In his early days he had an estate at East Stour, and
in his later days, a farm at Fordhook. If Allen and Lyttel-
ton were generous friends, he probably gave away much
more than he ever received from them. When manager
of the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, his announcements
of benefits to people in distress were frequent. When a
justice of the peace he remitted the fees of the poor, con
tributed to funds in aid of unfortunate tradesmen, and was
a subscriber to hospitals. He appears to have aided in the
support of his sisters, to have taken into his own household
two spinsters who grew up with them at Salisbury, and to
have kept an open table when living in Bow Street. Withal
he managed to collect a working library unsurpassed by
any man of letters of the period. And at his death he left
an estate sufficient to pay his just debts. f A writer of the

* Mr. J. Paul de Castro, ' ' The Modern Language Review, ' ' April, 193 7,
p. 233.

t Letter of Sir John Fielding to Lord Barrington, Dec. 16, 1756, in manu
script "Letters, Miscellaneous," 1758, A to L, at the War Office, London.

272

FIELDING AS HE WAS

eighteenth century who had to earn his bread could hope
for no better end than this. Fielding himself had but one
regret. He grieved that illness, coming upon him in middle
life, prevented him from making any provision for his
family, and he at once set out, forgetful of himself, to do
all that he then could for their immediate relief after his
death. Had he lived ten years more, he should have left a
substantial income for his wife and children; he should
have been knighted like those who came before and after
him in the Bow Street office, and so died as Sir Henry Field
ing, to the complete satisfaction of all Philistines.

His methods of composition were not very different from
those of other men who make literature their profession.
Whether a writer proceeds slowly or rapidly depends upon
a variety of circumstances. Much of his work must be
done under pressure, and when such work is successful he
is usually not averse to telling the public how quickly it
was thrown off. Shakespeare has the reputation of writing
"The Merry Wives of Windsor" in a fortnight in order to
please a Queen who could wait no longer to see how Falstaff
would behave when in love; Moliere, it is said, asked for
no more than three days for the composition of a farce
urgently demanded by the players ; and Richardson boasted
that all those letters comprising the first part of " Pamela"
required but two quiet months of him, so easily did they
flow from his pen. Fielding in "Eurydice Hiss'd" led his
audience to infer that he was good for nine scenes of a farce
every day when at his best, while at other times his Muse
treated him badly. In another mood, he gave his readers
the impression that "Tom Jones" was composed at full
leisure as befits a masterpiece; though he probably never
wrote more pages a day than when engaged upon that novel.
Taken with what he said when more off his guard, his works
are evidence that he experienced all the pleasures, all the
labours, all the troubles, which have made the literary

273

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

career a mixture of delight and pain to everyone who has
followed it seriously as a source for bread. In youth and
in middle life, his mind worked with equal ease; he could
write a play, a novel, or a pamphlet at any time, I daresay,
when he set himself to the task. But despite his genius, he
was no more certain than other writers have been of the
outcome. This is especially true of his plays. Some of
them had to be reworked before they attained their full
success; others, however great the labour expended upon
them, partially or completely failed. Sometimes the author
knew what were their inherent faults and sometimes he
could not see them at all. In these respects, there was
nothing very extraordinary about Fielding.

Certainly much more extraordinary than these details
were the conditions under which a large part of his work
was produced. He trained himself to write at times when
one would expect him to be distracted by other occupations
and things. He was the manager of a theatre when he
brought out his two great political satires ; he was a student
of the law when he edited "The Champion"; his entire
family, including himself, was ill when he wrote "Jonathan
Wild"; he was editing "The Jacobite's Journal" when he
expended those thousands of hours on "Tom Jones"; he
was a justice of the peace, liable to be waked at night to
sign a commitment, while he was writing in turn "Amelia,"
"The Covent-Garden Journal," and legal pamphlets which
required the most painstaking care. This is the really
marvellous aspect of Fielding's career as author. He had
a constitution that could endure long days of labour running
far into the night, an equally tireless mind, a memory stored
with facts and incidents, and a will in supreme command.

Fielding was not an inept "dramatic adventurer" (again
it is Henley's phrase), who was suddenly transformed into
a consummate novelist. His works, though they unroll in
different patterns, were really all of a piece. No writer

274

FIELDING AS HE WAS

was ever more uniformly himself. Utterly false is the
notion that he depicted, at any point in his career, the vices
and follies of his time because, being contaminated by them,
he either liked to describe them for that reason or was
unaware how despicable were some of the characters he
drew. The assumption, in its extreme form, leaves out of
account his men of all ranks and ages having no ingrained
vices and his honest women of unusual charm taken from
the different walks of life — the tradesman's wife, the
country girl, the squire's daughter, and the mate of a poor
army officer. Still, it is true that Fielding's works, re
garded as a whole, show a preponderance of characters who
do not approach moral perfection, who have in the aggre
gate all the weaknesses, follies, and positive vices which
we ascribe to the frailty of human nature. Nevertheless,
the reason given for this undisputed fact is wholly at fault.
Fielding, who knew men and women in all stations, knew
exactly what he was doing. His was a wonderfully pene
trating mind. Where a Richardson saw only perfection,
he discovered flaws ; where Richardson saw unrelieved vice,
he saw streaks of something that resembled goodness, such
as the transient compunction of Jonathan Wild for the pain
inflicted upon his victims. Likewise, the four lewd women
in "Tom Jones" — Molly Seagrim, Mrs. Waters, Mrs. Fitz-
patrick, and Lady Bellaston, each carefully differentiated
from the others in accordance with the grade of society to
which she belonged — are given in union with their pre
dominant weakness those admirable qualities which they
possessed in real life. "There is not a village," remarked
Samuel Butler, "of 500 inhabitants in England but has its
Mrs. Quickly and Tom Jones." Shakespeare portrayed
with a sure hand the one, and Fielding uncovered and inter
preted with a complete art the other. The young Tom
Jones, formerly unknown to himself, is revealed exactly as
he was with all his follies and virtues. Other novelists —

275

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Thackeray among them — have tried to repeat the achieve
ment, and their genius has failed them.

Had Fielding been questioned by a candid critic, he
would, of course, have frankly admitted that he threw the
emphasis on the unheroic side of human nature; but he
would have remarked that his want of balance was much
less pronounced than Swift's or even Hogarth's, and that
it was made necessary, such as it was, by his art. His aim,
he might have added in explanation, was always social
satire, whether he wrote a play, a novel, or an essay.
Herein lies the unity and consistency of Fielding's literary
career. Obviously, social satire of this kind has nothing
to do with perfections; it must deal with faults and im
perfections. Half-seriously he used to say that, while
he had no hope of converting the wicked, his works might
contribute to the correction of manners by laughing
mankind out of "their favourite follies and vices" when
they do not cut too deeply into the character. If Fielding's
purpose is not always apparent, it is owing partly to a
remarkable poise inherent in his character and partly to
a temperament which took a humorous delight, when once
in the swing of it, in showing up the foibles and weaknesses
of poor humanity. He was at once too judicious and too
genial to be a complete satirist of the usual type. He was a
satirist who rarely felt the saeva indignatio of a Swift or
a Smollett. He had too few personal hatreds and he loved
the world too much for that.

Naturally, his delight in the world, always intense, was
most exultant in youth. In the plays he wrote then, he let
himself go, as we say, regardless of consequences. All the
life of Covent Garden and its neighbourhood to the west
he displayed in farce, burlesque, or serious comedy. In
some of its phases, that life at the point where the world
of fashion found its instruments of pleasure was utterly
shameless. But whatever Fielding saw there he put into

276

FIELDING AS HE WAS

his plays without hesitation whenever it was convenient for
him to do so. It was life just as it really was; and why
not make comedies out of it? Why disguise it under con
ventional reticence? So long as the game he pursued was
confined to the innocuous gallantry of beaus and frivolous
women, to the mischance of lotteries, the absurdities of the
stage, or the inane disputes of coffee-house politicians, his
theatre was filled. Everybody outside the Court party also
ran to see his election scenes, in which he showed how
members of Parliament obtained their seats. His wit and
humour in some of these plays, never afterwards sur
passed, no one could withstand; the gaudium vitae of the
author was irresistible; and the ridicule mainly hit follies
and the lighter vices. His political satires were, indeed,
the immediate occasion of his undoing, because they gave
offence to the Government; but they pleased his audience
even more than anything else he had ever written.

His theatre was deserted only when his social satire as
sumed a graver note, when he depicted, holding his wit
and humour in abeyance, the most detestable vices of men
and women who sat in the boxes. These serious comedies
were too true to life, their scenes were too suggestive of
well-known resorts, and their characters sometimes seemed
to point to definite persons. They turned, it was declared,
upon incidents which had better be kept concealed, and they
were all condemned as indecent. Like the rest of us, Field
ing had the misfortune to be young once. He lacked dis
cretion then; he lacked taste; he obeyed, without heeding
what people might say or think, the impulse of his genius.
Absorbed in his characters and their intrigues, he often
failed to make his meaning clear, perhaps because the
drama did not give him sufficient scope, and he had to pay
the penalty. The audience and the critics damned him.
They would not sit and see the degenerates of the fashion
able world play their parts openly and boldly on the stage

277

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

under the guidance of a young playwright who had hitherto
entertained them mostly with farce. His humour was al
together too direct to please anybody. And yet the plays
that awakened the loudest hue and cry are the very ones
that were written, as we now see, with a distinct moral
purpose, which the public ignored or resented. Contrary,
then, to the opinion of hasty readers, not only was Field
ing's aim social satire when he wrote the plays of his
youth, but he was then becoming the moralist and preacher
such as he appears in his most mature novels and pam
phlets. Much of "The Modern Husband" went into
"Amelia," linking definitely Fielding's youth with his
mature manhood.

Fielding's experiences while writing for the stage taught
him the limits of an art which he afterwards practised with
more even, though not uniform, success. He saw that he
could moralize and preach provided there was humour for
the leaven; that he could waylay the vicious but that it
must be from an ambush ; the blow must be struck from the
side or from behind, not full in the face after the manner
of a Juvenal. It will be. remembered that the playwright
in "A Journey from this World to the Next," who antici
pated an easy entrance into the Elysian Fields because his
dramatic works had done ' * so much in recommending virtue
and punishing vice," was doomed to disappointment; for
he learned from Minos, sitting by the gate, that one gen
erous deed performed during his life on earth availed more
with the judge than the remembrance of all his plays. The
inference to be drawn from this humorous incident is that
Fielding came to have little or no faith in the corrective
influence of unrelieved satire such as he had occasionally
attempted to his disaster. By the time the Licensing Act
broke up his theatre, he had learned that ridicule was the
proper weapon. On this subject he then dilated in a vig
orous reply to a critic who had accused him and Gay of

278

FIELDING AS HE WAS

corrupting the age because many of their characters were
shamelessly immoral. One hot paragraph runs :

* * You seem to think, Sir, that to ridicule Vice, is, to serve
its Cause. And you mention the late ingenious Mr. Gay,
who, you say, in his Beggars Opera hath made Heroes and
Heroines of Highwaymen and Whores. Are then Impu
dence, Boldness, Robbery, and picking Pockets the Char-
acteristicks of a Hero? Indeed, Sir, we do not always
approve what we laugh at. So far from it, Mr. Hobbes
will tell you that Laughter is a Sign of Contempt. And by
raising such a Laugh as this against Vice, Horace assures
us we give a sorer Wound, than it receives from all the
Abhorrence which can be produced by the gravest and
bitterest Satire. You will not hardly, I believe, persuade
•us, how much soever you may desire it, that it is the Mark
of a great Character to be laughed at by a whole King
dom."*

Ridicule, then, the art which Fielding mastered as a play
wright, became the essence of his social satire. In his later
plays and in "The Champion" which followed them, he
literally raised the laugh of "a whole Kingdom" against
the Prime Minister, his associates in office, and his poet
laureate. Subsequently he raised the laugh against the
English Jacobites, against Foote and Dr. Hill and the tribe
of Grub Street. But whenever he lost his self-control, as
he sometimes did under unusual provocation, he lost his
wit also; he then became grossly abusive and failed to hit
the mark at which he aimed just as had happened in some
of his immature plays.

It is not to be inferred that Fielding's ridicule, considered
as a whole, was ever narrowly personal. He rarely drew
satiric portraits of his contemporaries like those we have
from Pope and Dryden. On the contrary, his ridicule was
wide in its scope and it grew wider with age. It did indeed

•"Common Sense," May 21, 1737.

279

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

always originate, if I understand the realist correctly, in
some trait, weakness, or moral obliquity of a person whom
he had actually seen and in many cases had studied care
fully. Of course this is a proposition that cannot be proved ;
but so far as we are able to follow Fielding in his life, it is
found to be true. Besides Walpole and Gibber, a score of
other names recorded in this book are instances in point.
Walpole came into Fielding's works early and remained
there for some time after his fall from power. Gibber, once
in, had to stay there until Fielding's death. The Prime
Minister and the poet laureate he often held up to ridicule
with only such disguise as was necessary to evade the law
against libel. In both cases Fielding sometimes dropped the
screen whenever he wished to show the face behind. But
except in these and other stray instances, he did not wish
to show the face behind, and he kept the screen up. In
different words, though it was Fielding's habit to begin
with some man or woman definitely in mind, he generalized
his ridicule. This I believe to be true of his plays and novels
alike, except certain early imitations of Congreve's char
acters. By thus passing from the individual to the species,
Fielding brought the art of social satire to the highest per
fection in his power.

Take, for example, his treatment of Walpole. I do not
mean the violent political attacks upon him that disfigure
"The Champion," most of which were written by Ealph,
but the ridicule that came before and after. In one play
Fielding presented to his audience the career of Tom
Thumb, an insignificant fellow, who has all the vulgar pas
sions and ambitions of the great man as we find him in
history and romance. Fielding did not label him Walpole,
and the pigmy soldier was not in exteriors a portrait of
Walpole; but the audience must have recognized in Tom
Thumb the salient mental and moral characteristics of their
Prime Minister, who was the so-called "great man" of

280

FIELDING AS HE WAS

the age. In another play we see Mr. Quidum, a fiddler,
who bribes a company of patriots, dances a jig with them,
and leaves the stage in their company. Again, it is Wai-
pole, but by indirection. And there is the mature "Jona
than Wild the Great," which is burlesque such as we have
in "Tom Thumb the Great" transformed into a master
piece of irony. Walpole's name is not mentioned in the
novel; nor does it contain a single incident literally true
of Walpole. It depicts the career of a man who flourished
for a period as a receiver of stolen goods and was event
ually hanged. In its wider application, it seeks to show
that there is ordinarily no connection between greatness
and goodness, success and merit. The book may be read
for the story of a man who lost his life at Tyburn or for
the elaborate moral. And yet it was wholly inspired by
Walpole, whose character it has consigned to eternal
obloquy. Fielding may have been wrong in his opinion of
his Prime Minister ; research may seek to rectify his views ;
but nothing can prevail against genius. So far as literature
is concerned, Walpole has found his resting place among
the arrant villains of all time.

Or take the case of Gibber. He is Marplay, an ignorant
stage-manager, who mutilates the plays of Shakespeare as
well as those of young gentlemen about town before he will
bring them out, calling it improving them; he is Ground-
Ivy who does the same thing and asserts his superiority
over all other actors and authors that ever lived. He ad
dresses his King in silly odes which even Grub Street re
fuses to read; he is a poet whose laurel so withers that it
becomes at last almost invisible; he writes an apology for
his life in so wretched a style that he is arrested and tried
for murdering the English language. Fielding pursued
the laureate through all this banter, and then took a leap
forward to a frailty more strictly moral. Gibber, in his
autobiography, boasted the possession of most of the

281

~r o e*

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

virtues he had read of, but conceded that he could put in no
claim for chastity, being incontinent by nature, and feeling
besides that too great stress was placed by philosophers
and moralists upon a rule of life which few men of his time
observed with any degree of uniformity. Somehow, he
thought, there must be a mistake here. Now, whenever
Gibber comes into Fielding's works, the reference or allu
sion is always unmistakable; the ridicule is always direct.
Nevertheless, even in this extreme case, there is always a
sort of extension of the ridicule. Fielding's shafts are
aimed not only at Gibber but at the custom of amending
and making over Shakespeare's plays, at poor poets who
scatter their effusions through the newspapers, at scrib
blers who have no knowledge of the syntax of the English
language and who do not know the meaning of the words
they use. In short, Gibber becomes in the humorist's hands
the type of vainglorious and impudent ignorance. And
when Fielding writes "Joseph Andrews," making the hero
very sensitive to the observance of the one virtue which
Gibber distrusted, the initial laugh at Gibber is soon lost
in the all-embracing social satire.

And there is Richardson. In this case the point of attack
is not the author at all, but his book. The man who told
Sarah Fielding that the manners depicted in her brother's
novels would have been no worse had he been bred an ostler
or a runner at a sponging-house, merely evoked the reply
from Fielding that Mr. Richardson could hardly hope to
reform the age by imposing upon it manners worse than
those existing anywhere in town or country. This is Field
ing's only fling at Richardson. Fielding never wrote of
Richardson the man with disrespect. He knew of course
all the vanities of that fussy author as well as he knew
Gibber's; but he strove to keep his ridicule impersonal.
He was concerned only with the man's novels, which, apart
from the opening letters of "Clarissa Harlowe," he be-

282

FIELDING AS HE WAS

lieved to be false and commentitious when tested by con
temporary manners or more broadly by human nature.
And what did he do? He wrote a novel on the lines of
"Pamela," descriptive of life as he had seen it in the
country, true in all exterior details as well as in sentiment
and motive ; true also to the primal emotions which, mutatis
mutandis, have always governed the conduct of men and
women.

Intending at first nothing but parody, Fielding created
at a stroke a kind of novel which eventually displaced the
Pamelas. Richardson's sentimental rendering of life pos
sesses, it is true, a vitality which keeps his novels still alive.
But against it have ever worked the truth and sanity of
Fielding. The novel of contemporary manners, notwith
standing its many devious courses, goes back to Fielding,
its perennial spring. The ridicule which he put upon
* ' Pamela " is as fresh and potent now as it was in the days
of George the Second; it excites the same laughter — not
against a man, not wholly against one of his books, but
against a portrayal of life which rarely perceives the real
thing beneath convention, pretence, and hypocrisy.

Thus by ridicule Fielding arrived at a true art of fiction,
and afterwards fixed it in a masterpiece. "Joseph An
drews" cannot be quite understood unless it be read in con
junction with "Pamela." So "Jonathan Wild" equally
loses if it be considered apart'from the career of Sir Robert
Walpole. "Tom Jones" has likewise a very real back
ground of scene and character. Besides Ralph Allen, there
are many other models, as I have pointed out, on which
Fielding's keen perception worked for the men and women
who people this novel. But "Tom Jones" differs from its
predecessors in that it is not closely correlated with any
literary or political event of the time similar to the publi
cation of Richardson's first novel or the fall of Walpole
from power. It is but loosely connected with the Jacobite

283

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

insurrection. The novel was written by a man become
mature by reading, observation, and reflection. His mind
played in banter and ridicule with the religions, philoso
phies, and social ideas of the age, resting firmly on his rec
ollection of countless men and women of all ranks and
degrees who had been a part of his own life. He took so
much as he wanted and left the rest.

Excepting Allworthy, he drew no portrait that approaches
a literal transcript. No one was made angry because of the
personalities of * ' Tom Jones, ' ' for there were none. So far
as the novel gave offence, it was because certain readers
did not relish Fielding's treatment of the class or group or
tribe to which they belonged. The critics did not like the
many castigations they received from his hands, and they
retaliated. The Jacobites resented Squire Western and
they scolded Fielding for him. And men and women whose
morality consisted in the outward observance of formulas
and rules denounced the novelist who let people like them
run their course and finally exposed their pretence to vir
tues which they had not. ' ' Tom Jones ' ' is the best example
that English fiction affords of pure comedy, pure ridicule,
sustained through hundreds of pages. There is no personal
satire — no personal abuse. Everywhere, except in the
eulogies which Fielding pronounces upon his great con
temporaries, the individual is submerged in the species.

The novel is a summary of the age by a man who turned
upon it the light of an extraordinary intelligence, who was
besides infinitely wise and sagacious, and tolerant of human
errors and follies where the heart remains true. By a
further extension, "Tom Jones" becomes, as Fielding
willed it, an epic of human nature. The passions of man
kind never change; it is only the modes of their manifes
tation that change. Fielding knew this and addressed his
shrewd and humorous comment to all time. And he em
ployed for his purpose a style and a manner so sound and

284

FIELDING AS HE WAS

so impressive that age seems unable to abate the glory of
the achievement.

After "Tom Jones" the sphere of Fielding's art con
tracted appreciably under the influence of the justice's
court. There was no declination in his intellectual powers.
He grew in wisdom rather than lost. But the human wreck
age, exposed to his view every day, tended more and more
to subdue his humour and to awaken a desire to cure society
of specific ills. Besides writing "Amelia," he let pass no
occasion for promulgating in pamphlet after pamphlet his
ideas direct and unadulterated by fiction. He would sim
plify court procedure; he would revise the penal code; he
would infuse new life into the administration of the law;
he would establish an efficient police; he would put an end
to robbery and murder ; he would mitigate the suffering of
the poor.

It has seemed to many a violent transition from the
man who wrote "Tom Thumb" to this ardent reformer —
indeed as if there were two personalities called Henry
Fielding. The differences between the Fielding of 1730
and the Fielding of 1750 are, however, more apparent than
real. They are no greater than one should expect in a
a man who lived the life he lived. His development under
the stress of changing circumstance was perfectly natural
and logical, like the development of a great character in
a great novel. He had a mind most responsive to his imme
diate surroundings; and therein lay the prime element of
his genius. Seeing things as they were, he always liked
so to represent them; he liked to preach and moralize as
well. The most laughable farces of his youth, his regular
comedies, and his political satires, all had their moral or
corrective inferences. He would drive from the stage
ranting tragedy, pantomime, and the Italian opera; he
would expose social degenerates masquerading in fair
forms ; he would uncover all the devices and stratagems of

285

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

the corrupt politician, whether of his own or of another
party. He was a pamphleteer long before he took his seat
in the Bow Street court. He never showed greater zeal for
the public welfare than in his open addresses to the people
of Great Britain during the Jacobite rebellion or in the
hundreds of articles which he placed at the front of his first
newspapers.

With the fall of Walpole and the suppression of the
Jacobites, the great public questions were no longer nar
rowly and fiercely political. Party spirit cooled. The
Patriots, firmly in power, were giving their attention to
measures for the improvement of the lower classes; and
his friends in the party made Fielding the principal justice
of the peace for Westminster. Just as had happened when
he was playwright, novelist, and political writer, he re
flected completely the new environment. From his court,
from his pen, came the information on which were framed
laws for the decrease of crime. To this one end he laboured
day and night, sacrificing his health and finally his life.

By an inevitable process the wit and humorist passed
into the moralist and reformer. The permanent loss to
literature was immense ; but the immediate gain to society
was immense also. At the same time his last post brought
out all the finest qualities of Henry Fielding's nature and
touched the close of his career with quiet heroism.

THE END

286

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In the main division of this bibliography are described the first
editions of Fielding's separate publications, and occasionally a
second or a third edition if it has peculiar interest. To these are
subjoined many later editions, British and foreign, in their
chronological order. In these supplementary lists no claim, of
course, can be made to completeness. Of the numerous collections
of Fielding's works since 1762, only those are mentioned which
contain additional material. The rest are properly neglected, inas
much as they contributed nothing towards a wider view of Field
ing's literary activity. Where no place is given with a date, Lon
don is to be presumed; and all measurements are by inches. The
few abbreviations are self-explanatory, except perhaps p. I., used
for preliminary leaf or leaves. Gent. Mag. is short for The Gentle
man's Magazine; likewise London Mag. for The London Magazine.
The newspapers, which are cited as authority for dates, were all
published in London. It is important to distinguish between ' ' The
Daily Post" and "The London Daily Post, and General Adver
tiser," of which the latter appears here without its sub-title. In
Yale, following a date or a bibliographical description, means
that the particular edition is in the Library of Yale University.
Similarly, Brit. Mus. and Bodleian mean respectively the Library
of the British Museum and the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

FIELDING'S PUBLISHED WORKS
•»

1728

THE | MASQUERADE, | A | POEM. | INSCRIBED TO | C T

289

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

by J. ROBERTS, in Warwick-lane; | and A. DODD, at the Peacock,
without Temple-bar. | MDCCXXVIII. | [Price Six-pence.]

1 p. 1. (Title); 11 pp. 8x5.

Published Jan. 29, 1728 (Craftsman, Jan. 27). In Yale. Published with
The Grub-Street Opera, 1731. Title and paging the same, but Dedication (2
pp.) added. In Yale. Published in The Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Arbuthnot,
Glasgow, 1750; 2d ed., 1751, vol. II, pp. 5-18, with Dedication. In Yale.
Never reprinted in Fielding's Works.

5 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: ''To the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Wort-
ley Mountague, ' ' Preface, Prologue, Dramatis Persons) ; [3] -82 pp. ; 1 1.
(Epilogue). 7%x4%.

First performed Feb. 16, 1728 (Daily Post, Feb. 16). Published Feb. 23,
1728 (Daily Post, Feb. 23). In Yale.

Dublin, 1728; Ger. tr. Strasburg, 1782; Mannheim, n. d.

1730

2 p. 1. (Title, Adv., Prologue, Dramatis Persons) ; 80 pp.; [4] pp. (Epi
logue, 2 Songs, Adv.). 77^x4%.

First performed Jan. 26, 1730 (Daily Post, Jan. 26). Published Feb. 2,
1730 (Daily Post, Feb. 2). In Yale.

Dublin, 1730. In Yale; Ger. tr. Mannheim, 1782. In Yale; Mannheim,
n. d.

290

BIBLIOGRAPHY

lerus Secundus.
reus, ut teneat sef

— Quis iniquse I Tarn patiens urbis, tarn fer-

Juv. Sat. I.

J. ROBERTS^ in Warwick-Lane.

= | LONDON: Printed for
MDCCXXX. [Price 1 s. 6 d.]

4 p. 1. (Title, Prologue, 2 Songs, Persons in the Farce, Persons in the Puppet-
Show) ; 59 pp.; [4] pp. (Epilogue). 7% x 4%.

First performed March 30, 1730 (Daily Post, March 30). Published March
31, 1730 (Daily Post, March 31). In Yale.

2d ed. London, 1730. In Yale; Dublin, 1730. In Yale; London,
1734 (?); 3d ed. London, 1750. In Yale. Only revised version, 1750, ever
reprinted in Fielding's Works.

TOM THUMB.

TRAGEDY. I As it is Aded at the

IN THE | HAY-MARKET. \ — \ [Cut] = \ LONDON,

Warwick-Lane. 1730.

THEATRE

Printed : And Sold by J. ROBERTS in

4 p. 1. (Half-title, Title, Adv., Dramatis Personse) ; 16 pp. 7%6x4%.

First performed April 24, 1730 (Daily Post, April 23). Published April 24,
1730 (Adv.), but April 25, 1730 (Daily Post, April 25). In Yale.

4 p. 1. (Title, Preface, Prologue, Epilogue, Dramatis Personse) ; 16 pp.
8x5. In Yale.

This revised Tom Thumb, with prologue and epilogue, first performed May 1 ;
with the new scenes, May 7, 1730 (Daily Post, May 1 and May 7).

3d ed. London, 1730. In Yale; Dublin, 1730.

Neither 1st, 2d, nor 3d edition ever reprinted in Fielding's Works.

4 p. 1. (Title, Prologue, Epilogue, Adv., Dramatis Personee) ; 78 pp.
7%x4%.

First performed June 23, 1730 (Daily Post, June 23).
1730 (Daily Post, June 23). In Yale.

Published June 23,

291

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

4 p. 1. (Title, Prologue, Epilogue, Adv., Dramatis Persons?) ; 78 pp.
7% x 4%. Adv. is dated Nov. 27, 1730.

First performed Dec. 4, 1730 (Daily Journal, Dec. 4). Published Dec. 17,
1730 (Grub-st. Journal, Dec. 17). In Yale.

This is the second edition of Eape upon Rape and the Epilogue varies.

1731

4 p. 1. (Title, Preface, Dramatis Personse) ; 58 pp. Plate by W. Hogarth.
7%x4%.

First performed March 24, 1731 (Daily Post, March 23). Published March
24, 1731 (Daily Post, March 23; also Gent. Mag. March, p. 136; Nov. p.
493). In Yale. There were at least three impressions of the first edition. No
edition marked the second.

3d ed. London, 1737. In Yale; Dublin, 1743; 4th ed. London, 1751. In
Yale; London, 1765; 5th ed. London, 1776. In Yale; London, Cawthorne,
1805, 1806, 1811. In Yale; Morley, Burlesque Plays, London, 1887. German
tr. Berlin, 1899.

Critical edition: The Tragedy of Tragedies . . . edited by James T. Hill-
house, New Haven, 1918. This contains also the text of the 1st ed. of Tom
Thumb, with the additions and the preface of the 2d ed.

2 p. 1. (Title, Adv., Dramatis Personse) ; [5] -48 pp. 7%x4%.

First performed March 24, 1731 (Daily Post, March 23). Published March
24, 1731 (Daily Post, March 23). In Yale.

London, 1750. In Yale; Ger. tr. Mannheim, 1781. In Yale.

292

BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE | WELSH OPERA : | OR, THE | Grey MARE the better HORSE. |
As it is Aded at the NEW THEATRE IN THE HAY-MARKET.
| — | Written by SCRIBLERUS SECUNDUS, | Author of the Tragedy of
Tragedies. \ — | Cobler. Say, why what d'ye think I say? I say, \
All men are married for their Sins, \ And that a Batchelor Cobler,
is happier than a \ H en-peck' d Prince. \ — LONDON: Printed
for E. Eayner, and sold by H. Cook, at the Hawk, near Water-
Lane, and at the Golden-Ball, near | Chancery-Lane, both in Fleet-
Street. | Price One Shilling. | [n. d.]

1 p. 1. (Title) ; ii pp. (Preface) ; iii pp. (Introduction) ; [1] p. (Dra
matis Persona?) ; 39pp.; [1] p. (Adv.) 7% x 4%6.

First performed April 22, 1731 (Daily Post, April 21). Published June,
1731 (Gent. Mag. June, p. 272). In Yale. Never reprinted under original
title. Eevised and published under the two titles which follow.

1 p. 1. (Title); iii-vii pp.; [1] p. (Dramatis Personse) ; 9-64 pp.
7y4x4i^.

Published Aug. 18, 1731 (Grub-st. Journal, Aug. 19; also Gent. Mag. Aug.
p. 359). In Bodleian Lib. Never reprinted under this title.

THE

GRUB-STREET OPERA. I As it is Aded at the

THEATRE in the HAY-MARKET. | | By SCRIBLERUS SECUNDUS. | |

4 p. 1. (Title, Dramatis Personse, Introduction); 56 pp.; 1 1.; [2] pp.;
llpp. 7%x4%.

Published in summer or autumn, 1731. In Yale.

THE

1732

LOTTERY. | A FARCE. As it is Aded at the | Theatre-
293

4 p. 1. (Title, Adv., Prologue, A Table of the Songs, Dramatis Personse) ;
31 pp.; [1] p. (Epilogue). 7%6x4%. Contains 19 songs with music.

First performed Jan. ], 1732 (Daily Post, Dec. 31, 1731). Published Jan.
7, 1732 (Daily Journal, Jan. 7). In Yale.

2d ed. London, 1732; 3d ed. London, 1732. In Yale; London, 1733. In
Yale; 4th ed. London, 1748. In Yale; Glasgow, 1758. In Brit Mus.;
Dublin, 1759; 5th ed. London, 1761; Supplement to Bell's British Theatre,
v. 2, London, 1784. In Brit. Mus.; London, 1779. In Yale; Edinburgh,
1786. In Yale; Edinburgh, 1792. In Yale.

4 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: "To the Right Honourable William Lord Har
rington," Prologue, Dramatis Persona;); 74 pp.; [2] pp. (Epilogue).
9x5%.

First performed Jan. 10, 1732 (Genest, Eng. Stage, III, p. 329; but the
play "as it is acted" is advertised for next week in Craftsman, Jan. 8).
Published Jan. 15, 1732 (Craftsman, Jan. 15). In Yale. The Epilogue only
is by Fielding, the play is by Charles Bodens. Epilogue never reprinted in
Fielding's Works.

4 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: "To the Eight Honourable Sir Eobert Walpole,"
Prologue, Epilogue, Dramatis Persome) ; 81 pp.; [2] pp. (Epilogue);
[5] pp. (Adv.) 87^x4%.

294

BIBLIOGRAPHY

First performed Feb. 14, 1732 (Daily Post, Feb. 14). Published Feb. 21,
1732 (Grub-st. Journal, Feb. 24; also Gent. Mag. Feb. p. 636). In Yale.

2d ed. London, 1732. In Yale; Dublin, 1732. In Yale; Dublin, n. d.
In Yale; Ger. tr. Strasburg, 1781; Mannheim, n. d.

Warwick-Lane, MDCCXXXII. I [Price One Shilling.]

2 p. 1. (Title, Prologue, Dramatis Personse) ; 40 pp. 7% x 4%.

First performed June 1, 1732 (Daily Post, June 1). Published June 13,
1732 (Daily Post, June 13; also Gent. Mag. June, Kegister of Books, p. 12;
London Mag. June, p. 162). In Yale, wanting the 2 p. 1.

Reprinted under title: Debauchees, London, 1745 and 1746. In Yale;
3d ed. 1750. In Yale; 1780. In Yale. Never reprinted, under first title, in
Fielding's Works.

THE | COVENT-GARDEN \ TRAGEDY. As it is Aded at
the THEATRE-ROYAL, in DRURY-LANE. | By His MAJESTY'S Ser
vants. | — — qucB amanti parcet, eadem sibi parcet parum. Quasi
piscis, itidem est amator lence: nequam est nisi recens. Is habet
succum; is suavitatem; eum quovis pafto condias; \ Vel patinarium
vel assum: verses, quo pafto lubet. Is dare volt, is se aliquid posci,
nam ubi de pleno promitur, \ Neque Me scit, quid det, quid damni
facial; illi rci studet: \ Volt placere sese amicce, volt mihi, pedis-
sequcB, \ Volt famulis, volt etiam ancillis: & quoque catulo meo \
Subblanditur novus amator, se ut quum videat, gaudeat. \ Plautus.
Asinar. — | LONDON: \ Printed for J. WATTS, and Sold by
J. ROBERTS | in Warwick-Lane. \ — \ MDCCXXXII. | [Price One
Shilling.]

1 p. 1. (Title); 11 pp.; (Prolegomena, A Criticism on the Covent-Garden
Tragedy, originally intended for the Grub-street Journal) ; [3] pp. (Pro
logue, Epilogue, Dramatis Personae) ; 32 pp. 7% x 4%.

First performed June 1, 1732 (Daily Post, June 1). Published June 24,
1732 (Daily Post, June 23; also London Mag. June, p. 162; Gent. Mag. June,
Register of Books, p. 13). In Yale.

London, 1754. In Yale; London, 1780, without the Prolegomena. In Yale.

To Dramaticus, alias Prosaicus, alias Bavins, alias, &c. &c. &c.
A letter, written at the "Theatre-Royal Ale-House, " signed: "Mr. Wm.

295

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Hint, Candle-Snuffer," published in The Daily Post, June 21, 1732; also in
London Evening Post, June 20-22, 1732.

Probably written by Fielding and Theophilus Gibber in collaboration.
Never reprinted. See this biography, vol. I, p. 133.

THE

The DUMB LADY Cur'd. I A

MOCK DOCTOR. | or
COMEDY. Done from MOLIERE. \ As it is Aded at the THEATRE-
ROYAL I in DRURY-LANE, I By His MAJESTY'S Servants. |

With the MUSICK prefix 'd to each SONG.

LON

DON: Printed for J. WATTS at the Printing-Office in Wild-Court
near Lincoln' s-Inn Fields. — MDCCXXXII. [Price One
Shilling.]

4 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: "To Dr. John Misaubin," Preface, A Table of
the Songs, Dramatis Personae) ; 32 pp. 7% x 4%.

First performed June 23, 1732 (Daily Post, June 23). Published July 11,
1732 (Daily Post, July 11; also London Mag. July, p. 213). Epilogue for
the "Mock Doctor," signed: "G." (Gent. Mag. Sept. 1740, p. 461). In
Brit. Mus.

2d ed., with additional Songs and Alterations, London, 1732. In Yale;
London, 1734. In Brit. Mus.; Dublin, 1735; 3d ed. London, 1742. In Yale;
Dublin, 1752; 4th ed. London, 1753. In Yale; London, 1760. In Yale;
London, 1761. In Yale; Belfast, 1763. In Yale; London, 1779. In Yale;
Edinburgh, 1782; Supplement to Bell's British Theatre, vol. I, London, 1784.
In Brit. Mus.; Edinburgh, 1786. In Yale; Edinburgh, 1792. In Yale;
London, 1794, with Memoir signed "T. B." In Brit. Mus.; Whittingham,
1815. In New York Pub. Lib. Also reprinted in collections of plays.

To the AUTHOR of the DAILY POST.

A letter signed: ' ' Philalethes, " published in The Daily Post, July 31, 1732.
Never reprinted. See this biography, vol. I, pp. 135-139.

CJELIA: I OR, THE

PLAY. I As it is Aded

By His MAJESTY'S Ser-

PERJUR'D LOVER.

6 p. 1. (Half-title, Title, Adv. to the Reader, Prologue, Epilogue, Adv.,
Dramatis Person® ) ; 60 pp. 7% x 4%.

The Epilogue only is by Fielding; the play is by Charles Johnson.

First performed Dee. 11, 1732 (Genest, Eng. Stage, III, pp. 363-365).
Published Dec. 1732 (Gent. Mag. Dec. Register of Books; Adv. is dated:
Dec. 8, 1732). In Yale. Epilogue first reprinted in Fielding's Works in 1903.

296

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1733

THE I MISER. A ! COMEDY. | Taken from PLAUTUS and
MOLIERE. | As it is Acted at the THEATRE ROYAL in | Drury-Lane,
by His Majesty's Servants. -- By HENRY FIELDING, Esq;

— | Servorum venires modio castigat iniquo, \ Ipse quoque esu-
riens: neque enim omnia sustinet unquam Mucida coerulei panis
consumere frusta, \ Hesternum solitus medio servare minutal \
Septembri; nee non differre in tempora c&nce \ Alterius, conchem
cestivi cum parte lacerti \ Signatam, vel dimidio putrique siluro, \
Fildque seclivi numerata includere porri. \ Invitatus ad hcec aliquis
de ponte negabit. Sed quo divitias HCBC per tormenta coadasf \
Cum furor haud dubius, cum sit manifesto phrenesis, \ Ut locuples
moriaris, egenti vivere fatof Juven. = \ LONDON: Printed
for J. WATTS at the Printing-Office in | Wild-Court near Lincoln' s-
Inn Fields. \ — \ MDCCXXXIII. Price 1 s. 6 d.

6 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: "To His Grace Charles Duke of Bichmond and
Lenox," Prologue, Epilogue, Adv., Dramatis Person® ) ; 87 pp.; [1] p. (Adv.)
7% x 4%. Adv. is dated March 12, 1733.

First performed Feb. 17, 1733 (Daily Post, Feb. 17). Published March 13,
1733 (Grub-st. Journal, March 8; also London Mag. March, p. 168; Gent.
Mag. March, pp. 138-139, 163). In Yale.

Edinburgh, 1733. In Yale; Dublin, 1733. In Yale; 2d ed. London, 1744.
In Yale; Glasgow, 1748. In Brit. Mus.; 3d ed. London, 1754. In Yale;
Glasgow, 1755; 4th ed. London, 1761. In Yale; Dublin, 1762. In Yale;
Edinburgh, 1768. In Yale; Glasgow, 1769. In Yale; Edinburgh, 1774,
with Life of Fielding. In Philadelphia Lib.; 6th ed. London, 1775, with 1
plate; London, 1792. In Brit. Mus.; London, 1802. In Yale; London
[1807], with Life and plate. In Yale; London, 1850. In Brit. Mus.; also
in collections of plays. French tr. London [1870 ?]

DEBORAH, or a WIFE for You All. Written by HENRY FIELD
ING for Mrs. OLIVE'S benefit, and performed as an afterpiece for
the MISER, the 6th of April, 1733. (Genest, Eng. Stage, III, p. 371).
Never printed.

1734

297

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

| — LONDON: \ Printed for J. WATTS at the Printing-Office in
Wild-Court near Lincoln1 's-Inn Fields. \ - - \ MDCCXXXIV. |
[Price One Shilling.]

6 p. 1. (Title, An Epistle to Mrs. Clive, To Mr. Fielding ... by an unknown
Hand, Prologue, Epilogue, Dramatis Personse) ; 40 pp. 7% x 4%. Contains
12 Songs with music.

First performed Jan. 15, 1734 (Daily Journal, Jan. 15). Published Jan.
1734 (Gent. Mag. Jan. p. 55; also London Mag. Feb. p. 104). In Yale.

Dublin, 1748; London, 1750. In Yale; Dublin, 1758. In Yale; London,
1761. In Yale; Cork, 1765. In Yale; London, 1776. In Philadelphia Lib.;
London, 1780. In Brit. Mus. ; Edinburgh, 1783; Altered from Fielding,
London, 1790. In Yale; London, Printed for the Proprietors, n. d. In Yale.
Ger. tr. Mannheim, 1782. In Yale; Mannheim, n. d.

DON QUIXOTE | IN | ENGLAND. A COMEDY, j As it is
Adled at the NEW THEATRE in the Hay-Market. — | By HENRY
FIELDING, Esq ; | — — facile quis Speret idem, sudet multum,
frustrdque labor et, Ausus idem — Hor. | — LONDON: Printed
for J. WATTS at the Printing-Office in | Wild-Court near Lincoln' s-
Inn Fields. - - \ MDCCXXXIV. | [Price One Shilling and Six
Pence.]

8 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: "To the Eight Honourable Philip Earl of
Chesterfield," Preface, A Table of the Songs, Dramatis Persons, Introduc
tion); 64 pp. 7% x 4%. Contains 15 songs with music.

First performed in April, 1734 (Genest, Eng. Stage, III, p. 434). Published
April 18, 1734 (Grub-st. Journal, April 18; also London Mag. April, .pp. 223-
224; Gent. Mag. April, p. 223). In Yale.

London, 1754; Edinburgh, 1760; London, 1777. In Yale.

1735

2 p. 1. (Title, Table of the Songs, Dramatis Persona); 34 pp.; [2] pp.
(Song). 7% x 4%. Contains 20 songs with music.

First performed Jan. 17, 1735 (London Evening Post, Jan. 16-18). Pub
lished ca. Jan. 23, 1735 (Gnib-st. Journal, Jan. 23; also London Mag. Jan. p.
52). In Yale.

298

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2d ed. London, 1735. Contains 12 songs. In Yale; Dublin, 1740. In Brit.
Mus.; 3d ed. London, 1742. In Yale; Dublin, 1747. In Yale; 4th ed.
London, 1749. In Yale; Glasgow, 1761; Cork, 1762. In Yale; Dublin,
1762; London, 1777. In Brit Mus.; Edinburgh, 1782; London, 1786. In
Yale; London, 1787. In Yale; London, 1791, with 1 plate. In Yale. Some
times reprinted under its subtitle.

THE
BANDS.

UNIVERSAL GALLANT: I OR, THE j DIFFERENT Hus-

COMEDY. As it is Aded at the
Drury-Lane. By His MAJESTY'S Servants.

THEATRE-ROYAL in
By HENRY

FIELDING, Esq; I = I Infcelix, habitum temporis hujus habe.

Ovid. I — I LONDON:

Printed for JOHN WATTS, at the Printing- |

MDCCXXXV.

Office in Wild-Court, near Lincolns-Inn-Fields
| [Price One Shilling and Six Pence.]

4 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: "To His Grace Charles Duke of Maryborough, "
Adv., Prologue, Dramatis Personse) ; 82 pp.; [2] pp. (Epilogue). 7% x 4%.

First performed Feb. 10, 1735, and published a few days later (Fog's Weekly
Journal, Feb. 8; also London Mag. Feb. p. 104; Gent. Mag. Feb. pp. 88-89;
Prompter, Feb. 18). In Yale. No other separate edition.

1736

2 p. 1. (Title, Adv., Dramatis Personas) ; 64 pp.; [4] pp. (Epilogue,
Adv.) 7%x4%.

First performed March 5, 1736 (London Daily Post, March 5). Published
April 8, 1736 (London Daily Post, April 6 and 7; also Grub-st. Journal, April
8; Gent. Mag. April, p. 235; London Mag. April, p. 224). In Yale.

Dublin, 1736. In Yale; "The Tenth ed." London, 1737. In Yale;
London, 1738; 2d ed. London, 1740. Published Oct. 13, 1740 (Champion, Oct.
11). In Yale; 3d ed. London, 1754. In Yale.

TUMBLE-DOWN DICK:

OR,

PHAETON in the SUDS. I A

Dramatick Entertainment of Walking, | in Serious and Foolish

Characters :

Interlarded with

299

Burlesque, Grotesque, Comick

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Interludes, | CALL'D, HARLEQUIN A PICK-POCKET. | As it is Per
form 'd at the | New Theatre in the Hay-Market. | Being ('tis
hop'd) the last Entertainment that will | ever be exhibited on any
Stage. | Invented by the Ingenious MONSIEUR SANS ESPRIT. \
The Musick compos 'd by the Harmonious SIGNIOR WARBLE-
RINI. | And the Scenes painted by the Prodigious | MYNHEER
VAN BOTTOM-FLAT. \ - - Monstr' horrtnd' inform.— \ — \
LONDON: \ Printed for J. WATTS at the Printing-Office in | Wild-
Court near Lincoln's-Inn Fields. \ MDCCXXXVI. | [Price Six
Pence.]

4 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: "To Mr. John Lun, Vulgarly call'd Esquire,"
signed "Pasquin, " The Argument, Dramatis Personse) ; 19 pp. 7% x 4%.

First performed April 29, 1736 (London Daily Post, April 28). Published
April 29, 1736 (London Evening Post, April 29-May ]). In Yale; Bodleian
Lib.

Apparently the rarest of all the plays. No other copies known than the one
at Yale and the one at the Bodleian Lib.

London, 1744. In Yale; Brit. Mus.

2 p. 1. (Title, Prologue, Dramatis Persons) ; [5] -47 pp.; [1] p. (Adv.)

First performed under title: Guilt its own Punishment; or, Fatal Curiosity,
May 27, 1736 (London Daily Post, May 27). Published ca. April 5, 1737
(London Evening Post, April 5-7; also Gent. Mag. April, p. 256; London
Mag. April, p. 224). In Yale.

2d ed. London, 1762. In Yale; London, 1780, with portrait of Mrs. Yates.
In Yale; London, 1796, with portrait of C. Kemble. In Yale.

Fielding revised the play, and wrote the Prologue. The Prologue never
reprinted in Fielding's Works.

1737

First performed under title: Euridice, or The Devil HenpecTc'd, Feb. 19,
1737 (London Daily Post, Feb. 19). Published in Miscellanies, London, 1743,
vol. II, pp. 251-290. In Yale. Apparently never printed before 1743.

Ger. tr. Mannheim, 1790.

300

TUMBLE-DOWN DICK:

O R,

PHAETON in the SUDS.

Dramatick Entertainment of Walking,
in Serious and Foolifh Chara&ers:

Interlarded with

Burlefque, Grotefque, Comick Interludes,

CALL'D,

HARLEQUIN A PICK-POCKET.

As it is Perform'd at the

New Theatre in the Hay-Market.

Being ('tis hop'd) the laft Entertainment that will
ever be exhibited on any Stage.

Invented by the Ingenious

MONSIEUR SANS ESPRIT.

The Mufick composed by the Harmonious

SIGN I OR WARBLERINL

And the Scenes painted by the Prodigious

MYNHEER VAN BOtTOM-FLAf.

Monftr* horreneT inform. •

LONDON:

Printed for J. W A T T s at the Printing-Office in

Wild- Court near Lincoln* s- Inn Field*.

MDCCXXXVI.

[ Price Six Pence. ]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7 p. 1. (Title, Preface to the Dedication, Dedication to the Publick, Dramatis
Persons) ; 41 pp. 7^4 x 4%.

The Historical Register (pp. 1-27) first performed ca. April 1, 1737 (Grub-st.
Journal, April 7; also London Evening Post, April 7-9). Eurydice Hiss'd
(pp. 29-41) first performed April 13, 1737 (Grub-st. Journal, April 7; also
London Evening Post, April 7-9). Published together May 12, 1737 (Grub-st.
Journal, May 12; also London Evening Post, May 12; London Mag. May, p.
279; Gent. Mag. June, p. 374). In Yale.

THE | HISTORICAL REGISTER For the YEAR 1736. | As it is Aded
at the NEW THEATRE | In the HAT-MARKET. To which is
added a very Merry TRAGEDY, called | EURYDICE HISS'D, | OR, |
A WORD to the WISE. | Both written by the Author of Pasquin. \
To these are prefixed a long Dedication to the Publick, and a
Preface to that Dedication. | = | LONDON, \ Printed : And sold by
J. Roberts near the Oxford- Arms-Inn in Warwick-Lane. \ [Price
1 s. 6 d.] [n. d.]

8 p. 1. (Title, Preface to the Dedication, Dedication to the Publick, Dramatis
Personae) ; 48 pp. 7i^6 x 4%.

The 2d edition, though not so named, with many alterations. In Yale.
Dublin, Jones, 1737; Dublin, Eisk, 1737. In Yale; London, 1741. In
Yale; 3d ed. London, 1744. In Yale; Eurydice Hissed, New York, 1817.

To the Author of the Gazetteer of May 7.

A letter signed : ' ' Pasquin, ' ' published in Common Sense, no. 15, May 21,
1737, with an introductory letter To the Author of COMMON SENSE.

Reprinted in Common Sense: or, The Englishman's Journal, London, 1738,
vol. I, pp. 114-118; also in London Magazine, May 1737, pp. 261-262. Never
reprinted in Fielding's Works.

Probably Fielding contributed other articles to Common Sense; see especially
those on the nature of humour for September 3 and 10, 1737.

Numerous playbills, especially during the years 1736-1737 while
Fielding was manager of the Little Theatre in the Hay-Market.

301

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

No collection of them known to exist; but many of them were
reprinted as advertisements in the newspapers.

1739-1741

THE | CHAMPION; [Cut: Hercules slaying the Hydra] \ OR, |
BRITISH MERCURY. | — By Capt. HERCULES VINEGAR,
of Hockley in the Hole. \ THURSDAY, November 15, 1739. j (To be
continued every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.)

This is probably the first title of The Champion, but no number earlier than
no. 64, April 10, 1740, is known to exist. Advertised in the London Daily Post,
Nov. 12, 1739, as follows: "On Thursday next will be published for the first
time, | (To be continued every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday | Morning) |
THE CHAMPION; or, BEITISH MERCUKY. | By the celebrated CAPT.
HERCULES VINEGAR, of | Hockley in the Hole. | Containing Essays on
various Subjects, and the | freshest Advices, both Foreign and Domestick. |
— Quod optanti Divum promittere nemo \ Auderet volvenda dies en attulit.
VIRG. | Printed for T. COOPER at the Globe in Pater-noster-Bow."

The following is the title of the earliest number known:

THE CHAMPION; [Cut: Hercules slaying the Hydra] \ OR, |
EVENING | ADVERTISER. | — By Capt. HERCULES VINE-
GAR, of Pall-Mali. THURSDAY, April 10, 1740. | (To be continued
every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Evening.)

At bottom of first page is : [Price Three Half -pence.]

Subsequently title-page varies.

4 pp. Printed page: 12%x8%; including margin: 13^x10.

Colophon: LONDON: Printed for J. GRAHAM, under the Inner Temple Gate,
opposite Chancery Lane, in Fleetstreet; where Advertisements | and Letters to
the AUTHOR are taken in.

Fielding contributed to this paper from its founding to June, 1741 (Mis
cellanies, London, 1743, vol. I, pp. xxxiv, xxxvi).

Originals of no. 64 to no. 158: April 10, 1740, to Nov. 15, 1740, in Bodleian
Lib. Sept. 2, 1740, March 24, 1741, and May 19, 1741, in Brit. Mus. June 10,
1740, June 12, 1740, Oct. 11, 1740, and May 7, 1741, in New York Pub. Lib.

Essays from Nov. 15, 1739, to June 19, 1740, published London, 1741, 1743,
and 1766. Numerous later essays reprinted in The Patriot, a weekly periodical,
Edinburgh, June 13-Nov. 14, 1740; which was published as a single volume,
Edinburgh, 1741. Essays for April 22, 29, May 6 and 17, 1740, were re
printed in The Tryal of Colley Gibber, London, 1740, pp. 3-37. Fielding's
contributions after June 19, 1740, have never been collected.

1741

OF I TRUE GREATNESS. | An EPISTLE to | The Right Honour-

302

BIBLIOGRAPHY

able | GEORGE DODINGTON, Esq; — By HENRY FIELD
ING, Esq; | — | [Cut] \ = \ LONDON: \ Printed for C. CORBET,
at Addison's Head against St. Dunstan's \ Church, in Fleet street.
1741. | [Price One Shilling.]

2 p. 1. (Title, Preface); 4-16 pp. 12^x8.

Published Jan. 7, 1741 (London Daily Post, Jan. 7; also Gent. Mag. Jan.
p. 56; London Mag. Jan. p. 52). In Bodleian Lib. No other copy known
to exist.

Eeprinted in Miscellanies, London, 1743, vol. I, pp. 1-14; first published in
Fielding's Works, London, 1872, vol. XI, pp. 99-110.

TH2 | OMHPOY VEPNON-IAA02, | PA*«iAIA 17 ITAMMA A'

1 p. 1. (Title) ; 37 pp. 8i%6 x 7.

Published Jan. 22, 1741 (London Daily Post, Jan. 22; also Craftsman,
Jan. 24; Gent. Mag. Jan. p. 56; London Mag. Jan. p. 52). In Yale.

Dublin, 1741. First published in Fielding's Works, New York, 1903, vol.
XV, pp. 35-60.

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); v-xv pp. (Dedication: "To Miss Fanny, fc."
Letters to the Editor) ; 59 pp. 7i%6 x 4^.

Published April 4, 1741 (Craftsman, April 4; also Gent. Mag. April, p. 224;
London Mag. April, p. 208). In Yale. Never reprinted in Fielding's Works.

303

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

AN | APOLOGY | FOR THE | LIFE I OF Mrs. SHAMELA ANDREWS.
| In which, the many notorious FALSHOODS and | MISREPRSENTA-
TIONS of a Book called PAMELA, \ Are exposed and refuted ; and
all the matchless | ARTS of that young Politician, set in a true and
just Light Together with | A full Account of all that passed
between her | and Parson Arthur Williams; whose Character is
represented in a manner something different from | that which he
bears in PAMELA. The | whole being exact Copies of authentick
Papers | delivered to the Editor. | — Necessary to be had in all
FAMILIES. | - - | By Mr. CONNY KEYBER. = \ LONDON: \
Printed for A. DODD, at the Peacock, without Temple-bar.
M.DCC.XLI.

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); v-xv pp. (Dedication: "To Miss Fanny, &e.,"
Letters to the Editor) ; 56 pp. 7i%6 x 4%.

Published Nov. 3, 1741 (Champion, Nov. 3). This is the second edition,
though not so called on the title-page. Variations in title and in text; but
' ' Misrepresentations ' ' is misspelled in both titles. In. Yale. Never reprinted
in Fielding's Works.

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); 20 pp. 7^x4%.

Published April, 1741 (Gent. Mag. April, p. 224; also London Mag. April,
p. 208). In Yale; Harvard.

2d ed. Price Three Pence. Advertised in The Plain Truth, 1741.
Never reprinted in Fielding's Works.

Crown-Tavern on Ludgate-

Hill.
304

MDCCXLI.

THE

CRISIS:

SERMON,

O N

REVEL. XIV. 9, 10, n.

Neceflary to be preached in all the Churches
in England, Walest and Berwick upon
Tweed, at or before the next

GENERAL ELECTION.

Humbly infcribea to the

Right Reverend the Bench of BISHOPS.
By a Lover of his Country.

Vtndidit blc auro Patriam. Virg.

LONDON:

Printed for A. DODD, without Temple-Bar ; E. NUTT,
at the Royal-Exchange, and H. CHAPPELLE, in
Grofuenor-Street. MDCCXLI.

(Price Six-pence^)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title) ; x pp.; 360 pp. Vol. II: 1 p. 1. (Title) ; 360 pp.
6^x37^.

Contains papers from Nov. 15, 1739, to June 19, 1740, of which more than
seventy were by Fielding.

Published June, 1741 (London Mag. June, 1741, p. 312; also Gent. Mag.
June 19, 1741, p. 336). In Yale.

2d ed., "With the addition of a large Table of Contents in each Volume."
London, Printed for H. Chappelle, at Sir Isaac Newton's Head, in Grovenor-
Street, M.DCC.XLIII. In Yale; 3d ed., Printed for T. Waller, opposite
Fetter-Lane, Fleet-Street, M.DCC.LXVI. In Brit. Mus. Both these editions
are the first, with new title-pages and index.

First published in part in Fielding's Works, ed. by Leslie Stephen, London,
1882; republished from Stephen in Works, New York, 1903. Derived from
the reprint of 1741.

1742

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); 25pp. 8%x5^.

Published Dec. 1741 (Gent. Mag. Dec. p. 670; also London Mag. Dec. p.
624). In Yale. First reprinted in Fielding's Works, New York, 1903, vol.
XIV, pp. 321-331.

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-xix, [1] pp. (Preface, Errors); 306 i.e. 308 pp.
Vol. II: 1 p. 1. (Title); 310 pp.; [3] pp. (Books printed for A. Millar).
61/4 x 3i%6. Copies differ as to pages of advertisements. ' ' In two volumes ' '
not included in title of vol. II.

Published Feb. 22, 1742 (Daily Post, Feb. 22; also Gent. Mag. Feb. p. 112;
London Mag. Feb. p. 104). 1500 copies printed. In Yale.

305

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-xxii pp. (Preface, Contents); [2] pp. (Books
printed for A. Millar); 308 pp.; [1] p. (Books Printed for and Sold by
A. Millar); [3] pp. (Books printed for A. Millar). Vol. II: 1 p. 1. (Title);
iii-vii pp. (Contents); 304 pp. 6^x3%. "In two volumes" not included
in title of vol. II.

Published August, 1742 (Gent. Mag. Aug. p. 448; also London Mag. Aug.
p. 416). 2000 copies printed. In Yale.

The THIRD EDITION, illustrated with CUTS. ] — | IN TWO VOL

UMES. | — | VOL. I. [II.]
MILLAR, opposite to Katharine

= \ LONDON: Printed for A.
Street, in the Strand. M.DCC.XLIH.

Vol. I: 10 p. 1. (Title, Preface, Contents); 226 pp.; [2] pp. (Books
printed for A. Millar). 5 plates. Vol. II: 3 p. 1. (Title, Contents); 226 pp.
7 plates. 6% x 4. "In two volumes ' ' not included in title of vol. II. This
is the first edition with plates.

Published March 24, 1743 (St. James Evening Post, March 22-24; also
Gent. Mag. March, p. 168). 3000 copies printed. In Yale.

Other editions, British and foreign: Dublin, 1742; Londres, 1743; Amster
dam, 1744. In Yale; Danzig, 1745; Berlin, 1746; Dublin, 1747. In Yale;
4th ed. Published Nov. 5, 1748, dated 1749. In Yale; Kjobenhavn, 1749.
In Yale; Londres, 1750. In Brit. Mus.; 5th ed. London, 1751. In Yale;
London, 1752; Venezia, 1753; 6th ed. London, 1762. In Yale; Amsterdam,
1764; Berlin, 1765. In Yale; 8th ed. London, 1768. In Yale; 9th ed.
London, 1769. In Yale; Edinburgh, 1770. In Yale; Berlin, 1770; Amster
dam, 1775. In Morgan Lib.; Berlin, 1776; Abridged, Newbery [1778 f] ;
London, 1778; Paris, 1779. In Yale; London, 1780. In Yale; 10th ed.
London, 1781. In Yale; London, 1781. In Yale; Dresden, 1783. In Yale;
London, 1783; Eeims, 1784. In Yale; Berlin, 1784; Frankfurth und
Leipzig, 1784; London [17851]; London, 1785. In Yale; Berlin, 1786;
Lipskar, 1787; London, 1788; London, 1790. In Yale; Philadelphia, 1791 ;
Gb'ttingen, 1792; Edinburgh, 1792. In Yale; Leith, 1792. In Yale;
London, [1793]. In Yale; Philadelphia, 1794; London, [1794]. In Yale;
Meissen, 1802; Edinburgh, 1805. In Yale; London, 1808. In Yale; London,
1809. London, 1810. In Yale; Meissen, 1811; London, 1815. In Yale;
New York, 1816; London, 1818. In Yale; London, 1820. In Yale; London,
1822. In Yale; London, 1823. In Yale; London, 1825. In Yale; London,
1832. In Yale; London, 1833; London, 1834; Paris, 1834. In Yale;
Philadelphia, 1836; Braunschweig, 1840. In Yale; Philadelphia, 1847;
Braunschweig, 1848; New York, 1852. In Lib. Cong.; Philadelphia, 1853;
New York, 1857. In Yale; New York, 1861. In Yale; London, 1876. In
Yale; London, 1882. In Yale; London, 1885. In Yale; London, 1889;
London, 1902; New York, 1902. In Yale; New York, 1903; Abridged,
London, 1904; New York, 1905. In Yale; London, ca. 1905. In Yale;
London, 1906. In Yale; London, 1910. In Yale; London, 3913. In Yale.

306

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A FULL 1 VINDICATION I OF THE I DUTCHESS DOWAGER

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title) ; 40pp. 7i%6x4%.

Published April, 1742 (Gent. Mag. April, p. 224; also London Mag. April,
p. 208). In Yale.

2d ed. London, 1742. In Yale.

First published in Fielding's Works, New York, 1903, vol. XV, pp. 5-34.

MISS LUCY I IN TOWN. | A SEQUEL | TO | The Virgin Un-
masqued. \ A | FARCE; | WITH SONGS. | As it is Acted at the |
THEATRE-ROYAL | In DRURY-LANE, By His MAJESTY'S
Servants. | = \ LONDON: } Printed for A. MILLAR, against St.
Clement's \ Church in the Strand. 1742. | (Price One Shilling.)

2 p. 1. (Title, A Table of the Songs, Dramatis Personse) ; 44 pp. 8}46 *

First performed May 6, 1742 (Daily Post, May 6). Published May 6, 1742
(Daily Post, May 6; also Champion, May 6; Gent. Mag. May, p. 280). In
Yale.

"In which I had a very small share" (Miscellanies, London, 1743, vol. I,
p. xxvii i.e. xxxvii).

2d ed. London, 1756. In Yale; 3d ed. London, 1764. In Yale.

4 p. 1. (Half-title, Title, Dedication: "To the Right Honourable the Lord
Talbot"); [v]-xv pp. (Preface); [1] p. (Dramatis Personae) ; 112 pp.
8% x 5l/4.

Published May 31, 1742 (Champion, May 29; Daily Post, May 31; also
London Mag. June, p. 312; Gent. Mag. June, p. 336). In Yale.

Included in Comedies of Aristophanes, London, 1812, pp. 115-267. In Yale.
Dedication and Preface first published in Fielding's Works, New York, 1903,
vol. XVI, pp. 53 64.

307

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

1743
SOME PAPERS I Proper to Read before the Royal Society,

Concerning the
GUINEA; I AN

Terrestrial Chrysipus, | GOLDEN-FOOT or
INSECT, or VEGETABLE, resem- | bling the

3 p. 1. (Title, 2d title, Contents, Abstract of Part of a Letter from the Heer
Rottenscrach) ; 7-31 pp. 8vo.

Published Feb. 16, 1743 (Daily Post, Feb. 16; also London Mag. Feb. p.
104). In Brit. Mus.

Reprinted, with the addition of a Postscript, in Miscellanies, London, 1743,
vol. I, pp. 252-277.

2 p. 1. (Title, Dramatis Person®, Prologue); 82 pp.; [2] pp. (Epilogue).

First performed Feb. 17, 1743 (London Daily Post, Feb. 17). Published
Feb. 1743 (Gent. Mag. Feb. p. 112; also London Mag. Feb. p. 104). In Yale.

Printed more than once in 1743, but not reset. Yale copy has all the printer's
errors, and hence it is the earliest.

Published in Miscellanies, London, 1743, vol. II, pp. 291-420, 1 1. Ger. tr.
Kopenhagen, 1759, with Eurydice; Berlin u. Leipzig, 1764; Mannheim, 1781.

by A. MILLAR, opposite to
MDCCXLIII.

Catharine-Street, in the Strand.

13 p. 1. (Title, 2d Title, List of Subscribers) ; xxvii i.e. xxxvii pp. (Pref
ace) ; 354 pp. 7i%6 x 5, large paper 8% x 5^.

2d title gives VOL. I. in the place of In THREE VOLUMES, and the cut varies.
427 subscribers take 214 Royal sets, and 342 in 8vo.

308

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MISCELLANIES,

Henry Fielding Esq ; I — VOL. II.

A JOURNEY from this | WORLD to the Next, &c. | [Cut] \
LONDON: \ Printed for the AUTHOR: ] And sold by A. MILLAR,
opposite to Catharine-Street, in the Strand. \ MDCCXLIII.
1 p. 1. (Title); 420 pp.; 2 pp. (Epilogue).

5 p. 1. (Title, Contents) ; 421 pp.

Published April 12, 1743 (London Daily Post, April 12). Subscribers had
been receiving copies during the previous week (London Daily Post, April 7;
and St. James's Evening Post, March 26-29, where the volumes are advertised
for delivery to subscribers on April 7). In Yale.

The SECOND EDITION. | [Cut] \ LONDON: Printed for A.
MILLAR, opposite to Catharine-Street in the Strand. \ MDCC
XLIII.

8x5.

The 2d vol. of this edition is often mistaken for the first edition, as the
words, ' ' The Second Edition, ' ' are omitted ; but the first edition was printed
for the Author, the second edition was printed for A. Millar.

Published April, 1743 (London Mag. April, p. 208). In Yale.

Dublin, 1743. Second vol. only in Yale. The matter in the Miscellanies
was gradually reprinted in Fielding 's Works, but not until 1872 was all included.

1744

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-xx pp. (The Preface, Books printed for A.
Millar, Contents) ; 278 pp.; [2] pp. (Books printed for A. Millar). Vol. II:
1 p. 1. (Title); 322 pp. 6%x3%. "In two volumes" not included in title
of vol. II.

309

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Published after May, 1744, probably in the autumn. In Yale.
Fielding not only wrote the Preface but he also revised the text of this
novel by his sister Sarah. The Preface is not in the first edition.
London, 1782. In Yale; Eeims, 1784; London, 1904. In Yale.

A SERIOUS
In which the
REBELLION,
by every LOVER

1745

| ADDRESS TO THE
CERTAIN CONSEQUENCES
Are fully demonstrated.

People of GREAT BRITAIN. |
| OF THE | PRESENT
Necessary to be perused

of his Country, at this Juncture.

SAL. BEL. CATALIN. I —

— | [7 lines of
LONDON: \ Printed for
Row. MDCCXLV. I

also London Mag. Nov. p.

quotation]

M. COOPER at the Globe in Patcr-noster-

[ Price One Shilling.]

1 p. 1. (Title) ; 45 pp. 8% x 5^.

Published Oct. 1745 (Gent. Mag. Oct. p. 560;
572). In Yale.

In a note in A Proper Answer to a Late Scurrilous Libel, 1747, Fielding
writes: "See the Serious address published in the time of the late Eebellion,
and The Dialogue between an Alderman and a Courtier, published last Summer;
both by the Author of this Pamphlet." See also The Certain Consequences of
the Eebellion in 1745 listed by Millar in the 2d ed. of Sarah Fielding's Cleo
patra and Octavia, 1758, as by Henry Fielding. Never reprinted in Fielding's
Works.

1 p. 1. (Title) ; 3-40 pp. (A Serious address to the People of Great Britain) ;
41-51 pp. (A Calm address to all Parties in Eeligion). 8^x5%.

Published Nov. 5, 1745 (True Patriot, Nov. 5). In Yale. Never reprinted
in Fielding's Works.

The History of the Present Rebellion in Scotland. London :
COOPER, 1745.

Published Oct. 1745 (London Mag. Nov. p. 571; also Gent. Mag. Oct. p.
560; Scots Mag. Oct. p. 495; Notes and Queries, Jan. 7, 1888, 7th ser., vol. V,
p. 1).

310

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Quoted in Millar's list in the 2d ed. of Sarah Fielding's Cleopatra and
Octavia, 1758, as by Henry Fielding. No copy known. On the probable
relation of this pamphlet to A Compleat and Authenticlc History . . . of the
late Eebellion, see this biography, vol. II, pp. 56-57 note.

. 2 p. 1. (Title, Prologue, Dramatis Personse) ; [5] -46 pp.; [2] pp. (Adver
tisements, dated Oct. 28, 1745).

Published Oct. 1745 (Gent. Mag. Oct. p. 560; also London Mag. Nov. p.
571. In Brit. Mus.

2d ed. London, 1746. In Yale; 3d ed. London, 1750. In Yale; London,
1780. In Yale. See The Old Debauchees, 1732.

7%X4%.

Published Oct. 28, 1745 (Adv.). In Yale.

The plays are of different dates and editions, and vary in every set. Issued

311

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

with the same title for several years. Millar published a similar set in 1755,
but that set has a play dated 1761. In Yale.

Dramatic Works, London: 1783. 4 vols. being vols. I-IV, of Works of that
year, with new title-pages.

2 p. 1. ; 5-44 pp. 8vo.

Published Nov. 5, 1745 (True Patriot, Nov. 5). In Brit. Mus.

Advertised by Millar as by Fielding in 2d ed. of Cleopatra and Octavia,
1758; it is advertised in True Patriot, no. 4, Nov. 26, 1745, with A Serious
Address, and the statement is added: "Both by the same Author." Never
reprinted in Fielding's Works.

1745-1746

At bottom of first page : [Price THREE-PENCE.]

4 pp. Printed page: 12%x9}4; with margin: 15x10%.

Colophon for no. 1: LONDON: Printed for M. COOPER, at the Globe in
Pater-Noster-Bow; where Advertisements and Letters to | the AUTHOR are
taken in.

Colophon for no. 2: LONDON: Printed for M. COOPER, at the Globe in
Pater-Noster-Bow; where Advertisements and Letters to | the AUTHOR are
taken in. Where may be had, No. I, containing an Introductory Essay, an
Apology for Scotland, \ a New Loyal Song, the History of Europe, Great
Britain, $c.

Colophon for no. 3 adds to the above: And No. II. containing An Essay
on Patriotism, an Apology \ for Boman Catholics, &c.

Colophon for nos. 4-18 changes to: Where may be had the former Numbers.

Colophon for nos. 19-32: LONDON: Printed for M. COOPER, at the Globe
in Pater-Noster-Bow; and Sold by GEORGE WOODFALL, near | Craig's Court,
Charing -Cross. At both which Places Advertisements, and Letters to the
AUTHOR are taken in. | Where may be had the former Numbers.

No. 13 substitutes for the words, "To be Continued Every Tuesday," the
words, "From Tuesday, January 21, to Tuesday, January 28, 1746"; and so
to the last.

Brit. Mus. has nos. 1-32; photographs of these in Yale.

Extracts from nos. 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29 in Gent. Mag. Dec.
1745, Jan., March, April, and May, 1746; from nos. 10, 14, 27, 28, 31 and 33
in London Mag. Jan., Feb., May, and June, 1746.

312

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Essays from nos. 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 23 and 24 reprinted in Fielding's
Works, London, 1762, vol. Ill, pp. 561-591. Fielding's contributions as a
whole have never been collected.

1746

THE FEMALE HUSBAND ; or, the Surprising History of Mrs. MARY,
alias Mr. GEORGE HAMILTON, convicted for Marrying a young
Woman of WELLS. LONDON : M. COOPER, 1746.

Published Nov. 1746 (Gent. Mag. Nov. p. 616; also London Mag. Nov. p.
594; Scots Mag. Nov. p. 551).

No copy known. Included here on the authority of Millar's list in 2d ed.
of Cleopatra and Octavia, 1758, and because of the use made of the story in
The Lover's Assistant, line 295 et seq.

1747

OVID'S ART of LOVE Paraphrased, and | Adapted to the
Present Time. With Notes. | And a most correct Edition of the
ORIGINAL. BOOK I. | Printed for A. MILLAR, opposite to Cathe
rine-street in the Strand; \ and sold by M. COOPER, in Pater-noster
Row; A. DODD, without | Temple-Bar; and G. WOODFALL at Char-
ing-Cross. (Price Two Shillings.)

Published Feb. 1747 (Gent. Mag. Feb. p. 108; also London Mag. March, p.
152; Scots Mag. Feb. p. 100).

No copy known. The title is taken from the advertisement in Jacobite's
Journal, no. 15, March 12,- 1748. As advertised earlier in St. James's Evening
Post, March 21-24 and March 24-26, 1747, "Book I." does not appear in the
title; and the imprint, which does not have Millar's name, varies consider
ably. The three magazines have ' ' Times ' ' instead of ' ' Time. ' ' Probably
there were two impressions or editions of the paraphrase within the first year.
Given in Millar's list in Jonathan Wild, 1754; and in Cleopatra and Octavia,
2d ed., 1758.

4 p. 1. (Title, Preface) ; 87 pp. In Brit. Mus.

A reprint of Ovid 's Art of Love Paraphrased.

In Jacobite's Journal no. 15, March 12, 1748, Fielding drew an extended

313

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

comparison between the art of love and the art of Jacobitism. It was based
on this translation. Internal evidence confirms the ascription of the paraphrase
to Fielding. Never reprinted in Fielding's Works. See this biography, vol. II,
pp. 52-54.

FAMILIAR j LETTERS | BETWEEN THE Principal Characters |
IN I DAVID SIMPLE, I And SOME OTHERS. To which is added,

A VISION. | —

| IN TWO VOLUMES.

1 Printed for the AUTHOR :

By the AUTHOR of |
VOL. I.

DAVID SIMPLE. \ —
[II.] =1 LONDON:

And Sold by A. MILLAR, opposite

Katharine-Street in the Strand. M.DCC.XLVII.

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-xlviii (Preface, written by a Friend of the
Author, The List of Subscribers) ; 352 pp. Vol. II: 1 p. 1. (Title) ; 392 pp.
7% x 5. Title of vol. II does not include the words, ' ' In two volumes. ' '

Published April 10, 1747 (St. James's Evening Post, April 7-9, 1747; also
Gent. Mag. April, p. 204; London Mag. May, p. 247). In Yale.

The Preface and Letters XL-XLIV by Henry Fielding.

Preface reprinted in Fielding's Works, London, 1762, vol. II, pp. 600-603;
Letter XLI in Fielding's Works, London, 1893, vol. XII, pp. 232-242; Letters
XL-XLIV in Fielding's Works, New York, 1903, vol. XVI, pp. 25-52.

Containing: | A clear and impartial Narrative of the Intrigues
of the Preten- | der's Adherents before the Breaking out of their
Design in North-Britain-, their Proceedings after their taking
Arms ; the Actions in that Part of the ISLAND before they march 'd
Southwards; their | March to Derby, and true Reasons of their
Retreat; the Dispute at Falkirk, \ and Motives of their trans
ferring the War into the | Highlands, with the principal Causes of
their Defeat at Culloden. Interspersed with the Characters of their
chief Leaders, and a | curious Detail of their Negociations abroad. [

The whole compos 'd with the greatest Accuracy possible in regard
to Facts and Dates, and free from all Mixture of fictitious
Circum- stances, or illgrounded Conjectures. I LONDON: |

Printed for M. COOPER, at the Globe, in Pater-Noster-Row.
XLVII.

MDCC-

1 p. 1. (Title); 155 pp. Fold, chart: A plan of the action at Seatonne.
8vo.

314

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Published April, 1747 (Gent. Mag. April, p. 204). In Brit. Mus. Never
reprinted.

See this biography, vol. II, pp. 54-57.

A | DIALOGUE I BETWEEN A GENTLEMAN of LONDON, \ Agent

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); 91 pp. 8x4%.

Published June, 1747 (London Mag. June, p. 296; also Gent. Mag. June,
p. 300). In Yale.

Acknowledged by Fielding in A Proper Answer, 1747, p. 28 note. Quoted
from by Fielding in Jacobite's Journal, no. 10, Feb. 6, 1748.

2d ed. London, 1747. 1 p. 1. (Title) ; 92pp. 8x5%.

Published Dec. 19, 1747 (Jacobite's Journal, Dec. 19). Advertisement has
motto: Pro Eepublica semper. Title has: By the Author of the True Patriot,
and | A Serious Address to the People of Great Britain. | The Second Edition.
In New York Pub. Lib.

Never reprinted in Fielding's Works.

A PROPER | ANSWER | To A LATE | Scurrilous Libel, | ENTITLED, |
An Apology for the Condufi of a late \ celebrated Second-rate
Minister. \ By the AUTHOR of the Jacobite's Journal. \ Hie niger
est, hunc in, Romane, caveto. \ [Cut] \ LONDON, \ Printed for
M. COOPER in Pater-noster-Row. \ MDCCXLVII. | [Price One
Shilling.]

1 p. 1. (Title); iii-iv (Advertisement); 5-44 pp. 7%x4%.

Published Dec. 24, 1747 (Jacobite's Journal, Dec. 19, also Gent. Mag. Dec.
pp. 575, 596). In Yale.

In all the advertisements and also in Gent. Mag. Dec. p. 596 and in Scots
Mag. Dec. p. 612 the title reads: A full answer, etc.

2d ed. London, 1748. Published Jan. 2, 1748 (Jacobite's Journal, Jan. 2).
First reprinted in Fielding's Works, New York, 1903, vol. XV, pp. 339-364.

1747-1748

THE | JACOBITE's JOURNAL. | [Cut] - - By JOHN
TROTTPLAID, Esq; \ — \ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1747. NUMB. 1.
[-NOVEMBER 5, 1748. NUMB. 49.] |

4 p. Printed page: 12^x9 (of first 12 nos. ; afterwards page is slightly

315

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

enlarged and margins, which vary in different nos., increased an inch in length
and half an inch in width). Cut in nos. 1-12 only.

Colophon for no. 1: LONDON; Printed by W. STRAHAN, in Wine-Office-
Court, Fleetstreet; and Sold by M. COOPER, in Pater- \ Noster-Bow, and G.
WOODFALL, at Charing-Cross. Where ADVERTISEMENTS, and Letters to the
AUTHOR | are taken in.

Colophon for nos. 2-3 : LONDON : Printed for M. COOPER, in Pater-Noster-
Eow; C. CORBETT, in Fleet-street', Mrs. NUTT, at the | Royal-Exchange; and
G. WOODFALL, at Charing-Cross. Where ADVERTISEMENTS, and Letters to the
AUTHOR | are taken in.

Colophon for nos. 4-49: LONDON; Printed for M. COOPER, in Pater-N 'osier-
Sow; C. CORBETT, in Fleet-street; and G. WOODFALL, | at Charing-Cross. Where
ADVERTISEMENTS and Letters to the AUTHOR are taken in.

Brit. Mus. has all but no. 41, Sept. 10, 1748; photographs of these in Yale.

Extracts from nos. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, 23, 24, 25, 31, 32, 33, 45, and 47
in Gent. Mag.; from nos. 9, 14 in London Mag.; from no. 16 in Scots Mag.
Nothing from the missing no. 41, is in Gent., London, or Scots Mag. Nos. 15
and 34 reprinted in Fielding's Works, London, 1762, vol. Ill, pp. 592-597;
none of the others ever reprinted in Fielding's Works.

1748

2 p. 1. (Title, Affidavit, dated 16° Aprilis 1749, Advertisement); [5]-
16 pp. 6% x 3%. In Yale.

First published anonymously London, Cooper, April, 1748 (Gent. Mag.
April, p. 192; also Scots Mag. April, p. 208; London Mag. May, p. 239).

No copy of London edition known. Never reprinted in Fielding's Works.
On Fielding's probable authorship, see this biography, vol. II, pp. 136-138.

1749

316

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. MILLAR, over-against | Catharine-street in the Strand. \ MDCC-
XLIX.

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-lxii pp. (Dedication: "To the Honourable
George Lyttleton, Esq;", Contents); [1] p. (Errata); 214 pp. Vol. II:
1 p. 1. (Title) ; 324 pp. Vol. Ill: 1 p. 1. (Title) ; 370 pp. Vol. IV: 1 p. 1.
(Title) ; 312 pp. Vol. V: 1 p. 1. (Title) ; 294 pp. Vol. VI: 1 p. 1. (Title) ;
304 pp. 614 x 3%. Titles of vols. II-VI have Vol. II, III, IV, V, VI in place
of the words, ' ' In Six Volumes. ' ' Title of vol. V has motto : — Mores Hominum
Multorum. Vols. II, III, IV, VI omit the period after vidit. At least two
printers were employed by Millar for the work.

Published Feb. 28, 1749 (General Advertiser, Feb. 28; also Gent. Mag.
Feb. p. 96; London Mag. Feb. pp. 51-55, 100). In Yale.

2d ed., though not so named. London, 1749. Titles and paging mainly
as in the first edition, except as noted below. Vol. I, the unpaged leaf of
Errata is omitted, and in its place is p. Ixiii, the contents being expanded to
fill. This edition was apparently begun before the first edition was completed,
as the errors are pointed out in the first five volumes only. An attempt was
made to make this a paginary reprint of the first, but the variations are
numerous.

Probably published April 13, 1749 (St. James's Evening Post, April 11-13).
In Yale.

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-xx pp. (Dedication: "To the Honourable
George Lyttleton," Contents); 304 pp. Vol. II: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-viii pp.
(Contents); 330 pp. Vol. Ill: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-x pp. (Contents); 288
pp. Vol. IV: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-xii pp. (Contents); 347 pp. 6%6x4.
Titles of vols. II-IV have Vol. II, III, IV in place of the words, "In Four
Volumes. ' '

This is the third edition, though not so named. Apparently Fielding's final
revision, and is the text usually followed in modern editions.

Published by April 13, 1749 (St. James's Evening Post, April 11-13).
In Yale.

Other editions, British and foreign: Dublin, 1749. In Yale; Amsteldam,
1749-50; 4th authorized ed. London, 1750, published Dec. 12, 1749 (St. James's
Evening Post, Dec. 9-12). In Yale; Londres, 1750. In Yale; Amsterdam,
1750. In Yale; Dresden, 1750. In Yale; Hamburg, 1750; Londres, 1751.
In Yale; Paris, 1751. In Yale; Venezia, 1757. In Yale; Napoli, 1758. In
Philadelphia Lib.; Hamburg, 1758-59, 7 vols. including Tom Jones in Married
State. In Yale; Dublin, 1759. In Yale; En France, 1762. In Yale; Am-

317

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

steldam, 1763. In Yale; 5th ed. London, 1763. In Yale; Berlin, 1764;
Dresden, 1764; Paris, 1764; Westeras, 1765; 6th ed. London, 1765; Dub
lin, 1766; Dublin, 1767. In Yale; Paris, 1767. In Yale; Edinburgh, 1767.
In Yale; 7th ed. London, 1768; Paris, 1770; St. Petersburg, 1770-71; Edin
burgh, 1771. In Yale; Leipzig, 1771 ; Hamburg, 1771 ; London, 1773. In Yale;
Dresden, 1773; London, 1774; Dresden, 1774. In Yale; Edinburgh, 1774. In
Yale; Paisley, 1775. In New York Pub. Lib.; Paris, 1775; Paris, 1776-77;
Paris, 1777. In Yale; Abridged, London, 1778. In Yale; Edinburgh, 1779;
London, 1780. 4 vols. In Yale; London, 1780. 9 vols. In Brit. Mus.;
London, 1780. 3 vols. In Brit. Mus.; Paris, 1780. 4 vols. In Yale; Edin
burgh, 1780. In Yale; Paris, 1780. 8 vols.; Niirnberg, 1780. In Yale;
London, 1781; Geneva, 1782. In Yale; London, 1782. In Yale; London,
1783. In Yale; Londres, 1783. In Yale; Polish tr. Warszawie, 1783;
Paris, 1784. In Yale; Eeims, 1784. In Yale; London [1785 ?] ; London,
1786; Leipzig, 1786-88. In Yale; Polish tr. Wien, 1786-88; London, 1787.
In Yale; Moscow, 1787; Lipsk, 1787; Carlsruhe, 1787-88. In Yale; Wien,
1788; Paris, 1788; London, 1789; London, 1791; Basel, 1791. In Yale;
Gotha, 1791; Edinburgh, 1791. In Yale; London, 1791; Abridged, Lon
don, 1792. In Brit. Mus.; London, Cooke [1792]. In Yale; London,
Murray, 1792. In Yale; London, Longman, 1792. In Yale; Warsaw, 1793;
London, 1794; Paris, 1794. In Yale; Philadelphia, 1795; Geneva, 1796.
In Yale; Madrid, 1796; Paris [1796]. In Yale; London, Cooke [1798].
In Yale; Paris, 1801. In Yale; Londres, 1801. In Yale; Paris, 1804;
Breslau, 1804; Gotha, 1804. In Yale; Edinburgh, 1805. In Yale; London,
1807. In Yale; London, 1808; London, 1809; London, Cooke [1810]. In
Yale; London, Eivington, 1810. In Yale; London, 1811. In Yale; Mar
burg, 1814 seq.; London, 1816; Dublin, 1818; London, 1818. In Yale;
London, 1819. In Yale; Paris [1820]. In Yale; London, 1820. In Yale;
London, 1823. In Yale; Paris, Dalibon, 1823. In Yale; Paris, Parmentier,
1823; Chiswick, 1823. In Yale; London, 1825. In Yale; Leipzig, 1826.
In Yale; London, 1826. In Brit. Mus.; Paris, 1828. In Yale; London,
1828; London, 1831. In Yale; London, 1832; Paris, 1832. In Yale;
Paris, 1833. In Yale; London, 1834. In Yale; Paris, 1835. In Yale; New
York, 1836; Braunschweig, 1840; Paris, 1841. In Yale; Braunschweig,
1841-42. In Yale; Leipzig, 1844. In Yale; Spanish tr. 1846; London,
1847; Braunschweig, 1848; St. Petersburg, 1849. In Brit. Mus.; Pesth,
1853; Kjobenhavn, 1854-55. In Yale; London, 1857. In Yale; Stuttgart
[I860]. In Yale; Haarlem, 1862. In Yale; London, 1868. In Brit. Mus.;
Praze, 1872. In Brit. Mus.; London, 1873; London, 1876; London, 1878.
In Yale; New York, 1879. In Yale; London, 1880; New York, 1882.
In Yale; Stuttgart, 1883; London, 1884; London, 1887. In Yale; Lon
don, 1892; New York, 1892; London, 1893; Boston, 1896; Abridged,
London, 1896. In Yale; London, 1897. In Yale; London, Sands, 1899.
In Yale; London, Dent, 1899. In Yale; London, 1900. In Yale; London,
1902; Cambridge, 1903; New York, 1904; Abridged, London, 1904; Lon-

318

BIBLIOGRAPHY

don, 1904. In Yale; London, Methuen [1905]. In Yale; London, Bell,

1905. In Yale; New York, Burt [1906]. In Yale; New York, Century,

1906. In Yale; London, 1907; New York, 1907; London, 1908; London,
1909; London, 1910. In Yale; London, 1913. In Yale; London, 1915. In
Yale. Yale has also seven editions without dates.

1 p. 1. (Title) ; 3-23 pp. 6^x4.

Published London, ca. May 1, 1749 (London Mag. May, p. 244, in Register
of Books for April and May). Publisher's name not given.

No copy of the London edition is known. Dublin edition in Yale. Never
reprinted in Fielding's Works. See this biography, vol. II, pp. 136-138.

A | CHARGE I DELIVERED TO THE | GRAND JURY, | AT THE |

1 p. 1. (Title, Vote of the Sessions); [7] -64 pp. 7%x4%.

Published ca. July 20, 1749 (St. James's Evening Post, July 18-20; also
Gent. Mag. July, p. 336; London Mag. July, p. 340; Monthly Beview, July,
pp. 239-240). In Yale.

Dublin, 1749. In New York Pub. Lib. The Vote of the Sessions has never
been reprinted.

A TRUE STATE | OF THE | CASE OF | BOSAVERN PEN-
LEZ, | Who suffered on Account of the late | RIOT in the STRAND.
| IN WHICH The Law regarding these Offences, and the | Statute
of GEORGE the First, commonly | called the Riot Act, are fully con
sidered. | -- | By HENRY FIELDING, Esq; Barrister at Law,
and one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of
Middlesex, and for the City and Liberty of Westminster. \ — |
LONDON: \ Printed for A. MILLAR, opposite Katherine- \ street
in the Strand. 1749. [Price One Shilling.]

lp.l. (Title); 54pp. 77^x4%.

319

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Published ca. Nov. 18, 1749 (St. James's Evening Post, Nov. 16-18; also
Gent. Mag. Nov. pp. 512-513, 528; London Mag. Nov. pp. 520-521, 532;
Monthly Eeview, Nov. pp. 64-65). In Yale.

First reprinted in Fielding's Works, London, 1872.

THE

1750
AUTHOR'S FARCE; I WITH A | PUPPET-SHOW,

CALI/D THE PLEASURES of the TOWN. | As A&ed at the | THEATRE
ROYAL in Drury-Lane. \ — \ Written by HENRY FIELDING,
Esq ; | — | - -Quis iniquae Tarn patiens urbis, tarn ferreus, ut
teneat sef \ Juv. Sat. I. | — The THIRD EDITION. This PIECE
was Originally Acted at the Hay-Market, and Revived some Years
after at Drury-Lane, when it was Revised, | and greatly Alter 'd by
the AUTHOR, as now Printed. -- | LONDON: \ Printed for J.
WATTS at the Printing-Office in | Wild-Court near Lincoln' 's-Inn
Fields. — MDCCL. Price ls.6d.

3 p. 1. (Title, Prologue, Persons in the Farce, Persons in the Puppet-
Show); [7] -68 pp.; [4] pp. (Epilogue). 8x414. In Yale.

This is the altered play from which has been derived the text in all collec
tions of Fielding's Works.

Geschichte JONATHAN WILDS, aus dem Engl. KOPENHAGEN, 1750,
bei Rothe.

Listed by Augustus Wood, Einfluss Fieldings auf die Deutsche Literatur.
Yokohama, 1895, p. 20.

1751
Into the CAUSES of the late

Increase of Rob-

WITH SOME PROPOSALS for Remedying this | GROW-
IN WHICH | The Present Reigning VICES are impartially |

AN ENQUIRY
bers, &c.
ING EVIL.

exposed ; and the Laws that relate to the Provision for the POOR,
and to the Punish- ment of FELONS are largely and freely ex- |
amined. | Non jam sunt mediocres hominum libidines, non humancB
auda- cicB ac tolerandce. Nihil cogitant nisi ccedem, nisi incendia, \
nisi rapinas. Cic. in Catil. 2<la. | By HENRY FIELDING, Esq; |
Barrister at Law, and One of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace
for the County of Middlesex, and for the City and Liberty of
Westminster. \ LONDON: | Printed for A. MILLAR, opposite to
Katharine-Street, in the Strand. M.DCC.LI. | [Price 2 s. 6 d.]

1 p. 1. (Title); [iii]-xv pp. (Dedication: "To the Eight Honourable

320

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Philip Lord Hardwick," The Preface); 127 pp.; [1] p. (To the Public).
7%x4%.

Published Jan. 1751 (London Mag. Jan. p. 48; also Gent. Mag. Jan. pp.
3-4, 48; Monthly Beview, Jan. pp. 229-239). In Yale.

2d ed. London, 1751. In Yale; Dublin, 1751. In Yale. The page "To
the Public" (probably written by John Fielding) first reprinted in Fielding's
Works, New York, 1903, vol. XIII, pp. 128-129.

2 p. 1. (Title, "To the Header," signed: John Fielding, One of the Proprie
tors of the Universal Kegister Office) ; [5] -19 pp. 8^x514. In Yale.

The earliest edition in Yale and in the Brit. Mus. is dated 1752, but the
pamphlet was published in Feb. or March, 1751. In the list of books under
' ' The Inspector, ' ' p. 14, in The Student, No. VI, vol. II, issued in March,
1751, is the entry: "A Plan of the Universal Kegister Office in the Strand,
recommended by H. Fielding, 3d." Probably the entry was made by Chris
topher Smart.

The main part of the pamphlet (pp. 5-18) is certainly by Henry Fielding.
In all editions, so far as known, the text never has the signature of John
Fielding.

London, 1753. In Yale; 8th ed. London, 1755. In Yale.

Never reprinted in Fielding's Works.

Vol. I: 3 p. 1. (Title, "To Ealph Allen, Esq."); vii-xii pp. (Contents);
285 pp. Vol. II: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-viii pp. (Contents); 262 pp.; [1] p.
("At the Universal -Register-Office, op- | posite to Cecil- Street in the Strand").
Vol. Ill: 1 p. 1. (Title) ; iii-ix (Contents) ; 323 pp. Vol. IV: 1 p. 1. (Title) ;
iii-vii (Contents) ; 296 pp. 6% x 4. Titles of vols. II-IV do not include the
words, "In four volumes."

Published Dec. 18, 1751 (Whitehall Evening Post, Dec. 17-19; also General
Advertiser, Dec. 2; London Mag. Dec. pp. 531-535, 576, 592-596; Gent. Mag.
Dec. p. 574; Monthly Beview, Dec. pp. 510-515; Gent. Mag. March, 1752,
pp. 102-103). In Yale.

There were two impressions. Strahan printed 5000 copies of vols. I and III
in Dec. 1751, and 3000 copies of same volumes in Jan. 1752. Printer of vols.
II and IV unknown. Vols. I and III differ from vols. II and IV in paper,

321

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

in founts used for title-pages and for table of contents, and incidentally in
other respects. Vol. I and III have four mistakes in the first line of the
Greek quotation on title-page. The two impressions perhaps undistinguishable.
See this biography, vol. II, pp. 304-308.

Other editions, British and foreign: Hanover, 1752; Frankfurth und
Leipzig, 1752. In Yale; Amsteldam, 1758. In Yale; London, 1762, in
Works, Vol. IV, pp. i-xi, 327, revised from notes by the author, Chapter 2 of
Book V being omitted; Paris, 1762. In Yale; 3d ed. Frankfurth, 1763;
Paris, 1763. In Yale; Frankfurth, 1764; Frankfurth, 1768; Paris, 1772;
London, 1775. In Yale; London, 1780. In Yale; Leipzig, 1781; Leipzig,
1781-82; Milan, 1782; Eheims, 1784. In Yale; London, 1785. In Yale;
Venezia, 1786; London, 1790. In Yale; [Paris] 1790. In Yale; Madrid,
1795-96. In Brit. Mus.; Leipzig, 1797. In Yale; London, Cooke [1798].
In Yale; London, 1799. In Yale; London, 1800; Jena und Leipzig, 1801;
Dresden, 1803; London, 1808. In Yale; London, 1811. In Yale; Dublin,
1818; London, 1832. In Yale; Paris, 1834. In Yale; New York, 1837.
In Yale; New York, 1852; London, 1857; London, 1877, includes Chapter
2 of Book V. In Yale; New York, 1882. In Yale; London, 1884. In Yale;
New York, 1886; London, 1893; London, 1902; London, 1903; London,
1905; London, 1906. In Yale; London, 1914. In Yale.

1752

The Covent-Garden Journal. | — By Sir ALEXANDER
DRAWCANSIR, Knt. Censor of GREAT BRITAIN. | - - SATUR
DAY, JANUARY 4. [-NOVEMBER 25.] 1752. NUMB. l.'[-72.] |
— To be continued every TUESDAY and SATURDAY. | —

4 pp. 161/4x10%. No. 5 and after has: Price 3d.] on left of date line.
Nos. 53-72 substitute the words: To be continued every SATURDAY in the
Morning.

Nos. 1-52, semi-weekly; nos. 53-72, weekly. No. 61 is dated Aug. 29 and
no. 62 is dated Sept. 15, on account of change in the calendar.

Colophon for no. 1 : LONDON : Printed, and Sold by Mrs. DODD, at the
Peacock, Temple-Bar; and at the UNIVERSAL EEGISTER | OFFICE, opposite
Cecil-street, in the Strand; where ADVERTISEMENTS and LETTERS to the AUTHOR
are taken in.

Colophon for no. 2 adds to the above the words: Where may be had the
First Number.

Colophon for nos. 3-26, 29-72, substitutes for the above the words: Where
may "be had the former Numbers.

Bottom of first page of nos. 3-25, and the colophon for nos. 27-28: All
imaginable Care hath been taken to supply the Subscribers with this Paper,
but if, notwithstanding this, any Gen- \ tleman or Lady should not have re
ceived it, on sending their Names either to Mrs. Dodd, or to the Universal
Register | Office, opposite Cecil-Street in the Strand, they will be carefully
supplied for the future.

322

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nos. 1, 2, 26, 27, 29, 30, and 31 have nothing at the bottom of the first page.

Bottom of first page of no. 28 : LONDON : Printed, and Sold by Mrs. DODD,
at the Peacock, Temple-Bar; and at the UNIVERSAL EEGISTER | OFFICE, oppo
site Cecil-Street, in the Strand; where ADVERTISEMENTS and LETTERS to the
AUTHOR are | taken in. Where may be had the former Numbers.

Bottom of first page of nos. 32-72: Note: This Paper is to ~be had at the
Universal Kegister Office, next the Corner of Bishopsgate-street, Cornhill.

The set in Brit. Mus. wants no. 61 and parts of nos. 71 and 72. Complete
set in collection of J. H. Wrenn of Chicago. Photographs of complete set in
Yale. Essays from nos. 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 17, 21, 23, 24, 33, 34, 35, 37, 42, 44, 47,
48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60 and 61 reprinted in Fielding's Works, London,
1762, vol. IV, pp. 365-433. To these Leslie Stephen, in Fielding's Works,
London, 1882, vol. VI, pp. 3-173, added 11 nos. vie. nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, 11, 12, 18,
27, 31, 43 and 70. In Works, 1762, no. 33 is dated April 23; should be April
25; corrected in the ed. of 1882. Eeprinted in part by James Hoey in a
Dublin Covent-Garden Journal described below. Extracts reprinted in Gent.
Mag. Jan. 1752, pp. 25-30 and Feb. pp. 53-55; also London Mag. April, 1752,
p. 168 and May, pp. 201-202, neither by Fielding. First published complete,
with introduction and notes by G. E. Jensen, in The Covent-Garden Journal,
2 vols. New Haven, 1915.

A parody on Fielding's journal appeared under the title:

THE | Covent-Garden JOURNAL | EXTRAORDINARY. |

— | By Sir ALEXANDER DRAWCANSIR, Knt. Censor of
Great-Britain \ — \ Price 3d MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1752.
Numb. I. —

6pp. 12^x5%. At head of title: (I).

Colophon: LONDON: \ Printed for J. SHARP near Temple-Bar.

Apparently written by Bonnell Thornton. Only known copy in Yale.

4 pp. 10%x8 (with trimmed margins).

Colophon for no. 1: DUBLIN: Printed by JAMES HOST, at the Sign of
Mercury, in Slcinner-Eow. Subsequent colophons vary slightly.
Title for nos. 77-82:

THE | Covent-Garden Journal: | Or, the CENSOR. | — |
By Sir ALEXANDER DRAWCANSIR, Knt. (alias Henry Fielding,

Esq;)

Title for nos. 83-86:

323

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

The Censor. | Or, COVENT-GARDEN JOURNAL.

The file in the Yale library ends with no. 86. The file in the British Museum
ends with no. 100, except for some scattered issues of later date. Nos. 1-50
comprise Vol. I; and nos. 51-100 Vol. II. Hoey reprinted, with alterations,
most of Fielding's leaders and much miscellaneous material from the London
Covent-Garden Journal.

1 p. 1. (Title); iii pp. (Dedication: "To the Eight Eev. Father in God,
Isaac Lord Bishop of Worcester"); 94 pp. 5% x 3.

Published April 13, 1752 (Covent-Garden Journal, April 11; also Gent.
Mag. April, 1752, p. 195; London Mag. April, p. 194; Monthly Review,
April, p. 311). In Yale.

Dublin, 1752. In Yale; 2d ed. London, 1764, in A Eight Pleasant and
famous Collection of Histories, vol. V.; London, 1799; Bath, 1820. In
Brit. Mus.

First reprinted in Fielding's Works, New York, 1903, vol. XVI, pp. 111-165.

Advertisement in The Covent Garden Journal, no. 27, June 27, 1752. No
part of this translation, if made, was ever printed.

NOTICE. The Covent-Garden Journal, Nov. 25, 1752. The same
in The General Advertiser, Nov. 25, 1752. Reprinted with altera
tions in The Public Advertiser, Dec. 1, 1752.

Probably no other contribution by Fielding, at or near this time, to the
Advertiser under either of its names, except a few legal notices prepared by
his clerk.

324

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PROPOSAL I FOR

1753
Making an Effectual Provision

FOR THE

AND FOR

Rendering them
A PLAN of

POOR, | FOR Amending their MORALS,

useful MEMBERS of the | SOCIETY. | To which is added,

the BUILDINGS proposed, with | proper Elevations. | Drawn by an

Eminent Hand. | By HENRY FIELDING, Esq; | Barrister at

Law, and one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County

of Middlesex. | Ista sententia maxime et fallit imperitos, et obest

saepissime | Reipublicse, cum aliquid verum et reclum esse dicitur,

sed | obtineri, id est obsisti posse populo, negatur. Cic. de Leg.

lib. 3. | LONDON : | Printed for A. MILLAR, in the Strand. MDCC-

LIII. |

1 p. 1. (Title, Explanation of the Plan); [iii]-iv pp. (Dedication: "To
the Eight Honourable Henry Pelham"); 91 pp.; [1] p. (Books printed
for A. Millar, and written by Henry Fielding, Esq.). 7J£x4%. Folded plate,
Thos. Gibson Archt. ; J. Mynde Sculp. In Yale.

Published Jan. 1753 (Dedication dated Jan. 19, 1753; also Gent. Mag.
Jan. p. 55; Monthly Beview Feb. p. 150; London Mag. Feb. pp. 74-78).
In Yale.

Dublin, 1753. In Brit. Mus. First reprinted in Fielding's Works, ed. Goss,
London, 1899, Vol. XII, pp. 63-158.

1 p. 1. (Title); 62 pp. 7%x4%. Postscript written Sunday, March 18,
1753.

Published ca. March 20, 1753 (London Mag. March, pp. 142-144; also Gent.
Mag. March, p. 151; Monthly Beview, March, p. 232). In Yale.

2d ed. London, 1753. In Yale; Dublin, 1753. In Yale; London, 1754.
In Brit. Mus. First published in Fielding's Works, vol. XI, 1872.

1754

325

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

BY | HENRY FEILDING, Esq; | — | LONDON: Printed for A.
MILLAR, in the Strand. — | MDCCLIV.

1 p. 1. (Title) ; [2] pp. (Advertisement from the Publisher to the Reader) ;
vi pp. (Contents) ; [1] p. (Books printed for A. Millar, op- | posite Catha
rine-Street in the Strand) ; [1] p. (Books printed and sold by A. Millar) ;
263 pp. 6% x 3%.

Published March 19, 1754 (Whitehall Evening Post, March 16-19; also
Monthly Review, March, p. 238). In Yale.

Previously published, before revision, in Miscellanies, London, 1743, vol.
Ill; and in Ger. trans., Kopenhagen, 1750. Later editions: Amsterdam, 1757.
In Brit. Mus. ; Kopenhagen, 1758; Paris, 1763; London, 1775 being vol.
V of Fielding's Works. In Yale; Lausanne, 1782; Eeims, 1782; London,
1782. In Yale; Reims, 1784. In Yale; London, Wenman [1785!]; Lon
don, 1790. In Brit. Mus.; Berlin, 1790; London, Cooke [1793]. In Yale;
Leipzig, 1800; London, 1811. In Yale; Zwickau, 1812; Paris, 1834. In
Yale; London, Daly, 1840; London, Churton, 1840. In Yale; London,
1842; Halifax, 1843. In Yale; Halifax, 1845. In Yale; London, 1845;
New York, 1853; Tweedie, n. d. ; London, n. d. In Yale.

1755

THE I JOURNAL OP A | VOYAGE to LISBON, By the late |
HENRY FIELDING, Esq; | [Cut] \ LONDON: \ Printed for A.
MILLAR, in the Strand. | MDCCLV.

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title) ; iv pp. (Dedication to the Public) ; xvii pp.
(The Preface); [19]-41 pp. (The Introduction); [43]-198 (i.e. 246) pp.
(The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon); [199]-228 (i.e. 247-276) pp. (A
Fragment of a Comment on L. Bolingbroke 's Essays). 6^ x 3%. Pages 241-
276 are incorrectly numbered 193-228.

Published Feb. 25, 1755 (London Daily Post, Feb. 22-25; also London
Mag. Feb. pp. 54-56, 95; Gent. Mag. Feb. p. 95, March, p. 129; Monthly
Review, March, pp. 234-235). In Yale.

2d ed., though not so named, London, 1755. Title and Dedication the same
as above, xv pp. (The Preface); [17]-37 pp. (The Introduction); 39-219
pp. (The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon); [221] -245 pp. (A Fragment of
a Comment on L. Bolingbroke 's Essays).

Published ca. Dec. 1, 1755 (Whitehall Evening Post, Nov. 29-Dec. 2; also
London Daily Post, Dec. 4-6). In Yale.

The second edition, which has usually been followed in Fielding's Works,
was printed first, but suppressed. On the two editions, see this biography,
vol. Ill, pp. 85-87.

Dublin, 1756, text of the 1st ed.; Altona, 1764; Lausanne, 1783. In Yale;
London, 1785, text of the 2d ed. In Yale; London, 1809, in Mavor's Voyages,
vol. XI, pp. 201-252, text of 1st ed., abbreviated; Ed. by Dobson, London,
1892, text of 1st ed., with notes. In Yale; London, 1893, text of 2d ed.

326

nacf)

aniwtt

mi t>em

«uf Soften t>« %t$enfcJ)en

J759*

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In Yale; Boston, 1902, text of 2d ed. In Yale; Ed. by Dobson, London
[1907], text of 1st ed., with notes. In Yale; London, 1907; Ed. by Lobban,
Cambridge, 1913, text of 1st ed., without notes. In Yale. Text of second
edition in Fielding's Works, London, 1762, vol. IV, pp. 451-527.

1758

Vol. V: 2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); 336 pp. 7x4^. In Yale.

Vols. V-VI of this collection were first printed in 1758. Vol. V contains
A Letter to Sir Robert Walpole. By the late Henry Fielding, Esq;: pp. 117-
118; also Plain Truth. By Henry Fielding, Esq; : pp. 302-305. The letter
to Walpole had appeared in the Miscellanies, London, 1743, vol. I, pp. 41-43;
there are variations in the text. No earlier appearance of Plain Truth yet
discovered; later editions: London, 1763; London, 1765; London, 1766.
In Yale; London, 1770; London, 1775; London, 1782. Plain Truth first
reprinted in Fielding 's Works, New York, 1903, vol. XII, pp. 345-347.

1759

7 p. 1. (Title, Vorbericht des Verlegers, Inhalt, Einleitung) ; [7] -263 pp.
6%x4^. All but the words EX RVBICVNDO SERENITATEM are in German type.

This is the first separate appearance of A Journey from this World to the
Next, printed originally in Miscellanies, London, 1743, vol. II, pp. 1-250. In
Yale.

Other editions, English and foreign, of A Journey from this World to the
Next: Kjobenhavn, 1769. In Yale; London, 1783. In Yale; Reims, 1784.
In Yale; Stockholm, 1785. In Yale; London, Cooke [1798]. In Yale;
Dresden, 1805; Gotha, 1807. In Yale; Meissen, 1811; Leipzig, 1811;
Leipzig, 1812; London, 1816. In Yale; Paris, 1834. In Yale; Jena, 1843;
Gotha, 1867.

1761

327

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

short TREATISE on the OFFICE of CONSTABLE. The whole par
ticularly CALCULATED for the INHABITANTS of | this METROPOLIS. |
- | By Sir JOHN FIELDING, | One of His MAJESTY'S JUSTICES
of the PEACE for the COUNTIES of MIDDLESEX, ESSEX, and SURRY,
and for the CITY and | LIBERTY of WESTMINSTER. | — A NEW
EDITION. | In which is contained Extracts from those PENAL LAWS,
made since the Publication of the last Edition. = LONDON : |
Printed by H. WOODFALL and W. STRAHAN, Law Printers | to the
KING'S most EXCELLENT MAJESTY; For T. CADELL, opposite
Catherine-Street in the Strand, 1768.

1 p. 1. (Title); [iii]-x pp. (Dedication: "To his Grace the Duke of
Grafton, First Lord Commissioner of His Majesty 's Treasury. ", "To the
Header"); [14] pp. (Index); 426pp. 8%6x5%6. In Brit. Mus.

"A | Treatise | on the | Office of Constable." | : pp. 321-367. This only is
by Henry Fielding. Never published in Fielding's Works.

First edition, London, Millar, 1761, published ca. Oct. 1761 (London Mag.
Oct. p. 564).

A New Edition, 1762 (Retrospective Review, 1825, vol. XII, pt. II, pp.
216-229); "A New Edition," London, 1769. Text of the 1768 ed., with a
new title-page. In Yale.

1762

Vol. I: 2 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: "To Ealph Allen, Esq;"); [5] -49 pp.
(An Essay on the Life and Genius of Henry Fielding, Esq; signed: Arthur
Murphy. Lincoln's Inn, March 25, 1762.); [2] pp. (Contents, Errata); 623
pp. 11% x 9%. Portrait of Fielding, "Wm. Hogarth, delin. James Basire
sculp." faces title-page. Contains: Love in Several Masques; Temple Beau;
Author's Farce; Coffee-House Politician; The Tragedy of Tragedies;
Letter -Writers ; Grub -Street Opera; Lottery; Modern Husband; Mock
Doctor; Covent-Garden Tragedy; Debauchees; Miser; Intriguing Cham
bermaid; Don Quixote in England; An Old Man taught Wisdom.

Vol. II: 2 p. 1. (Title, Contents), 603 pp. Contains: Universal Gallant;
Pasquin; Historical Begister; Eurydice; Eurydice JHiss'd; Tumble-Down
Dick; Miss Lucy in Town; The Wedding-Day; Jonathan Wild; Journey
from this World to the Next; Joseph Andrews; Preface to David Simple;
Preface to The Familiar Letters.

Vol. Ill: 2 p. 1. (Title, Half-title: The History of Tom Jones); [iii]-

328

BIBLIOGRAPHY

xxiv pp. (Dedication: "To the Honourable George Lyttelton, Esq;", Con
tents); 597 pp. Contains: History of a Foundling; Philosophical Trans
actions; The First Olynthiac of Demosthenes; Of the Eemedy of Affliction
For the Loss of Our Friends; Dialogue between Alexander the Great and
Diogenes the Cynic; Interlude between Jupiter [&c.] ; The True Patriot,
nos. 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 23 & 24; The Jacobite's Journal, nos. 15 & 34.

Vol. IV: 1 p. 1. (Title); v-xi pp. (Contents); [3] pp. (Dedication: "To
Ealph Allen, Esq;", dated: Bow-Street, Dec. 2, 1751, the 1st ed. was dated:
Dec. 12.; Half-title: Amelia); 595 pp. Contains: Amelia; An Essay on
Conversation; An Essay on the Knowledge of the Characters of Men; The
Covent-Garden Journal, nos. 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 17, 21, 23, 24, 33, 34, 35, 37, 42,
44, 47, 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, & 61; Charge to the Grand Jury;
Voyage to Lisbon; Comment on Bolingbroke; Increase of Eobbers. This
piece is omitted from the table of Contents.

First collected edition of Fielding's Works. In Yale. An 8 vol. ed. was
issued about the same date, but it is called the second edition on the title.
In Yale. Both editions reviewed in Monthly Review, May-July, 1762; also
Gent. Mag. June, 1762; London Mag. Aug. 1762.

3d ed. London, 1766, 12 vols. 12mo, with port, engraved by J. Taylor. In
Yale; 4th ed. Edinburgh, 1767. In Yale; London, 1769; Edinburgh, 1771;
London, 1771, 8 vols. In Yale; London, 1771, 12 vols. In Yale; London,
Strahan, 1775, 12 vols. In Yale; London, Bell, 1775, 12 vols. In Yale;
London, 1780; Geneva, 1781-82. In Yale.

1778

1 p. 1. (Title, Advertisement); [iii]-viii pp. (Dedication: "To His Grace
the Duke of Northumberland," signed: John Fielding; Prologue and Epi
logue by Mr. Garrick) ; 111 pp.; [1] p. (Books, published by the same
Author). 8x4%.

First performed Monday, Nov. 30, 1778 (Public Advertiser, Nov. 30).
Published Dec. 12, 1778 (Public Advertiser, Dec. 12; also Gent. Mag. Dec.
pp. 586-587, 604; London Mag. Dec. pp. 550-551). In Yale.

Dublin, 1779; London, 1783. In Brit. Mus.

1782
POEMS | ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS. | CONSISTING OF | ORIGINAL

PIECES, I AND I TRANSLATIONS FROM SOME OF THE
MOST ADMIRED LATIN CLASSICS: | With the Original

329

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

TEXT, and copious NOTES, Historical, | Mythological, and Crit

ical,

VOL. I. BY 8. ROGERS, A. M.

BATH : Printed

by R. CRUTTWELL, | and published by T. SHRIMPTON : Sold
in LONDON by J. DODSLEY, Pall-Mali; C. DILLY, Poultry; |
and W. GOLDSMITH, Pater-Noster-Row. MDCCLXXXII.

6%x4}4. Vol. I includes: An Extempore, [i]n the Pump-Boom at Bath.

By the late Henry Fielding, Esq. To Miss H land. Communicated by

a Friend, with the note : " N. B. The above piece is not printed in any edition
of Fielding's Works." Had been published in Miscellanies, London, 1743, vol.
I, p. 114. There are some variations in the text, the name amongst them, for
Fielding wrote "H and." In Yale.

THE | BEAUTIES OF FIELDING;
the Works of that

Carefully Selected
To which is added

From
Some

EMINENT WRITER.
Account of his Life. | [Cut: port, of Fielding] \ LONDON. |
Printed for G. KEARSLEY Fleet Street — 1782 | Price Half a Crown
Sewed.

1 p. 1. (Engraved Title) ; xvi pp. (Memoirs of the life and genius of
Henry Fielding, Contents) ; 203 pp. 7x4.

2d ed. London, 1782. In Yale; 3d ed. London, 1782; Dublin, 1783. In
Yale.

1783

6%x4%. Vol. IV includes: The Fathers, pp. [365] -443. In Yale.
Works, London, 1784, 10 vols. 8vo. In Yale; Paris, 1797. In Yale;
London, 1803, 12 vols.; Paris, 1804. In Yale.

THE I WORKS I OF

1806

HENRY FIELDING, ESQ.

WITH I AN

8%X5%. This is Murphy's edition revised by Alexander Chalmers. Vol.
X includes: An Essay on Nothing, pp. 135-149, which had been reprinted from
the Miscellanies, 1743, by Isaac Beed in The Repository, 1783, vol. IV, pp.
129-149. In Yale.

330

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Novels: Edinburgh, 1807, 5 vols. In Yale; London, 1808, 14 vols. In
Yale; Edinburgh, 1812. In Yale; Edinburgh, 1818. In Yale; New York,
1813-16. In Yale; London, 1821, being vol. I of Novelist's Library; London,
1821, 10 vols. In Yale; London, 1824, 12 vols. In Yale; Philadelphia, 1832,
2 vols.; Philadelphia, 1836. In Yale.

1829

CHEAPSIDE; | R. GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW; | AND | J. GUMMING,

DUBLIN. | [n.d., ca. 1829].

1 p. 1. (Title); [iii]-iv (Contents); 188 pp. 5%6x3i£. Portrait of
Fielding, engraved by W. T. Fry, faces title-page. In Yale.

This is vol. XXIX of Howard 's Beauties of Literature.

1840

PRINTED FOR HENRY WASHBOURNE ; H. G. BOHN ; SCOTT, WEBSTER, and
GEARY; | L. A. LEWIS; JOHN CHIDLEY; WILLIAM GILLING ; | and

R. GRIFFIN and co., GLASGOW, — | 1840.

1 p. 1. (Title); [iii]-xxviii (Contents, Life and Works of Henry Fielding,
signed: Thomas Eoscoe, May, 1840; Dedication of: "The History of a
Foundling. To the Hon. George Lyttleton") ; 1116pp. 9^x6%. Portrait
of Fielding engraved by Samuel Freeman faces title-page; and a facsimile
of a letter to Mr. Nourse, dated April 20, 1741, follows p. xxviii. In Yale.

Many times reprinted by various publishers.

1870

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); [vii]-xiv (Preface, Table of Contents, List of
illustrations) ; 304 pp. 8% x 6%.

Henry Fielding: pp. 51-67 (Memoir, pp. 53-58, A Hunting Scene, from
Joseph Andrews, pp. 59-67). In Yale.

331

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

1872
MISCELLANIES AND POEMS. BY | HENRY FIELDING,

ESQ. | EDITED, WITH PREFACE, | BY JAMES P. BROWNE, M. D. I

LONDON : | BICKERS and SON, 1, LEICESTER SQUARE. | H. SOTHERAN
and co., 136, STRAND. | LITTLE, BROWN and co., BOSTON, u.s. |
M.DCCC.LXXIL

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); xxvi pp. (Contents, Preface signed: James P.
Browne, M. D. February, 1872) ; 2 1. (Half-title and Title of The Case of
Elizabeth Canning); [3]-200 pp. 8%x5%; large paper: 10%x7i^.

This is vol. XT of Fielding's Works, published 1871. Contains: The Case
of Elizabeth Canning; A True State of the Case of Bosavern Penlez; Preface
to the Miscellanies and Poems; Poems from the Miscellanies. Both sizes in
Yale.

Reprinted London, Bickers, 1903; New York, Mallet, 1903. Poems re
printed in Fielding's Works ed. by Stephen, London, 1882, and in Fielding's
Works, New York, 1903, not elsewhere.

1877

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title) ; [v]-xvi pp. (Contents); 11. (List of illus
trations) ; 1 p. (Dedication); [2] -594 pp. 8 plates. 7^x4%.

This edition of Amelia is really vol. IV of an edition of Fielding's Works in
four volumes, based upon Roscoe. It restores a chapter in Bk. V.

Pp. 200-203 is "Additional chapter" with note: "This chapter occurs in
the original edition of Amelia, between the chapters numbered 1 and 2. It is
omitted in Murphy's and all subsequent editions. Some slight alterations were
made by the author on its omission in the text of the adjoining chapters to
render the narrative consecutive. These have been retained here. See note
in Biography prefixed to Joseph Andrews, page Ixxi. ' '

Note on p. Ixxi of Joseph Andrews reads: "Amelia, as it appears in
Murphy's collected edition, is said to have been printed from a copy corrected
in the author's own handwriting, and the variation from the original text has
hitherto passed unnoticed, as well as the omission of the chapter containing
'much physical matter.' As a lost fragment of Fielding this latter will be
found (in parenthesis) in its place in the text of this edition of Amelia."

This additional chapter was reprinted with the same or similar notes by
Linn, Jersey City, 1880; by Bell, London, 1884; and by Croscup & Sterling,
in Complete Works, New York, 1903, vol. VI, pp. 228-232.

332

BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE WORKS

1882
HENRY FIELDING, ESQ. I EDITED

LESLIE STEPHEN |
SMITH, ELDER &

WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

IN TEN VOLUMES | VOL. V [VI] | LONDON

CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE | 1882

10 x 7. Vol. V includes : Articles in The Champion, pp. 207-469, taken from
the reprint of 3741, publishing 59 nos. out of 94. Omits nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7,
8, 11, 16, 29, 34, 44, 46, 50, 54, 57, 61, 63, 64, 67, 70, 71, 73, 75, 78, 79, 81, 82,
84, 85, 87, 88, 92, 93, 94, of which many were written by Fielding. Vol. VI
includes: The Covent-Garden Journal, pp. 1-173; the following numbers are
reprinted for the first time: 1, 2, 5, 6, 11, 12, 18, 27, 31, 43, 70. In Yale.

1893

THE WORKS OF HENRY FIELDING | EDITED BY GEORGE
SAINTSBURY IN TWELVE VOLUMES | VOL. XII. | MISCEL
LANIES VOL. II. | [LONDON PUBLISHED BY J. M. DENT &
CO. AT ALDINE HOUSE IN GREAT EASTERN STREET
MDCCCXCIII]

8x5. Vol. XII includes : Familiar Letters, No. XLI, pp. 232-242. In Yale.

THE WORKS OF

1899

HENRY FIELDING

WITH AN INTRODUCTION

BY | EDMUND GOSSE | VOLUME X [XII] [Cut] \ WESTMIN

STER ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. NEW YORK CHARLES

SCRIBNER'S SONS

1899

8% x 5%. Vol. X includes : Advertisement from the Publisher to the Reader
(from Jonathan Wild, 1754), pp. xxiii-xxiv; vol. XII includes: A Proposal
for Making an Effectual Provision for the Poor, pp. 63-158. In Yale.

FIELDING'S TOM THUMB

— I Mit Einleitung herausgegeben j

von | Felix Lindner | [Cut] BERLIN | VERLAG VON EMIL FELBER |
1899.

2 p. 1. (Title, Inhalt); [VII] -VIII (Vorwort) ; 111 pp. 7^x5%. At
head of title: Englische Textbibliothek | Herausgegeben von | Johannes
Hoops. . . | =4.—

The edition of 1762 collated with The Tragedy of Tragedies, 1731. In Yale.

The Complete Works of

1903
HENRY FIELDING, ESQ.

With an

Essay on the Life, Genius and Achievement of the Author, \ 6t/

333

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

London copies have the imprint: London | William Heinemann | 1903.

8^x5%.

Vol. XII includes: Plain Truth, pp. 345-347. Vol. XIII includes: To the
Public, pp. 128-129, probably written by John Fielding. Vol. XIV includes:
The Opposition. A Vision, pp. 321-331. Vol. XV includes: A Full Vindication
of Her Grace the Duchess Dowager of Marlborough, pp. 5-34; The Vernoniad,
pp. 35-60; A Proper Answer to a Late Scurrilous Libel, pp. 339-364; Epi
logue to Caelia, pp. 365-366. Vol. XVI includes: Familiar Letters, nos. XL-
XLIV, pp. 25-52 (no. XLI had been printed in the Dent ed. of 1893) ; Dedi
cation and Preface to Plutus, pp. 53-64; Examples of the. Interposition of
Providence in the Detection and Punishment of Murder, pp. 111-165. Vol.
XVI is noteworthy for Mr. Henley's Essay, pp. iii-xli, and for the first attempt
at a bibliographical description of first editions of Fielding's separate publica
tions, vol. XVI, pp. xlvii-lxii. In Yale.

SELECTED ESSAYS

1905
OF HENRY FIELDING

EDITED

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY GORDON HALL

GEROULD, B. LITT. (OxoN.) | PRECEPTOR OF ENGLISH IN PRINCE
TON | UNIVERSITY — GINN & COMPANY | BOSTON. NEW YORK.
CHICAGO. LONDON | n. d. [1905]

3 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); v-lxxxi pp. (Preface, Contents, Introduction);
222 pp. 714 x 4%. Port, faces title-page. At head of title : Athenaeum Press
Series. In Yale.

1909
Wise Sayings and Favorite Pass

ages From the Works of

Henry Fielding Including His Essay on | Conversation [Cut] \
Cedar Rapids, Iowa | The Torch Press 1909

4 p. 1. (Half-title, Title, Quotation from Fielding, Note); 9-132 pp.
5%6 x 3i%6. Selected by Charles W. Bingham. In Yale.

MASTERS OF LITERATURE | FIELDING EDITED BY | GEORGE

SAINTSBURY, D. LITT., LL. D. | PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERA

TURE IN THE

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH [Cut] LONDON

GEORGE BELL AND SONS | 1909

334

BIBLIOGRAPHY

3 p. 1. (Half-title, Title, Contents); [ix]-xl (Introduction); 360 pp.
7% x 5. Port, faces title-page. Contains extracts from Fielding 's novels and
A Voyage to Lisbon. In Yale.

1915

Vol. I: 3 p. 1. (Half-title, Title, Dedication); [vii]-x pp. (Preface, Con
tents) ; 2 1. (List of Illustrations, Half-title) ; 368 pp. with 8 plates including
frontispiece. Vol. II: 2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); [v]-vi pp. (Contents); 2 1.
(List of Illustrations, Half-title) ; 293 pp. with 4 plates including frontis
piece. 8%x5%. In Yale.

1918

EDITED BY I JAMES T. HILLHOUSE I [Cut] NEW HAVEN: YALE

UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNI

VERSITY PRESS I MDCCCCXVm

4 p. 1. (Half-title, Title, Dedication, Preface, Contents, Illustrations) ;
223 pp. 5% x 8%6. In Yale.

Contains a reprint of the first edition of Tom Thumb, the additions made
in the second edition, the preface to the second edition, and the text of the
first edition of The Tragedy of Tragedies.

UNCERTAIN OR DOUBTFUL AUTHORSHIP

1732
SELECT | COMEDIES | OF Mr. DE MOLIERE. \ FRENCH and

335

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Office | in Wild-Court near Lincoln' s-Inn Fields. — | MDCC-
XXXII.

8 vols. 61^x3%. Portrait and 17 plates.

Published Dec. 8, 1732 (Adv. in C. Johnson's Caelia, 1733). In Yale.

Fielding probably shared in this translation with Henry Baker and James
Miller. He had in his library the French ed. of 1718, 8 vols. See this biog
raphy, vol. I, pp. 144-145.

1737

A Rehearsal of KINGS ; or The Projecting Gingerbread BAKER,
with the unheard of Catastrophe of Macplunderkan, King of
Roguomania, and the ignoble Fall of Baron Tromperland, King of
Clouts. ... To which will be added a new Farce of One Act, called
Sir PEEVY PET.

First performed at the Haymarket, March 9, 1737 (Grub-st. Journal, Feb.
24). Never printed.

A Rehearsal of Kings was an old farce, which may have been reworked by
Fielding. Perhaps Sir Peevy Pet was written by Eliza Haywood.

1739

[ FABLES | OF THE ANCIENTS, \
By the Abbe BANIER, \ Member
INSCRIPTIONS and BELLES-LETTRES.
— Translated from the Original
— | LONDON: \ Printed for A. MILLAR, at
Buchanan 's-Head, against | St. Clement 's-Church in the Strand. \
M.DCC.XXXIX. [M.DCC.XL, M.DCC.XL.]

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-xxiii (Advertisement, The Author's Preface,
Contents); 583 pp.; [1] p. (Books printed for A. Millar). Vol. II: 6 p. 1.
(Books printed for and Sold by A. Millar, Title, 2d Title, Contents) ; 619 pp.
Vol. Ill: 5 p. 1. (Title, 2d Title, Contents); 545 pp.; [1] p. (Books printed
for and Sold by A. Millar). Vol. IV, dated 1741 (London Mag. Feb. 1741, p.
104), wanting in Yale. 7% x 4%. In Brit. Mus.

Advertised in Jacobite's Journal, Jan. 9, 1748, and later, probably for a
new ed. Eeferred to in Jacobite's Journal, Jan. 30, 1748, as "the most useful,
instructive and entertaining Book extant." On Feb. 20, 1748, Fielding draws
a parallel between the origin of fables and the origin of Jacobite doctrines.
Beferred to in Tom Jones, Bk. XII, Ch. 1, as "a work of great erudition and
of equal judgment." Apparently Fielding had a personal interest in the
work; he may have supervised the translation or a revision.

336

1740

AN | APOLOGY | For the LIFE of Mr. T C

— | [9 lines of quotation] \ COLLEY GIBBER'S Life, p. 26, 27 |
— Sequiturque Patrem non possibus JEquis. \ — | LONDON: \
Printed for J. MECHELL at the King's- Arms in | Fleet Street. 1740.
[Price Two Shillings.]

1 p. 1. (Title); [iii]-viii (Dedication: "To a Certain Gentleman"); 144
pp. 7%x*%.

Published July, 1740 (Gent. Mag. July, p. 360). In Yale.

Dublin, 1741. In Yale.

More than once attributed to Fielding. Probably Fielding had a hand in
this burlesque biography.

THE MILITARY HISTORY OF | CHARLES XII. | King of
SWEDEN, | Written by the express Order of his Majesty, | By
M. GUSTAVUS ALDERFELD, CHAMBERLAIN to the KING. | To
which is added, [ An exact Account of the Battle of Pultowa, \ with
a JOURNAL of the KING'S | Retreat to Bender. Illustrated with
Plans of the Battles and Sieges. \ Translated into English, j In
THREE VOLUMES. | [Cut] \ LONDON: \ Printed for J. and P.
KNAPTON in Lud gate-Street: \ J. HODGES upon London-Bridge:
A. MILLAR oppo- | site to St. Clement's Church in the Strand; and |
J. NOURSE without Temple-Bar. 1740.

Vol. I: 2 p. 1. (Title, 2d Title); xv pp. (Preface); [1] p. (Advertise
ment); 338 pp.; [2] pp. (Advertisement). Front, (port.); 5 fold, plans.
Vol. II: 2 p. 1. (Half-title; Title); 388 pp. Vol. Ill: 1 p. 1. (Title); 334
pp. 1 fold. plan. 8% x 514.

2d title of vol. I and titles of vols. II-III have Vol. I., II., III. in place of
the words, "In three volumes."

Published Oct. 16, 1740 (Champion, Oct. 16). In Boston Athenaeum.

Fielding supervised and probably had some direct part in this translation;
see receipt of March 10, 1739, as given in this biography, vol. I, p. 284.

Abridged with title:

337

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

On the relation between the two editions, see this biography, vol. I, pp.
285-286.

1741

(Price Six-Pence.)

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title) ; 24 pp. 814 x 47/s.

Advertised in the Champion, May 19, 1741. In Yale.

The Remarkable Queries in the Champion for Oct. 7 had previously been
published in the Champion for June 14, 1740. They are signed B. T. but the
Daily Gazetteer of Oct. 9 implies that Fielding was the author. Authorship
doubtful.

2d ed. London, 1741. 1 p. 1. (Title); [3] -23 pp.; [1] p. (Advertisement).
714 x 7}£. In the Advertisement is listed a three penny edition of The Crisis.
A Sermon. In Yale.

1746

An EPILOGUE, | Designed to be spoken by Mrs. WOFFINGTON,
in the \ Character of a Volunteer.

Published in The True Patriot, no. 17, Feb. 18-25, 1746. Spoken at Drury-
Lane, March 13, 1746, and at other times (Genest, English Stage, vol. IV, pp.
180, 183). Reprinted, with variations in The Foundling Hospital for Wit, no.
3, June 1746, pp. 24-25. Probably by Fielding.

1748 ?

Charge to the Jury on the Tryal of A. B. C. Price One Shilling.

Advertised as by Henry Fielding in Sarah Fielding's Cleopatra and Octavia,

2d ed. 1758. No copy known; nor does the title (probably a sub-title) appear

338

BIBLIOGRAPHY

in lists of books given in the magazines of the period. For a similar pamphlet
see the following item and this biography, vol. II, pp. 94-95.

1749

A Genuine COPY of the | TRYAL | OF | J P I, Esq ;

&c. | Commonly call'd, E of E | The reputed

AUTHOR of a Pamphlet, \ entituled, An Examination of the \ Prin
ciples, &c. of the two B rs. TRY 'D On Wednesday the 22d

of February, at the | OLD-BAILEY. For several HIGH CRIMES
and MISDE- MEANOURS. On a Special COMMISSION of Oyer and |
Terminer. Directed to the Right Honourable the Lord | Chief
Justice Truth, the Lord Chief Ba- ron Reason, and Mr. Justice
Honesty. \ Taken in Short-hand by a Barrister at Law, and Revis 'd
| and Publish 'd by Order of the Judges. | — | Belial, in Aft more
graceful and humane, \ A fairer Person lost not Heaven; he seem'd
| For Dignity compos' d and high Exploit: \ But all was false and
hollow; tho' his Tongue \ Dropt Manna — | — | London: Printed
for R. FREEMAN, near Ludgate.

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title) ; 52pp. 7%x4i%6.

Published March 25, 1749 (London Mag. March, p. 148). In Yale.

Attributed to Fielding by Old England, March 25, 1749. A severe arraign
ment of John Perceval, 2d Earl of Egmont, for deserting the Pelhams, "the
two brothers." Probably written by an imitator of Fielding.

1752

An Act for the better preventing Thefts and Robberies, and for
regulating Places of publick Entertainment, and punishing Persons
keeping disorderly Houses. — Statutes at Large, 25 Geo. II, 36.

This statute received the royal assent, March 26, 1752. On Fielding's prob
able authorship, see this biography, vol. II, p. 280.

2 vols. 10% x 8^. In Brit. Mus.

Preface, p. xxii, signed: William Young. In Fielding's library, no. 419,
there was a copy of Ainsworth's Dictionary, 1746, "with MSS notes by Mr

339

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Fielding." Probably Fielding assisted Young to some extent in the prepara
tion of this edition of Ainsworth.

1755

M. BENI. HEDERICI j LEXICON | MANVALE GlLECVM | . . . | HanC

TEBTIAM EDITIONEM, ut prioribus auftior prodiret atque emenda-
tior, curavit \ — GVLIELMVS YOVNG. | = LONDINI: | . . . |
M.DCC.LV.

10% x 8^. In Yale.

In Fielding's library, no. 258, was Hederici . . . Lexicon Grcecum 4to.
London, 1732. "Cum notis MSS Henr. Fielding." On the likelihood that
Fielding read Hedericus in 1752-1753 with a view to collaborating with Young
on the third edition, see this biography, vol. Ill, pp. 80-82.

Ill

WORKS ERRONEOUSLY ATTRIBUTED TO FIELDING

' ' There are few crimes of which I should have been more ashamed
than of some writings laid to my charge."

1725
On Jonathan Wild. (In Mist's Weekly Journal, June, 12, 19,

1725.)

Attributed to Fielding by Alfred J. Bobbins (Notes and Queries, ser. 11,
vol. II, pp. 261-263). Fielding could not have written the papers. See J. Paul
de Castro in Notes and Queries, ser. 12, vol. II, p. 441.

ca. 1730

The HISTORY of THOMAS HICKATHRIFT.

"To F G names unknown — to him have come | The

fame of Hickathrift and brave Tom Thumb." (Gent. Mag. Nov.
1731 ; quoted from Grub-st. Journal, Nov. 18.

In Fraser's Mag. April, 1846, vol. XXXIII, pp. 495-502, Thackeray quotes
freely from The History of Thomas HicJcathrift, and says, ' ' This must be
surely Fielding." See also Lawrence, Henry Fielding, London, 1855, p. 38 note.

Thackeray's quotations were taken from the story as told in Gammer Gur-
ton's Famous Histories of Sir Guy of Warwick, Sir Bevis of Hampton, Tom
Hickathrift, Friar Bacon, Robin Hood, and the King and the Cobler. Newly
Revised and Amended by Ambrose Merton, Gent. . . . Westminster. [1846].

340

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ambrose Merton was the pseudonym of W. J. Thorns, who based his narrative
on A Pleasant and Delightful History of Thomas HicTcathrift [1780 ?]. This
chapbook was in turn largely derived from The Pleasant History of Thomas
Hiclca-Thrift, antedating 1703 (reprinted and edited by E. L. Gomme for the
Villon Society in 1885). There is no evidence that Fielding ever bore a hand
in any revision of this old story. The lines in the Gent. Mag., however, raise
the presumption that Fielding may have written a farce on Hickathrift about
1730; but of this farce there is now no trace.

1731

THE BATTLE OF THE I POETS ; | OR, THE | Contention for the
LAUREL. | . . . | MDCCXXXI.

For full title and bibliographical description, see below, p. 350.

Published Dec. 1730.

Attributed to Fielding in The Candidates for the Bays, 1730: "By the

valiant T - - T and his Battle of Poets. ' ' Probably written by Thomas

Cooke.

1735

A Hymn to the Mob. London, 1735.

Attributed to Fielding by Watt in Bibliotheca Britannica. The poem was
written by Daniel Defoe and first published in 1715.

The Man of Taste : or, the Guardians. A Comedy. London, 1735.

Attributed to Fielding by Watt in Bibliotheca Britannica and in the old
catalogue of the Brit. Mus. The play was adapted from Moliere by James
Miller.

1737

1 p. 1. (Title); 19 pp. 13^x8^.

Published Feb. 1737 (Gent. Mag. Feb. p. 128). In Yale.

This poem of unknown authorship, confounded with Fielding's prose essay
of the same title in the Miscellanies, is often listed with Fielding's works in
sale catalogues.

The Golden Rump.

Never performed nor printed. This farce, attributed by Horace Walpole
and many others to Fielding, was not written by him. On the authorship, see
this biography, vol. I, pp. 226-229.

341

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

1741

Letter to Brother Scribe, the Editor, from Hercules Vinegar, and
an essay entitled : ' ' Female Oratory, or the true and genuine Speech
of Abigail Trite, An Undertaker's Maid." As The Champion
has failed, Hercules Vinegar offers his services to The Daily
Gazetteer. (In Daily Gazetteer, March 30, 1741.)

Letter to Ralph Freeman, EsqT, from Hercules Vinegar. ' ' From
our Apartment, the Sign of the Three Red Herrings and Halfpenny
Loaf, Vauxhall." (In Daily Gazetteer, Sept. 18, 1741.)

"The Interview of a Conversation which lately happened in
Mix'd Company at the Globe Tavern." H. Vinegar is represented
as one of the speakers. (In Daily Gazetteer, Sept. 23, 1741.)

"A Third Interview at the Globe." Hercules Vinegar is again
a speaker. (In Daily Gazetteer, Oct. 30, 1741.)

The first two of the above items were attempts to make it appear that
Fielding, while conducting The Champion, was writing for a ministerial organ
at the same time. In the Preface to the Miscellanies, London, 1743, vol. I,
p. xxvi {i.e. xxxvi), Fielding says, "the Gazetteer, in which I never had the
honour of inserting a single word."

1742

BLAST upon BLAST and | LICK for LICK, OR, A | New

Lesson | for P pe. | A Parody on the Fourth Chapter of |

Genesis. | By Capt. H S Vinegar. | LONDON: | Printed for

W. WEBB, near St. Paul's: and | sold by the Booksellers and
Pamphlet- | Shops of London and Westminster. 1742.

1 p. 1. (Title) ; [3] -8 pp. Folio.

Published August, 1742 (Gent. Mag. Aug. p. 448). In Brit. Mus.

Attributed to Fielding by Horace Walpole in letter to Mann, Aug. 1742
(Letters, ed. by Toynbee, vol. I, pp. 274-276). This is an attack upon Pope,
such as Fielding could never have written.

The CUDGEL, I OR, A I Crab-tree Lecture. I To the Author of I

LONDON:

The DUNCIAD. | By Hercules Vinegar, Esq ;
Printed for the Author, and Sold at his House, the Crab-Tree,
Vinegar-yard, near Drury-Lane. [Price 1 s.] \ MDCCXLII.
1 p. 1. (Title) ; 56 pp. 8vo.

342

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Published August, 1742 (Gent. Mag. Aug. p. 448). In Brit. Mus. Not by
Fielding.

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title); 20 pp. 7%8x4%6.

Published Dec. 1742 (Gent. Mag. Dec. p. 664; also London Mag. Dec. p.
626). In Yale.

Attributed to Fielding by Lawrence in Henry Fielding, London, 1855, p.
168. Not by Fielding.

1743

1 p. 1. (Title) ; 78 pp. 8vo.

Published April, 1743 (Gent. Mag. April, p. 224; also London Mag. April,
p. 208). In Brit. Mus. Though not by Fielding, it may have been suggested
by A Journey from this World to the Next.

1 p. 1. (Title, Dramatis Personae) ; 29 pp. 10^4 x 8^4.

Published June, 1743 (Gent. Mag. June, p. 336). 2d ed., 1743, in Yale.

In his preface to David Simple Fielding denies being the author of this
"infamous paultry libel." Authorship unknown, but may have been Mac-
namara Morgan, of Lincoln's Inn, died 1762 (European Mag. vol. XXIII,
p. 253; also Notes and Queries, Aug. 1, 1857, ser. 2, vol. IV, p. 94).

343

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

THE

ADVENTURES

DAVID SIMPLE: Containing

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title); [iii]-x pp. (Advertisement to the Reader; Con
tents) ; 278 pp. Vol. II: 1 p. 1. (Title) ; 322 pp. 6%x3%. Title of vol. II
does not include the words, "In two volumes."

Published May, 1744 (Gent. Mag. May, p. 288; also London Mag. May,
p. 260). In Brit. Mus.

Attributed to Henry Fielding on its appearance, but denied by him in the
preface to the 2d edition. French translation as by Henry Fielding in vols.
XVIII-XX of CEuvres Complettes de M. Fielding, Paris, 1791. In Yale;
Paris, 1804. In Yale. Published by G. Virtue, London, 1822, with engraved
title and 7 plates, under the title "Adventures in Search of a real Friend . . .
by Henry Fielding, Esqr ' ' ; omits preface of the 2d ed. but has a biographical
sketch of Henry Fielding. . In Yale.

Written by Sarah Fielding, who received some literary advice from her
brother while she was engaged upon the book.

1746

the Use of

A SCHEME for raising a large Sum of Money for
the Government, by laying a Tax on Mes- | sage-Cards and Notes. |
Signed : Descartes. ( In The Museum, no. 2, April 12, 1746 ; also in
Works of Horace Walpole, London, 1798, vol. I, pp. 132-139.)

' ' You remember a paper in The Museum on Message Cards wch he [Walpole]
told me was Fielding's, & asked my Opinion about it: it was his own." (Letters
of Thomas Gray, ed. Tovey, London, 1900, p. 133.)

1747

second-

= LONDON: Printed for W. WEBB, in Paternoster-Row. \
(Price One-Shilling.)

344

AVENTURES

D E

RODERICK RANDOM;
Par FIELDING.

TOME PREMIER.

A PARIS,

Av Bureau du Journal de PERLET , rue

Saint- Andre-dcs-Arts , N°. 41 ;

ET cbcz OUVRIER , libraire, mcme adressc

^797-

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1 p. 1. (Title) ; [3] -50 pp. 7% x 47/8.

Published Dec. 1747 (Gent. Mag. Dec. pp. 574, 596). In Yale.
Attributed to Fielding in The Patriot Analised, Feb. 1748, pp. 36-38, though
Fielding had replied to it on Dec. 24, 1747.

1748

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-xxiii pp. (Preface, Contents); 324 pp. Vol.
II: 1 p. 1. (Title); iii-xii pp. (Contents); 366 pp.

Lady Montagu writing to the Countess of Bute, June 23, 1754, says, "I
guessed R. Random to be his, [Fielding's] though without his name" (Letters,
London, 1837, vol. Ill, p. 93).

French translation as by Fielding, Londres, J. Nourse, 1751. In Bibl. Nat.,
Paris; Amsterdam, 1762; Paris, 1797, 4 vols., as vols. XI-XIV of (Euvres
Complettes de M. Fielding. In Yale; Paris, 1804. In Yale.

1749

| — | MDCCL.

6 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: "To the Right Honourable Elizabeth, Countess of
Marchmont, ' ' Preface, Contents) ; 323 pp. 6%6 x 4.

Published Nov. 1749 (Gent. Mag. Nov. 1749, p. 528; also London Mag.
Nov. p. 532; Monthly Review, Nov. pp. 25-26). In Yale.

Although the author in his preface states that Fielding did not write the
book, it was included in the Hamburg translation of Tom Jones, 1758-59, as vol.
VII (dated 1755). In Yale.

A Broadside signed : ' ' Captain Hercules Vinegar, ' ' put out dur
ing the contested election in Nov. 1749 (Gent. Mag. Nov. p. 521).
See this biography, vol. II, p. 238.

1751

345

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

1 p. 1. (Title) ; iii-viii pp. (Contents) ; 272 pp. front. Q% x 3%.

Published Feb. 1751 (Gent. Mag. Feb. p. 95; also London Mag. Feb. p. 96).
In Yale.

Attributed to Fielding in Letters of Lady Luxborough to Wm. Shenstone,
London, 1775, p. 265.

Written by Francis Coventry. 3d ed. London, 1752, has dedication to
Henry Fielding, Esq; pp. iii-xii. In Yale.

As in ' ' An Essay on the New Species of Writing, ' ' Fielding is said to ' ' stand
foremost in this species of composition." See this biography, vol. II, p. 136;
and vol. Ill, p. 79.

The Universal Register Office. Signed: Z. Z. (In London Daily
Advertiser, June 3, 1751.)

This and other letters so signed, have been attributed to Henry Fielding.
Probably written by John Fielding.

An Examination of Glastonbury Water. Signed: Z. Z. (In Lon
don Daily Advertiser, Aug. 31, 1751.)

Attributed to " J e F g" by Gent. Mag. Sept. 1751, pp. 416-417; to

Henry Fielding by Lawrence in Henry Fielding, London, 1855, pp. 288-289;
and by Dobson in Henry Fielding, London, 1883, pp. 142-143. Probably written
by John Fielding.

Vol. I: 1 p. 1. (Title); iv pp. (Contents); 288 pp. Vol. II: 1 p. 1.
(Title); iv pp. (Contents); 287 pp. Vol. Ill: 1 p. 1. (Title); iv pp.
(Contents); 288 pp. Vol. IV: 1 p. 1. (Title); iv pp. (Contents); 312 pp.
6^ x 3%.

Published Oct. 1751 (Gent. Mag. Oct. p. 479). In Yale.

Refers bitterly to Fielding in vol. I, pp. 76-77. Translated into German as:
Geschichte des Fraulein Elisabeth Thoughtless, von dem Verfasser der Begeben-
heiten des Thomas Jones beschrieben. Leipzig, 1754; Berlin, 1765. Reviewed
by Lessing in Vossischc Zeitung, Oct. 3, 1754, as a translation of a novel by
' ' the famous Fielding. ' ' Written by Eliza Haywood.

1752

346

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1 p. 1. (Title) ; [3] -24 pp. 8vo.

Published Jan. 15, 1752 (London Daily Advertiser, Jan. 15). In Brit. Mus.
Attributed to Fielding by Watt, in Bibliotheca Britannica. Written by
Smollett.

A Speech made in the Censorial Court of Sir Alexander Draw-
cansir, Monday 6th June, 1752. Concerning a late Act of Parlia
ment. Printed for the Author. Price 6 d. 4 to.

Advertised in General Advertiser, June 27, 1752. No copy known.

Attributed to Fielding by Godden in Henry Fielding, London, 1910, p. 259;
and by others. Not written by Fielding. It is to be noted that the title does
not claim that the speech was made by Drawcansir, but only in his court.
Perhaps the author was Bonnell Thornton. See this biography, vol. II, pp.
405-407.

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title) ; [3] -22 pp. 7y16x47^6.

Published July 13, 1752 (London Daily Advertiser, July 16; Monthly
Review, July, p. 75). In Yale.

"Because this is in imitation of Lucian's style and directed against Hill,
it seems probable that the inspiration, at least may have come from Fielding"
(Jensen, Covent-Garden Journal, New Haven, 1915, vol. I, p. 76 note). Cer
tainly not written by Fielding.

To this periodical, edited by John Hawkesworth, it was supposed at first
that Henry and Sarah Fielding were contributors. See this biography, vol. II,
p. 424. In Yale.

The Public Advertiser, Dec. 1, 1752, et seq.

The London Daily Post and General Advertiser was reorganized under this

347

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

new title. In the Monthly Review, Feb. 1753, is advertised "A Scheme for a
new PUBLIC ADVEKTISEK. Printed for Justice Fail-paper"; and the
Seview says "it is intended to ridicule Mr. Fielding and others who are to be
concerned in a daily news-paper. ' ' There are no indications of Fielding 's hand
except as mentioned in this biography, vol. II, pp. 428-429 ; and vol. Ill, p. 324.

1 p. 1. (Title); [3] -22 pp. 7%6x47/16.

Published Dec. 1752. In Yale. Three editions within a few days (Gent.
Mag. Dec. p. 587).

Attributed Dec. 1752 to Fielding by Sampson Edwards in A Letter to Mr.
Woodward on his Triumph over the Inspector. "It is not improbable that
this letter was from the pen of Fielding" (Lawrence, Henry Fielding, London,
1855, p. 314). The 2d edition in Yale has inscribed in a contemporary hand
' ' This Pamphlet is suppos 'd to have been wrote by Mr. Garrick and Mr. Field
ing. " "Very possibly, although the word-usage therein is not Fielding's"
(Jensen, Covent-Garden Journal, New Haven, 1915, vol. I, pp. 87-88). Prob
ably written by Woodward without assistance.

1754

1 p. 1. (Title); [3] -274 pp.; [2] pp. (Books printed and Sold by James
Hoey). 6%x4.

Published Dec. 1754 in London, by Noble, in three vols. (Gent. Mag. Dec.
1754, p. 581). No copy of London edition known. Dublin edition in Yale.
Author unknown.

1760

The Life and Adventures of a Cat. By the late Mr. Fielding.
12 mo. Price 2 s. 6 d. Minors.

Published April, 1760 (London Mag. April, p. 224). No copy known.
The Critical Seview, May, 1760, vol. IX, p. 420, says, "A worthy inhabitant

348

BIBLIOGRAPHY

of Grub-street would palm himself upon us for the identical Henry Fielding,
Esq; of facetious memory."

1767

Die Geraubte Einsiedlerinn, oder Ophelia, aus dem Englischen
des Herrn Fielding. In two Parts, Berlin, 1767.

Perhaps based upon Sarah Fielding's History of Ophelia, 1758. In Germany
Sarah Fielding's works were generally attributed to Henry Fielding. See
Augustus Wood, Einfluss Fieldings auf die deutsche Literatur, Yokohama,
1895, p. 18.

Berlin, 1772.

1768

Memoires du Chevalier de Kilpar, traduits ou imites de 1'Anglois
de M. Fielding, par M. D. C. D. Paris, 1768.

2 vols. 12mo. In Bibl. Nat., Paris, where it is said to be translated by
L. L. J. Gain de Montagnac.

2d ed. Paris, 1769. In Brit. Mus.; Frankfurt, 1769 (Augustus Wood,
Einfluss Fieldings auf die deutsche Literatur, Yokohama, 1895, p. 18).

5 p. 1. (Title, Dedication, Introduction); 350 pp. 6%x4. Introduction
signed: Gottfried Rudolph Widmer. In Yale.

Published also with titles:

Eobinson der Wiener oder seltsame Abentheuer des Bitters von Kilpar:
aus d. Engl. des Fielding iibersetzt. Wien, 1799; Wien, 1805.

Das Wiener Eobinson od. Abentheuer des Bitters von Kilpar. Leipzig, n. d.

No English tale with this title is known. Called a fraud in Joseph Texte,
Jean-Jacques Bousseau and the Cosmopolitan Spirit in Literature, London,
1899, p. 146 note.

1789

Les Malheurs du Sentiment traduit de 1'Anglois de M. FIELD
ING. Sur la troisieme edition ; par M. Mercier. Geneve, 1789.

2 vols. 12mo. In Brit. Mus.

This is the translation, apparently, of The Curse of Sentiment, published
anonymously. Mercier may be Louis Sebastien Mercier, the dramatist.

1805

La Roue de Fortune, ou 1 'Heritiere de Beauchamp, par Fielding.
Traduit de 1 'Anglais par Ch. Def* * *, Paris, 1819.

349

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

3 vols. In Brit. Mus.

This is a translation of The Wheel of Fortune, London, 3805, a novel by
Eliza Lake. The translator was A. J. B. Defauconpret.

Fielding's own productions were rarely attributed to anyone else.
But The Masquerade was published in the Works of Dr. John
Arbuthnot. See The Masquerade in this bibliography.

IV
DRAMAS ON FIELDING OR HIS WORKS

1730

THE BATTLE | OP THE | POETS; | OB, THE | Contention for
the LAUREL. As it is now Acting At the NEW THEATRE in the
Hay-market; introduced as an intire New ACT to the Comi- |
cal Tragedy of TOM THUMB. — | Written by SCRIBLERUS TERTIUS.
| — | Now, Bavius, take the Poppy from thy Brow, And place it
here! here all ye Heroes bow! \ This, this is He, foretold by ancient
Rhimes, Th' Augustus born to bring Saturnian Times. \ DUNCIAD.
-- [Cut] | = LONDON: Printed for W. TROTT in Russel-
Court by Drury- \ Lane, and T. ASTLEY in St. Paul's Church-yard.
— MDCCXXXI. (Price Six-pence.)

4 p. 1. (Half-title, Title, A new Prologue, Dramatis Persons) ; [9] -24 pp.
7%6x4%. In Yale.

First performed Nov. 30, 1730. Published Dec. 17, 1730. Probably written
by Thomas Cooke. See this biography, vol. I, pp. 95-97.

Dublin, 1731.

1733

LONDON:

in the

Printed for WILLIAM RAYNER, Prisoner
KING'S-BENCH, and to be sold at the | THEATRE, and likewise at
the Printing Office | in Marigold-Court, over-against the Fountain- \
Tavern in the Strand. MDCCXXXIII. [Price One Shilling.]

3 p. 1. (Title, The Argument, Dramatis Personae) ;
Contains 33 songs.

350

[7] -44 pp. 7%x4%.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

First performed May 31, 1733 (Daily Post, May 28).

Published June, 1733 (Gent. Mag. June, p. 331; also London Mag. June,
p. 313). In Yale. Alterations probably made by Eliza Haywood and William
Hatchett. Music by Thomas Arne.

32 pp. 7% x 414. With 33 songs, but varying from the earlier edition. In
New York Pub. Lib.

Eevised Oct. 31, 1733, and put on at Drury-Lane Nov. 7 (Daily Post, Nov. 7).

Published Nov. (Gent. Mag. Nov. p. 611; also London Mag. Nov. p. 591).
Text probably by the same as above. Music by John Frederick Lampe. Field
ing had nothing to do with either version.

1748

A Dramatic Entertainment. On April 18, 1748 Samuel Foote
exhibited Fielding on the stage at the Little Theatre in the Hay-
market.

The satirical sketch or oration was never published. See this biography,
vol. II, pp. 88-89.

1752

1 p. 1. (Title, Advertisement) ; iv pp. (Preface) ; [2] pp. (Prologue,
Persons of the Drama) ; 40 pp. 7% x 5.

Never performed. Published March 7, 1752 (General Advertiser, March 7).
In Yale. See this biography, vol. II, pp. 407-410.

Covent-Garden Theatre: OR, PASQUIN turn'd DRAWCANSIR,
Censor of Great Britain. Written by Charles Macklin.

351

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden, April 8, 1752 (Drury Lane
Journal, April 9). Never published. For playbill and performance, see this
biography, vol. II, pp. 410-413.

1758

3 p. 1. (Title, Prologue, Plays printed for Paul Vaillant, Dramatis Per-
sonae) ; 48 pp. 7% x 4^. In Yale.

First performed March 30, 1758. First published, April 1758 (London
Chronicle, April 13-15). Alterations made in 1763.

Much of it taken from Fielding's Coffee-House Politician.

1761

5 p. 1. (Title, Dedication: "To the Eight Honourable the Earl of Bath,"
Prologue, Advertisement, Dramatis .Persons) ; 109 pp.; [3] pp. (Epilogue,
Advertisement ) . 7^ x 4}£.

First performed Feb. 12, 1761. Published, Feb. 1761 (London Mag. Feb.
pp. 59-62, 168). In Yale.

Taken in part from Tom Jones.

1765

TOM JONES | COMEDIE LYRIQUE | EN TROIS ACTES. Repre-
sentee par les Comediens Italiens du Roy, pour la premre fois Le
27 Fevrier 1765. Et remise avec des changements Le 30. Janvier
1766. | DEDIEE | A S. A. S. MONSEIGNEUR | LE Due REGNANT DES
DEUX PONTS | Prince Palatin du Rhin, Due de Baviere &c, &c. |
Mis en Musique \ PAR A. D. PHILIDOR. | Les Paroles de Mr Poinsinet.
| Prix en blanc 18** | Les parties separee 61* \ Grave par Le Sr
Hue | A PARIS | Chez L' Auteur rue Mont-martre vis a vis le Cul
de Sac S. Pierre. \ Et aux adresses ordinaires de Musique. \ Avec
Privilege Du Roy. \ Imprimee par Le Sr Monthuay.

352

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2 p. 1. (Title, Dedication, Privilege) ; 172 pp. 11% x 9%. Contains the
music. In Yale.

The Privilege is dated 21 Juin, 1766.

In an earlier form, this piece may have been performed before the Court at
Versailles on March 30, 1764, and published in Paris in 1765 (Carl Wald-
schmidt, Die Dramatisierungen von Fielding 's Tom Jones, Wetzlar, 1906,
p. 30).

' ' This opera is the first known instance of the employment of harmonies for
strings in orchestral music" (F. A. Gevaert, Nouveau Traite d' Instrumenta
tion, Paris, 1885, p. 41).

Paris, 1766, 60 pp., 8% x 5%. In Yale; Paris, 1766, 103 pp. In New York
Pub. Lib.; Paris, 1767; London, 1777. In Brit. Mus.; London, 1778. In
Brit. Mus.; Dresden, 1766. In Brit. Mus.; Amsterdam, 1767; Copenhague,
1769. In Yale; Avignon, 1772. In Brit. Mus.; Mannheim, 1772; Frank
furt, 1773; Paris, 1773. In Yale.

1 p. 1. (Title, Personen) ; [3] -120 pp. 6^x4. In Yale. 2d ed. Oels, 1796.

1767

Tom Jones. Ein Lustspiel von funf Aufzugen nach dem Englis-
chen Roman. Von Franz von Heufeld. . . . "Wien, 1767. 8 vo.

Scene, the estate of Squire Western. 5 Acts. Described by Waldschmidt
as above, pp. 57-68.

1769

3 p. 1. (Title, Preface, Advertisement, Dramatis Personae) ; 62 pp. S^xS.
First performed Jan. 14, 1769. The first run was for thirteen nights. See

accounts of first performance in London Chronicle, Jan. 14-17; Lloyd's Even
ing Post, Jan. 13-16; and St. James's Chronicle, Jan. 14-17. See also London
Mag. Jan. pp. 3-8, 42-43; and Monthly Review, Jan. pp. 65-68.

Published Jan. 1769. In Yale.

2d ed. London, 1769. 59 pp. In Yale; Dublin, 1769. In Yale.

353

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

1772

Squire Badger. A Burletta in two Parts, arranged and adapted
with the music by Dr. Thomas Augustine Arne. 1772.

8vo. In Brit. Mus.

Performed at the Haymarket in 1772. The music of this piece was com
posed by Dr. Arne, who probably also wrote the words. It is taken from Field
ing's Don Quixote in England. Listed in Baker, Biographia Dramatica, Lon
don, 1812, vol. Ill, p. 297; also E. Green, Henry Fielding, London, 1909, p. 19.

1773
THE | DUELLIST, | A COMEDY. | AS IT IS ACTED AT THE |

YORK BUILDINGS, | IN THE STRAND.

8 p. 1. (Half-title, Epilogue, Title, Preface, Prologue, Dramatis Personae) ;
80 pp. 7% x 4%. In Yale.

Performed and damned, Nov. 20, 1773 (London Chronicle, Nov. 20-23).
Published, Nov. 26 (London Chronicle, Nov. 25-27).

Taken largely from Fielding's Amelia.

Three editions in 1773.

1775

The Sot, a Burletta, in two Parts, altered from Fielding. 1775.
8vo. In Brit. Mus.

Performed at the Haymarket in 1775.. A rewriting of Squire Badger.
Listed in Baker, Biographia Dramatica, London, 1812, vol. Ill, p. 290.

1778

Joseph Andrews. A Farce. By Samuel Jackson Pratt.

Performed at Drury-Lane for Mr. Bensley's Benefit, April 20, 1778 (London
Chronicle, April 18-21). Never published. Listed in Baker, Biographia
Dramatica, London, 1812, vol. II, p. 348.

1780

1 p. 1. (Title); [iii]-viii pp. (Address to the Audience by Punch, on the
opening of the Microcosm, Prologue); [9] -31 pp.; [1] p. (Vaudeville.
Chorus of All). 8vo. In Brit. Mus.

354

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Performed Oct. 3, 1780, at the Cerent-Garden theatre, London.

Taken from Fielding and prepared for the stage by the author of Midas
[Kane O 'Kara] (Pullic Advertiser, Oct. 3-4, 1780). In three Acts. See Gent.
Mag. Dec. 1780, p. 580; also Oulton, History of the Theatres of London,
London, 1796, vol. I, p. 98. No London edition of 1780 is known. Allibone
gives date 1780, but no place. Apparently the first London edition is the one
described below.

1781

1 p. 1. (Title, The Drama); [5] -16 pp. 8vo. In Brit. Mus.

Published under various titles: London, 1794. In Yale; London, Barker
[1805]. In Yale; London, Cawthorne, 1805. In Yale; London, 1806. In
Yale; London, 1809. In Yale; London, 1811. In New York Pub. Lib.;
London, 1815. In Brit. Mus.; London, [1822]. In Yale; New York, 1824.
In Yale; London, 1824. In Brit. Mus.; London [1825]. In Yale; London,
1828. In Yale; London, 1830. In Yale; London, 1837. In Yale; London
[1850]. In Yale.

1782

1 p. 1. (Title, Personnages) ; [5] -88 pp. 7^x4%. In Yale.
Paris, 1785; Paris, 1789. In Yale.

The Life and Death of Common-Sense. A prelude. Altered from
Fielding's Pasquinade, for a benefit, August 13, 1782, at the Hay-
Market.

Never published. See Oulton, History of the Theatres of London, London,
1796, vol. I, p. 110; also Barker, Drama Eecorded, London, 1814, p. 100.

1785
THE Life, Death, and Renovation | OF | TOM THUMB; | A |

LEGENDARY BURLETTA, | In One Act, | As it IS PERFORMED at the j

ROYAL CIRCUS. — | Printed in the Year MDCCLXXXV.

355

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

2 p. 1. (Title, Characters, 2 songs); [3] -24 pp. 8x5. In Yale.

Author unknown. Listed in Barker, Drama Recorded, London, 1814, p. 100.

1787

2 p. 1. (Half-title, Title, Personnages) ; 102 pp.; [2] pp. (Advertisement).
8%x5}4. In Yale.

Tom Jones Comedie.

A manuscript, beautifully written, on 46 leaves, without any date or name.
In French. Act I, 7 scenes; Act II, 10 scenes; Act III, 10 scenes; Act IV,
8 scenes; Act V, 6 scenes, ca. 1780-90. 12% x 8%. In Yale.

Ca. 1790

Um sechs Uhr 1st Verlobung. Ein Lustspiel von fiinf Aufziigen,
nach dem Engl. des Fielding. Von F. L. Schroder.

Listed by Karl Goedeke, Grundrisz zur Geschichte der Deutschen Dichtung,
Dresden, 1887, p. 247. Published in Deutsche Schaubiihne, Bd. XXII, Augs
burg, 1788, et seq,; also in Schroder's Dram. Werlce, Bd. IV, Berlin, 1831.
This play, which is not in the Yale Library, may have been the actor's adapta
tion of The Wedding Day to the German stage.

1794

THE RIVAL QUEENS, an occasional Prelude. By Thomas Hoi-
croft. Taken from Fielding's Covent-Garden Tragedy. Acted at
Covent-Garden Theatre, Sept. 15, 1794.

Never published. Listed in Barker, Drama Recorded, London, 1814, p. 153.
Condemned in Oulton, History of the Theatres of London, London, 1796, vol.
II, p. 173.

LE PORTRAIT DE

1800

FIELDING, Comedie en un Acte, melee
de Vaudevilles, | Par les citoyens SEGUR, jeune, DESFAUCHERETS | et
DESPRES. | REPRESENTEE pour la premiere fois, sur le theatre
du Vaudeville, rue de Malthe, \ le 3 Floreal, an VIII. \ [Cut] \

356

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A PARIS, | AU SALON LITTERAIRE, | Palais-Egalite, Galerie
de pierres, cote de la rue de la | Loi, meme maison que le Cafe
Lycee des Arts, N°. 18. = | De I'lmprimerie du Salon Litteraire.
1 p. 1. (Title, Personnages) ; [3] -40 pp. 7%x4%. First performed April
23, 1800. In Yale.

1823

3 p. 1. (Half-title, Title, Avertissement, Personnages) ; [7] -54 pp. In Yale.

1830

1 p. 1. (Title); [3]-12 pp. 6%x4. In Yale.

1837

LAW OP THE LAND : | OR, | Honbon in tfje Hasft Centurp.

' ' An entire new drama, ' ' first performed at the Royal Surrey Theatre,
London, Aug. 21, 1837, and published the same day. Based upon the career
of William Dodd the forger, who appears under the name of Abel Dodsworth.
One of the characters is "Henry Fielding, (the celebrated Novelist)" whose
role, apparently as the Bow Street magistrate, was taken by "Mr. E. F.
Saville." Reviewed in the Athenceum, Aug. 26, 1737, pp. 629-630. Original
playbill in Yale.

1850

1 p. 1. (Title, Characters); [3]-22 pp. 6% x 4. In vol. XXVII of Lacy's
Acting Edition of Plays. In Yale.

357

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

1886

Sophia, a Play founded on Tom Jones, written by Robert Bucha
nan, and produced at the Vaudeville theatre, London, April 12,
1886, under the management of Thomas Thorne.

Apparently published. Cyril Maude made his first success as Fellamar;
Fred Thorne was Squire Western; Thomas Thorne, Partridge; Charles
Glenney, Tom Jones; Kate Eorke, Sophia; Helen Forsyth, Molly Seagrim.
The cast is given in The Graphic, April 17, 1886. Buchanan "dropped a veil"
over Tom's misdeeds. For his "distortions" of the novel he was ridiculed in
The Saturday Review, April 17.

1888

Joseph's Sweetheart, a play in five Acts founded on Joseph
Andrews, written by Robert Buchanan, and produced at the
Vaudeville theatre, London, in March, 1888.

Never published. Cast is given in The Graphic, March 37, 1888. Mrs.
Cyril Maude was Fanny; Mrs. Eliza Johnstone, Mrs. Slipslop; H. B. Conway,
Joseph Andrews; and Thomas Thorne, Parson Adams.

1907

Tom Jones, a Comic Opera in Three Acts, by Robert Court-
neidge and Alexander M. Thompson. Music by Edward German.
Lyrics by Charles H. Taylor. Produced at the Apollo Theatre,
London, on the bicentenary of Fielding's birth, April, 1907.

Never published; but cast, illustrations, specimens of the music, are given
in The Play Pictorial, no. 58, vol. X, June, 1907. See also a drawing of the
characters by H. M. Brock, and an account of the performance in The Graphic,
April 27, 1907, pp. 616, 618. Original drawing in Yale.

V
LETTERS AND MANUSCRIPTS

In this list are given not only the existing manuscripts so far
as they are known, but also other manuscripts which, though they
may not now exist, have been mentioned in former times. Certain
legal documents, however, which have Fielding's signature have
been omitted. Unless otherwise stated, the manuscripts are auto
graphs.

358

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1730

Letter "To the Right Honorable the Lady Mary "Wortley Mon
tagu," dated "7br 4," concerning The Modern Husband while
the play was yet in manuscript. The date is probably September 4,
1730 ; see this biography, vol. I, pp. 95, 118-119.

The manuscript of the concluding part of the letter is in the Victoria and
Albert Museum, South Kensington. There is a clever forgery of most of the
letter (presented by Mr. C. B. Greenough, who supposed it genuine) in the
Library of the Boston Athenaeum, apparently made from a facsimile of the
original letter (except the lost beginning) in the Works of Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu (illustrated edition), 1803, vol. I, p. ]06. First published in Works
of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1803, vol. I, p. 89. Also Letters and Works
of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1837, vol. I, pp. Ivi-lvii; 1861, vol. II, pp.
19-20; Lawrence, Henry Fielding, 1855, p. 43; Godden, Henry Fielding,
1910, pp. 40-41.

1732

Letter to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, with which Fielding
sent her a copy of a play, supposed to be The Modern Husband.
Without date. If the play was this, then the date must have been
February or March, 1732, as the comedy was published on Feb.
21, 1732.

Original unknown. First published in Works of Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu (illustrated edition), 1803, vol. I, pp. 88. Also Letters and Works of
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1837, vol. I, pp. Ivi; 1861, vol. II, p. 19;
Lawrence, Henry Fielding, 1855, p. 43; and Godden, Henry Fielding, 1910,
p. 314.

Receipt dated April 4, 1732 from ''Henry Ffielding" to John
Watts, for twenty guineas, for the copyright of the Despairing
Debauchee [sic] and the Covent-Garden Tragedy, which Fielding
promises "to assign over to the sd John Watts."

Single sheet, 3% x 6%. In the Adam Collection, Buffalo, N. Y. Eeproduced
here in facsimile, facing p. 360.

1737

Indenture dated February 3, 1737, signed by Henry, Catherine,
Ursula, Sarah, Beatrice, and Edmund Fielding, and William Day,
releasing Davidge Gould and William Day from their trust in the
estate at East Stour.

Three folding folio pages on vellum.

359

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Indenture dated February 3, 1737, signed by Henry, Catherine,
Ursula, Sarah, Beatrice, and Edmund Fielding, and William Day,
conveying the estate in the parish of East Stour, County Dorset,
to Robert Stillingfleet, of New Sarum, in Wiltshire.

Two folding folio pages on vellum.

This and the preceding indenture, with a letter from Henry Fielding to
Davidge Gould, dated July 15, 1740, his reply, and a letter and document signed
by John Fielding, were sold at Sotheby's on Feb. 19, 1913, for £300, and later
the same year were offered for sale by B. F. Stevens and Brown, for £600.
Sold at Sotheby's, July 20, 1916. Again offered for sale, by J. Pearson and
Co., June 1918, for £600. Copies of the originals in Yale.

1738

Deed, Trinity Term 1738, whereby "Henry Ffielding and Char
lotte his wife" convey property at East Stour to Thomas Hayter
for the sum of £260 (London Public Record Office, Feet of Fines,
Dorset, Trinity, 11-12 Geo. II; also Godden, Henry Fielding, pp.
93-94; and this biography, vol. I, p. 240). Original deed with the
Fielding signatures unknown.

1739

Letter, dated July 9, 1739, to John Nourse, asking him to look
for a house.

Original formerly in the collection of Alfred Huth. First published by
Godden in Henry Fielding, 1910, pp. 94-95. See this biography, vol. I, pp.
248-249.

1740

Receipt, dated March 10, 1739 (new style 1740), given by Field
ing to John Nourse for forty-five pounds in part payment for a
translation of the History of Charles the Twelfth.

Offered for sale May 4, 1908, by James Tregaskis for 25 guineas; offered
1913, by B. F. Stevens and Brown, for £105, and in 1914, by Pearson & Co.,
for £105. Sold at Sotheby's July 20, 1916. See this biography, vol. I, pp.
284-287.

Letter to Davidge Gould, dated ' ' Basingstoke, 15 July, 1740,"
asking him to send documents to Dorchester Assizes.

Sold at Sotheby's, Dec. 8, 1911; and again July 20, 1916. Published in
this biography, vol. I, p. 258.

360

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1741

Letter to John Nourse, dated April 20, 1741, requesting that he
deliver to another bookseller, copies of True Greatness and The
Vernon-iad.

One page quarto. Original formerly in the collection of W. Upcott; now
in the collection of W. K. Bixby, St. Louis, Mo. First published by Eoscoe in
facsimile, in Works of Henry Fielding, 1840, following p. xxviii; also Godden,
Henry Fielding, 1910, p. 115; and this biography, vol. I, p. 288.

1742

Assignment of Joseph Andrews, Miss Lucy in Town, and Vindi
cation of the Duchess of Marlborough, to Andrew Millar, dated
April 13, 1742.

Original in the South Kensington Museum. Sold, in 1851, by Sotheby for
10 s. (Athenceum, July 26, 1851, p. 806). Facsimile reproduction in Fielding's
Works, London, 1893, vol. II, preceding p. 1; New York, 1903, vol. I, p. 16.
Partly reproduced in facsimile in Godden, Henry Fielding, 1910, p. 130.

1748

Receipt dated June 11, 1748, from ' ' Hen : Ffielding ' ' to Andrew
Millar, for £600, "for the sole Copy Right of a Book called the
History of a Foundling in Eighteen Books. ' '

A piece of foolscap, 3% x 7%. Original with Assignment of 1749, sold by
Sotheby in 1851, for £1. Formerly in the collection of Alfred Huth; now in
the library of J. P. Morgan, New York.

Letter to the Duke of Bedford, dated "Bow Street. Deer. 13,
1748."

Original at Woburn Abbey. First published in Correspondence of John
Fourth Duke of Bedford, 1842, vol. I, pp. 589-590. Also in Godden, Henry
Fielding, 1910, pp. 196-197; and in this biography, vol. II, pp. 96-97.

1748-1751

Robert Ainsworth, A Compendious Dictionary of the Latin
Tongue, With Additions by Samuel Patrick, London, 1746. 4 to.
In Sale Catalogue of Samuel Baker, 1755, no. 419. "With MSS
notes by Mr Fielding. ' ' Brought 16 s.

The notes were probably made in 1748-1751. See this biography, vol. Ill,
pp. 80-82.

361

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

1749

Assignment of "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling," by
"H Ffielding" to Andrew Millar, dated March 25, 1749.

Folio 12%x8}£. Formerly in the collection of Alfred Huth; now in the
library of J. P. Morgan. Published with the receipt in Godden, Henry Fielding,
1910, pp. 304-305; and in this biography, vol. II, pp. 108 and 118-119. Only
the signature is in Fielding's hand. ,

Letter to the Duke of Bedford, dated "Bow Street, July 3. 1749,"
asking for the appointment as Solicitor to the Excise.

Original at Woburn Abbey. First published in Correspondence of John
Fourth Duke of Bedford, 1842, vol. II, pp. 35-36. Also Godden, Henry Field
ing, 1910, p. 209; and in this biography, vol. II, p. 242.

Draught of a Bill for the better preventing Street-Robberies,
sent to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, July 21, 1749.

Text unknown. The draught was probably the basis of the law as enacted
March 26, 1752 (Statutes at Large, 25 Geo. II, 36). See this biography, vol.
II, p. 280.

Letter to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, sending draught of the
above Bill and copy of the Charge to the Grand Jury, dated July
21, 1749.

Original in Brit. Mus., Additional Manuscripts, 35590, f. 334. First pub
lished in Godden, Henry Fielding, 1910, pp. 209-210; also in this biography,
vol. II, pp. 243-244.

Letter to the Honourable George Lyttelton Esq., dated "Bow
Street, Augt 29, 1749."

Original in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Phila
delphia; reproduced here, vol. II, facing p. 246. First published in Sir
Robert Phillimore's Memoirs and Correspondence of Lyttelton, 1845, vol. I,
pp. 336-338. Also in Lawrence, Henry Fielding, 1855, pp. 277-278; Godden,
Henry Fielding, 1910, pp. 211-213; and this biography, vol. II, 'pp. 245-248.

1750

Letter to the Duke of Bedford, dated "Bow Street. May 14,
1750, ' ' promising to preserve the peace.

Original at Woburn Abbey. First published in Godden, Henry Fielding,
1910, p. 221; also in this biography, vol. II, p. 248.

362

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Letter to Hutton Perkins, of Lincoln's Inn, dated "Bow Street.
Nov. 25, 1750," making an appointment.

Original in Brit. Mus., Additional Manuscripts, 35591, f. 147. First pub
lished in Godden, Henry Fielding, 1910, p. 222; also in this biography, vol.
II, p. 249.

1751

Letter to the Duke of Newcastle, dated "Bow Street Jan. 15.
1750" (new style 1751).

Original in Brit. Mus., Additional Manuscripts, 32685, f. 59. First pub
lished in Godden, Henry Fielding, 1910, p. 231; also in this biography, vol.
II, p. 253.

1752-1753

M. Beni. Hederici, Lexicon Manvale Grcecum. London. 1732. 4 to.
In Sale Catalogue, 1755, no. 258. "Cum notis MSS Henr. Fielding."
Brought £1 1 s.

The notes were probably made in 1752-1753; see this biography, vol. Ill,
pp. 80-82. •

1753

Letter to the Duke of Newcastle, dated "Baling April 14, 1753."
Original in the London Public Eecord Office, State Papers, Domestic, Geo. II,

127, no. 24. First published in Godden, Henry Fielding, 1910, pp. 273-274;

also in this biography, vol. II, pp. 290-291.

Letter to the Duke of Newcastle dated "Baling April 27, 1753."
Original in the London Public Eecord Office (reference as in the preceding

item). First published in Godden, Henry Fielding, 1910, pp. 274-275; also

in this biography, vol. II, pp. 291-292.

Memorial of Henry Fielding, EsqT one of his Majesties Justices
of the Peace for the County of Mdse [Middlesex] and for the City
and Liberty of Westmf This is the rough draught of the opening
of a memorial addressed to one of the Secretaries of State on
behalf of seven men employed as special constables, who had been
deprived of the rewards due them, and were looked down on as
thief-takers.

2 pp. folio, torn and defective. Undated, but written in the autumn of
1753. Sold at Sotheby's March 12, 1912, and again Feb. 25, 1918. See this
biography, vol. Ill, p. 8.

363

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Letter to Lord High Chancellor Hardwicke dated, "Deer 6,
1753," recommending the appointment of Saunders Welch as a
justice of the peace for Middlesex.

Original in Brit. Mus., Additional Manuscripts, 35604, f. 127. First pub
lished in Godden, Henry Fielding, 1910, p. 279; also in this biography, vol.
Ill, p. 13.

1754

Will of Henry Fielding, undated but written and signed in May
or June, 1754 ; proved Nov. 14, 1754.

Discovered by G. A. Aitken in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and
first published in the Athenceum, Feb. 1, 1890, vol. I, p. 149. Additional
information in Godden, Henry Fielding, 1910, pp. 308-309. Also this biog
raphy, vol. Ill, pp. 22-23. It is not stated whether the will is entirely in Field
ing's own hand.

Letter to -"John Fielding Esq. at his House in Bow Street Cov'
Garden London." Dated "On board the Queen of Portugal, Rich<?
Veal at anchor on the Mother Bank, off Ryde, to the Care of the
Post Master of Portsmouth — this is my Date and yr Direction.
July 12, 1754."

Original formerly in the collection of Frederick Locker-Lampson. First
published in J. H. Jesse, Memoirs of Celebrated Etonians, 1875, vol. I, pp.
83-86. Many times reprinted; see this biography, vol. Ill, pp. 32-33.

Letter to John Fielding, dated "Torr Bay, July 22, 1754."

The original, formerly in the possession of the late George Fielding, was
sold at Sotheby's March 15, 1912, and again Feb. 25, 1918. First published
by Dobson, in The National Review, Aug. 1911, pp. 985-986. See this biography,
vol. Ill, pp. 41-43.

Letter to John Fielding, from Lisbon.

3}£ pp. folio, badly torn and defective; apparently a whole sheet is miss
ing. Undated, but written during the first week of Sept. 1754. The original,
formerly in the possession of the late George Fielding, was sold at Sotheby's
with the preceding letter. First published, in part, by Dobson in The National
Review, Aug. 1911, pp. 988-992. Published, with additional passages in this
biography, vol. Ill, pp. 52-58.

Letter from Lisbon. Undated, but written in Sept. 1754.

This letter, presumably to John Fielding, is described as short and of little
importance. See J. Paul de Castro in Notes and Queries, Sept. 12, 1914, ser.
11, vol. X, p. 214.

364

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LEGAL MANUSCRIPTS OF UNCERTAIN DATE

A List of "Offences ag* the King & his State mimed1? w<* the
Law terms High Treason, Offences ag* him in a gen1 Light as touch
ing the Commonwealth at large, as Trade &C, Offences agt him as
Supreme Magistrate," etc.

2J/6 pages. 7^8 x3%6. Undated but probably written ca 1740. Formerly
in the Morrison Collection. Described in the Catalogue of the Morrison Manu
scripts, vol. II, London, 1883. Now in the Adam Collection, Buffalo, N. Y.

William Hawkins, A Treatise on the Pleas of the Crown, London,
1726. 2 vols. folio. No. 102 in Sale Catalogue, 1755. "With a great
number of MSS Notes by Mr Fielding." Brought £1 2 s.

These notes were taken with a view to a treatise on Crown Law, probably
in the years following 1740.

William Hawkins, An Abridgment of the Pleas of the Crown.
London, 1728. 4 vols. "Interleaved with MSS Notes by Mr Field
ing." No. 509 in Sale Catalogue, 1755. Brought 11 s.

See preceding entry.

Extracts made by Henry Fielding from The Country Justice.

Single sheet, folio. Undated, but ca. 1750. Certified as Henry Fielding's
writing by his grandson, W. H. Fielding. MS. sold at Sotheby's Feb. 25, 1918.
Fielding had in his library two copies of Michael Dalton's Country Justice,
1705 and 1715 (Sale Catalogue, 1755, nos. 157 and 107).

Thomas Wood, Institute of the Laws of England. London. 3 vols.
folio. "Interleaved with MSS. Notes by Mr Fielding. No. 276 in
Sale Catalogue, 1755. Brought 5s."

Legal Notes concerning the proper procedure in obtaining and
dealing with the declaration or confession of a prisoner. Refer
ences on the margin to various statutes and to Hawkins's Pleas of
the Crown. At the end is written in a fine hand : " I certify the above
to have been written by Henry Fielding, the Author of Tom Jones
&c &c William Henry Fielding Grandson of the above Chelsea Novr
1827" Undated. Ca. 1750, while Fielding was a justice of the peace.

Single sheet, 11^x6%. In the Adam Collection, Buffalo, N. Y.

365

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Legal Notes similar to the preceding. Attested by W. H. Fielding.

Single sheet, written on both sides. 111/4 x 6%. In the Adam Collection,
Buffalo, N. Y.

A note by "Peter Burke, Serjeant at Law, 3 Serjeants' Inn, W.C. ", dated
"30 March 1867," says that he received the manuscript from his uncle
' ' Joseph Burke Esq. ' ', to whom it had been given by W. H. Fielding, ' ' a very
eccentric character." This W. H. Fielding is further described as a natural
son of William Fielding, the police magistrate, by a "handsome" woman
whom he afterwards married.

These and the preceding Legal Notes are certainly in Henry Fielding's hand.
The sheets upon which they are written were torn from the same book or from
two books of similar size. Perhaps they once formed a part of the manuscripts
described immediately below. At any rate, it is clear that William Henry
Fielding had one or more manuscript books of his grandfather, from which he
tore out leaves to be sold or given away.

Law Manuscripts by Mr. Fielding. 5 vols. folio. No. 653 in Sale
Catalogue, 1755. Brought 13 s.

Murphy, in Works of Henry Fielding, 1762, vol. I, p. 29, states
that Henry Fielding left two volumes in folio on crown law, and
that "this work still remains unpublished in the hands of his
brother Sir John Fielding; and by him I am informed that it is
deemed perfect in some parts." Roscoe in Works of Henry Fielding,
1840, p. xi, calls it ' ' a voluminous Digest of the Statutes at Large,
in two folio Volumes." Lawrence in Henry Fielding, 1855, p. 143,
quotes Murphy. It would appear that these volumes were in addi
tion to the five vols. noted in No. 653 of the Sale Catalogue, 1755,
being retained by John Fielding. They may have been destroyed
in the riots of 1780.

On Fielding's law manuscripts, of which Sir John Fielding published "A
Treatise on the Office of Constable," see this biography, vol. Ill, pp. 80, 83.

366

INDEX

Act for Preventing Thefts and
Eot'beries, Fielding's probable au
thorship of, ii, 280, iii, 339, 362.

ADAM, K. B., his Fielding MSS.,
iii, 359, 365-6.

ADAMS, Parson Abraham, see
Joseph Andrews; also Young, Wil
liam.

ADDISON, Joseph, read by Fielding,
i, 47; in Fielding's Journey, i, 400;
his style, i, 276, ii, 49, iii, 61, 241 ; at
Percy Lodge, ii, 116; Shakespeare's
Cliff, iii, 31; Cato, i, 206-7; Free
holder, ii, 92; Tatler, i, 90; men
tioned, ii, 109.

ADLERFELD, Gustavo, History of
Charles XII, i, 285-7; iii, 337-8.

Adventurer, The, ii, 424; bibliog
raphy, iii, 347.

Adventures of David Simple, see
Fielding, Sarah.

AIKIN, Dr. John, estimate of Field
ing, iii, 196, 199-200.

AINSWORTH, Eobert, i, 346, iii, 80-
1, 339, 361.

AITKEN, G. A., iii, 23 n, 364.
Alchymist, The, i, 238, 249.
ALCOCK, Eev. Thomas, ii, 279.
ALDERFELD, see Adlerfeld.
ALLEN, Capt., iii, 57.
ALLEN, Ealph, i, 376-7; first wife,
ii, 218; friendship with Kichard
Graves, ii, 110, iii, 112, with Fielding,
ii, 115, iii, 134, 266; anecdote of
Carew, ii, 150; has Warburton as
guest, ii, 127; subscribes for Mis
cellanies, i, 382-3; aids Fielding, i,
377, ii, 100, 115, 333, iii, 218-9, 272;
original of Mr. Allworthy, ii, 127, 162-

4, 196, 209, iii, 283, of Dr. Harrison,
ii, 331, 333; referred to in Joseph
Andrews, i, 377; Amelia dedicated
to, ii, 304, 312-3, 353, iii, 4; Fielding
appoints him executor, iii, 22-3, 75,
116; benefactions to Fielding's chil
dren, iii, 117; friendship with Sarah
Fielding, iii, 112-3; subscribes for
her Familiar Letters, ii, 47; Field
ing's works dedicated to, iii, 328;
not quoted by Murphy, iii, 135; por
trait of Fielding owned by, iii, 73.

Amelia, ii, 303-56; date of writing,
ii, 311-2, iii, 81, 274; publication, ii,
304-11, 357; dedicated to Ealph
Allen, ii, 304, 312-3, 353, iii, 4;
reviewed and attacked, ii, 336-46, 387;
Fielding replies, ii, 340-5; approval
by other critics, ii, 346, 348, iii, 167;
described, ii, 312-27; was it self-
revelation? ii, 328; fact and fiction in
the novel, ii, 329-35, iii, 147; identi
fication of characters, i, 164, 169, 174,
ii, 3, 5, 330; the noseless heroine, ii,
338-41, 346, 348, 352; the book re
vised, ii, 351-6, iii, 9, and republished,
ii, 356, iii, 127; no copy in Fielding's
library, iii, 79 ; relation to The Mod
ern Husband, i, 121, ii, 325, iii, 278,
to The Temple Beau, ii, 325, to Ken-
rick's The Duellist, iii, 154, 354, and
to Dickens 's Oliver Twist, iii, 229;
altered by Madame Eiccoboni, iii, 184;
parodied as Shamelia, ii, 335; its
morality, ii, 349, iii, 167, 200-2; lit
erary estimate by Mrs. Barbauld, iii,
199-202, by Coleridge, iii, 176, by
John Oliver Hobbes, iii, 175-6, by Dr.
Johnson, ii, 338, iii, 158, by Mudford,

369

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

iii, 202-3, by Murphy, iii, 332-4, 147,
204, by Kichardson, ii, 349-51, by
Scott, ii, 323, iii, 166, 211, by Stephen,
iii, 243, by Taine, iii, 188, by Thack
eray, iii, 215, 222; read by Dorothy
Wordsworth, iii, 172-3; quoted by
F. S. Dickson, iii, 220; mentioned,
ii, 357, iii, 96, 166, 285; bibliog
raphy, iii, 178-9, 321-2, 329, 332.

AMHURST, Nicholas, i, 103-4.

ANDERSON, Dr. Eobert, iii, 164.

ANDREW, Sarah, i, 50-5, 165, 385, ii,
170, iii, 268-9.

Annual Eegister, ii, 2.

ANSON, Lord, iii, 30, 61, 91.

Apology for the Conduct of ... a
Second-rate Minister, ii, 72-3, 75, iii,
344-5.

Apology for the Life of Mrs.
Shamela Andrews, see Shamela.

Apology for the Life of Mr. T. C.,
see Gibber, T.

ARBUTHNOT, Dr. John, iii, 350.

ARGYLE, Duke of, i, 144, 250, 270,
289, 290, 382, iii, 266.

ARISTOPHANES, read at Eton, i, 44-
5; authority for political satire in
drama, i, 225; Fielding's mature
view of, i, 46, ii, 433; his projected
translation, i, 362-5 ; see also Plutus.

ARNE, Thomas Augustine, at Eton
with Fielding, i, 42; wrote music for
Tom Thumb, i, 42, 146, 147, iii, 351,
for The Fall of Phaeton, i, 192, for
Squire Badger and The Sot, iii, 154,
354; brother of Mrs. Gibber, i, 211.

ARNOLD, Matthew, on literary glory,
iii, 195.

ASH, Isabella, iii, 23-4, 35, 54, 57-9.

ASKEW, Dr. Anthony, iii, 82.

ASTLEY, Thomas, ii, 129.

AUSTEN, Jane, iii, 172, 188, 228.

Author's Farce, described, i, 80-5,
102-3, 394, iii, 14] ; performed, i, 86,
95, 102, iii, 271; revised, i, 149-54,

iii, 144; Fielding as Luckless in, iii,
135; Wilks and Gibber in, i, 115, 150,
307; Mrs. Haywood in, i, 147; poem
in appreciation of, i, 161; not read
by Thackeray, iii, 214; mentioned, i,
79, 177, 180; bibliography, iii, 290-1,
311, 320, 328.

BADDELEY, Robert, iii, 105.

BAKER, David E., i, 209.

BAKER, Henry, iii, 336.

BAKER, Sir Richard, i, 47, ii, 80.

BAKER, Samuel, iii, 76, 80.

BAKER, Thomas H., i, 164 n.

BALGUY, Rev. Thomas, ii, 310.

BANIER, Abb6, Mythology, ii, 106-8,
iii, 336.

BANKS, John, i, 86, 100.

BARBAULD, Mrs. A. L., edited Rich
ardson's Correspondence, iii, 195-6,
and The British Novelists, iii, 199;
Life: a Poem, iii, 199; estimate of
Fielding, iii, 199-202.

BARBER, Frances, i, 35.

BARKER, George, iii, 73.

BARKER, Dr. John, i, 382.

BARNARD, Sir John, i, 225, 229.

BARRINGTON, Lord, iii, 116.

BARRY, Spranger, ii, 413, 423.

BARTHE, Nicolas T., iii, 187.

BASING, Lord, i, 71.

BASIRE, James, engraved portrait
of Fielding, iii, 72-4, 328.

BATH, Earl of, see Pulteney, Wil
liam.

BATHURST, Earl of, ii, 227-8.

Battle of the Poets, see Cooke.

BAXTER, Dudley, ii, 242.

BEARD, John, i, 369, 385.

BEATTIE, James, iii, 151, 167.

BECK, Timothy, ii, 266-7.

BEDFORD, Duchess of, ii, 47.

BEDFORD, Duke of, supports Ches
terfield in the Lords, i, 179; sub
scribes for Miscellanies, i, 382; Field-

370

INDEX

ing's patron, ii, 95-8, 111-2, 126, 242-
3, iii, 13, 211; as Allworthy, ii, 162;
Fielding's letters to, ii, 248, iii, 361-
2; mentioned, i, 363, ii, 238, iii, 266.

BELLAMY, Mrs. George Anne, ii,
423.

BELLEGABDE, J. B. M. de, Eeflexions
sur le Ridicule, i, 333, ii, 436.

BENNET, Anne, iii, 113.

BENNET, Mother, i, 111.

BENSLEY, Eobert, iii, 105, 107, 354.

BENSON, Bishop Martin, ii, 346.

BENTHAM, Mary, i, 21, 39.

BENTLEY, Dr. B., i, 99-100, 292.

BERE, Abbot, i, 17.

BERKELEY, Bishop, ii, 12, iii, 16-7.

BERTHON, Mrs., iii, 59.

BIBLIOGRAPHY, iii, 287-366.

BIDDLECOMBE, Thomas, ii, 167.

BINGHAM, Charles W., iii, 334.

BIRCH, Dr. Thomas, iii, 84.

BIXBY, William K., iii, 361.

Blackwood's Magazine, on Fielding,
iii, 228-9; William Mudford a con
tributor to, iii, 201.

BLAIR, Hugh, estimate of Fielding,
iii, 169.

BLAND, Henry, headmaster at Eton,
i, 43-7, 48.

BLAND, John, ii, 253.

BLANKENBURG, C. F., iii, 191, 193.

Blast upon Blast, i, 367, iii, 342.

BODE, J. J., iii, 190.

BODENS, Charles, Modish Couple, i,
118, iii, 294.

BOERHAAVE, Hermann, iii, 2, 16.

BOLINGBROKE, Lord, leader of Oppo
sition, i, 103, 249; contributor to the
Craftsman, i, 104; Fielding's Com
ment on Lord Bolingbroke's Essays,
iii, 17-20, 25, 84, 93, 200, 326, 329;
mentioned, ii, 20, 116, 166.

BOOR, Eichard, iii, 23-4, 41-2, 58.

BOOTH, Barton, at Theatre Eoyal,
i, 61, 142, 147; thinks Don Quixote

in England immature, i, 74; John
son's Caelia, i, 143; illness and
death, i, 147-8; Fielding's friend
ship with, iii, 266.

BOOTH, Mrs., i, 63, 148, 156.

BOOTLE, Thomas, ii, 6.

BORROW, George, iii, 70.

BOSWELL, James, iii, 161-3.

BOWDIDGE, John, i, 51.

BOYCE, David, iii, 36-8.

BOYSE, Samuel, ii, 103.

BRACEGIRDLE, Mrs., iii, 219.

BRADDOCK, Fanny, i, 129.
• BRADSHAIGH, Lady, ii, 143-4, 148-
9, 350.

BREWSTER, Dr. Thomas, of Bath, i,
377, 382, ii, 174.

British Magazine, ii, 390.

BROCK, H. M., iii, 358.

BROGDEN, Joshua, ii, 119-20, 224 n,
226, 244, 369-71, 428.

BRONTE, Charlotte, iii, 231-2.

BROOKFIELD, Mrs., iii, 214-5, 217-8.

BROWN, Mountefort, ii, 419-20, 422.

BROWN, William H., iii, 175.

BROWNE, Isaac Hawkins, i, 245.

BROWNE, James P., iii, 129, 239,
332.

BRUNTON, Mary, iii, 207.

BRYDGES, Sir Egerton, iii, 122.

BUCHANAN, Eobert, iii, 358.

BUCKINGHAM, 1st Duke of, i, 6, 9,
19, 83, 371, ii, 358.

BUCKLE, Thomas, i, 376.

BULLOCK, William, i, 76.

BULWER, see Lytton.

BURKE, Edmund, ii, 418, iii, 165.

BURMANN, Peter, i, 67-8, 99-100.

BURNET, Bishop, ii, 354, iii, 61.

BURNEY, Dr. Charles, iii, 161.

BURNEY, Frances, ii, 310, iii, 155,
158, 160, 172.

BURNS, Eobert, iii, 70.

BUTE, Countess of, ii, 128, 328, 333,
iii, 345.

371

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

BUTLER, Samuel, Hi, 253, 275.
BYRON, Lord, ii, 209, iii, 204, 231.

CADELL, Alderman, ii, 305-6.

CADifiRE, Catherine, i, 126.

Caelia, see Johnson, Charles.

CAILLOT, Joseph, iii, 182.

Calm address to all Parties, iii, 310.

CAMDEN, Lord, i, 42, 244-5, 259, ii,
2, 110, iii, 266.

CAMPBELL, Thomas, iii, 170.

Candidates for the Bays, i, 113 n,
iii, 341.

CANNING, Elizabeth, ii, 190, 285-
300, 389, iii, 6, 128-9, 325, 332.

CANNING, George, iii, 173.

CAREW, Bampfylde Moore, ii, 150-2.

CAREY, Henry, i, 198.

CARTE, Thomas, ii, 87-8.

CARTER, Mrs. Elizabeth, ii, 346-7.

CARTERET, John, i, 250, 270, 289,
299.

Case of Elisabeth Canning, see Can
ning.

CASTLE, Edmund, ii, 366.

CASTRO, J. Paul de, his investiga
tions and their results, iii, 249;
Cradock family, 1, 164n; Hogarth
ticket to Pasquin, i, 197 n; author
ship of Shamela, i, 305 n ; informa
tion about William Young, i, 347 n,
364 n; Miss Husband, i, 379 n;
Strahan 's ledger-entries, i, 355 n, ii,
305?i, iii, 86 n; Fielding's residence
in Boswell Court, ii, 11-2, 109 n, iii,
149, 272 n; his residence at Bow
Street, ii, 112 n, iii, 272 n; his farm
at Baling, ii, 290 n; Walton-Collier
suit, ii, 42-4; anecdote of Lord Jus
tice Page, ii, 3n; Fielding's letters
to his brother from Lisbon, iii, 52 n,
64 n, 364; identification of Mr. Wil
liamson, iii, 59 n; letter on Fielding
at Ryde, iir, 95 n; the papers On
Jonathan Wild not by Fielding, iii,

340; also i, 17 n, 33 n, 40 n, ii, 167 n,
254 n, iii, 70 n.

Cat and the Fiddle, ii, 330.

Causidicade, The, ii, 4, 9, 10, 63, 86,
iii, 343.

CAVE, Edward, ii, 130-1.

CAWTHORN, James, ii, 131-2.

CELIA, see Fielding, Charlotte.

Censor, The, see Covent-Garden
Journal.

CENTLIVRE, Mrs. Susannah, i, 131.

Certain Consequences of the Re
bellion, iii, 310.

CERVANTES, Fielding reads, i, 70;
influence upon Fielding, ii, 400;
theory of humour, i, 332-3 ; Fielding
imitates him, i, 321-2; Don Quixote
and Joseph Andrews, i, 323, 342, 394,
ii, 194, 205; compared with Fielding,
ii, 372, iii, 97, 194; Fielding's esti
mate of, i, 46, ii, 414, 433, 436, iii,
19; works in Fielding's library, iii,
79.

CHALMERS, Alexander, says Field
ing studied under Vitriarius, i, 66;
revises Murphy's edition of Fielding's
works, iii, 128-9, 203-4, 330.

Champion, The, partnership formed
to publish, i, 250; the editors and
shareholders, i, 285-6, 288, ii, 18, 358,
385, iii, 1 ; first number appears, i,
251 ; Fielding as editor of, i, 362,
409, iii, 274; his contributions to it,
i, 139, 245, 252-7, 259-61, 263, 265-6,
276-82, 287, 324, 384-5, 394, 410, 412,
422, ii, 233, 238, 365, 390, 413, 434,
iii, 1, 127-9, 131, 279; tribute to
Lillo in, i, 200; Fielding parodies
Croke in, i, 249; print of The
Golden Bump in, i, 228, 266; at
tacks Walpole, i, 260-71, 366, 408, ii,
13, iii, 63, 280, Gibber, i, 271-6;
Fielding loses interest in, and re
signs, i, 257, 260, 301, 350, ii, 364;
Ralph succeeds him, i, 260; men-

372

INDEX

tioned, i, 335, 363, 375; bibliog
raphy, iii, 302, 304-5, 333, 338, 342.

CHANCELLOR, Matthew, ii, 360.

CHAPPELLE, Henry, i, 250, 260, 295-
6, ii, 18, iii, 304-5.

Charge delivered to the Grand Jury,
ii, 230-4, 243, 254, iii, 99, 319, 329,
362.

CHARKE, Mrs. Charlotte, her en
gagement with Fielding profitable, i,
203-4, iii, 140; in The Modern Hus
band, i, 120; in Pasquin, i, 187-8,
iii, 140; in Tumble-Down Dick, i,
194, 200, 203; in A Rehearsal of
Kings, i, 208; in The Historical
Register, i, 214; in Gay's Beggar's
Opera, i, 202; in Lillo's Fatal Curi
osity, i, 200, 202, 217.

CHARLES EDWARD STUART, his in
vasion of England, ii, 12-8, 33; his
resemblance to Lyttelton, ii, 36-7;
reads Tom Jones, ii, 36-7, 140.

CHAUCER, ii, 382-3, iii, 175, 270.

CHESTERFIELD, Lord, Anecdote of
Heidegger, i, 59; Don Quixote dedi
cated to, i, 159, 179, iii, 298; has
support of the Duke of Bedford, i,
179, and the Duchess of Maryborough,
i, 362; goes to The. Hague, ii, 13;
contributes to Fog 's Weekly Journal,
i, 182-3, to Old England, ii, 13; with
Lyttelton establishes Common Sense,
i, 218-9; gave management of the
newspaper to Molloy, i, 239; in a
Pasquin print, i, 197; in An Essay
on Nothing, i, 390; speech on the
Licensing Act, i, 230-3 ; not a
Jacobite, ii, 74; subscribes to the
Miscellanies, i, 382; his theory of
humour, i, 334 ; Bolingbroke 's fare
well to, iii, 18; Fielding's relations
with, i, 179, 290, iii, 266; Fielding's
estimate of, i, 144, 159-60, 179, 250,
289, 387, ii, 20, 51, 53, 138.

CHETWOOD, W. R., i, 97.

Chrysipus, i, 390-4, iii, 308.

CHUBB, Thomas, ii, 169-70.

CHUDLEIGH, Elizabeth, iii, 117-20.

CHURCHILL, General Charles, i, 362.

GIBBER, Colley, manager of Theatre-
Royal, i, 61, 142, 147-8; refuses
Gay's Beggar's Opera, i, 61; the
Great Mogul, i, 178; completes and
produces Vanbrugh's Provok'd Hus
band, i, 61-2, 89-90; produces Love
in Several Masques, and has role in
it, i, 61-3; in The Author's Farce, i,
82, 150; his estimate of Don Quixote
in England, i, 74; produces Thom
son's New Sophonisba, i, 83; ridi
culed in Mist's Weekly Journal, i, 89;
burlesqued by Fielding, i, 89-90, iii,
280-2; in The Battle of the Poets,
i, 96; Fielding makes peace with, i,
115; has role in The Modern Hus
band, i, 120; enemy of Pope, i, 123,
366-7; ridiculed in The Grub-street
Journal, i, 123; wants to change
name of Johnson's Caelia, i, 143;
writes Epilogue to The Miser, i, 144;
as poet laureate, i, 115, 152, ii, 244;
in Pasquin, i, 183; on Fielding and
the Licensing Act, i, 205; in The
Historical Register, i, 211-2; Field
ing ridicules his Papal Tyranny, i,
212-3, ii, 432; attacked in The
Champion, i, 256, 283; his Apology
and Fielding's ridicule of it, i, 271-
7, 290, 297, 299, 301, 316-7; Conny
Keyber's Shamela, i, 303-13, 320, iii,
303-4; in preface to Plutus, i, 363,
366; in The Apology for a Second-
rate Minister, ii, 72-3; mentioned,
i, 99, 139, ii, 358, iii, 266-7, 337.

GIBBER, Theophilus, manager of
Theatre-Royal, i, 115, 142, 148, 150,
177; role in The Modern Husband,
i, 120-1; role in The Old Debauchees
and The Covent-Garden Tragedy, i,
130-1; letter on the latter, i, 133,

373

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

iii, 296 ; produces The Miser and The
Harlot's Progress, i, 143; ridiculed
in The Author's Farce, i, 152-3;
negotiations with Fleetwood, i, 156-
7; rivalry with Macklin, i, 157;
role in The Universal Gallant, i, 171 ;
the Great Mogul, i, 178; Apology
for the Life of Mr. T. C., i, 188, 282,
iii, 337; in Tumble-Down Dick, i,
193; produces Euridice, i, 207;
wants role of Polly Peachum for his
wife, i, 211; contributes to The
Daily Gazetteer, i, 266; in The
Champion, i, 274, 283.

GIBBER, Mrs. Theophilus, i, 211,
385, ii, 50, 174, 413, 423.

CLARENDON, Lord, ii, 196.

Clarissa Harlowe, see Richardson,
Samuel.

Clear State of the Case of Eliza
beth Canning, see Canning.

CLIVE, Mrs. Catherine, in The Old
Debauchees, i, 130-1; in The Covent-
Garden Tragedy, i, 130-1; in The
Mock Doctor, i, 132; in The Miser,
i, 145; in Deborah, i, 146, iii, 297;
in The Intriguing Chambermaid, i,
154; Fielding dedicates it to her, i,
154-5, 159-60, ii, 366, iii, 219, 298;
in An Old Man Taught Wisdom, i,
170; in The Fall of Pliaeton, i, 192,
194; in Euridice, i, 206; in The
Beggar's Opera, i, 211-2; in Miss
Lucy, i, 369; subscribes for The
Miscellanies, i, 382; in the burlesque
of Juvenal, i, 385; in Tom Jones,
ii, 174; in The Upholsterer, iii, 126;
in The Jealous Wife, iii, 169; men
tioned, i, 143, 148, 155, 157, 177, 374,
ii, 73, 366, iii, 266.

COCK, Christopher, i, 213-4, ii, 89.

COCKAYN, Mary, i, 241.

COCKAYNE, Bridget, see Fielding,
Bridget (Cockayne).

COCKAYNE, Scipio, i, 13.

Coffee-House Politician, first called
Kape upon Rape, i, 90; described,
i, 90-1; produced, i, 92, 95, 97; the
watch depicted in, ii, 252; Maeklin
has role in, ii, 410; turned into a
farce by Murphy, iii, 126, 154; bib
liography, iii, 291-2, 311, 328, 352.

COKAYNE, Sir Aston, i, 13.

COLERIDGE, S. T., on Jonathan Wild,
i, 425 ; a chorographic mistake in
Tom Jones, ii, 152, 164; thought
Fielding a master of composition, ii,
161; on Tom Jones, ii, 216-7; on
the morality of Fielding's novels, iii,
176, 204.

Collection of poems, iii, 327.

COLLIER, Arthur, father of Jane
and Margaret, ii, 12, iii, 11.

COLLIER, Arthur, brother of Jane
and Margaret, ii, 42-4, 302, iii, 57,
150.

COLLIER, Jane, childhood, ii, 12;
collaborates with Sarah Fielding on
The Cry, iii, 10-12; letters to Rich
ardson, ii, 116, iii, 95; visitor at
Fielding's house, ii, 302, iii, 10-12;
The Art of Ingeniously Tormenting,
iii, 12; accompanies Fielding to The
Queen of Portugal, iii, 24, 29; stays
at Ryde, iii, 38; correspondence with
Fielding, iii, 122; mentioned, ii, 42.

COLLIER, Margaret, childhood, ii,
12; visitor at Fielding's house, ii,
302, iii, 11 ; perhaps collaborated with
Sarah Fielding on The Cry, iii, 10-12;
witness to Fielding's will, iii, 23;
goes to Lisbon with Fielding, iii, 24,
29; stays at Ryde, iii, 38-9; at Lis
bon, iii, 54, 56, 58-9; sails for home,
iii, 75; perhaps gives silhouette of
Fielding to Hogarth, iii, 72; may
have aided John Fielding in editing
A Voyage to Lisbon, iii, 87-8, 91, 96;
letter to Richardson from Ryde, iii,

374

INDEX

95-7; correspondence with Fielding,
iii, 122; mentioned, ii, 42.

COLMAN, George, iii, 169, 352.

COLVILLE, Maud de, i, 2.

Comedian, The, i, 125, 141.

Comment on Solingbrolce, see Bol-
ingbroke.

Common Sense, established by
Chesterfield and Lyttelton, i, 218;
Fielding contributes to, i, 220-2, 233,
239, 244, 334; The Vision of the
Golden Bump, i, 226; mentioned, i,
232, 238, 249, 270, 295, 387, 409, iii,
301.

Compleat History of the Rebellion,
ii, 54-7, iii, 311, 314-5.

CONGREVE, William, i, 62, 64-5, 77,
139-40, 152, 197, ii, 116, 160, 228,
434, 437, iii, 79, 140, 280.

CONWAY, H. B., iii, 358.

COOKE, Thomas, probable author of
Jack the Gy ant-Killer, i, 93, and of
Battle of the Poets, i, 95-7, iii, 341,
350; writes a Prologue to Tom
Thumb, i, 95; translates Hesiod, i,
96; establishes The Comedian, i,
125; writes epigram for it, i, 141;
at sale of Fielding's library, iii, 82;
also i, 113 n.

COOPER, Elizabeth, i, 198.

COOPER, Mary, bookseller, successor
to Thomas Cooper, publishes The
Causidicade, iii, 343, Serious Address,
iii, 310, History of the Present Re
bellion, ii, 55, 56 n, iii, 310, Dialogue
between the Devil . . . , iii, 312, True
Patriot, ii, 18, 23, 38, iii, 312, Female
Husband, ii, 51, iii, 313, History of
the Late Rebellion, ii, 55, iii, 314, A
Dialogue between a Gentleman of
London . . . , iii, 315, Proper Answer,
iii, 315, Jacobite's Journal, ii, 64, iii,
315-6, Letter to John Trot-Plaid, ii,
88, Important Triflers, ii, 136, iii,
316, Pompey the Little, iii, 345, March

of the Lion, ii, 405, Letter from
Henry Woodward, iii, 348; men
tioned, ii, 39.

COOPER, Thomas, bookseller, pub
lishes The Champion, i, 251, iii, 302,
The Opposition, i, 298, iii, 305, Letter
to a Noble Lord, iii, 343.

COPE, Sir John, ii, 13.

CORBETT, Charles, bookseller, pub
lishes True Greatness and The Ver-
noniad, i, 287-8, iii, 303; associated
with other publishers in The Jaco
bite's Journal, ii, 64, iii, 316.

CORREA DA SERRA, Abbe, iii, 67.

COTES, Francis, ii, 60.

COTTINGTON, Mrs. Catherine, lived
with the Fieldings, i, 21, 26-8; di
rected to sue Colonel Fielding for
debt, i, 38-9.

Country Journal, see Craftsman.

COURTNEIDGE, Eobert, iii, 358.

Covent-Garden Journal, begun by
Fielding, ii, 268, 340, 357-9, 362;
Fielding as editor, ii, 364-5, 368-9,
373-7, 379-85, 424, iii, 5, 81, 222,
274; other contributors to, ii, 369-
73, 377-85; Fielding's cases reported
in, ii, 224 n; Fielding encourages
prosecutors, ii, 282; Fielding on the
increase of murders, ii, 268-9; urges
reform of the penal code, ii, 363;
Fielding's translations from the
Latin, ii, 138; Court of Censorial
Enquiry, ii, 342, 413-7; Fielding
recommends Dr. Thompson, iii, 3 ;
praises Richardson, iii, 63 ; the
Robinhoodians, ii, 418-9; Fielding's
theory of humour illustrated, ii, 431-
7, iii, 19; its satire not often per
sonal, ii, 430; becomes storm-centre,
ii, 387-8, 392, 396, iii, 137, 249;
comes to an end, ii, 427-9, iii, 9;
Fielding's leaders selected by Mur
phy, iii, 127, by Stephen, iii, 129, by
Jensen, iii, 131; Murphy has file of

375

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

the paper, iii, 204; mentioned, ii,
269-71, 350, 360, 400-3, 406, 413, 426,
iii, 44; bibliography, iii, 322-4, 329,
333, 335.

Covent-Garden Journal (Dublin
piracy), ii, 386-7, iii, 323-4.

Covent-Garden Journal Extraordi
nary, ii, 404, iii, 323.

Covent-Garden Tragedy, described,
i, 127-9, iii, 263-4; performed, i, 129-
30; attacked by The Grub-street
Journal, i, 132-41 ; imitated by
Johnson in Caelia, i, 143; revived,
i, 157; compared with Shamela, i,
310; Mother Haywood in, i, 369;
mentioned, i, 125; bibliography, iii,
295, 311, 328, 356, 359.

COVENTRY, Francis, ii, 172, 304, iii,
345-6.

Cox, Daniel, ii, 297.

CBABBE, George, iii, 170.

CRADOCK, Catherine, i, 164-6, 173-
4, ii, 330.

CRADOCK, Charlotte, see Fielding,
Charlotte.

CRADOCK, Mrs. Elizabeth, i, 163-4,
173, 247, ii, 330, iii, 146.

CRADOCK, Mary Penelope, i, 164.

CRADOCK, Thomas, i, 170.

Craftsman, The, established, i, 103-
4; libellous articles in, i, 111; sup
plemented by Common Sense, i, 218;
its contributors arrested, i, 238; its
circulation shrinks, i, 249; mentioned,
i, 95, 182, 358, 408, ii, 64.

CRASHAW, Richard, i, 8.

Crisis, The, i, 295-7, 307, iii, 304.

CROMARTY, Earl of, ii, 65, iii, 40, 42.

Cry, The, see Fielding, Sarah.

Cudgel, The, i, 367, iii, 342-3.

CUMBERLAND, Duke of, ii, 18, 33-4,
52, 54, 57, 101, 258.

CUMBERLAND, Richard, iii, 171, 206.

CURLL, Edmund, i, 83, 273, iii, 270.

Curse of Sentiment, iii, 349.

Daily Advertiser, see London Daily
Advertiser.

Daily Gazetteer, i, 182, 219, 223,
233, 254, 266-7, 269-70, 290, 302, 309,
349, ii, 63, 79, 138, 422, iii, 262, 342.

Daily Post, cited in footnotes and
bibliography.

DALTON, Rev. John, ii, 223.

DALTON, Michael, iii, 365.

DAMPIER, Thomas, i, 305-6, 309-10.

DANIEL, Mrs., iii, 24, 32, 57.

DANIEL, Mary, see Fielding, Mary
(Daniel).

D'ARBLAY, Madame, see Burney,
Frances.

DAVAUX, Citizen, iii, 184.

David Simple, see Fielding, Sarah.

DAVIDGE, Sarah, i, 15.

DAVIES, Peter, i, 240.

DA VIES, Thomas, i, 178, 200.

DAY, William, i, 15, 31, 34, 37-8,
239, iii, 359-60.

Debauchees, see Old Debauchees.

Deborah, i, 146, iii, 297.

DEER, Mrs., i, 29.

DEFAUCONPRET, A. J. B., iii, 349-
50.

DEFFAND, Marquise du, iii, 187.

DEFOE, Daniel, i, 407, 415, 424, ii,
158, iii, 79, 175, 240, 263, 341.

DEFREVAL, J. B., ii, 149.

DE LA BORDE, Anne, i, 21.

DELANY, Mrs., i, 188, ii, 310, 346,
349.

DEMOSTHENES, see First Olynthiac.

DENBIGH, Basil, 2d Earl of, i, 6-

9, 19.

DENBIGH, Susan (Villiers), Count
ess of, i, 5-8, 19.

DENBIGH, William, 1st Earl of, i,
5-7.

DENBIGH, William, 3d Earl of, i,

10, 58.

DENBIGH, William, 5th Earl of, i.
3-4, 42, 382, ii, 112-3, iii, 148.

376

INDEX

DENNIS, John, i, 96, 99, 100.

DENNISON, Justice, ii, 41.

DERRICK, Samuel, i, 377.

Description of V—n G-, i, 71-2.

DESFAUCHERETS, J. L., iii, 356.

DESFONTAINES, Abbe, i, 356, iii,
179.

DESFORGES, Pierre, iii, 183, 355.

DESMOND, George, Earl of, i, 9-10.

DESPRES, Jean B. D., iii, 356.

Detection and Punishment of Mur
der, ii, 269, 280, iii, 128, 324, 334.

DE VEIL, Sir Thomas, ii, 89, 96,
223, 226; alluded to, i, 91.

DEVONSHIRE, William, 3d Duke of,
i, 382.

Dialogue 'between a Gentleman of
London . . . , ii, 58-9, 69, iii, 130, 310,
315.

Dialogue between Alexander the
Great and . . . , i, 386, 394, iii, 329.

Dialogue between an Alderman and
a Courtier, see Dialogue between a
Gentleman . . .

Dialogue between the Devil, the
Pope, and the Pretender, ii, 15-7, iii,
130, 312.

DICKENS, Charles, ii, 201, 335, iii,
188, 229-30.

DICKSON, Frederick S., on the bib
liography of Tom Jones, ii, 121, iii,
1 78 ; the time-scheme of the novel,
ii, 189-93; inconsistencies in it, ii,
197, 200; chronology of A Voyage
to Lisbon, iii, 48 n; index to it, iii,
92 n ; the first edition of the book,
iii, 86 n; Fielding's use of tobacco,
iii, 142; on Thackeray's portrait of
Fielding, iii, 218, 220; Keightley's
essays on Fielding, iii, 248 ; the
Dickson Fielding collection at Yale,
i, 295, ii, 185n, iii, 48 n, 76 n, 92 n,
248-9.

DOBSON, Austin, questions Murphy's
statements, i, 66; the authorship of

Shamela, i, 304-5, 307; Astraea
Hill's letter to Richardson, ii, 145;
essay on James Harris, ii, 384 n;
Fielding's letters to his brother John,
iii, 41-3, 52, 55-6, 59, 64; on Field
ing's library, iii, 76; two versions
of A Voyage to Lisbon, iii, 85, 86 n,
130; his acquaintance with Field
ing's miscellaneous writings, iii, 125;
his estimate of Fielding, iii, 247-55,
269; bibliography, iii, 326-7, 346,
364.

DODD, A., and Mrs. A., i, 296, 307,
ii, 18, 52, 358-9, iii, 290, 303-4, 322-3.

DODD, Dr. James S., ii, 297.

DODD, James W., iii, 105.

DODD, William, iii, 357.

DODINGTON, George Bubb, i, 144,
250-1, 288-9, 382, 384, ii, 13, 20, iii,
266.

DODSLEY, Eobert, i, 225.

Don Quixote in England, Fielding
sketches it, i, 70, iii, 144, 264; sub
mits it to Gibber and Booth, i, 74;
performed, i, 156-7, 178; described,
i, 157-60; published, iii, 298; rela
tion to Squire Badger, iii, 154, men
tioned, i, 179; bibliography, iii, 298,
311, 328, 354.

DONNE, John, i, 168.

DONNELLAN, Mrs., ii, 349.

Dramatic Sessions, i, 161.

Dramatic Works, collected edition,
iii, 80, 311-2.

DRAWCANSIR, Sir Alexander, name
assumed by Fielding, ii, 358; see
also Covent-Garden Journal.

DRURY, Eobert, i, 198, 202, 217.

Drury-Lane Journal, ii, 341, 401-4,
412, 419.

DRYDEN, John, i, 86-7, 100-1, 139-
40, 191, 399, ii, 53, iii, 79, 279.

DUCK, Stephen, i, 96, ii, 245.

DULLWIN, P., ii, 402-3.

DUMAS, A., iii, 190.

377

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

DYER, Edward, i, 18.
DYSON, Jeremiah, iii, 82.

EDGEWORTH, Maria, iii, 207.

EDWARDS, Sampson, iii, 348.

EDWARDS, Thomas, iii, 97.

ELIOT, George, ii, 222, iii, 230.

ELIOTT, General, iii, 83.

ELLYS, John, i, 147-8.

ELWIN, Rev. Whitwell, iii, 228.

Enquiry into the Increase of Rob
bers, ii, 255-68, 271, 273, 276-7, 280,
311-2, 401, iii, 80, 83, 99, 320, 329.

Epilogue, to be spoken by Mrs.
Woffington, ii, 32.

Epilogue to Caelia, see Johnson,
Charles.

Epistle to Mr. Fielding, i, 243.

Epistle to Walpole, iii, 128, 327;
see also Walpole, Sir Robert.

Essay on Conversation, in prose, i,
387, iii, 329, 341.

Essay on Conversation, in verse, iii,
341.

Essay on Nothing, i, 390, 394, iii,
128, 330.

Essay on the Knowledge of the
Characters of Men, i, 388, iii, 103,
329.

ETHEREGE, Sir George, i, 77.

Euridice, see Eurydice.

European Magazine, iii, 67.

Eurydice, described, i, 205-6; riot
at attempted performance of, i, 206-
7, 216; published, i, 385-6; bib
liography, iii, 300, 328.

Eurydice Hiss'd, performed, i, 216;
described, i, 216-7, iii, 142, 273;
published, i, 222; bibliography, iii,
301, 311, 328.

EUSDEN, Laurence, i, 96.

Euthalia, i, 55.

Examination of Glastonbury Water,
ii, 360-2, iii, 346.

Extempore in the Pump Room, i,
377-8, iii, 330.

Examples of the Interposition of
Providence . . . , see Detection and
Punishment.

Extracts from the Penal Laws, iii,'
98, 327.

Faithful Narrative, see Smollett.

Familiar Letters, ii, 54, iii, 314, 328,
333-4.

FARQUHAR, George, iii, 79.

Fatal Curiosity, i, 200-1, 210, iii,
300; see also Lillo, George.

Fathers, The, Fielding revises this
unacted play for Garrick, i, 372, iii,
100-1 ; story of the manuscript, iii,
100-1; Garrick revises it, iii, 102-
6, 109, and writes prologue and epi
logue for it, iii, 329; produced by
Sheridan, iii, 104-8; published, iii,
104, 108; bibliography, iii, 128, 329-
30.

FATJLKENER, Dublin publisher, ii,
267.

FEILDING, see Fielding.

Female Free Mason, i, 217.

Female Husband, ii, 51, iii, 313.

Female Quixote, see Lennox, Char
lotte.

FIELDING, spelling of the name, i,
3-4.

FIELDING, Allen (son of Henry),
iii, 23, 75, 117, 122, 123.

FIELDING, Allen (great-grandson of
Henry), iii, 123.

FIELDING, Anne (sister of Henry),
i, 20, 26.

FIELDING, Anne or Eleanor (second
wife of Edmund), i, 26-33, 38, 40.

FIELDING, Basil, 2d Earl of Den
bigh, see Denbigh.

FIELDING, Basil (4th son of the 1st
Earl of Desmond), i, 10.

FIELDING, Beatrice (sister of

378

INDEX

Henry), i, 20, 240-1, ii, 248, iii, 359-
60.

FIELDING, Bridget (Cockayne),
grandmother of Henry, i, 13.

FIELDING, Bridget (Stanhope), i, 9.

FIELDING, Bridget (aunt of Henry),
i, 13.

FIELDING, Catherine (sister of
Henry), i, 17 n, 19, 26, 240-1, 248,
iii, 359-60.

FIELDING, Sir Charles (3d son of
the 1st Earl of Desmond), i, 10.

FIELDING, Charles (grandson of
Henry), iii, 123.

FIELDING, Charlotte (first wife of
Henry), Fielding's courtship and
marriage, i, 93-5, 164-70, 369, ii, 171,
iii, 113, 145-6, 198, 270; her appear
ance, i, 166-8, ii, 60, iii, 120; Sophia
Western as a portrait of, ii, 170, 208-
9; relation to Amelia, ii, 329-31,
334, iii, 198; Bichardson's slur
upon her, ii, 218, iii, 210, 235,
238, 256; Lawrence on, iii, 235-6;
Stephen on, iii, 243; gets her
mother's estate, i, 173; in George
Fielding's will, i, 241; conveys lands
in East Stour, i, 240, iii, 360; goes
to London, i, 177; lives at Salisbury,
i, 246; illness and death, i, 351-2,
ii, 10-11, iii, 150, 198, 210, 272.

FIELDING, Charlotte (daughter of
Henry), i, 177, 351, 375, 388.

FIELDING, Dorothy (aunt of Henry),
i, 13, 163 n.

FIELDING, Edmund (father of
Henry), birth, i, 13; army life, i,
14; gambling debts, i, 24-6, 39;
marriage with Sarah Gould, i, 15; at
East Stour, i, 19, iii, 146; marriage
with Anne Eapha, i, 26; domestic
troubles, i, 27-38; later marriages, i,
40; children, i, 16, 20, 29, 39, iii,
135, 209; death, i, 40; parallel to

Lieut. Booth, ii, 332, 334; men
tioned, i, 56, 198.

FIELDING, Edmund (brother of
Henry), i, 20, 29-30, 32, 37, 174, 239-
41, iii, 91, 359-60.

FIELDING, Elizabeth (aunt of
Henry), i, 13.

FIELDING, Ernest, iii, 73.

FIELDING, Everard, i, 5.

FIELDING, Geoffrey, i, 4.

FIELDING, George, 1st Earl of Des
mond, see Desmond.

FIELDING, George (2d son of 1st
Earl of Desmond), i, 10.

FIELDING, Lt. Col. George (uncle of
Henry), i, 13, 241, iii, 146.

FIELDING, George (half-brother of
Henry), ii, 112-3.

FIELDING, George, iii, 364.

FIELDING, Harriot, or Harriet,
(daughter of Henry), birth, i, 239,
iii, 23; voyage to Lisbon, iii, 24, 29,
54, 56, 58, 75; companion of Eliza
beth Chudleigh, iii, 117-20; marries
Lieut. Col. Montresor, iii, 119-21; in
her father's will, iii, 22-3, 75; death,
iii, 121; mentioned, ii, 12, 109.

FIELDING, Henry.

[The persons named under this
heading are also entered separately
in this index, with complete refer
ences.

A complete list of Fielding's
works, in the order of publication, is
given on pp. 289-335; those of un
certain or doubtful authorship on pp.
335-40; and those erroneously at
tributed to him on pp. 340-50. Each
of these works is entered under its
title in this index.]

Ancestry. Genealogy, i, 1-5; the
Earls of Denbigh, i, 5-9; the direct
line, i, 9-14; see also the entries
under the names of his father (Ed-

379

THE HISTORY OF HEXRY FIELDIXG

mund Fielding), his mother (Sarah
Gould), and other ancestors.

Birth and childhood. Date of
birth, i, 16-7; place of birth, i, 16;
life at Sharpham Park, i, 16-9; at
East Stour, i, 19-24, 26; at Lady
Gould's, i, 35-6, 39; his brother and
sisters (see Anne, Beatrice, Catherine,
Edmund, Sarah, Ursula) ; his half-
brothers and sisters, i, 29, 39; fond
ness for his half-brother John, i, 39;
opposition to his stepmother, Anne
Rapha, i, 28-9.

Education. His education at home,
i, 22, 27-9; goes to Eton, i, 29, 41;
at Eton, i, 32-4; runs away, i, 34-5,
but returns, i, 36, 41 ; his school
mates, i, 41-2; the curriculum, i,
42-8; his life there, i, 48-9; leaves
Eton and travels in the West, i, 50-3;
reads the classics, i, 53; in London,
i, 53, 55-7; publishes The Masquer
ade, i, 53, 60-1; prepares and pro- j
duces Love in Several Masques for
the stage, i, 53, 61-2; To Euthalia, i,
55; an allowance promised by his"
father, i, 57-8, 72; obtains patron
age of Lady Mary "Wortley Montagu,
i, 58; goes to Leyden, i, 65; his
studies there, i, 66-8; life there, i,
68-73; sketches Don Quixote in Eng
land, i, 70; returns to London, i, 74.

Courtship and marriage. Fails to
win Sarah Andrew, i, 50-5; marries
Charlotte Cradock, i, 163-70; his
children, Charlotte, i, 177, and Har
riot, i, 239; marries Mary Daniel,
ii, 60; his children, William, ii, 61,
Mary Amelia, ii, 225, Sophia, ii, 248,
Louisa, ii, 302, Allen, iii, 23.

Dramatic career. His Don Quixote
found unsuitable, i, 74; writes The
Temple Beau, i, 74, produced at Good
man 's Fields, i, 76-7; falls in with
James Ealph; epistles to Walpole,

i. 75-6, 113; throws in his lot with
the Little Theatre in the Haymarket,
i. 79; The Author's Farce produced
there, i, 80, and Tom Thumb, i, 85;
The Coffee-House Politician, i, 92, 95,
97; enlarges his Tom Thumb, and
renames it The Tragedy of Tragedies,
i, 98; it is produced with The Letter
Writers, i, 98; writes his own play
bills, i, 98; burlesques Walpole in
The Welsh Opera, which is performed,
i, 107; Fielding rewrites it and re
names it The Grub-Street Opera, i,
108, which may have been performed,
i, 111; his season at the Haymarket
ends disastrously, i, 112; Fielding is
attacked in The Grub-street Journal,
i, 112, and by Hoadly in The Con
trast, i, 112; quarrel with The Grub-
street Journal, i, 121-41; goes over
to Drury Lane, with the best actors
from the Haymarket, i, 115-6; pro
duces The Lottery, i, 117, ii, 50;
writes epilogue for The Modish
Couple, i, IIS; The Modern Husband,
i, 119-21 ; letters to Lady Mary Wort-
lev Montagu, i, 118-9, iii, 359; The
Old Debauchees, i, 125, 127, 132, ii,
32, and The Covent-Garden Tragedy
performed together, i, 129-31; The
Mock Doctor, i, 131, 202, 217, 371,
iii, 106, 153; writes epilogue for
Caelia, i, 143; the theatrical war, i,
142-162; The Miser, i, 143, 146, 337-
8, 369, ii, 50, iii, 153, 233-4; Debo
rah, i, 146; revises The Author's
Farce, i, 149-54, iii, 144; The In
triguing Chambermaid, i, 149-53, 155,
iii, 154; Don Quixote, i, 156-9, 178;
An Old Man Taught Wisdom, i, 170,
217, 369; The Universal Gallant, i,
171-2; organizes his own dramatic
company, i, 178-204, and produces
Pasquin, i, 180, 187-9, 191, iii, 146,
155; Tumble-Down Dick, i, 194-5,

380

IXDEX

198, 200-1 ; brings out other pieces
than his own, i, 198-202; writes pro
logue for Fatal Curiosity, i, 200;
Fielding's attacks on the Ministry
the cause of the Licensing Act, i, 205-
37; Euridice, i, 206-7, 216; A Be-
hearsal of Kings, i, 208-10, and Sir
Peevy Pet, i, 208-9; Historical Beg-
ister, i, 209, 218, 220, iii, 146; Euryd-
ice Hiss'd, i, 216; warned in The
Daily Gazetteer, i, 219-20; answered
by Fielding in Common Sense, i, 220-
2; Fielding's theatre closed, i, 232-8;
reworks old plays, i, 368; Miss Lucy
in Town, i, 369-70, 374; Fielding's
friendship with Garrick, i, 371; The
Wedding Day, i, 373-5, 381, iii, 100,
143-4, 227; The Good Natur'd Man,
i, 372, afterwards called The Fathers,
iii, 100-8.

Journalistic career. Publishes The
Champion, i, 251, q. v., under the
pseudonym of Capt. Hercules Vine
gar, q. r. ; his interest in it wanes,
i, 257, 259, and ceases, i, 259; The
True Patriot, ii, 18-42; The Jaco
bite's Journal, ii, 64-93; The Coven t-
Garden Journal, ii, 357-86; attacked
by Kenrick, Hill, Thornton, Smollett,
and others, ii, 386-432.

His miscellaneous tracts and papers.
Perhaps translates Adlerfeld's His
tory of Charles XII, i, 285; True
Greatness, i, 251, 288-91, 384; Ver-
noniad, i, 291-6, 301, 364, 383; ap
peals to the electors in The Crisis,
i, 295; may have written The Plain
Truth, i, 297; The Opposition, i,
298; burlesques Richardson in
Shamela, i, 303; Full Vindication of
the Duchess of Marlborough, i, 361 ;
projects a translation of Aristophanes,
i, 362, and publishes Plutus. i, 363-6;
Chrysipus, i, 390; brings out his Mis
cellanies, i, 380; A Serious Address,

ii, 14; A Dialogue between the
DevU, ii, 15-7; The Female Husband,
ii, 51; Ovid's Art of Love Para
phrased, ii, 52-4; Compleat History
of the Bebellion, ii, 54-7; A Dialogue
between a Gentleman of London, ii,
58; The Important Triflers, ii, 136-
8; Stultus versus Sapientem, ii, 137-
9; Proper Answer, ii, 74, 76; True
State of the Case of Bosavern Penlee,
ii, 238; Enquiry into the Cause, ii,
255; Examples of the Interposition
of Providence, ii, 269; Clear State
of the Case of Elizabeth Canning, ii,
294; Comment on Lord Bolingbroke's
Essays, iii, 17-20; collaboration with
William Young on Latin and Greek
dictionaries, iii, 80-2.

His novels. Fielding's equipment
as a novelist, i, 314; his theory of
humour, i, 331-41, ii, 434-7; Joseph
Andrews, i, 315-49; Jonathan Wild,
i, 380, 403-25; Tom Jones, ii, 99-
222; Amelia, ii, 301-56.

Legal career. Settles in London
soon after his marriage, i, 170; his
distress, i, 172-3; division of his
mother's property, i, 239-42; de
cides to become a lawyer, i, 242, and
reads law, i, 242-6, 248-9, 258; called
to the bar, i, 258; illness and afflic
tion, i, 351, 373, 375; the practice
of the law insufficient for his support,
i, 375; borrows money and is unable
to pay, i, 375-6 ; his friends help him,
i, 376-7; meets Jane Husband at
Bath, and writes verses to her, i, 377;
publishes his Miscellanies, and then
devotes himself to the law, ii, 1-4;
The Causidicade and other pamphlets
were attributed to him, ii, 4-6; also
his sister Sarah's Dot-id Simple, ii, 7;
Fielding writes a preface for the sec
ond edition, ii, 8; his wife Charlotte
dies, ii, 11; the invasion of England

381

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

by Charles Edward arouses him, and
he publishes A Serious Address, ii,
14, and A Dialogue between the Devil
and the Pretender, ii, 15-7; launches
The True Patriot, ii, 18-20; his pri
vate affairs in great confusion, ii, 42;
the Collier case, ii, 42-4; Joseph
Warton visits him, ii, 45; contributes
to his sister Sarah's Familiar Letters,
ii, 47; marries Mary Daniel, ii, 60-
2; edits The Jacobite's Journal, ii,
64; suspected of having written The
Tryal of J. Perceval, ii, 94-5; writes
Tom Jones, ii, 100-8; appointed as
Bow Street Justice, ii, 96; and as
Justice of the Peace for Middlesex,
ii, 98, 224; begins to rid Middlesex
of thieves and robbers, ii, 98, 223;
his half-brother John and he open a
Universal Register office, ii, 226;
John is appointed assistant justice in
Bow Street, ii, 226; Fielding's clerk
and constables, ii, 226; Fielding as
a Bow Street justice, ii, 223-34, 301-
2 ; becomes chairman of the Quarter
Sessions, ii, 230, and publishes his
Charge, ii, 230-3; the riots of 1749,
ii, 234-49; Bosavern Penlez, ii, 236;
applies for position as solicitor to the
Excise, ii, 242; gets pension from
the Duke of Bedford, ii, 242-3; asks
a commission for Brogden, ii, 244;
recommends Edward Moore as deputy-
licenser of the stage, ii, 244; has
severe attack of gout, ii, 247; his
war against robbery and murder, ii,
250-300; sends to Lord Hardwicke
the draft of a bill for preventing
street robberies, ii, 243-4, 254; the
bill becomes an Act, ii, 277; recom
mends Pentlow as keeper of the
Clerkenwell prison, ii, 253 ; the case
of Elizabeth Canning, ii, 285; his
sister Sarah mainly dependent upon
him, ii, 302; his income, expenses,

charities, ii, 302-3; publishes Amelia,
ii, 304; asks that Saunders Welch
be appointed a justice of the peace,
iii, 33; his half-brother John suc
ceeds him, iii, 13.

Fielding's pseudonyms, see Draw-
cansir, Sir Alexander; Gulliver, Lem
uel; Pasquin; Philalethes; Scrible-
rus Secundus ; Trottplaid, John ; Vine
gar, Capt. Hercules; also title-pages
of The Crisis, Shamela, Some Papers
Proper to be Read, and Tumble-Down
Diclc, as given in the bibliography;
his initials in The Champion, i, 255-
6; in The Covent-Garden Journal,
ii, 365-8; fanciful names assumed in
his periodicals, i, 256-7, ii, 27, 39-41,
70-1, 81, 87, 367-70, 375-6, 382.

Fielding 's residences. Sharpham
Park, i, 16-9; East Stour, i, 19-24,
26; Lady Gould's at Salisbury, i,
35-6, 39; goes back to Salisbury, i,
93-5; settles in London, i, 170; re
tires to East Stour for rest, i, 174-5,
iii, 1, 272; returns to London, i,
177 ; residence while studying law,
i, 246-9; Pump Court, i, 258; Salis
bury Cathedral Close, i, 246-8, 350, iii,
272; Milford Hill, i, 247, 350;
Spring Gardens, i, 350; Twerton, i,
379, ii, 110, iii, 272; Widcombe, i,
379, iii, 272; Old Boswell Court, ii,
11-2, 45, 109, iii, 149, 272; Back
Lane, Twickenham, ii, 60-1, 309, iii,
150, 272; Barnes, in Surrey, ii, 109;
Fordhook House, Baling, ii, 109, 289-
90, 302, iii, 15, 272; Bow Street, ii,
111-2.

Last illness, iii, 1-21 ; begins his
Comment on Bolinffbrolce's Essays,
iii, 17-20; sails for Lisbon, iii, 22;
begins A Voyage to Lisbon, iii, 30;
ship-letter to his brother, iii, 31-2;
at Ryde, iii, 33-9; in Tor Bay, iii,
40-5, where he writes again to John,

382

INDEX

iii, 41-3; lands at Lisbon, iii, 51;
his long ship-letter to his brother, iii,
52-8; his household at Junqueira, iii,
58-65; his death, iii, 65; his grave,
iii, 65-70; Fielding's widow and
daughter return to England, iii, 75;
Fielding's estate and will, iii, 22-3,
75, 364; his library, iii, 75-83; A
Voyage to Lisbon published, iii, 84;
other manuscripts, including A Trea
tise on the Office of Constable, and
The Fathers, iii, 97-111 ; the surviv
ors, iii, 112-24.

Personal appearance and portraits,
i, 48-9, 58, 280, ii, 407, iii, 70-4.

His fame in France and Germany,
iii, 177-94.

Adaptations and imitations of his
plays and novels, ii, 133-6, 304, iii,
155-7, 169-71, 181-4, 345, 348-58.

General estimates of Fielding's
verse, iii, 153, of his plays, iii, 153-7,
of his novels, iii, 157-76.

Estimates of Fielding and his
works. By Dr. Aikin, iii, 196, 199-
200; Dr. Robert Anderson, iii, 164;
Jane Austen, iii, 172; Mrs. Bar-
bauld, iii, 199-202; N. T. Barthe,
iii, 187; James Beattie, iii, 167;
BlacJcivood's Magazine, iii, 228;
Hugh Blair, iii, 169; C. F. Blanken-
burg, iii, 193; Boswell, iii, 161-2;
Charlotte Bronte, iii, 231-2; W. H.
Brown, iii, 175; J. P. Browne, iii,
239; Mary Brunton, iii, 207; Fran
ces Burney, iii, 155, 160; Samuel
Butler, iii, 253 ; Lord Byron, iii, 204 ;
Thomas Campbell, iii, 170; George
Canning, iii, 173; Alexander Chal
mers, iii, 203-4; S. T. Coleridge, i,
425, iii, 176, 204; George Colman,
iii, 169; George Crabbe, iii, 170;
Richard Cumberland, iii, 171 ; Ma
dame du Deffand, iii, 187; Dickens,
iii, 229; Dobson, iii, 247-55, 269;

George Eliot, iii, 230 ; Rev. W. Elwin,
iii, 228; Sir John Fielding, iii, 151;
William Forsyth, iii, 239; Gibbon,
iii, 168; George Gilfillan, iii, 227;
William Godwin, iii, 164, 167, 169;
Goethe, iii, 194; Goldsmith, iii, 161;
Gray, i, 358-9; Emanuel Green, iii,
247; Thomas Green, iii, 172; James
Harris, iii, 151; Sir John Hawkins,
iii, 162, 167, 169, 171; Hazlitt, iii,
161, 205-6; W. E. Henley, iii, 253-
7; Dr. John Hill, iii, 157; M.
Davenport Hill, iii, 228-30; John
Oliver Hobbes, iii, 175-6; Richard
Hurd, iii, 137; J. H. Jesse, iii, 239;
Samuel Johnson, ii, 338-9, iii, 157-9,
167; Thomas Keightley, iii, 236-8;
F. G. Klopstock, iii, 194; V. Knox,
iii, 169; La Harpe, iii, 187;
Charles Lamb, iii, 206; Frederick
Lawrence, iii, 232-8; G. E. Lessing,
iii, 193-4; G. C. Lichtenberg, iii,
194; London Chronicle, iii, 154;
J. R. Lowell, iii, 230, 251-2; Lord
Lyttelton, iii, 151, 167-8; Lord
Lytton, iii, 230; T. B. Macaulay, iii,
173-5; T. J. Mathias, iii, 172; Lord
Monboddo, iii, 168; Elizabeth Mon
tagu, iii, 160-1 ; Lady Mary Wort-
ley Montagu, iii, 237; Monthly Re
view, iii, .153; Edward Moore, iii,
137; John Moore, iii, 163-4; Thomas
Moore, iii, 204-5; Hannah More, iii,
159; William Mudford, iii, 201-3;
Arthur Murphy, iii, 132-4, 147, 204;
John Nichols, iii, 204; E. A. Poe,
iii, 230; Joseph Reed, iii, 169-70;
Clara Reeve, iii, 171-2; Sir Joshua
Reynolds, iii, 161 ; Richardson, ii,
349-51, iii, 157; Samuel Rogers,
iii, 156; Thomas Roscoe, iii, 213;
Rousseau, iii, 187; Schiller, iii, 194;
Scott, ii, 323, iii, 166-7, 207-13;
Sheridan, iii, 156; Charlotte Smith,
iii, 206; Smollett, iii, 157; Southey,

383

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

iii, 205, 232; Stendhal, iii, 187;
Sir Leslie Stephen, iii, 239-48, 253;
Swift, iii, 155; Taine, iii, 187-9;
Texte, iii, 178, 180; Thackeray, iii,
213-26, 229, 231-2, 234, 236, 238-9,
253-5; Voltaire, iii, 187; Horace
Walpole, iii, 157, 163, 187, 237;
William Warburton, iii, 169; Joseph
Warton, iii, 155, 167; William Wat
son, iii, 196-9; E. P. Whipple, iii,
226-7 ; Dorothy Wordsworth, iii, 172-
3; William Wordsworth, iii, 172.

Fielding's editors and biographers.
See the entries under Dr. John Aikin,
Mrs. Barbauld, James P. Browne, J.
Paul de Castro, Alexander Chalmers,
Frederick S. Dickson, Austin Dobson,
Miss G. M. Godden, Edmund Gosse,
W. E. Henley, Dr. G. E. Jensen,
Thomas Keightley, Dr. Andrew Kip-
pis, Andrew Lang, Frederick Law
rence, William Mudford, Arthur Mur
phy, John Nichols, F. J. Pope, W. H.
Pyne, Sir Walter Raleigh, Thomas
Roscoe, G. E. B. Saintsbury, Sir
Walter Scott, Sir Leslie Stephen,
W. M. Thackeray, William Watson,
Dr. J. E. Wells, Sir M. W. Wraxall.

Summary of Fielding's character
and achievements, iii, 258-86.

FIELDING, Henry (grandson of
Henry), iii, 123.

FIELDING, Henry (born 1861), iii,
123.

FIELDING, John (remote ancestor
of Henry), i, 4.

FIELDING, John (grandfather of
Henry), i, 10-3, 19, ii, 330.

FIELDING, Governor John (uncle of
Henry), i, 13.

FIELDING, Sir John (Henry's blind
half-brother), birth, i, 39, ii, 225;
lives with Henry in London, ii, 225,
228, iii, 210; the Universal Register
Office, ii, 226, 266, 359, 402-3, 428,

iii, 321 ; at Bow Street, ii, 243, 248,
302, iii, 12-3, 16, 114-5; on robbers,
ii, 283-5; on MaeDaniel the in
former, iii, 245; pamphlets on crime,
iii, 98-9, 114, 327-8, 334; uses Z. Z.
as anonym, ii, 361, 377-8, iii, 346;
shareholder in The Public Advertiser,
ii, 428; marriages, ii, 248, iii,
123 n; friendship with Miss Chud-
leigh, iii, 119; his character, iii, 115-
6; praises Henry, iii, 109, 151; en
gages passage for Henry to Lisbon,
iii, 22; Henry sends him cider, iii,
40, and onions, iii, 57; Henry's let
ters to, iii, 30, 32-3, 41-3, 52-8, 64,
248, 250, 364; administration of
Henry's estate, iii, 75, 116-8; sells
Henry's annotated books and manu
scripts, iii, 80; publishes Henry's
legal manuscripts, iii, 98-9; owned
Henry's extracts from philosophers,
iii, 19, and his Crown Law, iii, 83,
134, 366; edits A Voyage to Lis
bon, iii, 60, 83-4, 87-92; Garrick and
The Good-Natur'd Man, iii, 100-2,
106-9, 329; mentioned, iii, 123.

FIELDING, Louisa (daughter of
Henry), ii, 302.

FIELDING, Mary Amelia (daughter
of Henry), ii, 225, 248.

FIELDING, Mary (Daniel), in
Henry's household, ii, 12; he mar
ries her, ii, 60, 109, iii, 150, 270;
her character, ii, 61-2, 228, iii, 137;
the informer MaeDaniel, iii, 245-6,
253; voyage to Lisbon, iii, 24, 29,
54-6, 58, 75; in Henry's will, iii,
22, 75-6, 116; A Voyage to Lisbon,
iii, 85, 87; The Good-Natur'd Man,
iii, 100, 106, 108; Murphy's acquaint
ance with, iii, 85, 134; death, iii,
123.

FIELDING, Richard, i, 7.

FIELDING, Robert (Beau Fielding),
iii, 147.

384

INDEX

FIELDING, Sarah Gould (mother of
Henry), birth, i, 15; marries Ed
mund Fielding, i, 15-6, 30, 32; birth
of Henry, i, 16-7; life at Sharpham
Park, i, 17-9; other children, i, 19-
20; moves to East Stour, i, 19;
death of father, i, 20; domestic life,
i, 20-1, 24, 26; death, i, 26; her
estate placed in trust, i, 239, iii, 146.

FIELDING, Sarah (sister of Henry),
birth, i, 20; division of her mother's
estate, i, 240-1; lives with Henry,
ii, 12, 302 ; survives him, ii, 248 ;
friend of Richardson, i, 305, 309, ii,
61, iii, 38, 112-3, 282; at Eyde, iii,
38; at Bath, iii, 112; death, iii,
113-4; Mudford's estimate of, iii,
202; David Simple, ii, 6, 8-10, 46,
173, 208; Familiar Letters, ii, 46-
51; Cleopatra, ii, 52; The Gov
erness, ii, 116; The Cry, ii, 12, iii,
10-2; later writings, iii, 113; may
have contributed to Joseph Andrews,
i, 353, The True Patriot, ii, 39-40,
The Jacobite's Journal, ii, 92, The
Detection of Murder, ii, 270, The
Covent-Garden Journal, ii, 377-8, but
not to The Adventurer, ii, 424; men
tioned, iii, 134, 149, 261; bibliog
raphy, iii, 309-11, 314, 344, 347, 349,
359-60.

FIELDING, Sophia (daughter of
Henry), ii, 248, iii, 22-3, 75, 117-8.

FIELDING, Sophia (granddaughter
of Henry), iii, 73.

FIELDING, Timothy, mistaken for
the novelist, iii, 233.

FIELDING, Ursula (sister of Henry),
i, 17, 19, 240-1, 248, iii, 359-60.

FIELDING, William, of Newnham
Paddox (remote ancestor), i, 4.

FIELDING, William (died 1471), i, 4.

FIELDING, William, 1st Earl of Den
bigh, see Denbigh.

FIELDING, William, 3d Earl of Den
bigh, see Denbigh.

FIELDING, William, 5th Earl of
Denbigh, see Denbigh.

FIELDING, William (uncle of
Henry), i, 13.

FIELDING, William (half-brother of
Henry), iii, 91.

FIELDING, William (son of Henry),
ii, 61, 109, 225, iii, 23, 75, 117, 121-2,
366.

FIELDING, William Henry (grand
son of Henry), iii, 121, 365-6.

First Olynthiac of Demosthenes, i,
386, iii, 329.

FITZPATBICK, Eichard, ii, 423-5.

FLEETWOOD, Charles, i, 155-6, 177-8,
188, 193, 205, 222, 372, 382, iii, 100.

FLETCHER, John, iii, 79.

Fog's Weekly Journal, i, 182-3,
238.

FOOTE, Samuel, ii, 88-9, 232, 407,
413, iii, 279, 351.

FORD, James, i, 285-7, iii, 338.

FORSYTH, Helen, iii, 358.

FORSYTH, William, iii, 239.

FOSTER, Justice, ii, 41.

Fox, Henry, i, 42, ii, 47, iii, 266.

FRANCIS, Mrs., iii, 35, 44, 85, 91,
94.

FRANCIS, Philip, ii, 174.

FRANCKLIN, Eichard, i, 104.

FRANCKLIN, Thomas, ii, 245.

FRANKLIN, Benjamin, i, 74, ii, 105.

FREDERICK, Prince of Wales, at
performance of Tom Thumb, i, 88;
in The Welsh Opera, i, 106; trans
lation of Moliere dedicated to, i, 144;
at The Opera of Operas, i, 147; pa
tron of theatre in Lincoln's Inn
Fields, i, 153; and of Farinelli at
the Opera House, i, 178; relation to
the Country Party, i, 179; marriage,
i, 194; at Drury Lane Theatre, i,
194; subscribes for the Miscellanies,

385

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

i, 382 ; relation to Lyttelton, ii, 63 ;
elegy on his death, ii, 381; Dr.
Thompson, his physician, iii, 3.

FREEMAN, Ealph (pseudonym of
Thomas Pitt), i, 266-9, 271, 277, 283,
ii, 95.

FREEMAN, Samuel, iii, 74.

FREKE, John, ii, 105-6.

FRERON, Elie C., iii, 187.

FROUDE, Philip, i, 161.

Full Answer, see Proper Answer.

Full Vindication of the Duchess of
Marlborough, see Marlborough.

Fun, see Kenrick, William.

GAIN de Montagnac, L. L. J., iii,
180, 349.

GARRICK, David, comes into fame,
i, 77, 370; manager of Drury Lane,
i, 187, ii, 393, 413, at Covent Garden,
ii, 50; Macklin breaks with him, ii,
411; his relation to Mossop, ii, 415-
6, to Havard, ii, 416; war with Eich,
ii, 416-24, 426; not the author of
Woodward's Letter, ii, 425, iii, 348;
in Dance's Pamela, i, 302, 371; in
Richard III, i, 371; in The Mock
Doctor, i, 371, iii, 106; in The Re-
hearsal, i, 371 ; in The Wedding Day,
i, 372-5, iii, 100, 143-4; in The Up
holsterer, iii, 126; in The Jealous
Wife, iii, 169; subscribes to Mis
cellanies, i, 382, in which he is praised,
i, 384; in The Patriot Analized, ii,
73; Foote mimics him, ii, 89; his
adaptation of Cenie, ii, 367; not a
contributor to The Covent-Garden
Journal, ii, 385; on Smollett's
Regicide, ii, 397-8; Smollett pil
lories him, ii, 398 ; shareholder in
The Public Advertiser, ii, 428; Ode
on Pelham and Bolingbroke, iii, 16-
7; Hogarth's portrait of Fielding,
iii, 71-2; induces Fielding to com
plete The Good-Natur'd Man, i, 372,

iii, 100; Garrick revises it, and
writes prologue and epilogue for it,
iii, 102-6, 109, 329; attends its first
performance, iii, 105; relation to Sir
John Fielding, iii, 101-2; Sheridan
succeeds him at Drury Lane, iii, 104;
reworks The Irish Widow, iii, 106;
Fielding praises his acting, ii, 127,
176, 192, 264; Fielding's friendship
with, i, 235, 371-2, 411, iii, 134, 191,
266; mentioned, iii, 185, 236.

GASCOYNE, Sir Crisp, ii, 289, 294,
296, 298.

GAY, John, The Beggar's Opera, i,
80, 134, 166, 202, 220, iii, 157, 264,
278-9; Gibber refuses it, i, 61; its
popularity, i, 58-9, 93, 188; its rela
tion to Fielding's Welsh Opera, i,
104-5, 109, 128, 225; Mrs. Clive in,
i, 211; the Government prohibits his
Polly, i, 408; mentioned, i, 264, 421,
ii, 116.

Gazetteer, see Daily Gazetteer.

GENEST, John, i, 111, iii, 103, 294,
296, 297.

Gentleman's Magazine, i, 358, 361,
370, ii, 4, 52, 130-2, 136, 140-1, 157,
193, 224, 254, 267, 296, 298, 309, 345,
361, 414, 421-2, 426, iii, 93, 122, 148,
162, 197, 233.

Genuine Grub-Street Opera, i, 111,
iii, 293; see also Grub-Street Opera.

GEORGE II, in the allegory of The
Welsh Opera, 106-7; patronizes Han
del, i, 146, 153; attends a perform
ance of The London Merchant, i, 199;
satirized in the print of The Golden
Rump, and probably in the play of
the same name, i, 226-7; Patriots
side with Prince of Wales against,
i, 179; reconciliation with the Prince,
i, 194; his dislike of Pitt, ii, 13;
his opinion of Winnington, ii, 72;
praised in Ovid's Art of Love Para
phrased, ii, 54, and in Penlez, ii, 238;

386

INDEX

Fielding's loyalty to, ii, 14, 20, 37,
98.

Geraubte Einsiedlerinn, iii, 349.

GERMAN, Edward, iii, 358.

GEROULD, Gordon Hall, iii, 334.

Geschichte des Hitters von Kilpar,
iii, 349.

GEVAERT, F. A., iii, 353.

GIBBON, Edward, references to
Fielding, i, 1-2, iii, 168.

GIBBS, James, ii, 379.

GIBSON, Thomas, ii, 273.

GIFFARD, Henry, brings out Field
ing's Temple Beau, i, 76, 78; buys
Booth's share in Drury Lane, i, 148,
156; removes to Lincoln's Inn
Fields, i, 177-8; produces Pasquin
there, i, 217; The Golden Bump, i,
227-8, 232; effect of the Licensing
Act, i, 232.

GILFILLAN, George, iii, 227.

GILLIVER, Lawton, i, 250.

GIRARD, Father, i, 126.

GLENNEY, Charles, iii, 358.

GLOVER, Eichard, i, 271, 399.

GODDEN, Miss G. M., discovers
Colonel Fielding's Bill of Complaint,
i, 24; discovers official letters of
Fielding and documents in Lady
Gould 's Chancery case, i, 30 n, iii,
249; letter from the Bev. George
Miller about Tom Jones, ii, 113; at
tributes to Fielding A Speech made
in the Censorial Court, iii, 347; her
Life of Fielding, i, 254, iii, 85, 359-64.

GODOLPHIN, Francis, 2d Earl, ii, 72.

GODSCHALL, Sir Eobert, i, 395.

GODWIN, William, iii, 164-5, 167,
169, 206.

GOETHE, says German novels come
from Fielding, iii, 194.

Golden Bump, i, 226-8, results in
the Licensing Act, i, 228-32; not by
Fielding, i, 227-8, iii, 341 ; Vision of
the Golden Bump, i, 226, 266.

GOLDSMITH, Oliver, employs the
title The Good-Natur'd Man, iii, 104;
sees The Miser, and The Mock Doc
tor, iii, 153 ; The Vicar of Wakefield
and Joseph Andrews, iii, 161 ; Goethe
on, iii, 194; Stephen compares him
with Fielding, iii, 241; mentioned,
ii, 355, 418.

Good Nature, i, 250, 384.

Good-Natur'd Man, see Fathers,
The.

GOSSE, Edmund, iii, 253, 333.

GOULD, Davidge (Fielding's uncle),
i, 15, 20, 31-5, 37-8, 51, 239, 258-9,
iii, 359-60.

GOULD, Sir Henry (Fielding's
grandfather), leaves trust fund for
his daughter, i, 15-6, 19, 30, 37; pur
chases farm at East Stour for her, i,
39-20, 30-2; distrusts Col. Ednuind
Fielding, i, 15 ; his seat at Sharp-
ham, i, 16-9; Fielding probably born
there, passes infancy there, i, 16-9,
ii, 360; death, i, 20; mentioned, ii,
240.

GOULD, Henry (Fielding's cousin),
i, 242, ii, 2, 47, 65.

GOULD, Katherine, i, 15, 17 n.

GOULD, Mary, i, 362.

GOULD, Lady Sarah (Davidge),
marriage and children, i, 15; lived
with the Fieldings, i, 20-1, 24; anger
at Colonel Fielding's second marriage,
i, 27; Edmund consigned to her care,
i, 29; Bill of Complaint against
Colonel Fielding, i, 30-9; at Salis
bury, i, 247; Henry visits her there,
i, 35-6, iii, 269; death, i, 163; men
tioned, i, 51, 53, 56, 165.

GRAFTON, Duke of, i, 370, iii, 328.

GRAFTON, Thomas, i, 26.

GRAHAM, James, i, 261, iii, 302.

GRANT, William, iii, 121.

GRAVELOT (H. F. Bourguignon), i,
257, ii, 140.

387

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

GRAVES, Rev. Richard, ii, 110, iii,
112.

GRAY, Thomas, opinion of Joseph
Andrews, i, 358-9, his Elegy, ii, 268;
imitated, ii, 381; Walpole on mes
sage cards, iii, 344; mentioned, iii,
163.

Gray's-Inn Journal, ii, 372, 424.

GREEN, Emanuel, iii, 247, 354.

GREEN, Thomas, iii, 172.

GREENE, Robert, iii, 232.

GRIFFITHS, Ralph, ii, 132, 309, 406.

Grub-street Journal, The, Fielding's
quarrel with, i, 114-41, 276, 365;
suspends attack, i, 160; protests
against scandalous treatment of him,
i, 161; praises his unmasking of cor
rupt politicians, i, 189 ; its character,
iii, 262; verses on Pope, i, 196; on
The Covent-Garden Tragedy, i, 127-
30, 132-4, 140; on The Grub-Street
Opera, i, 110; on The Miser, i, 145;
on The Mock Doctor, i, 130-2, 135,
139; on The Modern Husband, i, 95,
119-25, 134, 140; on The Old De
bauchees, i, 125-7, 129-32, 134, 136,
140; on A Rehearsal of Kings, i,
207-8; on Tom Thumb, i, 112-3, 134;
mentioned, i, 260.

Grub-Street Opera, a rewriting of
The Welsh Opera, q. v.; described,
i, 108-10, 408; performance de
ferred, i, 110-2; published, i, 111;
Fielding takes song from, i, 131; see
also Genuine Grub-Street Opera;
bibliography, iii, 293, 328.

GUALTERUS, Petrus, i, 176, 348, ii,
391, iii, 308; see also Walter, Peter.

GULLIVER, Lemuel, pseudonym of
Fielding, i, 60, iii, 289.

GURNELL, Thomas, ii, 290 n.

HAINES, John, ii, 238.
HALSTEAD, Henry, i, 35.
HAMILTON, Charles, ii, 245.

HAMILTON, Jenny, ii, 245, 247.

HAMMOND, James, i, 390.

HANDEL, George F., i, 59, 146, 153,
178.

HAPSBURGS, The, i, 1-4.

HARDINGE, George, i, 244-5.

HARDWICKE, 1st Earl of, Lord
Chancellor, ii, 13, 37, 113, 173, 243,
255, 279, iii, 13, 280, 362, 364.

HARLEY, Robert, Earl of Oxford,
see Oxford.

HARPER, John, i, 63, 149.

HARRINGTON, Dr., of Bath, ii, 174.

HARRINGTON, James, ii, 58.

HARRINGTON, William Stanhope, 1st
Earl of, i, 56-7, ii, 138.

HARRIS, George, ii, 113.

HARRIS, James, friendship with
Fielding, i, 247; Enquiry into Happi
ness, i, 387; gives bail for Arthur
Collier, ii, 43-4; Much Ado, and
Fashion, ii, 47; contributor to
Covent-Garden Journal, ii, 374; ab
stract of Hermes, ii, 379; Austin
Dobson on, ii, 384 n ; annotates
Sarah Fielding's Memoirs of Soc
rates, iii, 113; on Fielding's charac
ter, iii, 151, 258, 266.

HATCHETT, William, i, 107-8, 146-
7, iii, 351.

HAVARD, William, ii, 416.

Have at You All, see Drury-Lane
Journal.

HAVERKAMP, Sigbertus, i, 67.

HAWKES, William, i, 316.

HAWKESWORTH, John, ii, 424, 426,
iii, 347.

HAWKINS, Capt. John, i, 241.

HAWKINS, Sir John, iii, 162, 167,
169, 171.

HAWKINS, William, iii, 80, 365.

HAYES, John, i, 384.

HAYTER, Thomas, i, 240, iii, 360.

HAYWOOD, Mrs., of Covent Garden,
i, 129, 369.

388

INDEX

HAYWOOD, Mrs. Eliza, her inane
stories attacked by Pope, i, 84; as
sists in turning Tragedy of Tragedies
into opera, i, 146-7, ii, 415, iii, 350-1,
for which Arne writes music, i, 42,
146, iii, 154, and Lampe, i, 147 n, iii,
351 ; in A Rehearsal of Kings, i, 208 ;
may have written Sir Peevy Pet, i,
209, iii, 336, and The Female Free
Mason, i, 217; The Fortunate
Foundlings, ii, 218; Miss Betsy
Thoughtless, ii, 414-5, iii, 180, 346.

HAZLITT, William, on Fielding's
novels, iii, 161, 205-6; quoted, iii,
136-7.

HEATHCOTE, Sir Gilbert, i, 59.

HEDERICUS, Benjamin, i, 346, iii,
80-2, 340, 363.

HEDLEY, Mrs., iii, 60.

HEIDEGGER, John James, i, 59-61,

111, ii, 352.

HELE, Kichard, ii, 168, 170, iii, 11.
HENDERSON, Matthew, criminal, ii,
41.

HENLEY, John, "Orator," i, 84-5,

112, 171, ii, 23, 409.

HENLEY, Kobert, Earl of Northing-
ton, i, 245, 378, ii, 2.

HENLEY, W. E., on Fielding, iii,
253-9, 262, 267, 269, 271, 274; edi
tion of Fielding's Works, iii, 125 n,
130, 333-4.

HERMES, Johann T., iii, 193.

HERRING, Archbishop, ii, 14.

HERTFORD, Lady, Duchess of Somer
set, ii, 116-8, 223, 268.

HERVEY, Augustus John, iii, 118.

HERVEY, John, Lord, i, 104, 106-7,
182, 215, 219, 230, 306, 310, 423.

HEUFELD, Franz von, iii, 353.

Hickathrift, see, History of Thomas
Hickathrift.

HIGHMORE, John, i, 148-9, 155.

HILL, Aaron, editor of the Prompt
er, i, 171, 191-2, 195, 252; his Fatal

Extravagance, i, 202; reads Pamela
aloud, i, 302-3; writes to Kichard-
son, ii, 145, 148.

HILL, Astraea and Minerva, their
opinion of Tom Jones, ii, 145-7, 161.

HILL, Dr. John, sketch of him, ii,
389-91 ; writer for The London Daily
Advertiser, ii, 359; newspaper war
with Fielding, ii, 391-6, 398, 401, 416,
419, 422, 429, iii, 157, 279; The In
spector in the Shades, iii, 347; on
Tom Jones, ii, 132; on Elizabeth
Canning, ii, 294-7; on Amelia, ii,
348; in Kenrick's Fun, ii, 407-9;
Mountefort Brown assaults him, ii,
419-21; Woodward's letter to, ii,
425-6, iii, 348; admired Fielding's
novels, iii, 157; mentioned, ii, 413,
424.

HILL, M. Davenport, iii, 228-30.

HiLLHOtrsE, James T., iii, 292, 335.

HIPPISLEY, John, i, 97.

Historical Eegister for 1736, de
scribed, i, 210-6; performed, i, 209,
218, 220, iii, 146; extended into
Eurydice Hiss'd, i, 216; published,
i, 222; the preface to it, i, 222-4,
238; Colley Gibber in, i, 272; Sir
Eobert Walpole in, i, 228, 408;
mentioned, i, 415; bibliography, iii,
301, 311, 328.

History of a Foundling, see Tom
Jones.

History of Charles XII, see Adler-
feld.

History of Joseph Andrews, see
Joseph Andrews.

History of Pompey the Little, see
Coventry, Francis.

History of Sir Harry Herald, iii,
170, 348.

History of the present Rebellion,
ii, 56 n, iii, 310.

History of Thomas Hickathrift, iii,
340-1.

389

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

History of Tom Jones, see Tom
Jones.

HOADLY, Benjamin (Bishop), i,
112, 289, 382, ii, 20, 173, 331, iii, 239,
266.

HOADLY, Benjamin (son of Bish
op), i, 112, iii, 154.

HOADLY, John (son of Bishop), i,
112, iii, 114.

HOBBES, John Oliver (Mrs. Craigie),
iii, 175.

HOBBES, Thomas, i, 390.

HODGES, J., i, 285, iii, 337.

HOEY, James, ii, 386, iii, 316, 323-
4, 348.

HOGARTH, William, friendship with
Fielding, i, 101, iii, 266; Fielding's
estimate of, i, 65; his art compared
with Fielding's, i, 323, 359, ii, 176,
iii, 270, 276; print of Heidegger, i,
60, of Misaubin, i, 131, of Dr. Ward,
iii, 14; ticket for Laguerre, i, 171,
and for Koberts, i, 196, 197 n;
frontispiece for Tom Thumb, i, 101,
and for Moliere's Worlcs, i, 144;
woodcut for The Jacobite's Journal,
ii, 67-9, 76; Gin Lane, ii, 268; the
Terrible Leo, ii, 391 ; portrait of
Fielding, iii, 70-4, 127, 135, 328;
Le Portrait de Fielding, iii, 184-5 ; in
Amelia, ii, 354; in Tom Jones, ii,
175, 387, iii, 191; mentioned, iii,
191, 236.

HOLCKOFT, Thomas, iii, 356.

HOOKE, Nathaniel, i, 360-1, ii, 174.

HOOPEE, William, ii, 167.

HOPWOOD, James, ii-i, 74.

HORSLY, W., a writer known as
"The Fool," in The Daily Gazetteer,
ii, 63.

HOWARD, Alfred, iii, 331.

HOWARD, Mary, i, 27-8.

HOWELLS, W. D., iii, 175.

HUGGONSON, J., i, 250, 261, 297,
iii, 304, 338.

HULETT, James, i, 356.

HUNTER, Dr. William, iii, 26, 40-1,
44, 106, 164, 168.

HURD, Eichard, ii, 127, 310, 312,
iii, 4, 137.

HUSBAND, Jane, i, 378-9.

HUSSEY, Mrs., ii, 104-5, 172, iii,
266.

HUTH, Alfred, iii, 360-2.

Hymn to the Mob, see Defoe.

Hyp Doctor, i, 112.

Important Triflers, ii, 136-8, iii, 316.

Increase of Bobbers, see Enquiry.

Inspector in the Shades, iii, 347.

Interlude between Jupiter, Juno,
Apollo . . . , i, 385-6, 394, iii, 329.

Intriguing Chambermaid, described,
i, 154; performed, i, 149-53, 155,
iii, 154; dedicated to Mrs. Olive, i,
154-5, 159, ii, 366, iii, 219; Charlotte
Fielding in, i, 167; mentioned, i,
161; bibliography, iii, 297-8, 311,
328.

IRELAND, John, iii, 72.

Jacobite's Journal, begun by Field
ing as John Trottplaid, Esq., ii, 64;
his contributions, ii, 92; general de
scription, ii, 64-5; its irony and hu
mour, ii, 66-7, 69-72, 77-8, 138;
frontispiece by Hogarth, ii, 67-9, 76-
7; political warfare in, ii, 77-9, 80-
2; clash with Horace Walpole, ii,
79-80; abuse of Fielding, ii, 82-5;
Court of Criticism, ii, 85-92, 342,
413; attack on Carte, ii, 87; on
Foote, ii, 88-90; praise of Clarissa
Harlowe, ii, 90, 141 ; relation to
Tom Jones, ii, 101-2, 106-8, 111, iii,
274; Scott on, iii, 209; Lawrence
on, iii, 233; mentioned, ii, 52, 358,
364, 371, 386-7, 388; iii, 40, 131,
336; bibliography, iii, 127, 129, 315-
6, 329.

JAMES, Dr. Eobert, ii, 355-6, 361.

390

INDEX

JEACOCKE, Caleb, ii, 417.

JENSEN, Dr. Gerard E., on Bonnell
Thornton, ii, 402; on Kenriek's Fun,
ii, 409; edits The Covent-Garden
Journal, iii, 323, 335; publishes all
leading articles in The Covent-Garden
Journal, iii, 131; on Fielding as
editor, iii, 249; quoted, iii, 347-8.

JESSE, J. Heneage, iii, 239, 364.

JOHN OF BRAGANZA, iii, 66-7.

JOHNES, Thomas, iii, 101.

JOHNSON, Charles, Caelia, i, 143, iii,
296, 334, 336.

JOHNSON, Dr. Samuel, reviews the
Duchess of Marlborough 's Account,
i, 360-1 ; introduces Garrick to Cave,
i, 371 ; estimates of Richardson and
Fielding, ii, 130, iii, 157-63, 167; his
Irene, ii, 130; on the reviewing of
books, ii, 132, iii, 188; on Amelia,
ii, 304-5, 338, 347; said to have fab
ricated parliamentary speeches, i, 371,
ii, 353 ; estimate of Thornton, ii,
400, of James Harris, iii, 151; holds
Hill up to scorn, ii, 421 ; his library
compared with Fielding's, iii, 76-7;
Murphy flatters him, iii, 127; Mud-
ford's Critical Enquiry, iii, 201-3;
mentioned, ii, 8, 47, 390, 414, 424.

JOHNSON, Samuel (dancing-mas
ter), i, 79-80.

JOHNSTONE, Mrs. Eliza, iii, 358.

Jonathan Wild, date of writing,
i, 409-12; described, i, 403-4, 424-5;
its purpose, i, 277, 412-4; political
significance, i, 417-25; its irony, i,
280; characters in, i, 415-6; anal
ogy between careers of Walpole and
Wild, i, 410, 417, 420-2, iii, 283; re
vised, i, 411, 423-4; revised edition
published, iii, 9-10; estimate by
Aikin, iii, 196, by Coleridge, ii, 425,
by Keightley, iii, 238, by Scott, iii,
211, by Wells, iii, 249; Taine's ac
quaintance with, iii, 188; in sale of

Fielding's library, iii, 80, 83; men
tioned, ii, 7, 52, 269, iii, 12, 61, 63,
166, 243, 264, 274, 281; bibliog
raphy, iii, 179, 320, 325-6, 328, 333,
340.

JONSON, Ben, i, 107, 112, 140-1, 197,
ii, 365, 434, iii, 78.

Joseph Andrews, date of writing,
i, 396; Fielding discovers himself in,
i, 409, ii, 99; described, i, 316-31;
its scene, ii, 179; its characters, i,
22-4, 41, 45, 47, 49, 168, 176, 241,
307-9, 315, 324-31, 342-50, 377, 392,
396, 410, ii, 2, 159-60, 372, 434, iii,
11, 105, 126, 156, 161, 174, 188; its
humour, i, 331-44, 396, ii, 2-3, 95,
378, 434-7; its relation to Don
Quixote, i, 322-4, 394-5, ii, 136, 205,
414, iii, 11, to Pamela, i, 314-5, 320,
iii, 283, to Shamela, i, 307, to Tom
Jones, ii, 437, to Amelia, ii, 353, 437,
to A Voyage to Lisbon, iii, 60, to
The Vicar of Wakefield, iii, 161, to
The Upholsterer, iii, 126, to The
Rivals, iii, 156; published by Mil
lar, i, 286, 315-6; its format, ii, 7;
the 2d edition, i, 352-5; the 3d and
4th editions, i, 355, 381 ; other edi
tions and translations, i, 355-7, ii, 64,
92, iii, 178-81, 190-2, 199; its recep
tion, i, 357-9, ii, 136; Gibber ridi
culed in, iii, 282; Marivaux imitated
in, i, 321-2; no copy in Fielding's
library, iii, 79; not read by Dr.
Johnson, iii, 158; Charles Edward
Stuart asks for it, ii, 36; Fielding's
own estimate of it, ii, 45-6; the esti
mate of Coleridge, iii, 176, of Mrs.
Delany, ii, 310, of Gilfillan, iii, 227,
of Harris, iii, 152, of Sir John Haw
kins, iii, 163, of Lady Hertford, ii,
116, of Dr. Hill, iii, 157, of La Harpe,
iii, 187, of Lady Luxborough, ii, 127-
8, of Macaulay, iii, 174, of Lady
Mary Montagu, ii, 128, of Hannah

391

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

More, iii, 159, of Dr. John Moore,
iii, 164, of Tom Moore, iii, 204-5, of
Murphy, iii, 133, of Scott, iii, 166,
211, of Shenstone, ii, 127, of Southey,
iii, 205, of Taine, iii, 188-9, of Thack
eray, iii, 175, 213-4, 220; mentioned,
i, 22, 310, 379, 411, ii, 61, 428-9, iii,
167-8, 206, 227; bibliography, iii,
305-6, 328, 331, 361.

Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, see
Voyage.

Journey from this World to the
Next, date of composition, i, 395-6,
410; the first draft, i, 280; a mod-
enmation of Lucian, i, 394-5, 404;
described, i, 396-403 ; its irony com
pared with that of Swift, i, 404;
Allen and Pope complimented in, i,
383; Fielding on the influence of
satire, iii, 278; Fielding's realism
in, iii, 136, 262-3; the Palace of
Death in, ii, 164; translations of,
iii, 179-80; Dickens reads it, iii,
229 ; Tom Moore 's estimate, iii, 205 ;
Scott's estimate of, iii, 166; tagged
by an anonymous Lucianic vision, ii,
4 ; mentioned, i, 411 ; bibliography,
iii, 309, 327-8, 343.

Jupiter's Descent on Earth, i, 386.

KEIGHTLEY, Thomas, ii, 165, 179,
194, 197, iii, 236-8, 246-9.

KENNEDY, Dr. John, ii, 304, 348,
351.

KENBICK, William, ii, 4-5, 387-8,
407, 409-10, 429, iii, 154, 351, 354.

KEYBER, see Shamela.

Kilpar, Memoires du Chevalier de,
see Gain de Montagnae.

KING, Joseph, i, 376-7.

KING, Thomas, iii, 104-5.

KING, Mr., of Bath, ii, 174.

KIPPIS, Dr. Andrew, iii, 148, 204.

KLOPSTOCK, F. G., iii, 191, 194.

KNOX, Vicesimus, iii, 169.

LACY, James, i, 131, 187, 208, 233,
ii, 393, 413.

LAGUEBRE, John, i, 171.

LA HABPE, J. F. de, iii, 187.

LAKE, Eliza, iii, 349-50.

LAMB, Charles, iii, 105, 206, 223.

LAMBABDE, William, ii, 231.

LAMPE, John Frederick, i, 147 n,
iii, 351.

LANE, Thomas, ii, 11, 253, iii, 13.

LANG, Andrew, iii, 253.

LA PLACE, Pierre-Antoine de, ii,
139-40, iii, 179, 181, 183-4, 190, 197.

Law of the Land, iii, 357.

LAWBENCE, Frederick, his Henry
Fielding, iii, 232-8; his List of
Fielding's Works, iii, 125n; quoted
or cited, iii, 340, 343, 346, 348, 359,
362, 366.

LEBECK, cook, original of Fielding's
Heliogabalus, ii, 105.

LEE, Sir John, i, 10.

LEE, Melville, ii, 241.

LEE, Nathaniel, i, 86, 100.

LEE, Sir William, i, 289.

LEEDS, Serjeant, ii, 11.

LEIGH, E. A. Austen, iii, 86.

LENNOX, Charlotte, ii, 414, iii, 16.

LESSING, G. E., iii, 193-4.

Letter to a Noble Lord, i, 370, iii,
343.

Letter-Writers, performed and pub
lished, i, 98; playbill, i, 99; de
scribed, i, 102; not popular, i, 104;
bibliography, iii, 292, 311, 328.

Letters and manuscripts of Field
ing, iii, 358-64.

LEVEBANCE, Giles, iii, 40.

LEVEBIDGE, Kichard, i, 109.

LEWIS, Joseph, i, 50-1.

LEWIS, Mrs. Mary, iii, 71, 73.

LEWIS, Matthew G., iii, 172.

Liberty, i, 384.

LIBEABY, Fielding's, iii, 75-83.

LICHTENBEBG, G. C., iii, 194.

392

I^VDEX

Life and Adventures of a Cat, in,
348.

Life and Death of Common-Sense,
iii, 355.

Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild, see
Jonathan Wild.

LILLO, George, i, 199-202, 217, 256,
ii, 245, iii, 266, 300.

LINDNER, Felix, iii, 333.

LLOYD, Sir Richard, ii, 268, 279-80.

LLOYD, William, i, 12-3.

LOBBAN, J. H., iii, 327.

LOCKE, John, ii, 271, 430, iii, 79.

LOCKER-LAMPSON, Frederick, iii,
153, 364.

London Daily Advertiser (or The
Daily Advertiser), ii, 22, 23, 294, 357,
359, 361, 377, 389-90, 392, 395, 402,
404, 420.

London Daily Post, i, 197, ii, 79;
also cited in footnotes and bibliog
raphy.

London Evening Post, ii, 38, 63, 67,
80, 83, 86, 92. .

London Magazine, i, 166, 409, ii,
35, 52, 106, 129, 137, 157, 224, 266,
278, 296, 309, 336, iii, 93.

Lottery, The, performed, i, 117, ii,
50; published, iii, 294; described,
i, 116-7; bibliography, iii, 293-4, 311,
328.

LOUNSBURY, T. R., iii, 130, 252.

Love and Revenge, i, 78.

Love in Several Masques, described,

1, 54-5, 58, 62-5, 77; its preparation
for the stage, i, 53; Lady Mary
Montagu reads it and sees it per
formed, i, 58, 118; produced, i, 61-

2, 65; Mrs. Oldfield in, iii, 219;
published, i, 62 n, its relation to The
Universal Gallant, i, 172; compared
with Don Quixote in England, i, 70-
1; bibliography, iii, 290, 311, 328.

Lover's Assistant, ii, 52-4, iii, 313.
LOWE, Solomon, ii, 149-50.

LOWELL, James Russell, Fielding's
"artless inadvertence," iii, 92; ad
vises Harriet Beecher Stowe to read
Tom Jones, iii, 230; his address on
Fielding, iii, 251-5.

Loyal Song, ii, 21, 31.

LUCIAN, Dialogues of the Dead
modernized, i, 394; Fielding's pro
posed translation of, iii, 324.

LUN, John, see Rich, John.

LUXBOEOUGH, Lady, friend of the
Rev. Richard Graves, ii, 110, and of
the Rev. John Dalton, ii, 223; reads
Tom Jones, ii, 117, 161; prefers
Joseph Andrews to it, ii, 127; as
cribes Pompey the Little to Fielding,
ii, 172, 304, iii, 346; mentioned, ii,
116, 268.

LYSONS, Daniel, ii, 234.

LYTTELTON, George, Lord, Field
ing's intimacy with, i, 42, 179, 290,
ii, 62, 95, 115, iii, 134, 266; with
Chesterfield establishes Common Sense,
i, 218; Fielding's relation to it, i,
239; praised by Fielding, i, 250,
412, ii, 20, 90; contributes to The
Champion, i, 254; in True Greatness,
i, 289; his party aided by the
Duchess of Marlborough, i, 362; sub
scribes for the Miscellanies, i, 382;
Fielding addresses Liberty to, i, 384;
becomes Lord of the Treasury, ii, 13;
resembled Charles Edward, ii, 37;
Fielding admires his Persian Letters,
ii, 48; Fielding writes a letter in
the manner of, ii, 49; on Fielding's
paraphase of Ovid, ii, 53; in Pere
grine Pickle, ii, 61-2 ; relation to The
Jacobite's Journal, ii, 63; which de
fends him, ii, 79-80; A Letter to the
Tories ascribed to, ii, 80; pelted in
verse and prose, ii, 82-3; recom
mends Fielding as a Justice, ii, 96,
227; Tom Jones dedicated to, ii, 99,
iii, 317, 329; aids Fielding, ii, 100,

393

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

126, iii, 211, 272; guest of Sander
son Miller, ii, 112-3, 116; sees Tom
Jones in manuscript, ii, 114, 180, 216;
arouses curiosity about Tom Jones,
ii, 118, 129; no mention of Tom
Jones in his writings, ii, 127; ad
vises Kichardson about Clarissa, ii,
142; Allworthy as a portrait of, ii,
162; Fielding's letter about Moore,
ii, 244-7, iii, 362; on a committee to
revise the laws relating to felony, ii,
268; gives charity to a baker, ii,
303; probably not a contributor to
The Covent-Garden Journal, ii, 385;
as Littlebones in Old England, ii, 388;
sees no dramatic merit in The Eegi-
cide, ii, 397; pilloried by Smollett,
ii, 398; quoted by Murphy, iii, 135;
his estimate of Fielding, iii, 151, 167-
8; his Dialogues of the Dead, ii, 127,
iii, 160; mentioned, i, 270, ii, 129,
179, iii, 236.
LYTTON, E. Bulwer, Lord, iii, 230.

MACAULAY, Thomas Babington, de
fence of Fielding, iii, 173-5.

MACCLESFIELD, Lord, i, 38-9.

MACDANIEL, informer, iii, 245-6.

MACKLIN, Charles, employed in
trifling parts, i, 92, 148; in The
Author's Farce, i, 150; in Don
Quixote in England, i, 157 ; in Euri-
dice, i, 206; in The Wedding Day,
i, 358, 374-5, ii, 411, iii, 143-4; in
The Virgin Unmask' d, i, 369; in
Miss Lucy, i, 369; Foote mimics
him, ii, 89 ; his Pasquin turn 'd Draw-
cansir, ii, 410-14, iii, 351-2; in The
Coffce-House Politician, ii, 410; ri
valry with Garrick, ii, 411 ; a mem
ber of the Eobinhood Society, ii, 417,
419; mentioned, i, 61.

MACKLIN, Mrs., i, 369, 374.

MADDOX, Isaac, Bishop of Worces
ter, ii, 255, 257, 269, 366, iii, 266, 324.

MADDOX, acrobat, ii, 423.

Malheurs du Sentiment, iii, 349.

MALLET, David, iii, 17.

Man of Taste, see Miller, James.

MANN, Horace, i, 369.

MANSFIELD, Lord, see Murray, Wil
liam.

Manuscripts, Fielding's, iii, 358-66;
see also Library.

MARCHMONT, Countess of, ii, 134,
iii, 345.

Marforio, i, 191-2; see also Rich,
John.

MARIE Antoinette, her copies of
Fielding's novels, iii, 179.

MARIVAUX, P. C. de, i, 321-2, ii,
433, iii, 135 n, 160, 169.

MARLBOROUGH, Charles, Duke of, i,
172, 382, iii, 299.

MARLBOROUGH, John, Duke of, i,
362, 397, 414, ii, 72, 258.

MARLBOROUGH, Sarah Jennings,
Duchess of, i, 316, 360-2, ii, 174, iii,
307, 334, 361.

MARLOWE, Christopher, i, 62, iii,
232.

MARTIN, Colonel, ii, 38-9.

MARTYN, Benjamin, i, 161.

MASON, William, ii, 375, 381, 432.

Masquerade, The, i, 53, 60-1, 111,
296, iii, 289-90, 350.

MATHIAS, Thomas James, iii, 172.

MAUDE, Mr. and Mrs. Cyril, iii, 358.

MAZARINE, Duchess of, ii, 170.

MEAD, Dr. Richard, i, 145, iii, 76.

Memoires du Chevalier de Kilpar,
see Gain de Montagnac.

MENNECHET, Edouard, iii, 185-6,
357.

MERCIER, Louis S., iii, 349.

METHUEN, Sir Paul, iii, 82.

MEYRIONET, Chevalier de Saint-
Marc de, iii, 66-7.

MIDDLESEX, Earl of, iii, 3.

394

INDEX

MIDDLETON, Dr. Conyers, i, 306-7,
310.

MIDFORD, Robert and Barbara, i,
24-6, 39.

MILDMAY, Carew Hervey, ii, 166-7.

MILLAR, Andrew, publishes History
of Charles XII, i, 285, iii, 337, Joseph
Andrews, i, 315-6, 352-6, ii, 119, iii,
305-6, 361, Miss Lucy in Town, i, 316,
368, iii, 307, 361, The Wedding Day,
i, 374, iii, 308, Miscellanies, i, 380-1,
iii, 398-9,' Ovid's Art of Love Para
phrased, ii, 52, iii, 313, Tom Jones,
ii, 108, 117-23, 125, 160, 226, 307, iii,
317, 361-2, Amelia, ii, 304-8, 312, iii,
9, 321, Jonathan Wild, iii, 9, 325-6,
Charge to the Grand Jury, iii, 319,
True State of Penlez, iii, 319-20,
Enquiry into the Causes of Eol)l)eries,
iii, 320-1, Interposition of Providence,
iii, 324, Provision for the Poor, iii,
325, Case of Elisabeth Canning, iii,
425, Voyage to Lisbon, iii, 84-8, 326-
7, Murphy's edition of Fielding's
Works, ii, 306, iii, 71, 73, 127, 134,
328, Sarah Fielding's David Simple,
ii, 7-8, iii, 309, 328-9, Familiar Let
ters, ii, 46, iii, 314, Cleopatra and
Octavia, ii, 52; other books pub
lished by, ii, 38, 106, 379, 414; Vin
dication of the Duchess of Marl-
borough, assigned to Millar with Miss
Lucy and Joseph Andrews but not
published by him, i, 316, iii, 307,
361 ; Fielding sends him cider, iii,
40-1, and onions, iii, 57; his lega
cies to Fielding's children, iii, 117;
mentioned, i, 404, ii, 18, 42, 392-3,
iii, 10, 56, 310-2.

MILLER, Rev. George, ii, 113.

MILLER, James, i, 173 n, iii, 336,
341.

MILLER, Philip, ii, 53, 174.

MILLER, Sanderson, ii, 112-4, 116,
164, 173, 180, iii, 266.

MILLS, John, i, 63, 142, ii, 416.

MILTON, John, i, 292, 399, 401, ii,
19, 131, 251, 365, iii, 79, 178.

MISAUBIN, Dr. John, i, 131-2, iii,
14, 244, 296.

MISAVAN, John, ii, 156-7.

Miscellanies, proposals for print
ing, i, 380; the subscribers to, i,
244, 363, 381-3, ii, 42, 47, 266; pub
lished, i, 381; described, i, 383-425;
on Fielding's poems in, ii, 379, iii,
153, 213; author's preface, i, 383,
iii, 128, 136, 144, 213; preface and
poems reprinted by Browne, iii, 129;
in Fielding's library, iii, 80, 83;
mentioned, i, 165, 207, 257, 298, 351,
368, 375, ii, 1-2, 4, 46, 99, iii, 9-10,
103, 196; bibliography, iii, 308-9,
332, 342; see also Jonathan Wild
and Journey from this World.

Miser, described, i, 144-6; per
formed, i, 143, 146, 337-8, 369, ii, 50,
iii, 153, 233-4; dedicated to the Duke
of Richmond, i, 143, 250; Goldsmith
sees it, iii, 153; praised in The Gen
tleman's Magazine, i, 145; men
tioned, iii, 103, 235; bibliography,
iii, 297, 311, 328.

Miss Lucy in Town, described, i,
368, ii, 202; performed, i, 369-70,
374; published, i, 316, 369; bib
liography, iii, 307, 328, 343, 361.

Mist's WeeTcly Journal, i, 89, 409.

MITCHELL, Sir Andrew, ii, 305-7,
309.

Mode Doctor, written, i, 125; de
scribed, i, 130-2, 145; rehearsed, i,
130; performed, i, 131, 202, 217,
371, iii, 106, 153; Goldsmith sees it,
iii, 153; Garrick composes an Epi
logue for it, i, 371 ; Fielding com
pliments the Gibbers in the preface,
i, 115; dedicated to Dr. Misaubin,
iii, 244; attacked by The Grub-
street Journal, i, 135; Fielding's

395

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

reply, i, 139; mentioned, i, 144;
bibliography, iii, 296, 311, 328.

Modern Husband, announced, i, 95;
circulates in manuscript, i, 118, iii,
144; submitted to Lady Mary Mon
tagu, i, 118; performed, i, 119-21;
described, i, 119-21, 171 ; its recep
tion, i, 121-5, 129, 365, ii, 325; pub
lished, i, 121, 140; Fielding mock
ingly condemns it, i, 134; drawn
upon for Amelia, ii, 325, 335, 351, iii,
278; bibliography, iii, 294, 311, 328,
359.

Modish Couple, i, 118, iii, 294.

MOLIERE, Fielding reads him, i, 63,
iii, 78 ; and praises him, ii, 433 ;
Barthe compares him with Fielding,
iii, 187; wrote a farce in three days,
iii, 273; English translation of his
Comedies, i, 144, iii, 335-6; his Tar-
tuff 'e and Fielding's Old Debauchees,
i, 126; his Medecin malgre lui and
Fielding's Mock Doctor, i, 130-2, 135,
139, 144-5, 154, iii, 296; his L'Avare
and Fielding's Miser, i, 144-5, 154,
338, iii, 297; his Mariage Force and
Garrick's Irish Widow, iii, 106; his
Precieuses Ridicules and Miller's Man
of Taste, iii, 341; mentioned, i, 137.

MOLLOY, Charles, i, 239.

MONBODDO, Lord, iii, 168.

MONTAGNAC, see Gain de Monta-
gnac.

MONTAGU, Elizabeth, ii, 127, iii,
160-1.

MONTAGU, George, ii, 227.

MONTAGU, Lady Mary Wortley,
Fielding's cousin, i, 58; captivated
by Fielding, i, 58; befriends him,
i, 58, 74, iii, 244; reads Love in
Several Masques, i, 58, 118; Field
ing dedicates it to her, i, 62, iii, 290;
reads Modern Husband, i, 118-21 ;
Fielding's letters to, i, 118-9, iii, 359;
Moliere's Comedies dedicated to, i,

144; reads Joseph Andrews and
Tom Jones, i, 358, ii, 128-9; letter
about Charles Edward, ii, 36-7; sub
scribes for Familiar Letters, ii, 47;
Fielding praises her, ii, 48; 'on the
character of Fielding, ii, 61, 328, iii,
109-10, 237, 254; on Fielding's sec
ond wife, iii, 137; guessed Roderick
Random was by Fielding, ii, 303-4,
iii, 345; thought A Voyage to Lis
bon trivial, iii, 93-4; mentioned, ii,
11, iii, 198, 215, 268.

MONTAIGNE, i, 389, ii, 226, iii, 78.

MONTFORT, Lord, ii, 289.

Monthly Review, ii, 132, 134, 231,
267, 309, 406, iii, 85, 93, 98, 153, 348.

MONTRESOR, Colonel James Gabriel,
iii, 119-21.

MOORE, Edward, Fielding praises
his Selim, ii, 90, 244, and The Found
ling, ii, 90; The Foundling per
formed, ii, 107, 218; recommends
him to Lyttelton, ii, 244-7; his in
timacy with Fielding, ii, 302, iii, 4,
137, 265.

MOORE, Dr. John, iii, 163-4.

MOORE, Thomas, iii, 204.

MORE, Hannah, iii, 159-60, 172.

MORGAN, J. Pierpont, iii, 179, 361-
2.

MORGAN, Macnamara, ii, 4-5, 154,
387, iii, 343.

MORRISON, Alfred, iii, 365.

MOSSOP, Henry, ii, 415-6.

MOUNTPORT, William, i, 107.

MUDFORD, William, iii, 74, 201-4,
228.

MULSO, Hester, ii, 347.

MURPHY, Arthur, as an editor, iii,
126-8, 131; as a biographer, iii, 131;
his edition of the Works of Fielding,
ii, 306, iii, 71, 125, 127-31, 196, 328,
330, 332; his life of Fielding, iii,
132-50, 151-3, 188, 195-9, 203, 209,
220, 233-4, 239, 242, 249-50, 254, 259-

396

INDEX

60, 266, 269; Fielding's birthplace,
i, 16; Fielding's early education,
i, 22; Fielding at Eton, i, 42, and
at Leyden, i, 66, 72; Fielding's dis
sipation, i, 57, 175, 244, iii, 237-9;
Fielding reads Cicero, i, 46; Field
ing's interest in Crown law, i, 246, iii,
83, 366; Fielding's attention to his
legal duties, ii, 1; Fielding's essays
in The Champion, i, 254; Fielding's
political tracts, i, 282 ; Parson Trul-
liber, i, 308; The Wedding Day, i,
374; Journey from this World, i, 403;
A Voyage to Lisbon, iii, 85, 88;
Comment on BolingbroTce, iii, 18-9;
Mrs. Fielding's fortune, i, 174; her
illness and death, ii, 10-11; Field
ing's second marriage, ii, 61-2;
Fielding hospitality, ii, 302; Wil
liam Young's absent-mindedness, i,
345; sets straight a passage in Tom
Jones, ii, 325.; gets Fielding's re
vised copy of Amelia, ii, 356; writes
for The Covent-Garden Journal, ii,
371-3, 378; has a file of it, iii, 204;
edits The Gray's Inn Journal, ii, 372-
3, 424; commends Garrick, ii, 426;
Hogarth's portrait of Fielding, iii,
72 ; Allen 's benefactions to Field
ing 's children, iii, 117; The Uphol
sterer, iii, ]26, 154, 156, 352.

MURPHY, James Cavanah, iii, 66-8.

MURRAY, William (Lord Mans
field), ii, 5.

MUSATJS, J. K. A.,, iii, 192-3.

MUSGRAVE, William, i, 422.

NAPTON, Agnes de, i, 2, 4.

NEVILLE, Eev. Christopher, iii, 68-9.

NEWCASTLE, Thomas, Duke of, in
The Welsh Opera, i, 107; Perceval's
attack on, ii, 93; the Penlez case,
ii, 236-7, 239; grants John Fielding
£200 a year, ii, 243, iii, 118; Field
ing's letter recommending Pentlow,

ii, 253; asks Fielding's advice as to
street robberies, ii, 283-4, iii, 7-8;
the Canning case, ii, 289-91, 299, iii,
363 ; in A Voyage to Lisbon, iii,
91 ; John Fielding dedicates a pam
phlet to him, and is knighted, iii, 114;
Hawkins on his relation to Fielding,
iii, 162; mentioned, i, 328, ii, 13.

NEWDIGATE, Sir Roger, iii, 82.

NEWNHAM, Eobert de, i, 4.

NEWTON, Thomas, i, 351, 378.

NICHOLS, John, iii, 73, 147-8, 204.

NORTHUMBERLAND, Duke of, iii,
108-9, 329.

NOURSE, John, Fielding's letter
asking him to look for a house, i,
248-9, iii, 360; Fielding's letter
about True Greatness and The Ver-
noniad, i, 288, 291, iii, 331, 361; a
partner in The Champion, i, 250, 285,
288; pays Fielding for The History
of Charles XII, i, 284, iii, 360, and
publishes it, i, 285, iii, 337; prints
Histoire de Tom Jones, ii, 140.

NUTT, Mrs., ii, 64, iii, 316.

Ode to the New Year, a parody by
Fielding, i, 211.

ODELL, Thomas, i, 76, 202.

Of Good Nature, see Good Nature.

O'HARA, Kane, iii, 154-5, 355.

Old Debauchees, date of writing,
i, 125; described, i, 126-7, 132, iii,
142; published, i, 125, 134, iii, 359;
performed, i, 127, 129-31, ii, 32; at
tacked in The Grub-street Journal, i,
125, 132-4, 14Q; Fielding defends
it, i, 136-7; bibliography, iii, 295,
311, 328.

Old England, ii, 13, 61, 63, 67, 79,
83, 86, 89, 93, 95, 102, 114, 119-20,
129, 140, 152-4, 156, 164, 233, 240,
267, 339, 387-9, iii, 262.

Old Man taught Wisdom: or, The
Virgin Unmask 'd, commonly known

397

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

by sub-title, performed, i, 170, 217,
368-71; published, iii, 298; de
scribed, i, 170; Hogarth's ticket, i,
171 ; relation to Miss Lucy in Town,
i, 368; bibliography, iii, 298-9, 311,
328.

OLDFIELD, Mrs., in The ProvoTc'd
Husband, i, 61, 89; in Love in
Several Masques, i, 62-3, iii, 219;
The Wedding Day intended for, i, 74,
373.

OLIVER, Eev. Mr., i, 22-4, 175, 308.

Opera of Operas, see Hatchett, W.,
and Haywood, Mrs. Eliza.

Opposition, The, i, 298, 301, 422,
iii, 305, 334.

ORFORD, Countess of, ii, 47.

OSON, Jan, i, 69.

OTWAY, Thomas, ii, 229.

Ovid's Art of Love Paraphrased,
see Lover's Assistant.

OXFORD, Robert Harley, Earl of, ii,
72.

PACEY, Henry Butler, ii, 253.

PAGE, Sir Francis, ii, 3.

PALMER, John, iii, 126, 169.

Pamela, see Shamela and Joseph
Andrews.

PARSONS, Humphrey, i, 395.

Particular Account of Cardinal
Fleury's Journey, ii, 4, iii, 343.

Pasquin, sketched, i, 177; de
scribed, i, 180-7, 219, 230, 299, 408,
415, ii, 59; rejected by Rich, i, 178;
performed, i, 180, 187-9, 191, iii, 146,
155; Lacy acts in, i, 233; its re
ception, i, 188-91, 195, 197-8, 202-3,
205, 216-7, iii, 140; published, i, 187,
192; A Key to Pasquin, i, 189;
Marforio, a satire on Pasquin, i, 191-
2; Aaron Hill on Pasquin, i, 195;
Hogarth's benefit ticket, i, 196-7;
did Pope attend a performance? i,
196-7, 365; should be acted in every

borough, i, 218; cartooned, i, 270-1;
Thornton ridicules it, ii, 401 ; in
Gibber's Apology, i, 272; Tumble-
Down Dick, a continuation of it, i,
193; emerges as Sheridan's Critic,
iii, 156; Murphy's estimate of it,
iii, 133, 140-1; Fanny Burney's esti
mate of it, iii, 155; Warton's, iii,
155; Thackeray could not have read
it, iii, 214; mentioned, i, 277, iii,
103; bibliography, iii, 299, 311, 328.

Pasquin (newspaper), i, 179.

PASQUIN (pseudonym of Fielding),
i, 179, 220-1, 238, 260, iii, 265.

Patriot, The, i, 262.

Paysan Parvenu, see Marivaux.

PEARCE, Daniel, ii, 167.

PEELE, George, iii, 232.

PELHAM, Henry, ii, 13, 51, 62-3,
74, 79, 82, 93, 95, 173, 271-2, 388, iii,
10, 15, 17, 266, 325.

PEMBROKE, Countess of, i, 382.

PENDARVES, Mary Granville, see
Delany.

PENLEZ, Bosavern, ii, 236-40, 242,
247, 251, iii, 128-9, 319, 332.

PENTLOW, William, ii, 253-4.

PEPYS, Samuel, i, 10.

PERCEVAL, John, 2d Earl of Eg-
mont, ii, 93-4, iii, 339.

PERKINS, Hutton, ii, 249, iii, 363.

Phaeton in the Suds, see Tumble-
Down Diclc.

PHILALETHES (pseudonym of Field
ing), i, 135-9, iii, 296.

PHILIDOR, A. D., iii, 181, 352.

PHILIPS, Ambrose, i, 127, 161.

PHILLIMORE, Sir Robert, iii, 362.

PHILLIPS, Thomas, i, 199, 202.

Philosophical Transactions, iii, 329.

PHINN, Thomas, iii, 73.

PIERCE, William, ii, 303, 375.

PINKETHMAJST, William, i, 76, 78.

PIOZZI, Mrs., ii, 304.

PITT, Thomas, see Freeman, Ralph.

398

INDEX

PITT, William, at Eton with Field
ing, i, 41-2; subscribes for the Mis
cellanies, i, 382; guest with Fielding
at Sanderson Miller's, ii, 112-6, 180,
216; arouses curiosity about Tom
Jones, and commends it, ii, 118, 127,
129; makes no mention of Fielding
in his writings, ii, 127; mentioned,
i, 179, 249, 376, 387, ii, 13, 63, 173,
268, iii, 266.

PITT, Mrs. William, ii, 47.

Plain Truth, a poem by Fielding,
i, 383-4, Hi, 327, 334.

Plain Truth, a political dialogue in
prose, i, 297-8, iii, 338.

Plan of the Universal Register
Office, see Universal Begister Office.

PLAUTUS, i, 338, iii, 297.

PLAYER, Thomas, iii, 34.

Plutus, i, 363-6, iii, 307, 334.

POE, E. A., iii, 230.

POINSINET, Antoine, iii, 181-2, 352.

Pompey the Little, see Coventry,
Francis.

POPE, Alexander, read by Fielding
when a boy, i, 45, 47; quarrel with
Ealph, i, 74-5; Fielding's pseudo
nym Scriblerus Secundus, i, 80; his
attack upon Mrs. Haywood, i, 84;
in The Champion, i, 283; in True
Greatness, i, 288-9; in The Ver-
noniad, i, 291 ; in Plutus, i, 363,
365-7; in Journey from this World,
i, 399; puts Cooke into The Dunciad,
i, 96; attacks Gibber in The Grub-
street Journal, i, 122-3, 366; attacks
Fielding, i, 123, 132-4, 160; satirizes
Walter, i, 176, and Lord Hervey, i,
310; did he see Pasquin? i, 196-7;
praises Ralph Allen, i, 376, and visits
him, i, 377; writes about the Mis
cellanies, i, 382-3; Fielding imitates
him, i, 83, 384-5, ii, 82; Smollett
imitates him, ii, 398; Warton's edi
tion of and life, ii, 45, iii, 132; friend

ship with Mildmay, ii, 166; quoted by
Fielding, ii, 400; Fielding rarely
drew satirical portraits, iii, 279, and
no malicious ones, ii, 430; in Sir
John Fielding's jests, iii, 115, 265;
Beattie asks Lyttelton about him, iii,
151; appears in Hogarth's Distrest
Poet, iii, 270; Blast upon Blast and
The Cudgel not by Fielding, iii, 342;
Fielding's opinion of, i, 134, 264, 365-
6, ii, 84; relations between Fielding
and, i, 366-7, 377; mentioned, i, 58,
99, ii, 82, 116, 228.

POPE, F. J., documents relating to
Fielding, i, 36 n, iii, 249.

POPPLE, William, i, 171, 195.

PORCUPINE Pelagius, see Kenrick,
William.

PORCUPINUS Pelagius, see Morgan,
Macnamara.

PORTLAND, Duke of, ii, 303, iii, 5.

PRATT, Charles, see Camden, Lord.

PRATT, Samuel J., iii, 354.

PRESTON, Sir Richard, i, 9.

PRICE, Henry, i, 165-6.

PRIDEAUX, Humphrey, ii, 102.

PRIDEAUX, W. F., ii, 57 n, iii, 73.

PRIOR, Matthew, ii, 228, iii, 163.

PRITCHARD, Mrs., i, 374, iii, 169.

Prompter, The, i, 171, 188-92, 195,
252.

Proper Answer to a Late Scurrilous
Libel, ii, 17, 74, 76, iii, 310, 315, 334.

Proposal for making an Effectual
Provision for the Poor, ii, 271-4, 279,
iii, 6, 128, 325, 333.

Public Advertiser, ii, 224 n, 285,
428-9, iii, 17n, 64, 83, 324, 347-8.

PUISIEUX, Philippe F. de, iii, 179.

PULTENEY, William, Earl of Bath,
opposes Walpole, i, 103, 179, 270;
writes for The Craftsman, i, 104; in
The Welsh Opera, i, 106-7; Field
ing's sympathies with, i, 116, 290;
Lord Hervey deserts him, i, 182;

399

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

opposes the Licensing Act, i, 229-31 ;
turns courtier and accepts a peerage,
i, 411-2; mentioned, iii, 352.
PYNE, W. H., iii, 147.

QUIN, James, i, 171, 384, ii, 50, 89,
376, iii, 43, 91.

BABELAIS, Francois, ii, 433.

EAPTOE, Miss, see Clive, Mrs. Cath
erine.

EALEIGH, Sir Walter, iii, 253.

EALPH, James, goes to England
with Franklin, i, 74; quarrels with
Pope, i, 74-5; Fielding's relations
with, i, 74-6; writes prologue for
The Temple Beau, i, 76-7; in The
Battle of the Poets, i, 96-7; with
Fielding at The Little Theatre, i,
178; The Astrologer, i, 198; writes
denunciations of the ministry, i, 251 ;
associated with Fielding on The
Champion, i, 250, 254-7, 259-60, 262-
3, 301, iii, 1, 280; Curll dedicates a
pamphlet to, i, 274; may have trans
lated the History of Charles XII, i,
287; replies to the Duchess of Marl-
borough, i, 360; not a contributor
to The Covent-Garden Journal, ii,
385; his History of England, iii, 77;
mentioned, i, 297-8.

EAMSAY, Allan, ii, 133, 161, 298.

EANBY, Dr. John, ii, 173, 195 n,
290 n, 355-6, 379, iii, 7, 266.

EANELAGH, Lady, ii, 170.

Rape upon Eape, see Coffee-House
Politician.

EAPHA, Anne or Eleanor, see Field
ing, Anne.

Rapsody, i, 87; see also Swift,
Jonathan.

EEDMAN, shopkeeper, ii, 303.

EEED, Isaac, iii, 330.

EEED, Joseph, iii, 169-70, 182, 353.

EEEVE, Clara, iii, 171-2, 175.

BEGXARD, Jean F., i, 154, iii, 297.

Eehearsal, The, see Buckingham.

Rehearsal of Kings, i, 208-10, iii,
336.

Remedy of Affliction, i, 388, iii,
329.

Remembrancer, The, ii, 77.

EEYNOLDS, John, ii, 269.

EEYNOLDS, Sir Joshua, iii, 161.

EHODES, Ambrose (father), i, 50-2.

EHODES, Ambrose (son), i, 50-2.

EICCOBONI, Mme., iii, '179, 184.

EICH, Eli2abeth, ii, 244.

EICH, John, at Lincoln 's Inn Fields,
i, 58, 83, 153; at Covent Garden, i,
143, 153, 156, 177, iii, 393, 411; re
jects Pasquin, i, 178; satirized in
Pasquin, i, 185; quarrel with Field
ing, i, 191-5, 204, 269; Marforio,
i, 191-2; rejects The Wedding Day,
i, 373; revives The Harlequin Sor
cerer, ii, 229; rejects Hill's Orpheus,
ii, 389-90; rivalry with Garrick, ii,
422-3, 426; mentioned, ii, 377.

EICH, Sir Eobert, ii, 244.

EICHARDSON, Samuel, Sarah Field
ing's friendship with, i, 20, ii, 61,
116, 350, iii, 38, 112-3, 282; sub
scribes to The Familiar Letters, but
not to the Miscellanies, ii, 47; the
Collier sisters write to him, ii, 116,
iii, 38, 95-6; Thomas Edwards writes
to him, iii, 97; keeps letters from his
admirers, i, 313, 357 ;< on Joseph
Andrews, i, 344, ii, 159; on David
Simple, ii, 8; on Tom Jones, ii, 141-
50, 161, 215, 218, 350, iii, 228; on
Amelia, ii, 349-51; Scott quotes
what he says of Fielding, iii, 210;
his estimate of Fielding, ii, 8, iii,
159, 195-6; Dr. Johnson committed
to his interests, ii, 130, iii, 157-60;
championed by The Gentleman's
Magazine, ii, 130-1 ; Fielding ex
tends olive branch to, ii, 90, and
praises him, ii, 90, 141-2; dislikes

400

INDEX

his epistolary style, ii, 48; his only
fling at, iii, 282; Fielding quotes
him, ii, 437; protests against his
formal morality, iii, 188; his atti
tude towards Fielding, iii, 157;
Fielding's estimate of, iii, 63-4, 282-
3; Boswell prefers Fielding to him,
iii, 161; compared with Fielding, ii,
127, 135, iii, 153, 159, 275; the num
ber of translations of his works, iii,
178; his influence on German fiction,
iii, 191-2, 194; his influence fades,
iii, 177; Clarissa, i, 143, ii, 159; ri
valry with Tom Jones, ii, 126; Pam
ela, i, 301-2, ii, 323; adds to it, ii,
46; parodied, i, 303, 309-10, 312-3
(see also Shamela) ; its relation to
Joseph Andrews, i, 316-9, ii, 99; its
art, ii, 158; its popularity, i, 355,
357; the writing of it, iii, 273;
Fielding ridicules Mr. B. in, i, 317,
320; Sir Charles Grandison, ii, 348;
Mrs. Barbauld's estimate of him, iii,
199-201; William H. Brown's, iii,
175; Fanny Burney's, iii, 160;
Canning's, iii, 173; Chalmers's, iii,
204; Coleridge's, iii, 176; Mrs.
Delany's, ii, 310; Henley's, iii, 254,
256; Johnson's, iii, 167; Hester
Mulso's, ii, 347; Southey's, iii, 205;
Stephen's, iii, 239-40; Texte's, iii,
178; his slur upon Charlotte Field
ing, ii, 218, iii, 210, 235, 238, 256;
no novels by him in Fielding 's library,
iii, 79; mentioned, i, 416, iii, 60.

EICHMOND, Charles, 2d Duke of, i,
143-4, 250, 382, 384, iii, 266, 297.

RICHMOND, Charles, son of the 2d
Duke of, i, 391.

RICHMOND, Duchess of, i, 144, 382.

RIGBY, Richard, ii, 227-8, 287, iii,
137.

Roast Beef of Old England, i, 109,
157, 235, iii, 153.

ROBBINS, Alfred J., iii, 340.

ROBERTS, James, bookseller, pub
lishes Masquerade, iii, 290, Author's
Farce, iii, 291, Tom Thumb, iii, 291,
Tragedy of Tragedies, iii, 292, Let
ter-Writers, iii, 292, Grub-Street
Opera, iii, 298, Old Debauchees, iii,
294, Historical Register, iii, 301, Full
Vindication of the Duchess of Marl-
borough, iii, 307, Papers Proper to be
Eead, i, 390, iii, 308, Opera of
Operas, iii, 351.

ROBERTS, James, engraver, iii, 73.

ROBERTS, John, i, 187, 196, 200, 204,
208, 217.

ROBERTS, Mrs., of Ryde, iii, 38-9,
96.

ROBINSON, Luke, ii, 253.

ROCHESTER, Lord, i,.390.

Roderick Random, see Smollett.

ROGERS, Samuel, iii, 156.

ROLT, Richard, ii, 63.

ROOKES, Mary, i, 29, 35, 37.

RORKE, Kate, iii, 358.

ROSCOE, Thomas, his edition of
Fielding, iii, 74, 128-9, 220; Thack
eray reads it, iii, 213; and reviews
it, iii, 214, 217-8; bibliography, iii,
331-2, 361, 366.

Roue de Fortune, see Lake, Eliza.

ROUSSEAU, J. J., iii, 187.

ROWE, Nicholas, i, 197, ii, 50.

ROXBOROUGH, Duke of, iii, 3, 266.

RUSSEL, editor of The Grub-street
Journal, i, 122.

RUSSELL, Lord John, iii, 121.

RYDER, Sir Dudley, i, 355.

St. James's Chronicle, iii, 107,
108n, 170 n.

St. James's Evening Post, i, 355 n,
ii, 117, 121, 123, 223, 224 n, 231 n,
237 n, 238 n, iii, 28 n.

ST. JOHN, Sir Paulet, ii, 166, 196.

SAINTSBURY, G. E. B., iii, 253-4,
333-5.

401

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Salisbury Journal, ii, 167.

SALMOX, Thomas (or Nathaniel),
i, 100.

SALT, lawyer, ii, 287-8, 294, 297-8.

SANDYS, Samuel, i, 270-1.

SAVAGE, Kichard, ii, 116.

SCABBOX, Paul, i, 330.

Scheme for Raising . . . Money, iii,
344.

SCHILLER, iii, 194.

SCHRODER, F. L., iii, 356.

Scots Magazine, i, 409 n, ii, 386.

SCOTT, Sir Walter, on the reception
of Tom Jones, ii, 126; on its art, ii,
177, 211, iii, 133, 207-8; on Field
ing's low life, ii, 216; on Eigby's
anecdote of Fielding, ii, 228; on the
publication of Amelia, ii, 305; calls
Amelia a continuation of Tom Jones,
ii, 323; parallel between Smollett
and Fielding, iii, 166-7, 209; Taine
depicts him as a realist, iii, 188-9;
his estimate of Fielding, iii, 209-13 ;
Thackeray on his art, iii, 215; his
ignorance of law, iii, 228 ; Charlotte
Bronte's estimate of his novels, iii,
231 ; misquotes the title of The
Jacobite's Journal, iii, 233; men
tioned, ii, 201.

SCRIBLERUS SECUNDUS, pseudonym
of Fielding, i, 80, 99-100, 110, iii,
290-3.

SCRIBLERUS TERTIUS, pseudonym of
Thomas Cooke, i, 96, iii, 350, and of
another versifier, i, 113 n.

SCRIBLERUS THEATRICUS, i, 161.

SECKER, Thomas, ii, 346.

SEDGLY, Ben, ii, 266-7, 409.

SEEDO, Mr., i, 117.

SEGUR, A. J. P. de, iii, 185, 356.

SELWIX, William, ii, 242.

Serious Address to the People of
Great Britain, ii, 14-5, 17, iii, 130,
310.

SHADWELL, Thomas, i, 140.

SHAFTESBURY, Countess of, i, 382.

SHAFTESBURY, Earl of, ii, 212, 221,
iii, 19, 79, 163, 169.

SHAKESPEARE, William, Fielding
reads him in boyhood, i, 47, iii, 78;
"a name unknown" to Fielding, i,
112; made over by Colley Gibber,
i, 150, 212, ii, 432, iii, 281-2; word-
confusions in, i, 308; Warburton's
edition of his plays, ii, 131, 432;
Theobald's edition, ii, 432; depicts
characters from real life, ii, 207, iii,
264; uncertainty of birth as a motif,
ii, 218; his Dogberry, ii, 252; his
representation of a terrible death, ii,
264; compared with Eacine, ii, 375,
432 ; as a humorist, ii, 433 ; in
„ France and Germany, iii, 178, 193-4;
Johnson on how he should be read,
iii, 203; his knowledge of law, iii,
228; Charlotte Bronte on his come
dies, iii, 231 ; breaks the barriers of
convention, iii, 259 ; his repugnance
to tobacco, iii, 260; writes The
Merry Wives in a fortnight, iii, 273;
his Mrs. Quickly, iii, 275; mentioned,
i, 197, 204, 399, ii, 407, iii, 31, 215,
245, 255.

Shamela, Fielding's tutor in, i, 23,
308; Fielding's authorship of, i, 23,
303-9; described, i, 310-3, 320, ii,
160, 437, iii, 63; Parson Williams
in, i, 328; bibliography, iii, 283,
303-4.

SHARP, J., bookseller, ii, 404.

Sharpe's London Magazine, iii, 232.

SHEXSTOXE, William, ii, 110, 117,
127, 128 n, iii, 346.

SHERIDAX, E. B., retouches The
Fathers, iii, 104; produces it, iii,
105-8; incidents and characters ap
propriated from Fielding's novels and
plays, i, 340, iii, 156-7.

SHERLOCK, Thomas, Bishop, ii, 155.

SHUTER, Edward, iii, 169.

402

INDEX

SIDNEY, Sir Philip, iii, 156.

Sir Peevy Pet, i, 209, iii, 336.

SKERRETT, Maria, i, 107, 408, 423.

SMART, Christopher, his estimate of
Fielding, ii, 133, iii, 266; publishes
The Student, ii, 266, 400, iii, 321;
his poems in The Covent-Garden Jour
nal, ii, 381-2; Hill's interview with
Fielding, ii, 396; burlesqued by Ken-
rick, ii, 409-10, and by Macklin, ii,
413; in Hill's The Impertinent, ii,
421-2, 424, 426; epitaph on Field
ing, iii, 110.

SMITH, Adam, ii, 266.

SMITH, Charlotte, iii, 206.

SMITH, John (thief), ii, 391.

SMITH, Samuel, ii, 167.

SMOLLETT, Tobias, says the Dutch
lack humour, i, 70; Fielding and
The True Patriot, ii, 18; The Tears
of Scotland, ii, 57; on Fielding's
second marriage, ii, 61-2, iii, 137;
anecdote of Jacobite sportsmen, ii,
66; Fielding reads Roderick Ean-
dom, ii, 91 ; Lady Mary Montagu
thought Fielding wrote it, ii, 303, iii,
345; Peregrine Tickle, ii, 61, 312;
on Amelia, ii, 339; attacks Fielding
in retaliation for banter, ii, 393, 397-
8, 402, iii, 198; burlesqued by
Thornton, ii, 404, and by Kenrick, ii,
408 ; on Dr. Thumpscull, iii, 3 ; his
portrait, iii, 71, 74; his fame, iii,
153 ; Sheridan 's estimate of his
novels, iii, 356; his estimate of
Fielding, ii, 400, iii, 157; Fanny
Burney's estimate of, iii, 160; Dr.
John Moore's estimate of, iii, 163-4;
William Godwin's estimate of, iii,
164-6; Scott's estimate of, iii, 166-
7, 208-9; Crabbe's estimate of, iii,
170; Taine's estimate of, iii, 188;
the humour of Dickens akin to his,
iii, 229; Stephen's estimate of, iii,
240; Henley's estimate of, iii, 254;

compared with Swift and Fielding,
iii, 276; his Faithful Narrative, ii,
397-9, iii, 346; mentioned, iii, 175.

Some Papers Proper to be Bead
before . . . , i, 390, iii, 308.

SOMERSET, Duchess of, see Hert
ford, Lady.

Sot, The, see Arne.

SOUTH, Dr. Bobert, ii, 437, iii, 19.

SOUTHEY, Eobert, iii, 97, 122, 205,
232.

SOUTHWELL, Lord, i, 56.

Speech made in the Censorial Court,
ii, 405-6, iii, 347.

SPENCER, Lady, iii, 105-6.

Spring-Garden Journal, ii, 425, 429
n.

SQUIRE, Samuel, ii, 88.

Squire Badger, see Arne.

SQUIRES, Mary, ii, 286-9, 292, 294-
5, 297, 299, iii, 325.

STANHOPE, Bridget, see Fielding,
Bridget (Stanhope).

STANHOPE, William, 1st Earl of
Harrington, see Harrington.

STEELE, Sir B., i, 254, 276, 334,
400, ii, 391, iii, 79.

STEFFENS, J. H., iii, 353.

STENDHAL [M. H. Beyle], iii, 187.

STEPHEN, Sir Leslie, his edition of
Fielding's works, iii, 129-30, 323, 332-
3; on Murphy's life of Fielding, iii,
147; his estimate of Fielding, iii,
239-48, 253.

STERNE, Laurence, his Eliza, i, 71 ;
on good and bad names, i, 264; Dr.
James 's powder, ii, 355 ; a foot
man 's account of his death, iii, 120;
his influence fades, iii, 177; Texte
subordinates Fielding to, iii, 178;
Bode translates him, iii, 190; rela
tion of Lytton's The Caxtons to, iii,
230; mentioned, i, 280, iii, 74, 175.

STEVENSON, E. L., iii, 250.

403

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

STILLINGFLEET, Eobert, i, 240, 258,
ii, 168, iii, 360.

STOPLER, actor, i, 150.

STOWE, Harriet Beecher, iii, 230.

STRAFFORD, Countess of, i, 382.

STRAHAN, William, prints The Ja
cobite's Journal, ii, 64, iii, 316; his
ledger entries about Amelia, ii, 304-
5 n, 308, iii, 321 ; about Joseph An
drews, i, 355 n, 381 n; about A
Voyage to Lisbon, iii, 86.

STRANGE, Sir John, ii, 5.

STUART, Lady Louisa, ii, 11, 61-2,
128.

STUBBS, John, iii, 53-4, 59.

Student, The, ii, 266-7, 267 n, 400,
iii, 321.

Stultus versus Sapientem, ii, 137-9,
iii, 319.

SWIFT, Jonathan, Fielding reads
him in youth, i, 46-7, 53; Swift
forms his style on Lucian, i, 47;
Fielding's Masquerade in the style
of, i, 60; Fielding and the Scriblerus
Club, i, 80; sees Tom Thumb per
formed, and is perplexed, i, 87-8, iii,
155; links Fielding with Welsted, i,
87; Mrs. Pendarves writes to him,
i, 188 ; in The Champion, i, 264, 276,
283; thinks scientific discoveries
ridiculous, i, 391; the Swift-like
irony of the Journey from this World,
i, 404; method of his political alle
gories, i, 421; Fielding's irony less
bitter than Swift's, i, 424; Field
ing's estimate of, ii, 26-7, 433-6, iii,
276; dines with Earl Bathurst, ii,
228; his Modest Proposal, ii, 363;
Murphy's estimate of, ii, 372; his
Battle of the Books, ii, 392; in Sir
John Fielding's Jests, iii, 115; Beat-
tie asks Lyttelton about, iii, 151;
Johnson dislikes him, iii, 163;
Wordsworth reads him, iii, 172.

TAINE, H. A., his estimate of Field
ing, iii, 187-9.

TALBOT, Catherine, ii, 346-7.

TALBOT, Lord, i, 363-4.

TAYLOR, Charles H., iii, 358.

TAYLOR, Isaac, iii, 73, 83.

TAYLOR, Peter, iii, 57.

TAYLOR, Dr. Eobert, iii, 82.

Temple Beau, written, i, 74; de
scribed, i, 77-9, ii, 325; its realism,
iii, 135; performed, i, 76-7, 97;
published, i, 77; Dr. Hoadly draws
upon it, iii, 154; bibliography, iii,
290, 311, 328.

TENNYSON, Alfred, iii, 175.

TEXTE, Joseph, iii, 178, 180, 349.

THACKERAY, W. M., his description
of Tom Jones, ii, 171; on the mo
rality of Tom Jones, ii, 216; reads
Joseph Andrews, iii, 175, 213; Taine
on, iii, 188; his estimate of Field
ing, iii, 213-25, 226, 229, 231-2, 234,
236, 238-9, 253-5; Dickson's paper
on, iii, 248; The History of Hicka-
thrift, iii, 340; mentioned, i, 14, ii,
201, iii, 227, 270, 276.

THEOBALD, Lewis, i, 96, 100, 365-6,
400, ii, 229, 389, 423, 432.

THOMAS, Margaret, iii, 74, 251.

THOMAS, William, iii, 67.

THOMPSON, Alexander M., iii, 358.

THOMPSON, Dr. Thomas, account of,
iii, 3; his treatment of Winnington,
ii, 72, 247, 356; attends Fielding, ii,
72, 247-8, iii, 3-4, and his daughter
Mary, ii, 248; in Amelia, ii, 354-6,
iii, 3, and in The Covent-Garden Jour
nal, iii, 3 ; Fielding takes him out
of Amelia, ii, 356, iii, 5, and dismisses
him, iii, 14.

THOMS, W. J., iii, 341.

THOMSON, James, his new Sophon-
isba, i, 83, 86, 100; Hoadly 's Con
trast aimed at, i, 113; Fielding
classed with him, i, 161; anecdote

404

INDEX

about Joseph Andrews, i, 315; be
friended by Lord Talbot, i, 363;
Fielding on the death of, ii, 65;
Fielding on his Castle of Indolence,
ii, 90; Lady Hertford receives his
homage, ii, 116; his advice about
Clarissa, ii, 142; mentioned, i, 264,
ii, 20.

THORNE, Fred, iii, 358.

THORNE, Thomas, iii, 358.

THORNTON, Bonnell, attacks Field
ing's style, ii, 342; account of, ii,
400-1; publishes The Drury-Lane
Journal, ii, 401-2, 404, 412; attacks
Fielding, ii, 402-3, 405, 429-30; The
Covent-Garden Journal Extraordinary,
ii, 404, iii, 323; A Speech made in
the Censorial Court, ii, 405-7, iii, 347;
Kenrick parodies him, ii, 407; his
account of The Covent Garden Thea
tre, ii, 412-3; on the Robinhoodians,
ii, 419; his Spring-Garden Journal,
ii, 425, 429 n; attacks Hill, ii, 426.

To a Friend on the Choice of a
Wife, i, 384.

To Dramatists, i, 133, iii, 295-6.

To John Hayes, Esq., i, 384.

To Mr. Fielding, i, 161-2.

To the Author of the Daily Post,
i, 135-9, iii, 296.

To the Author of the Gazetteer, i,
220-2, iii, 301.

To the Nymphs of New Sarum, ii,
330.

To the Public, iii, 334.

Tom Jones, date of writing, ii, 100-
8, iii, 145, 272-3; place of writing,
ii, 108-12; seen in manuscript by
Lyttelton and others, or in advance
copies, i, 41, ii, 113, 116-7, 129, 216;
the dedication, i, 42, ii, 37, 53, 100,
115, 398; its sub-title taken from
Moore's The Foundling, ii, 90; the
initial chapters to the books, ii, 221-
2; the copyright agreements, ii, 108,

118-20, 125, 226, iii, 361-2; pub
lished, ii, 117-20, 307, iii, 316-7; re
vised, and new editions published, ii,
120-5, iii, 317-8.

The novel described, ii, 177-88; its
scene, i, 17, 379, ii, 164-9, 173, 179-80,
182-3, 223, 283; its characters, i, 52,
131, 145, 167, 240, 342, 379, ii, 36,
101, 204-20, iii, 11, 103, 105, 175, 181,
275, 283-5; their ages, ii, 195-6;
their identification, i, 163, ii, 162-76,
283; their full names, ii, 196-7;
some bear real names, ii, 173-6, 387,
iii, 191; its time scheme, ii, 188-95,
326; discrepancies in, ii, 164; slips
in the narrative, ii, 197-201 ; Dutch
terms in, i, 69 ; its list of the world 's
great humorists, ii, 382, 433; its
plot, ii, 160-2, 177, 201-4, 220-1; its
art, ii, 158-222, iii, 284-5; its real
ism, i, 65, ii, 127, 207, 219-21, 328,
iii, 3, 187, 267, 275; its morality, ii,
212-9, 284-5, iii, 169-76, 206.

The novel compared with Don
Quixote, ii, 160, 205; Eobinson
Crusoe, ii, 158; Moll Flanders, ii,
158; The Cry, iii, 12; Pamela, ii,
158-60; Clarissa, ii, 159; Sheridan's
works, iii, 156-7; Waverley, iii, 208;
Thackeray's works, iii, 213; Amelia,
ii, 323, 328, 353, 356, 437, iii, 166-7;
Jonathan Wild, ii, 219; Miss Lucy,
ii, 202; Joseph Andrews, ii, 159, 179,
205, iii, 167; Voyage to Lisbon, iii,
96; leading articles in Covent-Gar
den Journal and other periodicals, i,
280-1, 410, iii, 131.

Its reception on publication, ii, 126-
56; as compared with Joseph An
drews, i, 357; rivalry with Clarissa,
ii, 126-7; reviewed in The London
Magazine, ii, 129-30, 309, The Gentle
man's Magazine, ii, 130-2, The Ladies
Magazine, ii, 132-3, Old England, ii,
152-6; The Monthly Review praises

405

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

it, ii, 132; other contemporary taire, iii, 187; "William Watson, iii,

critics, ii, 136-9, 153; Prince Charles
Edward asks for it, ii, 36.

Estimate of the novel by Dr. Rob
ert Anderson, iii, 164; Mrs. Bar-
bauld, iii, 199; Beattie, iii, 168;
Blackwood's Magazine, iii, 228-9;
Boswell, iii, 161; Lady Bradshaigh,
ii, 143-5; Mary Brunton, iii, 207;
Samuel Butler, iii, 253; Canning,
iii, 173; B. M. Carew, ii, 150-2;
Coleridge, ii, 161, 216-7, iii, 176;
Colman, iii, 169; J. B. Defreval,
ii, 149; Mrs. Delany, ii, 310;
Dickens, iii, 229; Madame du Def-
fand, iii, 187; George Eliot, ii, 222;
the Rev. W. Elwin, iii, 228; Elie C.
Freron, iii, 187; Gibbon, i, 1, iii,
168; Gilfillan, iii, 227; William
Godwin, iii, 165; James Harris, iii,
152; Sir John Hawkins, iii, 163,
167, 171; Hazlitt, iii, 206; Hen
ley, iii, 256; Aaron Hill's daugh
ters, ii, 145-9, 161; Dr. John Hill,
ii, 391, iii, 157; John Oliver Hobbes,
iii, 175-6; Dr. Johnson, iii, 158-9;
La Harpe, iii, 187; Lamb, iii, 206;
Solomon Lowe, ii, 149; J. R. Lowell,
iii, 230; Lady Luxborough, ii, 127,
161 ; T. J. Mathias, iii, 172 ; Sir A.
Mitchell, ii, 305; Lord Monboddo,
iii, 168; Lady Mary W. Montagu,
i, 358, ii, 128-9; Dr. John Moore,
iii, 164; Hannah More, iii, 159-60;
William Mudford, iii, 201-4, 228;
Murphy, iii, 132-3; Allan Ramsay,
ii, 133, 161, 298; Sir J. Reynolds,
iii, 161; Richardson, ii, 141-50, 161,
215, 218, iii, 228; Schiller, iii, 194;
Scott, ii, 323, iii, 166, 207-12; Shen-
stone, ii, 127; Sheridan, iii, 156;
Christopher Smart, ii, 133; Stendhal,
iii, 187; Taine, iii, 187-9; Thack
eray, ii, 216, iii, 214-5, 217, 223-7,
229; Bonnell Thornton, ii, 429; Vol-

228; E. P. Whipple, iii, 226-7; the
novel expurgated, and burned, iii, 175.

Continuations and imitations, ii,
133-4, 303, 415, iii, 169-71, 180, 352-
3, 355-7; foreign editions, transla
tions, and imitations, iii, 178-9, 195,
317-9; in France, ii, 139, 221, iii,
180-90, 197, 352-3, 355-6; in Ger
many, iii, 190-4, 353.

No copy in Fielding's library, ii,
125, iii, 79; mentioned, i, 53, 61,
412, ii, 39, 46, 52, 98, 303, 306, 386,
389, iii, 123, 137, 336; bibliography,
iii, 316-9, 328-9, 352-3, 355-6, 358,
361-2.

Tom Jones in his Married State, ii,
134, iii, 345.

Tom Thumb: a Tragedy, described,
i, 85-8; performed and published, i,
85; Swift perplexed by it, i, 88;
enlarged and published, i, 88-90, iii,
144; performed, i, 92-5, 97, 104, 107,
116, 143, 198, iii, 271; its relation to
The Battle of the Poets, i, 95-7;
again revised, enlarged, and produced,
i, 98, as The Tragedy of Tragedies,
q. v.; The Grub-street Journal paro
dies it, i, 112; ridiculed in The Con
trast, i, 113; mockingly condemned
by Fielding, i, 134; Murphy's esti
mate of, iii, 133; O'Hara founds a
burletta on, iii, 154-5; Thackeray
could not have read it, iii, 214; men
tioned, i, 177, 180, 277, 292, 308, 310,
417, ii, 351, iii, 285; bibliography,
iii, 291.

TONSON, Jacob, iii, 148-9, 185.

TOUGH, Charles, ii, 98.

TOWNSHEND, Charles, 2d Viscount,
i, 104, 420-1.

TOWNSHEND, Lady, wife of 3d Vis
count, ii, 171-2.

Tragedy of Tragedies, a revision of
Tom Thumb, q. v.; Fielding writes

406

INDEX

preface for, i, 68, 70, 99; described,
i, 98-103; produced, i, 98; turned
into an opera by Eliza Haywood and
William Hatchett, q. v.; mentioned,
iii, 281; bibliography, iii, 292, 311,
328, 333, 335.

TREAT, John, ii, 293.

Treatise on the Office of Constable,
iii, 80, 83, 98-9, 328, 366.

TRELAWNY, Sir Jonathan, i, 11-2.

TREMBLEY, Abraham, i, 391-2.

TRENTHAM, Lord, ii, 237-8.

TROTTPLAID, John, a pseudonym of
Fielding, ii, 64, see also Jacobite's
Journal.

True Greatness, i, 251, 288-91, 384,
iii, 302-3, 361.

True Patriot, launched by Fielding,
ii, 18-20; described, ii, 20-39, 358;
comes to an end, ii, 35, 38, 41-2, 44;
Fielding's contributions to, ii, 39-41,
52, 56, 57 n, 65, 92, 364, iii, 127, 129,
131; mentioned, i, 381, ii, 17, 46,
55, 63-4, 100-1, 105, 307, 371, 386;
bibliography, iii, 312-3, 329.

True State of the Case of Penlez,
see Penlez.

TUCKER, Andrew, i, 50-1, 63.

TUCKER, John, i, 50.

Tumble-Down Dick, described, i,
192-4; performed, i, 194-5, 198, 200-
1 ; the dedication, i, 203 ; bibliog
raphy, iii, 299-300, 311, 328.

TUNBRIDGE, Lord, i, 14, 16.

Universal Gallant, i, 171-2, 177,
187, iii, 299, 311, 328.

Universal Register Office (article),
ii, 359, iii, 346; see also Fielding,
Sir John.

Universal Register Office, Plan of
the (pamphlet), ii, 226, iii, 321.

Universal Spectator, i, 160.

UPCOTT, William, iii, 361.

UPTOX, John, iii, 82.

VANBRUGH, Sir John, The ProvoTc'd
Husband, i, 61, 89; Fielding says he
copies nature, i, 65; his Aesop, i,
1 49, 1 78 ; Tom Jones has his gay wit,
ii, 160; his works in Fielding's li
brary, iii, 79; mentioned, i, 139.

VANE, Lady, ii, 312.

VEAL (or Veale), Eichard, iii, 22-
8, 39, 44-5, 47, 49, 53-4, 56-8, 62, 87,
89-90, 94, 364.

VEIL, Sir Thomas de, see de Veil.

VERNON, Admiral, i, 291-3, 305, 382.

Vernoniad, i, 291-6, 301, 364, 383,
iu, 303, 334, 361.

VERWER, P. A., iii, 179.

VILLIERS, Susan, Countess of Den
bigh, see Denbigh.

VINEGAR, Capt. Hercules, name as
sumed by Fielding as editor of The
Champion, q. v., its origin, i, 251-2,
sketch of the imaginary character, i,
253-4, 261 ; the pseudonym appro
priated by other writers, i, 267, 367,
ii, 238, iii, 342, 345.

Virgin UnmasTc'd, see Old Man
Taught Wisdom.

VITRIARIUS, P. E., i, 66.

VOLTAIRE, iii, 187.

Voyage to Lisbon, planned and be
gun, iii, 30-1 ; details of the voyage,
iii, 23-51; book prepared for the
press, iii, 60; published, iii, 84; de
scribed, iii, 60-4, 128, 136, 205; its
reception, iii, 92-7, 134, 246; the
two versions, iii, 85-92, 127, 130;
translations, iii, 179; mentioned, ii,
242, 284, 290, iii, 1, 254, 267; bib
liography, iii, 326-7, 335.

WADE, General, ii, 164.
WALDSCHMIDT, Carl, iii, 192 n, 353.
WALES, Prince of, see Frederick.
WALLER, T., i, 362.
WALLIS, Albany, iii, 101.
WALPOLE, Horace, says Fielding
wrote The Golden Rump, i, 227-8, iii,

407

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

341 ; reads Shamela, and attributes
it to Fielding, i, 306; attributes
Blast upon Blast to him, i, 367, iii,
342; attends Miss Lucy, i, 369; de
nounces Lyttelton, ii, 80; on the
amount paid for Tom Jones, ii, 120;
characterizes "Old Mildmay," ii,
166; describes Rigby's visit to Field
ing, ii, 227-8, 287, iii, 137, 210, 237,
254; robbed in Hyde Park, ii, 250;
on Fielding's Enquiry, ii, 267; on
A Voyage to Lisbon, iii, 94; his
estimate of Fielding, iii, 157; on
Johnson, iii, 163; on Tom Jones, iii,
187; quoted, ii, 31; says Fielding
wrote A Scheme for a Tax on Mes
sage Cards, iii, 344.

WALPOLE, Horatio, i, 107, 292, ii,
250.

WALPOLE, Sir Robert, Fielding ad
dresses facetious poems to, i, 75-6, 81,
384, iii, 135, 153, 234, 270, 327;
takes thirty copies of Hurlothrumbo,
i, 79, which is dedicated to him, i, 79,
112; determines to suppress stage
ridicule of him, i, 111-2; Fielding
modifies his attitude towards, i, 114,
116; The Modern Husband dedi
cated to, i, 121, iii, 294; The Grub-
street Journal opposed to, i, 122-3;
Chesterfield attacks him, i, 159;
Duke of Marlborough sides against
him, i, 172; the- most renowned mod
ern equilibrist, i, 179; Hervey de
serts Pulteney for, i, 182, 215, 219;
in The Fall of Mortimer, i, 108, 111;
supports Barnard's bill to regulate
the stage, i, 225; in The Vision of
the Golden Rump, i, 226; Giffard
hands over to him The Golden Bump,
i, 227, which was not by Fielding, i,
228; Barnard's bill becomes the
Licensing Act, i, 228-32; in Common
Sense, i, 239, 409; in The Champion, ,
i, 254, 257, 260, 262-3, 265-6, 270-1,

283, 408, iii, 63, 280; in The Oppo
sition, i, 299-301; in The Craftsman,
i, 103, 408; opposed by Lyttelton,
ii, 62-3; flirts with the Jacobites, ii,
72-3; weakens and falls, i, 249-50,
301 ; Musgrave 's history of him, i,
422-3; relations with Miss Skerrett,
i, 107, 408, 412, 423; Fielding puts
him into a proverb, i, 412; sub
scribes for the Miscellanies, i, 382;
in The Beggar's Opera, i, 104-5, 408,
and in Polly, i, 408 ; in Fielding 's
works, iii, 280-1 ; in Tom Thumb, i,
103, iii, 280; in The Welsh Opera,
and The Grub-Street Opera, i, 106-9,
408; in Pasquin, i, 182, 408, iii, 156;
in The Historical Register, i, 215-6,
222-4, 408, iii, 281; in Eurydice
Hiss'd, i, 217; in True Greatness,
i, 289-91; in The Vernoniad, i, 292-
5; in Jonathan Wild, i, 410, 417,
420-2, iii, 10, 63, 238, 249, 281, 283;
Fielding's final estimate of, iii, 63;
mentioned, i, 104, 129, 203, 365, 411,
ii, 4, 59, iii, 286.

WALTER, Peter, i, 176, 241, 348,
392, ii, 25, 168; see also Gualterus,
Petrus.

WALTHER, George Conrad, ii, 140.

WALTON, Isaac, i, 13.

WALTON, Tristram, ii, 43.

WARBURTON, William, in Tom
Thumb, i, 100; praises Ralph Allen,
i, 376; stays with him, i, 377, ii,
127; in Fielding's Journey, i, 400;
friend of Richard Graves, ii, 110;
in Tom Jones, ii, 173; contributes
to a charity, ii, 303 ; his edition of
Shakespeare, ii, 432 ; deficient in
humour, iii, 115; links Fielding with
Marivaux, ii, 127, iii, 135, 169.

WARD, John, iii, 4.

WARD, Dr. Joshua, ii, 355-6, iii, 14-
7.

WARTON, Joseph, anecdote of Field-

408

INDEX

ing, ii, 45, iii, 167, 261, 265; his
Essay on Pope, iii, 132; estimate of
Pasquin, iii, 155, of Fielding, iii, 167.

WARTON, Thomas, ii, 45.

WASEY, Dr. William, i, 382.

WATSON, Sir William (1715-87), ii,
105.

WATSON, William, his life of Field
ing, iii, 196-9, 204; Scott reads it,
iii, 209; and quotes it, iii, 211; on
Tom Jones, iii, 228.

WATT, Kobert, iii, 341, 347.

WATTS, John, bookseller, publishes
Love in Several Masques, i, 62 n, iii,
290, Temple Beau, iii, 290, Rape upon
Eape, iii, 291, The Lottery, iii, 294,
Modish Couple, iii, 294, Modern Hus
band, iii, 294, Covent-Garden Tragedy,
iii, 295, 359, Mock Doctor, iii, 296,
Caelia, iii, 296, Miser, iii, 297, In
triguing Chambermaid, iii, 298, Don
Quixote, iii, 298, Old Man taught
Wisdom, iii, 298, Universal Gallant,
iii, 299, Pasquin, iii, 299, Tumble-
Down Dick, iii, 300, Debauchees, iii,
311, 359, Dramatic Works, iii, 311,
Author's Farce, iii, 320, Select Come
dies of Moliere, i, 144, iii, 335; re
ceipt from Fielding to, iii, 359 ;
Fielding's epigram on, i, 385.

WEBB, Colonel, i, 14.

Wedding Day, begun, i, 74, 373;
rejected by Kich, i, 373; revised
and performed, i, 373-5, 381, iii, 100,
141, 143-4, 227; printed, i, 374, 385;
Macklin's prologue to, ii, 411; bib
liography, iii, 308, 328, 356.

WELCH, Saunders, constable in the
riots of 1749, ii, 226, 229, 235-6, 251 ;
receives £200 a year as justice of the
peace, ii, 243; publishes treatise for
the guidance of constables, ii, 254;
helps Fielding against vagabondage
and gaming, ii, 262, 272, 281, 285,
iii, 12, 16; Fielding asks for a com

mission as justice of the peace for
him, iii, 12-3, 14 n, 364; accompanies
Fielding to Eotherhithe, iii, 24-5, 29;
Fielding sends him cider and onions,
iii, 40-1, 57; writes to Fielding, iii,
52-3; sends him a cheese, iii, 58;
mentioned, ii, 302.

WELLER, George, ii, 6.

WELLS, John Edwin, Fielding's
burlesque of Musgrave's Walpole, i,
422; identifies Fielding's articles
and a poem in The Champion, i, 250,
254-5 ; Fielding 's political purpose
in Jonathan Wild, i, 422, iii, 249;
on Captain Vinegar, i, 252 n ; the
earthquake of 1750, ii, 156.

WELLS, Susannah, ii, 286, 288-9.

Welsh Opera: or, the Grey Mare
the Better Horse, described, i, 104-
7; performed, i, 107-8; published,
i, 110-11; rewritten and renamed
The Grub-Street Opera, q. v., i, 108;
bibliography, iii, 293.

WELSTED, Leonard, i, 87.

WESSELIUS, Johannes, i, 67.

WEST, Gilbert, i, 42.

WEST, Eichard, i, 358-9.

Westminster Journal, ii, 63, 67, 266.

WESTMORELAND, Earl of, i, 382.

WHEATLEY, H. B., i, 197 n, iii, 72.

WHIPPLE, E. P., iii, 226-8.

WHITEFIELD, George, ii, 175, iii,
266.

WHITEFIELD, keeper of the Bell
Inn, ii, 175, iii, 266.

Whitehall Evening Post, ii, 304 n,
307 n, iii, 9 n, 87.

WHITEHEAD, Thomas, iii, 118-9.

WHITING, Eichard, i, 18.

WHITTINGHAM, Mary Ann, iii, 123.

WIDMER, G. B., iii, 349.

WIELAND, C. M., iii, 193-4.

WILKES, John, iii, 83.

WILKINSON, Tate, ii, 89.

WILKS, Eobert, at the Theatre-

409

THE HISTORY OF HENRY FIELDING

Eoyal, Drury Lane, i, 61, 142, 147;
produces Love in Several Masques, i,
62; The Wedding Day intended for,
i, 74, 373; burlesque of him in The
Author's Farce, i, 82, 115, 150; has
a role in The Modern Husband, i,
120; attacked in The Grub-street
Journal, i, 123; his death, i, 142;
Theophilus Gibber plays Macduff in
succession to, i, 143; carries Lillo's
London Merchant to the Queen, i,
'199.

WILKS, Mrs., i, 147, 155.

WILLES, Lord Chief Justice, ii, 5,
31.

WILLIAMS, Sir Charles Hanbury,
with Fielding at Eton, i, 41-2; verse
dialogue between Earle and Doding-
ton, i, 289; poem on Mrs. Clive, i,
374; subscribes for the Miscellanies,
i, 382; epitaph on the Earl of Bath,

1, 412; Rigby says Fielding sponged
upon, ii, 227-8; Fielding submits
The Good-Natur'd Man to him, iii,
100; friendship with Fielding, iii,
266.

WILLIAMS, Elisha, ii, 293.
WILLIAMS, John Hanbury, iii, 101.
WILLIAMSON, Eev. John, iii, 56, 59.
WILLOUGHBY, Richard, ii, 174.
WILMINGTON, Earl of, i, 300, 421-

2, ii, 63.

WILMOT, Dr. Edward, i, 382.

WILSON, John, ii, 236-7, 239.

WINNINGTON, Thomas, his career, ii,
13, 72; subscribes to The Familiar
Letters, ii, 47; his spurious auto
biography, ii, 72-3; Fielding writes
A Proper Answer to it, ii, 74; rela
tion to Lady Townshend, ii, 171-2;
his death, ii, 72, 247-8, 356; men
tioned, ii, 20.

WOFFINGTON, Peg, role in The Wed
ding Day, i, 374; mentioned in the
burlesque of Juvenal's Sixth Satire,

i, 385 ; Fielding writes an epilogue
for her, ii, 32, iii, 338; mimicked by
Foote, ii, 89.

WOOD, Augustus, iii, 192 n, 349.

WOOD, George, iii, 357.

WOOD, James, ii, 224.

WOOD, Thomas, iii, 80, 365.

WOODFALL, George, ii, 18, 52, 64,
iii, 312, 313, 316.

WOODFALL, Henry, prints Joseph
Andrews, i, 316, 352; proposals for
the Miscellanies, i, 380; subscription
blanks for The Familiar Letters, ii,
46; The General Advertiser and The
Public Advertiser, ii, 428.

WOODROFFE, Benjamin, i, 11.

WOODWARD, Henry, in The Battle
of the Poets, i, 96; his Beggar's
Pantomime, i, 211; his Harlequin
Hanger, ii, 423; his quarrel with
Fitzpatrick and Hill, ii, 423-6, iii,
348; buys classics from Fielding's
library, iii, 82; in The Upholsterer,
iii, 126.

WORDSWORTH, Dorothy, iii, 172-3.

WORDSWORTH, William, iii, 172,
270.

WORLIDGE, Thomas, ii, 295.

WRAXALL, Sir N. W., ii, 305-7, iii,
65-6, 152.

WRAY, Daniel, iii, 83.

WRENN, J. H., iii, 323.

WRIGHT, Justice, ii, 11.

Written Extempore on a Half-
Penny, i, 257, 385, iii, 153.

WYCHERLEY, William, i, 77, 111,
139, 152, iii, 79.

WYNDHAM, Thomas, Lord, ii, 25-6.

WYNNE, William, lawyer, ii, 11.

YATES, Mr. and Mrs. Richard, i,
187, 222, iii, 126, 300.

YORKE, Lady Eli?abeth, iii, 30.

YOUNG, Edward, i, 264, 283, 346,
384.

YOUNG, Rev. William, sketch of, i,

410

INDEX

175, 344-5, ii, 332; the original of
Parson Adams, i, 176, 344-7, ii, 434;
witnesses agreement about Joseph
Andrews, i, 316; revises Digby's
Wars of Alexander, ii, 92; projects
with Fielding a translation of Lucian,
i, 47, ii, 371, 434; collaborates with
him in a translation of Plutus by
Aristophanes, i, 362-5, 396, ii, 433,
iii, 81, 307, perhaps in the History

of Charles XII, i, 287, and in writ
ing the Examples, ii, 270; revises
the dictionaries by Ainsworth and
Hedericus, iii, 80-2, 339-40; as con
tributor to The True Patriot, ii, 39,
and The Jacobite's Journal, ii, 92;
as collaborator in general, ii, 302, 371,
429.

YOUNGE, Elizabeth, iii, 106.

YOUNGER, Elizabeth, i, 97.

411

.AS DSPT. MAR* 1959

CO <D

2 33
•H

O Vt

y
.s -p

•H -H

lf\

University of Toronto
Library

Acme Labrary Card Pocket
LOWE-MARTIN CO. LIMITED

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "The history of Henry Fielding"

See other formats