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M. Godden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Henry Fielding: A Memoir + +Author: G. M. Godden + +Posting Date: February 21, 2015 [EBook #8136] +Release Date: May, 2005 +First Posted: June 17, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HENRY FIELDING: A MEMOIR *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Robert +Connal and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p class="centered"><a name="i336"><img src="images/336.jpg" alt= +"Henry Fielding" width="399" height="500"></a></p> + +<h1>HENRY FIELDING</h1> + +<h2><em>A MEMOIR</em><br> +INCLUDING NEWLY DISCOVERED LETTERS<br> +AND RECORDS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS<br> +FROM CONTEMPORARY PRINTS</h2> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<h2>BY</h2> + +<h2>G. M. GODDEN</h2> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p class="quoted">"I am a man myself, and my heart is interested in +whatever can befall the rest of mankind."<br> + JOSEPH ANDREWS.</p> + +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>New material alone could justify any attempt to supplement the +<em>Fielding</em> of Mr Austin Dobson. Such material has now come +to light, and together with reliable facts collected by previous +biographers, forms the subject matter of the present volume. As +these pages are concerned with Fielding the man, and not only with +Fielding the most original if not the greatest of English +novelists, literary criticism has been avoided; but all incidents, +disclosed by hitherto unpublished documents, or found hidden in the +columns of contemporary newspapers, which add to our knowledge of +Fielding's personality, have been given.</p> + +<p>The new material includes records of Fielding's childhood; +documents concerning his estate in Dorsetshire; the date and place, +hitherto undiscovered, of that central event in his life, the death +of his beloved wife, whose memorial was to be the imperishable +figure of "Sophia Western"; letters, now first published, adding to +our knowledge of his energies in social and legislative reform, and +of the circumstances of his life; many extracts from the columns of +the daily press of the period; notices, hitherto overlooked, from +his contemporaries; and details from the unexplored archives of the +Middlesex Records concerning his strenuous work as a London +magistrate. The few letters by Fielding already known to exist have +been doubled in number; and a reason for the extraordinary rarity +of these letters has been found in the unfortunate destruction, +many years ago, of much of his correspondence. The charm of the one +intimate letter that we possess from the pen of the 'Father of the +English Novel,' that written to his brother John, during the voyage +to Lisbon, enhances regret at the loss of these letters.</p> + +<p>Among the contemporary prints now first reproduced that entitled +the <em>Conjurors</em> is of special interest, as being the only +sketch of Fielding, drawn during his lifetime, known to exist. +Rough as it is, the characteristic figure of the man, as described +by his contemporaries and drawn from memory in Hogarth's familiar +plate, is perfectly apparent. The same characteristics may be +distinguished in a small figure of the novelist introduced into the +still earlier political cartoon, entitled the <em>Funeral of +Faction</em>.</p> + +<p>Such in brief are the reasons for the existence of this volume. +It remains to express my warmest acknowledgment of Mr Austin +Dobson's unfailing counsel and assistance. My thanks are also due +to Mr Ernest Fielding for permission to reproduce the miniature +which appears as the frontispiece; to Mr Aubrey Court, of the House +of Lords; to Mr E. S. W. Hart, for his help throughout the +necessary researches among the Middlesex Records; to Mrs Deane of +Gillingham; and to Mr Frederick Shum of Bath. And I am indebted to +Mr Sidney Colvin, Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings +in the British Museum, in regard to almost every one of the +thirty-two rare prints and cartoons now reproduced.</p> + +<p>G. M. GODDEN.</p> + +<p><em>October</em> 26, 1909.</p> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p><a href="#chapter1">CHAPTER I</a><br> +YOUTH</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter2">CHAPTER II</a><br> +PLAY-HOUSE BARD</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter3">CHAPTER III</a><br> +MARRIAGE</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter4">CHAPTER IV</a><br> +POLITICAL PLAYS</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter5">CHAPTER V</a><br> +HOMESPUN DRAMA</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter6">CHAPTER VI</a><br> +BAR STUDENT--JOURNALIST</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter7">CHAPTER VII</a><br> +COUNSELLOR FIELDING</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter8">CHAPTER VIII</a><br> +<em>Joseph Andrews</em></p> + +<p><a href="#chapter9">CHAPTER IX</a><br> +THE <em>Miscellanies</em> AND <em>Jonathan Wild</em></p> + +<p><a href="#chapter10">CHAPTER X</a><br> +PATRIOTIC JOURNALISM</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter11">CHAPTER XI</a><br> +<em>Tom Jones</em></p> + +<p><a href="#chapter12">CHAPTER XII</a><br> +MR JUSTICE FIELDING</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter13">CHAPTER XIII</a><br> +FIELDING AND LEGISLATION</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter14">CHAPTER XIV</a><br> +<em>Amelia</em></p> + +<p><a href="#chapter15">CHAPTER XV</a><br> +JOURNALIST AND MAGISTRATE</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter16">CHAPTER XVI</a><br> +POOR LAW REFORM</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter17">CHAPTER XVII</a><br> +VOYAGE TO LISBON--DEATH</p> + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<p><em>From photographs by Marie Léon</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i336">Henry Fielding</a><br> +<em>From a miniature now in the possession of Mr Ernest +Fielding.</em></p> + +<p><a href="#i340">Sharpham House, showing the room in which +Fielding was born</a><br> +<em>from a print published in 1826</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i370">Sir Henry Gould</a><br> +<em>From a mezzotint by J. Hardy</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i341">Eton--1742</a><br> +<em>From an engraving of a drawing by Cozens</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i342">Anne Oldfield</a><br> +<em>From a mezzotint of a painting by J. Richardson</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i337">Leyden--1727</a><br> +<em>From an engraving of a drawing by C. Pronk</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i339">Kitty Clive as Philida</a><br> +<em>From a mezzotint of a painting by Veter van Bleeck, junr. +1735.</em></p> + +<p><a href="#i338">Frontispiece to Fielding's "Tom Thumb"</a><br> +<em>By Hogarth</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i344">The Close, Salisbury--1798</a><br> +<em>From an acquatint of a drawing by E. Dayes</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i343">Charlcombe Church, near Bath</a><br> +<em>From an engraving of a drawing made in 1784</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i345">Fielding's house, East Stour, +Dorsetshire</a><br> +<em>From a print published in Hutchins' "History of Dorsetshire," +1813</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i346">Sir Robert Walpole--1740</a><br> +<em>From a contemporary cartoon</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i347">"Pasquin"</a><br> +<em>From a cartoon depicting a scene in "Pasquin" in which +Harlequinades, etc., triumph aver legitimate drama. Pope is leaving +a box. The Signature "W. Hogarth" is doubtful</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i348">Cartoon celebrating the success of +"Pasquin"</a><br> +<em>From a contemporary cartoon showing Fielding, supported by +Shakespeare, receiving an ample reward, while to Harlequin and his +other opponents is accorded a halter</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i349">The Little Theatre in the Haymarket</a><br> +<em>From an engraving by Dale, showing the demolition of the Little +Theatre in 1821</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i350">The Green Room, Drury Lane</a><br> +<em>From the painting by Hogarth, in the possession of Sir Edward +Tennant</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i351">The Temple--1738</a><br> +<em>From an engraving of a drawing by J. Nicholas</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i352">Henry Fielding holding the Banner of the +"Champion" newspaper</a><br> +<em>From a contemporary cartoon showing Sir Robert Walpole laughing +at the "Funeral" of an Opposition Motion in Parliament</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i353">Cartoon showing Fielding, in Wig and Gown, as a +supporter of the Opposition</a><br> +<em>From a print of 1741</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i354">Henry Fielding reading at the Bedford +Arms</a><br> +<em>From the frontispiece to Sir John Fielding's "Jests."</em></p> + +<p><a href="#i355">Assignment for "Joseph Andrews"</a><br> +<em>From the autograph now in the South Kensington Museum</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i356">Beaufort Buildings, Strand, in 1725</a><br> +<em>From a watercolour drawing by Paul Sandby, 1725</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i357">Prior Park, near Bath, the seat of Ralph Allen, +1750</a><br> +<em>From an engraving of a contemporary drawing</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i359">George, First Baron Lyttelton</a><br> +<em>From a portrait by an unknown artist</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i369">Theatre Ticket for Fielding's "Mock +Doctor"</a><br> +<em>The signature "W. Hogarth" is doubtful</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i358">Lady Mary Wortley Montagu--1710</a><br> +<em>From an engraving by Caroline Watson, from a miniature in the +possession of the Marquis of Bute</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i360">The Bow Street Police Court, Sir John Fielding +presiding</a><br> +<em>From the "Newgate Calendar"</em>, 1795.</p> + +<p><a href="#i361">Edward Moore</a><br> +<em>From a frontispiece in Chalmers' "British Essayists"</em> +1817.</p> + +<p><a href="#i362">Sir John Fielding</a><br> +<em>From a mezzotint of a painting by Nathaniel Hone, R.A.</em></p> + +<p><a href="#i363">Ralph Allen</a><br> +<em>From a chalk drawing by W. Hoare, R.A.</em></p> + +<p><a href="#i364">Henry Fielding</a><br> +<em>From an engraving of a pen and ink sketch, made by Hogarth +after Fielding's death</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i365">Henry Fielding, defending Betty Canning from her +accusers, the Lord Mayor, Dr Hill, and the Gipsy</a><br> +<em>From a contemporary print, now first reproduced, and the only +known sketch of Fielding made during his lifetime</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i366">Justice Saunders Welch</a><br> +<em>From an engraving of a sketch by Hogarth</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i367">Ryde--1795</a><br> +<em>From an engraving of a drawing by Charles Tomkins</em>.</p> + +<p><a href="#i368">Lisbon--1793</a><br> +<em>From a mezzotint of a drawing by Noel</em>.</p> + +<p>The design on the cover is a copy, slightly enlarged, of an +impression of Fielding's seal, attached to an autograph letter in +the British Museum.</p> + +<h1>HENRY FIELDING</h1> + +<h2><a name="chapter1"></a>CHAPTER I<br> +<br> +YOUTH</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"I shall always be so great a pedant as to call a +man of no learning a man of no education."<br> + --<em>Amelia</em>.</p> + +<p>Henry Fielding was born at Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury, on +the 22nd of April 1707. His birth-room, a room known as the +Harlequin Chamber, looked out over the roof of a building which +once was the private chapel of the abbots of Glastonbury; for +Sharpham Park possessed no mean history. Built in the sixteenth +century by that distinguished prelate, scholar, and courtier Abbot +Richard Beere, the house had boasted its chapel, hall, parlour, +chambers, storehouses and offices; its fishponds and orchards; and +a park in which might be kept some four hundred head of deer. It +was in this fair demesne that the aged, pious, and benevolent Abbot +Whiting, Abbot Richard's successor, was seized by the king's +commissioners, and summarily hung, drawn, and quartered on the top +of the neighbouring Tor Hill. Sharpham thereupon "devolved" upon +the crown; but the old house remained, standing in peaceful +seclusion where the pleasant slope of Polden Hill overlooks the +Somersetshire moors, till the birth of the 'father of the English +Novel' brought a lasting distinction to the domestic buildings of +Abbot Beere. In the accompanying print, published in 1826, the +little window of the Harlequin Chamber may be seen, above the low +roofs of the abbots' chapel.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i340"><img src="images/340.jpg" alt= +"Sharpham House, showing the room in which Fielding was born" +width="577" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>That Henry Fielding should have been born among buildings raised +by Benedictine hands is not incongruous; for no man ever more +heartily preached and practised the virtue of open-handed charity; +none was more ready to scourge the vices of arrogance, cruelty and +avarice; no English novelist has left us brighter pictures of +innocence and goodness. And it was surely a happy stroke of that +capricious Fortune to whom Fielding so often refers, to allot a +Harlequin Chamber for the birth of the author of nineteen comedies; +and yet more appropriate to the robust genius of the Comic Epic was +the accident that placed on the wall, beneath the window of his +birth-room, a jovial jest in stone. For here some sixteenth-century +humorist had displayed the arms of Abbot Beere in the form of a +convivial rebus or riddle--to wit, a cross and two beer +flagons.</p> + +<p>Soon after the Civil Wars, Sharpham passed into the hands of the +'respectable family' of Gould. By the Goulds the house was +considerably enlarged; and, at the beginning of the eighteenth +century, was in the possession of a distinguished member of the +family, Sir Henry Gould, Knight, and Judge of the King's Bench. Sir +Henry had but two children, a son Davidge Gould, and a daughter +Sarah. This only daughter married a well-born young soldier, the +Hon. Edmund Fielding; a marriage which, according to family +assertions, was without the consent of her parents and "contrary to +their good <a name="fnref1-1">likeing</a>." <a class="footnote" +href="#fn1-1">1</a> And it was in the old home of the Somersetshire +Goulds that the eldest son of this marriage, Henry Fielding, was +born.</p> + +<p>Thus on the side of his mother, Sarah Gould, Fielding belonged +to just that class of well-established country squires whom later +he was to immortalise in the beautiful and benevolent figure of +Squire Allworthy, and in the boisterous, brutal, honest Western. +And the description of Squire Allworthy's "venerable" house, with +its air of grandeur "that struck you with awe," its position on the +sheltered slope of a hill enjoying "a most charming prospect of the +valley beneath," its surroundings of a wild and beautiful park, +well-watered meadows fed with sheep, the ivy-grown ruins of an old +abbey, and far-off hills and sea, preserves, doubtless, the +features of the ancient and stately domain owned by the novelist's +grandfather.</p> + +<p>If it was to the 'respectable' Goulds that Fielding owed many of +his rural and administrative characteristics, such as that +practical zeal and ability which made him so excellent a +magistrate, it is in the family of his father that we find +indications of those especial qualities of vigour, of courage, of +the generous and tolerant outlook of the well-born man of the +world, that characterise Henry Fielding. And it is also in these +Fielding ancestors that something of the reputed wildness of their +brilliant kinsman may be detected.</p> + +<p>For in her wilful choice of Edmund Fielding for a husband, Sir +Henry Gould's only daughter brought, assuredly, a disturbing +element into the quiet Somersetshire home. The young man was of +distinguished birth, even if he was not, as once asserted, of the +blood royal of <a name="fnref1-2">the</a> Hapsburgs. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn1-2">2</a> His ancestor, Sir John Fielding, had +received a knighthood for bravery in the French wars of the +fourteenth century. A Sir Everard Fielding led a Lancastrian army +during the Wars of the Roses. Sir William, created Earl of Denbigh, +fell fighting for the king in the Civil Wars, where, says +Clarendon, "he engaged with singular courage in all enterprises of +danger"; a phrase which recalls the description of Henry Fielding +"that difficulties only roused him to struggle through them with a +peculiar spirit and magnanimity." Lord Denbigh fell, covered with +wounds, when fighting as a volunteer in Prince Rupert's troop; +while his eldest son, Basil, then a mere youth, fought as hotly for +the Parliament. Lord Denbigh's second son, who like his father was +a devoted loyalist, received a peerage, being created Earl of +Desmond; and two of his sons figure in a wild and tragic story +preserved by Pepys. "In our street," says the Diarist, writing in +1667, "at the Three Tuns Tavern I find a great hubbub; and what was +it but two brothers had fallen out and one killed the other. And +who s'd. they be but the two Fieldings; one whereof, Bazill, was +page to my Lady Sandwich; and he hath killed the other, himself +being very drunk, and so is sent to Newgate." It was a brother of +these unhappy youths, John Fielding, a royal chaplain and Canon of +Salisbury, who by his marriage with a Somersetshire lady, became +father of Edmund Fielding.</p> + +<p>Such was Henry Fielding's ancestry, and it cannot be too much +insisted on that, throughout all the vicissitudes of his life, he +was ever a man of breeding, no less than a man of wit. "His manners +were so gentlemanly," said his friend Mrs Hussey, "that even with +the lower classes with which he frequently condescended to chat, +such as Sir Roger de Coverley's old friends, the Vauxhall watermen, +they seldom outstepped the limits of propriety." And a similar +recognition comes from the hand of a great, and not too friendly, +critic. To "the very last days of his life," wrote Thackeray, "he +retained a grandeur of air, and although worn down by disease his +aspect and presence imposed respect on the people around him."</p> + +<p>This Denbigh ancestry recalls a pleasant example of Fielding's +wit, preserved in a story told by his son, and recorded in the +pages of that voluminous eighteenth-century anecdotist, John +Nichols. "Henry Fielding," says Nichols, "being once in company +with the Earl of Denbigh, and the conversation's turning on +Fielding's being of the Denbigh family, the Earl asked the reason +why they spelt their names differently; the Earl's family doing it +with the E first (Feilding), and Mr Henry Fielding with the I first +(Fielding). 'I cannot tell, my Lord,' answered Harry, 'except it be +that my branch of the family were the first that knew how to +spell.'"</p> + +<p>In accordance with the fighting traditions of his race, Edmund +Fielding went into the army; his name appearing as an ensign in the +1st Foot Guards. Also, as became a Fielding, he distinguished +himself, we are told, in the "Wars against France with much Bravery +and Reputation"; and it was probably owing to active service abroad +that the birth of his eldest son took place in his wife's old +Somersetshire home. The date fits in well enough with the campaigns +of Ramilies, Oudennarde and Malplaquet. Soon after Henry's birth, +however, his father had doubtless left the Low Countries, for, +about 1709, he appears as purchasing the colonelcy of an Irish +Regiment. This regiment was ordered, in 1710, to Spain; but before +that year the colonel and his wife and son had a separate home +provided for them, by the care of Sir Henry Gould. At what precise +date is uncertain, but some time before 1710, Sir Henry had +purchased an estate at East Stour in Dorsetshire, consisting of +farms and lands of the value of £4750, intending to settle some or +the whole of the same on his daughter and her children. And +already, according to a statement by the colonel, the old judge had +placed his son-in-law in possession of some or all of this +purchase, sending him oxen to plough his ground, and promising him +a "Dairye of Cows." Sir Henry moreover had, said his son-in-law, +declared his intention "to spend the vacant Remainder of his life," +sometimes with his daughter, her husband, and children at Stour, +and sometimes with his son Davidge, presumably at Sharpham. But in +March, 1710, Sir Henry's death frustrated his planned retirement in +the Vale of Stour; although three years later, in 1713, his +intentions regarding a Dorsetshire home for his daughter were +carried out by the <a name="fnref1-3">conveyance</a> to her <a +class="footnote" href="#fn1-3">3</a> and her children of the Stour +estate, for her sole enjoyment. The legal documents are careful to +recite that the rents and profits should be paid to Mrs Fielding or +her children, and her receipt given, and that the said Edmund +"should have nothing to do nor intermeddle therewith."</p> + +<p>In this settlement of the East Stour farms, to the greater part +of which Henry Fielding, then six years old, would be joint heir +with his sisters, Colonel Fielding himself seems to have had to pay +no less than £1750, receiving therefor "a portion of the said +lands." So by 1713 both Edmund Fielding and his wife were settled, +as no inconsiderable landowners, among the pleasant meadows of +Stour; and there for the next five years Henry's early childhood +was passed. Indeed, Mrs Fielding must have been at Stour when her +eldest son was but three years old, for the baptism of a daughter, +Sarah, appears in the Stour registers in November 1710. This entry +is followed by the baptism of Anne in 1713, of Beatrice in 1714, of +Edmund in 1716, and by the death of Anne in the last-named year, +Henry being then nine years old.</p> + +<p>According to Arthur Murphy, Fielding's earliest and too often +inaccurate biographer, the boy received "the first rudiments of his +education at home, under the care of the Revd. Mr Oliver." Mr +Oliver was the curate of Motcombe, a neighbouring village; and we +have the authority of Murphy and of Hutchins, the historian of +Dorset, for finding 'a very humorous and striking portrait' of this +pedagogue in the Rev. Mr Trulliber, the pig-breeding parson of +<em>Joseph Andrews</em>. If this be so, Harry Fielding's first +tutor at Stour was of a figure eminently calculated to foster the +comic genius of his pupil. "He" (Trulliber), wrote that pupil, some +thirty years later, "was indeed one of the largest Men you should +see, and could have acted the part of Sir <em>John Falstaff</em> +without stuffing. Add to this, that the Rotundity of his Belly was +considerably increased by the shortness of his Stature, his shadow +ascending very near as far in height when he lay on his Back, as +when he stood on his Legs. His Voice was loud and hoarse, and his +Accents extremely broad; to complete the whole he had a Stateliness +in his Gait when he walked, not unlike that of a Goose, only he +stalked slower." It appears that the widow of the Motcombe curate +denied the alleged portrait; but the house where Mr Oliver lived, +"seemed to accord with Fielding's description ... and an old woman +who remembered him observed that 'he dearly loved a bit of good +victuals, and a drop of drink.'" Bearing in mind the great +novelist's own earnest declaration that he painted "not men but +manners," we may fairly assume that his Dorsetshire tutor belonged +to that class of coarse farmer-parson so justly satirised in the +person of Trulliber. According to another sketch of Fielding's +life, his early education was also directed by the rector of Stour +Provost, "his <a name="fnref1-4">Parson</a> Adams."<a class= +"footnote" href="#fn1-4">4</a></p> + +<p>While Harry Fielding was thus learning his first rudiments, his +father, the colonel, seems to have been engaged in less useful +pursuits in London. The nature of these pursuits appears from a +<em>Bill of Complaint</em>, which by a happy chance has been +preserved, between "Edmund Fielding of East Stour, Dorsetshire," +and one Robert Midford, pretending to be a captain of the army. <a +name="fnref1-5">In</a> this <em>Bill</em> <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn1-5">5</a> the said Edmund declares that in 1716, being then +resident in London, he often frequented Princes Coffee-house in the +Parish of St James. At Princes he found his company sought by the +reputed Captain Robert Midford, who "prevailed upon him to play a +game called 'Faro' for a small matter of diversion, but by degrees +drew him on to play for larger sums, and by secret and fraudulent +means obtained very large sums, in particular notes and bonds for +£500." Further, the colonel entered into a bond of £200 to one Mrs +Barbara Midford, "sister or pretended sister of the said Robert"; +and so finally was threatened with outlawry by 'Captain' Midford +for, presumably, payment of these debts. How Colonel Edmund finally +escaped from the clutches of these rogues does not appear; but it +is clear enough that his Dorsetshire meadows were a safer place +than Princes Coffee-house for a gentleman who could lose £500 at +faro to a masquerading army captain. Also Sir Henry Gould's wisdom +becomes apparent, in bequeathing his daughter an inheritance with +which her husband was to have "nothing to doe."</p> + +<p>In 1718, two years after Colonel Fielding's experience at +Princes, Mrs Fielding died, leaving six young children to her +husband's care, two sons and four daughters, Henry, the eldest +being but eleven years old. Her death is recorded in the East Stour +registers as follows:--"Sarah, Wife of the Hon. Edmund Fielding +Esqre. and daughter of Sir Henry Gould Kt. April 18 1718."</p> + +<p>About this time (the dates vary between 1716 and 1719) Edmund +Fielding was appointed Colonel of the Invalids, an appointment +which he appears to have held until his death. And within two years +of the death of his first wife, Colonel Fielding must have married +again, for in 1720 we find him and his then wife, <em>Anne</em>, +selling some 153 acres with messuages, barns and gardens, in East +and West Stour, to one Awnsham Churchill, Esquire. What relation, +if any, this land had to the property of the colonel's late wife +and her children does not appear.</p> + +<p>Some time in 1719, the year after his mother's death, or early +in 1720, Henry was sent to Eton, as appears from his father's +statement, made in February 1721, that his eldest son "who is now +upwards of thirteen yeares old is and for more than a yeare last +past hath been maintained ... at Eaton schoole, the yearely expence +whereof costs ... upwards of £60." And the boy must have been well +away from the atmosphere of his home, in these first years after +his mother's death, if the allegations of his grandmother, old Lady +Gould, may be believed.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i370"><img src="images/370.jpg" alt= +"Sir Henry Gould" width="354" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>These hitherto unknown records of Henry Fielding's boyhood are +to be found in the proceedings of a Chancery suit begun by Lady +Gould, on behalf of her six grandchildren, <a name= +"fnref1-6">Henry</a>, Edmund, <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn1-6">6</a> Katherine, Ursula, Sarah and Beatrice, three years +after the death of their mother--namely, on the 10th of February +1721, and instituted in the name of Henry Fielding as complainant. +Lady Gould opens her grandchildren's case with a comprehensive +indictment of her son-in-law. After reciting that her daughter +Sarah had married Edmund Fielding "without the consent of her +Father or Mother and contrary to their good likeing," Lady Gould +mentions her husband's bequest to their daughter, Sarah Fielding, +of £3000 in trust to be laid out in the purchase of lands for the +benefit of her and her children "with direction that the said +Edmund Fielding should have nothing to do nor intermeddle +therewith." And how Sir Henry did in his lifetime purchase +"Eastover" estate for his daughter, but died before the trust was +completed; and that in 1713 his trustees, Edmund Fielding +consenting, settled the said estate upon trust for Sarah Fielding +and her children after her, the rents and profits to be paid for +her, and acknowledged by her receipt "without her Husband." And +that if Sarah Fielding died intestate the estate be divided among +her children. The bill then shows that Sarah Fielding did die +intestate; and that then Henry and his sisters and brother "being +all Infants of tender years and uncapable of managing their own +affairs and to take Care thereof, well hoped that ... their +Trustees would have taken Care to receive the Rents of the said +premises," and have applied the same for their maintenance and +education. One of these trustees, we may note, was Henry Fielding's +uncle, Davidge Gould. This reasonable hope of the six "Infants" was +however, according to their grandmother, wholly disappointed. For +their uncle Davidge and his co-trustee, one William Day, allowed +Edmund Fielding to receive the rents, nay "entered into a +Combination and Confederacy to and with the said Edmund Fielding," +refusing to intermeddle with the said trust, whereby the children +were in great danger of losing their means of maintenance and +education. And this was by no means all. Lady Gould proceeds to +point out that her son-in-law had, since his wife's death, +"intermarried with one ... Rapha ... Widow an Italian a Person of +the Roman Catholick Profession who has severall children of her own +and one who kept an eating House in London, and not at all fitt to +have the care of [the complainants'] Education and has now two +daughters in a Monastery beyond Sea." It is not difficult to +conceive the attitude of Lady Gould of Sharpham Park to an Italian +widow who kept an eating-house; but worse yet, in the view of those +'No Popery' days, was to follow. "Not only so," says her ladyship, +"the said Edmund Fielding ... threatens to take your [complainants] +from school into his own custody altho' [their] said Grandmother +has taken a House in the City of New Sarum with an intent to have +[her granddaughters] under her Inspection and where ... Katherine, +Ursula and Sarah are now at school"; and "the said Mr Fielding doth +give out in speeches that he will do with [the complainants] what +he thinks fitt, and has openly commended the Manner of Education of +young persons in Monasteryes."</p> + +<p>This comprehensive indictment against Colonel Fielding received +a prompt counter, the "Severall Answere of Edmund Fielding Esqre +... to the Bill of Complaint of Henry Fielding, Katherine Fielding, +Ursula Fielding, Sarah Fielding, and Beatrice Fielding, Infants, by +Dame Sarah Gould, their Grandmother and next Friend," being dated +February 23 1721, but thirteen days after Lady Gould had opened her +attack. Out of "a dutiful Regard to the said Lady Gould his +Mother-in-Law," Colonel Fielding declares himself unwilling to +"Controvert anything with her further than of necessity." But he +submits that, in the matter of his marriage, he was "afterwards +well approved of and received" by Sir Henry Gould and his family; +that he was also so happy as to be in favour with Lady Gould "till +he marryed with his now wife"; which he believes "has Occasioned +some Jealosye and Displeasure in the Lady Gould, tho' without Just +Grounds." Edmund Fielding then draws a pastoral picture of himself +in occupation of the East Stour estate, placed there by his +father-in-law; of his oxen and dairy; and of the judge's intention +of spending half the remainder of his days with his son-in-law on +this Dorsetshire farm. He admits his share in the trust settlement +after Sir Henry's death; and points out that his brother-in-law, +Davidge Gould, made him pay heavily on a portion of the estate. And +he believes that, as his wife died intestate, all his children are +"Intituled to the said Estate in Equall proportions."</p> + +<p>Then follows the colonel's main defence. His eldest son Henry +not being yet fourteen years of age, he has, ever since the death +of his wife, continued in possession of the premises, taking the +rents and profits thereof, which amount to about £150; and he +positively declares that he has expended more annually on the +maintenance and education of the said complainants, ever since the +death of their mother, than the clear income of the said estate +amounts to, and that he shall continue to take "a Tender and +affectionate care of all his said Children." Further, he professes +himself a "protestant of the Communion of the Church of England," +and asserts that he shall and will breed his said children +Protestants of that communion. He protests that his second wife is +not an Italian; nor did she keep an eating-house. He suggests that +Lady Gould took her house at Salisbury "as well with an Intent to +convenience herselfe by liveing in a Towne" as for the inspection +of his children. He "denyeth that he ever Comended the Manner of +Education of young persons in monasterys if it be meant in Respect +of Religion." Finally, he says that he has spent much money on +improving the estate; that the income from the estate is hardly +sufficient to maintain his children according to their station in +the world since he is "nearly related to many Noble Familys"; and +he "veryly believes in his conscience he can better provide for his +said Children by reason of his relation to and Interest in the said +noble Familys than their said Grandmother (who is now in an +advanced age, being seventy yeares old or thereabouts)."</p> + +<p>Here, it is plain, was a very pretty family quarrel. No man +likes his mother-in-law to say that he has married the keeper of an +Italian eating-house, especially if the fact is correct; or that he +is perverting his young children's trust money. Neither was Lady +Gould likely to be pacified by her son-in-law's remark that she was +now "in an advanced age"; while his suggestion that his "noble" +family would be of far more advantage to his children than that of +the respectable Goulds would have the added sting of undeniable +truth.</p> + +<p>The next extant move in the fray bears date five months later, +July 18 1721, and includes a petition by 'Dame Sarah Gould' that +the children be not removed from the places where they then were +until the case be heard; and Lady Gould adds that if the children's +persons or estates be "under ye management or power of ye said Mr +Fielding and his now wife ye Estate would not be managed to ye best +advantage and their Education would not be taken care of and there +would be a great hazard that ye children might be perverted to ye +Romish Religion." Then follows an order in Chancery, under the same +date, "that ye eldest son of ye Defend't. Fielding ... be continued +at Eaton School where he now is and that ye rest of ye children be +continued where they now are."</p> + +<p>The next document merely records the inclusion of Henry's +five-year-old brother Edmund among the plaintiffs. And this is +followed by a brief Chancery order of November 30 1721, that "ye, +plaintiff Henry Fielding who is not [<em>sic</em>] at Eaton Schoole +be at liberty to go to ye said Dame Sarah Gould, his Grandmother +and next friend during ye usual time of recess from School at +Xmas."</p> + +<p>After these Christmas holidays spent by Henry Fielding with Lady +Gould, doubtless at her house in Salisbury, the Chancery records +pass on to the April following, 1722, when the boy's uncle and +trustee Davidge Gould makes a statement "sworn at Sharpham Park," +which concludes that the witness hears and believes that Edmund +Fielding "has already three children by his present wife who is +reputed to be of the Romish church." In this same month comes +another order from the court that Henry be at liberty to leave Eton +for the Whitsun holidays 1722, and to go to Lady Gould's house. In +May Edmund Fielding appears as "of the Parish of Saint James, in +the County of Middlesex," and also as his children's "next Friend +and Guardian." But two days later the long suit is concluded by the +decision of the court, and here Colonel Fielding is, as heretofore, +defendant, Lady Gould being the children's "next friend."</p> + +<p>The case came before the Lord Chancellor on the 28th of May +1722, and was "debated in the presence of learned Counsels." The +trust was upheld, and Edmund Fielding was required to deliver +possession of the estate, rendering account of the rents and +profits thereof since the death of his first wife; but he was to +have "any and what" allowance for improvements, and for the +children's maintenance and education. And it was further ordered +that the children then at school continue at such schools till +further order, and that "upon any breaking up at ye usuall times +they do go and reside with ye Lady Gould their Grandmother that +they may not be under the influence of ye Defendant Fielding's +Wife, who appeared to be a <a name="fnref1-7">papist</a>." <a +class="footnote" href="#fn1-7">7</a></p> + +<p>So Lady Gould, for all her seventy years, won her case at every +point. And Colonel Edmund Fielding did not only lose the +guardianship of his six children, and the administration of their +estate. For there was, we learn, in court, during the hearing, one +Mrs Cottington, the plaintiffs aunt, "alleadging that there was a +debt of £700 due from ye Defendant Fielding to her"; which debt she +offered should be applied for the benefit of her nephews and +nieces. Whereupon the court ordered that if Mrs Cottington proved +the same, a Master in Chancery should purchase therewith lands to +be settled for the "Infants" in like manner as the trust +estate.</p> + +<p>It may be only a coincidence, but £700 is the sum specifically +mentioned in the proceedings brought by Colonel Fielding in October +1722, five months after the loss of his Chancery suit, against the +cardsharper, Robert Midford, who was then apparently threatening +him with outlawry for the recovery of the gambling debt begun, as +we have seen, at Princes' Coffee-house six years before. Had the +colonel borrowed the £700 from Mrs Cottington, with intent to +discharge those debts; and, on being brought to law by her (on her +nephews' and nieces' behalf) for that debt, did it occur to him to +escape from the clutches of the psuedo "Captain" Midford by +pleading, as he now does in this Bill of 1722, that he "was +tricked," and also "that gaming is illegal"? The latter plea has +something of unconscious humour in the mouth of a gentleman who had +lately lost £500 at faro. With this last echo of the coffee-house +of St James's, and of the colonel's financial difficulties, that +brave soldier, if somewhat reckless gambler, the Hon. Edmund +Fielding vanishes from sight, as far as the life of his eldest son +is concerned.</p> + +<p>At the triumphant conclusion of his grandmother's suit Henry +Fielding would be just fifteen years of age, and it is impossible +not to wonder what side he took in these spirited family conflicts. +No evidence, however, on such points appears in the dry legal +documents; and all that we have for guide as to the effect in this +impressionable time of his boyhood of the long months of contest, +and of his strictly ordered holidays with his grandmother, is the +declaration on the one hand that "filial piety ... his nearest +relations agree was a shining part of his character," and on the +other, the undeniably strong Protestant bias that appears in his +writing. Of his aunt, Mrs Cottington, we get one later glimpse, +when in 1723 she is made his trustee, in place of his uncle, +Davidge Gould, Mrs Cottington being then resident in Salisbury. At +the end of the following year, however, in December 1724, Davidge +Gould resumes his trusteeship, and with the record of that fact the +disclosures yielded by these ancient parchments as to Henry +Fielding's stormy boyhood come to an end.</p> + +<p>From these records it becomes possible to gain some idea of the +surroundings of the great novelist's early youth. Before his +mother's death, indeed, when he was a boy of eleven, we already +knew him as suffering the rough jurisdiction of his Trulliberian +tutor, Parson Oliver of Motcombe village, and perhaps as under the +wise and kindly guidance of the good scholar-parson, who was later +to win the affection and respect of thousands of readers under the +name of "Parson Adams." But now, for the first time, we learn of +the disastrous second marriage by which Colonel Fielding, within +two years of his first wife's death, placed a lady of at least +disputable social standing at the head of his household, and one, +moreover, whose Faith roused the bitter religious animosities of +that day. What wonder that the old Lady Gould strove fiercely to +remove Henry Fielding, and his sisters and young brother, from East +Stour, when a Madame Rasa was installed in her daughter's place. +And accordingly, as we have seen, even before the conclusion of the +suit, Henry was provisionally ordered by the Court of Chancery to +spend his holidays with his grandmother. Fielding would then be +fourteen years old; and the judge's decision six months later that +future holidays should be passed with Lady Gould, away from the +influence of the second Mrs Fielding, doubtless severed the lad's +connection with his dubious stepmother for the next six years. His +home life, then, during the latter part of his Eton schooling would +be under Lady Gould's care; and was probably spent at +Salisbury.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i341"><img src="images/341.jpg" alt= +"Eton--1742" width="671" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>Of his Eton life, from his entrance at the school, when twelve +years old, we know practically nothing. From the absence of his +name on the college lists, it may be inferred that he was an +Oppidan. It is said that he gave "distinguished proofs of strong +and peculiar parts"; and that he left the school with a good +reputation as a classical scholar. And it is not surprising to +learn that here, as he himself tells us, his vigorous energies made +acquaintance with that 'birchen altar' at which most of the best +blood in England has been disciplined. "And thou," he cries, "O +Learning (for without thy Assistance nothing pure, nothing correct, +can Genius produce) do thou guide my Pen. Thee, in thy favourite +Fields, where the limpid gently rolling <em>Thames</em> washes thy +<em>Etonian</em> banks, in early Youth I have worshipped. To thee +at thy birchen Altar, with true <em>Spartan</em> Devotion, I have +sacrificed my <a name="fnref1-8">Blood</a>." <a class="footnote" +href="#fn1-8">8</a> That the sacrifice was not made in vain appears +from the reputation with which Fielding left Eton of being +"uncommonly versed in the Greek authors and an early master of the +Latin classics"; and also from the yet better evidence of his own +pages. Long after these boyish days we find him, in the words of +"The man of the Hill," thus eloquently acknowledging the debt of +humanity, and doubtless his own, to those inestimable treasures +bequeathed to the world by ancient Greece: "These Authors, though +they instructed me in no Science by which Men may promise to +themselves to acquire the least Riches, or worldly Power, taught +me, however, the Art of despising the highest Acquisitions of both. +They elevate the Mind, and steel and harden it against the +capricious Invasions of Fortune. They not only instruct in the +Knowledge of Wisdom, but confirm Men in her Habits, and demonstrate +plainly, that this must be our Guide, if we propose ever to arrive +at the greatest worldly Happiness; or to defend ourselves, with any +tolerable Security, against the Misery which everywhere surrounds +and <a name="fnref1-9">invests</a> us." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn1-9">9</a> And that this was no mere figure of speech appears +from that touching picture which Murphy has left us of the +brilliant wit, the 'wild' Harry Fielding, when under the pressure +of sickness and poverty, quietly reading the <em>De +Consolations</em> of Cicero. His Plato accompanied him on the last +sad voyage to Lisbon; and his library, when catalogued for sale on +behalf of his widow and children, contained over one hundred and +forty volumes of the Greek and Latin classics.</p> + +<p>Thus, supreme student and master as he was of "the vast +authentic book of nature," there is abundant proof that Fielding +fulfilled his own axiom that a "good share of learning" is +necessary to the equipment of a novelist. Let the romance writer's +natural parts be what they may, learning, he declared, "must fit +them for use, must direct them in it, lastly must contribute part +at least of the <a name="fnref1-10">materials</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn1-10">10</a> Looking back on such utterances by +the 'father of the English Novel,' written at the full height of +his power, it is but natural to wonder if the boy's eager +application to Greek and Latin drudgery had in it something of +half-conscious preparation for the great part he was destined to +play in the history of English literature.</p> + +<p>It is clear that Henry Fielding flung his characteristic +energies zealously into the acquirement of the classical learning +proffered him at Eton; but a fine scholarship, great possession +though it be, was not the only gain of his Eton years. Here, says +Murphy in his formal eighteenth-century phrasing, young Fielding +had "the advantage of being early known to many of the first people +in the kingdom, namely Lord Lyttelton, Mr Fox, Mr Pitt, Sir Charles +Hanbury Williams, and the late Mr Winnington, etc."</p> + +<p>Of these companions at Eton, George Lyttelton, afterwards known +as the "good Lord Lyttelton," statesman and orator, stands foremost +by virtue of the generous warmth of a friendship continued +throughout the novelist's chequered life. To Lyttelton <em>Tom +Jones</em> was dedicated; it was his generosity, as generously +acknowledged, that supplied Fielding, for a time, with the very +means of subsistence; and to him was due the appointment, +subsequently discharged with so much zealous labour, of Magistrate +for Westminster and Middlesex. It is recorded that George +Lyttelton's school exercises "were recommended as models to his +schoolfellows." Another Eton friend, Thomas Winnington, made some +figure in the Whig political world of the day; he was accredited by +Horace Walpole with having an inexhaustible good humour, and +"infinitely more wit than any man I ever knew." Of the friendship +with Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, of which we first hear at Eton, +little is known, save the curious episode of the recovery, many +years after its author's death, of Fielding's lost play <em>The +Good-Natured Man</em>, which had apparently been submitted to Sir +Charles, whose celebrity was great as a brilliant political +lampoonist. Of the acquaintance with Henry Fox, first Baron +Holland, we hear nothing in later life; but the name of the +greatest of all these Eton contemporaries, that of the elder Pitt, +recurs in after years as one of the party at Radway Grange, in +Warwickshire, to whom Fielding, after dinner, read aloud the <a +name="fnref1-11">manuscript</a> of <em>Tom Jones</em>. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn1-11">11</a> A reference to his fellow-Etonian +may be found in one of the introductory chapters of that +masterpiece, where Fielding, while again advocating the claims of +learning, takes occasion to pay this sonorous tribute to Pitt's +oratory: "Nor do I believe that all the imagination, fire, and +judgment of Pitt, could have produced those orations that have made +the senate of England in these our times a rival in eloquence to +Greece and Rome, if he had not been so well read in the writings of +Demosthenes and Cicero, as to have transferred their whole spirit +into his speeches and, with their spirit, their knowledge too."</p> + +<p>However excellent a knowledge of the classics the youthful +scholar took away with him from Eton, the rigours of his studies do +not appear to have diminished that zest for life with which the +very name of Henry Fielding is invested. For the obscurity of these +early years is for a moment lifted to disclose the young genius as +having already, before he was nineteen, fallen desperately in love +with a beautiful heiress in Dorsetshire; and, moreover, as +threatening bodily force to accomplish his suit. The story, as +indicated in the surviving outlines, might be the draft for a +chapter of <em>Tom Jones</em>. The scene is Lyme Regis. The chief +actors are Harry Fielding, scarce more than a schoolboy; a +beautiful heiress, Miss <a name="fnref1-12">Sarah</a> Andrew; <a +class="footnote" href="#fn1-12">12</a> and her uncle, one Mr Andrew +Tucker, a timorous and crafty member of the local corporation. The +handsome Etonian, who had been for some time resident in the old +town, fell madly in love, it seems, with the lady, who is stated to +have been his cousin on his mother's side. The views of her +guardian were, however, opposed to the young man's suit, Mr Andrew +Tucker mercenarily designing to secure the heiress for his own son. +Thereupon Harry Fielding is said to have made a desperate attempt +to carry the lady off by force, and that, moreover, "on a Sunday, +when she was on her way to Church." Further, the efforts of the +impetuous youth would seem to have extended to threatened assaults +on the person of his fair cousin's guardian, Mr Tucker; for we find +that affrighted worthy flying for protection to the arm of the law, +as recorded in the <em>Register Book</em> of Lyme Regis, under date +of the 14th November 1725:--"... Andrew Tucker, Gent., one of the +Corporation, caused Henry Fielding, Gent., and his servant or +companion, Joseph Lewis --both now for some time past residing in +the borough--to be bound over to keep the peace, as he was in fear +of his life or some bodily hurt to be done or to be procured to be +done to him by H. Fielding and his man. Mr A. Tucker feared that +the man would beat, maim, or kill him." No words could more aptly +sum up this delightful story than those of Mr Austin Dobson: "a +charming girl, who is also an heiress; a pusillanimous guardian, +with ulterior views of his own; a handsome and high-spirited young +suitor; a faithful attendant ready to 'beat, maim or kill' on his +master's behalf; a frustrated elopement and a compulsory visit to +the mayor--all these with the picturesque old town of Lyme for a +background, suggest a most appropriate first act to Harry +Fielding's <a name="fnref1-13">biographical</a> tragi-comedy." <a +class="footnote" href="#fn1-13">13</a> It is possible that +Fielding's own pen supplied the conclusion to this first act. For +he tells us, in the preface to the <em>Miscellanies</em>, that a +version, in burlesque verse, of part of Juvenal's sixth satire was +originally sketched out before he was twenty, and that it was "all +the Revenge taken by an injured Lover." The story loses none of its +zest, moreover, when we remember that Harry Fielding was at this +time still a Ward of Chancery.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter2">CHAPTER II</a><br> +<br> +PLAYHOUSE BARD</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"I could not help reflecting how often the +greatest abilities lie wind-bound, as it were, in life; or if they +venture out, and attempt to beat the seas, they struggle in vain +against wind and tide."<br> + --<em>Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon</em>.</p> + +<p>It was but three years after the Lyme Regis episode that Henry +Fielding, then a lad of one and twenty, won attention as a +successful writer of comedy. Of this his first entry into the gay +world there are little but generalities to record; but, inaccurate +as Murphy is in some matters of fact, there seems no reason to +doubt the truth of the engaging picture which he draws of the young +man's <em>début</em> upon the Town. We read of the gaiety and +quickness of his fancy; the wild flow of his spirits; the +brilliancy of his wit; the activity of his mind, eager to know the +world. To the possession of genius allied to the happiest temper, a +temper "for the most part overflowing into wit, mirth, and +good-humour," young Fielding added a handsome face, a magnificent +physique (he stood over six feet high), and the fullest vigour of +constitution. "No man," wrote his cousin, Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu, "enjoyed life more than he did." What wonder that he was +soon "in high request with the men of taste and literature," or +that report affirms him to have been no less welcome in ranks of +society not at all distinguished by a literary flavour.</p> + +<p>That a youth so gifted, so "formed and disposed for enjoyment," +should find himself his own master, in London, almost presupposes a +too liberal indulgence in the follies that must have so easily +beset him. When the great and cold Mr Secretary Addison, no less +than that "very merry Spirit," Dick Steele, and the splendid +Congreve, drank more than was good for them, what chance would +there be for a brilliant, ardent lad of twenty, suddenly plunged +into the robust society of that age? If Fielding, like his elders, +indisputably loved good wine, let us remember that none of the +heroes of his three great novels, neither that rural innocent +Joseph Andrews, nor the exuberant youth Tom Jones, nor erring, +repentant Captain Booth are immoderate drinkers. The degradation of +drinking is, in Fielding's pages, accorded to brutalised if honest +country squires, and cruel and corrupt magistrates; and there is +little evidence throughout his life to indicate that the great +novelist drank more freely than did the genial heroes of his pen. +As regards Murphy's general assertion that, at this his entrance +into life, young Fielding "launched wildly into a career of +dissipation" no other reputable contemporary evidence is +discoverable of the "wildness" popularly attributed to Fielding. +That his youth was headlong and undisciplined is a plausible +surmise; but justice demands that the charge be recognised as a +surmise and nothing more. How keenly, twenty years later, he could +appreciate the handicap that such early indulgences impose on a +man's future life may be gathered from a passage in <em>Joseph +Andrews</em> which is not without the ring of personal feeling. The +speaker is a generous and estimable country gentleman, living in +Arcadian retirement with his wife and children. Descended of a good +family and born a gentleman, he narrates how his education was +acquired at a public school, and extended to a mastery of the +Latin, and a tolerable knowledge of the Greek, language. Becoming +his own master at sixteen he soon left school, for, he tells his +listeners, "being a forward Youth, I was extremely impatient to be +in the World: For which I thought my Parts, Knowledge, and Manhood +thoroughly qualified me. And to this early Introduction into Life, +without a Guide, I impute all my future Misfortunes; for besides +the obvious Mischiefs which attend this, there is one which hath +not been so generally observed. The first Impression which Mankind +receives of you, will be very difficult to eradicate. How unhappy, +therefore, must it be to fix your Character in Life, before you can +possibly know its Value, or weigh the Consequences of those Actions +which are to establish your future <a name= +"fnref2-1">Reputation</a>?" <a class="footnote" href="#fn2-1">1</a> +That the wise and strenuous Fielding of later years, the energetic +student at the Bar, the active and patriotic journalist, the +merciless exponent of the hypocrite, the spendthrift, and the +sensualist, the creator of the most perfect type of womanhood in +English fiction (so said Dr Johnson and Thackeray) should look back +sadly on his own years of hot-blooded youth is entirely natural; +but even so this passage and the well-known confession placed in +the mouth of the supposed writer of the <em>Journey from this World +to the <a name="fnref2-2">Next</a></em>, <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn2-2">2</a> no more constitute direct evidence than do Murphy's +unattested phrases, or the anonymous scurrilities of +eighteenth-century pamphleteers.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i342"><img src="images/342.jpg" alt= +"Anne Oldfield" width="352" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>By birth and education Fielding's natural place was in the +costly society of those peers and men of wealth and fashion who +courted the brilliant young wit; but fortune had decreed otherwise, +and at this his first entrance on the world he found, as he himself +said, no choice but to be a hackney writer or a hackney coachman. +True, his father allowed him a nominal £200 a year; but this, to +quote another of his son's observations, "anybody might pay that +would." The fact was that Colonel Fielding's marriage with Madame +Rasa had resulted in a large and rapidly increasing family; and +this burden, together with "the necessary demands of his station +for a genteel and suitable expence," made it impossible for him to +spare much for the maintenance of his eldest son. Launched thus on +the Town, with every capacity for spending an income the receipt of +which was denied to him, the young man flattered himself that he +should find resources in his wit and invention; and accordingly he +commenced as writer for the stage. His first play, a comedy +entitled <em>Love in Several Masks</em>, was performed at Drury +Lane in February 1728, just before the youthful dramatist had +attained his twenty-first year. In his preface to these 'light +scenes' he alludes with some pride to this distinction--"I believe +I may boast that none ever appeared so early on the stage";--and he +proceeds to a generous acknowledgment of the aid received from +those dramatic stars of the eighteenth-century, Colley Gibber, Mr +Wilks and Mrs Oldfield, all of whom appeared in the cast. Of the +two former he says, "I cannot sufficiently acknowledge their civil +and kind behaviour previous to its representation"; from which we +may conclude, as his biographer Laurence points out, that Harry +Fielding was already familiar with the society of the green-room. +To Mrs Oldfield,--that charming actress</p> + +<p class="quoted">"In publick Life, by all who saw Approv'd<br> + In private Life, by all who knew her Lov'd"--</p> + +<p>the young man expresses yet warmer acknowledgments. "Lastly," he +declares, "I can never express my grateful sense of the good nature +of Mrs Oldfield ... nor do I owe less to her excellent judgment, +shown in some corrections which I shall for my own sake conceal." +The comedy is dedicated, with the graceful diction and elaborate +courtesies of the period, to Fielding's cousin, that notable +eighteenth-century wit, the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu; and from the +dedication we learn that to Lady Mary's approval, on her first +perusal, the play owed its existence. What the approval of a great +lady of those times meant for the young writer may be measured by +the fact that Fielding concludes his dedication by solemnly +'informing the world' that the representation of his comedy was +twice honoured with Her Ladyship's presence.</p> + +<p>In view of the frequent accusation of coarseness brought against +Fielding, we may quote a few lines of the prologue with which he +made his literary entry into the world. Here his audience are +promised</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Humour, still free from an indecent Flame,<br> + Which, should it raise your Mirth, must raise your Shame:<br> + Indecency's the Bane to Ridicule,<br> + And only charms the Libertine, or Fool:<br> + Nought shall offend the Fair One's Ears to-day,<br> + Which they might blush to hear, or blush to say.<br> + No private Character these Scenes expose,<br> + Our Bard, at Vice, not at the Vicious, throws."</p> + +<p>Thus it was with an honourable declaration of war against +indecency and libel that the young wit and man of fashion, began +his career as "hackney writer." If to modern taste the first +promise lacks something of fulfilment, it is but just to remember +that to other times belong other manners.</p> + +<p>In the play, rustic and philosophic virtue is prettily rewarded +by the possession of a beautiful heiress, while certain mercenary +fops withdraw in signal discomfiture; and that Fielding, at one and +twenty, had already passed judgment on that glittering 'tinsel' +tribe, is clear enough from his portrait of the "empty gaudy +nameless thing," Lord Formal. Lord Formal appears on the stage with +a complexion much agitated by a day of business spent with "three +milleners, two perfumers, my bookseller's and a fanshop." In the +course of these fatigues he has "rid down two brace of chairmen"; +and had raised his colour to "that exorbitancy of Vermeille" that +it will hardly be reduced "under a fortnight's course of acids." It +is the true spirit of comedy which introduces into this closely +perfumed atmosphere the bluff country figure of Sir Positive Trap, +with his exordiums on the rustic ladies, and on "the good old +English art of clear-starching." Sir Positive hopes "to see the +time when a man may carry his daughter to market with the same +lawful authority as any other of his cattle"; and causes Lord +Formal some moments' perplexity, his lordship being "not perfectly +determinate what species of animal to assign him to, unless he be +one of those barbarous insects the polite call country squires." In +this production of a youth of twenty we may find a foretaste of +that keen relish in watching the human comedy, that vigorous scorn +of avarice, that infectious laughter at pretentious folly, which +accompanied the novelist throughout his life.</p> + +<p>To this same year is attributed a poem called the +<em>Masquerade</em>, which need only be noticed as again +emphasising its author's lifelong war against the evils of his +time. The <em>Masquerade</em> is a satire on the licentious +gatherings organised by the notorious Count Heidegger, Master of +the Revels to the Court of George II.</p> + +<p>Many years later <a name="fnref2-3">Fielding</a> reprinted <a +class="footnote" href="#fn2-3">3</a> two other poetical effusions +bearing the date of this his twenty-first year. Of these the first, +entitled "A Description of U----n G---- (alias <em>New Hog's +Norton</em>) in <em>Com-Hants</em>" identified by Mr Keightley as +Upton Grey in Hampshire, is addressed to the fair +<em>Rosalinda,</em> by her disconsolate <em>Alexis</em>. Alexis +bewails his exile among</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Unpolish'd Nymphs and more unpolish'd +Swains,"</p> + +<p>and describes himself as condemned to live in a dwelling half +house, half shed, with a garden full of docks and nettles, the +fruit-trees bearing only snails--</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Happy for us had Eve's this Garden been She'd +found no Fruit, and therefore known no Sin,"--</p> + +<p>the dusty meadows innocent of grass, and the company as innocent +of wit. This sketch of rural enjoyments recalls a later utterance +in <em>Jonathan Wild</em>, concerning the votaries of a country +life who, with their trees, "enjoy the air and the sun in common +and both vegetate with very little difference between them." With +one or two eloquent exceptions there is scarce a page in Fielding's +books devoted to any interest other than that of human nature.</p> + +<p>The second fragment is a graceful little copy of verse addressed +to <em>Euthalia</em>, in which we may note, by the way, that the +fair Rosalinda's charms are ungallantly made use of as a foil to +Euthalia's dazzling perfections. As Fielding found these verses not +unworthy of a page in his later <em>Miscellanies</em> they are here +recalled:</p> + +<p class="quoted">TO EUTHALIA.<br> + WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1728.<br> +<br> +"Burning with Love, tormented with Despair,<br> + Unable to forget or ease his Care;<br> + In vain each practis'd art <em>Alexis</em> tries;<br> + In vain to Books, to Wine or Women flies;<br> + Each brings <em>Euthalia's</em> Image to his Eyes.<br> + In <em>Lock's</em> or <em>Newton's</em> Page her Learning +glows;<br> + <em>Dryden</em> the Sweetness of her Numbers shews;<br> + In all their various Excellence I find<br> + The various Beauties of her perfect Mind.<br> + How vain in Wine a short Relief I boast!<br> + Each sparkling Glass recalls my charming Toast.<br> + To Women then successless I repair,<br> + Engage the Young, the Witty, and the Fair.<br> + When <em>Sappho's</em> Wit each envious Breast alarms,<br> + And <em>Rosalinda</em> looks ten thousand Charms;<br> + In vain to them my restless Thoughts would run;<br> + Like fairest Stars, they show the absent Sun."</p> + +<p><em>Love in Several Masks</em> was produced, as we have seen, in +February, 1728; and it is a little surprising to find the young +dramatist suddenly appearing, four weeks later, as a University +student. He was entered at the University of Leyden, as "Litt. +Stud," on the 16th of March 1728. The reason of this sudden change +from the green-room of Drury Lane to the ancient Dutch university +must be purely matter of conjecture, as is the nature of Fielding's +undergraduate studies, Murphy having lately been proved to be +notably erroneous as to this <a name="fnref2-4">episode</a>. <a +class="footnote" href="#fn2-4">4</a> His name occurs as staying, on +his entry at Leyden, at the "Casteel von Antwerpen"; and again, a +year later, in the <em>recensiones</em> of the University for +February 1729, as domiciled with one Jan Oson. As all students were +annually registered, the omission of any later entry proves that he +left Leyden before 1730; with which meagre facts and his own +incidental remark that the comedy of <em>Don Quixote in +England</em> was "begun at Leyden in the year 1728," our knowledge +of the two years of Fielding's university career concludes. In +February 1730 he was presumably back in London, that being the date +of his next play, the <em>Temple Beau</em>, produced by Giffard, +the actor, at the new theatre in Goodman's Fields.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i337"><img src="images/337.jpg" alt= +"Leyden--1727" width="637" height="448"></a></p> + +<p>The prologue to the <em>Temple Beau</em> was written by that man +of many parts, James Ralph, the hack writer, party journalist and +historian, who was in after years to collaborate with Fielding, +both as a theatrical manager and as a journalist. Ralph's opening +lines are of interest as bearing on Fielding's antagonism to the +harlequinades and variety shows, then threatening the popularity of +legitimate drama:</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Humour and Wit, in each politer Age, Triumphant, +rear'd the Trophies of the Stage: But only Farce, and Shew, will +now go down, And HARLEQUIN'S the Darling of the Town."</p> + +<p>Ralph bids his audience turn to the 'infant stage' of Goodman's +Fields for matter more worthy their attention; and his promise that +there</p> + +<p class="quoted">"The Comick Muse, in Smiles severely gay, Shall +scoff at Vice, and laugh its Crimes away"</p> + +<p>must surely have been inspired by the young genius from whom +twenty years later came the formal declaration of his endeavour, in +<em>Tom Jones,</em> "to laugh mankind out of their favourite +follies and vices."</p> + +<p>The special follies of the <em>Temple Beau</em> have, for +background, of course, those precincts in which Fielding was later +to labour so assiduously as a student, and as a member of the +Middle Temple; but where, as the young Templar of the play +observes, "dress and the ladies" might also very pleasantly employ +a man's time. But except for an oblique hit at duelling, a custom +which Fielding was later to attack with curious warmth, this second +play seems to yield few passages of biographical interest. Of very +different value for our purpose is the third play, which within +only two months appeared from a pen stimulated, presumably, by +empty pockets. This was the comedy entitled the <em>Author's +Farce</em>, being the first portion of a medley which included the +'<em>Puppet Show call'd the Pleasures of the Town</em>; the whole +being acted in the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, long since +demolished in favour of the present building.</p> + +<p>In the person of Harry Luckless, the hero of the <em>Author's +Farce</em>, it is impossible not to surmise the figure of young +Fielding himself; a figure gay and spirited as those of his first +comedy, but, by now, well acquainted with the hungers and the +straits of a 'hackney writer.' Mr Luckless wears a laced-coat and +makes a handsome figure (we remember that Fielding had always the +grand air), whereby his landlady, clamouring for her rent, upbraids +him for deceiving her: "Cou'd I have guess'd that I had a Poet in +my House! Cou'd I have look'd for a Poet under lac'd Clothes!" The +poor author offers her the security of his (as yet unacted) play; +whereupon Mrs Moneywood (lineal ancestress of Mrs Raddles) +pertinently cries out: "I would no more depend on a Benefit-Night +of an unacted Play, than I would on a Benefit-Ticket in an undrawn +Lottery." Luckless next appeals to what should be his landlady's +heart, assuring her that unless she be so kind as to invite him "I +am afraid I shall scarce prevail on my Stomach to dine to-day." To +which the enraged lady answers: "O never fear that: you will never +want a Dinner till you have dined at all the Eating-houses +round.--No one shuts their Doors against you the first time; and I +scarce think you are so kind, seldom to trouble them a second." And +that the good landlady had some grounds for her wrath is but too +apparent when she announces: "Well, I'm resolv'd when you are gone +away (which I heartily hope will be very soon) I'll hang over my +Door in great red Letters, <em>No Lodging for Poets</em> ... My +Floor is all spoil'd with Ink, my Windows with Verses, and my Door +has been almost beat down with Duns.' While the landlady is still +fuming, enters our author's man, Jack.</p> + +<p class="quoted">"<em>Jack</em>. An't please your Honour, I have +been at my Lord's, and his Lordship thanks you for the Favour you +have offer'd of reading your Play to him; but he has such a +prodigious deal of Business he begs to be excus'd. I have been with +Mr <em>Keyber</em> too: he made no Answer at all...."</p> + +<p class="quoted">"<em>Luckless</em>. Jack.</p> + +<p class="quoted">"<em>Jack</em>. Sir.</p> + +<p class="quoted">"<em>Luckless</em>. Fetch my other Hat hither. +Carry it to the Pawnbroker's.</p> + +<p class="quoted">"<em>Jack</em>. To your Honour's own +Pawnbroker.</p> + +<p class="quoted">"<em>Luckless</em>. Ay And in thy way home call +at the Cook's Shop. So, one way or other I find, my Head must +always provide for my Belly."</p> + +<p>At which moment enters the caustic, generous Witmore, +belabouring the profanity, the scurrility, the immodesty, the +stupidity of the age with one hand, the while he pays his friend's +rent with the other; and who, incidentally, is requested by that +irascible genius to kick a worthy publisher down the stairs, on the +latter's refusal to give fifty shillings "no, nor fifty farthings" +for his play. Once mollified by the settlement of her bill, we have +the landlady playing advocate for her hapless lodger in words that +sound very like the apologia of Mr Harry Fielding himself: "I have +always thought, indeed, Mr <em>Luckless</em> had a great deal of +Honesty in his Principles; any Man may be unfortunate: but I knew +when he had Money I should have it...." And the good woman's +reminiscence that while her lodger had money her doors were +thundered at every morning between four and five by coachmen and +chairmen; and her wish that that pleasant humour'd gentleman were +"but a little soberer," finishes, we take it, the portrait of the +Fielding of 1730. "Jack call a coach; and d'ye hear, get up behind +it and attend me," cries the improvident poet, the moment his +generous friend has left him; and so we are sure did young Mr +Fielding put himself and his laced coat into a coach, and mount his +man behind it, whenever the exigencies of duns and hunger were for +a moment abated. And with as gallant a humour as that of his own +Luckless did he walk afoot, when those "nine ragged jades the +muses" failed to bring him a competency.</p> + +<p>Such failure on the part of the Muses was due to no want of +wooing on his part. During the six years between Fielding's first +appearance as dramatic author in 1728, and his marriage in 1734, +there stand no fewer than thirteen plays to his name. Of these none +have won any lasting reputation; and to this period of the great +novelist's life may doubtless be applied Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu's description, when lamenting that her kinsman should have +been "forced by necessity to publish without correction, and throw +many productions into the world he would have thrown into the fire, +if meat could have been got without money, and money without +scribbling." Lady Mary's account moreover is reinforced by Murphy's +classical periods: "Mr Fielding's case was generally the same with +that of the poet described by Juvenal; with a great genius, he must +have starved if he had not sold his performance to a favourite +actor. <em>Esurit, intactam Paridi, nisi vendit Agaven</em>." A +complete list of all these ephemera will be found in the +bibliography at the end of this volume; here we need but notice +those to which a special interest attaches. Thus, that incomparable +comic actress, Kitty Clive, was cast for a part in the +<em>Lottery</em>, a farce produced in 1731; and three years later +Fielding is adapting for her, especially, the <em>Intriguing +Chambermaid</em>. It was in these two plays, and that of the +<em>Virgin Unmasked</em>, that the town discovered the true comic +genius of Kitty Clive "the best player I ever saw," in Dr Johnson's +opinion. For this discovery Fielding takes credit to himself, in +the dedication addressed to Mrs Clive, which he prefixed to the +<em>Intriguing Chambermaid</em>; and in which he finds opportunity +to pay a noble tribute to the private life of that inimitable +hoyden of the stage. "I cannot help reflecting" he writes, "that +the Town hath one great obligation to me, who made the first +discovery of your great capacity, and brought you earlier forward +on the theatre, than the ignorance of some and the envy of others +would have otherwise permitted.... But as great a favorite as you +at present are with the audience you would be much more so were +they acquainted with your private character ... did they see you, +who can charm them on the stage with personating the foolish and +vicious characters of your sex, acting in real life the part of the +best Wife, the best Daughter, the best Sister, and the best +Friend." That this splendid praise was as sincere as it was +generous need not be doubted. No breath of slander, even in that +slanderous age, seems ever to have dulled the reputation of the +queen of comedy, and "better romp than any I ever saw in +nature"--to quote Dr Johnson again,--Kitty Clive.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i339"><img src="images/339.jpg" alt= +"Kitty Clive as Philida" width="344" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>So few of Fielding's letters have been, to our knowledge, +preserved, that the following note addressed to Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu, and concerning the <em>Modern Husband</em>, a comedy +produced in 1731 or 1732, must here be given, though containing +little beyond the fact that the dramatist of three years' standing +seems still to have placed as high a value on his cousin's +judgment, as when recording her approval of his first effort for +the stage. The play was a piece of admittedly moral purpose, and +was dedicated to Sir Robert Walpole. The first line of the +autograph is, apparently, missing.</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"I hope your Ladyship will honour the Scenes, which I presume to +lay before you, with your Perusal. As they are written on a Model I +never yet attempted, I am exceedingly anxious least they should +find least Mercy from you than my lighter Productions. It will be a +slight compensation to the modern Husband, that your Ladyship's +censure will defend him from the Possibility of any other Reproof, +since your least Approbation will always give me a Pleasure, +infinitely superior to the loudest Applauses of a Theatre. For +whatever has past your judgment, may, I think without any +Imputation of Immodesty, refer Want of Success to Want of Judgment +in an Audience. I shall do myself the honour of waiting on your +Ladyship at Twickenham next Monday to receive my Sentence, and am, +Madam, with the most devoted Respect</p> + +<p>"Your Ladyship's<br> +"most Obedient most humble Servant<br> +"Henry <a name="fnref2-5">Ffielding</a>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn2-5">5</a><br> +"London 7'br 4."</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i338"><img src="images/338.jpg" alt= +"Frontispiece to Fielding's 'Tom Thumb'" width="286" height="500"> +</a></p> + +<p>In 1731-32 the burlesque entitled the <em>Tragedy of Tragedies; +or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great</em>, took the Town. +The <em>Tragedy</em> parodies the absurdities of tragedians; and so +far won immortality that in 1855 it was described as still holding +the stage. But its chief modern interest lies in the tradition that +Swift once observed that he "had not laughed above twice" in his +life,--once at the tricks of a merry-andrew, and again when +Fielding's Tom Thumb killed the ghost. The design for the +frontispiece of the edition of 1731, here reproduced, is from the +pencil of Hogarth; and is the first trace of a connexion between +Fielding and the painter who was to be honoured so frequently in +his pages. An adaptation from Molière, produced in 1733, under the +title of the <em>Miser</em>, won from Voltaire the praise of having +added to the original "quelques beautes de dialogue particulières a +sa [Fielding's] nation." The leading character in the +<em>Miser</em>, Lovegold, became a stock part, and survived to our +own days, having been a favourite with Phelps. In <em>Don Quixote +in England</em>, produced in 1733 or <a name="fnref2-6">34</a>, <a +class="footnote" href="#fn2-6">6</a> Fielding reappears in the +character of patriotic censor with the design, as appears from the +dedication to Lord Chesterfield, of representing "the Calamities +brought on a Country by general Corruption." No less than fifteen +songs are interspersed in the play, and it is matter for curious +conjecture why none of them was chosen for a reprint among the +collected verses published ten years later in the +<em>Miscellanies</em>. Time has almost failed to preserve even the +hunting-song beginning finely--</p> + +<p class="quoted">"The dusky Night rides down the Sky,<br> + And ushers in the Morn;<br> + The Hounds all join in glorious Cry,<br> + The Huntsman winds his Horn:"</p> + +<p>But a happier fate has befallen the fifth song, now familiar as +the first verse of the <em>Roast Beef of Old England</em>. It is +eminently appropriate that the most distinctly national of English +novelists should have written:</p> + +<p class="quoted">"<em>When mighty Rost Beef was the</em> +Englishman's <em>food,<br> + It ennobled our Hearts, and enriched our Blood;<br> + Our Soldiers were brave and our Courtiers were good.<br> + Oh, the Rost Beef of old England,<br> + And old</em> England's <em>Rost Beef!</em></p> + +<p class="quoted">"<em>Then</em>, Britons, <em>from all nice +Dainties refrain,<br> + Which effeminate</em> Italy, France, <em>and</em> Spain;<br> + <em>And mighty Rost Beef shall command on the Main.<br> + Oh, the Rost Beef</em>, etc."</p> + +<p>To this truly prolific period of the young 'hackney writer's' +pen belongs an <em>Epilogue</em>, hitherto overlooked, written for +Charles Johnson's five-act play <em>Caelia or the Perjur'd +Lover</em>, and spoken by Kitty Clive. The lines, which are hardly +worth reprinting, consist of an ironic attack on the laxity of town +morals, where "Miss may take great liberties upon her," and each +woman is virtuous till she be found out.</p> + +<p>An average of two plays a year is a record scarcely conducive to +literary excellence; any more than is the empty cupboard, and the +frequent recourse to 'your honour's own pawnbroker,' so often and +so honourably familiar to struggling genius. "The farces written by +Mr Fielding," says Murphy"... were generally the production of two +or three mornings, so great was his facility in writing"; and we +have seen Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's assertion that much of his +work would have been thrown into the fire had not his dinner gone +with it. Of the struggles of these <a name="fnref2-7">early</a> +years <a class="footnote" href="#fn2-7">7</a> (struggles never +wholly remitted, for, to quote Lady Mary again, Fielding would have +wanted money had his hereditary lands been as extensive as his +imagination) we get further suggestions in the <em>Poetical +Epistle</em> addressed to Sir Robert Walpole when the young poet +was but twenty-three. The lines go with a gallant spirit, but it is +not difficult to detect a savour of grim hardship behind the +jests:</p> + +<p class="quoted">"While at the Helm of State you ride,<br> + Our Nation's Envy and its Pride;<br> + While foreign Courts with Wonder gaze,<br> + And curse those Councils which they praise;<br> + Would you not wonder, Sir, to view<br> + Your Bard a greater Man than you?<br> + Which that he, is you cannot doubt,<br> + When you have heard the Sequel out.<br> + . . . . . "The Family that dines the latest,<br> + Is in our Street esteem'd the greatest;<br> + But latest Hours must surely fall<br> + Before him who ne'er dines at all.<br> +<br> + Your Taste in Architect, you know,<br> + Hath been admir'd by Friend and Foe;<br> + But can your earthly Domes compare<br> + With all my Castles--in the Air?<br> +<br> + "We're often taught it doth behove us<br> + To think those greater who're above us;<br> + Another Instance of my Glory,<br> + Who live above you, twice two Story,<br> + And from my Garret can look down<br> + On the whole Street of <a name="fnref2-8">Arlington</a>." <a +class="footnote" href="#fn2-8">8</a></p> + +<p>Not to depend too greatly on Mr Luckless for our picture of +Fielding as a playwright, we will conclude it with the well-known +passage from Murphy: "When he had contracted 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." Would +that some of those friends had recorded for our delight the wit +that, alas! has vanished like the smoke through which it was +engendered. What would we not give for the table-talk of Henry +Fielding.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter3">CHAPTER III</a><br> +<br> +MARRIAGE</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"What happiness the world affords equal to the +possession of such a woman as Sophia I sincerely own I have never +yet discovered." --<em>Tom Jones</em>.</p> + +<p>Out of the paint and powder of the green-room, the tobacco +clouds of the tavern, the crowded streets where hungry genius went +afoot one day, and rode in a coach the next--in a word, out of the +Town as Harry Fielding knew it--we step, in the year 1734, into the +idyll of his life, his marriage with Charlotte Cradock. For to +Fielding the supreme gift was accorded of passionate devotion to a +woman of whose charm and virtue he himself has raised an enduring +memorial in the lovely portrait of Sophia Western. It is this +portrait, explicitly <a name="fnref3-1">admitted</a>, <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn3-1">1</a> that affords almost our only +authentic knowledge of Charlotte Cradock, beyond the meagre facts +that her home was in Salisbury, and that there she and her sisters +reigned as country belles. For it was not in the gay world of +'Riddoto's, Opera's, and Plays,' nor among the humbler scenes of +the great city in which he delighted to watch the humours of simple +folk (the highest life being in his opinion 'much the dullest'), +that Fielding found his wife. Doubtless his six years about town, +as hackney author, with his good birth, his brilliant wit, and his +scanty means, had made him well acquainted with every phase of +society, "from the Minister at his Levee, to the Bailiff at his +spunging-house; from the Duchess at her drum, to the Landlady +behind her bar"; but it was in the rural seclusion of an old +cathedral town that he wooed and won the beautiful Miss Cradock. +Indeed it is impossible to conceive of Sophia as for ever domiciled +in streets. The very apostrophe which heralds her first appearance +in <em>Tom Jones</em> is fragrant with flower-enamelled meadows, +fresh breezes, and the songs of birds "whose sweetest notes not +even Handel can excel"; and it is thus, with his reader's mind +attuned to the appropriate key, that Fielding ushers in his +heroine: "... lo! adorned with all the Charms in which Nature can +array her; bedecked with Beauty, Youth, Sprightliness, Innocence, +Modesty, and Tenderness, breathing Sweetness from her rosy Lips, +and darting Brightness from her sparkling Eyes, the lovely +<em>Sophia</em> comes." Of middle size, but rather inclining to +tall, with dark hair "curled so gracefully on her neck that few +could believe it to be her own," a forehead rather low, arched +eyebrows, and lustrous black eyes, a mouth that "exactly answered +Sir John Suckling's description in those lines</p> + +<p class="quoted">'Her lips were red and one was thin,<br> + Compar'd to that was next her chin.<br> + Some bee had stung it newly,'"</p> + +<p>with a dimple in the right cheek, and a complexion rather more +of the lily than the rose unless increased by exercise or modesty +when no vermilion could equal it--such was the appearance of +Sophia, who, most of all "resembled one whose image never can +depart from my breast."</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i344"><img src="images/344.jpg" alt= +"The Close, Salisbury--1798" width="630" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>Nor was the beautiful frame, Fielding hastens to add, disgraced +by an unworthy inhabitant. He lingers on the sweetness of temper +which "diffused a glory over her countenance which no regularity of +features can give"; on her perfect breeding, "though wanting +perhaps a little of that ease in her behaviour which is to be +acquired only by habit, and living within what is called the polite +circle"; on the "noble, elevated qualities" which outshone even her +beauty.</p> + +<p>The only facts recorded concerning Miss Cradock are that her +home was in Salisbury, or New Sarum as the city was then called, +and that she possessed a small fortune. It is said, but on what +authority is not stated, that she was one of three beautiful +sisters, the belles of the country town; and it is in accordance +with this tradition that Fielding should celebrate in some verses +"writ when the Author was very young," the beauty and intellectual +charm of the Miss Cradocks. When printing these verses many years +afterwards, in his <em>Miscellanies</em> he describes the poem as +originally partly filled in with the 'Names of several young +Ladies,' which part he now omits, "the rather, as some Freedoms, +tho' gentle ones, were taken with little Foibles in the amiable +Sex, whom to affront in Print, is, we conceive, mean in any Man, +and scandalous in a Gentleman." Certainly the Miss Cradocks +suffered no affront in the lines retained, wherein the young poet +affirms that of all the famed nymphs of Sarum, that favoured +city,</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Whose Nymphs excel all Beauty's Flowers,<br> + As thy high Steeple doth all Towers"</p> + +<p>the 'C----cks' were the best and fairest. Nay, has not great +Jove himself apportioned a 'celestial Dower' to these most favoured +of maidens,</p> + +<p class="quoted">"To form whose lovely Minds and Faces<br> + I stript half Heaven of its Graces."</p> + +<p>From this charming sisterhood Harry Fielding won his bride, but +not until four years of waiting had been accomplished. So much may +be assumed from the early date of the verses entitled "Advice to +the Nymphs of <em>New S---m</em>. Written in the Year 1730." Here +the newly returned student from Leyden, the successful dramatist +from Drury Lane, bids the Salisbury beauties cease their vain +endeavours to contend with the matchless charms of his Celia. And +here, in a pretty compliment introduced to the great Mr Pope, then +at the height of his fame, we are reminded that Celia's lover is +already a man of letters, for all his mere three and twenty years. +When Celia meets her equal, then, he declares, farthing candles +shall eclipse the moon, and "sweet <em>Pope</em> be dull."</p> + +<p>It is these youthful love-verses, verses as he himself was the +first to admit, that were 'indeed Productions of the Heart rather +than the Head,' that afford our only record of Fielding's wooing. +Thus, he sings his passion for <em>Celia</em> in the +declaration</p> + +<p class="quoted">"I hate the Town, and all its Ways;<br> + Ridotto's, Opera's, and Plays;<br> + The Ball, the Ring, the Mall, the Court;<br> + Where ever the Beau-Monde resort....<br> + All Coffee-houses, and their Praters;<br> + All Courts of Justice, and Debaters;<br> + All Taverns, and the Sots within 'em;<br> + All Bubbles, and the Rogues that skin 'em,"</p> + +<p>in short, the whole world 'cram'd all together,' because all his +heart is engrossed for Celia. Again, Cupid is called to account, in +that the careless urchin had left Celia's house unguarded from +thieves, save for an old fellow "who sat up all Night, with a Gun +without any Ammunition." Celia, it seems, had apprehended robbery, +and her poet's rest is troubled:</p> + +<p class="quoted">"For how should I Repose enjoy,<br> + While any fears your Breast annoy?<br> + Forbid it Heav'n, that I should be<br> + From any of your Troubles free."</p> + +<p>Cupid explains his desertion by ingeniously declaring that a +sigh from Celia had blown him away</p> + +<p class="quoted">"<em>to Harry Fielding's breast</em>,"</p> + +<p>in which lodging the 'wicked Child' wrought unconscionable +havoc. Again, Celia wishes to have a "Lilliputian to play with," so +she is promptly told that her lover would doff five feet of his +tall stature, to meet her pleasure, and</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Then when my Celia walks abroad<br> + I'd be her pocket's little Load:<br> + Or sit astride, to frighten People,<br> + Upon her Hat's new fashion'd Steeple."</p> + +<p>Nay, to be prized by Celia, who would not even take the form of +her faithful dog Quadrille.</p> + +<p>Jove, we may remember, had dowered the lovely Miss Cradocks with +minds as fair as their persons; and the excellence of Celia's +understanding is again celebrated in a neatly turned verse upon her +'having blamed Mr Gay for his Severity on her Sex.' Had other women +known a tenderness like hers, cries the poet, Gay's darts had +returned into his own bosom; and last of all should such blame come +from her</p> + +<p class="quoted">"in whose accomplish'd Mind<br> + The strongest Satire on thy Sex we find."</p> + +<p>The love story that first ran to such pleasant rhymes, in the +old cathedral town, was destined to know many a harsh chapter of +poverty and sickness; but throughout it all the affection of the +lovers remained true; and there is no reason to doubt that, had it +been in Harry Fielding's power to achieve it, the promise of +perhaps the most charming of his love verses would have been +fulfilled:</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Can there on Earth, my <em>Celia</em>, be,<br> + A Price I would not pay for thee?<br> + Yes, one dear precious Tear of thine<br> + Should not be shed to make thee mine."</p> + +<p>To read Swift's <em>Journal to Stella</em> is almost a +sacrilege; the little notes that Dick Steele would write to his +'dearest Prue' at all hours of day and night, from tavern and +printing office, are scarce less private; no such seals have been +broken, no such records preserved, of the love story of Harry +Fielding. But to neither Swift nor Steele was it given to raise so +perfect and imperishable a memorial of the women loved by them, as +that reared by the passionate affection and grief of Fielding for +Charlotte Cradock. To this day the beautiful young figure of Sophia +Western, all charm and goodness, is alive in his immortal pages. +And if, as her friend Lady Bute asserts, Amelia also is Mrs +Fielding's portrait, then we know her no less intimately as wife +and mother. We watch her brave spirit never failing under the most +cruel distresses and conflicts; we play with her children in their +little nursery; we hear her pleasant wit with the good parson; we +feel her fresh beauty, undimmed in the poor remnants of a wardrobe +that has gone, with her trinkets, to the pawnbroker; we see a +hundred examples of her courage and tenderness and generosity. +There is nothing in Fielding's life that is more to his honour than +the brief words in which so competent an observer as Lady Bute +summed up his marriage with Charlotte Cradock, "he loved her +passionately and she returned his affection."</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i343"><img src="images/343.jpg" alt= +"Charlcombe Church, near Bath" width="626" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>It was in the little country church of St Mary Charlcombe, a +remote village some two miles from Bath, that "Henry Fielding, of +ye Parish of St James in Bath, Esq., and Charlotte Cradock of ye +same Parish, spinster" were married, on the 28th of November <a +name="fnref3-2">1734</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn3-2">2</a> +Fifty years later the village was described as containing only nine +houses, the church, well fitted for the flock, being but eighteen +feet wide. The old Somerset historian, Collinson, tells us how the +hamlet stood on rising ground, in a deep retired valley, surrounded +by noble hills, and with a little stream winding through the +vale.</p> + +<p>In the January following Fielding and his wife were presumably +back in town; for in this month he produced, at Drury Lane, the +brisk little farce called <em>An Old Man taught Wisdom</em>, a +title afterwards changed to the <em>Virgin Unmasked</em>. It is +probable that this farce was especially written to suit Kitty Clive +in her excelling character of hoyden; and to it, as we have seen, +together with two of its predecessors, is assigned the credit of +having first given that superb comic actress an opportunity of +revealing her powers. Mrs Clive here played the part of Miss Lucy, +a forward young lady who after skittishly interviewing a number of +suitors proposed by her father, finally runs away with Thomas the +footman. The little piece is said to have achieved success; but +scarce had it been staged when "the prolific Mr Fielding," as a +newspaper of the day styles him, brought out a five-act comedy, +named the <em>Universal Gallant: or The different Husbands</em>, +which wholly failed to please the audience, and indeed ran but for +three nights.</p> + +<p>The dedication of this play is dated from "Buckingham Street, +Feb. 12," and assuming Buckingham Street, Strand, to be the +district meant, it is probable that the newly married 'poet' and +his wife were then living with Mrs Fielding's relatives; for +although the rate-books for Buckingham Street fail to show the name +of Fielding, they do show that a Mr Thomas Cradock was then a +householder in the street. In an <em>Advertisement</em>, prefixed +to the published copies of this ill-fated comedy, the disappointed +author deprecates the hasty voice of the pit in words that suggest +the anxiety of a man now responsible for a happiness dearer than +his own. "I have heard," he writes, "that there are some young +Gentlemen about this Town who make a Jest of damning Plays--but did +they seriously consider the Cruelty they are guilty of by such a +Practice, I believe it would prevent them"; the more, that if the +author be "so unfortunate to depend on the success of his Labours +for his Bread, he must be an inhuman Creature indeed, who would out +of sport and wantonness prevent a Man from getting a Livelihood in +an honest and inoffensive Way, and make a jest of starving him and +his Family." There is other evidence that young men about town were +wont to amuse themselves by damning plays 'when George was King.' +In the <em>Prologue</em> to this same condemned play, spoken by the +actor Quin, and said to have been written after the disastrous +first night's performance, a more elaborate indictment is laid +against the audiences of the day. The <em>Critick</em>, it seems, +is grown so captious that if a poet seeks new characters he is +denounced for dealing in monsters; if they are known and common, +then he is a plagiarist; if his scenes are serious they are voted +dull; if humorous they are 'low' (a true Fielding touch). And not +only the critic but also the brainless beau stands, as we have +seen, ready to make sport of the poor author. For such as these</p> + +<p class="quoted"><em>"'Tis not the Poet's wit affords the +Jest,<br> + But who can Cat-call, Hiss, or Whistle best."</em></p> + +<p>In previous years the brilliant Leyden student might have merely +derided his enemies; to the Fielding of February 1735, struggling +to support himself and his beautiful country bride, this 'cruel +usage' of his 'poor Play' assumed a graver aspect:</p> + +<p class="quoted"><em>"Can then another's Anguish give you Joy?<br> + Or is it such a Triumph to destroy?<br> + We, like the fabled Frogs, consider thus,<br> + This may be Sport to you, but it is Death to us."</em></p> + +<p>This note of personal protest recalls an indisputably +reminiscent observation in <em>Amelia</em>, to the effect that +although the kindness of a faithful and beloved wife compensates +most of the evils of life, it "rather serves to aggravate the +misfortune of distressed circumstances, from the consideration of +the share which she is to bear in them." We all know how bravely +Amelia bore that share; how cheerfully she would cook the supper; +how firmly she confronted disaster. To realise how deeply Fielding +felt the pain of such struggles when falling upon "the best, the +worthiest and the noblest of women" we need but turn again to his +own pages. If, cries Amelia's husband, when his distresses +overwhelm him, "if I was to suffer alone, I think I could bear them +with some philosophy"; and again "this was the first time I had +ever felt that distress which arises from the want of money; a +distress very dreadful indeed in the married state for what can be +more miserable than to see anything necessary to the preservation +of the beloved creature and not be able to supply it?"</p> + +<p>To supply for his Celia much less than the necessities of life +Harry Fielding would undoubtedly have stripped his coat, and his +shirt with it, off his back; but, at the end of this same month of +February, fortune made the young couple sudden amends for the +anxieties that seem to have surrounded them. This turn of the wheel +is reflected with curious accuracy by an anonymous satirist of +1735:</p> + +<p class="quoted">"F---g, who <em>Yesterday</em> appear'd so +rough,<br> + Clad in coarse Frize, and plaister'd down with <em>Snuff</em>,<br> + See how his <em>Instant</em> gaudy <em>Trappings</em> shine;<br> + What <em>Play-house</em> Bard was ever seen so fine!<br> + But this, not from his <em>Humour</em> glows, you'll say<br> + But mere <em>Necessity</em>;--for last Night lay<br> + In pawn the Velvet which he wears to <a name="fnref3-3">Day</a>." +<a class="footnote" href="#fn3-3">3</a></p> + +<p>This relief, for a time at least, from the pressing anxieties of +a 'play-house bard,' befell by the death of Charlotte Fielding's +mother, Mrs Elizabeth Cradock of Salisbury, who died in February, +but a week or two after the execution of a will wholly in favour of +that 'dearly beloved' daughter. As the details of Mrs Fielding's +inheritance have not hitherto been known, some portions of her +mother's will may be quoted. "... I Elizabeth Cradock of Salisbury +in the County of Wilts ... do make this my last will and testament +... Item I give to my daughter Catherine one shilling and all the +rest and residue of my ready money plate jewels and estate +whatsoever and wheresoever after my debts and funeral charges are +fully paid and satisfied I give devize and bequeath the same unto +my dearly beloved daughter Charlott Ffeilding wife of Henry +Ffeilding of East Stour in the County of Dorset Esqre." Mrs Cradock +proceeds to revoke all former wills; and appoints her said daughter +"Charlott Ffeilding" as her sole executrix. The will is dated +February 8 1734, old style, viz. 1735; and was proved in London on +the 25th of the same month, 'Charlott Ffeilding,' as sole +executrix, being duly sworn to administer. The provision of one +shilling for another, and apparently <em>not</em> dearly beloved, +daughter, Catherine, recalls the wicked sister in <em>Amelia</em> +who "had some way or other disobliged her mother, a little before +the old lady died," and who consequently was deprived of that +inheritance which relieved Amelia and her husband from the direst +straits.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i345"><img src="images/345.jpg" alt= +"Fielding's house, East Stour, Dorsetshire" width="663" height= +"500"></a></p> + +<p>As no plays are credited to Fielding's name for the ensuing +months of 1735, it is a reasonable inference that the young +Salisbury heiress, whose experience of London had, doubtless, +included a pretty close acquaintance with the hardships of +struggling genius, employed some of her inheritance to enable her +husband to return to the home of his boyhood, on the "pleasant +Banks of sweetly-winding Stour." There is no record of how the +Stour estate, settled on Henry Fielding and his brother and +sisters, was apportioned; but an engraving published in 1813 shows +the old stone "farmhouse," which Fielding occupied, the kitchen of +which then still remained as it was in the novelist's time, when it +served as a parlour. Behind the house stood a famous locust tree; +and close by was the village church served at this time, as the +parish registers show, by the Rev. William Young, the original of +the immortal Parson Adams of <em>Joseph <a name= +"fnref3-4">Andrews</a></em>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn3-4">4</a> From a subsequent deed of sale we know that the +estate consisted of at least three gardens, three orchards, eighty +acres of meadow, one hundred and forty acres of pasture, ten acres +of wood, two dove-houses, and "common of pasture for all manner of +cattle." To the stone farmhouse, and to these orchards and meadows, +commons and pastures, Fielding brought his wife, probably in this +year of 1735; and memories of their sojourn at Stour surely +inspired those references in <em>Amelia</em> to the country life of +'love, health, and tranquillity,' a life resembling a calm sea +which "must appear dull in description; for who can describe the +pleasures which the morning air gives to one in perfect health; the +flow of spirits which springs up from exercise; the delights which +parents feel from the prattle and innocent follies of their +children; the joy with which the tender smile of a wife inspires a +husband; or lastly the cheerful solid comfort which a fond couple +enjoy in each others' conversation.--All these pleasures, and every +other of which our situation was capable we tasted in the highest +degree."</p> + +<p>That a man endowed with Fielding's intense joy in living--he was +"so formed for happiness," wrote his cousin Lady Mary, "it is a +pity he was not immortal"--should eagerly taste all the pleasures +of life as a country gentleman, and that in 'the highest degree,' +is entirely consonant with his character. At the very end of his +life, when dying of a complication of diseases, his happy social +spirit was still unbroken; for we find him even then writing of his +inability to enjoy an agreeable hour "without the assistance of a +companion which has always appeared to me necessary to such <a +name="fnref3-5">enjoyment</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn3-5">5</a> Nor would the generous temper, which was ever ready +to share his most needed guinea with a friend scarce poorer than +himself, be infected with niggardliness by the happy enjoyment of +that position to which he was by birth entitled. The well-known +account therefore, given by Murphy, of the East Stour episode is +exactly what we might have expected of Harry Fielding in the part +of country gentleman: "To that place [<em>i.e.</em> his estate of +East Stour]," says Murphy, "he retired with his wife, on whom he +doated, with a resolution to bid adieu to all the follies and +intemperances to which he had addicted himself in the career of a +town life. But unfortunately a kind of family pride here gained an +ascendant over him, and he began immediately to vie in splendour +with the neighbouring 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 of 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, hospitality threw open his doors, and, in less +than three years, entertainments, hounds, and horses, entirely +devoured a little patrimony...." This account is prefaced by gross +inaccuracies of fact, inexplicable in a biographer writing but ten +years after the death of his subject; but, as Mr Austin Dobson +says, "there can be little doubt that the rafters of the old farm +by the Stour, with the great locust tree at the back, which is +figured in Hutchins's <em>History of Dorset</em>, rang often to +hunting choruses, and that not seldom the 'dusky Night rode down +the Sky' over the prostrate forms of Harry Fielding's guests." +Petty-minded moralists like Murphy have gravely admonished the +great novelist's memory for not having safely bestowed his estate +in the consols of the period; they forget that a spirit of small +economy is generally the compensation awarded to the poor average +of humanity. The genius of Fielding knew how to enjoy splendidly, +and to give lavishly.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter4">CHAPTER IV</a><br> +<br> +POLITICAL PLAYS</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"Whoever attempteth to introduce corruption into +any community, doth much the same thing, and ought to be treated in +much the same manner with him who poisoneth a +fountain."--Dedication of the <em>Historical Register</em>.</p> + +<p>A prolonged retirement into Dorsetshire, however pleasant were +the banks of Stour with a beautiful young wife, and a sufficient +estate, could scarce be expected of Fielding's restless genius. He +was now thirty-five; his splendid physique was as yet unimpaired by +the gout that was so soon to attack him; his powers were still +hardly revealed; and, as far as we can discover, he was, at the +moment, under no pressure for money. Still, the hunting choruses of +the Squire Westerns of Dorsetshire can hardly have long sufficed +for one whom Lyttelton declared to have had "more wit than any man +I ever knew"; and the social and political conditions of the +country were increasingly calculated to inflame into practical +activity that "enthusiasm for righteousness," which Mr Gosse has so +well detected in <a name="fnref4-1">Fielding</a>. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn4-1">1</a> The distracted state of the London +stage, divided by the factions of players and managers, afforded +moreover an excellent opportunity for a dramatist of some means to +essay an independent venture. And accordingly, at the beginning of +1736, we find the Harry Fielding of the green-room and the poet's +garret, the Henry Fielding Esqre of East Stour, suddenly throwing +the full force of his energies into political life, as the manager +of, and writer for, a theatre with indisputable political aims. For +the next eight years of his short life Fielding was largely +occupied in the lively turmoil of eighteenth-century politics; and +here, first by means of the stage, and later as journalist, he +played a part which has perhaps been somewhat unduly overshadowed +by the surpassing achievements of his genius as father of the +English novel. But if we would perceive the full figure of the man +this time of boisterous political warfare is of no mean account. In +the dedication of his first party play, the amazingly successful +<em>Pasquin</em>, Fielding subscribes himself as "the most devoted +Servant of the public"; and no more appropriate keyword could be +found for the energies which he threw into those envenomed +political struggles of 1736-41.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i346"><img src="images/346.jpg" alt= +"Sir Robert Walpole--1740" width="316" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>At the date of his first plunge into these struggles England +stood sorely in need of a pen as biting, as witty and as fearless, +as that of Henry Fielding. For over ten years the country had been +ruled by one of those "peace at any price" Ministers who have at +times so successfully inflamed the baser commercial instincts of +Englishmen. Sir Robert Walpole, the reputed organiser of an +unrivalled system of bribery and corruption, the Minister of whom a +recent apologist frankly declares that to young members of +Parliament who spoke of public virtue and patriotism he would reply +"you will soon come off that and grow wiser," the autocrat +enamoured of power who could brook no colleague within measurable +distance, the man of coarse habits and illiterate tastes, above all +the man who induced his countrymen to place money before honour, +and whose administration even an admirer describes as one of +unparalleled stagnation--such a man must have roused intense +antagonism in Fielding's generous and ardent nature. For, from the +days of his first boyish satires to the last energetic acts of his +life as a London magistrate, for Fielding to see an abuse was to +set about reforming it. To his just sense of the true worth of +money, the wholesale corruption of English political life +accredited to Walpole, the poisoning, to adopt his own simile, of +the body politic, must have seemed the vilest national crime. There +could never have been the least sympathy between the mercenary and +apathetic methods of Walpole and the open-hearted genius of +Fielding. And, added to such fundamental opposition of character, +the influence of Fielding's old school friend, George Lyttelton, +would, at this juncture especially, draw him into the active ranks +of the Opposition.</p> + +<p>Lyttelton was then rising into celebrity as a ready +parliamentary speaker; a celebrity as yet not wholly eclipsed by +the youthful oratory of William Pitt, the young cornet of the +horse, who also had lately taken his seat on the Opposition +benches. It was the burning patriotism, the lofty character and the +towering genius of Pitt, the fluency and personal integrity of +Lyttelton, that led the younger members of the Opposition in the +House of Commons; while in the Lords another friend from whom +Fielding was to receive "princely benefactions," the young Duke of +Bedford, a man of "inflexible honesty and goodwill to his country," +attacked Walpole's alleged corrupt practices in the election of +Scottish peers. With leaders such as William Pitt and Lyttelton on +the one hand, and the corrupt figure of Walpole on the other, there +is no wonder that Fielding flung all his generous force into the +effort to free England from so degrading a domination. Accordingly, +in 1736, when the young Pitt's impassioned eloquence was soon to +alarm the <em>Great Man</em>--"we must muzzle that terrible Cornet +of the Horse," Sir Robert said--and when fierce and riotous +hostility to the government had broken out in the country over an +attempted Excise Bill, Fielding appears as a frankly political +manager of the "New Theatre" in the Haymarket. This small theatre +stood precisely adjoining the present Palladian structure, as may +be seen from a print of 1820, showing the demolition of the old +building and the adjacent façade of the modern "Haymarket." +According to Tom Davies, who, as an actor in Fielding's company and +as an author of some pretensions should be reliable, Fielding was a +managing partner of this "New Theatre," in company with James +Ralph, "about the year <a name="fnref4-2">1735</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn4-2">2</a> And apparently early in <a name= +"fnref4-3">1736</a> <a class="footnote" href="#fn4-3">3</a> his +political, theatrical, and social satire of <em>Pasquin</em> +appeared on the little stage, and immediately captured the +town.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i347"><img src="images/347.jpg" alt="Pasquin" +width="517" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>In <em>Pasquin</em> a perfectly outspoken attack on Walpole's +corrupt methods is united with a comprehensive onslaught on abuses +in the stage, law, divinity, physic, society, and on the odes of +Colley Cibber, sufficient one might suppose to satisfy even +Fielding's zeal. In an exuberant newspaper advertisement of the 5th +of March Mr Pasquin is announced as intending to "lay about him +with great impartiality," and throughout the play Fielding's +splendid figure may be felt, swinging his satiric club with a +boisterous enjoyment. The immediate success achieved by the piece +was certainly not due to any great dramatic excellence; and that so +loosely knit a medley as <em>PASQUIN, a Dramatic Satire on the +Times: Being the Rehearsal of Two Plays, viz. A Comedy call'd THE +ELECTION and a Tragedy, call'd The Life and Death of +COMMON-SENSE</em> should have achieved almost as long a run as the +<em>Beggars Opera</em>, shows that the public heartily sympathised +with the satirist. <em>Pasquin</em> begins with the rehearsal of a +comedy, called <em>The Election</em>, consisting of a series of +broadly humorous scenes in which the open and diverse bribery at +elections, the equally open immorality of fashionable town life, +the connivance of country dames, and the inanity of the beau monde, +are satirised. The country Mayor, the Ministerial candidates and +the Opposition squire drink, bribe and are bribed with complete +impartiality. A scene devoted to the political young lady of the +day affords opportunity for a hit at the sickly and effeminate Lord +'Fanny' Hervey, that politician whom Pope described as a "mere +white curd of Asse's milk," and of whom Lady Mary Wortley Montagu +observed that "the world consisted of men, women, and Herveys." +Pope had stigmatised Hervey as <em>Lord Fanny</em>, and Fielding +obviously plays on the nickname by references to the value attached +by certain young ladies to their fans. "Faith," says his comic +author, "this incident of the fan struck me so strongly that I was +once going to call this comedy by the name of the Fan." The comedy +ends with the successful cooking of the election returns by Mr +Mayor in favour of the Ministerial candidates, for which "return" +he is promised a "very good turn very soon"; and by the precipitate +marriage of one of the said candidates to the Mayor's daughter "to +strengthen his interest with the returning officer."</p> + +<p>Having settled the business of the corrupt and corrupting +Ministry in his comedy, Mr Pasquin proceeds to exhibit the +rehearsal of his tragedy, <em>The Life and Death of Common +Sense</em>. Here the satirist, leaving politics, applies his cudgel +mainly to the prevailing taste for pantomime, a form of +entertainment introduced it was said some thirty years previously +by one Weaver, a country dancing master, and already lashed by Sir +Richard Steele in his couplet:</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Weaver, corrupter of the present age,<br> + Who first taught silent sins upon the stage."</p> + +<p>That the Covent Garden manager, John <a name= +"fnref4-4">Rich</a>, <a class="footnote" href="#fn4-4">4</a> could +engage four French dancers, and a German with two dogs, taught to +dance the <em>Louvre</em> and the <em>Minuet</em>, at ten pounds a +night, and clear thereby "above 20 good houses," while the Othello +of Booth and the Wildair of Wilkes were neglected, was sufficient +to rouse the indignation alike of moralists, dramatists and +playgoers. Fielding in turn took the matter up with all his natural +warmth; and in <em>Pasquin</em> he represents the kingdom of the +Queen of Common Sense as invaded by a vast army of "singers, +fidlers, tumblers, and ropedancers," who moreover fix their +standard in Covent Garden, the headquarters of Rich.</p> + +<p>Not content with assailing this public folly, the 'Tragedy' of +<em>Pasquin</em> strikes a higher note by ranging among the foes of +Common Sense three unworthy professors of Law, Medicine, and +Religion; callings, as Fielding is careful to point out,</p> + +<p class="quoted">"in themselves designed<br> + To shower the greatest blessings on Mankind."</p> + +<p>Queen Common Sense seemingly receives her deathblow; but her +ghost finally rises victorious, and so justifies the author's +contention that his "is almost the only play where she has got the +better lately." The vigour with which Mr Pasquin here 'laid about +him,' in such matters as the legal abuses relating to imprisonment +for debt, may be inferred from the following passage. Queen Common +Sense is speaking to the representative of <em>bad</em> Law, and +tells him she has heard that men</p> + +<p class="quoted">"unable to discharge their debts<br> + At a short warning, being sued for them,<br> + Have, with both power and will their debts to pay,<br> + Lain all their lives in prison, for their costs.</p> + +<p class="quoted"><em>Law</em>. That may perhaps be some poor +person's case<br> + Too mean to entertain your royal ear.</p> + +<p class="quoted"><em>Q.C.S</em>. My Lord, while I am Queen I shall +not think<br> + One man too mean, or poor, to be redress'd."</p> + +<p>So too, the great genius of Fielding, when in long after years +harnessed to the drudgery of a London magistrate, held no porter's +brawl or beggar's quarrel too mean "to be redress'd."</p> + +<p>The immediate success of <em>Pasquin</em> attests, as we have +said, the readiness of London audiences in 1736 to applaud an +honest and humorous presentation of wicked Ministers, corrupt +clergy, lawyers, and doctors, inane Laureates, and degrading public +entertainments. Mrs Delany, gathering London news for Dean Swift, +writes on April 22, "When I went out of Town last Autumn, the +reigning madness was Farinelli; I find it now turned on +<em>Pasquin</em>, a dramatic satire on the times. It has had almost +as long a run as the Beggar's Opera; but in my opinion not with +equal merit, though it has <a name="fnref4-5">humour</a>." <a +class="footnote" href="#fn4-5">5</a> We are told how the piece drew +numerous enthusiastic audiences "from <em>Grosvenor</em>, +<em>Cavendish</em>, <em>Hanover</em>, and all the other fashionable +Squares, as also from <em>Pall Mall</em> and the <em>Inns of +Court</em>" And on the 26th of May a benefit performance for the +author was announced as the "60th. Day." The vogue of the satire +even demanded a key, as may be seen in an advertisement in the +<em>London Daily Post</em> for May 17: <em>This Day is published, +Price Four-Pence. A Key to Pasquin, address'd to Henry Fielding +Esqre.</em></p> + +<p>Mr Pasquin's own advertisements for his little theatre are not +without the zest with which our beef-eating ancestors attacked +politics, social abuses and one another. The announcement for March +5, ran as follows:--</p> + +<p>"<em>By the</em> Great Mogul's <em>Company of</em> English +<em>Comedians, Newly Imported</em>. At the New Theatre in the +Haymarket, this Day, March 5, will be presented</p> + +<p class="quoted">PASQUIN,<br> +A Dramatick SATYR on the times.<br> +<br> +Being a Rehearsal of two PLAYS, viz. a Comedy call'd The ELECTION; +and a Tragedy, call'd The Life and Death of COMMON SENSE....<br> +<br> +N.B.--Mr Pasquin intending to lay about him with great +Impartiality, hopes the Town will all attend, and very civilly give +their Neighbours what the find belongs to 'em.<br> +<br> +N.B.--The Cloaths are old, but the Jokes entirely new...."</p> + +<p>In the following month the Opposition was busy over the marriage +of their chief supporter, the Prince of Wales; and Mr Pasquin duly +chronicles the event in his advertisements of the 28th of April, +observing that his company "by reason of the Royal Wedding +expecting no Company but themselves, are obliged to defer Playing +till tomorrow." A few days later, on the 12th of May, Sir Robert +Walpole celebrated the royal marriage by a grand evening +entertainment given at his house in St James Park; and on the same +night 'Pasquin' had the audacity to advertise a special +performance, in the following terms (the "country party," it should +be understood, was a usual name for Walpole's opponents):--</p> + +<p>"For the Benefit of Miss Burgess, who has so zealously espoused +the Country Interest.... Miss Burgess hopes all Patriots and Lovers +of their Country will appear in her favour and give all +encouragement to one who has so early distinguished herself on the +side of Liberty." In Pasquin's <em>Election</em> scenes, this lady +played the part of Miss Stitch, a political damsel, opposed to +Walpole's candidate. Next day appeared an ironic +counter-advertisement of a performance for "the Benefit of Miss +Jones (the Mayor's daughter who hath so furiously espoused the +Court [<em>i.e.</em> Walpole's] Interest....) <em>N.B.</em>--Miss +Jones does not doubt that all true loyal People will give her all +Encouragement in their Power, as she has engaged in so unpopular a +Side and even given away her FAN (which very few young ladies +would) for the service of the Country: she hopes the Courtiers will +not let her be out of pocket by the Bargain." Here, again, is +doubtless a hit at Lord 'Fanny' Hervey; as well as a plain hint +that those who espoused Walpole's cause might expect ample payment +for their trouble.</p> + +<p>Is there any wonder that a wrathful and uneasy Minister, not yet +overthrown, shortly took stringent measures against the 'liberty' +of the stage; measures by which a political stage censorship was +formally established, and the topical gaiety of our theatre, and +the pungency of our theatrical announcements, henceforth +immeasurably dulled.</p> + +<p>A few further points of minor interest remain to be noted +concerning that popular and scathing personage Mr Pasquin. By May +the company styled themselves "Pasquin's Company of Comedians"; a +fresh indication of the credit attaching to the performance. In the +previous month a contributor to <em>The Grub Street Journal</em> +tells "Dear Grub" that he has seen Pope applauding the piece; and, +although the statement was promptly denied, a rare print by Hogarth +lends some colour to a very likely story; for the great Mr Pope, +the terror of his enemies, the autocrat of literature, was warmly +on the side of the Opposition. Hogarth depicts the stage of +Fielding's theatre, and thereon a scene in the fifth act of +<em>Pasquin</em>, in which the foes of Queen Common Sense are for +the moment triumphant. The side boxes are well filled; and in one +of them Mr Pope's deformed figure, apparently, turns away, +declaring: "There is no whitewashing this stuff." The curious may +find another plate by Hogarth in which Pope <em>is</em> busy +whitewashing Lord Burlington; but the drift of the remark for the +Opposition drama of <em>Pasquin</em> seems obscure. The gains that +accrued to Fielding from the success of <em>Pasquin</em> are +indicated by another rare print, that entitled the <em>Judgement of +the Queen o' Common Sense. Addressed to Henry Fielding Esqre.</em> +Here, again, it is <em>Pasquin's</em> satire on the prevailing +furore for pantomime that is chiefly illustrated; as Common Sense +gives to Rich, the harlequin, a halter, while to Fielding she +accords an overflowing purse. Supporting Fielding are a long lean +Shakespeare, and two figures, possibly the distinguished players +Kitty Clive and Quin; on the opposite side, behind Harlequin, are +figures representing the bad clergy, lawyers, and doctors satirised +in the <em>Tragedy</em>; and the whole is balanced by the emergence +of the ghost in Hamlet, from a trap door in the foreground. +Doggerel verses, at the foot of the print, celebrate the arrival of +a bard, "from ye Great Mogul," bringing with him <em>Wit, Humour, +and Satyr</em>, and receiving the Queen's "honest favour," in +"show'rs of gold."</p> + +<p>Under those golden showers, and with the applause of 'all the +fashionable Squares' ringing in his ears, we may leave Mr Pasquin. +Fielding's first venture as political dramatist and theatrical +manager had proved brilliantly successful; his little theatre, like +his own Tom Thumb, had assailed a dozen giant abuses, an +all-powerful Minister among them, and the town had applauded the +courage and wit of the performance. In the following season, those +same boards were to witness the author of <em>Pasquin</em> "laying +about him" with an even greater political audacity.</p> + +<p><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i348"><img src="images/348.jpg" alt= +"Cartoon celebrating the success of 'Pasquin'" width="573" height= +"500"></a></p> + +<p>Content, doubtless, with the success of <em>Pasquin</em>, +Fielding does not seem to have launched any further political +attacks during the remaining months of 1736. A newspaper +advertisement of June announces the intention of the 'Great Mogul's +Company of Comedians' to continue "playing twice a week during the +summer season," and <em>Pasquin</em> remained occasionally in the +bills as late as the 2nd of July. The public were advised that +"This is much the coolest House in Town"; and audiences must have +been drawn even in August, for in that month one small and +presumably party play was performed, the <em>New Comi-Tragical +Interlude call'd the Deposing and Death of Queen Gin</em>. This +little piece consisted of only two scenes, and was probably a skit +on a Bill "against spirituous liquors" which Walpole had supported +earlier in the year. The measure met with violent opposition, +including petitions from the Liverpool and Bristol merchants; and +in view of Sir Robert's own notorious excesses with the bottle a +temperance Bill from his hands may well have roused Fielding's +ironic laughter. The authorship of the satire is unknown; but the +moral appears to have been unexceptionable, as <em>Queen Gin</em>, +in the final scene, "drinks a great quantity of liquor and at last +dies." Fielding clearly began his second year at the 'little +theatre' with some social or political exhortation, as the +following bill appears for January:--"By a Company of Comedians, At +the New Theatre in the Haymarket, this Day, January 26, will be +presented a Dramatick Satire on the Times (never performed before) +call'd The Mirrour." By February "the Original Company who +perform'd <em>Pasquin</em>" are notified on the bills; and on the +2nd of March a performance is announced of a <em>Dramatick Tale of +the King and the Miller of Mansfield</em>, presumably the same +<em>Miller of Mansfield</em> openly declared by one of Walpole's +"hired scribblers" to be aimed at the overthrow of the <a name= +"fnref4-6">Ministry</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn4-6">6</a> +All such preliminary skirmishes, however, served but to introduce +the grand attack of the <em>Historical Register for the Tear +1736</em>, the first performance of which may be assigned to the +end of March <a name="fnref4-7">1737</a>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn4-7">7</a></p> + +<p>In the <em>Register</em> we have the most complete display of +Fielding's vigour as a fighting politician. Here, to recur to Mr +Pasquin's characteristic phrase, he "lays about him" with a gusto +and honest frankness quite lost among our own tepid conventions. +But however hard the hitting, however boisterous the broad humour, +however biting the irony, it is noteworthy that in this his chief +political satire, written moreover for a yet unregulated stage, +Fielding never stoops to the shameless personalities of his day. +The fashion of the eighteenth-century permitted even the great and +classical genius of Pope to hurl lines at the persons of his +opponents that, to modern ears, scarcely bear quotation. Fielding, +as we know, constantly asserted his intention of throwing not at +the vicious but at vice; and accordingly, even in this party play, +flung openly in the face of the Minister, there is but one +reference (and that only a fling at his "lack of any the least +taste in polite literature") to the notorious personal failings of +Sir Robert. It is against the Minister, and not the man, that the +hot-blooded Opposition dramatist directs his humour and his irony. +Fielding's manly and generous nature here permitted no virulent +personalities to blacken his <a name="fnref4-8">pages</a>. <a +class="footnote" href="#fn4-8">8</a></p> + +<p>The irony of the <em>Register</em> is chiefly reserved for the +<em>Dedication to the Public</em>, designed for the reader at +leisure; though here Walpole is indicated broadly enough, first in +the figure of an ass hung out on a signpost, and again as "Old +Nick," for "who but the devil could act such a part." Here the +attacks of the Ministerial papers are parried by ironic +explanations that "The Register is a ministerial pamphlet +calculated to infuse into the minds of the people a great opinion +of their ministry," explanations full of admirable fencing and +excellent hits. And in these dedicatory pages Fielding utters a +sonorous warning to his countrymen concerning the insidious policy +that was undermining their very constitution: "... Here is the +danger, here is the rock on which our constitution must, if it ever +does split. The liberties of a people have been subdued by +conquests of valour and force, and have been betrayed by the subtle +and dexterous arts of refined policy, but these are rare instances; +for geniuses of this kind are not the growth of every age, whereas +if a general corruption be once introduced, and those, who should +be the guardians and bulwarks of our liberty, once find or think +they find an interest in giving it up, no great capacity will be +required to destroy it. On the contrary the meanest, lowest, +dirtiest fellow, if such an one should ever have the assurance in +future ages to mimick power, and browbeat his betters, will be as +able as Machiavel himself could have been, to root out the +liberties of the bravest people." From the solemnities of the +<em>Dedication</em> we come to the "humming deal of satire," and +the boisterous action, of the play itself. As in the case of +<em>Pasquin</em> the form of the drama is that of a rehearsal, a +form which affords excellent opportunities for such explanatory +asides as that addressed to the critic who complains of the attempt +to review a year's events in a single play: "Sir," says the author, +"if I comprise the whole actions of a year in half an hour, will +you blame me, or those who have done so little in that time?" The +long years of Walpole's power were admittedly "years without +parallel in our history, for political stagnation." Scene one +discovers five 'blundering blockheads' of politicians, in counsel +with one silent "little gentleman yonder in the chair;" who knows +all and says nothing, and whose politics lie so deep that "nothing +but an inspir'd understanding can come at 'em." The blockheads, +however, have capacity enough to snatch hastily at the money lying +on their council table. Walpole's jealousy of power, it may be +remembered, had driven almost every man of ability out of his +ministry. Then comes a vivacious parody on the fashionable auctions +of the day. Lots comprising "a most curious remnant of Political +Honesty," a "delicate piece of Patriotism," and a "very clear +Conscience which has been worn by a judge and a bishop" and on +which no dirt will stick, go for little or nothing, while Lot 8, "a +very considerable quantity of Interest at Court," excites brisk +bidding, and is finally knocked down for one thousand pounds. From +the excellent fooling of the auction, the action suddenly changes +to combined satire on the Ministry and on the two Cibbers, father +and son. The Ministry are ingeniously implied to have been damn'd +by the public; to give places with no attention to the capacity of +the recipient; and to laugh at the dupes by whose money they live. +A like weakness for putting blockheads in office and for giving +places to rogues, and a like contempt of the public, is +allegorically conveyed in the third act, in which 'Apollo' casts +the parts for a performance among sundry unworthy actors, and +declares that the people may grumble 'as much as they please, as +long as we get their money.' "There sir," cries the author to the +critic of the rehearsal, "is the sentiment of a great man." The +<em>Great Man</em> was a phrase, to use Pope's words, "by common +use appropriated to the first minister"--that is, to Walpole. In +the next scene the effrontery of the piece culminates in a ballet +where the Prime Minister appears, leading a chorus of false +patriots, who, to use Fielding's own words, are set in the 'odious +and contemptible light' of a set of "cunning self-interested +fellows who for a little paltry bribe would give up the liberties +and properties of their country." These worthy patriots are of four +types, the noisy, the cautious, the self-interested (he whose shop +is his country) and the indolent ("who acts as I have seen a +prudent man in company, fall asleep at the beginning of a fray and +never wake 'till the end o't"). To them enters Quidam, unblushingly +announced in the play bill as "Quidam, Anglice a Certain Person," +in other words Walpole himself. Quidam pours gold into the pockets +of the four patriots, drinks with them, and then, when the 'bottle +is out' (a too frequent occurrence at Sir Robert's table) takes up +his fiddle, strikes up a tune and dances off, the patriots dancing +after him. But even this is not all. "Sir," says the author, "every +one of these patriots have a hole in their pockets as Mr Quidam the +fiddler there knows; so that he intends to make them dance 'till +all the money is fall'n through, which he will pick up again and so +not lose one halfpenny by his generosity...." We may suppose that +the final scene lost nothing in breadth by the acting of Quidam; +and it is not surprising that the immediate result was the +subjugation not, alas! of the Ministry, but of the liberty of the +stage. Walpole's fall was delayed for three years; the destruction +of the political stage was accomplished in three months.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to imagine that any party, in those days of +comparatively arbitrary power, would venture a public satire so +unveiled and so menacing as that of the <em>Register</em>, unless +supported by some confidence in the immediate fall of their +opponents. Without such confidence the political tactics of such an +onslaught would be simple foolhardiness. Signs of these false hopes +are not wanting in the slight, but equally bold, satire on the +sycophants represented as composing Walpole's <em>levée</em>, which +was shortly added to the <em>Register</em>. This little sketch, in +which a protest concerning the damning, early in the year, of +Fielding's ballad farce <em>Eurydice</em> is combined with the +political satire, was advertised as follows:--</p> + +<p>"EURYDICE HISS'D: or, a Word to the Wise, giving an Account of +the Rise, Progress, Greatness, and Downfal of Mr Pillage, ... with +the dreadful Consequence and Catastrophe of the <a name= +"fnref4-9">whole</a>." <a class="footnote" href="#fn4-9">9</a></p> + +<p>We have the authority of Tom Davies, at this time a member of +Fielding's company, for the statement that "Fielding in his +<em>Eurydice Hiss'd</em> had brought on the Minister [Walpole] in a +<em>levée</em> <a name="fnref4-10">scene</a>" <a class="footnote" +href="#fn4-10">10</a>; and as Pillage is the "very great man" who +holds the <em>levée</em> in the fragment, the above allusion to an +expected downfall of Walpole's Ministry seems obvious. Passages of +similar import to the advertisement occur in the piece itself. Thus +the play is declared to convey a "beautiful image of the +instability of human greatness"; and the spectacle is promised of +the 'author of a mighty farce' at the pinnacle of human greatness +and adored by a crowd of dependants, become by a sudden turn of +fortune, scorned, "deserted and abandon'd."</p> + +<p>The single scene of the play opens when Pillage is at the zenith +of his power; a stage direction orders that "The Lèvee enters, and +range themselves to a ridiculous tune"; a partition of places +ensues under the allegory of the business arrangements of a +theatrical manager; and the author explains that by this +<em>levée</em> scene he hopes that persons greater than +author-managers may learn to despise sycophants. Close on the heels +of the <em>levée</em> comes the catastrophe. Not one honest man, +Pillage sadly admits, is on his side; as his 'shallow plot' opens +out the first applause changes to hisses; his farce is damn'd; and +he himself is left consoling the solitude of his downfall by +getting exceedingly drunk on a third bottle.</p> + +<p>The figure of a fallen Minister boozing away his own intolerable +reflections, was not calculated to pacify that notoriously hard +drinker, Sir Robert, already soundly pilloried in the +<em>Register</em>, and severely indited by <em>Pasquin</em>. By the +end of April the <em>Register</em> had reached its thirty-first +performance, a good run at that date; and according to an +advertisement in the <em>Craftsman</em> the satire was still being +played on the 7th of May. In little more than four weeks, and after +the alleged perpetration of a treasonable and profane farce called +<em>The Golden Rump</em>, a Bill for stifling the liberty of the +stage under a censorship was introduced, had passed through both +Houses, and received the royal assent. Well might Lord Chesterfield +exclaim in the brilliant speech which, in Smollet's words, "will +ever endear his character to all the friends of genius and +literature, to all those who are warmed with zeal for the liberties +of their country," that the Bill was not only "of a very +extraordinary nature, but has been brought in at a very +extraordinary season and pushed with very extraordinary despatch." +Concerning the nature of the measure Chesterfield had no doubt. He +saw its tendency towards restraining the "liberty of the Press +which will be a long stride towards the destruction of Liberty +itself"; he pointed out that a Minister who has merited the esteem +of the people will neither fear the wit nor feel the satire of the +theatre; he denounced the subjugation of the stage under "an +arbitrary Court license" which would convert it into a canal for +conveying the vices and follies of "great men and Courtiers" +through the whole kingdom; he protested against the Bill as an +encroachment not only on liberty but also on property, for "Wit, my +Lords, is a sort of property; it is the property of those that have +it, and too often the only property that they have to depend +on."</p> + +<p>As a manager of the intrepid little theatre in the Haymarket, as +well as the author of the most successful of the offending plays, +the Licensing Act fell with double weight on Fielding. "When I +speak against the Bill," cried Chesterfield, "I must think I plead +the cause of Wit, I plead the cause of Humour, I plead the cause of +the British Stage, and of every gentleman of taste in the Kingdom." +Looking back over two centuries, we honour Chesterfield in that, +unknown to himself, he also pleaded the cause of the greatest of +English humourists. But appeals on behalf of genius and freedom +were thrown away upon Walpole; the Act received the royal assent on +June 21 1737; and, in the honourable company of Wit, Humour, and +Taste, Fielding was forced to retire from the theatre, on the +boards of which he had for two years so vigorously assailed +Ministerial corruption and autocracy.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter5">CHAPTER V</a><br> +<br> +HOMESPUN DRAMA</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"Virtue distrest in humble state support."<br> + Prologue to <em>Fatal Curiosity</em>.</p> + +<p>The Licensing Act of June 1737 thus brought Henry Fielding's +career as political dramatist to a hasty conclusion; a conclusion +quite unforeseen by the luckless author, as appears from his +<em>Dedication</em> to the <em>Historical Register</em>, published +almost at the moment when the Act became law: "The very great +indulgence you have shown my performances at the little theatre +these two last years," he says, addressing his public, "have +encouraged me to the proposal of a subscription for carrying on +that theatre, for beautifying and enlarging it, and procuring a +better company of actors."</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i349"><img src="images/349.jpg" alt= +"The Little Theatre in the Haymarket" width="604" height="500"> +</a></p> + +<p>Before finally losing sight of the stage on which +<em>Pasquin</em> and the <em>Register</em> had scored such signal +success, we may notice some minor incidents of these two years of +Fielding's administration. His company does not seem to have +included either Macklin, Quin, or Kitty Clive; but that +distinguished actress Mrs Pritchard, the central figure of +Hogarth's charming group called "The Green Room, Drury Lane," is +said to have made her first appearance on his <a name= +"fnref5-1">boards</a>, <a class="footnote" href="#fn5-1">1</a> and +his players also included that man of many parts Tom Davies. Davies +was a student of Edinburgh University; an actor at Drury Lane and +elsewhere; a bookseller of whom the elder D'Israeli said 'all his +publications were of the best kind'; the writer of various works +including a <em>Life of Garrick</em>; and a particular friend of Dr +Johnson. In the first year of Fielding's management in the +Haymarket, Davies was cast for a principal part in George Lillo's +tragedy <em>Fatal Curiosity</em>; and it is to his pen that we owe +the only known contemporary reference to the active part taken by +Fielding himself in the affairs of his theatre.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i350"><img src="images/350.jpg" alt= +"The Green Room, Drury Lane" width="553" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>Lillo, a jeweller of Moorfields, had captured the town, a few +years previously, by his tragedy of common life, <em>George +Barnwell</em>; and among the dramatists selected by Fielding for +representation on his stage the most interesting is undoubtedly +this pioneer of the coming revolution in English literature. For, +incredible as it may seem, until that first performance of +<em>Barnwell</em>, no writer, to quote Tom Davies' own words "had +ventured to descend so low as to introduce the character of a +merchant or his apprentice into a tragedy." Certain "witty and +facetious persons who call themselves the town," continues Davies, +brought to the first night copies of the old ballad on which the +jeweller's play was based, meaning to mock the new tragedy with the +old song; but so forcible and pathetic were Lillo's scenes that +these merry gentlemen were obliged "to throw away their ballads, +and take out their handkerchiefs." More tears, we learn, were shed +over this 'homespun drama' than at all the imitations of ancient +fables by learned moderns. To Fielding this revolution, from the +buskin'd heroics of the Alexanders and Clelias to the living and +natural pathos of the tragedy of a poor London apprentice, must +have appealed with extraordinary force; for it is the especial +glory of his own genius that, throwing aside all the traditions of +his age, and 'adventuring on one of the most original expeditions +that ever a writer <a name="fnref5-2">undertook</a>,' <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn5-2">2</a> he was to discover a new world for +English fiction, the world of simple human nature. That expedition +must have been already forming in his mind when, night after night, +in the hottest part of the year, <em>George Barnwell</em> was +playing to crowded houses, and convincing the astonished audiences +of 1731 that even so low a creature as a London apprentice was +possessed of passions extremely like their own. Some ten years +later, when Fielding revealed the first true sign of his own +surpassing genius in the <em>History of the Adventures of Joseph +Andrews</em>, he chose for his hero a country footman. The worthy +City jeweller was, in his own limited measure, the forerunner, on +the stage, of that new era in English literature created by honest +Andrews and Parson Adams, Partridge and Mrs Slipslop, Fanny and +Sergeant Atkinson, Tow-wouse and Mrs Miller, to name but a few of +Fielding's immortal portraits, drawn from the 'vast authentic book +of Nature.'</p> + +<p>It is no wonder then, to return to Tom Davies, that a play by +Lillo was announced on the bills of Fielding's theatre within a few +months of the opening of his management. On May 27, 1736, the +following advertisement appeared:</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Guilt its Own Punishment. Never Acted before. By +Pasquin's Company of Comedians. Being a True Story in Common Life +and the Incidents extremely affecting." By the Author of George +Barnwell.</p> + +<p>Davies' part in the play was a chief one, that of young Wilmot, +and the story of the performance may be given in his own words. "Mr +Fielding, who had a just sense of our author's merit, and who had +often in his humourous pieces laughed at those ridiculous and +absurd criticks who could not possibly understand the merit of +Barnwell, because the subject was low, treated Lillo with great +politeness and friendship. He took upon himself the management of +the play and the instruction of the actors. It was during the +rehearsal of the <em>Fatal Curiosity</em> that I had an opportunity +to see and to converse with Mr Lillo. Plain and simple as he was in +his address, his manner of conversing was modest affable and +engaging. When invited to give his opinion how a particular +sentiment should be uttered by the actor he expresst himself in the +gentlest and most obliging terms, and conveyed instruction and +conviction with good nature and good manners.... Fielding was not +content merely to revise the 'Fatal Curiosity,' and to instruct the +actors how to do justice to their parts. He warmly recommended the +play to his friends and to the public. Besides all this he +presented the author with a well written prologue."</p> + +<p>This <em>Prologue</em>, which has apparently hitherto escaped +the collectors of Fielding's <em>Works</em>, seems worthy of a +reprint here, if only for its characteristic sympathy with virtue +and distress 'in humble state,' and for the opening tribute to +'Shakespeare's nature' and to 'Fletcher's ease.'</p> + +<p class="quoted">PROLOGUE TO THE FATAL CURIOSITY<br> +<br> + "The Tragic Muse has long forgot to please<br> + With Shakespeare's nature or with Fletcher's ease:<br> + No passion mov'd, thro' five long acts you sit,<br> + Charm'd with the poet's language or his wit.<br> + Fine things are said, no matter whence they fall;<br> + Each single character must speak them all.<br> +<br> +"But from this modern fashionable way<br> + To-night our author begs your leave to stray.<br> + No fustian hero rages here to-night,<br> + No armies fall to fix a tyrant's right:<br> + From lower life we draw our scenes' distress:<br> + --Let not your equals move your pity less!<br> + Virtue distrest in humble state support;<br> + Nor think she never lives without the court.<br> +<br> +"Tho' to our scenes no royal robes belong<br> + And tho' our little stage as yet be young<br> + Throw both your scorn and prejudice aside;<br> + Let us with favour not contempt be try'd,<br> + Thro' the first act a kind attention lend<br> + The growing scene shall force you to attend:<br> + Shall catch the eyes of every tender fair,<br> + And make them charm their lovers with a tear.<br> + The lover too by pity shall impart<br> + His tender passion to his fair one's heart:<br> + The breast which others' anguish cannot move<br> + Was ne'er the seat of friendship or of love."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all the manager's friendly efforts, the play met +at first with very little success, a failure in Davies' opinion +"owing in all probability to its being brought on in the latter +part of the season, when the public had been satiated with a long +run of <em>Pasquin</em>," but, he adds, "it is with pleasure I +observe that Fielding generously persisted to serve the man whom he +had once espoused; he tacked the 'Fatal Curiosity' to his +Historical Register which was played with great success in the +ensuing <a name="fnref5-3">winter</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn5-3">3</a> We owe no inconsiderable debt to Tom Davies in that +he has preserved for us this picture of Fielding, actively engaged +in the stage-management of his little theatre; a picture, moreover, +that does equal honour to the brilliant wit, the successful +political satirist, and to that modest, gentle Nonconformist poet, +the man of whom it was said that he "had the spirit of an old Roman +joined to the innocence of a Primitive Christian," George +Lillo.</p> + +<p>A few weeks before the production of Lillo's tragedy, and while +<em>Pasquin</em> was still in the full tide of political success, +an event occurred of closer import to Fielding's affectionate +nature than all the applause of the Opposition and the town. This +was the birth, in April, 1736, of his daughter Charlotte. No +English writer has left more charming pictures of mother and child +than those we owe to the tenderness and simplicity of Fielding's +pen. When we find Squire Western turning, in his latter days, to +Sophia's nursery, and hear him declaring that the prattling of his +granddaughter is "sweeter Music than the finest Cry of Dogs in +<em>England</em>" when we see Captain Booth stretched at full +length on the floor of his poor lodgings, with his "little +innocents" jumping over him, we are almost inclined to forgive +alike the brutalities of the old foxhunter, and the weaknesses of +the young soldier. Fielding's affection for his children, his +apprehensions for their ultimate provision, his anxiety in their +sickness, his grief at the loss of a little daughter, are manifest +in his pages. If anything could exceed the satisfaction which the +brilliant success of <em>Pasquin</em> must have given to his +buoyant nature, it would be the birth of this, the first child +apparently, of his marriage with the beautiful Charlotte Cradock. +The entry in the registers of St Martin's in the Fields runs as +follows: Baptized May 19th, 1736 Charlotte Fielding, of Henry and +Charlotte, Born April 27th.</p> + +<p>The dates of <em>Pasquin</em>, of Lillo's tragedy, and of the +<em>Historical Register</em>, cover a considerable portion of the +years 1736, 1737, and their production in a theatre under +Fielding's own management practically presupposes his presence in +London at that time. This by no means fits in with Murphy's +implication that Fielding retired to Stour on his marriage, and +that, remaining there, he ran through his "little patrimony," in +"less than three years." A complete country retirement cannot be +assigned to those busy years in the Haymarket; and in 1736 the +journey from London to Dorsetshire was no trifling undertaking. But +it seems quite possible that Fielding and his wife went down to +their small estate in Dorsetshire for part or all of the summer, +autumn and winter of both 1736 and 1737. This would cover the +hunting months, and "hounds and horses," according to Murphy, +filled a large part in Fielding's country life at Stour; the time +would be that of the comparatively dull season for the theatre in +the Haymarket; and, with the year immediately preceding +<em>Pasquin</em>, we should thus, perhaps, account sufficiently for +Murphy's "three years". Certain passages in the +<em>Miscellanies</em>, published long after the pleasant meadows +and the modest house at Stour--no less than the turmoil of the +green-room and the crowded political audiences in the +Haymarket--were things of the past, have a personal ring, +reminiscent perhaps of such months of "sweet Retirement" in +Dorsetshire. Thus one of the characters in the <em>Journey from +this World to the next</em> recalls the change, from a life of +"restless Anxieties," to a "little pleasant Country House, where +there was nothing grand or superfluous, but everything neat and +agreeable"; and how, after a little time, "I began to share the +Tranquillity that visibly appeared in everything round me. I set +myself to do Works of Fancy and to raise little Flower-Gardens, +with many such innocent rural Amusements; which altho' they are not +capable of affording any great Pleasure, yet they give that serene +Turn of the Mind, which I think much preferable to anything else +Human Nature is made susceptible of." To this pleasant picture of +"rural Amusements," and tranquillity, it is surely not impertinent +to add this further passage, as a possible echo of Charlotte +Fielding's thought, well acquainted as she must have been both with +the "sweetly winding banks of Stour" and with the clamorous +successes of political drama: "in all these various Changes I never +enjoyed any real Satisfaction, unless in the little time I lived +retired in the Country free from all Noise and Hurry."</p> + +<p>In the summer or autumn of 1737 the curtain was finally rung +down on all the 'noise and hurry,' the achievements and audacities +of Fielding's "little stage"; a few months later, and the country +retirement at Stour had also become but a memory of that short life +into which he managed to compress "more variety of Scenes than many +People who live to be very old."</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter6">CHAPTER VI</a><br> +<br> +BAR STUDENT. JOURNALIST</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"the ... Covetous, the Prodigal, the Ambitious, +the Voluptuous, the Bully, the Vain, the Hypocrite, the Flatterer, +the Slanderer, call aloud for the <em>Champion's</em> +Vengeance."--The <em>Champion</em>, Dec. 22, 1739.</p> + +<p>There is no record of when or how Fielding disposed of his share +in the management of the New Theatre in the Haymarket. But on June +21 1737, Walpole's Bill for regulating the stage received, as we +have seen, the royal assent; and there can be no doubt that Sir +Robert would at once apply his newly acquired powers to removing +the dances of the fiddler, Mr Quiddam, and the drunken consolations +of Mr Pillage, from the Haymarket boards, if indeed these gentlemen +had not anticipated events by already removing themselves. We may +safely assume that Henry Fielding's career as political dramatist +came to an abrupt conclusion some time in the summer of <a name= +"fnref6-1">1737</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn6-1">1</a></p> + +<p>It remains a matter for speculation why, after seven years spent +in producing a stream of not unsuccessful social comedies and +farces, leading up to a final and brilliant success in the field of +political satiric drama, Fielding should have thrown up the stage +as a whole, when suddenly debarred from those party onslaughts +which had occupied but a fraction of his dramatic energies. The +cause was not any lack of popularity. "The farces written by Mr +Fielding," wrote Murphy in 1762, "were almost all of them very +successful, and many of them are still acted every winter, with a +continuance of approbation." And it is obvious that the fashionable +vices and follies of the time afforded ample inducement to a +satiric dramatist to continue 'laying about him,' even when +Ministerial offences had been rendered inviolate by Act of +Parliament. Neither was Fielding's sanguine temperament likely to +be daunted by the single failure of his farce <em>Eurydice</em>, +which had been damned at Drury Lane on February 19 of this same +year: "disagreeable impressions," Murphy tells us, "never continued +long upon his mind." The most satisfactory solution of the matter +seems to be that now, in the approaching maturity of his powers, +the 'Father of the English Novel' was becoming conscious that the +true field for his genius lay in a hitherto unattempted form of +imaginative narration, and not within the five acts of comedy or +farce. The entirely original conceptions of a <em>Joseph +Andrews</em> and a <em>Jonathan Wild</em> may already have begun to +captivate the vigorous energies of his mind. We have his own word +for assigning "some years" to the writing of <em>Tom Jones</em>; it +is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that the conception of the +first English "Comic Epic Poem in Prose" may date as far back as +the summer of 1737.</p> + +<p>Leaving surmise for fact, it is certain that this year marks the +dividing line in Fielding's life.</p> + +<p>Henceforth he ceases to be the witty, facile, popular dramatist; +and he enters slowly on his birthright as the first in time, if not +in genius, of English novelists. To this complete severance from +the theatre belongs his own remark that "he left off writing for +the stage when he ought to have begun." Arrived at a late maturity, +and with accumulated stores of observation and insight,--"he saw +the latent sources of human action," says Murphy--his genius +happily turned into a channel carved, with splendid originality, +for itself alone. After nine years of servitude to the limitations +of dramatic construction, limitations he was wont to relieve, as +his friend James Harris tells us, by "pleasantly though perhaps +rather freely" <em>damning the man who invented fifth acts</em>, +Fielding was now soon to discover his freedom in the spacious, +hitherto unadventured, regions of prose fiction. But genius, +especially genius with wife and child to support, cannot maintain +life on inspiration alone; and, accordingly, the ex-dramatist now +flung himself, with characteristic impetuosity and courage, into a +struggle for independence at the Bar, perhaps the most arduous +profession, under all the circumstances, that he could have chosen. +For a reputation as the writer of eighteen comedies, and as the +reckless political dramatist whose boisterous energies had set the +town ringing with <em>Pasquin</em> and the <em>Register</em>, the +fame in short of being the successful manager of <em>The Great +Mogul's Company of Comedians</em>, was surely the last reputation +in the world to bring a man briefs from cautious attorneys. And, +with whatever hopes of political patronage, any temperament less +buoyant might well have hesitated to embark on reading for the Bar +at the age of thirty. But "by dificulties," says his earliest +biographer, "his resolution was never subdued; on the contrary they +only roused him to struggle through them with a peculiar spirit and +magnanimity." So, within six months of the closing down of his +little theatre under Walpole's irate hand, Fielding had formally +entered himself as a student at the Middle Temple.</p> + +<p>The entry in the books of that society runs as follows:--</p> + +<p class="quoted">[574 G] 1 Nov'ris. 1737.<br> +<br> +<em>Henricus Fielding, de East Stour in Com Dorset Ar, filius et +haeres apparens Brig: Gen'lis: Edmundi Fielding admissus est in +Societatem Medii Templi Lond specialiter at obligatur una cum +&c.<br> +<br> +Et dat pro fine</em> 4. 0. 0.</p> + +<p>Of the ensuing two and a half years of student life in the +Temple we know practically nothing, beyond one vivacious picture of +Harry Fielding's attack upon the law. "His application while a +student in the Temple," writes Murphy, "was remarkably intense; and +though it happened that the early taste he had taken of pleasure +would occasionally return upon him, and conspire with his spirits +and vivacity to carry him into the wild enjoyments of the town, yet +it was particular in him that amidst all his dispositions nothing +could suppress the thirst he had for knowledge, and the delight he +felt in reading; and this prevailed 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; so powerful were the vigour of his constitution and +the activity of his mind."</p> + +<p>One of the few pages of Fielding's autograph that have come down +to us is presumably a relic of these student days. In the catalogue +of the <em>Morrison Manuscripts</em> occurs this description of two +undated pages in his hand: "List of offences against the King and +his state immediately, which the Law terms High Treason. Offences +against him in a general light as touching the Commonwealth at +large, as Trade etc. Offences against him as supreme Magistrate +etc." Were ever genius and wit more straitly or more honourably +shackled than that of Henry Fielding, gallantly accepting such toil +as this, toil moreover that must have weighed with double weight on +a man who had spent nine years in the company of those charming if +'fickle jades' the Muses.</p> + +<p>All efforts have failed to trace where Fielding and his wife and +child (or children--the date of the birth of his daughter Harriet +is not known) lived during these laborious months; but that money +was needed in the summer following his entry at the Middle Temple +may be inferred from the sale of the property at Stour. According +to the legal note of this <a name="fnref6-2">transaction</a>, <a +class="footnote" href="#fn6-2">2</a> "Henry ffeilding and Charlotte +his wife" conveyed, in the Trinity Term of 1738, to one Thomas +Hayter, for the sum of £260, "two messuages, two dove-houses, three +gardens, three orchards, fifty acres of Land, eighty acres of +meadow, one hundred and forty acres of pasture, ten acres of wood +and common and pasture for all manner of cattle with the +appurtenances in East Stour." It does not need a very active +imagination to realise the keen regret with which Fielding must +have parted with his gardens and orchards, his pastures, woods and +commons. Sixty years ago the barn and one of the "dove-houses" had +been but recently pulled down; and to this day the estate is still +known as "Fielding's <a name="fnref6-3">Farm</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn6-3">3</a></p> + +<p>It has been stated, on what authority does not appear, that, +after leaving Stour, Fielding went to Salisbury, and there bought a +house, his solicitor being a Mr John Perm Tinney. Whatever be the +fact as to the Salisbury residence, it is certain that a full year +after the sale of the Dorsetshire property the Temple student was +by no means at the end of his resources. For in the following <a +name="fnref6-4">letter</a> <a class="footnote" href="#fn6-4">4</a> +to Mr Nourse, the bookseller, dated July 1739, we find him +requiring a London house at a rent of forty pounds and with a large +"eating Parlour."</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"Mr Nourse,</p> + +<p>Disappointments have hitherto prevented my paying y'r Bill, +which, I shall certainly do on my coming to Town which will be next +Month. I desire the favour of y'u to look for a House for me near +the Temple. I must have one large eating Parlour in it for the rest +shall not be very nice.</p> + +<p>Rent not upwards of £40 p. an: and as much cheaper as may be. I +will take a Lease for Seven years. Yr Answer to this within a +fortnight will much oblige.</p> + +<p>Y'r Humble Serv't<br> +Henry Ffielding.<br> +I have got Cro: <a name="fnref6-5">Eliz</a>. <a class="footnote" +href="#fn6-5">5</a><br> +"July 9th 1739."</p> + +<p>This note, written a year before Fielding's call to the Bar, +suggests that his early married life was by no means spent in the +"wretched garrett" of Lady Louisa Stuart's celebrated +reminiscence.</p> + +<p>In the September following the sale of his Dorsetshire estate +Fielding had to regret the death of George Lillo, to whose success +he had devoted so much personal care and energy, when staging +Lillo's tragedy <em>Fatal Curiosity</em> on the boards of the +little theatre in the Haymarket. The close relationship in +intellectual sympathy between Lillo's talent and the genius of +Fielding has already been noticed. But apart from this intellectual +sympathy, the personal worth and charm of the good tradesman is +noteworthy, as affording striking proof of the quality of man +chosen by the 'wild Harry Fielding' for regard and friendship. And +it should be remembered that in those days to bridge the social +gulf between the kinsman of the Earl of Denbigh and a working +jeweller, required courage as well as insight. Some time after +Lillo's death a generous memorial notice of him appeared in +Fielding's paper the <em>Champion</em>. The writer detects in his +work "an Heart capable of exquisitely Feeling and Painting human +Distresses, but of causing none"; and declares that his title to be +called the best tragic poet of his age, "was the least of his +Praise, he had the gentlest and honestest Manners, and, at the same +Time, the most friendly and obliging. He had a perfect Knowledge of +Human Nature, though his Contempt of all base Means of Application, +which are the necessary Steps to great Acquaintance, restrained his +Conversation within very narrow Bounds: He had the Spirit of an old +<em>Roman</em>, joined to the Innocence of a primitive Christian; +he was content with his little State of Life, in which his +excellent Temper of Mind gave him an Happiness, beyond the Power of +Riches, and it was necessary for his Friends to have a sharp +Insight into his Want of their Services, as well as good +Inclinations or Abilities to serve him. In short he was one of the +best of Men, and those who knew him best will most regret his <a +name="fnref6-6">Loss</a>." <a class="footnote" href="#fn6-6">6</a> +In the excellent company of Henry Fielding's friends George Lillo +may surely take his stand beside the 'good Lord Lyttelton,' the +munificent and pious Allen, and not far from 'Parson Adams' +himself.</p> + +<p>No record has survived of Fielding's share in the political +struggles of his party, during his first two years of "intense +application" to the law. Walpole's power had been sensibly lessened +by the death of the Queen, and he was losing the support of the +country and even of the trading classes. The Prince of Wales, now +openly hostile to the "great man," was the titular head of an +Opposition numbering almost all the men of wit and genius in the +kingdom. Lyttelton, Fielding's warmest friend, had become secretary +to the Prince, and was recognised as a fluent leader of the +Opposition in the House of Commons. Another friend, John Duke of +Argyll, had joined the ranks of the Opposition in the Lords. On the +whole the author of <em>Pasquin</em>, may well have hoped for a +speedy fall of the "Colossos," with "its Brains of Lead, its Face +of Brass, its Hands of Iron, its Heart of Adamant," and the +accession to power of a party not without obligations to the +fearless manager of the little theatre in the Haymarket. During +these years the Opposition, even though supported by Pope and +Chesterfield, Thomson and Bolingbroke, could scarcely fail to +utilise the trenchant scorn, the whole-hearted vigour, the +boisterous humour, of Fielding's genius; and Murphy, speaking +vaguely of Fielding's legal years, says that a "large number of +fugitive political tracts, which had their value when the incidents +were actually passing on the great scene of business, came from his +pen." It is not however till November 1739, two years and a half +after the pillorying of Walpole on the Haymarket boards, that +Fielding is again clearly seen, 'laying about' him, in those +clamourous eighteenth-century politics.</p> + +<p>His choice of a new weapon of attack is foreshadowed in the +noble concluding words of the <em>Introduction</em> to the +<em>Historical Register</em>; words written on the very eve of the +Ministerial Bill gagging that and all other political plays: "If +nature hath given me any talents at ridiculing vice and imposture, +I shall not be indolent, nor afraid of exerting them, while the +liberty of the press and stage subsists, that is to say while we +have any liberty left among us." A few weeks after these words were +published the liberty of the stage was triumphantly stifled by +Walpole's Licensing Bill. But even "old Bob" himself dared not lay +his hand on the liberty of the British Press; and so we find Mr +Pasquin reappearing under the guise, or in the company, of the +<em>Champion and Censor of Great Britain</em>, otherwise one +<em>Captain Hercules Vinegar</em>, a truculent avenger of wrong and +exponent of virtue, in whose fictitious name a political, literary, +and didactic newspaper entered the field of party politics on +November 15, 1739. The paper, under the title of the +<em>Champion</em>, was issued three times a week, and consisted of +one leading article, an anti-Ministerial summary of news, and +literary notices of new books. The first number announced that the +author and owner was the said Captain Hercules Vinegar, and that +the Captain would be aided in various departments by members of his +family. Thus the Captain's wife, Mrs Joan Vinegar, a matron of a +very loquacious temper, was to undertake the ladies' column, and +his son Jack was to have "an Eye over the gay Part of the Town." +The criticism was to be conducted by Mr Nol Vinegar who was +reported to have spent one whole year in examining the use of a +single word in Horace. And the politics were to be dealt forth by +the Captain's father, a gentleman intimately versed in kingdoms, +potentates and Ministers, and of so close a disposition that he +"seldom opens his Mouth, unless it be to take in his Food, or puff +out the Smoke of his Tobacco."</p> + +<p>The paper bore no signed articles; but judging from an attack +levelled against it in a pamphlet of the following <a name= +"fnref6-7">year</a>, <a class="footnote" href="#fn6-7">7</a> +Fielding and his former not very worshipful partner in the +Haymarket management, James Ralph, were the reputed "authors," +Ralph being in a subordinate position. Thus, it is stated that +Ralph, "is now say'd to be the 'Squire of the <em>British</em> +CHAMPION"; the writer identifies <em>Captain Vinegar</em> and the +author of <em>Pasquin</em> as one and the same person; he describes +Pasquin and Ralph as the "Authors of the Champion"; he asserts that +the old Roman statues of Pasquin and Marfario, "are now dignified +and distinguished (by The CHAMPION and his doughty Squire RALPH), +under the Names [<em>sic</em>] of Captain Hercules Vinegar."; he +prints an address to the "<em>Self-dubb'd Captain</em> Hercules +Vinegar," and his "Man <em>Ralph</em>"; and appends some doggerel +verse entitled "Vinegar and his gang." But from all this nothing +definite emerges as to the precise part taken by Fielding in the +authorship of the <em>Champion</em>. The pamphleteer accredits a +fragment of a paper signed C. to the <em>Captain</em>, and +attributes two <a name="fnref6-8">papers</a>, <a class="footnote" +href="#fn6-8">8</a> signed C. and L., to "Mr +Pasquin"--<em>i.e.</em> Fielding; and as the reprint of the +<em>Champion</em>, which appeared in 1741, announces that all +papers so signed are the "Work of one Hand," there is so much +external proof that all such pages in these volumes (numbering some +sixty essays) are by Fielding. Dr Nathan Drake, writing in 1809, +more than sixty years after the appearance of the paper, asserts, +without stating his reasons, that the numbers marked "C." and "L." +"were the work of Fielding." This view is further supported by the +opinion of Mr Austin Dobson, that many of the papers signed +<em>C.</em> "are unmistakably Fielding's."</p> + +<p>On the other hand Murphy, writing only twenty-two years after +the appearance of the paper, but often with gross inaccuracy, +states that the <em>Champion</em> "owed its chief support to his +[Fielding's] abilities," but that "his essays in that collection +cannot now be so ascertained as to perpetuate them in this edition +of his works." Boswell refers to Fielding as possessing a "share" +in the paper. A manuscript copy of some of the Minutes of meetings +of the <em>Champion</em> partners, written out in an +eighteenth-century handwriting, and now in the possession of the +present writer, confirms Boswell's note, in as far as an entry +therein records that "Henry Fielding Esq. did originally possess +Two Sixteenth Shares of the Champion as a Writer in the said +paper." One of the lists of the partners of the <em>Champion</em> +which occur in the same manuscript, is headed by the name of "Mr +Fielding." Finally, a contemporary satirical print shows Fielding +with his "length of nose and chin" and his tall figure, acting as +standard-bearer of the <em>Champion</em>; the paper being +represented in its political capacity of a leading Opposition +organ. There is, moreover, the internal evidence of style and +sentiment. Thus the matter rests; and although it is exceedingly +tempting to use the <em>Champion</em> for inferences as to the +manner in which Fielding approached his new craft of journalism, +and as to his attitude on the many subjects, theological, social, +political and personal, handled in these essays, the evidence seems +hardly sufficient to warrant such deductions. It does, however, +seem clear, taking as evidence the shilling pamphlet already <a +name="fnref6-9">mentioned</a>, <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn6-9">9</a> that Harry Fielding, the intrepid and audacious Mr +Pasquin of 1736-7 reappeared, laying about him with his ever ready +cudgel now raised to the dignity of a miraculous Hercules club, as +the <em>Champion</em> of 1739-41. To all lovers of good cudgelling, +whether laid on the shoulders of the incorrigible old cynic Sir +Robert, or on those of the egregious Colley Cibber, or falling on +the follies and abuses of the day, the "Pasquinades and +Vinegarades" of <em>Captain Hercules Vinegar</em>, and his "doughty +Squire Ralph," may be commended. And no fault can be found with the +<em>Captain's</em> declaration, when establishing a Court of +Judicature for the trial and punishment of sundry offenders in his +pages, that "whatever is wicked, hateful, absurd, or ridiculous, +must be exposed and punished, before this Nation is brought to that +Height of Purity and good Manners to which I wish to see it <a +name="fnref6-10">exalted</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn6-10">10</a></p> + +<p>One personal sketch of Fielding himself deserves quotation, +whether drawn by his own hand or that of another. The +<em>Champion</em> for May 24, 1740, contains a vision of the +Infernal Regions, where Charon, the ghostly boatman, is busy +ferrying souls across the River Styx. The ferryman bids his +attendant Mercury see that all his passengers embark carrying +nothing with them; and the narrator describes how, after various +Shades had qualified for their passage, "A tall Man came next, who +stripp'd off an old Grey Coat with great Readiness, but as he was +stepping into the Boat, <em>Mercury</em> demanded half his Chin, +which he utterly refused to comply with, insisting on it that it +was all his own." Fielding's length of chin and nose was well +known; and not less familiar, doubtless, was the 'old Grey Coat,' +among the purlieus of the Temple. The beginning of the year 1740, +when the lusty <em>Champion</em> and his cudgel were well +established, and <em>Captain Hercules'</em> private legal studies +were drawing to a close, was marked by a fresh outburst of the old +feud with Colley Cibber. Cibber, already notorious as actor, +dramatist, manager, the Poet Laureat of "preposterous Odes," and +the 'poetical Tailor' who would even cut down Shakespeare himself, +now appeared in the character of historian and biographer, +publishing early in 1740 the famous <em>Apology for the Life of Mr +Colley Cibber, Comedian, and late Patentee of the Theatre Royal. +With an Historical View of the Stage during his Own Time.</em></p> + +<p>Cibber, soon to be scornfully chosen by Pope as dunce-hero of +the <em>Dunciad</em>, had, for the past six years, been pilloried +by Fielding; and, not unmindful of these onslaughts, he inserted in +his new work a virulent attack on the late manager of the New +Theatre in the Haymarket. The tenor of <em>Pasquin</em> was here +grossly misrepresented. Fielding was described as being, at the +time of entering on his management, "a Broken Wit"; he was accused +of using the basest dramatic means of profit, since "he was in +haste to get money"; and the final insult was added by Cibber's +stroke of referring to his enemy anonymously, as one whom "I do not +chuse to name."</p> + +<p>Looking back across two centuries on to the supreme figures of +Pope and Fielding, it is matter for some wonder that these giants +of the intellect should have greatly troubled to annihilate a +Colley Cibber. A finer villain, it seems to us, might have been +chosen by Pope for the six hundred lines of his <em>Dunciad</em> a +worthier target might have drawn the arrows of Fielding's +<em>Champion</em>. But Cibber possessed at least the art of +arousing notable enmities; and the four slashing papers in which +the <em><a name="fnref6-11">Champion</a></em> <a class="footnote" +href="#fn6-11">11</a> promptly parried the scurrilities of the +<em>Apology</em> still make pretty reading for those who are +curious in the annals of literary warfare. It is noteworthy that +these <em>Champion</em> retorts are honourably free from the +personalities of an age incredibly gross in the use of personal +invective. Fielding's journal, even under the stinging provocation +of the insults of the <em>Apology</em>, was still true to the +standard set in the <em>Prologue</em> of his first boyish play</p> + +<p class="quoted">'No private character these scenes expose.'</p> + +<p>It is Cibber's ignorance of grammar, his murder of the English +tongue, his inflated literary conceit, rather than his 'private +character' that are here exposed.</p> + +<p>Some time during the latter half of 1740 the whole feud between +Cibber, Pope, Fielding and Ralph was reprinted in the shilling +pamphlet, already referred to, entitled <em>The Tryal of Colley +Cibber</em>. The collection concludes as follows:</p> + +<p class="quoted">"ADVERTISEMENT<br> +"If the Ingenious <em>Henry Fielding</em> Esq.; (Son of the Hon. +Lieut. General <em>Fielding</em>, who upon his Return from his +Travels entered Himself of the <em>Temple</em> in order to study +the Law, and married one of the pretty Miss <em>Cradocks</em> of +<em>Salisbury</em>) will <em>own</em> himself the AUTHOR of 18 +strange Things called Tragical <em>Comedies</em> and Comical +<em>Tragedies</em>, lately advertised by <em>J. Watts</em>, of +<em>Wild-Court</em>, Printer, he shall be <em>mentioned</em> in +Capitals in the <em>Third</em> edition of Mr CIBBER'S +<em>Life</em>, and likewise be placed <em>among</em> the <em>Poetae +minores Dramatici</em> of the Present Age; then will both his +<em>Name and Writings be remembered on Record</em> in the immortal +<em>Poetical Register</em> written by Mr Giles Jacob."</p> + +<p>The whole production affords a lively example of the +full-blooded pamphleteering of 1740; and throws valuable light on +Fielding's repute as the <em>Champion</em>.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i369"><img src="images/369.jpg" alt= +"Theatre Ticket for Fielding's 'Mock Doctor'" width="449" height= +"500"></a></p> + +<p>As regards Ralph's collaboration with Fielding at this period (a +collaboration further affirmed by Dr Nathan Drake's assertion, +written in 1809, that James Ralph was Fielding's chief coadjutor in +that paper) it may be recalled that ten years previously this not +very reputable American had provided a prologue for Fielding's +early play, the <em>Temple Beau</em>; and that he appears again as +Fielding's partner in the management of the Little Theatre in the +Haymarket. Gradually relinquishing his theatrical ambitions, Ralph +appears to have turned his talents to political journalism, and +according to Tom Davies was becoming formidable as a party writer +for the Opposition in these last years of Walpole's administration. +Boswell tells us that Ralph ultimately succeeded Fielding in his +share of the <em><a name="fnref6-12">Champion</a></em>; <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn6-12">12</a> but we have no definite knowledge +of what precise part was taken by him in the earlier numbers. No +continued trace occurs of his collaboration with Fielding; and +indeed it is difficult to conceive any permanent alliance between +Fielding's manly, independent, and generous nature, and the sordid +and selfish character, and mediocre talents of James Ralph.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter7">CHAPTER VII</a><br> +<br> +"COUNSELLOR FIELDING"</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"Wit is generally observed to love to reside in +empty pockets."<br> + <em>Joseph Andrews</em>.</p> + +<p>The last retort on Colley Cibber had scarcely been launched from +the columns of the <em>Champion</em>, when that intrepid 'Censor of +Great Britain' and indefatigable law student, <em>Captain Hercules +Vinegar</em>, attained the full dignities of a barrister of the +Middle Temple. On June 20, 1740, Fielding was called to the Bar; +and on the same day the Benchers of his Inn assigned to him +chambers at No. 4 Pump Court, "up three pair of stairs." This +assignment, according to the wording of the Temple records, was +"for the term of his natural life." These chambers may still be +seen, with their low ceilings and panelled walls, very much to all +appearance as when tenanted by Harry Fielding. The windows of the +sitting-room and bedroom look out on to the beautiful old buildings +of Brick Court, and from the head of the staircase one looks across +to the stately gilded sundial of Pump Court, old even in Fielding's +day, with its warning motto:</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Shadows we are and like shadows depart."</p> + +<p>Here, in these lofty chambers, up their "three pair" of worn and +narrow stairs, Fielding donned his barrister's gown, and waited for +briefs; and, possessing as he did an imagination "fond of seizing +every gay prospect," and natural spirits that gave him, as his +cousin Lady Mary tells us, cheerfulness in a garret, this summer of +1740 must have been full of sanguine hopes. He was now +thirty-three, and his splendid physique had not yet become +shattered by gout. He had gained, Murphy observes, no +inconsiderable reputation by the <em>Champion</em>; his position as +a brilliant political playwright had been long ago assured by +<em>Pasquin</em>; the party to whose patriotic interests he had +devoted so much energy and wit was now rapidly approaching power; +and two years of eager application had equipped him with 'no +incompetent share of learning' for a profession in which, we are +told, he aspired to eminence. The swift disappointment of these +brave hopes, the fast coming years of sickness, distress, and grief +endow the old chambers with something of tragedy; but in June, +1740, the shadows were still but a sententious word on the +dial.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i351"><img src="images/351.jpg" alt= +"The Temple--1738" width="600" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>There is practically no surviving record of Fielding's activity +as a barrister. From Murphy we learn that his pursuit of the law +was hampered by want of means; and that, moreover, even his +indomitable energies were soon often forced to yield to disabling +attacks of illness. So long as his health permitted him he +"attended with punctual assiduity" on the Western circuit, and in +term time at Westminster Hall. But gout rapidly "began to make such +assaults upon him as rendered it impossible for him to be as +constant at the bar as the laboriousness of his profession +required," and he could only follow the law in intervals of health. +Under such "severities of pain and want" he yet made efforts for +success; and the tribute rendered by his first biographer to the +courage of those efforts deserves quotation in full: "It will serve +to give us an idea of the great force of his mind, if we consider +him pursuing so arduous a study under the exigencies of family +distress, with a wife and children, whom he tenderly loved, looking +up to him for subsistence, with a body lacerated by the acutest +pains, and with a mind distracted by a thousand avocations and +obliged for immediate supply to produce almost extempore a farce, a +pamphlet, or a newspaper." Murphy's careless pen seems here to +confuse the student years with those of assiduous effort at the +Bar; and the extempore farces are, judging by the dates of +Fielding's collected plays, no more than a rhetorical flourish: but +there seems no reason to doubt the essential truth of this picture +of the vigorous struggles of the sanguine, witty, and not unlearned +barrister, ambitious of distinction, and always sensitively anxious +as to the maintenance of his wife and children. We may see him +attending the Western circuit in March and again in August, riding +from Winchester to Salisbury, thence to Dorchester and Exeter, and +on to Launceston, Taunton, Bodmin, Wells or Bristol as the case +might be; constant in his appearance at Westminster; and +supplementing his briefs by political pamphlets written in the +service of an Opposition supported by the intellect and integrity +of the day.</p> + +<p>It is inexplicable that no records, in the letters or diaries of +his brother lawyers, should have come down to us of circuits, +enlivened by the wit of Harry Fielding; that practically all traces +of his professional work should be lost; and that concerning the +many friendships which he is recorded to have made at the Bar we +should know practically nothing beyond his own cordial +acknowledgment of the lawyers' response, three years after his +call, to the subscription for the <em>Miscellanies</em>. In the +preface to those volumes he writes: "I cannot however forbear +mentioning my sense of the Friendship shown me by a Profession of +which I am a late and unworthy Member, and from whose Assistance I +derive more than half the Names which appear to this subscription." +All that we have to add to this, is the unconscious humour of +Murphy's observation that the friendships Fielding met with "in the +course of his studies, and indeed through the remainder of his life +from the gentlemen of the legal profession in general, and +particularly from some who have since risen to be the first +ornaments of the law, will ever do honour to his memory." Had the +names of these worthy 'ornaments' been preserved, posterity could +now give them due recognition as having been honoured by the +friendship of Henry <a name="fnref7-1">Fielding</a>.<a class= +"footnote" href="#fn7-1">1</a></p> + +<p>Fielding in his habit, as he lived, is for ever eluding us. His +tall figure vanishes behind the prolific playwright, the exuberant +politician, the truculent journalist, the indefatigable magistrate, +the great creative genius. But at no point does the wittiest man of +his day, and a lawyer of some repute--'Mr Fielding is allowed to +have acquired a respectable share of jurisprudence'--escape us so +completely as during these years of 'punctual assiduity' at the +Bar. His very domicile is unknown, after the surrender of those +pleasant chambers in Pump Court, on November 28 1740.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i352"><img src="images/352.jpg" alt= +"Henry Fielding holding the Banner of the 'Champion' newspaper" +width="719" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>The political activities of "Counsellor Fielding" stand out far +more clearly than do the legal labours of these years of struggle +at the Bar. The year of his call, 1740, was one of constant +embarrassment for Sir Robert Walpole, whose long enjoyment of +single power was now at last drawing to a miserable close. The +conduct of the Spanish War was arraigned, and suggestions were made +that the Government were in secret alliance with the enemy. When +the news came, in March, that Walpole's parliamentary opponent, the +bluff Admiral Vernon, had captured Porto Bello from Spain, with six +ships only, the public rejoicing and votes of congratulation were +so many attacks on the peace-at-any-price Minister. A powerful +fleet, designed against Spain, lay inactive in Torbay the greater +part of the summer, through (alleged) contrary winds. And when +Parliament met in November 1740, an onslaught by the Duke of Argyll +in the Lords paved the way for the celebrated attack on Sir Robert +in the Commons, known as "The Motion" of February 13, 1741. A fine +political cartoon published in the following month, and here +reproduced, in which Walpole appears as mocking at the death and +burial of this same "Motion" of censure (which the House had +rejected), places Fielding in the forefront of the Opposition +procession. The dead "Motion" is being carried to the "Opposition" +family vault, already occupied by Jack Cade and other "reformers"; +and the bier is preceded by five standard-bearers, sadly carrying +the insignia of the party's papers. Among these, and second only to +the famous <em>Craftsman</em>, comes Fielding's tall figure, +bearing aloft a standard inscribed <em>The Champion</em>, and +emblazoned with that terrible club of <em>Captain Hercules +Vinegar</em>, which, we may recall, was always ready to "fall on +any knave in company." Behind the bier hobbles, clearly, the old +Duchess of Marlborough; and Walpole's fat figure stands in the +foreground, laughing uproariously at this "Funeral of Faction." In +the doggerel verses beneath this cartoon, it is very plainly hinted +that "old Sarah," and the Opposition, were in league with the +Stewarts. In this historic debate, for which members secured seats +at six o'clock in the morning, the vote of censure on "the <em>one +person</em>" arraigned was defeated, Sir Robert once again securing +a majority, and so "the Motion" as the cartoonist depicts, died "of +a Disappointment." Another cartoon commemorating this ill-fated +effort is instructive as showing, again in the foreground of the +fight, a figure wearing a barrister's wig, gown, and bands, and +inscribed with the words <em>Pasquin</em> and <em>The +Champion</em>. The Opposition Leader, Pulteney, leads both the +<em>Pasquin</em> figure, and another representing the paper +<em>Common Sense</em>, literally by the nose with the one hand, +while with the other he neatly catches, on his drawn sword, +Walpole's organ the <em>Gazetteer</em>. In doggerel verses attached +to the print Fielding is complimented with the following entire +verse to himself:--</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Then the Champion of the Age,<br> + Being Witty, wise, and Sage,<br> + Comes with Libells on the Stage."</p> + +<p>This <em>Pasquin</em> figure has none of the personal +characteristics of Fielding, neither his "length of nose" nor his +stately stature, so well suggested in the former print; but, lay +figure though it be, it symbolises no less clearly the prominent +part he played in these final political struggles of 1741. Also the +lawyer's dress with which Fielding is here signified is noteworthy; +and similar acknowledgment of his new dignities may be seen in the +reference (in a copy of Walpole's <em>Gazetteer</em> for 1740) to +the attacks levelled on Sir Robert by "Captain +Vinegar--<em>i.e.</em> Counsellor F---d--g."</p> + +<p>These popular indications of Fielding's activity in the fighting +ranks of the Opposition, during this last year of Walpole's +domination, are supplemented by the evidence of his own pen. As +early as January 1741, and while the grand Parliamentary attack of +the 13th of February was but brewing, he published an eighteenpenny +pamphlet, in verse, satirising Sir Robert's lukewarm conduct of the +war with Spain. To the title of <em>The Vernoniad</em>, there was +added a lengthy mock-title in Greek, the whole being presented as a +lost fragment by Homer, describing, in epic style, the mission of +one "Mammon" sent by Satan to baffle the fleets of a nation engaged +in war with <em>Iberia</em>. "Mammon" is a perfectly obvious +satirical sketch of Walpole himself, in the execution of which the +hand that had drawn the corrupt fiddler "Mr Quidam" and the tipsy +"Mr Pillage" for the Haymarket stage, has in no wise lost its +cunning. "Mammon" (Walpole was reputed to have amassed much wealth) +hides his palace walls by heaps of "ill-got Pictures." The pictures +collected at Houghton, the Minister's pretentious Norfolk seat, +were famous; and the notes to the "Text" are careful to depict, in +illustration, "some rich Man without the least Taste having +purchased a Picture at an immense Price, lifting up his eyes to it +with Wonder and Astonishment, without being able to discover +wherein its true Merit lies." "Mammon" declares virtue to be but a +name, and his wonted eloquence is bribery. Sir Robert asserted that +every man has his price. "Mammon" preserves dulness and ignorance, +"while Wit and Learning starve." Walpole's illiterate tastes were +notorious. At the close of the poem, "Mammon" accomplishes the +behest of his master, Satan, by bribing contrary winds to drive +back the English ships (a satire on Walpole's conduct of the war); +and he finally returns to hell, and "in his Palace keeps a +<em>three Weeks'</em> Feast." Sir Robert it may be noted usually +entertained for three weeks, in the spring, at Houghton. The whole +is a slashing example of the robust eighteenth-century political +warfare, polished by constant classical allusions and quotations; +and doubtless it was read with delight in the coffee houses of the +Town in that critical winter of 1740-1741. Two characteristic +allusions must not be omitted. Even in the heat of party hard +hitting Fielding finds time for a thrust at Colley Cibber, whose +prose it seems was in several places by no means to be comprehended +till "explained by the <em>Herculean</em> Labours of Captain +<em>Vinegar</em>" And there is a pleasant reference to "my friend +Hogarth the exactest Copier of Nature."</p> + +<p>In this first month of 1741, Fielding published yet another +poetical pamphlet for his party, but of a less truculent energy. +<em>True Greatness</em> is a poem inscribed to a recruit in the +Opposition ranks, the celebrated George Bubb Dodington; and when +the eulogiums offered by the poet to his political leaders, Argyll, +Carteret, Chesterfield, and Lyttelton, to all of whom are ascribed +that "True Greatness" which "lives but in the Noble Mind," are +completed by a description of Dodington as irradiating a blaze of +virtues, this particular pamphlet becomes somewhat rueful reading. +For Dodington was, if report speaks true, a pliant politician as +well as an ineffable coxcomb, although it must be admitted that he +won eulogies and compliments alike from the perfect integrity of +Lyttelton, and the honourable pen of James Thomson. Even Fielding's +glowing lines do not outstrip Thomson's panegyric in <em>The +Seasons</em>.</p> + +<p>A more enduring interest however than the merits or demerits of +a Dodington, lies in this shilling pamphlet. In it is clearly +foreshadowed Fielding's great ironic outburst on false greatness, +given to the world a few years later in the form of the history of +that Napoleon in villany, the "great" Mr Jonathan Wild. In the +medium of stiff couplets (verse being "a branch of Writing" which +Fielding admits "I very little pretend to") the subject-matter of +the magnificent irony of <em>Jonathan Wild</em> is already +sketched. Here the spurious "greatness" of inhuman conquerors, of +droning pedants, of paltry beaus, of hermits proud of their +humility, is mercilessly laid bare; and something is disclosed of +the "piercing discernment" of that genius which, Murphy tell us, +"saw the latent sources of human actions."</p> + +<p>We have seen indications in Murphy's careless pages that these +few years of Fielding's assiduous efforts at the Bar were years +burdened by "severities of want and pain." It is difficult not to +admit a reference to some such personal experiences in a passage in +this same poem. The lines in question describe the Poet going +hungry and thirsty</p> + +<p class="quoted">"As down Cheapside he meditates the Song"....</p> + +<p>a "great tatter'd Bard," treading cautiously through the streets +lest he meet a bailiff, oppressed with "want and with contempt," +his very liberty to "wholesome Air" taken from him, yet possessing +the greatness of mind that no circumstances can touch, and the +power to bestow a fame that shall outlive the gifts of kings. This +latter claim foreshadows the magnificent apostrophe in <em>Tom +Jones</em> on that unconquerable force of genius, able to confer +immortality both on the poet, and the poet's theme. Was the 'great +tatter'd Bard,' cautiously treading the streets, little esteemed, +and yet the conscious possessor of true greatness (did not the +author of <em>Tom Jones</em> rely with confidence on receiving +honour from generations yet unborn), none other than the tall +figure of Fielding himself? At least we know that soon after this +year he writes of having lately suffered accidents and waded +through distresses, sufficient to move the pity of his readers, +were he "fond enough of Tragedy" to make himself "the Hero of +one."</p> + +<p>One of the rare fragments of Fielding's <a name= +"fnref7-2">autograph</a>, <a class="footnote" href="#fn7-2">2</a> +refers both to this pamphlet, and to the <em>Vernoniad</em>:</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"Mr Nourse,</p> + +<p>"Please to deliver Mr Chappell 50 of <s>my</s> [<em>sic</em>] +True Greatness and 50 of the Vernoniad.</p> + +<p>Y'rs<br> +"Hen. Ffielding.<br> +"<em>April</em> 20 1741."</p> + +<p>In June of this year occurred the death of General Edmund +Fielding, briefly noticed in the <em>London Magazine</em> as that +of an officer who "had served in the late Wars against +<em>France</em> with much Bravery and Reputation." The General's +own struggles to support his large family probably prevented his +death affecting the circumstances of his eldest son. In the same +month Fielding appears as attending a "Meeting of the Partners in +the Champion," held at the Feathers Tavern, on June 29. The list of +the partners present at the Feathers is given as <a name= +"fnref7-3">follows</a>:--<a class="footnote" href= +"#fn7-3">3</a></p> + +<p class="quoted">Present</p> + +<p class="quoted">Mr Fielding<br> + Mr Nourse<br> + Mr Hodges<br> + Mr Chappelle</p> + +<p class="quoted">Mr Cogan<br> + Mr Gilliver<br> + Mr Chandler</p> + +<p>The business recorded was the sale of the "Impressions of the +Champion in two Vollumes, 12'o, No. 1000." The impression was put +up to the Company by auction, and was knocked down to Mr Henry +Chappelle for £110, to be paid to the partners. The majority of the +partners are declared by the Minutes to have confirmed the bargain; +the minority, as appears from the list of signatures, being +strictly that of one, Henry Fielding. After this dissension +Fielding's name ceases to appear at the <em>Champion</em> meetings; +and as he himself states that he left off writing for the paper +from this very month the evidence certainly points to a withdrawal +on his part in June 1741 from both the literary and the business +management of the paper. The edition referred to in the Minutes is +doubtless that advertised in the <em>London Daily Post</em> a few +days before the meeting of the partners, as a publication of the +<em>Champion</em> "in two neat Pocket <a name= +"fnref7-4">Volumes</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn7-4">4</a></p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i353"><img src="images/353.jpg" alt= +"Cartoon showing Fielding, in Wig and Gown, as a supporter of the Opposition" + width="719" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>Meanwhile the whole force of the Opposition was thrown into the +battle of a General Election; and it is interesting to note that +Pitt stood for the seat for Fielding's boyish home, and the home of +his wife, that of Old Sarum. The elections went largely against +Walpole, and by the end of June defeat was prophesied for a +Minister who would only be supported by a majority of sixteen.</p> + +<p>It is somewhat inexplicable that at this, the very moment of the +approaching victory of his party Fielding appears to have withdrawn +from all journalistic work. "I take this Opportunity to declare in +the most solemn Manner," he writes, in after years, "I have long +since (as long as from <em>June</em> 1741) desisted from writing +one Syllable in the <em>Champion</em>, or any other public Paper." +And yet more unexpected is the fact that six months later, during +the last weeks of Walpole's failing power, a rumour should be +abroad that Fielding was assisting his old enemy. In one of his +rare references to his private life, that in the Preface to the +<em>Miscellanies</em>, he seeks to clear himself from unjust +censures "as well on account of what I have not writ, as for what I +have"; and, as an instance of such baseless aspersions, he relates +that, in this winter of 1741, "I received a letter from a Friend, +desiring me to vindicate myself from two very opposite Reflections, +which two opposite Parties thought fit to cast on me, <em>viz</em>. +the one of writing in the <em>Champion</em> (tho' I had not then +writ in it for upwards of half a year) the other, of writing in the +Gazetteer, in which I never had the honour of inserting a single +Word." What can have occurred, in the bewildering turmoil of that +eighteenth-century party strife, that the author of +<em>Pasquin</em>, the possessor of "Captain Vinegar's" Herculean +Club, should have to vindicate himself from a charge of writing in +the columns of Walpole's <em>Gazetteer</em>. During these last +months of Sir Robert's power his Cabinet was much divided, and two +of his Ministers were in active revolt; possibly rumour assigned +the services of the witty pen of Counsellor Fielding to these +Opposition Ministerialists. But that some change did indeed take +place in Fielding's political activities, in these last six months +of 1741 is obvious from his withdrawal from writing in any "Public" +paper; and from passages in the last political pamphlet known to +have come from his pen. This pamphlet, entitled <em>The Opposition. +A Vision</em>, was published in the winter of 1741, a winter of +severe illness, and of "other circumstances" which, as he tells us, +"served as very proper Decorations" to the sickbeds of himself, his +wife, and child. It is a lively attack on the divided councils and +leaders of the Opposition, thrown into the form of a dream, caused +by the author's falling asleep over "a large quarto Book intituled +'An apology for the Life of Mr Colley Gibber, Comedian.'" In his +dream Fielding meets the Opposition, in the form of a waggon, drawn +by very ill-matched asses, the several drivers of which have lost +their way. The luggage includes the Motion for 1741, and a trunk +containing the <em>Champion</em> newspaper. One passenger protests +that he has been hugely spattered by the "Dirt" of the "last +Motion," and that he will get out, rather than drive through more +dirt. A gentleman of "a meagre aspect" (is he the lean Lyttelton?) +leaves the waggon; and another observes that the asses "appear to +me to be the worst fed Asses I ever beheld ... that long sided Ass +they call <em>Vinegar</em>, which the Drivers call upon so often to +<em>gee up</em>, and <em>pull lustily</em>, I never saw an Ass with +a worse Mane, or a more shagged Coat; and that grave Ass yoked to +him, which they name <em>Ralph</em>, and who pulls and brays like +the Devil, Sir, he does not seem to have eat since the hard <a +name="fnref7-5">Frost</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn7-5">5</a> +Surely, considering the wretched Work they are employed in, they +deserve better Meat."</p> + +<p>The longsided ass, Vinegar, with the worst of manes and the most +shagged coat, short even of provender, recalls the picture, drawn +twelve months previously, of the great hungry tatter'd Bard; and +the inference seems fair enough that for Fielding politics were no +lucrative trade. A more creditable inference, in those days of +universal corruption, it may be added, would be hard to find. The +honour of a successful party writer who yet remained poor in the +year 1741, must have been kept scrupulously clean. The +<em>Vision</em> proceeds to show the waggon, with two new sets of +asses from Cornwall and Scotland (the elections had gone heavily +against Walpole in both these districts), suddenly turning aside +from the "Great Country Road" (the Opposition was known as the +Country Party); and the protesting passengers are told that the end +of their journey is "St James." Some of the asses, flinching, are +"well whipt"; but the waggon leaves the dreamer and many of its +followers far behind. Suddenly a Fat Gentleman's coach stops the +way. The drivers threaten to drive over the coach, when one of the +asses protests that the waggon is leaving the service of the +country, and going aside on its own ends, and that "the Honesty of +even an Ass would start" at being used for some purposes. The +waggon is all in revolt and confusion, when the Fat Gentleman, who +appeared to have "one of the pleasantest and best natured +Countenances I ever beheld," at last had the asses unharness'd, and +turned into a delicious meadow, where they fell to feeding, as +after "long Abstinence." Finally, the pleasant-faced fat +gentleman's coach proceeds on the way from which the waggon had +deviated, carrying with it some of the former drivers of the same; +the mob burn the derelict obstructing vehicle; and their noise, and +the stink and smoke of the conflagration wake the dreamer.</p> + +<p>In this last word of Fielding's active political career (for his +later anti-Jacobite papers are concerned rather with Constitutional +and Protestant, than with party strife), a retirement from +political collar-work is certainly signified. His reasons for such +a step escape us in the mist of those confused and heated +conflicts. His detestation of Walpole's characteristic methods may +very well have roused his ever ready fighting instincts, whereas, +once Walpole's fall was practically assured the weak forces of the +Opposition (William Pitt being yet many years from power) could +have availed but little to enlist his penetrating intellect. And he +may by now have found that politics afforded, in those days, but +scanty support to an honourable pen.</p> + +<p>But supposition, in lack of further evidence, is fruitless; all +that we can clearly perceive is that this winter of sickness and +distress marks a final severance from party politics. The hungry +'hackney writer' of the lean sides and shagged coat, if not, +indeed, turned to graze in the fat meadow of his dream, was at last +freed from an occupation that could but shackle the genius now +ready to break forth in the publication of <em>Joseph +Andrews</em>.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter8">CHAPTER VIII</a><br> +<br> +JOSEPH ANDREWS</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"This kind of writing I do not remember to have +seen hitherto attempted in our language." Preface to +<em>Joseph Andrews</em>.</p> + +<p>On the 2nd of February 1742 Sir Robert Walpole, the 'Colossos' +of popular broadsides, under whose feet England had lain for +exactly thirty years, received his final defeat; and the intrepid +wit, who for the past eight years had heartily lashed the tyrannies +and corruptions of that 'Great Man,' enjoyed at last the +satisfaction of witnessing the downfall of the <em>Mr Quiddam</em> +and <em>Mr Pillage</em> of his plays, of the <em>Plunderer</em> and +<em>Mammon</em> of his pamphlets, of the <em>Brass</em> on whom +many a stinging blow had fallen in the columns of his +<em>Champion</em>.</p> + +<p>With the retirement of Walpole, Fielding's vigorous figure +vanishes from active political service. No more caustic Greek +epics, translated from the original "by Homer," no more boisterous +interludes with three-bottle Prime Ministers appearing in the part +of principal boy, come from his pen. But scarcely is the ink dry on +the page of his last known political pamphlet, when Fielding +reappears, in this Spring of 1742, not as the ephemeral politician, +but as the triumphant discoverer of a new continent for English +literature; as the leader of a revolution in imaginative writing +which has outlived the Ministries and parties, the reforms, the +broils, and warfares of two centuries. For, to-day, the fierce old +contests of Whig and Tory, the far-off horrors of +eighteenth-century gibbets, jails, and streets, the succession of +this and that Minister, the French Wars and Pragmatic Sanctions of +1740 are all dead as Queen Anne. But the novel based on character, +on human life, in a word on 'the vast authentic Book of Nature' is +a living power; and it was by the publication, in February 1742, of +<em>The Adventures of Mr Joseph Andrews and his Friend Mr Abraham +Adams</em>, that Fielding reveals himself as the father of the +English novel. Henceforth we can almost forget the hard-hitting +political <em>Champion</em>; we may quite forget the facile +'hackney writer' of popular farces, and the impetuous studies of +the would-be barrister. With the appearance of these two small +volumes Henry Fielding reaches the full stature of his genius as +the first, and perhaps the greatest, of English novelists.</p> + +<p>It is difficult, at the present day, to realise the greatness of +his achievement. Fielding found, posturing as heroines of romance, +the <em>Clelias, Cleopatras, Astraeas</em>; he left the living +women, Fanny Andrews, Sophia Western, Amelia Booth. "Amelia," +writes his great follower Thackeray, "... the most charming +character in English fiction,--Fiction! Why fiction? Why not +history? I know Amelia just as well as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu." +Again, Fielding found a world of polite letters, turning a stiff +back on all "low" naturalness of life. He taught that world (as his +friend Lillo had already essayed to do in his tragedy of a +<em>London Merchant</em>) that the life of a humble footman, of a +poor parson in a torn cassock, of the poverty-hunted wife of an +impoverished army-captain, of a country lad without known +parentage, interest or fortune, may make finer reading than all the +Court romances ever written; and, moreover, that "the highest life +is much the dullest, and affords very little humour or +entertainment." And, having rediscovered this world of natural and +simple human nature, his genius proceeded to the creation of +nothing less than an entirely new form of English literary +expression, the medium of the novel.</p> + +<p>The preface to <em>Joseph Andrews</em> shows that Fielding was +perfectly conscious of the greatness of his adventure. Such a +species of writing, he says, "I do not remember to have seen +hitherto attempted in our language." We can but wonder at, and +admire, the superb energy and confidence which could thus embark on +the conscious production of this new thing, amid want, pain, and +distress. And wonder and admiration increase tenfold on the further +discovery that this fresh creation in literature, fashioned in +circumstances so depressing, is overflowing with an exuberance of +healthy life and enjoyment. Having entered on his fair inheritance +of this new world of human nature, Fielding pourtrays it from the +standpoint of his own maxim, that life "everywhere furnishes an +accurate observer with the ridiculous." So, into this, his +newly-cut channel for imaginative expression (to use Mr Gosse's +happy phrase) he poured the strength of a genius naturally inclined +to that "exquisite mirth and laughter," which as he declared in his +preface to these volumes, "are probably more wholesome physic for +the mind and conduce better to purge away spleen, melancholy, and +ill affections than is generally imagined." No book ever more +thoroughly carried out this wholesome doctrine. The laughter in +<em>Joseph Andrews</em> is as whole-hearted, if not as noisy, the +practical jokes are as broad, as those of a healthy school-boy; and +the pages ring with a spirit and gusto recalling Lady Mary's phrase +concerning her cousin "that no man enjoyed life more than he did." +To quote again from Mr Gosse: "A good deal in this book may offend +the fine, and not merely the superfine. But the vitality and +elastic vigour of the whole carry us over every difficulty... and +we pause at the close of the novel to reflect on the amazing +freshness of the talent which could thus make a set of West country +scenes, in that despised thing, a novel, blaze with light like a +comedy of Shakespeare."</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i354"><img src="images/354.jpg" alt= +"Henry Fielding reading at the Bedford Arms" width="295" height= +"500"></a></p> + +<p>So original in creation, so humane, so full of a brave delight +in life, was the power that, mastering every gloomy obstacle of +circumstance, broke into the stilted literary world of 1742; and +Murphy's Irish rhetoric is not too warm when he talks of this +sunrise of Fielding's greatness "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."</p> + +<p>Any detailed comment on the literary qualities of the genius +which thus disclosed itself would exceed the limits of this memoir; +and indeed such comment is, now, a thrice-told tale. To Sir Walter +Scott, Fielding is the "father of the English novel"; to Byron, +"the prose Homer of human nature." The magnificent tribute of +Gibbon still remains a towering monument, whatever experts may tell +us concerning the Hapsburg genealogy. "Our immortal Fielding," he +wrote, "was of the younger branch of the Earls of Denbigh, who drew +their origin from the Counts of Hapsburg. The successors of Charles +V. may disdain their brethren of England; but the romance of +<em>Tom Jones</em>, that exquisite picture of human manners, will +outlive the palace of the Escurial and the Imperial Eagle of +Austria." Smollett affirmed that his predecessor painted the +characters, and ridiculed the follies, of life with equal strength, +humour and propriety. The supreme autocrat of the eighteenth +century, Dr Johnson himself, though always somewhat hostile to +Fielding, read <em>Amelia</em> through without stopping, and +pronounced her to be 'the most pleasing heroine of all the +romances.' "What a poet is here," cries Thackeray, "watching, +meditating, brooding, creating! What multitudes of truths has that +man left behind him: what generations he has taught to laugh wisely +and fairly." Finally we may turn neither to novelist nor historian, +but to the metaphysical philosopher, "How charming! How wholesome +is Fielding!" says Coleridge, "to take him up after Richardson is +like emerging from a sick-room, heated by stoves, into an open lawn +on a breezy day in May." Such are some estimates of the quality of +Fielding's genius, given by men not incompetent to appraise him. To +analyse that genius is, as has been said, beyond the scope of these +pages. But Fielding's first novel is not only a revelation of +genius. It frankly reveals much of the man behind the pen; and in +its pages, and in those of the still greater novels yet to come, we +may learn more of the true Fielding than from all the fatuities and +surmises of his early biographers.</p> + +<p>Thus in <em>Joseph Andrews</em> for the first time we come +really close to the splendid and healthy energy, the detachment, +the relentless scorn, the warmth of feeling, that characterised +Henry Fielding under all circumstances and at all times of his +life. This book, as we have seen, was written under every outward +disadvantage, and yet its pages ring with vigour and laughter. Here +is the same militant energy that had nerved Fielding to fight the +domination of a corrupt (and generally corrupting) Minister for +eight lean years; and which in later life flung itself into a +chivalrous conflict with current social crime and misery. Here is a +detachment hardly less than that which fills the pages of the last +<em>Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon</em> with a courage, a gaiety, a +serenity that no suffering and hardship, and not even the near +approach of death itself, could disturb. Here, again, Fielding +consciously avows a moral purpose in his art; the merciless scorn +of his insight in depicting a vicious man or woman is actuated, he +expressly declares, by a motive other than that of 'art for art's +sake.' And as this motive is scarce perceptible in the lifelike +reality of the figures whom we see breathing in actual flesh and +blood in his pages, and yet is of the first importance for +understanding the character of their creator, the great novelist's +confession of this portion of his literary faith may be quoted in +full. The passage occurs in the preface to Book iii. of <em>Joseph +Andrews</em>. Fielding is afraid, he explains, that his figures may +be taken for particular portraits, whereas it is the type and not +the individual that concerns him. "I declare here," he solemnly +affirms, "once for all, I describe not Men, but Manners; not an +Individual, but a Species." And he proceeds to make example of the +lawyer in the stage coach as not indeed confined "to one +Profession, one Religion, or one Country; but when the first mean +selfish Creature appeared on the human Stage, who made Self the +Centre of the whole Creation; would give himself no Pain, incur no +Damage, advance no Money to assist, or preserve his +Fellow-Creatures; then was our Lawyer born; and while such a Person +as I have described, exists on Earth, so long shall he remain upon +it." Not therefore "to mimick some little obscure Fellow" does this +lawyer appear on Fielding's pages, but "for much more general and +noble Purposes; not to expose one pitiful Wretch, to the small and +contemptible Circle of his Acquaintance; but to hold the Glass to +thousands in their Closets that they may contemplate their +Deformity, and endeavour to reduce it."</p> + +<p>Yet another characteristic of Fielding's personality appears in +the conscious control exercised over all the humorous and satiric +zest of <em>Joseph Andrews</em>. Here is no unseemly riot of +ridicule. The ridiculous he declares in his philosophic preface is +the subject-matter of his pages; but he will suffer no imputation +of ridiculing vice or calamity. "Surely," he cries, "he hath a very +ill-framed Mind, who can look on Ugliness, Infirmity, or Poverty, +as ridiculous in themselves"; and he formally declares that such +vices as appear in this work "are never set forth as the objects of +Ridicule but Detestation." What then were the limits which Fielding +imposed on himself in treating this, his declared subject matter of +the ridiculous? Hypocrisy and vanity, he says, appearing in the +form of affectation; "Great Vices are the proper Object of our +Detestation, smaller Faults of our Pity: but Affectation appears to +me the only true Source of the Ridiculous." Such is Fielding's +sensitive claim for the decent limits of ridicule; and such the +consciously avowed subject of his work. But the force of his +genius, the depth of his insight, the warmth of his detestations +and affections, soon carried him far beyond any mere study in the +ridicule of vain and hypocritical affectation. The immortal figure +of Parson Adams, striding through these pages, tells us infinitely +much of the character of his creator, but nothing at all of the +nature of affectation. The "rural innocence of a Joseph Andrews," +to quote Miss Fielding's happy <a name="fnref8-1">phrase</a> <a +class="footnote" href="#fn8-1">1</a> and of his charming Fanny, are +as natural and fresh as Fielding's own Dorsetshire meadows, but +instruct us not at all in vanity or hypocrisy.</p> + +<p>To turn to the individual figures of <em>Joseph Andrews</em>; +what do they tell us of the man who called them into being. First +and foremost, it is Parson Adams who unquestionably dominates the +book. However much the licentious grossness of Lady Booby, the +shameless self-seeking of her waiting-woman, Mrs Slipslop, the +swinish avarice of Parson Trulliber, the calculating cruelty of Mrs +Tow-wouse, to name but some of the vices here exposed, blazon forth +that 'enthusiasm for righteousness' which constantly moved Fielding +to exhibit the devilish in human nature in all its 'native +Deformity,' it is still Adams who remains the central figure of the +great comic epic. Concerning the good parson, appreciation has +stumbled for adequate words, from the tribute of Sir Walter Scott +to that of Mr Austin Dobson. "The worthy parson's learning," wrote +Sir Walter, "his simplicity, his evangelical purity of heart, and +benevolence of disposition, are so admirably mingled with pedantry, +absence of mind, and with the habit of athletic and gymnastic +exercise, ... that he may be safely termed one of the richest +productions of the Muse of Fiction." And to Mr Austin Dobson, this +poor curate, compact as he is of the oddest contradictions, the +most diverting eccentricities, is "assuredly a noble example of +primitive goodness, and practical Christianity." We love Adams, as +Fielding intended that we should, for his single-hearted goodness, +his impulsiveness, his boundless generosity, his muscular courage; +we are never allowed to forget the dignity of his office however +ragged be the cassock that displays it; we admire his learning; we +delight in his oddities. But above all he reflects honour on his +creator by the inflexible integrity of his goodness. A hundred +tricks are played on him by shallow knaves, and the result is but +to convince us of the folly of knavery. His ill-clad and uncouth +figure moves among the vicious and prosperous, and we perceive the +ugliness of vice, and the poverty of wealth. With his nightcap +drawn over his wig, a short grey coat half covering a torn cassock, +the crabstick so formidable to ruffians in his hand, and his +beloved AEschylus in his pocket, Adams smoking his pipe by the inn +fire, or surrounded by his "children" as he called his parishioners +vying "with each other in demonstrations of duty and love," fully +justifies John Forster's comment on Fielding's manly habit of +"discerning what was good and beautiful in the homeliest aspects of +humanity." Before the true dignity of Abraham Adams, whether he be +publicly rebuking the Squire and Pamela for laughing in church, or +emerging unstained from adventures with hogs-wash and worse, the +accident of his social position as a poor curate, contentedly +drinking ale in the squire's kitchen, falls into its true +insignificance.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i355"><img src="images/355.jpg" alt= +"Assignment for 'Joseph Andrews'" width="750" height="512"></a></p> + +<p>Rumour assigned to Fielding's friend and neighbour at East +Stour, the Rev. William Young, the honour of being the original of +Parson Adams; and it is a pleasant coincidence that the legal +assignment for <em>Joseph Andrews</em>, here reproduced in +facsimile, should bear the signature, as witness, of the very man +whose "innate goodness" is there immortalised. If there be any +detractors of Fielding's personal character still to be found, they +may be advised to remember the truism that a man is known by his +friends, and to apply themselves to a study of William Young in the +figure of Parson Adams.</p> + +<p>Of the charming picture of rustic beauty and innocence presented +in the blushing and warmhearted Fanny less need be said; for +Fielding's ideal in womanhood was soon to be more fully revealed in +the lovely creations of Sophia and Amelia. And honest Joseph +himself, his courage and fidelity, his constancy, his tenderness +and chivalrous passion for Fanny, his affection for Mr Adams, his +voice "too musical to halloo to the dogs," his fine figure and +handsome face, concerns us here chiefly as demonstrating that +Fielding, when he chose, could display both virtue and manliness as +united in the person of a perfectly robust English country lad.</p> + +<p>These then, are some of the figures that Fielding loved to +create, breathing into their simple virtues a vigorous human life, +fresh as Coleridge said, as the life of a Spring morning. In these +joyous creations of his heart and of his genius, the great novelist +assuredly gives us a perfectly unconscious revelation of his own +character. And among the changing scenes of this human comedy one +incident must not be forgotten. In the famous episode of the stage +coach, all Fielding's characteristic and relentless hatred of +respectable hypocrisy, all his love of innate if ragged virtue is +betrayed in the compass of a few pages: in those pages in which we +see the robbed, half-murdered, and wholly naked Joseph lifted in +from the wayside ditch amid the protests and merriment of the +respectable passengers; and his shivering body at last wrapped in +the coat of the postilion,--"a Lad who hath since been transported +for robbing a Hen-roost,"--who voluntarily stripped off a +greatcoat, his only garment, "at the same time swearing a great +Oath (for which he was rebuked by the Passengers) 'that he would +rather ride in his Shirt all his Life, than suffer a +Fellow-Creature to lie in so miserable a Condition.'"</p> + +<p>Much has been written concerning the notorious feud between +Fielding and Richardson, a feud ostensibly based upon the fact that +<em>Joseph Andrews</em> was, to some extent, frankly a parody of +Richardson's famous production <em>Pamela</em>. In 1740, two years +before the appearance of <em>Joseph Andrews</em> that middle-aged +London printer had published <em>Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded</em>, +achieving thereby an enormous vogue. That amazing mixture of +sententious moralities, of prurience, and of mawkish sentiment, +became the rage of the Town. Admirers ranked it next to the Bible; +the great Mr Pope declared that it would "do more good than many +volumes of Sermons"; and it was even translated into French and +Italian, becoming, according to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who did +not love Richardson, "the joy of the chambermaids of all nations." +That all this should have been highly agreeable to the good +Richardson, a 'vegetarian and water-drinker, a worthy, +domesticated, fussy, and highly nervous little man,' ensconced in a +ring of feminine flatterers whom he called 'my ladies,' is obvious; +and proportionate was his wrath with Fielding's <em>Joseph +Andrews</em>, of which the early chapters, at least, are a +perfectly frank, and to Richardson audacious, satire on +<em>Pamela</em>. The caricature was indeed frank. Joseph is +introduced as Pamela's brother; he writes letters to that virtuous +maid-servant; and the Mr B. of Richardson becomes the Squire Booby +of Fielding. But there can be hardly two opinions as to such +ridicule being an entirely justified and wholesome antidote to the +pompous and nauseous original. To Fielding's robust and masculine +genius, says Mr Austin Dobson, "the strange conjunction of purity +and precaution in Richardson's heroine was a thing unnatural and a +theme for inextinguishable Homeric laughter." To Thackeray's +sympathetic imagination the feud was the inevitable outcome of the +difference between the two men. Fielding, he says "couldn't do +otherwise than laugh at the puny cockney bookseller, pouring out +endless volumes of sentimental twaddle, and hold him up to scorn as +a moll-coddle and a milksop. His genius had been nursed on sack +posset, and not on dishes of tea. His muse had sung the loudest in +tavern choruses, and had seen the daylight streaming in over +thousands of empty bowls, and reeled home to chambers on the +shoulders of the watchman. Richardson's goddess was attended by old +maids and dowagers, and fed on muffins and bohea. 'Milksop!' roars +Harry Fielding, clattering at the timid shop-shutters. 'Wretch! +Monster! Mohock!' shrieks the sentimental author of +<em>Pamela</em>; and all the ladies of his court cackle out an +affrighted chorus."</p> + +<p>Looking back on the incident it seems matter for yet more +Homeric laughter that Richardson should have called the resplendent +genius of Fielding "low." But the feud, it may be surmised, led to +much of the odium that seems to have attached to Fielding's name +amongst some of his contemporaries. Feeling ran high and was +vividly expressed in those days; and when cousinly admiration for +Fielding was coupled by an excellent comment on Richardson's book +as the delight of the maidservants of all nations, personal retorts +in favour of the popular sentimentalist were but too likely to +ensue. Apart from this aspect of the matter the ancient quarrel +does not seem a very essential incident in Fielding's life.</p> + +<p>The lack of means indicated by Fielding himself, in his +reminiscence of this winter of 1741-2 as darkened by the illness of +himself, his wife and of a favourite child, attended "with other +Circumstances, which served as very proper Decorations to such a +Scene," received but little alleviation from the publication of +<em>Joseph Andrews</em>. The price paid for the book by Andrew +Millar was but £183, 11s.; and there is no record that Millar +supplemented the original sum, as he did in the case of <em>Tom +Jones</em>, when the sale was assured. The first edition appears to +have consisted of 1,500 copies. A second edition, of 2,000 copies +was issued in the same <a name="fnref8-2">summ</a>er, <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn8-2">2</a> and a third edition followed in +1743.</p> + +<p>Fielding's formal declaration that he described "not men but +manners"; his solemn protest, in the preface to this very book, +that "I have no Intention to vilify or asperse anyone: for tho' +everything is copied from the Book of Nature, and scarce a +Character or Action produced which I have not taken from my own +Observations and Experience, yet I have used the utmost Care to +obscure the Persons by such different Circumstances, Degrees, and +Colours, that it will be impossible to guess at them with any +degree of Certainty"--represent rather his intention than the +result. The portraits of "manners" by the "prose Homer of human +nature" were too lifelike to escape frequent identification. Thus +not only was the prototype of Parson Adams discovered, but that of +his antithesis, the pig-breeding Mr Trulliber, was thought to exist +in the person of the Rev. Mr Oliver, the Dorsetshire curate under +whose tutelage Fielding had been placed when a boy. Tradition also +connects Mr Peter Pounce with the Dorsetshire usurer Peter <a name= +"fnref8-3">Walter</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn8-3">3</a></p> + +<p>Two echoes have come down to us of the early appreciation of +this novel. A translation of <em>Joseph Andrews</em>, "par une Dame +Angloise," and bound for Marie Antoinette by Derome le Jeune, was +placed on the shelves of her library in the Petit <a name= +"fnref8-4">Trianon</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn8-4">4</a> +And, seven years after the appearance of <em>Joseph Andrews</em>, +Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, when sixty years old, writes from her +Italian exile: "I have at length received the box with the books +enclosed, for which I give you many thanks as they amuse me very +much. I gave a very ridiculous proof of it, fitter indeed for my +granddaughter than myself. I returned from a party on horseback; +and after having rode 20 miles, part of it by moonshine, it was ten +at night when I found the box arrived. I could not deny myself the +pleasure of opening it; and falling upon Fielding's works was fool +enough to sit up all night reading. I think Joseph Andrews better +than his <a name="fnref8-5">Foundling</a>." <a class="footnote" +href="#fn8-5">5</a></p> + +<h2><a name="chapter9">CHAPTER IX</a><br> +<br> +THE <em>Miscellanies</em> AND <em>Jonathan Wild</em></h2> + +<p class="quoted">"Is there on earth a greater object of contempt +than the poor scholar to a splendid beau; unless perhaps the +splendid beau to the poor scholar."<br> + <em>Covent Garden Journal</em>, No. 61.</p> + +<p>If the 'sunrise' of Fielding's genius did indeed shine forth on +the publication of <em>Joseph Andrews</em>, it was a sunrise +attended by dark clouds. For, with the appearance of these two +little volumes, we enter on the most obscure period of the great +novelist's life, and on that in which he appears to have suffered +the severest 'invasions of Fortune.'</p> + +<p>As regards the winter immediately preceding the appearance of +that joyous epic of the highway, he himself has told us that he was +'laid up in the gout, with a favourite Child dying in one Bed, and +my Wife in a Condition very little better, on another, attended +with other Circumstances, which served as very proper Decorations +to such a Scene.' In the following February, an entry in the +registers of St Martin's in the Fields records the burial of a +child "Charlott Fielding." So it is probable that the very month of +the appearance of his first novel brought a private grief to +Fielding the poignancy of which may be measured by his frequent +betrayals of an anxious affection for his children.</p> + +<p>To such distresses of sickness and anxiety, there was now, +doubtless, added the further misery of scanty means. For a few +months later an advertisement (hitherto overlooked) appears in the +<em>Daily Post</em>, showing that Fielding was already eagerly +pushing forward the publication of the <em>Miscellanies</em>, that +incoherent collection which is itself proof enough that necessity +alone had called it into being. "The publication of these Volumes," +he says, "hath been hitherto retarded by the Author's indisposition +last Winter, and a train of melancholy Accidents, scarce to be +parallel'd; but he takes this opportunity to assure his Subscribers +that he will most certainly deliver them within the time mentioned +in his last receipts, viz. by the 25th December <a name= +"fnref9-1">next</a>." <a class="footnote" href="#fn9-1">1</a></p> + +<p>We may take it, then, that the first six months of 1742 were +attended by no easy circumstances; and, accordingly, during these +months Fielding's hard-worked pen produced no less than three very +different attempts to win subsistence from those humoursome jades +the nine Muses. To take these efforts in order of date, first +comes, in March, his sole invocation of the historic Muse, the +<em>Full Vindication of the Dutchess Dowager of Marlborough</em>, +published almost before Joseph Andrews was clear of the printers, +and sold at the modest price of one shilling. We learn from the +title page that the <em>Vindication</em> was called forth by a +"late <em>scurrilous</em> Pamphlet," containing "<em>base</em> and +<em>malicious</em> Invectives" against Her Grace. Together with +Fielding's natural love for fighting, a family tie may have given +him a further incitement to draw his pen on behalf of the aged +Duchess. For his first cousin, Mary Gould, the only child of his +uncle James Gould, M.P. for Dorchester, had married General Charles +Churchill, brother to the great Duke. Whether this cousinship by +marriage led to any personal acquaintance between 'old Sarah' and +Harry Fielding we do not know; and the muniment room at Blenheim +affords no trace of any correspondence between the Duchess and her +champion. But certainly the <em>Vindication</em> lacks nothing of +personal warmth. Fielding tells us that he has never contemplated +the character of that 'Glorious Woman' but with admiration; and he +defends her against the attacks of her opponents through forty +strenuous pages, in which the curious may still hear the echoes of +the controversies that raged round the Duke and his Duchess, their +mistress Queen Anne, and other actors of the Revolution. The +<em>Vindication</em> appeared in March; and a second edition was +called for during the year. As far as Millar's payment goes +Fielding, as appears from the assignment in <em>Joseph +Andrews</em>, received only £5; and it is to be feared that the +Duchess (who is said to have paid the historian Hooke £5000 for his +assistance in the production of her own celebrated pamphlet) placed +but little substantial acknowledgment in Fielding's lean purse. Her +champion at any rate had, within three years, modified the views +expressed in this <em>Vindication</em>, concerning the munificence +of Her Grace's private generosity; for in his journal the <em>True +Patriot</em>, there occurs the following obituary notice, "A Man +supposed to be a Pensioner of the late Duchess of Marlborough.... +He is supposed to have been Poor."</p> + +<p>This same month of March marked Fielding's final severance with +the <em>Champion</em>. The partners of that paper, meeting on March +the 1st, ordered "that Whereas Henry Fielding Esq., did Originally +possess Two Sixteenth Shares of the Champion as a Writer in the +said paper and having withdrawn himself from that Service for above +Twelve Months past and refused his Assistance in that Capacity +since which time Mr Ralph has solely Transacted the said Business. +It is hereby Declared that the said Writing Shares shall devolve on +and be vested in Mr James <a name="fnref9-2">Ralph</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn9-2">2</a> It is curious that Fielding did not +add to his impoverished exchequer by selling his <em>Champion</em> +shares.</p> + +<p>Having sought assistance from the Muse of history in March, +Fielding returns to his old charmer the dramatic Muse in May; +assisting in that month to produce a farce, at Drury Lane, entitled +<em>Miss Lucy in Town</em>. In this piece, he tells us, he had a +very small share. He also received for it a very small +remuneration; £10, 10s. being recorded as the price paid by Andrew +Millar.</p> + +<p>In the following month Fielding's inexhaustible energies were +off on a new tack, producing, in startling contrast to <em>Miss +Lucy</em>, a classical work, executed in collaboration with his +friend the Rev. William Young, otherwise Parson Adams. The two +friends contemplated a series of translations of all the eleven +comedies of Aristophanes; adorned by notes containing "besides a +full Explanation of the Author, a compleat History of the Manners +and Customs of the Ancient Greeks particularly of the Athenians"; +and in June they inaugurated their scheme with the work in +question, a translation of the <a name="fnref9-3">Plutus</a>. <a +class="footnote" href="#fn9-3">3</a> William Young, says Hutchins, +"had much learning which was the cement of Mr Fielding's connexion +with him"; and Fielding's own scholarship, irradiated by his wit, +would assuredly have made him an ideal translator of Greek comedy. +But the public of 1742 appears to have afforded very little +encouragement to this scheme, preferring that "pretty, dapper, +brisk, smart, pert, Dialogue" of their own comedies, to which +allusion is made in the authors' preface.</p> + +<p>The rest of the year shows nothing from a pen somewhat exhausted +perhaps with the production of <em>Joseph Andrews</em> of the +historical <em>Vindication</em>, and of parts of a Drury Lane farce +and of the <em>Plutus</em>, all within five months. And the winter +following, in which the promised <em>Miscellanies</em> should have +appeared, brought, in the renewed illness of his wife, an anxiety +that paralysed even Fielding's buoyant vigour. This we learn from +his own touching apology for the further delay of those volumes; a +delay due, their author tells us, to "the dangerous Illness of one +from whom I draw all the solid Comfort of my Life, during the +greatest Part of this Winter. This, as it is most sacredly true, so +will it, I doubt not, sufficiently excuse the Delay to all who know +<a name="fnref9-4">me</a>." <a class="footnote" href="#fn9-4">4</a> +Early in the following year, after this second winter of crushing +anxiety, and under an urgent pressure for means, Fielding tried +again his familiar <em>rôle</em> of popular dramatist, giving his +public the husks they preferred, in the comedy of the <em>Wedding +Day</em>. This comedy was produced at Drury Lane on the 17th of +February 1743.</p> + +<p>If Fielding had failed to descend to the taste of the Town in +offering them Aristophanes, he flung them in the <em>Wedding +Day</em> something too imperfect for acceptance, even by the +'critic jury of the pit,' And the bitter humour in which he was now +shackling his genius to the honourable task of immediate +bread-winning, or in his own words to the part of "hackney writer," +comes out clearly enough in the well-known anecdote of the first +night of this comedy. In Murphy's words, Garrick, then a new +player, just taking the Town by storm, "told Mr Fielding he was +apprehensive that the audience would make free in a particular +passage; adding that a repulse might so flurry his spirits as to +disconcert him for the rest of the night, and therefore begged that +it might be omitted. 'No, d--mn 'em,' replied the bard, 'if the +scene is not a good one, let them find <em>that</em> out.' +Accordingly the play was brought on without alteration, and, just +as had been foreseen, the disapprobation 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 champaign." Fielding, continues Murphy, had by +this time drank pretty plentifully, and "'<em>What's the matter, +Garrick?</em>' says he, '<em>what are they hissing now?</em>' Why +the scene that I begged you to retrench; I knew it would not do; +and they have so frightened me that I shall not be able to collect +myself again the whole night. <em>Oh! d--mn 'em</em>, replies the +author, <em>they HAVE found it out, have they!</em>" That Fielding +should be scornfully indifferent to the judgment of the pit on work +forced from him by overwhelming necessities, and which his own +judgment condemned, is a foregone conclusion; but that he suffered +keenly in having to produce imperfect work, and was jealously +anxious to clear his reputation, as a writer, in the matter of this +particular comedy, is no less apparent from the very unusual +personal explanation he offered for it, soon after the brief run of +the play was over. For no man was more shy of autobiographical +revelations. His biographers are continually reduced to gleaning +stray hints, here and there, concerning his private <a name= +"fnref9-5">life</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn9-5">5</a> And +therefore we can measure by this emergence from a habitual personal +reticence the soreness with which he now published work unworthy of +his genius. "Mr Garrick," Fielding tells us, speaking of this +distressed winter of 1742-3 "... asked me one Evening, if I had any +play by me; telling me he was desirous of appearing in a new Part +[and] ... as I was full as desirous of putting Words into his +Mouth, as he could appear to be of speaking them, I mentioned [a] +Play the very next morning to Mr <em>Fleetwood</em> who embraced my +Proposal so heartily, that an Appointment was immediately made to +read it to the Actors who were principally to be concerned in it." +On consideration, however, this play appeared to Fielding to need +more time for perfecting, and also to afford very little +opportunity to Garrick. So, recollecting that he still had by him a +play which, although 'the third Dramatic Performance' he ever +attempted, contained a character that would keep the audience's "so +justly favourite Actor almost eternally before their Eyes," he +decided, with characteristic impetuosity, to a change at the last +moment. "I accordingly," he writes, "sat down with a Resolution to +work Night and Day, owing to the short Time allowed me, which was +about a Week, in altering and correcting this Production of my more +Juvenile Years; when unfortunately the extreme Danger of Life into +which a Person, very dear to me, was reduced, rendered me incapable +of executing my Task. To this Accident alone I have the vanity to +apprehend, the Play owes most of the glaring Faults with which it +appeared.... Perhaps, it may be asked me why then did I suffer a +Piece which I myself knew was imperfect, to appear? I answer +honestly and freely, that Reputation was not my Inducement; and +that I hoped, faulty as it was, it might answer a much more solid, +and in my unhappy situation, a much more urgent Motive." This hope +was, alas, frustrated; not even the brilliancy of a cast which +included Garrick, Mrs Pritchard, Macklin, and Peg Woffington, could +carry the <em>Wedding Day</em> over its sixth night; and the +harassed author received 'not £50 from the House for it.' The +comedy is a coarsely moral attack on libertinism, a fact which +probably, in no wise added to the popularity of the play in the pit +and boxes of 1743.</p> + +<p>A doggerel prologue, both written and spoken by Macklin, gives +an excellent picture of the playhouse humours, and of the wild pit, +of those exuberant days; and contains moreover the following sound +advice, addressed to Fielding</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Ah! thou foolish follower of the ragged Nine<br> + You'd better stuck to honest Abram Adams, by half;<br> + He, in spite of critics can make your Readers laugh."</p> + +<p>The next publication of these lean years was the +<em>Miscellanies</em>, a collection of mingled prose, verse, and +drama, of which the only connecting link seems to be the urgent +need of money which forced so heterogenous a medley from so great +an artist. These long delayed volumes appeared, probably, in April, +and were, says Fielding, composed with a frequent "Degree of +Heartache." They include the lover's verses of his early youth; +philosophical, satiric, and didactic essays; a reprint of the +political effusion dedicated to Dodington; a few plays; the +fragment entitled <em>A Journey from this World to the Next</em>; +and the splendid ironic outburst on villany, <em>Jonathan +Wild</em>.</p> + +<p>The <em>Preface</em>, largely occupied as it is with those +private circumstances which forced the hasty production of the +<em>Wedding Day</em>, has other matter of even greater interest for +the biographer. Thus Fielding's sensitive care of his reputation in +essential matters appears in the fiery denial here given to +allegations of publishing anonymous scandals: "I never was, nor +will be the Author of anonymous Scandal on the private History or +Family of any Person whatever. Indeed there is no Man who speaks or +thinks with more detestation of the modern custom of Libelling. I +look on the practice of stabbing a Man's Character in the Dark, to +be as base and as barbarous as that of stabbing him with a Poignard +in the same manner; nor have I ever been once in my Life guilty of +it." Here too, he marks his abhorrence of that 'detestable Vice' +hypocrisy, which vice he was, before long, to expose utterly in the +person of Blifil in <em>Tom Jones</em>. His happy social +temperament is betrayed in the characteristic definition of good +breeding as consisting in "contributing with our utmost Power to +the Satisfaction and Happiness of all about us." And in these pages +we have Fielding's philosophy of <em>goodness</em> and +<em>greatness</em>, delivered in words that already display an +unrivalled perfection of style. Speaking of his third volume, that +poignant indictment of devilry the <em>Life of Mr Jonathan Wild the +Great</em>, it is thus that Fielding exposes the iniquity of +villains in "great" places:--"But without considering +<em>Newgate</em> as no other than Human Nature with its mask off, +which some very shameless Writers have done, a Thought which no +Price should purchase me to entertain, I think we may be excused +for suspecting, that the splendid Palaces of the Great, are often +no other than <em>Newgate</em> with the Mask on. Nor do I know +anything which can raise an honest Man's Indignation higher than +that the same Morals should be in one Place attended with all +imaginable Misery and Infamy and in the other with the highest +Luxory and Honour. Let any impartial Man in his Senses be asked, +for which of these two Places a Composition of Cruelty, Lust, +Avarice, Rapine, Insolence, Hypocrisy, Fraud and Treachery, was +best fitted, surely his Answer must be certain and immediate; and +yet I am afraid all these Ingredients glossed over with Wealth and +a Title, have been treated with the highest Respect and Veneration +in the one, while one or two of them have been condemned to the +Gallows in the other."</p> + +<p>Here is the converse of that insight which could discern +goodness under a ragged cassock, or in a swearing postilion. And, +having discerned the true nature of such Great Men, Fielding +proceeds to point out that "However the Glare of Riches and Awe of +Title may terrify the Vulgar; nay however Hypocrisy may deceive the +more Discerning, there is still a Judge in every Man's Breast, +which none can cheat or corrupt, tho' perhaps it is the only +uncorrupt thing about him"; that nothing is so preposterous as that +men should laboriously seek to be villains; and that this Judge, +inflexible and honest "however polluted the Bench on which he +sits," always bestows on the spurious Great the penalty of fear, an +evil which "never can in any manner molest the Happiness" of the +"Enjoyments of Innocence and Virtue."</p> + +<p>The subsequent philosophic dissertation on the qualities of +goodness and greatness is interesting for such passages as the +definition of a good man as one possessing "Benevolence, Honour, +Honesty, and Charity"; and the fine declaration that of the passion +of Love "goodness hath always appeared to me the only true and +proper Object." And the very springs of action underlying half at +least of each of the three great novels, and almost every page of +<em>Jonathan Wild</em>, are revealed in the final declaration of +the writer's intention to expose in these pages vice stripped of +its false colours; to show it "in its native Deformity." As the +native and stripped deformity of vice is perhaps not often fully +apprehended and certainly is very seldom exposed in our own age, +Fielding, by the very sincerity and fire of his morality, doubtless +loses many a modern reader.</p> + +<p>It is in the third volume of the <em>Miscellanies</em>, a volume +completely occupied by <em>Jonathan Wild</em>, that Fielding first +fully reveals himself as public moralist. And in this Rogue's +progress to the gallows he displays so concentrated a zeal, that +nothing short of his genius and his humour could have saved these +pages from the dullness of the professional reformer. For the +little volume consists of a relentless exposure of the deformity +and folly of vice. Here the foul souls of Wild and his associates, +stripped of all the glamour of picturesque crime, stand displayed +in their essential qualities, with the result that even the +pestilential air of thieves' slums, of 'night cellars,' and of +Newgate purlieus, an air which hangs so heavy over every page, +falls back into insignificance before the loathsomeness of the +central figure. A few years later, in the preface to <em>Tom +Jones</em>, Fielding formally asserted his belief that the beauty +of goodness needed but to be seen 'to attract the admiration of +mankind'; in <em>Jonathan Wild</em> he appears to be already at +work on the converse doctrine, that if the deformity of vice be but +stripped naked, abhorrence must ensue. Such a naked criminal is +Wild; and in the contemplation of his vices, as in the case of the +arch hypocrite Blifil, in <em>Tom Jones</em>, and of the shameless +sensualist "My Lord," in <em>Amelia</em>, Fielding's characteristic +compassion for the faults of hard pressed humanity is, for the +time, scorched up in the fierceness of his anger and scorn at +deliberate cruelty, avarice and lust. Under the spell of Fielding's +power of painting the devil in his native blackness, we feel that +for such as Wild hanging is too handsome a fate. It is easy for his +Newgate chaplain to assert that "nothing is so sinful as sin"; it +takes a great genius and a great moralist to convince us, as in +this picture, that nothing is so deformed or so contemptible. The +dark places of <em>Jonathan Wild</em> receive some light in the +character of the good jeweller, in the tender scenes between that +honest ruined tradesman and his wife and children, and in the +devoted affection of his apprentice. But the true illumination of +the book, and its personal value for the biographer, lie in the +white heat of anger, the "sustained and sleepless irony" to adopt +Mr Austin Dobson's happy phrase, with which Fielding, with a force +unwavering from the first page to the last, here assails his +subject. An underlying attack on the Ministerial iniquity of "Great +Men" in high places seems to be often suggested; if this be a true +inference, it does but give us further proof of Fielding's energies +as a political, no less than as a moral, reformer. Certainly, +through all the squalid scenes of the book, the contention is +insisted on that criminals of Wild's tyrannical stamp may as easily +be found in courts, and at the head of armies, as among the poor +leaders of Newgate gangs. To the wise moralist it is the same +rogue, whether picking a pocket or swindling his country.</p> + +<p>And not to forget the wit in the moral reformer, we may leave Mr +Jonathan Wild listening to one of the reasons given by the Newgate +chaplain for his Reverence's preference for punch over wine: "Let +me tell you, Mr Wild there is nothing so deceitful as the spirits +given us by wine. If you must drink let us have a bowl of punch; a +liquor I the rather prefer as it is nowhere spoken against in +Scripture."</p> + +<p>After <em>Jonathan Wild</em> the most interesting fragment of +the <em>Miscellanies</em> is the <em>Journey from this World to the +Next</em>. In this essay Fielding reveals his philosophy, his +sternness, his affections, and his humour, as a man might do in +intimate conversation. His warm humanity breathes in the conception +that "the only Business" of those who had won admission to Elysium +'that happy Place,' was to "contribute to the Happiness of each +other"; and again in the stern declaration of Heaven's doorkeeper, +the Judge Minos, that "no Man enters that Gate without Charity." +And indeed the whole chapter devoted to the judgments administered +by Minos on the spirits that come, confident or trembling, before +him, and are either admitted to Heaven, sent back to earth, or +despatched to the "little Back Gate" opening immediately into the +bottomless pit, is full of personal revelation. We feel the glee +with which Fielding consigns the "little sneaking soul" of a miser +to diabolically ingenious torments; the satisfaction with which he +watches Minos apply a kick to the retreating figure of a duke, +possessed of nothing but "a very solemn Air and great Dignity"; and +the pleasure it gave him to observe the rejection accorded to "a +grave Lady," the Judge declaring that "there was not a single Prude +in Elysium." Again, nothing could be more true to Fielding's nature +than the account of the poet who is admitted, not for the moral +value he himself places on his Dramatic Works (which he endeavours +to read aloud to Minos), but because "he had once lent the whole +profits of a Benefit Night to a Friend, and by that Means had saved +him and his Family from Destruction"; unless it were the account of +the poverty driven wretch, hanged for a robbery of eighteen-pence, +who yet could plead that he had supported an aged Parent with his +labour, that he had been a very tender Husband, and a Kind Father, +and that he had ruined himself for being Bail for a Friend. "At +these words," adds the historian, "the gate opened, and +<em>Minos</em> bid him enter, giving him a slap on the Back as he +passed by him."</p> + +<p>When the author's own turn came, he very little expects, he +tells us, "to pass this fiery Trial. I confess'd I had indulged +myself very freely with Wine and Women in my Youth, but had never +done an Injury to any Man living, nor avoided an opportunity of +doing good; but I pretended to very little Virtue more than general +Philanthropy and Private Friendship." Here Minos cut the speaker +short, bidding him enter the gate, and not indulge himself +trumpeting forth his virtues. Whether or no we may here read the +reflections of Fielding's maturity, looking honestly back over his +own forty years and forward with humble fear into the future, we +may certainly see reflected in both confession and judgment much of +the doctrine and the practice of his life.</p> + +<p>After the failure, early in 1743, of the <em>Wedding Day</em>, +and the subsequent publication of the <em>Miscellanies</em>, +Fielding seems to have thrown his energies for twelve months into +an exclusive pursuit of the law. This appears from his statement, +made a year later, in May 1744, that he could not possibly be the +author of his sister's novel <em>David Simple</em>, which had been +attributed to him, because he had applied himself to his profession +"with so arduous and intent a diligence that I have had no leisure, +if I had inclination, to compose anything of this kind." Clearly, +in the period that covers the publication of <em>Joseph +Andrews</em> an historical pamphlet, parts of a farce and of +<em>Plutus</em>, and of the <em>Miscellanies</em>, Fielding found +both leisure and inclination for writing; so this sudden immersion +in law must relate to the twelve months or so intervening between +these works and the publication of his statement. Murphy +corroborates this bout of hard legal effort. After the <em>Wedding +Day</em> says that biographer "the law from this time had its hot +and cold fits with him." The cold fits were fits of gout; and +inconveniences felt by Fielding from these interruptions were, adds +Murphy "the more severe upon him, as voluntary and wilful neglect +could not be charged upon him. The repeated shocks of illness +disabled him from being as assiduous an attendant at the bar, as +his own inclination and patience of the most laborious application, +would otherwise have made him."</p> + +<p>Mr Counsellor Fielding follows his retrospect of this strenuous +attack on the law with a declaration that, henceforth, he intends +to forsake the pursuit of that 'foolscap' literary fame, and the +company of the 'infamous' nine Muses; a decision based partly on +the insubstantial nature of the rewards achieved, and partly it +would seem due to the fact that at Fielding's innocent door had +been laid, he declares, half the anonymous scurrility, indecency, +treason, and blasphemy that the few last years had <a name= +"fnref9-6">produced</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn9-6">6</a> In +especial he protests against the ascription to his pen of that +'infamous paltry libel' on lawyers, the <em>Causidicade</em>, an +ascription which, as he truly says, accused him "not only of being +a bad writer and a bad man, but with downright idiotism in flying +in the face of the greatest men of my profession." He also declares +that no anonymous work had issued from his pen since his promise to +that effect; and that these false accusations had injured him +cruelly in ease, reputation and interest. This solemn declaration +that the now detested Muses shall no longer beguile Fielding's pen +affords excellent reading in view of the fact that this absorbed +barrister must, within a year or two, have been at work on <em>Tom +Jones</em>. The whole emphatic outburst was probably partly an +effort to assert himself as now wholly devoted to the law, and +partly an example of one of those "occasional fits of peevishness" +into which, Murphy tells us, distress and disappointment would +betray him.</p> + +<p>The preface to his sister's novel <em>David Simple</em>, in +which Fielding took occasion to announce these protests and +assertions, is his only extant publication for this year of 1744; +and apart from its biographical value is not of any great moment. +Ample proof may be found in it of brotherly pride and admiration +for the work of a sister "so nearly and dearly allied to me in the +highest friendship as well as relation." There is the noteworthy +declaration that the "greatest, noblest, and rarest of all the +talents which constitute a genius" is the gift of "a deep and +profound discernment of all the mazes, windings, and labyrinths +which perplex the heart of man." The utterance concerning style, by +so great a master of English, is memorable--"a good style as well +as a good hand in writing is chiefly learned by practice." And a +delightful reference should not be forgotten to the carping +ignorant critic, who has indeed, "had a little Latin inoculated +into his tail," but who would have been much the gainer had "the +same great quantity of birch been employed in scourging away his +ill-nature."</p> + +<p>Disabled by gout and harassed by want of money, a yet greater +distress was now fast closing on Fielding in the prolonged illness +of his wife. "To see her daily languishing and wearing away before +his eyes," says Murphy, "was too much for a man of his strong +sensations; the fortitude with which he met all other calamities of +life [now] deserted him." In the autumn of 1744 Mrs Fielding was at +Bath, doubtless in the hope of benefit from the Bath waters. And +here, in November, she died. Her body was brought to London for +burial in the church of St. Martin's in the Fields; receiving on +the 14th of November, 1744, honourable interment in the chancel +vault, to the tolling of the great tenor bell, and with the fullest +ceremonial of the time. Indeed it is evident, from the charges +still preserved in the sexton's book, that Fielding rendered to his +wife such stately honours as were occasionally accorded to the +members of the few great families interred in the old church.</p> + +<p>The death of this beloved wife, Murphy tells us, brought on +Fielding "such a vehemence of grief that his friends began to think +him in danger of losing his reason." When we remember that he +himself has explicitly stated that lovely picture of the 'fair soul +in the fair body,' the Sophia of <em>Tom Jones</em>, to have been +but a portrait of Charlotte Fielding, we can in some measure +realise his overwhelming grief at her death. And that the exquisite +memorial raised to his wife by Fielding's affection and genius was +not more beautiful in mind or face than the original, is +acknowledged by Lady Bute, a kinswoman of the great novelist. Lady +Bute was no stranger, "to that beloved first wife whose picture he +drew in his Amelia, where, as she said, even the glowing language +he knew how to employ did not do more than justice to the amiable +qualities of the original, or to her beauty. He loved her +passionately, and she returned his affection; yet had no happy life +for they were almost always miserably poor, and seldom in a state +of quiet and safety. His elastic gaiety of spirit carried him +through it all; but meanwhile, care and anxiety were preying upon +her more delicate mind, and undermining her constitution. She +gradually declined, caught a fever and died in his arms." That +Fielding's married life was unhappy, whatever were its outward +conditions, is obviously a very shallow misstatement; but, for the +rest, the picture accords well enough with our knowledge of his +nature. The passionate tenderness of which that nature was capable +appears in a passage from those very <em>Miscellanies</em>, which, +he tells us, were written with so frequent a "Degree of Heartache." +In the <em>Journey from this World to the Next</em>, Fielding +describes how, on his entrance into Elysium, that "happy region +whose beauty no Painting of the Imagination can describe" and where +"Spirits know one another by Intuition" he presently met "a little +Daughter whom I had lost several years before. Good Gods! What +Words can describe the Raptures, the melting passionate Tenderness, +with which we kiss'd each other, continuing in our Embrace, with +the most extatic Joy, a Space, which if Time had been measured here +as on Earth, could not have been less than half a Year."</p> + +<p>The fittest final comment on Henry Fielding's marriage with +Charlotte Cradock is, perhaps, that saying of a member of his own +craft of the drama, "Now to love anything sincerely is an act of +grace, but to love the best sincerely is a state of grace."</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter10">CHAPTER X</a><br> +<br> +PATRIOTIC JOURNALISM</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"he only is the <em>true Patriot</em> who always +does what is in his Power for his Country's Service without any +selfish Views or Regard to private Interests."--The <em>True +Patriot</em>.</p> + +<p>Fielding's active pen seems to have been laid aside for twelve +months after the death of his wife; and it is perfectly in accord +with all that we know of his passionate devotion to Charlotte +Cradock that her loss should have shattered his energies for the +whole of the ensuing year. Murphy, as we have seen, speaks of the +first vehemence of his grief as being so acute that fears were +entertained for his reason. According to Fielding's kinswomen, Lady +Mary Wortley Montagu and Lady Bute, the first agonies of his grief +approached to frenzy; but "when the first emotions of his sorrow +were abated" his fine balance reasserted itself, and to quote again +from Murphy, "philosophy administered her aid; his resolution +returned, and he began again to struggle with his fortune."</p> + +<p>As we hear no more of exclusive devotion to the law, it may be +assumed that the attempt of the previous year to live by that +arduous calling alone was now abandoned; and to a man of Fielding's +strong Protestant and Hanoverian convictions the year of the '45, +when a Stewart Prince and an invading Highland army had captured +Edinburgh and were actually across the border, could not fail to +bring occupation. Fielding believed ardently that Protestant +beliefs, civil liberty, and national independence of foreign powers +were best safeguarded by a German succession to the English throne; +so by the time Prince Charles and 6,000 men had set foot on English +soil, the former 'Champion of Great Britain' was again up in arms, +discharging his sturdy blows in a new weekly newspaper entitled the +<em>True Patriot</em>.</p> + +<p>The <em>True Patriot</em> is chiefly notable as affording the +first sign that Fielding was now leaving party politics for the +wider, and much duller, field of Constitutional liberty. A man +might die for the British Constitution; but to be witty about it +would tax the resources of a Lucian. And, accordingly, in place of +that gay young spark Mr Pasquin, who laid his cudgel with so hearty +a good will on the shoulders of the offending 'Great Man,' there +now steps out a very philosophic, mature, and soberly +constitutional <em>Patriot</em>; a patriot who explicitly asserts +in his first number, "I am of no party; a word I hope by these my +labours to eradicate out of our constitution: this being indeed the +true source of all those evils which we have reason to complain +of." And again, in No. 14, "I am engaged to no Party, nor in the +Support of any, unless of such as are truly and sincerely attached +to the true interest of their Country, and are resolved to hazard +all Things in its Preservation." Here is a considerable change from +the personal zest that placed Mr Quiddam and Mr Pillage before +delighted audiences in the Little Theatre in the Haymarket.</p> + +<p>The available copies of the <em>True Patriot</em>, now in the +British <a name="fnref10-1">Museum</a>, <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn10-1">1</a> include only thirty-two numbers, starting from No. +1, which appeared on the 5th of November, 1745, and ending on June +3, 1746. The first number contains a characteristic tribute to Dean +Swift, whose death had occurred 'a few days since.' Doctor Jonathan +Swift, says the <em>Patriot</em>, was "A genius who deserves to be +rank'd among the first whom the World ever saw. He possessed the +Talents of a Lucian a Rabelais and a Cervantes and in his Works +exceeded them all. He employed his Wit to the noblest Purposes in +ridiculing as well Superstition in Religion as Infidelity and the +several Errors and Immoralities which sprung up from time to time +in his Age; and lastly in defence of his Country.... Nor was he +only a Genius and a Patriot; he was in Private Life a good and +charitable Man and frequently lent Sums of Money, without interest, +to the Poor and Industrious; by which means many Families were +preserved from Destruction." In No. 2, the <em>Patriot</em> +reiterates his "sincere Intention to calm and heal, not to blow up +and inflame, any Party-Divisions"; but even the task of defending +the British Constitution could not stifle Fielding's wit, and he +escapes, for breathing space as it were, into a column devoted to +the news items of the week, gathered from various papers, and +adorned by comments of his own, printed in italics. And in this +running commentary on the daily occurences of the time we get +nearer, perhaps, to the table-talk of Henry Fielding than by any +other means. Thus he faithfully repeats the inflated obituary lists +that were then in fashion, but with such a variation as the +following, "Thomas Tonkin, ... universally lamented by his +Acquaintance. Upwards of 40 Cows belonging to one at Tottenham +Court, <em>universally lamented by all their Acquaintance</em>." On +a notice of an anniversary meeting of the Society for propagating +the Gospel in Foreign Parts there is the pertinent comment "<em>It +is a Pity some Method--was not invented for the Propagation of the +Gospel in Great Britain</em>." After the deaths of a wealthy banker +and factor, comes the obituary of "One Nowns a Labourer, <em>most +probably immensely poor, and yet as rich now as either of the two +Preceeding</em>"; beside which may be placed the very +characteristic assertion in No. 6 that "Spleen and Vapours inhabit +Palaces and are attired with Pomp and Splendor, while they shun +Rags and Prisons."</p> + +<p>There is scarcely a personal allusion in all the thirty-two +numbers of the <em>Patriot</em>, save the charming picture of that +gentleman sitting in his study "meditating for the good and +entertainment of the public, with my two little children (as is my +usual course to suffer them) playing near me." And the ending of +his horrid nightmare, in which a Jacobite executioner was placing a +rope round his neck, "when my little girl entered my bedchamber and +put an end to my dream by pulling open my eyes, and telling me that +the taylor had brought home my cloaths for his Majesty's Birthday." +The number for January 28 must not be overlooked, containing as it +does, a scathing and humourous exposure of the profligate young +sparks of the Town, from no less a pen than that of the Rev. Mr. +Abraham Adams; and Parson Adams' letter concludes with a paragraph +in which may be heard the voice of the future zealous magistrate: +"No man can doubt but that the education of youth ought to be the +principal care of every legislation; by the neglect of which great +mischief accrues to the civil polity in every city." When himself +but a lad of twenty, and in the prologue of his first comedy, +Fielding had entered his protest against certain popular vices of +the time, and had made merry over its follies. The desire to make +the world he knew too well a better place than he found it is just +as keen in the wit and humourist of thirty-nine; a desire, +moreover, undulled by twenty years of vivacious living. Surely not +the least amazing feature of Fielding's genius is this dual +capacity for exuberant enjoyment, and incisive judgement. "His +wit," said Thackeray, "is wonderfully wise and detective; it +flashes upon a rogue and brightens up a rascal like a policeman's +lantern."</p> + +<p>To this time of national ferment belongs a publication of which +we know nothing but the title, a <em>Serious Address</em>; and also +one of our rare glimpses of the novelist's home life. Joseph Warton +writes to his brother Tom, on October 29, 1746:--"I wish you had +been with me last week when I spent two evenings with Fielding and +his sister, who wrote David Simple, and you may guess I was very +well entertained. The lady indeed retir'd pretty soon, but Russell +and I sat up with the Poet till one or two in the morning, and were +inexpressibly diverted. I find he values, as he justly may, Joseph +Andrews above all his writings: he was extremely civil to me, I +fancy, on my Father's account." Joseph Warton's father was Vicar of +Basingstoke, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and moreover, something +of a Jacobite; whereby, we may surmise, that the <em>True +Patriot</em> did not allow his staunch Hanoverian sentiments too +great an invasion into his private society. Alas, that it did not +occur to Warton to preserve, for the entertainment of later ages, +some fuller record of those two <em>noctes ambrosianae</em>.</p> + +<p>This sister, Sally Fielding as her cousin Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu called her, made some figure in the literary world of the +day. Richardson extolled her "knowledge of the human heart"; Murphy +writes of her "lively and penetrating genius"; and her classical +scholarship is attested by a translation of Xenophon's +<em>Memorabilia</em>. That she also shared some of the engaging +qualities of her brother may be assumed from the lines written to +the memory of the "esteemed and loved ... Mrs. Sarah Fielding," by +her friend Dr. John Hoadley.</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Her unaffected Manners, candid Mind,<br> + Her Heart benevolent, and Soul resign'd;<br> + Were more her Praise than all she knew or thought<br> + Though Athens Wisdom to her Sex she taught."</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i356"><img src="images/356.jpg" alt= +"Beaufort Buildings, Strand, in 1725" width="610" height="500"> +</a></p> + +<p>Sarah Fielding's name occurs again as living with her brother in +that house in Beaufort Buildings with which is associated perhaps +the happiest instance of Fielding's warm-hearted generosity. The +story may be given as nearly as possible in the words of the +narrator, one G. S., writing from Harley Street in 1786. After +speaking of the conspicuous good nature of "the late Harry +Fielding," G. S. says: "His receipts were never large, and his +pocket was an open bank for distress and friendship at all times to +draw on. Marked by such a liberality of mind it is not to be +wondered at if he was frequently under pecuniary embarrassments.... +Some parochial taxes for his house in Beaufort Buildings being +unpaid, and for which he had been demanded again and again [we may +remember how Mr. Luckless' door was "almost beat down with +duns"]...he was at last given to understand by the collector who +had an esteem for him, that he could procrastinate the payment no +longer." To a bookseller, therefore he addressed himself, and +mortgaged the coming sheets of some work then in hand. He received +the cash, some ten or twelve guineas, and was returning home, full +freighted with this sum, when, in the Strand, within a few yards of +his own house, he met an old college chum whom he had not seen for +many years. "Harry felt the enthusiasm of friendship; an hundred +interrogatives were put to him in a moment as where had he been? +where was he going? how did he do? &c. &c. His friend told +him in reply he had long been buffeting the waves of adverse +fortunes, but never could surmount them." Fielding took him off to +dine at a neighbouring tavern, and as they talked, becoming +acquainted with the state of his friend's pocket, emptied his own +into it; and a little before dawn, he turned homewards "greater and +happier than a monarch." Arrived at Beaufort Buildings his sister, +who had anxiously awaited him, reported that the collector had +called for the taxes twice that day. "Friendship," answered Harry +Fielding "has called for the money and had it;--let the collector +call again." Well might his cousin Lady Mary say of the man of whom +such a story could be told, "I am persuaded he has known more happy +moments than any prince upon earth."</p> + +<p>During the summer following Warton's visit to the brother and +sister, Fielding published a <em>Dialogue between an Alderman and a +Courtier</em>. And in the following November his second marriage +took place, at the little City church of St Bene't's, Paul's Wharf. +The story of this marriage cannot be better told than in the words +of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's granddaughter, Lady Louisa Stuart, +quoting from the personal knowledge of her mother and +grandmother:</p> + +<p>"His biographers seem to have been shy of disclosing that after +the death of this charming woman [his first wife] he married her +maid. And yet the act was not so discreditable to his character as +it may sound. The maid had few personal charms, but was an +excellent creature, devotedly attached to her mistress, and almost +broken-hearted for her loss. In the first agonies of his own grief, +which approached to frenzy, he found no relief but from weeping +with her; nor solace, when a degree calmer, but in talking to her +of the angel they mutually regretted. This made her his habitual +confidential associate, and in process of time he began to think he +could not give his children a tenderer mother, or secure for +himself a more faithful housekeeper and nurse. At least this was +what he told his friends; and it is certain that her conduct as his +wife confirmed it, and fully justified his good opinion." From a +supposed allusion by Smollett, in the first edition of +<em>Peregrine Pickle</em>, (an allusion afterwards suppressed) it +would appear that Fielding's old schoolfellow and lifelong friend +'the good Lord Lyttelton' so far approved the marriage as himself +to give Mary Daniel away; and, as the dates in the Twickenham +Register of births show that the marriage was one of justice as +well as expediency, this well accords with Lyttelton's upright and +honourable character. Of Fielding's affectionate and grateful +loyalty to his second wife ample evidence appears in the pages of +his last book, the <em>Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon</em>. +Throughout this touching record of the journey of a dying man, +there are references to her tenderness, ability and devotion. At +the sad parting from children and friends, on the morning of their +departure for Lisbon, he writes of her behaviour as "more like a +heroine and philosopher, though at the same time the tenderest +mother in the world." When, during the voyage down the Thames, an +unmannerly custom house officer burst into the cabin where Fielding +and his wife were sitting, the man was soundly rated for breaking +"into the presence of a lady without an apology or even moving his +hat"; by which we may see his sensitive care that due respect was +accorded her. He tells us how he persuaded her with difficulty to +take a walk on shore when their vessel was wind bound in Torbay, it +being "no easy matter for me to force [her] from my side." With +anxious forboding he thinks of his "dear wife and child" facing the +world alone after his death, for "in truth 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." And in +a more formal tribute he acknowledges the abilities that +accompanied her worth, when he says that "besides discharging +excellently well her own and all tender offices becoming the female +character; ... besides being a faithful friend, an amiable +companion, and a tender nurse, [she] could likewise supply the +wants of a decrepit husband and occasionally perform his part." +That Fielding suffered socially by the fact of his second marriage +is probable. But the fact is proof, if proof were needed, of his +courage in reparation, and of the unworldly spirit in which he +ultimately followed the dictates of that incorruptible judge which +he himself asserted to be in every man's breast.</p> + +<p>It was in December 1747, just a month after his second marriage, +that Fielding again flung himself into the arena of contentious +journalism, 'brandishing' his pen as truculently as ever on behalf +of the Protestant and Hanoverian succession, and in despite of the +Jacobite cause. He called his new paper "<em>The Jacobite's +Journal</em>, by John Trott Plaid Esq're.," and the ironic title +was accompanied by a woodcut traditionally associated with Hogarth. +The ironic mask, Fielding explains, was assumed "in order if +possible to laugh Men out of their follies and to make men ashamed +of owning or acting by" Jacobite principles.</p> + +<p>The <em>Jacobite's Journal</em> appeared at a moment when public +opinion, and public gossip also, seem to have been immersed in the +question whether a notorious pamphlet purporting to have been found +among the papers of a late Minister, Mr. Thomas Winnington, were +genuine or a libel. Into this fray Fielding promptly plunged, +publishing, in December <a name="fnref10-2">1747</a>, <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn10-2">2</a> a shilling pamphlet entitled <em>A +Proper Answer to a Late Scurrilous Libel, ... By the Author of the +Jacobites Journal.</em> This little pamphlet, copies of which may +be seen in the British Museum, is merely a further vigorous +declamation for civil liberty and the Protestant religion, as under +King George, and contains hardly any reference either to Winnington +or to the author. It was retorted on in two further pamphlets. In +one of these a Lady Fanny and her friend, enjoying a 'Chit chat,' +discuss the news that Lady Fanny is she "whom F---g represents in a +<em>Plaid Jocket</em> in the front of his <em>Jacobite</em> +Journal." "The Whirling Coxcomb," cries Lady Fanny enraged, "what +had he to do with ridiculing any Party, who had travell'd round the +whole Circle of Parties and Ministers, ever since he could brandish +a <a name="fnref10-3">Pen</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn10-3">3</a> Her Ladyship adds some further sneers on writers +pensioned to amuse people with their nonsense. The other counter +pamphlet consists of conversations overheard, all over the town, on +the subject of Winnington and his <em>Apology</em>. Here a mercer +and a bookseller abuse Fielding for boxing the political compass, +and for selling his pen. Another bookseller insinuates that +Fielding's own attack on the <em>Apology</em> is but a half-hearted +affair--"Ah Sir, you know not what F---g could do if he were +willing ... you would have seen him mince and hash it so as to make +half the Town weep and the other laugh. Don't you think the Pen +that writ <em>Pasquin, Joseph Andrews</em>, and the +<em>Champion</em> could have answered the Apology if he had had the +Will?" "But I can't see why the Author of the Jacobite Journal +should want that will," protests a Bencher. "Alas Sir!" cries the +bookseller, "You forget the Power of <em>Necessity</em>. If a Man +that wants Bread can establish a Paper by the P--t Off--e [Post +Office?] taking off two thousand every week is he not more +excusable...." To which the Bencher replies that possibly it is +Fielding's 'Wavering Principles' that have "brought him to the +Necessity of writing for <a name="fnref10-4">Bread</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn10-4">4</a> From all which we may assume that +Fielding's superiority to what he calls the "absurd and irrational +Distinction of Parties [which] hath principally contributed to +poison our <a name="fnref10-5">Constitution</a>" <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn10-5">5</a> was very little understood by the +heated party factions of 1747.</p> + +<p>To call one's political opponent a 'Whirling Coxcomb,' or a +'pensioned scribbler,' was a very mild amenity in eighteenth +century party warfare; and the abuse of such small fry as these +anonymous pamphleteers might be wholly disregarded did it not show +Fielding's prominence, during these anxious times, as a strenuous +Hanoverian, and also the fact that he had now not only largely +abjured party politics, but that what party tenets he still held +were changed. Indeed as much may surely be deduced from the +following philosophic passage in his <em>True Patriot</em>. "I have +formerly shown in this Paper, that the bare objecting to a Man a +<em>Change</em> in his <em>Political Notions</em>, ought by no +means to affect any Person's <em>Character</em>; because in a +Country like this it is simply impossible that a Man of sound +Sense, and strict Honour, should always adhere to the same +<em>Political <a name="fnref10-6">Creed</a></em>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn10-6">6</a> It is very little material to our +knowledge of Fielding as an honest man and a great genius to +discover, were it possible, precisely what changes his political +views underwent. When Sir Robert Walpole essayed to corrupt the +nation Fielding fought strenuously in the cause of political +honour; when a Stewart invasion threatened (as he thought) both +civil liberty and Protestant beliefs he flung himself as zealously +into the defence of the Church of England and of the Hanoverian +Government. It is clear that the latter exertions stirred up much +cheap obliquy; and it must be admitted that such references to his +antagonists as "last weeks Dunghill of Papers" were likely to +entail unsavory retort.</p> + +<p>This abuse seems to have broken out with an excess of virulence +not long after the appearance of the <em>Jacobite's Journal</em>; a +fate, as Fielding observes, little to be expected by the editor of +a loyal paper. His dignified protest in the matter is worth +recalling. In a leading article he declares that "before my paper +hath reached the 20th. number a heavier load of Scandal hath been +cast upon me than I believe ever fell to the Share of a Single Man. +The Author of the Journal was soon guessed at; Either from some +Singularity in Style, or from little care which being free from any +wicked Purpose, I have ever taken to conceal my Name. Of this +several Writers were no sooner possessed than they attempted to +blacken it with every kind of Reproach; pursued me into private +Life, <em>even to my boyish Years</em>; where they have given me +almost every Vice in Human Nature. Again they have followed me with +uncommon Inveteracy into a Profession in which they have very +roundly asserted that I have neither Business nor Knowledge: And +lastly, as an Author they have affected to treat me with more +Contempt than Mr. Pope, who hath great Merit and no less Pride in +the Character of a Writer hath thought proper to bestow on the +lowest Scribbler of his Time. All this moreover they have poured +forth in a vein of Scurrility which hath disgraced the Press with +every abusive Term in our Language." Although, as Fielding adds, +those who knew him would not take their opinion from those who knew +him not, it is to be feared that the scurrilous libellers of the +day succeeded in creating a prejudice that is hardly yet dispersed. +For such petty clamours would be trifling enough round the figure +of the creator of the English novel, were it not that in the abuse +of the gutter press of his day we may probably find the reason for +much of the vague cloud which has so strangely overhung Fielding's +name. In his own spirited protest he tells us of the 'ordure' that +was thrown at him; and it is an old saying that if enough mud be +thrown some will stick.</p> + +<p>In the February following the appearance of his new paper +Fielding must have been at Twickenham; for the baptism of his son +William appears in the Parish Register for that month. A writer of +thirty years ago says that the house celebrated as that in which +Fielding lived was then still standing, a quaint old fashioned +wooden dwelling, in Back Lane; and adds the information that +Fielding had two rooms, the house being then let in <a name= +"fnref10-7">lodgings</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn10-7">7</a> +Lysons, however, in his <em>Environs of London</em>, published in +1795, says that Fielding "rented a house at this time in the +Back-Lane at Twickenham," adding that he received his information +from the Earl of Orford. The site is now occupied by a row of +cottages. In his <em>Parish Register for Twickenham</em> Horace +Walpole commemorates the great novelist's residence in that quiet +village, so full of eighteenth century memories. Here, he says,</p> + +<p class="quoted">"... Fielding met his bunter Muse,<br> + And, as they quaff'd the fiery juice,<br> + Droll Nature stamp'd each lucky hit<br> + With unimaginable wit."</p> + +<p>Bunter was a cant word for a woman who picks up rags about the +street; and it may seem to later generations that the epithet +fitted far more nicely the <em>bunter muse</em> of that "facile +retailer of <em>ana</em> and incorrigible society-gossip," that +rag-picker of anecdotes, Mr. Horace Walpole himself.</p> + +<p>When the <em>Journal</em> had been running some six months, +Fielding formally relinquished his ironic character of a Jacobite, +partly because, as he says, the evils of Jacobitism were too +serious for jesting and required more open denunciation; partly +because the age required more highly seasoned writing, the general +taste in reading very much resembling "that of some particular Man +in eating who would never willingly devour what doth not stink"; +and partly from the ineptitude of the public to appreciate the +ironic method. This latter passage is of interest as coming from +the author of that great masterpiece in irony, <em>Jonathan +Wild</em>. Fielding has observed, he tells us that "though Irony is +capable of furnishing the most exquisite Ridicule; yet as there is +no kind of humour so liable to be mistaken it is of all others the +most dangerous to the Writer. An infinite Number of Readers have +not the least taste or relish for it, I believe I may say do not +understand it; and all are apt to be tired when it is carried to +any degree of Length."</p> + +<p>The <em>Jacobite's Journal</em> is of course mainly occupied +with maintaining the Protestant British Constitution; but here, as +in the <em>True Patriot</em>, Fielding allows himself a pleasant +running commentary on the daily news. He also erects a <em>Court of +Criticism</em> in which, by virtue of his "high Censorial Office," +he administers justice in "all matters in the Republic of +Literature." By thus adopting the title of "Censor of Great +Britain" the editor of the <em>Jacobites Journal</em> preserves his +identity with that censorial <em>Champion</em> who nine years +before had essayed to keep rogues in fear of his Hercules' club. +Two judgments delivered by the <em>Court</em> are of interest. In +one, due castigation is given to that incorrigible mimic and wit +Foote, who was once threatened by no less a cudgel than that of Dr. +Johnson himself. Foote was evading all law and order by his +inimitable mimicries at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket; and +for these performances at his "scandal-shop" is very properly +brought up before Mr. Censor's <em>Court</em>. Whereupon Foote +begins to mimic the <em>Court</em> "pulling a Chew of Tobacco from +his Mouth, in Imitation of his Honour who is greatly fond of that +weed." The culprit suffers conviction for crime against law and +good manners. Having thus seen to the public welfare, Fielding also +happily settles a little score of his own on one of his anonymous +libellers. "One Porcupine Pillage," he records, "came into the +court and threw a great shovelful of dirt at his honour, <em>but +luckily none of it hit him</em>." His comments on weekly news items +are no less characteristic than those hidden in the columns of the +<em>Patriot</em>. Thus, on a trotting match, he observes, "Trotting +is a Sport truly adapted to the English Genius." And on a man found +dead in Jewin Street "formerly an eminent Dealer in Buckrams, but +[who] being greatly reduced is supposed to have died for Want," he +notes, "<em>either of Common Sense in himself or Common Humanity in +his Aquaintance</em>." His own humanity is shown in the wise +appeals, repeated on more than one page of the <em>Journal</em>, +for some effective provision for the distressed widows and children +of the poor clergy. And his unbiassed judgment appears in the +<em>amende honorable</em> to Richardson, in the form of generous +and unstinted praise of <em>Clarissa</em>.</p> + +<p>The first number of the <em>Jacobite's Journal</em> was dated +Dec. 5, 1747, and 'Mr. Trott Plaid' formally takes leave of his +subject exactly eleven months later, on November 5, 1748, declaring +that Jacobites were, by then, little to be <a name= +"fnref10-8">feared</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn10-8">8</a> +Ten days before this last 'brandish' of Fielding's Constitutional +pen, on October 26, 1748, his oaths had been received as a Justice +of the Peace for Westminster.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter11">CHAPTER XI</a><br> +<br> +TOM JONES</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"In God's Name let us speak out honestly and set +the good against the bad."<br> + No. 48 of the <em>Jacobite's Journal.</em></p> + +<p>The two years of Fielding's life preceding his appointment as a +Bow Street magistrate (an appointment comparable only to the choice +of Robert Burns as an exciseman) were marked, as we have seen, by +lively passages in the political arena, and a steady output of +political journalism. Indeed, by this time, the public must have +associated swingeing denunciations of Jacobites, and glowing +eulogies of the British Constitution, with Harry Fielding's name; +just as seven years previously he had been in their eyes the +'Champion' journalist of a brilliant Opposition; and, for ten years +before that, the witty writer of a stream of popular farces and +comedies. For there is no evidence that his audacious innovation, +his splendid adventure in literature, <em>Joseph Andrews</em>, +really revealed the existence of a new genius in their midst to the +Whigs and Tories of those factious days, to the gay frequenters of +the play-house, to the barristers at Westminster Hall and on the +Western Circuit. In 1748 Fielding must have been, to his many +audiences, a witty and well-born man of letters who, at forty-one, +had as yet achieved no towering success; a facile dramatist; and a +master of slashing political invective, growing perplexingly +impartial, alike in his praise and his condemnation. While, as +regards outward circumstances, the struggling barrister, baffled in +his professional hopes by persistent attacks of gout, was now so +far enlisted, to use his own fine image, under the black banner of +poverty, that even the small post and hard duties of a Bow Street +magistrate were worth his <a name="fnref11-1">acceptance</a>. <a +class="footnote" href="#fn11-1">1</a></p> + +<p>Such was Harry Fielding as the world of 1748 knew him, in the +Coffee houses, the Mall, the Green-room and the Law-courts. What +that world did not know was that all this dramatic, journalistic, +and political action, was little more than the surface movement of +a vitality far too exuberant to be contained in any one groove of +hackney writing,--of an impetuous 'enthusiasm for righteousness' +far too ardent to pass by any flagrant social, moral, or political +abuse without inflicting some form of chastisement; and that +beneath this ever active surface movement Fielding's genius was +slowly maturing in that new continent of literature the borders of +which he had already crossed seven years before. In the pages of +<em>Joseph Andrews</em>, he had, as we know, tentatively explored +that continent feeling his way along the unknown paths of this long +neglected world of human nature; bringing back with him one +immortal figure, that living embodiment of simple piety and +scholarship, of charity and honest strength, Parson Adams; +disclosing hints of discoveries, not yet perfected, among the +humours and villanies, the virtues and charms, of a dozen other +inhabitants of his <em>terra incognita</em>. But there is no sign +that the greatness of his discovery, the splendour of his addition +to the empire of English literature, was in the least apprehended +during the seven years following the appearance of <em>Joseph +Andrews</em>. Only Fielding himself was conscious that he had +created a kind of writing "hitherto unattempted in our +language."</p> + +<p>And, having crossed the borders of this new continent, he seems, +after his first survey, to have deliberately immersed himself in +one portion, and that the blackest, of his re-discovered world. For +<em>Jonathan Wild</em>, with its disclosure of the active spirit of +'diabolism,' of naked vice, is little else than the exploration of +those darkest recesses of human nature which can be safely entered +only by the sanest and healthiest of intellects. Fielding's +strength was equal to his exploit; and from this, his second +adventure, he brought back a picture of the deformity and folly of +vice, drawn with a just and penetrating scorn unequalled, perhaps, +by any English moralist. But neither of these two essays in the new +field of writing had covered more than isolated or outlying +portions, the first in sunlight, the second in shadow, of that vast +territory. And it was not till the perfect maturity of his powers +and of his experience, not till he had seen both the 'manners of +many men,' and the workings of many hearts, not in a word till he +had made himself master of great tracts of that human nature which +had so long lain neglected, that Fielding in <em>Tom Jones</em> +disclosed himself as the creator of the English novel.</p> + +<p>Little is known as to when the conception of <em>Tom Jones</em> +first shaped itself in his mind, of where he lived during the +writing of the great Comic Epic, or of the time occupied in its +completion. Appropriately for a book expressly designed "to +recommend goodness and innocence" the plan of the novel was +suggested, many years before its appearance, by the 'good Lord +Lyttelton'; and we know, further, that the writing occupied 'some +thousands of hours'; but <em>Tom Jones</em> does not emerge into +definite existence till the summer of 1748.</p> + +<p>Legend it is true, attesting to the greatness of the achievement +contained in the six little volumes, endows many localities with +the fame of their origin. A well-credited contemporary writer, the +Rev. Richard Graves, declared that the novelist "while he was +writing his novel of Tom Jones" lived at Tiverton (Twerton), one +and a half miles from Bath, and dined daily at Prior Park the seat +of his munificent and pious friend Ralph Allen. Mr Graves says that +Fielding then lived in "the first house on the right hand with a +spread eagle over the <a name="fnref11-2">door</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn11-2">2</a> Salisbury is insistent that part at +least of the great novel was written at Milford House, near to that +city. An anonymous old engraver asserts the same honour for +Fielding's Farm at East Stour, an assertion certainly not confirmed +by the newly found documents concerning Fielding's sale of property +at Stour in 1738. Twickenham claims that the book was wholly +composed in the house in Back Lane. And to an ancient building at +Tintern Parva in the Wye Valley, said to have once been the lodging +of the Abbot of Tintern, was also assigned the reputation of being +the birthplace of the English novel. If the latter tradition were +true, the fact that it was in the Harlequin chamber of the Abbots +of Glastonbury that Henry Fielding was born, becomes strangely +matched by the birth, some forty years later, of his masterpiece, +in the lodging of the Abbot of Tintern. The one point of real +interest in all these traditions is the fact that the fame of +<em>Tom Jones</em> has been sufficient to create a widespread +popular legend. The truth probably is that the book was written in +the many shifting scenes of Fielding's life during these years; now +at Bath whither his gout and the generous hospitality of Ralph +Allen would take him; now in Salisbury, the home of his boyhood, +and the scene of his courtship with the lovely original of Sophia +Western; possibly in his own county of Somerset; and most probably +both at Twickenham, and in London.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i357"><img src="images/357.jpg" alt= +"Prior Park, near Bath, the seat of Ralph Allen, 1750" width="700" +height="476"></a></p> + +<p>From these various legends it is pleasant to be able to +disentangle one clear picture of the making of <em>Tom Jones</em>. +Before the manuscript was placed in the printers' hands Fielding +submitted it to the opinion both of the elder Pitt, and of the +estimable and pious Lyttelton; and the account of this memorable +meeting cannot be better given than in the words of a descendant of +the hostess on that occasion, the Rev. George Miller, +great-grandson of that Sanderson Miller of Radway, Warwickshire, +who numbered many men of note among his acquaintance, and with whom +Fielding was on terms of intimate <a name= +"fnref11-3">friendship</a>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn11-3">3</a> Writing to the present writer, in 1907, Mr. Miller +says: "Lord Chatham and Lord Lyttleton came to Radway to visit my +ancestor, when Lord Chatham planted three trees to commemorate the +visit, and a stone urn was placed between them. Fielding was also +of the party and read 'Tom Jones' in manuscript after dinner for +the opinion of his hearers before publishing it. My father told me +this often and he had the account from his Grandmother who survived +her husband several years and who was the hostess on the occasion." +Unhappily no record exists of the comments of one of the greatest +of English statesmen when listening to this reading, in manuscript, +of indubitably one of the greatest of English novels.</p> + +<p>The vagueness which hangs over the places in which <em>Tom +Jones</em> was written, the certainty that in all of them poverty +was constantly present, is in perfect accord with the power of +detachment manifested in this book from circumstances that would +surely have tinged, if not over-whelmed, a weaker genius. Sickness +and poverty are stern sponsors; but neither were suffered to leave +more than two traces on the pages destined to outlive so greatly +the harsh circumstances in which they had birth. There is the frank +acknowledgement of the writer's dependence on Lyttelton's noble +generosity, without which the book had never, Fielding says, been +completed, since "I partly owe to you my Existence during great +Part of the Time which I have employed in composing it." And a +touching betrayal occurs of his anxiety for the future provision of +the "prattling babes, whose innocent play hath often been +interrupted by my labours." Fielding was sensitively anxious for +his wife and children; but, for himself, living as he did with +visions such as that of the <em>Invocation</em> introducing Book +xiii of <em>Tom Jones</em>, the precise situation of his "little +Parlour," or the poorness of its furniture, cannot have appeared +very material. "Come bright Love of Fame," he cries "... fill my +ravished Fancy with the Hopes of charming Ages yet to come ... Do +thou teach me not only to foresee, but to enjoy, nay, even to feed +on future Praise. Comfort me by a solemn Assurance, that when the +little Parlour in which I sit at this Instant, shall be reduced to +a worse furnished Box, I shall be read, with Honour, by those who +never knew nor saw me, and whom I shall neither know nor see."</p> + +<p>This capacity of Fielding for relegating circumstance to its +true level, the detached idealism that moulded his genius, are, +indeed, shown once for all in the fact that the exquisite picture +of virtue, the whole-hearted attack on vice, the genial humour, the +sunny portraits of humanity, the splendid cheerfulness of <em>Tom +Jones</em>, that 'Epic of Youth,' came from a man in middle age, +immersed in disheartening struggles, and fighting recurrent ill +health. Superficial critics have called Fielding a realist because +his figures are so full-blooded and alive that we feel we have met +them but yesterday in the street; to eyes so shortsighted life +itself must seem merely realistic. As none but an idealist could +have conceived Parson Adams, so the creator of Sophia again +announced himself an idealist in the Dedication of <em>Tom +Jones</em>. Here, in language of pure symbolism, he contends that +the ideal virtues such as goodness and innocence, may most +effectively be presented to men in a figure, for "an Example is a +Kind of Picture, in which Virtue becomes as it were an Object of +Sight, and strikes us with an Idea of that Loveliness, which +<em>Plato</em> asserts there is in her naked <a name= +"fnref11-4">Charms</a>." <a class="footnote" href="#fn11-4">4</a> +To the man who could write thus, and, who, in later pages of his +great 'Epic,' could humbly desire of Genius "do thou kindly take me +by the Hand, and lead me through all the Mazes, the winding +Labyrinth of Nature. Initiate me into all those Mysteries which +profane Eyes never beheld,"--to this man the material surroundings +of life must have seemed of little greater import than the fittings +of that narrow box to the occupation of which he looked forward +with so calm a foresight. Indeed he himself acknowledges a +carelessness of outward comfort on his own behalf. "Come," he +cries, to the spirit of mercenary success, "Thou jolly Substance, +with thy shining Face, ... hold forth thy tempting Rewards; thy +shining chinking Heap; thy quickly-convertible Bank-bill, big with +unseen Riches; thy often-varying Stock; the warm, the comfortable +House; ... Come thou, and if I am too tasteless of thy valuable +Treasures, warm my Heart with the transporting Thought of conveying +them to others." His happy constitution, wrote his cousin Lady +Mary, "made him forget everything when he was before a venison +pasty or a flask of champagne"; but behind those healthy +exhilarations was, assuredly, a serenity based on a clear +perception of the values of life. To a man of Fielding's happy +social temperament, and who was yet also initiated into mysteries +and occupied in converting ideal loveliness into 'an object of +sight,' such matters as duns and pawnbrokers would seem precisely +fit for oblivion in venison and champagne. In the creator of Tom +Jones and of Sophia the most indestructible delight in living, and +the keenest discernment of the unsubstantial qualities of that +delight, appear to have been admirably interwoven.</p> + +<p>By June 11, 1748, the book was far enough advanced for the +publisher, Andrew Millar, to pay £600 for it, as appears from a +receipt now in the possession of Mr. Alfred <a name= +"fnref11-5">Huth</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn11-5">5</a> And +it is eminently characteristic of the finances of a man who, as +Lady Mary said, would have wanted money had his estates been as +extensive as his imagination, that the receipt for this £600 is +dated more than six months before the publication of the book. For +it was not till February 28, 1749, that the <em>General +Advertiser</em> announced</p> + +<p class="quoted">This day is published, in six vols., 12 mo<br> + THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES,<br> + A FOUNDLING<br> + <em>Mores hominum multorum vidit</em>.<br> + <em>By</em> HENRY FIELDING, <em>Esqre</em></p> + +<p>Henceforth Fielding ceases to be the boisterous politician, the +witty dramatist; his poverty and his struggles for subsistence fall +back, at his own bidding, among the accidents of life; and he +stands revealed as the supreme genius, the creator of the English +novel, the inheritor of that lasting fame which he had dared so +confidently to invoke.</p> + +<p>The immediate success of the book, in that eighteenth-century +world into which it was launched, is attested by the notice in the +<em>London Magazine</em> of the very month of its publication. +Under the heading of a "Plan of a late celebrated NOVEL," the +<em>Magazine</em> devotes its five opening pages to a summary of a +book "which has given great Amusement and we hope Instruction to +the polite Part of the Town." The summary is preceded by a +description of <em>Tom Jones</em> as a novel "calculated to +recommend religion and virtue, to shew the bad consequences of +indiscretion, and to set several kinds of vice in their most +deformed and shocking light." The reviewer declares that "after one +has begun to read it, it is difficult to leave off before having +read the whole." And he concludes, "Thus ends this pretty novel, +with a most just distribution of rewards and punishments, according +to the merits of all the persons who had any considerable share in +<a name="fnref11-6">it</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn11-6">6</a> Three months later Horace Walpole wrote, "Millar +the bookseller has done very generously by him [Fielding]: finding +Tom Jones, for which he had given him £600, sell so greatly, he has +since given him another hundred." An admirer breaks out into rhyme, +in the <em>Gentleman's Magazine</em> for August 1749,--</p> + +<p class="quoted">"let Fielding take the pen!<br> + Life dropt her mask, and all mankind were men."</p> + +<p>thereby anticipating Thackeray's famous complaint that in his +day no one dared "to depict to his utmost power a Man." Lady +Bradshaigh, writing by a happy irony of fate to Richardson, says +"as to Tom Jones I am fatigued with the name, having lately fallen +into the company of several young ladies, who had each a 'Tom +Jones' in some part of the world, for so they call their +favourites." The gentlemen also had their Sophias, one indeed +having bestowed that all-popular name on his 'Dutch mastiff puppy.' +That eccentric eighteenth century philosopher, and enthusiastic +Greek scholar, Lord Monboddo declared that <em>Tom Jones</em> had +more of character in it than any other work, ancient or modern, +known to him, adding, "in short, I never saw anything that was so +animated, and as I may say, <em>all alive</em> with characters and +manners as <em>the History of Tom Jones</em>"; a criticism that +recalls Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's remark that no man enjoyed life +more than did Fielding. Doubtless it was his own magnificent +capacity for living that endowed the very creatures of his pen with +so abundant a vitality. In her own copy Lady Mary wrote <em>Ne plus +Ultra</em>.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i358"><img src="images/358.jpg" alt= +"Lady Mary Wortley Montagu--1710" width="377" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>To turn from the popular voices of the day to the comments of +those capable of appraising genius, "What a master of composition +Fielding was!" exclaimed Coleridge, "Upon my word I think 'Oedipus +Tyrannus,' the 'Alchemist,' and 'Tom Jones' the three most perfect +plots ever planned." To Sir Walter Scott <em>Tom Jones</em> was +"truth and human nature itself." Gibbon described the book as "the +first of ancient or modern romances"; and, as we have seen, +declared that its pages would outlive the Imperial Eagle of those +Hapsburgs from whom Fielding was said to be descended. "There can +be no gainsaying the sentence of this great judge," wrote +Thackeray. "To have your name mentioned by Gibbon is like having it +written on the dome of St Peter's. Pilgrims from all the world +admire and behold it." Pilgrims from all the world have likewise +admired <em>Tom Jones</em>. Translations have appeared in French, +<a name="fnref11-7">German</a>, <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn11-7">7</a> Spanish, Swedish, Russian, Polish and Dutch; and as +for the English editions, they range from the three editions issued +within the year of publication to the several noble volumes newly +edited in our own day, and the sixpenny copies on our railway +bookstalls. So fully has time justified the invocation to future +fame sent forth from the little ill-furnished parlour of the +struggling barrister.</p> + +<p>To analyse the grounds for a chorus of praise ranging from the +'young ladies' of the eighteenth century to the utterances of +distinguished critics, and popular authors of our own day, would be +to confound literary criticism with biography. But there are some +points appertaining to Fielding's great novel which cannot be here +disregarded, in that they closely affect his personal character. +Such are the light in which he himself regarded his masterpiece, +the intention with which he wrote it, and the means which he +selected to carry that intention into effect.</p> + +<p>All these he himself very plainly sets forth in his +<em>Dedication</em> to Lyttelton and in other passages of <em>Tom +Jones</em>. As to his intention. "I declare," he says, in the +<em>Dedication</em>, "that to recommend Goodness and Innocence hath +been my sincere Endeavour in this History." And the means selected +for this end, and for the companion object of persuading men from +guilt, are as clearly stated. First as we have seen, Fielding plays +the part of pure idealist, purposing to create a picture "in which +virtue becomes as it were an object of sight." For such pictures we +have but to think of Sophia Western, and of that final page of +<em>Tom Jones</em>, than which no more charming representation of +mutual affection, esteem, and well doing can be imagined. But +besides this means of reaching his audience Fielding adopted, he +tells us, a second method. He argues that no acquisitions of guilt +can compensate a man for the loss of inward peace, for the +attendant horror, anxiety, and danger, to which he subjects +himself; thus endeavouring to enlist man's self-interest no less +than his admiration, on the side of virtue. Again, he explains yet +another method by which he essays to foil the progress of evil, +viz. to show that virtue and innocence are chiefly betrayed "into +the snares that deceit and villainy spread for them" by +indiscretion; a moral which he has "the more industriously laboured +... since I believe it is much easier to make good Men, wise than +to make bad Men good." For this purpose, he concludes, namely to +show, as in a figure, the beauty of virtue, to persuade men that in +following innocence and virtue they follow their own obvious +interests, to arm them from the snares of villainy and deceit, "I +have employed all the Wit and Humour of which I am Master in the +following History; wherein I have endeavoured to laugh Mankind out +of their favourite Follies and Vices."</p> + +<p>And, conscious that wit and humour require a rein quite unneeded +by the methods of the professional moralist, Fielding further +asserts that in these pages his laughter is worthy of the aim which +he sets before him. Here, he carefully insists, are wit and humour +wholly void of offence. He assures his reader that in the whole +course of the work, he will find "nothing prejudicial to the Cause +of Religion and Virtue; nothing inconsistent with the strictest +Rules of Decency, nor which can offend even the chastest Eye in the +Perusal." As the almost incredible change from the manners of 1749 +to those of the following century, and of our own day, has +injuriously affected the reputation of Fielding among readers +ignorant of past conditions, this protest, in striking accord with +the prologue for his first play acted when he was but a lad of +twenty, cannot be too emphatically recorded. And no further +justification of Fielding's words need be entered than that verdict +of the eighteenth century scholar and bishop of the English Church, +Doctor Warburton, when he declared that "Mr. Fielding [stands] the +foremost among those who have given a faithful and chaste copy of +life and manners."</p> + +<p>Such were the noble purposes to which Fielding consciously +dedicated his genius in <em>Tom Jones,</em> and such was the +careful restraint with which he exercised his chosen methods of wit +and humour. That these purposes, executed by a supreme genius in +the language and scenes of his own day, should ever have laid their +author open to a charge of immorality is perhaps one of the most +amazing pieces of irony in the whole history of English literature. +But as this charge of moral laxity has been seriously brought +against the pages of <em>Tom Jones</em>, and is perhaps not yet +quite exploded, it cannot be wholly disregarded. The imputation +amounts, briefly, to a too easy forgiveness for the youthful sins +of Jones, and the involving that engaging youth in too deep a +degradation. The answers to these charges are, firstly, that +Fielding held strongly, and here exhibits, the humane and wise +doctrine that a man should be judged, not by what he sometimes +does, but by what he <em>is</em>. And, secondly, that as Sir Walter +Scott pointed out, when dealing with this very matter, "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." Fielding was not wholly +concerned with the acts of a man; to him the admission of the +Penitent Thief into Paradise, at the eleventh hour, could have been +no stumbling block. And, further, Tom Jones not only suffers for +his ill doing, but wins no heaven until he wholly purges himself +from the sin which did so easily beset him.</p> + +<p>The distinction between doing and being is very fully enunciated +by Fielding himself, in the <em>Introduction</em> to Book vii. "A +single bad Act," he says, "no more constitutes a Villain in Life, +than a single bad Part on the Stage". And again, "Now we, who are +admitted behind the Scenes of this great Theatre of Nature, (and no +Author ought to write any Thing besides Dictionaries and +Spelling-Books who hath not this Privilege) can censure the Action, +without conceiving any actual Detestation of the Person, whom +perhaps Nature may not have designed to act an ill Part in all her +Dramas: For in this Instance, Life most exactly represents the +Stage, since it is often the same Person who represents the Villain +and the Heroe". Coleridge has expressed the same truth in words +written in a copy of <em>Tom Jones</em>, "If I want a servant or +mechanic I wish to know what he <em>does</em>--but of a Friend I +must know what he <em>is</em>. And in no writer is this momentous +distinction so finely brought forward as by Fielding. We do not +care what Blifil does ... but Blifil <em>is</em> a villain and we +feel him to be <a name="fnref11-8">so</a>." <a class="footnote" +href="#fn11-8">8</a></p> + +<p>It is true that, as Scott regrets the depth of degradation into +which Tom Jones is suffered to fall, so Coleridge expresses a wish, +"relatively to Fielding himself" that the great novelist had +emphasised somewhat more the repentance of his hero: but this may +be balanced by that other noble tribute to his morality, "I dare +believe who consulted his heart and conscience only without +adverting to <em>what the world</em> would say could rise from the +perusal of Fielding's <em>Tom Jones</em>, <em>Joseph Andrews</em> +and <em>Amelia</em> without feeling himself the better man--at +least without an intense conviction that he could not be guilty of +a base <a name="fnref11-9">act</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn11-9">9</a> To be forced to watch the temporary degradation of +a noble nature, and the miseries ensuing, is surely one of the most +effective means of rousing a hatred of vice. That such an +exhibition should ever have been construed into moral laxity on the +part of the author, especially when the restoration of the hero's +character is drawn as entirely due to his ingrained worship of +innocence and virtue, is almost incredible.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i359"><img src="images/359.jpg" alt= +"George, First Baron Lyttelton" width="346" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>In exact accordance with Fielding's character as moralist in +intent, although supreme artist in execution, is the fact of the +dedication of <em>Tom Jones</em> to his life-long friend Lyttelton. +George Lyttelton, statesman, scholar, and orator, was a friend of +whom any man might be proud. It was said of him that he "showed the +judgment of a minister, the force and wit of an orator, and the +spirit of a gentleman." As theologian he wrote a treatise on +<em>The Conversion of St. Paul</em> which, a hundred years later, +was described as being "still regarded as one of the subsidiary +bulwarks of Christianity." As poet he won the praise of Gray for +his tender and elegiac verse. Thomson sang of his "sense refined," +and adds</p> + +<p class="quoted">Serene yet warm, humane yet firm his mind<br> + As little touch'd as any man's with bad;</p> + +<p>And Pope drew his character as</p> + +<p class="quoted">"Still true to virtue and as warm as true."</p> + +<p>It was to this devout scholar, this refined gentleman, this +warm-hearted follower of virtue, that <em>Tom Jones</em> was +dedicated, nay more, to him it owed both origin and completion. "To +you, Sir," Fielding writes in his <em>Dedication</em>, "it is owing +that this History was ever begun. It was by your Desire that I +first thought of such a Composition.... Again, Sir, without your +Assistance this History had never been completed.... I partly owe +to you my Existence during great Part of the Time in which I have +employed in composing it." And that Lyttelton cordially approved +the book which owed so much to his own insight and generosity is +evident from the references, in the <em>Dedication</em>, to his +favourable judgment.</p> + +<p>With the appearance of <em>Tom Jones</em> Fielding steps into +his own place among the immortals. But lofty as his genius was, his +feet were firmly planted in the world which he relished so keenly. +To no man could be applied more happily the motto chosen by him for +his title page, <em>mores hominum multorum vidit</em>--he saw the +manners of many men. This characteristic emerges in a personal +reminiscence of the novelist, at the very moment when the sheets of +<em>Tom Jones</em> were passing through the press. The great-nephew +of his intimate friend Mrs Hussey relates; "Henry Fielding was fond +of colouring his pictures of life with the glowing and variegated +tints of Nature, by conversing with persons of every situation and +calling, as I have frequently been informed by one of my great +aunts, the late Mrs Hussey, who knew him intimately. I have heard +her say, that Mr Fielding never suffered his talent for sprightly +conversation to mildew for a moment; and that his manners were so +gentlemanly, that even with the lower classes, with which he +frequently condescended particularly to chat such as Sir Roger de +Coverley's old friends, the Vauxhall water-men, they seldom +outstepped the limits of propriety. My aunt ... [was] a fashionable +sacque and mantua-maker, and lived in the Strand, ... One day Mr +Fielding observed to Mrs Hussey, that he was then engaged in +writing a novel, which he thought would be his best production; and +that he intended to introduce into it the characters of all his +friends. Mrs Hussey, with a smile, ventured to remark, that he must +have many niches, and that surely they must already be filled. 'I +assure you, my dear madam,' replied he, 'there shall be a bracket +for a bust of you.' Some time after this, he informed Mrs Hussey +that the work was in the press; but, immediately recollecting that +he had forgotten his promise to her, went to the printer, and was +time enough to insert, in vol. iii. p. 17, where he speaks of the +shape of Sophia Western--'Such charms are there in affability, and +so sure is it to attract the praises of all kinds of people.... It +may indeed be compared to the celebrated Mrs Hussey.' To which +observation he has given the following note: 'A celebrated +mantua-maker in the Strand, famous for setting off the shapes of <a +name="fnref11-10">women</a>.'" <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn11-10">10</a></p> + +<p>Here is yet further proof, that Fielding loved not only to see +the manners of many men, but also to render them whatever service +lay within his power. Never were the warmest heart and the loftiest +genius more happily united than in the creator of the English +novel.</p> + +<p>Lyttelton not only suggested and approved the great Comic Epic, +and enabled distressed genius to live while composing it; his own +worth and benevolence, together with those of the generous Allen, +afforded Fielding, as he tells us, the materials for the picture +here presented of Allworthy. "The World," he says, speaking of this +picture, "will not, I believe, make me the Compliment of thinking I +took it from myself. I care not: This they shall own, that the two +Persons from whom I have taken it, that is to say, two of the best +and worthiest Men in the World, are strongly and zealously my +Friends." And a point of still closer personal interest is the +fact, already noticed, that in the lovely character and person of +Sophia Western, Fielding raised an enduring memorial to that +beloved wife whose death had occurred a few years before the +publication of <em>Tom Jones</em>. The authenticity of the portrait +is explicitly stated in the <em>Invocation</em> prefixed to Book +xiii. Apostrophizing that 'gentle Maid,' bright 'Love of Fame,' +Fielding bids her, in the eighteenth century phrase that falls so +strangely on a modern ear, "Foretell me that some tender Maid, +whose Grandmother is yet unborn, hereafter, when under the +fictitious Name of <em>Sophia</em> she reads the real worth which +once existed in my <em>Charlotte</em>, shall, from her sympathetic +Breast, send forth the <em>Heaving Sigh.</em>" Then follows, +immediately, his own desire that he too may live in the knowledge +and honour of far distant readers. Fielding lies buried under +southern skies, far from his wife's English grave; but in the +immortal pages of his masterpiece they are not divided.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter12">CHAPTER XII</a><br> +<br> +MR JUSTICE FIELDING</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"The principal Duty which every Man owes is to +his Country."<br> + <em>Enquiry into the ... Increase of Robbers</em>.</p> + +<p>To have created the English novel were, it might seem, +achievement enough to tire for a while the most vigorous of +intellects; but to the author of <em>Tom Jones</em> the apathy of +repose was unknown. At no period of Fielding's short life can he be +discerned as doing nothing; and, indeed, to an insight so +penetrating, to an ardour so irrepressible, the England of George +the Second can have afforded but very little inducement to +inaction.</p> + +<p>Thus, in the one month of October 1748, the pages of <em>Tom +Jones</em> must have been nearing completion, if indeed the sheets +were not already passing through the press. The Hanoverian +philippics of "Mr Trott-Plaid" were still resounding in the +<em>Jacobite's Journal</em>. While, on the 26th. of the month, +Fielding's oaths were received for an entirely new rôle, that of a +Justice of the Peace for <a name="fnref12-1">Westminster</a>. <a +class="footnote" href="#fn12-1">1</a> Ten days later the +<em>Jacobite's Journal</em> had ceased to exist; and that a rumour +was abroad connecting this demise of the <em>Journal</em> with the +bestowal of a new and arduous post on its editor appears from a +paragraph in the <em>London Evening Post</em>. On Nov. 8, that +organ prepares its readers for the fact that the now defunct "Mr +Trott-Plaid" may possibly "rise awful in the Form of a Justice." +Within four weeks of this announcement 'Justice Fielding's' name +appears for the first time in the Police-news of the day, in a +committal dated December <a name="fnref12-2">10th</a> <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn12-2">2</a> . And two days later he is sending +three thieves to the Gatehouse, and admitting a suspected thief to +bail, "after an Examination which lasted several hours." And it is +interesting to notice that throughout this first month of his +magisterial work the now 'awful form' of Justice Henry Fielding was +kept constantly tempered in the public mind by the fact of his +still undiminished popularity as a dramatist. In this December his +comedies, with the inimitable 'romp' Kitty Clive as <em>Miss +Lucy</em>, or the <em>Intrigueing Chambermaid</em> or +<em>Chloe</em>, as the case might be, were played no fewer than +nine times on the Drury Lane boards.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had Fielding bent his genius to these new +responsibilities of examining Westminster suspects and sending the +rogues of that city to prison, than he appears preparing for an +extension of those duties over the county of Middlesex. To be a +county magistrate in 1750, however, necessitated the holding of +landed estate worth £100 per annum; and Fielding's estate, for many +years, seems to have been his pen. In this difficulty he turned to +the Duke of Bedford, whose public virtues, and private generosity, +were so soon to be acknowledged in the Dedication of <em>Tom +Jones</em>. It was but three weeks after his appointment that the +Westminster magistrate wrote as follows to the giver of those +"princely Benefactions":</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"Bow Street. Decr. 13. 1748.</p> + +<p>"My Lord,</p> + +<p>"Such is my Dependence on the Goodness of your Grace, that +before my Gout will permit me to pay my Duty to you personally, and +to acknowledge your last kind Favour to me, I have the Presumption +to solicite your Grace again. The Business of a Justice of Peace +for Westminster is very inconsiderable without the Addition of that +for the County of Middlesex. And without this Addition I cannot +completely serve the Government in that office. But this +unfortunately requires a Qualification which I want. Now there is a +House belonging to your Grace, which stands in Bedford St., of 70l. +a year value. This hath been long untenanted, and will I am +informed, require about 300l. to put in Repair. If your Grace would +have the Goodness to let me have a Lease of this House, with some +other Tenement worth 30l. a year, for 21 years, it would be a +complete Qualification. I will give the full Worth for this lease, +according to the valuation which any Person your Grace shall be +pleased to appoint sets upon it. The only favour I beg of your +Grace is, that I be permitted to pay the Money in two years, at +four equal half-yearly Payments. As I shall repair the House as +soon as possible, it will be in Reality an Improvement of that +small Part of your Grace's estate, and will be certain to make my +Fortune.</p> + +<p>"Mr Butcher will acquaint your Grace more fully than perhaps I +have been able to do; and if Your Grace thinks proper to refer it +to him, I and mine will be eternally bound to pray for your Grace +tho I sincerely hope you will not lose a Farthing by doing so vast +a service to,</p> + +<p>"My Lord your Grace's<br> +"Most obliged most obed' humble servant<br> +"H. <a name="fnref12-3">Ffielding</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn12-3">3</a></p> + +<p>It seems probable that the Duke found better means of helping +wit and genius, than by the leasing of the dilapidated tenement in +Bedford Street. At any rate a month later, on January 11, we find +Fielding duly swearing to an estate as consisting of "several +Leasehold Messuages or Tenements Lying or being in the several +parishes of St Paul Covent Garden, St Martin in the ffields, St +Giles in the ffields, and St Georges Bloomsbury ... now in the +possession or occupation of [my] Tennants or Undertennants, for and +during the Term of Twenty one years of the clear yearly value of +£100...." This statement, which is preserved in the Middlesex +Records, is followed by Fielding's signature, appended to an oath +that his qualification to serve as a Justice of the Peace for the +county is as above <a name="fnref12-4">described</a>. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn12-4">4</a></p> + +<p>On the day following this sworn statement, January 12, 1749, his +oaths were received as a Justice of the Peace for <a name= +"fnref12-5">Middlesex</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn12-5">5</a> +But even this did not satisfy all the requirements of those days of +doctrinal inquisitions and Jacobite risings. The certificate may +still be seen among the Middlesex Records, duly certified by +Charles Tough, Minister of the Parish and Church of St Pauls, +Covent Garden, and 'Sworn in Court,' that "Henry Fielding Esq. on +Sunday the 26th day of March, 1749, did receive the Sacrament of +the Lord's Supper in ye Parish Church aforesaid, immediately after +Divine Service and Sermon, according to the usage of the Church of +<a name="fnref12-6">England</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn12-6">6</a> And among the same archives the dusty <em>Oath +Roll</em> is preserved, bearing, under date of April 5, 1749, the +signature of <em>Henry ffielding</em> to a declaration of disbelief +in the doctrine of Transubstantiation; a comprehensive oath of +faithful service to King George and abjuration of King James; an +oath directed against the power of the Holy See; and an oath of +true allegiance to King George. All which oaths and declarations, +it appears from the endorsement of the <em>Roll</em>, were taken +immediately after the administration of Holy Communion, as attested +by two credible <a name="fnref12-7">witnesses</a>. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn12-7">7</a></p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i360"><img src="images/360.jpg" alt= +"The Bow Street Police Court, Sir John Fielding presiding" width= +"291" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>It is with this second Commission in the Peace that we enter on +the last five years of Fielding's crowded life, years full of that +valiant struggle with eighteenth century crime to which the health +of the great novelist was ultimately sacrificed. For no magistrate +ever fulfilled more faithfully, or at greater personal cost, the +first obligation of his Oath, "Ye shall swear that as Justice of +Peace ... ye shall do equall right to the Poor and to the Rich, +after your Cunning Witt and Power and after the Laws and Customes +of the Realm...." And Fielding brought to his new post something +more than a zealous discharge of the daily and nightly duties of an +eighteenth century police magistrate. His genius and his patriotism +found opportunity in the squalid Bow Street Court-room for +advocating reforms as yet untouched by the slow hand of the +professional philanthropist. The names of those reformers, of the +men and women who swept away the pestilential horrors of eighteenth +century prisons, of the statesmen who abolished laws that hung a +man for stealing a handkerchief, and destroyed the public gallows +that gave the mob their <em>Tyburn holiday</em>, of the creators of +our temperance legislation, of our poor-law system, of our model +dwellings,--all these are held high in honour. Because Henry +Fielding was above all things a great creative genius his wise and +strenuous efforts to raise social conditions, and to eradicate +social sores, have been unduly forgotten.</p> + +<p>"Whatever he desired, he desired ardently," says Murphy. We soon +have evidence of Justice Henry Fielding's ardent desire to cleanse +London from some of the crying evils of his time. Of these evils +none pressed more cruelly on the honest citizens than the +prevalence and brutality of street robberies. To the well-protected +Englishman of to-day the London of 1750 would seem a nightmare of +lawlessness. Thieves, as Fielding tells us, attacked their victims +with loaded pistols, beat them with bludgeons and hacked them with +cutlasses; and as to the murderers of the period, he has recorded +how he himself was engaged on <em>five</em> different murders, all +committed by different gangs of street robbers within the space of +one week. The exploit of one such gang may be quoted, from a +newspaper paragraph of the first month of Fielding's administration +at Bow Street. "On Friday evening," says the <em>General +Advertiser</em> for January 23, 1749, "about twenty fellows arm'd +with Pistols, Cutlasses, Hangers, &c. went to the Gatehouse and +one of them knocking at the Door, it was no sooner open'd than they +all rush'd in, and struck and desperately wounded the Turnkey, and +all that oppos'd them, and in Triumph carried off the Fellow who +pick'd General Sinclaire's pocket of his watch as he was going into +Leicester House." Surely, cries the indignant newspaper, "this +instance of Daring Impudence must rouse every Person of Property to +assemble and consult means for their own Security at least; for if +Goals can be forc'd in this manner, private Houses can make but +little resistance against such Gangs of Villains as at present +infest this Great Metropolis." It was admitted that the numbers and +arms of street robbers rendered it ordinarily impossible to arrest +them in the act; and Fielding tells us how "Officers of Justice +have owned to me that they have passed by [men] with Warrants in +their Pockets against them without daring to apprehend them; and +indeed they could not be blamed for not exposing themselves to sure +Destruction: For it is a melancholy Truth, that at this very Day a +Rogue no sooner gives the Alarm within certain Purlieus, than +twenty or thirty armed Villains are found ready to come to his +Assistance." And the new Justice found no effectual means at his +disposal for coping with what he very aptly calls the enslaved +condition of Londoners, assaulted, pillaged, and plundered; unable +to sleep in their own houses, or to walk the streets, or to travel +in safety. There were the Watch, who, we learn from <em>Amelia</em> +were "chosen out of those poor old decrepid People, who are from +their Want of bodily Strength rendered incapable of getting a +Livelihood by Work. These Men, armed only with a Pole, which some +of them are scarce able to lift, are to secure the Persons and +Houses of his Majesty's Subjects from the Attacks of Gangs of +young, bold, stout, desperate and well-armed Villains.... If the +poor old Fellows should run away from such Enemies, no one I think +can wonder, unless he should wonder that they are able even to make +their <a name="fnref12-8">Escape</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn12-8">8</a> These lineal descendants of Dogberry were +supplemented by constables who it appears had to apply to the +military when called upon to cope with the mere suppression of a +gaming-house; and by "Thief-catchers," individuals so popularly +odious that "the Thief-catcher is in Danger of worse Treatment from +the Populace than the Thief." While the law was thus handicapped, +the thief, on his side, had the advantage of the irregular +buildings and the immense number of lanes, alleys, courts, and +bye-places of London and Westminster, which, says Fielding, "had +they been intended for the very purpose of concealment, they could +scarce have been better contrived. Upon such a view the whole +appears as a vast Wood or Forest, in which a Thief may harbour with +as great Security as Wild Beasts do in the Desarts of Africa or +Arabia." Also the thief's organisation was excellent: "there are at +this Time," Fielding observes, "a great Gang of Rogues whose Number +falls little short of a Hundred, who are incorporated in one Body, +have Officers and a Treasury; and have reduced Theft and Robbery +into a regular System." Further, he could generally bribe or deter +the prosecutor. And in a last resource "rotten Members of the Law" +forged his defence, and abundant false witnesses supported it. An +illuminating example of the methods employed by our Georgian +ancestors towards "deterring" prosecution occurs in a smuggling +case of 1748, perpetrated shortly before Fielding first took +office. A party of smugglers caught a custom-house officer and a +shoemaker on their way to give evidence. The officer had 'every +joint of him' broken; and after other torture, the description of +which is more suitable for eighteenth century pages than our own, +was dispatched. The less fortunate shoemaker was hung by the middle +over a dry well, and left there. Several days afterwards the +smugglers, returning and hearing him groan, cut the rope, let him +drop to the bottom, and threw in logs and stones to cover him. And +it was not only from the common thief that the Londoner of 1750 +suffered. That fine flower of eighteenth century lawlessness, the +gentleman of the road, carried his audacities into the heart of the +Town itself. "I was sitting in my own dining-room on Sunday night," +writes Horace Walpole, to a friend, "the clock had not struck +eleven, when I heard a loud cry of 'stop thief!' A highwayman had +attacked a postchaise in Piccadilly: the fellow was pursued, rode +over the watchman, almost killed him, and escaped."</p> + +<p>It was into a conflict with this epidemic of crime that +Fielding, at forty-three, and with already broken health, flung his +energies, to such purpose that in these last five years of his life +it is but too easy to forget the creator of <em>Joseph +Andrews</em>, of <em>Tom Jones</em>, and of <em>Amelia</em>, in his +last 'ardent desire,' as ardently pursued, to purify the sorely +diseased body politic. His method of attack was twofold. He dealt +vigorously with the individual criminal; and he sought to remove +some of the causes by which those criminals were engendered. The +individual attack is, for the most part, but sordid reading. Thus +from a fragment of the Westminster <em>Committment Books</em>, +preserved with the Middlesex Records, we may see how in January and +February of this year 1749 'Henry Fielding Esq.' committed to the +New Prison such cases as:</p> + +<table cellspacing="4" cellpadding="8" border="0" width="90%" +summary= +"Table: People committed to prison for riot, beating, burglary, ill fame, etc."> +<tr> +<td>Thomas Thrupp</td> +<td>for riot</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Thomas Trinder</td> +<td>for burglary</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>T. Chamberlain and Terence Fitz Patrick</td> +<td>for assault</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>C. O'Neal</td> +<td>for assaulting two Watchmen</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Mary Hughes and Caterine Edmonds</td> +<td>for assault and beating</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>John Smithson</td> +<td>for exercising the art of pattenmaker without<br> + having been brought up thereto for seven years</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Cornelius York</td> +<td>for filing guineas</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Christo Kelsey</td> +<td>for ill fame</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Bryan Park</td> +<td>for assault</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>This sorry list, interspersed with cases of murder, of robbery +with violence, and of smuggling, may doubtless be extended over the +entire five years of Fielding's work on the Bench; and to reiterate +the details of such work would be as tedious now as the monotonous +discharge of these duties must once have been to the author of +<em>Tom <a name="fnref12-9">Jones</a></em>. <a class="footnote" +href="#fn12-9">9</a> Of much more enduring interest is the great +novelist's second line of attack on the problem confronting +him.</p> + +<p>For Henry Fielding's insight was far too profound for him to +fail to strike at the root of individual crime, in those conditions +which bred the criminal as surely as, to use his own favourite +simile, unclean surroundings breed disease. And he had not been six +months on the Bench before finding his first opportunity in a +<em>Charge</em> delivered, as their Chairman, to the Westminster +Grand Jury, on June 29, <a name="fnref12-10">1749</a>. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn12-10">10</a> This "very loyal, learned, +ingenious, excellent and useful" Charge was published "By Order of +the Court, and at the unanimous Request of the Gentlemen of the +Grand Jury"; and it is, Mr Austin Dobson tells us, "still regarded +by lawyers as a model exposition." It is also a stirring appeal to +the worthy jurors to discharge their duties as befitted men called +upon to exercise one of the most ancient and honourable of English +liberties: "Grand Juries, Gentlemen," declared their new Chairman, +"are in Reality the only Censors of this Nation. As such, the +Manners of the People are in your Hands, and in yours only. You, +therefore, are the only Correctors of them.... To execute this Duty +with Vigilance, you are obliged by the Duty you owe both to God and +to your Country." Here is the same zeal, now directed to +stimulating the conscience of the Westminster Jurors, which moved +<em>Captain Vinegar</em> to lay about him so lustily on all the +abuses within reach of his newspaper, and which inspired the +'father of the English Novel' with the admitted motive,--"I +declare, that to recommend Goodness and Innocence hath been my +sincere Endeavour in this History"--if not with the consummate art +of his pages.</p> + +<p>Fielding specially directs the energies of his jurors to the +repression of open profligacy, the more as, through the 'egregious +folly' of their parents, the <em>Town</em> had then become the +'seminaries of education' for youths of birth and station. And he +bids them attend to those 'temples of iniquity' the masquerade +rooms of the time, with a side glance at Foote's scandalous +performances; to the gaming houses; to the prevalent vice of +profane swearing, that "detestable Crime, so injurious to the +Honour of God, so directly repugnant to His positive Commands, so +highly offensive to the Ears of all good Men, and so very +scandalous to the Nation in the Ears of Foreigners"; and to the +libeller, a species of 'Vermin' whom "men ought to crush wherever +they find him, without staying till he bite them." It is noteworthy +also, that to the genius of Fielding, 'watching, brooding, +creating,' the characteristic feature of his age seemed to be a +"fury after licentious and luxurious pleasures." "Gentlemen," he +cries, "our News-Papers, from the Top of the Page to the Bottom, +the Corners of our Streets up to the very Eves of our Houses, +present us with nothing but a View of Masquerades, Balls, and +Assemblies of various Kinds, Fairs, Wells, Gardens, &c. tending +to promote Idleness, Extravagance and Immorality, among all Sorts +of People." Many of the public, he declares, make diversion "no +longer the Recreation or Amusement, but the whole Business of their +Lives"; and not content with three theatres they must have a +fourth. What would he have said to a London in which not four but a +hundred and twenty theatres draw nightly, and sometimes twice a +day, their crowded audiences.</p> + +<p>Two days after the delivery of this <em>Charge</em> (which the +<em>General Advertiser</em> praises as "excellent and learned") a +three days street riot broke out, which it fell to Fielding to +subdue. On Saturday July 1 a mob had gathered in the Strand, about +a disorderly house where a sailor was said to have been robbed. +Beadle Nathaniel Munns, arriving on the scene, found the mob crying +out "Pull down the house, pull down the house!"; and sent for the +constables. Meanwhile the mob broke open the house and demolished +and stripped the same; and throwing the goods out of the windows, +set fire to them, causing such danger of a general conflagration +that 'the parish engines' were sent for. A constable, <em>not being +able to find any magistrate in Town</em>, went to Somerset House to +procure assistance from the military, and on his returning with a +corporal and twelve men, a force that later that night was +increased to an officer and forty men, the mob was at last +dispersed. On the next day, however, Sunday, they reassembled, and +proceeded to demolish a second house, and to burn the goods thereof +with an even larger fire than that of the preceding night. Mr +Saunders Welch, High Constable for Holborn and, Fielding tells us, +"one of the best Officers who was ever concerned in the Execution +of Justice, and to whose Care, Integrity and Bravery the Public +hath, to my Knowledge, the highest Obligations," passing through +Fleet Street at the time, saw this second fire, and was told by the +owner of another house that the mob threatened to come to him next. +Upon which Mr Welch "well knowing the Impossibility of procuring +any Magistrate at that Time who would act," went to the Tilt Yard +and procured an officer and some forty men; and returning, found +the third house in great part wrecked, the danger of fire here +being aggravated by the extreme narrowness of the street on both +sides and the fact that the premises of a bank were adjacent. This +same Sunday night, also, the mob broke open the night-prison under +Beadle Munns' house, rescuing two prisoners; and forced the +Watch-house of the Liberty with stones and brick bats, to the +imminent danger of the Beadle's life, as "sworn before me, Henry +Fielding." Till three in the morning Mr Welch and the soldiers +remained on duty, by which time the rioters had again dispersed. +All this time Fielding, Mr Welch records, was out of town; but, by +noon on Monday, the Justice was back in Bow Street: and, on being +acquainted with the riot, immediately dispatched an order for a +party of the Guards to bring the prisoners to his house, the +streets being then full of a riotous crowd threatening danger of +rescue. Fielding proceeded to examine the prisoners, a "vast mob" +meanwhile being assembled in Bow Steet, and the streets adjacent. +On information of the threatening aspect of the people he applied +to the Secretary at War for a reinforcement of the Guards; and from +his window, spoke to the mob, informing them of their danger, and +exhorting them to disperse, but in vain. Rumours, moreover, came +that four thousand sailors were assembling to march to the Strand +that Monday night. In view of these rumours and of the riotous +state of the streets, Fielding, the officer of the guard, and Mr +Welch "sat up the whole night, while a large party of soldiers were +kept ready under arms who with the peace officers patrolled the +streets." And thanks to this vigorous action on the part of their +new magistrate the citizens found peace restored within twelve +hours of his return to town.</p> + +<p>The same day as that on which Fielding was addressing the +riotous mob from his Bow Street windows, and sitting up all night +with the officer of a military guard, he found time to write to the +Duke of Bedford on his own behalf and on that of his family, +concerning the provision for which he betrays so constant an +anxiety.</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"Bow Street. July 3. 1749.</p> + +<p>"My Lord,</p> + +<p>"The Protection which I have been honoured with receiving at the +Hands of your Grace, and the goodness which you were pleased to +express some time toward me, embolden me to mention to your Grace +that the Place of Solicitor to the Excise is now vacant by the +Death of Mr Selwyn. I hope no Person is better qualified for it, +and I assure you, my Lord, none shall execute it with more +Fidelity. I am at this Moment busied in endeavouring to suppress a +dangerous Riot, or I w'd. have personally waited on your Grace to +solicite a Favour which will make me and my Family completely +happy.</p> + +<p>"I am, &c.,</p> + +<p>"H. <a name="fnref12-11">Ffielding</a>." <a class="footnote" +href="#fn12-11">11</a></p> + +<p>The vacant post was secured, alas, by another candidate.</p> + +<p>A few weeks after the riotous scenes which had enabled Fielding +to show himself a man of prompt action in times of popular ferment, +the publication is advertised of his <em>Charge</em>, published "by +order of the Court and at the request of the Gentleman of the Grand +Jury." And on the same day he submits to the Lord Chancellor a copy +both of this pamphlet, and of a draft of a <em>Bill for the better +preventing Street Robberies &c</em>, the design of which it +appears Lord Hardwick had already encouraged.</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"Bow Street, July 21. 1749.</p> + +<p>"My Lord,</p> + +<p>"I beg your Lordship's acceptance of a Charge given by me to the +Grand Jury of Westminster though I am but too sensible how unworthy +it is of your notice.</p> + +<p>"I have likewise presumed to send my Draught of a Bill for the +better preventing street Robberies &c. which your Lordship was +so very kind to say you would peruse; I hope the general Plan at +least may be happy in your Approbation.</p> + +<p>"Your Lordship will have the goodness to pardon my repeating a +desire that the name of Joshua Brogden, may be inserted in the next +commission of the Peace for Middlesex and Westminster for whose +[integrity] and Ability in the Execution of his office. I will +engage my credit with your Lordship, an Engagement which appears to +me of the most sacred Nature.</p> + +<p>"I am,<br> +"My Lord, with the utmost Respect and Devotion,<br> +"Your Lordship's most Obed't<br> +"Most humble Servant<br> +"H. <a name="fnref12-12">Ffielding</a>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn12-12">12</a></p> + +<p>"To the Right Hon'ble.<br> +"The Lord High Chancellor of G. Britain."</p> + +<p>All trace of the text of this draft Bill seems to have been +lost; but the fact of the Lord Chancellor's consent to consider its +provisions shows clearly enough how rapidly Fielding was adding to +his now achieved fame as the author of <em>Tom Jones</em> the very +different reputation of an authority on criminal legislation.</p> + +<p>The application on behalf of Joshua Brogden, later if not at +this time the Justice's Clerk, recalls the further pleasant tribute +paid to the soundness of Mr Brogden's morals in the <em>Journal of +a Voyage to Lisbon.</em> If all Fielding's modest magisterial +income of £300 a year had gone, as he declares it should have done, +to his clerk, that functionary would, he tells us, have been "but +ill paid for sitting almost sixteen hours in the twenty four, in +the most unwholesome, as well as nauseous air in the universe, and +which hath in his case corrupted a good constitution without +contaminating his morals." It was Joshua Brogden who had witnessed, +a few months earlier, the agreement with Andrew Millar for <em>Tom +Jones</em>. Could the good clerk but have played the part of a +Boswell to his illustrious master we should have something more +than our present scanty materials for the personal life of Henry +Fielding.</p> + +<p>Yet another of Fielding's rare letters belongs to this year; a +letter conveying his formal congratulations to Lyttelton, on that +model statesman's second marriage, and in which his warm heart +again makes application, not on behalf of his own scanty means, but +for a friend.</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"Bow Street, Aug't 29, 1749.</p> + +<p>"Sir,</p> + +<p>"Permit me to bring up the Rear of your Friends in paying my +Compliments of Congratulation on your late Nuptials. There may +perhaps be seasons when the Rear may be as honourable a Post in +Friendship as in War, and if so such certainly must be every time +of Joy and Felicity. Your present situation must be full of these; +and so will be, I am confident, your future Life from the same +Fountain. Nothing can equal the excellent character your Lady bears +among those of her own Sex, and I never yet knew them speak well of +a woman who did not deserve their good words. How admirable is your +Fortune in the Matrimonial Lottery! I will venture to say there is +no man alive who exults more in this, or in any other Happiness +that can attend you than myself; and you ought to believe me from +the same Reason that fully persuades me of the satisfaction you +receive from any Happiness of mine; this Reason is that you must be +sensible how much of it I owe to your goodness; and there is a +great Pleasure in Gratitude though it is second I believe to that +of Benevolence; for of all the Delights upon Earth none can equal +the Raptures which a good mind feels on conferring Happiness on +those whom we think worthy of it. This is the sweetest ingredient +in Power, and I solemnly protest I never wished for Power, more +than a few days ago for the sake of a Man whom I love, and that +more perhaps from the esteem I know he bears towards you than from +any other Reason. This Man is in Love with a young Creature of the +most apparent worth, who returns his affection. Nothing is wanting +to make two very miserable People extremely Blessed but a moderate +portion of the greatest of human Evils. So Philosophers call it, +and so it is called by Divines, whose word is the rather to be +taken, as they are, many of them, more conversant with this Evil +than ever Philosophers were. The Name of this man is Moore to whom +you kindly destined that Laurel, which, though it hath long been +withered, may not probably soon drop from the Brow of its present +Possessor; but there is another Place of much the same Value now +vacant: it is that of Deputy Licensor to the Stage. Be not offended +at this Hint; for though I will own it impudent enough in one who +hath so many Obligations of his own to you, to venture to recommend +another man to your Favour, yet Impudence itself may possibly be a +Virtue when exerted on the behalf of a Friend; at least I am the +less ashamed of it, as I have known men remarkable for the opposite +Modesty possess it without the mixture of any other good Quality. +In this Fault then you must indulge me; for should I ever see you +as high in Power as I wish, and as it is perhaps more my Interest +than your own that you should be, I shall be guilty of the like as +often as I find a Man in whom I can, after much intimacy discover +no want, but that of the Evil above mentioned. I beg you will do me +the Honour of making my Compliments to your unknown Lady, and +believe me to be with the highest Esteem, Respect, Love, and +Gratitude</p> + +<p>"Sir,<br> +"Y'r most obliged<br> +"Most obed't<br> +"humble Servant</p> + +<p>"Henry Fielding.</p> + +<p>"To the Hon'ble<br> +"George Lyttelton, <a name="fnref12-13">Esqr</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn12-13">13</a></p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i361"><img src="images/361.jpg" alt= +"Edward Moore" width="352" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>This Edward Moore was a poet held worthy, it would seem, to +possess the Laureat's 'withered' laurel (even in 1749 Fielding +cannot refrain from a thrust at Colley Cibber); a journalist; a +writer of whom Dibden declared that the tendency of all his +productions was to "cultivate truth and morality"; a tradesman in +the linen business; and the son of a dissenting minister: a +combination of circumstances closely recalling Fielding's +friendship for the good dissenter, jeweller, and poet, George +Lillo. And it is to an undated letter by Edward Moore, hitherto +overlooked, that we owe one of the rare references to Henry +Fielding from a contemporary pen. Moore is writing to a dissenting +minister at Taunton, one Mr John Ward, of whom it was said that +venerable as he himself was for learning, worth, and piety he +deemed it "<em>an honour to have his name connected with that of +Moore</em>,"--a further proof of the quality of man whom Fielding +choose for friend. Moore had been prevented, by Fielding's illness, +from appointing an evening on which he might invite the Taunton +minister to his lodgings to meet there some of the first wits of +the day. "It is not," he writes, "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 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 acquaintance 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 disorder is the Gout, and intemperance the cause." It is +of course idle to contend that Fielding always carried a cool head. +Murphy tells us that to him might justly be applied a parody on a +saying concerning Scipio,--"always over a social bottle or a book, +he enured his body to the dangers of intemperance, and exercised +his mind with Studies." But we must in justice remember that the +Augustan age of English literature concerned itself but very little +with our modern virtue of sobriety. That Fielding, with the other +great men of his day, very often drank more than was good for him, +amounts to little more than saying that he wore a laced coat when +he had one, and carried a sword at his side.</p> + +<p>The execution of one of the Strand rioters, Bosavern Penlez by +name, in September, had roused much controversy; and as the +evidence in the case was in Justice Fielding's possession, and the +attacks were levelled at the Government, we find him plunged once +more into political pamphleteering in the publication, under the +date of 1749, of the learned little treatise entitled "<em>A True +State of the Case of Bosavern Penlez' who suffered on account of +the late riot in the Strand. In which the Law regarding these +Offences and the Statute of George I. commonly called the Riot Act +are fully considered.</em>" The pamphlet opens with a warm protest +against the abuse to which Fielding had been subjected by his +political opponents. "It may easily be imagined," he writes, "that +a Man whose Character hath been so barbarously, even without the +least Regard to Truth or Decency, aspersed, on account of his +Endeavours to defend the present Government, might wish to decline +any future Appearance as a political Writer"; but more weighty +considerations move him to lay the defence of the Riot Act in +general, and of this application of it in particular, before a +public which had been imposed upon "in the grossest and wickedest +manner." We have already quoted the vivid depositions concerning +this Strand riot, which were sworn before Fielding, and which he +here reproduces; and his historical defence of the public need of +suppressing riots, from the days of Wat Tyler onwards, may be left +to the curious reader. Needless to say, Fielding makes out an +excellent case against the toleration of mob law:--"When by our +excellent Constitution the greatest Subject, no not even the King +himself, can, without a lawful Trial and Conviction divest the +meanest Man of his Property, deprive him of his Liberty, or attack +him in his Person; shall we suffer a licentious Rabble to be +Accuser, Judge, Jury, and Executioner; to inflict corporal +Punishment, break open Men's Doors, plunder their Houses, and burn +their Goods?" And, at the close, this pamphlet reveals the +warm-hearted magistrate no less than the erudite lawyer. For of the +two condemned prisoners, Wilson and Penlez, the case of the former +seemed to Fielding "to be the Object of true Compassion." +Accordingly he laid the evidence in his possession before "some +very noble Persons," and, he adds, "I flatter myself that it might +be a little owing to my Representation, that the Distinction +between an Object of Mercy, and an Object of Justice at last +prevailed". So the felon gained his respite, and a lasting niche +for his name, in that he owed his life partly if not wholly to the +generous compassion of Henry Fielding. The pamphlet seems to have +made its mark, for a second edition was advertised within a month +of publication.</p> + +<p>This eventful year, the year which had seen the publication of +<em>Tom Jones</em>, the shackling of Fielding's genius within the +duties of a London magistrate, the issue of two pamphlets occupied +with criminal reform and administration, the drafting of a proposed +Criminal Bill, and the suppression of a riot, closed sadly with the +death of Fielding's little daughter, Mary Amelia, when barely +twelve months old. She was buried at St Paul's, Covent Garden, on +the seventeenth of December, 1749. And some time in the autumn or +early winter Fielding himself appears to have been dangerously ill. +This we learn from the following paragraph in the <em>General +Advertizer</em> for December 28: "Justice Fielding has no +Mortification in his Foot as has been reported: that Gentleman has +indeed been very dangerously ill with a Fever, and a Fit of the +Gout, in which he was attended by Dr Thompson, an eminent +Physician, and is now so well recovered as to be able to execute +his Office as usual."</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter13">CHAPTER XIII</a><br> +<br> +FIELDING AND LEGISLATION</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"The Subject, as well as the Child, should be +left without excuse before he is punished: for, in that case alone, +the Rod becomes the Hand either of the Parent or the +Magistrate."<br> + <em>Inquiry Into the Causes of the late Increase of +Robbers</em>.</p> + +<p>There is no Bill for the suppression of street robberies on the +Statute Book for 1749 or 1750; so the draft which Fielding, with +characteristic energy, despatched to the Lord Chancellor but a few +months after his appointment to the Bench, was, presumably, +pigeon-holed. Meanwhile, the criminal conditions of the metropolis +seem to have become, if anything, more scandalous. In February +1750, the <em>Penny Post</em> reports the gaols in and about London +to be "now so full of Felons and desperate Rogues that the Keepers +have not fetters enow to put upon them; so that in some Prisons two +or three are chained together to prevent their escape." And on the +fifth of the same month the <em>General Advertiser</em> hears that +"near 40 Highwaymen, street Robbers, Burglars, Rogues, Vagabonds, +and Cheats have been committed within a week last past by Justice +Fielding." But however full of business the Bow Street court-room +might be, that dreary <a name="fnref13-1">routine</a> <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn13-1">1</a> would make, as we have said, but +equally dreary reading. And the fact that both John and Henry +Fielding appear to have been known as 'Justice Fielding' during the +lifetime of the latter, lessens whatever biographical value might +be extracted from the constant newspaper paragraphs recording the +Fielding cases. It is clear that the house in Bow Street was the +centre of an active campaign against the thieves, murderers, +professional gamblers, and highwaymen, who were then so rife. +Military guards conducted thither prisoners, brought for +examination from Newgate, for fear of rescue from gangs lurking in +the neighbouring streets. All "Persons who have been robbed" and +their servants, were desired, by public advertisement, to attend +Justice Fielding "at his House in Bow Street," to identify certain +prisoners under examination. And thither came the "porters and +beggars," the composing of whose quarrels Henry Fielding himself +has told us, occupied his days. The generous spirit in which he +treated such poor clients, and his tenderness for those driven by +want into crime, are eminently characteristic of the man. By +adjusting, instead of inflaming, these squalid quarrels, and by +"refusing to take a shilling from a man who must undoubtedly would +not have had another left," he reduced a supposed income of £500 a +year to £300. And if the picture of the poor wretch, driven to +highway robbery by the sight of his starving family, whom Tom Jones +relieved from his own scanty purse, be not proof enough of the +compassion that tempered Justice Fielding's sternness, we have his +own express pleading for these unhappy victims of circumstance: +"what can be more shocking," he cries, "than to see an industrious +poor Creature, who is able and willing to labour forced by mere +want into Dishonesty, and that in a Nation of such Trade and +Opulence." So justly could Fielding apportion the contributary +negligence of society towards the criminals bred by its apathy.</p> + +<p>And it was not only the impoverished porter who found help at +Bow Street. "When," says Murphy, "in the latter end of [Mr +Fielding's] days he had an income of four or five hundred a-year, +he knew no use of money but to keep his table open to those who had +been his friends when young, and had impaired their own fortunes." +As Mr Austin Dobson says, in commenting on one of Horace Walpole's +scurrilous <a name="fnref13-2">letters</a>, <a class="footnote" +href="#fn13-2">2</a> "it must always have been a more or less +ragged regiment which met about that kindly Bow Street board." The +man who parted with his own hardly won arrears of rent to relieve +the yet greater need of a College friend, was little likely to be +less generous when the tardy 'jade Fortune' at last put some +secured income into his hands.</p> + +<p>No special event marks the spring and summer of 1750. On the +11th of January the Westminster General Quarter Sessions opened, +and on the following day Fielding was again elected as chairman +"for the two next Quarter Sessions"; which election was repeated, +"for the two next <a name="fnref13-3">Sessions</a>, <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn13-3">3</a>" in July. The Registers of St +Paul's Covent Garden record the baptism of a daughter, Sophia, on +the 21st of January. And an indication that the zealous magistrate +was plunged, personally, into some of the tumults of the time +occurs in the following trifling note to the Duke of Bedford.</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"My Lord,</p> + +<p>"In obedience to the Commands I have the Honour to receive from +your Grace, I shall attend tomorrow morning and do the utmost in my +Power to preserve the Peace on that occasion.</p> + +<p>"I am, with gratitude and Respect,<br> +"My Lord,<br> +"Your Grace's most obliged<br> +"most obedient humble servant.</p> + +<p>"Henry <a name="fnref13-4">Ffielding</a>. <a class="footnote" +href="#fn13-4">4</a></p> + +<p>"Bow Street,<br> +"May 14, 1750."</p> + +<p>By the autumn, however, a rumour was abroad that the now famous +author of <em>Tom Jones</em> was engaged on pages of a very +different nature. The <em>General Advertiser</em>, for October 9, +announces:--</p> + +<p>"We hear that an eminent Magistrate is now employed in preparing +a Pamphlet for the Press in which the several causes that have +conspired to render Robberies so frequent of late will be laid +open; the Defects of our Laws enquired into, and Methods proposed +which may discourage and in a great measure prevent this growing +Evil for the future."</p> + +<p>This pamphlet, in which many a later reform was urged by +Fielding's far-sighted zeal, seems to have been still in +preparation for the next two months. And in November the reform of +the law had to give place to a more immediate urgency in protecting +the Lord Chancellor. The keepers of three gaming houses, closed by +his lordship's orders, were reported to be plotting against that +exalted dignitary; and the case, as appears from the following +letter to a lawyer, Mr Perkins, was in Fielding's <a name= +"fnref13-5">hands</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn13-5">5</a></p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"Sir</p> + +<p>"I have made full enquiry after the three Persons and have a +perfect account of them all. Their characters are such that perhaps +three more likely Men could not be found in the Kingdom for the +Hellish Purpose mentioned in the Letter. As the Particulars are +many and the Affair of such Importance I beg to see you punctually +at six this evening when I will be alone to receive you--and am, +Sir,</p> + +<p>"Yr. most obed;<br> +"humble servant</p> + +<p>"He Ffielding.</p> + +<p>"Bow Street. Nov. 25. 1750."</p> + +<p>When the keepers of gambling houses dared to fly at such high +game as the person of the Lord Chancellor, there is no wonder that +the safety of his Majesty's ordinary lieges was of small account. +"Robbery," writes Horace Walpole, a few weeks before the date of +the above letter, "is the only thing which goes on with any +vivacity." And at the close of the year a Royal Proclamation was +actually published, promising £100 over and above other rewards, +and a free pardon, to any accomplice who should apprehend offenders +committing murder, or robbery by violence, in London streets or +within five miles of London, providing such an accomplice had not +himself dealt a mortal wound. So startling a confession of +impotence on the part of the Government served very fitly to +introduce the pamphlet, then on the eve of publication. And if +further proof be needed of the conditions of public safety at the +beginning of the year 1751, it may be seen in the passage of the +King's Speech delivered at the opening of Parliament on the 17th of +January, in which his Majesty exhorted the Commons to suppress +outrages and violences on life and property; words representing, of +course, the policy of the Ministry.</p> + +<p>The title of Fielding's little book, dedicated to Lord Hardwick, +and published about January 22, is <em>An Enquiry into the Causes +of the late Increase of Robbers &c. with some Proposals for +remedying this growing Evil. In which the Present Reigning Vices +are impartially exposed; and the Laws that relate to the Provision +for the Poor and to the Punishment of Felons are largely and freely +examined</em>. The <em>Enquiry</em> opens with a powerful +denunciation of the licence then allowed to the three great causes, +in Fielding's opinion, of the increasing demoralisation of the +'most useful Part' of the people. These were, first, the immense +number of places of amusement, all seducing the working classes to +squander both their money and their time; this being "indeed a +certain Method to fill the Streets with Beggars and the Goals with +Debtors and Thieves." Here, in Fielding's view, new legislation was +demanded. The second cause of the late excessive increase of crime, +according to the <em>Enquiry</em>, was an epidemic of gin drinking, +"a new Kind of Drunkenness unknown to our Ancestors [which] is +lately sprung up amongst us." Gin, says Fielding, appeared to be +the principal sustenance of more than an hundred thousand +Londoners, "the dreadful Effects of which I have the Misfortune +every Day to see, and to smell too." The crime resulting from such +drunkenness was obvious; but Fielding, looking far beyond the +narrow confines of his court-room, beheld a future gin-sodden race, +and he appeals to the legislature to put a stop to a practice, the +consequences of which must alarm "the most sluggish Degree of +Public Spirit." It is surely something more than a coincidence that +a few weeks after these warnings were published, Hogarth issued his +awful plate of <em>Gin Lane</em>. A third source of crime, in +Fielding's eyes, was the gambling among the 'lower Classes of +Life,'--a school "in which most Highwaymen of great eminence have +been bred," and a habit plainly tending to the "Ruin of Tradesmen, +the Destruction of Youth, and to the Multiplication of every Kind +of Fraud and Violence." In this case the 'Eminent Magistrate' finds +new legislation less needed than a vigorous enforcement of existing +laws; such, he adds, "as hath lately been executed with great +Vigour within the Liberty of Westminster." Before long the pages of +<em>Amelia</em> were to bring home yet more forcibly to Fielding's +readers the cruel results of the pleasures (or speculations) of the +needy gambler,--the 'Destruction of Familys,' thereby incurred, no +less than the breeding of highwaymen. Who does not remember "that +famous scene when Amelia is spreading, for the recreant who is +losing his money at the Kings Arms, the historic little supper of +hashed mutton, which she has cooked with her own hands, and denying +herself a glass of white wine to save the paltry sum of sixpence, +'while her Husband was paying a Debt of several Guineas incurred by +the Ace of Trumps being in the hands of his Adversary'--a scene +which it is impossible to read aloud without a certain huskiness in +the <a name="fnref13-6">throat</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn13-6">6</a> The last great cause of crime which the +<em>Enquiry</em> considers, and with much learning and detail, is +the condition of the poor. Here Fielding's views on our modern +problem of the unemployed may be read. And here occurs a splendid +denunciation of the 'House of Correction' or Bridewell of the +period, a prison for idle and disorderly persons where "they are +neither to be corrected nor employed: and where with the +conversation of many as bad and sometimes worse than themselves +they are sure to be improved in the Knowledge and confirmed in the +Practice of Iniquity." The most impudent of the wretches brought +before him, Fielding tells us, were always "such as have been +before acquainted with the Discipline of Bridewell." These prisons, +from which the disorderly and idle came out, "much more idle and +disorderly than they went in," were, says Fielding, no other than +"Schools of Vice, Seminaries of Idleness, and Common-sewers of +Nastiness and Disease." A fixed (and lower) rate of wages, it is +curious to note, is one remedy advocated in the <em>Enquiry</em>, +for raising the condition of the poor.</p> + +<p>Such were the 'temptations' to robbery that Fielding would have +removed, nobly conceiving the highest office of the legislature to +be that of prevention rather than cure. The <em>Enquiry</em> +concludes with offering some more immediate palliatives for the +diseased state of the body politic, in the removing of actual +'Encouragement to Robbery.' First among such encouragements +Fielding places the fact that "the Thief disposes of his goods with +almost as much safety as the honestest Tradesman"; and he urged the +need of legislation to prohibit the amazing advertisements by which +our ancestors promised to give rewards for the recovery of stolen +goods "<em>and no questions asked</em>." Such advertisements he +declares to be "in themselves so very scandalous and of such +pernicious Consequence, that if Men are not ashamed to own they +prefer an old Watch or a Diamond Ring to the Good of [the] Society +it is a pity some effectual Law was not contrived to prevent their +giving this public Countenance to Robbery for the future." And, +under this head, he advocates legislation either for the regulating +of pawnbrokers, or for the entire extirpation of a "Set of +Miscreants which, like other Vermin, harbour only about the Poor +and grow fat sucking their Blood." The subsequent legislation by +which prosecutors were recompensed for loss of time and money, when +prosecuting the 'wolves in society,' may be added to the measures +forseen if not actually promoted by Fielding's enlightened zeal. +And in nothing was he more in advance of his age than in his +denunciation of that scandal of the eighteenth century, the conduct +and frequency of public executions. It has taken our legislators a +hundred years to provide the swift, solemn and private executions +urged by Henry Fielding, in place of the brutal 'Tyburn holiday' +enacted every six weeks for the benefit of the Georgian mob. +Another matter demanding legislation was the great probability of +escape afforded to thieves by the narrow streets and the +common-lodging houses of the day. Of the latter, crowded with +miserable beds from the cellar to the garret, let out, at twopence +a night the single beds, and threepence the double ones, Fielding +draws a picture as terrible as any of his friend Hogarth's plates. +And he concludes "Nay I can add what I myself once saw in the +Parish of Shoreditch where two little Houses were emptied of near +seventy Men and Women," and where the money found on all the +occupants (with the exception of a pretty girl who was a thief) +"did not amount to one shilling." In all these houses gin, +moreover, was sold at a penny the quartern. Housed thus, in +conditions destructive of "all Morality, Decency and Modesty," with +the street for bed if they fall sick ("and it is almost a Miracle +that Stench, Vermin, and Want should ever suffer them to be well"), +oppressed with poverty, and sunk in every species of debauchery, +"the Wonder in Fact is," cries Fielding, "... that we have not a +thousand more Robbers than we have; indeed that all these wretches +are not thieves must give us either a very high Idea of their +Honesty or a very mean one of their Capacity and Courage." And, +leaving for a moment legislative reform, Fielding delivers a +vigorous attack on the national sluggishness of public spirit which +helped to render robbery a fairly safe profession. With such +sluggishness his ardent nature had very little sympathy. "With +regard to Private Persons," he protests, "there is no Country I +believe in the World where that vulgar Maxim so generally prevails +that what is the Business of every Man is the business of no Man; +and for this plain Reason, that there is no Country in which less +Honour is gained by serving the Public. He therefore who commits no +crime against the Public, is very well satisfied with his own +Virtue; far from thinking himself obliged to undergo any Labour, +expend any Money, or encounter any Danger on such Account." And in +no part of the <em>Enquiry</em> does the writer more truly show his +wisdom than in the pages on 'false Compassion' that plausible +weakness which refuses to prosecute the oppressors of the helpless +and innocent, and which at that time, in the person of his Majesty, +King George II. was, it appears, very active in pardoning offenders +when convicted. Fielding's arguments are incontestable; but his +apologue may have found even more favour in the age of wit. He +hopes such good nature may not carry those in power so far, "as it +once did a Clergyman in <em>Scotland</em> who in the fervour of his +Benevolence prayed to God that He would be graciously pleased to +pardon the poor Devil."</p> + +<p>To the devil, whether in man or in society, Fielding was ever a +'spirited enemy'; and his first biographer tells us that "to the +unworthy he was rather harsh." But the last page of this little +book breathes that spirit of tenderness for hard pressed humanity +which in Fielding was so characteristically mingled with a +wholesome severity. If the legislature would take proper care to +raise the condition of the poor, then he declares the root of the +evil would be struck: "nor in plain Truth will the utmost severity +to Offenders be justifiable unless we take every possible Method of +preventing the offence ... the Subject as well as the child should +be left without Excuse before he is punished: for in that Case +alone the Rod becomes the Hand either of the Parent or the +Magistrate." And his last word is one of compassion for the "many +Cart-loads of our Fellow-creatures [who] once in six weeks are +carried to Slaughter"; of whom much the greater part might, with +'proper care and Regulations' have been made "not only happy in +themselves but very useful Members of the Society which they now so +greatly dishonour in the Sight of all Christendom."</p> + +<p>Henry Fielding is himself his own best illustration when he +declares that the "good Poet and the good Politician do not differ +so much as some who know nothing of either art affirm; nor would +<em>Homer</em> or <em>Milton</em> have made the worst Legislators +of their Times."</p> + +<p>To the reader of to-day the <em>Enquiry</em> betrays no party +flavour, but its sedate pages clearly stirred up the hot feeling of +the times. Early in February the Advertiser announced "<em>This Day +is published A Letter to Henry Fielding Esqre. occasioned by his +Enquiry into the causes of the late increase of Robbers +&c.</em>" And about the end of the month there appeared +<em>Considerations</em>, in two numbers of the <em>True +Briton</em>, "on Justice Fielding's 'Enquiry,' shewing his Mistakes +about the Constitution and our Laws and that what he seems to +propose is dangerous to our Properties, Liberties and +Constitution." On March 7 was announced <em>Observations on Mr +Fielding's Enquiry</em>, by one B. Sedgley. Some opposition squib, +too, must have been launched, to judge by the following item from +an advertisement column of the same date: "a Vindication of the +Rights and Privileges of the Commonality of England, in Opposition +to what has been advanced by the Author of the Enquiry, or to what +may be promulgated by any Ministerial Artifices against the public +Cause of Truth and Liberty. <em>By</em> Timothy Beck<em>the Happy +Cobler of Portugal-<a name="fnref13-7">street</a></em>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn13-7">7</a> Perhaps some collector of +eighteenth century pamphlets may be able to reveal these comments +of the '<em>Happy Gobler of Portugal-street</em>' upon the +'artifices' of Henry <a name="fnref13-8">Fielding</a>. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn13-8">8</a></p> + +<p>In the February following the publication of the +<em>Enquiry</em> a Parlimentary Committee was appointed "to revise +and consider the Laws in being, which relate to Felonies and other +Offences against the <a name="fnref13-9">Peace</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn13-9">9</a> The Committee included Lyttelton +and Pitt, and there is of course every probability that Fielding's +evidence would be taken; but it seems impossible now to discover +what share he may have had in this move by the Government towards +fresh criminal legislation. There is, however, the evidence of his +own hand that in the matter of prison administration his efforts +were not limited to academic pamphlets, or to the indictment, so +soon to be published, contained in the terrible prison scenes of +<em>Amelia</em>. The following letter to the Duke of <a name= +"fnref13-10">Newcastle</a> <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn13-10">10</a> shows an anxious endeavour to secure such good +government as was possible for at least one of the gaols.</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"My Lord</p> + +<p>"It being of the utmost consequence to the Public to have a +proper Prison Keeper of the new Prison at the Time, I beg leave to +recommend Mr William Pentlow a Constable of St George Bloomsbury to +your Grace's Protection in the present Vacancy. He is a Man of +whose Courage and Integrity I have seen the highest Proofs, and is +indeed every way qualified for the charge. I am with the most +Perfect Respect,</p> + +<p>"My Lord,<br> +"Your Grace's most obedient<br> +"and most humble servant,</p> + +<p>"Henry Ffielding<br> +"Bow Street Jan. 15. 1750 [1751]."</p> + +<p>A second edition of the <em>Enquiry</em> appeared early in the +spring; and according to the <em>Journals of the House of +Commons</em> it was resolved, in April, that a Bill be brought in +on the resolution of the Committee appointed two months previously +to consider criminal legislation. Again it can only be surmised +that Fielding's assistance would be invoked in the drafting of this +Bill. That his vigorous denunciations of the national danger of the +gin curse were in complete accord with the feeling of the +Government is apparent from the fact that two months later, in June +1751, the <em>Tippling <a name="fnref13-11">Act</a></em> <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn13-11">11</a> received the royal assent, by +which Act very stringent restrictions were imposed on the sale of +spirits.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i362"><img src="images/362.jpg" alt= +"Sir John Fielding" width="342" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>In June Fielding again appears as Chairman of the Westminster <a +name="fnref13-12">Sessions</a>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn13-12">12</a> And in September cases occur as brought before +John Fielding and others "at Henry Fielding's house in Bow <a name= +"fnref13-13">Street</a>," <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn13-13">13</a> from which it appears that Fielding's blind +half-brother was already acting as his assistant. In the following +month John Fielding appears among the Justices of the Westminster +Quarter <a name="fnref13-14">Sessions</a>. <a class="footnote" +href="#fn13-14">14</a></p> + +<p>The year that had seen the publication of the <em>Enquiry</em>, +affords proof enough of Fielding's active labours in criminal and +social reform; but the last month of this year is marked by an +occurrence of much greater import for English literature, the +publication of the third great novel, <em>Amelia</em>.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter14">CHAPTER XIV</a><br> +<br> +<em>Amelia</em></h2> + +<p class="quoted">"of all my Offspring she is my favourite +Child."<br> + The <em>Covent Garden Journal</em>. No. 8.</p> + +<p>On the 2nd of December 1751 the <em>General Advertiser</em> +announces that</p> + +<p class="quoted"><em>On Wednesday the 18th of this Month will be +published</em></p> + +<p class="quoted">IN FOUR VOLUMES DUODECIMO</p> + +<p class="quoted">AMELIA</p> + +<p class="quoted">By HENRY FIELDING, Esq;<br> +<br> + <em>Beati ter et amplius<br> + Quos irrupta tenet Copula.</em> HOR.</p> + +<p>And the puff preliminary of the period may be read in the same +columns, declaring that the "earnest Demand of the Publick" had +necessitated the use of four printing presses; and that it being +impossible to complete the binding in time, copies would be +available "sew'd at Half-a-Guinea a Sett." Sir Walter Scott tells +us that, at a sale to booksellers before publication, Andrew +Millar, the publisher, refused to part with <em>Amelia</em> on the +usual discount terms; and that the booksellers, being thus +persuaded of a great future for the book, eagerly bought up the +impression. Launched thus, and heralded by the popularity with +which <em>Tom Jones</em> had now endowed Fielding's name, the +entire edition was sold out on the day of publication; an event +which evoked the observation from Dr Johnson that <em>Amelia</em> +was perhaps the only book which being printed off betimes one +morning, a new edition was called for before night. The Doctor gave +not only unstinted praise, but also an involuntary tribute to +<em>Amelia</em>. He read the book through, without pausing, from +beginning to end. And he pronounced Amelia herself to be "the most +pleasing heroine of all the <a name="fnref14-1">romanc</a>es." <a +class="footnote" href="#fn14-1">1</a></p> + +<p>But to the majority of readers Amelia is, assuredly, something +more than the most charming of heroines. She is the delightful +companion; the wise and tender friend; a woman whose least +perfection was that dazzling beauty which shone with equal lustre +in the 'poor rags' lent her by her old nurse, or in her own +clothing, just as the happy purity of her nature only glows more +brightly for the dark scenes through which she moves. In the whole +range of English literature there is surely no figure more warmly +human, and yet less touched with human imperfection; none more +simply and naturally alive, and yet truer in every crisis (and +there were few of the sorrowful things of life unknown to her) to +the best qualities of generous womanhood. And if it is largely for +her glowing vitality that we love Amelia, we love her none the less +in that she is no fool. It was hardly necessary to tell us, as +Fielding is careful to do, that her sense of humour was keen, and +that her insight into the ridiculous was tempered only by the +deeper insight of her heart. Her understanding of her husband is as +perfect as her love for him; and that love is far too profound to +allow a moment's suggestion of mere placid amiability. Amelia, +whether quizzing the absurdities of the affected fine ladies of her +own rank, or cooking her husband's supper in the poor lodgings of +their poverty; whether so radiant with happiness after seeing her +little children handsomely entertained that with flushed cheeks and +bright eyes, "she was all a blaze of beauty," or, pale with +distress, bravely carrying her own clothes and the children's +trinkets to the pawnbroker; whether betraying her own noble +qualities of silence and forgiveness, or losing her temper with Mrs +Bennett,--commands equal affection and admiration. "They say," +wrote Thackeray, "that 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."</p> + +<p>Lady Mary, and her daughter Lady Bute, have left very definite +statements concerning this portrait which their cousin was alleged +to have hidden under the fair image of Amelia. Lady Bute we are +told was no stranger "to that beloved first wife whose picture he +drew in his Amelia, where, as she said, even the glowing language +he knew how to employ did not do more than justice to the amiable +qualities of the <a name="fnref14-2">original</a>...." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn14-2">2</a> And Lady Mary herself writes, "H. +Fielding has given a true picture of himself and his first wife, in +the characters of Mr and Mrs Booth [Amelia and her husband], some +compliments to his own figure excepted; and I am persuaded several +of the incidents he mentions are real matters of <a name= +"fnref14-3">fact</a>." <a class="footnote" href="#fn14-3">3</a> +Against these persuations we must place the fact that this book +contains no such explicit statement as that which in <em>Tom +Jones</em> assures us of the original of the beautiful Sophia. But +we shall not love Amelia the less if we see her, with her courage +and her beauty, her happy gaiety of spirit, her tenderness and +strength, solacing the distresses and calming the storms of +Fielding's restless genius, rather than devoting those qualities to +assuaging the misfortunes of Captain William Booth. For indeed +Captain Booth has but one substantial title to our regard, and that +is his adoration for his wife. True, he is a pretty figure of a +man; he has a handsome face; he fights bravely, and would kick a +rogue through the world; he believes in and loves his friends; and +he plays charmingly with his children. But, deprive him of the good +genius of his life, and Captain Booth would very speedily have sunk +into the ruin and despair of any other profligate young gamester +about the Town; and for this his adoration the culprit wins our +forgiveness, even as Amelia not only forgave but forgot, when by +virtue of her own unconscious goodness the Captain retrieved +himself, at last, from the folly of his ways. Undoubtedly the man +whom Amelia loved, and who had the grace to return that passion, +was no scoundrel at heart.</p> + +<p>It is impossible, now, to discover with any certainty the +incidents which Lady Mary was persuaded were matters of fact. The +experiences of Captain Booth, when essaying to turn gentleman +farmer, have been quoted as copies of Fielding's own ambitions at +East Stour; but surely on very slender evidence. Much more personal +seem many of the later scenes in the poor London lodgings, scenes +of cruel distress and perfect happiness, of bitter disappointments +and sanguine hope. Here, very probably, we have echoes of the +struggles of Harry and Charlotte Fielding, in the days of hackney +writing and of baffled efforts at the Bar; just as the dry +statement by Arthur Murphy, that Fielding was "remarkable for ... +the strongest affection for his children," comes to life in the +many touching pictures of Amelia and Booth with their little son +and daughter. The pursuit of such identity of incident may the more +cheerfully be left to the anecdotist, in that the biographical +value of <em>Amelia</em>, is far more than incidental. For the book +is, as has been said, a one-part piece. Round the single figure of +Amelia all the other characters revolve; and it was of Amelia that +Fielding himself has told us, in words that are a master key to his +own character "of all my offspring she is my favourite Child." As +surely as a man may be known by his choice in a friend, so is the +nature of the artist betrayed when he avows his partiality for one +alone among all the creations of his genius.</p> + +<p>As to the remaining figures in this "model of human life," to +quote Fielding's own descriptive phrase of his book, those which +tell us most of their author are that worthy, authoritative, +humourous clergyman, Dr Harrison; the good Sergeant Atkinson; and +that fiery pedant Colonel Bath, with his kind heart hidden under a +ferocious passion for calling out every man whom he conceived to +have slighted his honour. Dr Harrison does not win quite the same +place in our hearts as the man whom Thackeray calls 'dear Parson +Adams'; his cassock rustles a little too loudly; the saint is a +trifle obscured in the Doctor. But yet we love him for his warm and +protecting affection for his 'children' as he calls Amelia and +Booth; for his dry humour; and for that generosity which was for +ever draining his ample purse. And perhaps we like him none the +less for his scholar's raillery of that early blue-stocking Mrs +Bennet; while his dignity never shows to greater advantage than +when he throws himself bodily on the villain Murphy, achieving the +arrest of that felon by the strength of his own arm, and the +nimbleness of his own legs. And to this good Doctor is given a +saying eminently characteristic of Justice Fielding himself. We are +told that "it was a maxim of his that no man could descend below +himself in doing any act which may contribute to protect an +innocent person, or to bring a rogue to the gallows." Another trait +of the Doctor recalls Fielding's oft reiterated aversion to what he +calls grave formal persons: "You must know then, child," said he, +to poor Booth, sunk in the melancholy problem of supporting a wife +and three children on something less than £40 a year, "that I have +been thinking on this subject as well as you; for I can think, I +promise you, with a pleasant countenance." Of Amelia's +foster-brother Sergeant Atkinson (from whom Major William Dobbin is +directly descended) it is enough to say that the noble qualities +concealed beneath the common cloth of his sergeant's coat perfectly +confirm a sentence written many years before by the hand of his +author. "I will venture to affirm," Fielding declares, in his early +essay on the <em>Characters of Men</em>, "that I have known ... +<em>a Fellow whom no man should be seen to speak to</em>, capable +of the highest acts of Friendship and Benevolence."</p> + +<p>Fielding's energies in this his last novel, a novel be it +remembered written in the midst of daily contact with the squalid +vices exhibited in an eighteenth century court-room, seem to have +been almost wholly absorbed in creating the most perfect escape +from those surroundings in the person of Amelia. Beside the figure +of his 'favourite child,' the vicious criminals of his stage, the +malefic My Lord, the loathsome Trent, the debased Justice, the +terrible human wrecks in Newgate, are but dark figures in a shadowy +back-ground. Still, the great moralist shows no lack of vigour in +his delineations of such offspring of vice. The genius that knew +how to rouse every reader of <em>Tom Jones</em> to 'lend a foot to +kick Blifil downstairs,' awards in the last pages of +<em>Amelia</em>, a yet more satisfying justice to that nameless +connoisseur in profligacy, My Lord.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i363"><img src="images/363.jpg" alt= +"Ralph Allen" width="346" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>In his Dedication to Ralph Allen, Fielding states that his book +"is sincerely designed to promote the Cause of Virtue, and to +expose some of the most glaring Evils, as well public as private, +which at present infest this Country". The statement seems somewhat +needless when prefacing pages which enshrine Amelia; and where also +are displayed Blear Eyed Moll in the prison yard of Newgate, as +Newgate was twenty years before the prison reforms of Howard were +heard of; Justice Thrasher and his iniquities; the 'diabolisms' of +My Lord and of his tool Trent; the ruinous miseries of excessive +gambling; and the abuses of duelling. Indeed the avowedly didactic +purpose of the moralist seems at times to cloud a little the fine +perception of the artist. There are passages, in this book which, +much as they redound to the honour of their writer, are +indisputably heavy reading. But what shall not be forgiven to the +creator of Amelia. "To have invented that character," cries +Thackeray, also becoming didactic, "is not only a triumph of art, +but it is a good action." And he tells us how with all his heart he +loves and admires the 'kindest and sweetest lady in the world'; and +how he thinks of her as faithfully as though he had breakfasted +with her that morning in her drawing-room, or should meet her that +afternoon in the Park.</p> + +<p>It is recorded that Fielding received from Andrew Millar £1000 +for the copyright of <em>Amelia</em>. But the reception of the new +novel, after the first rush for copies, seems to have done little +credit either to the brains or to the heart of the public. And in +the month following <em>Amelia's</em> appearance, Fielding +satirises the comments of the Town, in two numbers of his +<em>Covent Garden Journal</em>; protesting that though he does not +think his child to be entirely free from faults--"I know nothing +human that is so,"--still "surely she does not deserve the Rancour +with which she hath been treated by the Public." As ironic +specimens of the faults complained of in his heroine, he quotes the +accusations that her not abusing her husband "for having lost Money +at Play, when she saw his Heart was already almost broke by it, was +<em>contemptible Meanness</em>"; that she condescends to dress her +husband's supper, and to dress her children, to whom moreover she +shows too much kindness; that she once mentions the DEVIL; that she +is a <em>low</em> character; and that the beauty of her face is +hopelessly flawed by a carriage accident. Such are some of the +charges brought against the lovely Amelia by the "Beaus, Rakes, +fine Ladies, and several formal Persons with bushy wigs and canes +at their Noses," who, in Fielding's satire, crowd the Court where +his book is placed on trial for the crime of dullness. Then +Fielding himself steps forward, and after pleading for this his +'favourite Child,' on whom he has bestowed "a more than ordinary +Pains in her Education," he declares, with the same hasty petulance +that characterised that previous outburst in the preface to +<em>David Simple</em>, that indeed he "will trouble the World no +more with any children of mine by the same Muse." Two months later +the <em>Gentleman's Magazine</em> prints a spirited appeal against +this resolution. "His fair heroine's nose has in my opinion been +too severely handled by some modern <a name= +"fnref14-4">critics</a>," <a class="footnote" href="#fn14-4">4</a> +writes Criticulus, after a passage of warm praise for the +characterisation, the morality, and the 'noble reflections of the +book'; and he proceeds to point out that the writings of such +critics "will never make a sufficient recompense to the world, if +<em>Mr Fielding</em> adheres to what I hope he only said in his +warmth and indignation of this injurious treatment, that he will +never trouble the public with any more writings of this kind." The +words of the enlightened <em>Criticulus</em> echo sadly when we +remember that in little more than two years the great genius and +the great heart of Henry Fielding were to be silenced.</p> + +<p>The <em>London Magazine</em> for 1751 devotes the first nine +columns of its December number to a resume of the novel, and +continues this compliment in another nine columns of appendix. With +a fine patronage the reviewer concludes that "upon the whole, the +story is amusing, the characters kept up, and many reflections +which [sic] are useful, if the reader will but take notice of them, +which in this unthinking age it is to be feared very few will." +Some imperfections he kindly excuses on the score of "the author's +hurry of business in administering impartial justice to his +majesty's good people"; but he cannot excuse what he declares to be +the ridicule of <em>Liberty</em> in Book viii.; and he solemnly +exhorts the author that as "he has in this piece very justly +exposed some of the private vices and follies of the present age" +so he should in his next direct his satire against political +corruption, otherwise 'he and his patrons' will be accused of +compounding the <a name="fnref14-5">same</a>. <a class="footnote" +href="#fn14-5">5</a> It seems incredible that any suggestion should +ever have attached to the author of <em>Pasquin</em> and the +<em>Register</em>, as to one who could condone public corruption. +And as for the accusation of tampering with "Liberty" the like +charge was brought, we may remember, by the "Happy Cobler of +Portugal Street" against Fielding's <em>Inquiry into the Encrease +of Robbers</em>. The literary cobblers who pursued <em>Amelia</em> +with the abuse of their poor pens may very well be consigned to the +oblivion of their political brother. The comment of one hostile pen +cannot however be dismissed as coming from a literary cobbler, and +that is the 'sickening' abuse, to use Thackeray's epithet, which +Richardson dishonoured himself in flinging at his great +contemporary. That abuse the sentimentalist poured out very freely +on <em>Amelia</em>; but, as Mr Austin Dobson says, "in cases of +this kind <em>parva seges satis est</em>, and Amelia has long since +outlived both rival malice and contemporary coldness. It is a proof +of her author's genius that she is even more intelligible to our +age than she was to her <a name="fnref14-6">own</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn14-6">6</a></p> + +<p>In Fielding's satiric description of the Court before which his +Amelia stood her trial, he describes himself as an 'old gentleman.' +The adjective seems hardly applicable to a man of forty five; but, +to quote again from Mr Austin Dobson, "however it may have chanced, +whether from failing health or otherwise, the Fielding of +<em>Amelia</em> is suddenly a far older man than the Fielding of +<em>Tom Jones</em>. The robust and irrepressible vitality, the full +veined delight of living, the energy of observation and strength of +satire, which characterise the one, give place in the other to a +calmer retrospection, a more compassionate humanity, a more +benignant criticism of life." Murphy's Irish tongue declares a +similar feeling in his comparison of the pages of this, the last of +the three great novels, to the calm of the setting sun; a sun that +had first broken forth in the 'morning glory' of <em>Joseph +Andrews</em>, and had attained its 'highest warmth and splendour' +in the inimitable pages of <em>Tom Jones</em>. There is indeed a +mature wisdom and patience in Amelia such as none but a pedant +could demand of her enchanting younger sister Sophia. In these +later pages Sophia has grown up into a gracious womanhood, while +losing none of her girlhood's gaiety and charm. That Amelia, his +older and wiser though scarce sadder child, was the nearest, as he +himself tells us, to Fielding's own heart, is one more indication +that here is the perfected image of that beloved wife, from whose +youthful grace and beauty his genius had already modelled one +exquisite memorial.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter15">CHAPTER XV</a><br> +<br> +JOURNALIST AND MAGISTRATE</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"However vain or romantic the Attempt may seem I +am sanguine enough to aim at serving the noble Interests of +Religion, Virtue, and good Sense, by these my lucubrations."<br> +The <em>Covent Garden Journal</em>. No. 5.</p> + +<p>Nothing could be more characteristic of Fielding's active spirit +than were the early months of 1752. For, no sooner had he deposited +the four volumes of <em>Amelia</em> in the hands of the public, +essaying to win his readers over to a love of virtue and a hatred +of vice, by placing before their eyes that true "model of human +life," than we find him launching a direct attack on the follies +and evils of the age, by means of his old weapon, the press.</p> + +<p>The first number of the <em>Covent Garden Journal</em> appeared +on the 4th of January, and its pages, produced under Fielding's own +management and apparently largely written by his own pen, provided +satires on folly, invectives against vice, and incitements to +goodness and sense, delivered in the name of one <em>Sir Alexander +Drawcansir, Knt. Censor of Great <a name= +"fnref15-1">Britain</a></em>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn15-1">1</a> The new paper ran but for seventy-two numbers; +perhaps for all the wit and learning, the fire and zest of its +columns, the public were reluctant to buy their own lashings. But +it may be doubted whether, except in the pages of his three great +novels, Henry Fielding ever revealed himself more completely than +in these his last informal 'lucubrations.' Here, the active +Justice, the accomplished scholar, the lawyer, and man of the +world, the first wit of his day, talks to us of a hundred topics, +chosen indeed on the spur of the moment, but discussed in his own +incomparable words, and with the now mature authority of one, who +had "dived into the inmost Recesses of Human Nature." No subject is +too abstruse, none too trifling, for <em>Mr Censor</em> to +illumine. Freed from the political bands of the earlier newspapers, +this last <em>Journal</em>, produced be it remembered by a man in +shattered health, and distracted by the squalid business of a Bow +Street Court-room, ranges over an amazing compass of life and +manners.</p> + +<p>Thus, one January morning, <em>Sir Alexander's</em> readers +would open their paper to find him deploring the decline of "a +Religion sometime ago professed in this Country, and which, if my +Memory fails me not was called Christian." The following Saturday +they are presented with a learned and pleasant argument to prove +that every male critic should be eighteen years of age, and "BE +ABLE TO READ." A few days later the pages of writers purveying the +prevalent "Infidelity, Scurrility, and Indecency" are ingeniously +allotted to various uses. In February the <em>Journal</em> accords +a noble tribute "to that great Triumvirate Lucian, Cervantes, and +Swift"; not indeed "for that Wit and Humour alone, which they all +so eminently possesst, but because they all endeavoured with the +utmost Force of their Wit and Humour, to expose and extirpate those +Follies and Vices which chiefly prevailed in their several +Countries." The design of Aristophanes and Rabelais on the other +hand, appears to <em>Mr Censor</em>, if he may speak his opinion +freely, "very plainly to have been to ridicule all Sobriety, +Modesty, Decency, Virtue, and Religion out of the world." From such +considerations it is an easy passage to a definition of 'real +Taste' as derived from a "nice Harmony between the Imagination and +the Judgment"; and to these final censorial warnings:--"<em>Evil +Communications corrupt good Manners</em> is a quotation of St Paul +from Menander. EVIL BOOKS CORRUPT AT ONCE BOTH OUR MANNERS AND OUR +TASTE." Four days after this learned 'lucubration' the voice of the +warm-hearted magistrate speaks in a reminder of the prevailing +abject misery of the London poor who "in the most miserable +lingering Manner do daily perish for Want in this Metropolis." And +in almost the next number his Honour gives his readers letters from +the fair <em>Cordelia</em>, from <em>Sarah Scandal</em>, and from +other correspondents, of a wit pleasant enough to drive London's +poverty far from their minds. Two days after attending to these +ladies, the <em>Censor</em> takes up his keenest weapons in an +attack on that "detestable vice of slander" by which is taken away +the "<em>immediate Jewel of a Man's Soul</em>," his good name; a +crime comparable to that of murder. Here we have <em>Sir +Alexander</em> speaking with the same voice as did the playwright +and journalist of ten years previously, when he declared, in his +<em>Miscellanies</em>, that to stab a man's character 'in the dark' +is no less an offence than to stab his flesh in the same +treacherous manner. Indeed, throughout these last columns of weekly +satire, wit, and learning, Fielding remains true to the constant +tenor of his genius. He exposes the miser, the seducer of +innocence, the self-seeker, the place-hunter, the degraded vendor +of moral poison, the 'charitable' hypocrite, with the same fierce +moral energy as that with which, when but a lad of one and twenty, +he first assailed the vices of the society in which his own lot was +cast. His unconquerable energy, an energy that neither sickness nor +distress could abate, still assaults that "cursed Maxim ... that +Everybody's business is Nobody's." And his wit has lost none of its +point when thrusting at the lesser follies of the day; at the fair +Clara's devotion to her pet monkey; at the insolence of the Town +Beau at the playhouse; at the arrogance of carters in the streets; +at the vagaries of fashion according to which Belinda graces the +theatre with yards of ruff one day, and on the next discards that +covering so entirely that the snowy scene in the boxes "becomes +extremely delightful to the eyes of every Beholder."</p> + +<p>It is quite impossible to convey, within the limits of a few +pages, all that <em>Sir Alexander</em> tells us of what he sees and +hears, as the tragi-comedy of life passes before his Bow Street +windows. For Fielding possessed in the highest degree the art of +hearing, to use his own analysis, not with the ear only (an organ +shared by man with "other Animals") but also with the head, and +with the heart; just as his eye could penetrate beneath the velvet +coat of the prosperous scoundrel, the reputation of the illiterate +author, or the sorry rags of some honest hero of the gutter. And +his <em>Covent Garden Journal</em> is, in truth, his journal of +eleven months of a life into the forty odd years of which were +compressed both the insight of genius, and the activities of twenty +average men. Such a record cannot be sifted into a summary. The +acknowledged motive of this last of Fielding's newspapers is, +however, concise enough; and does equal honour to his patriotism +and his humanity. The age, as it seemed to him, was an age of +public degradation. Religion was vanishing from the life of the +people; politics were a petty question of party jealousy; literary +taste was falling to the level of alehouse wit and backstairs +scandal; the youth of the nation were completing their education, +when fifteen or sixteen years old, by a course of the Town, and +then qualifying for a graduate's degree in like knowledge, by a +foreign tour; the 'mob' was gaining a dangerous excess of power; +the leaders of society were past masters and mistresses of vice and +folly; the poor in the streets were sunk in misery, or brutalised +into reckless crime. This was the England that <em>Mr Censor</em> +saw from his house in Bow Street; this was the England which he set +out to purify; and the means which he chose were his own familiar +weapons of satire and ridicule. Of these, ridicule, he declares, +when his <em>Journal</em> was but four weeks old, "is commonly a +stronger and better method of attacking Vice than the severer kind +of Satire." In accordance with which view, <em>General Sir +Alexander</em> is represented, in a mock historic forecast, as +having, in the space of twelve months, entirely cleansed his +country from the evils afflicting it, by means of a "certain Weapon +called a Ridicule." These evils moreover Fielding held to be most +readily combated by assailing "those base and scandalous Writings +which the Press hath lately poured in such a torrent upon us that +the Name of an Author is in the ears of all good Men become almost +an infamous appelation"; and, accordingly, the first number of his +new paper discloses <em>Sir Alexander</em> in full crusade against +these Grub-Street writers. But that he soon perceived the quixotic +impolicy of such a campaign, appears very clearly, as early as the +fifth number of the <em>Journal</em>:--"when Hercules undertook to +cleanse the Stables of Augeas (a Work not much unlike my present +Undertaking) should any little clod of Dirt more filthy perhaps +than all the rest have chanced to bedawb him, how unworthy his +Spirit would it have been to have polluted his Hands, by seizing +the dirty clod, and crumbling it to Pieces. He should have known +that such Accidents were incident to such an Undertaking: which +though both a useful and heroic office, was yet none of the +cleanliest; since no Man, I believe, ever removed great quantities +of Dirt from any Place without finding some of it sticking to his +skirts." Such dirty clods were undoubtedly thrown by nameless +antagonists, as unworthy of Fielding's steel as was one whose name +has come down to us, the despicable Dr John Hill, who once suffered +a public caning at Ranelagh; and one clod, "more filthy perhaps +than all the rest," soiled the hands of <a name= +"fnref15-2">Smollett</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn15-2">2</a> +But the dirt which was very freely flung on to our +eighteenth-century Hercules has, by now, fallen back, with great +justice, on to the heads of his abusers. Fielding has placed on +record, in the <em>Journal</em>, his conviction that the man who +reads the works of the five heroic satirists, Lucian, Cervantes, +Swift, Moliere and Shakespeare, "must either have a very bad Head, +or a very bad Heart, if he doth not become both a Wiser and a +better Man." To-day, 'party and prejudice' having subsided, we are +ready to say the same of the readers of the <em>Covent Garden +Journal</em>; perceiving that, if <em>Mr Censor</em>, like his five +great forerunners, chose to send his satire "laughing into the +World," it was that he might better effect the 'glorious Purpose' +announced in the fifth number of his paper: "However vain or +romantic the Attempt may seem, I am sanguine enough to aim at +serving the noble Interests of Religion, Virtue, and good Sense, by +these my Lucubrations."</p> + +<p>To most men the production, twice a week, of a newspaper so wide +in scope as the <em>Covent Garden Journal</em> (for its columns +included the news of the day, as well as the manifold 'censorial' +energies of <em>Sir Alexander</em>) would have been occupation +enough; especially with a "constitution now greatly impaired and +enfeebled," and when "labouring under attacks of the gout, which +were, of course, severer than ever."</p> + +<p>But there is no hint of either editorial or valetudinarian +seclusion in the fragmentary glimpses obtainable of Mr Justice +Fielding during these eleven months of 1752. Thus, by an +advertisement recurring throughout the <em>Journal</em>, he +expressly invites to his house in Bow Street, "All Persons, who +shall for the Future suffer by Robbers Burglars &c.," that they +may bring him "the best Description they can of such Robbers, +&c., with the Time, and Place, and Circumstances of the Fact"; +and that this invitation was likely to bring half London within his +doors appears from Fielding's own description of the condition of +the capital at the time. "There is not a street," he declares, +speaking of Westminster, "which doth not swarm all day with +beggars, and all night with thieves. Stop your coach at what shop +you will, however expeditious the tradesman is to attend you, a +beggar is commonly beforehand with him; and if you should directly +face his door the tradesman must often turn his head while you are +talking to him, or the same beggar, or some other thief at hand +will pay a visit to his shop!" And nothing could prove more +conclusively the arduousness of Fielding's work as a magistrate +than the record of the last ten days of January, 1752. On the night +of the 17th a peculiarly brutal murder had been perpetrated on a +poor higgler in Essex; and the <em>Journal</em> for January 28, +tells us how Fielding "spent near eight hours," examining, +separately, suspected persons, "at the desire of several gentlemen +of Fortune in the County of Essex"; having on the previous Friday +and Saturday, been engaged "above Twenty hours in taking +Depositions concerning this Fact." Then, on the day after the +arrival of the murder suspects, we find two of the Shoreditch +constables bringing no fewer than ten "idle lewd and disorderly" +men and women before the Justice; a woman was charged by a diamond +seller on suspicion of feloniously receiving "three Brilliant +Diamonds"; Mr Welch, the notable High Constable of Holborn, brought +seventeen "idle and lewd Persons" whom he had apprehended the night +before; and, to complete this single day's work, an Italian was +brought in, "all over covered with [the] Blood" of a brother +Italian, whose head he had almost cut off. Twenty-nine cases on one +day, and these in the midst of eight hour examinations concerning a +murder, were surely work enough to satisfy even Fielding's +energies. And, as another entry in his <em>Journal</em> mentions +the examination of a suspected thief "very late at Night," there +seems to have been no hour out of the twenty-four in which the +great novelist did not hold himself at the service of the +public.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the criminal licence of the streets was now receiving +Ministerial attention. The King's Speech, delivered at the opening +of Parliament in the previous November, had contained a passage +which might have been inspired by Fielding himself: "I cannot +conclude," said His Majesty, "without recommending to you in the +most earnest manner, to consider seriously of some effectual +provisions to suppress those audacious crimes of Robbery and +Violence which are now become so frequent...and which have +proceeded in great Measure from that profligate Spirit of +Irreligion, Idleness, Gaming, and Extravagance, which has of late +extended itself in an uncommon degree, to the Dishonour of the +Nation, and to the great Offence and Prejudice of the sober and +industrious Part of the People." Six weeks later the first number +of the <em>Journal</em>, makes comment on the need of fresh +legislation to suppress drunkenness; and on the twenty first of the +month <em>Sir Alexander</em> announces, with something of special +information in his tone, that the immediate suppression of crimes +of violence "we can with Pleasure assure the Public is at present +the chief attention of Parliament."</p> + +<p>It must have been with something of the pleasure which he so +earnestly desires in one of the last utterances of his pen--"the +pleasure of thinking that, in the decline of my health and life, I +have conferred a great and lasting Benefit on my Country,"--that +Fielding saw the royal assent given, in the following March, to an +Act for the "<em>better preventing Thefts and Robberies and for +regulating Places of Public Entertainment, and punishing Persons +keeping disorderly <a name="fnref15-3">Houses</a>.</em>" <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn15-3">3</a> For this Act is directed to the +suppression of four of the abuses so strongly denounced, twelve +months previously, in his own <em>Enquiry</em>; and when we recall +the fact that he had already submitted, to the Lord Chancellor, +draft legislation for the suppression of robberies, it is at least +a plausible surmise that here we have a memorial of Henry +Fielding's patriotic energy, preserved on the pages of the Statute +Book <a name="fnref15-4">itself</a>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn15-4">4</a> The four points so specially urged in the +<em>Enquiry</em>, and here made law, are the suppression of the +"multitude of places of Entertainment" for the working classes; the +better suppression of Gaming Houses; the punishment of the +scandalous advertisements offering rewards 'and no questions asked' +for stolen goods; and the payment of certain prosecutors for their +expenses in time and trouble, when a conviction had been +obtained.</p> + +<p>In this same month of March another Act, which closely concerned +Fielding's official work, received the royal assent. This was an +Act "for better preventing the horrid Crime of <a name= +"fnref15-5">Murder</a>." <a class="footnote" href="#fn15-5">5</a> +The pressing need of such a measure had been already urged in the +<em>Covent Garden journal</em>. In February the <em>Journal</em> +declares that <em>"More shocking Murders have been committed within +the last Year, than for many Years before. To what can this be so +justly imputed as to the manifest decline of Religion among the +lower People. A matter, which even, in a Civil Sense, demands the +attention of the Government."</em> And Mr Censor returns to the +subject on March 3: <em>"More Murders and horrid Barbarities have +been committed within the last twelvemonth, than during many +preceding years. This as we have before observed, is principally to +be attributed to the Declension of Religion among the Common +People."</em> By the end of the month the above-named Act had +received the royal assent; and the first clause thereof again +yielded Fielding the satisfaction of seeing a measure which he had +warmly recommended in his Enquiry now placed on the Statute Book, +namely the clause that the execution of the criminal be made +immediate on his conviction. This Act, moreover, provides for the +abatement of another scandal exposed by Fielding many years +previously, in the pages of Jonathan Wild, that of the excessive +supply of drink allowed to condemned prisoners.</p> + +<p>In the following month Fielding carried out a scheme, conceived +he tells us "some time since," for combating this prevalence of +murder. This was his shilling pamphlet, published about April 14, +entitled "Examples of the Interposition of Providence in the +<em>Detection</em> and <em>Punishment</em> of MURDER. Containing +above thirty cases, in which this dreadful crime hath been brought +to light in the most extraordinary and miraculous manner." The +advertisement describes the <em>Examples</em> as <em>"very proper +to be given to all the inferior Kind of People; and particularly to +the Youth of both sexes, whose natural Love of Stories will lead +them to read with Attention what cannot fail of Infusing in to +their tender Minds an early Dread and Abhorrence of staining their +Hands with the Blood of their Fellow-creatures"</em> Low as was the +price, a "large allowance" was made by Andrew Millar to those who +bought any quantity; and Fielding distributed the little volume +freely in Court.</p> + +<p>The thirty-three <em>Examples</em> are introduced and concluded +by Fielding's own denunciation of this, "the blackest sin, which +can contaminate the hands, or pollute the soul of man." And from +these pages we may learn his own solemnly declared belief in a +peculiarly "immediate interposition of the Divine providence" in +the detection of this crime; and also his faith in "the fearful and +tremendous sentence of eternal punishment" as that divinely +allotted to the murderer. He warns the murderer, moreover, that by +hurrying a fellow-creature to a sudden and unprepared death he may +be guilty of destroying not only his victim's body, but also his +soul. And it may be questioned whether Fielding ever put his +unrivalled mastery of style to a nobler intention than in the +closing words of this pamphlet, words designed to be read by the +lowest of the people: "Great courage may, perhaps, bear up a bad +mind (for it is sometimes the property of such) against the most +severe sentence which can be pronounced by the mouth of a human +judge; but where is the fortitude which can look an offended +Almighty in the face? Who can bear the dreadful thought of being +confronted with the spirit of one whom we have murdered, in the +presence of all the Host of Heaven, and to have justice demanded +against our guilty soul, before that most awful judgement-seat, +where there is infinite justice as well as infinite power?"</p> + +<p>The dedication of this pamphlet, dated Bow Street, April 8, +1752, is addressed to Dr Madox, Bishop of Worcester, and in it +Fielding recalls a conversation he had some time previously had +with that prelate, in which he had mentioned the plan of such a +book, and received immediate encouragement from his lordship. A +further appreciation of the <em>Examples</em> appears in a +paragraph in the <em>Journal</em> for May 5: "Last week a certain +Colonel of the Army bought a large number of the book called +<em>Examples of the Interposition of Providence in the Detection +and Punishment of Murder</em>, in Order to distribute them amongst +the private soldiers of his Regiment. An Example well worthy of +Imitation!"</p> + +<p>Fielding never allows us to forget for any length of time one or +another of his contrasting activities, however absorbed he may seem +to be in some one field of action. Now, when he is plunged in a +hand-to-hand struggle with the criminal conditions of London, when +he is admonishing the gayer end of the Town with his weekly +censorial satire and ridicule, and while he is watching the +enactment of new legislation for which he had so strenously +pleaded,--he suddenly reappears in his earlier rôle of classical +scholar. On June 17, the columns of the <em>Journal</em> advertise +proposals for "A New Translation into English of the Works of +LUCIAN. From the original Greek. With Notes, Historical, Critical +and Explanatory. By Henry Fielding Esquire; and the Rev. Mr William +Young." To which notice there is added, a few days later, the +assurance that "Everything which hath the least Tendency to the +Indecent will be omitted in this Translation." The most delightful, +perhaps, of all the leading articles in the <em>Covent Garden +Journal</em> is that in which the merits of this "Father of True +Humour" are delineated. The facetious wit, the "attic Elegance of +Diction," the poignant satire, the virtues and abilities of Lucian +are here so persuasively presented that scarce a reader but surely +would hasten, as he laid his paper down, to Mr Fielding's or Mr +Young's house, or to Millar in the Strand or Dodsley in Pall Mall, +where orders (with a guinea to be paid on booking the same) were +received. And this essay is also memorable for the express +declaration therein contained that Fielding had "formed his stile" +upon that of Lucian; and, again, as betraying a note of +disappointment, an acknowledgment that worldly fortune had indeed +treated him somewhat harshly, such as Fielding's sanguine courage +very seldom permits him to utter. The concluding words, written on +his own behalf and on that of Mr Young, are words of gentle protest +to the public for their lack of support to "two gentlemen who have +hitherto in their several capacities endeavoured to be serviceable +to them without deriving any great Emolument to themselves from +their Labours." And when he tells us how that 'glory of human +Nature, Marcus Aurelius' employed Lucian "in a very considerable +Post in the Government," since that great emperor "did not, it +seems, think, that a Man of Humour was below his Notice or unfit +for Business of the gravest Kind," we cannot but remember that the +business on which the Government of George II. thought fit to +employ the inimitable genius of Henry Fielding was that of a Bow +Street magistrate.</p> + +<p>The onerous drudgery of that business, or else lack of response +from a public deaf to its own interests, seems to have brought to +nothing the project of this translation; and so English literature +is the poorer for the loss of the works of the 'Father of Humour' +translated by the incomparable pen of the 'Father of the English <a +name="fnref15-6">Novel</a>.' <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn15-6">6</a></p> + +<p>Four months after the publication of the proposals for +<em>Lucian</em>, Fielding took formal leave of the readers of his +<em>Covent Garden Journal</em>, telling them that he no longer had +"Inclination or Leisure," to carry on the paper. His brief farewell +words contain an assurance very like that solemnly made, we may +remember, five years before the publication of <em>Tom Jones</em>. +At present, he declares, he has "No intention to hold any further +correspondence with the gayer Muses"; just as eight years before he +had announced that henceforth the 'infamous' Nine should have none +of his company. To this declaration is added a protest against the +injustice of attributing abuse to a writer who "never yet was, nor +ever shall be the author of any, unless to Persons who are or ought +to be infamous." From the tenor of this parting speech it is clear +that Fielding was, at the time, feeling keenly the imputation, +flung by some of his contemporaries, of producing 'scandalous +Writings'; unmindful for the moment of his own calmer and wiser +utterance, when he declared that men who engage in an heroic +attempt to cleanse their age will undoubtedly find some of the dirt +thereof sticking to their coats. "As he disdained all littleness of +spirit, where ever he met with it in his dealings with the world, +his indignation was apt to rise," says his contemporary Murphy; and +we know from earlier protests how cruelly Fielding suffered from +the attribution to his pen of writings utterly alien to his +character. "...really," he cries, in the last words of the +<em>Journal</em>, "it is hard to hear that scandalous Writings have +been charged on me for that very Reason which ought to have proved +the Contrary namely because they have been Scandalous."</p> + +<p>The year 1752 closes with the birth of another daughter, born +presumably in the house in Bow Street, as her baptism under the +name of Louisa is entered in the registers of St Paul's, Covent +Garden.</p> + +<p>The curtain that, in Fielding's case, hangs so closely over all +the pleasant intimate details of life, lifts once or twice during +this year of incessant activity, and discloses just those +warmhearted acts of kindness that help us to think of Harry +Fielding with an affection almost as warm and personal as that we +keep for Dick Steele or Oliver Goldsmith. Fielding, we know, had +"no other use for money" than to help those even less fortunate +than himself; and several incidents of this year show how he turned +his opportunities, both as journalist and magistrate, to like +generous uses. Thus there is the story of how, one day in March, "A +poor girl who had come from Wapping to see the new entertainment at +Covent Garden Theatre had her pocket cut off in the crowd before +the doors were opened. Tho' she knew not the Pickpocket she came +immediately to lay her complaint before the Justice and with many +tears lamented not the loss of her Money, but of her Entertainment. +At last, having obtained a sufficient Passport to the Gallery she +departed with great satisfaction, and contented with the loss of +fourteen shillings, though she declared she had not much more in +the <a name="fnref15-7">world</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn15-7">7</a> Another day, or night rather, it is a poor troup of +amateur players who had good reason to be grateful to the kindly +Justice:--"last Monday night an Information was given to Henry +Fielding Esquire: that a set of Barber's apprentices, Journeymen +Staymakers, Maidservants &c. had taken a large room at the +Black House in the Strand, to act the Tragedy of the Orphan; the +Price of Admittance One shilling. About eight o'clock the said +Justice issued his Warrant, directed to Mr Welch, High Constable, +who apprehended the said Actors and brought them before the said +Justice, who out of compassion to their Youth only bound them over +to their good behaviour. They were all conducted through the +streets in their Tragedy Dresses, to the no small diversion of the +<a name="fnref15-8">Populace</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn15-8">8</a> And in May both the ample energies and scanty purse +of Justice Fielding were occupied in collecting a subscription for +a young baker and his wife and child, who, by a disastrous fire, +were suddenly plunged into destitution. For these poor people +Fielding obtained no less a sum than £57, within a fortnight of his +announcement of their distress in the columns of the +<em>Journal</em>. The list of subscribers, published on May 16, +shows a guinea against his own name, and a like sum, it may be +noted, from the wealthy Lyttelton.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i364"><img src="images/364.jpg" alt= +"Henry Fielding" width="290" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>The splendour of Fielding's genius has shone, as Gibbon +foretold, throughout the world. His indefatigable labours in +cleansing England from some of the evils that then oppressed her +deserve to be remembered, if not by all the world, at least by the +citizens of that country which, in the decline of 'health and +life,' he yet strove so eagerly to benefit.</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter16">CHAPTER XVI</a><br> +<br> +POOR LAW REFORM</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"... surely there is some Praise due to the bare +Design of doing a Service to the Public."<br> + --Dedication of the <em>Enquiry</em>.</p> + +<p>It is evident that the beginning of the year 1753 found Fielding +fully conscious that now he could only anticipate a 'short +remainder of life.' But neither that consciousness, nor the +increasing burden of ill-health, availed to dull the energies of +these last years. Scarcely had that indomitable knight, General Sir +Alexander Drawcansir retired from the active public service of +conducting the <em>Covent Garden Journal</em> when his creator +reappeared with an astonishingly comprehensive and detailed plan of +poor-law reform; a plan adapted to the whole kingdom, and which +according to a legal comment involved "nothing less than the repeal +of the Act of Elizabeth and an entire reconstruction of the Poor <a +name="fnref16-1">Laws</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn16-1">1</a> Poor-law reform was at this time occupying the +attention of the nation, and apparently also of the legislature. +And we know, from the <em>Enquiry into the Increase of +Robberies</em>, that the question of lessening both the sufferings +and the criminality of the poor had for years occupied Fielding's +warm heart and active intellect. But the extent to which he devoted +these last months of his life to the cause of the poorest and most +degraded deserves more than a passing recognition. He tells us, in +the <em>Introduction</em> to the pamphlet embodying his great +scheme, that he has applied himself long and constantly to this +subject; that he has "read over and considered all the Laws, in +anywise relating to the Poor, with the utmost Care and Attention," +in the execution of which, moreover, he has been for "many Years +very particularly concerned"; and that in addition to this +exhaustive study of the laws themselves, he has added "a careful +Perusal of everything which I could find that hath been written on +this Subject, from the Original Institution in the 43d. of +<em>Elizabeth</em> to this Day." Such was the laborious +preparation, extending presumably over many months, which the +author of <em>Tom Jones</em>, and the first wit of his day, devoted +to solving this vast problem of social reform.</p> + +<p>Fielding was far too well skilled in the art of effective +construction to present the public with undigested note-books from +his voluminous reading. His scheme, based on all the laws, and upon +all the comments on all the laws, regarding the poor, enacted and +made for two hundred years, is a marvel of conciseness and +practical detail; and, together with an <em>Introduction</em> and +an <em>Epilogue</em>, does but occupy the ninety pages of a +two-shilling pamphlet.</p> + +<p>The pamphlet was published at the end of January 1753, with the +title <em>A Proposal for making an effectual Provision for the +Poor, for amending their Morals, and for rendering them useful +Members of the Society. To which is added a Plan of the Buildings +proposed, with proper Elevations ... By Henry Fielding, Esq.; +Barrister-at-Law, and one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace +for the County of Middlesex</em>. The dedication, dated January 19, +is to Henry Pelham, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and from it +we learn that Fielding had personally mentioned his scheme to this +Minister. The Introduction presents an eloquent appeal for some +effectual remedy for the intolerably diseased state of the body +politic as regarded the distresses and vices of the poor, their +unseen sufferings no less than their frequent misdeeds. Fielding +protests against the popular ignorance of these sufferings in words +that might have been spoken by some pleader for the East End +'Settlements' of to-day. "If we were," he declares, "to make a +Progress through the Outskirts of this Town, and look into the +Habitations of the Poor, we should there behold such Pictures of +human Misery as must move the Compassion of every Heart that +deserves the Name of human. What indeed must be his Composition who +could see whole Families in Want of every Necessary of Life, +oppressed with Hunger, Cold, Nakedness, and Filth, and with +Diseases, the certain Consequence of all these; what, I say, must +be his Composition, who could look into such a Scene as this, and +be affected only in his Nostrils?" As an instance of Fielding's +personal knowledge of the London slums of his day, a reference made +by Mr Saunders Welch to their joint work is of interest. Writing in +the same year, 1753, he mentions assisting "Mr Henry Fielding in +taking from under one roof upwards of seventy lodgers of both <a +name="fnref16-2">sexes</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn16-2">2</a></p> + +<p>To this little known misery of the poor, who "starve and freeze +and rot among themselves," was added the problem of streets +swarming with beggars during the day, and with thieves at night. +And the nation groaned under yet a third burden, that of the heavy +taxes levied for the poor, by which says Fielding "as woeful +experience hath taught us, neither the poor themselves nor the +public are relieved." To attack such a three-headed monster as this +was an adventure better fitted, it might seem, for that club which +"Captain Hercules Vinegar" had wielded thirteen years before, when +in the full tide of his strength, than for the pen of a man in +shattered health, and already serving the public in the daily +labours of a principal magistrate. But nothing could restrain the +ardour of Fielding's spirit, how frail so ever had become its +containing 'crust of clay,' when great abuses and great misery made +their call on his powers; or countervail against the hope, with +which the <em>Introduction</em> to his plan concludes. If that plan +fails, he shall indeed, he declares have "lost much Time, and +misemployed much Pains; and what is above all, shall miss the +Pleasure of thinking that in the Decline of my Health and Life, I +have conferred a great and lasting Benefit on my Country."</p> + +<p>The <em>Plan</em> is that of the erection of a vast combined +county workhouse, prison, and infirmary; where the unemployed +should find, not only work but <em>skilled instruction</em>, the +poor relief, and the sick a hospital; where discipline and good +order should be stringently enforced; and where two chaplains +should labour at that 'correction and amendment' of the mind which +"in real truth religion is alone capable of effectually executing." +The entire scheme is worked out with extraordinary detail, in +fifty-nine clauses; and is preceded by an elaborate architectural +plan of the proposed institution (which was to house no less than +five thousand six hundred persons) with its workshops, its men's +quarters rigorously divided from those for the women, its +recreation ground, its provision shops, its cells for the +refractory and for prisoners, and its whipping post. And the +pamphlet concludes by lengthy arguments in favour of the various +clauses; and by a personal protest concerning the disinterestedness +of proposals which "some few enemies" might assert to show signs of +a design for private profit. Fielding touchingly disavows any +thought of occupying, officially, the great house raised by his +imagination. To a man in his state of health such a project would, +he says, be to fly in the face of the advice of his 'Master,' +Horace; "it would be indeed <em>struere dotnos immemor +sepulchri.</em>" And, he adds, those who know him will hardly be so +deceived "by that Chearfulness which was always natural to me; and +which, I thank God, my Conscience doth not reprove me for, to +imagine that I am not sensible of my declining Constitution." The +concluding words of this, Fielding's last legislative effort, +betray a like calm assurance that his day's work was drawing to its +close. He has now, he tells us, "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 Objects of any such Laws as I +have here proposed."</p> + +<p>It is wholly in keeping with the genius of Henry Fielding that +almost the last endeavour of his intellect should have been devoted +to relieving the wretchedness and lessening the vices of the +poorest and most miserable of his countrymen. The <em>Proposal for +... the Poor</em> is written by the hand of the accomplished lawyer +and indefatigable magistrate; but the energy that accomplished so +great a labour, in spite of broken health and among a thousand +interruptions, sprang from the heart which had already immortalised +the ragged postilion of <em>Joseph Andrews</em> and the starving +highwayman of <em>Tom Jones</em>.</p> + +<p>This last January but one of Fielding's life was not only +occupied by the publication of proposals for an 'entire +reconstruction of the Poor Laws.' In 1753 a London magistrate, or +at least Mr Justice Fielding, was at the service of the public on +Sunday no less than during the week; and on the first Sunday of the +New Year the Bow Street room echoed to threats that read strangely +enough when we think of the unknown petty thief, threatening sudden +death to 'our immortal Fielding.' "Yesterday," says the <em>General +Advertiser</em> for Monday, January 8, "John Simpson and James +Ellys were commited to Newgate by Henry Fielding Esq., for +shop-lifting." The charge was one of stealing five silk +handkerchiefs, and when the two men "were brought before the +Justice they behaved in a very impudent saucy manner, and one of +them said hewished he had a Pistol about him, he would blow the +Justice's Brains out; upon which a Party of the Guards was sent for +who conducted them safe to Newgate." The Bow Street house, +moreover, must have been full not only of prisoners and witnesses +brought before the Justice, but also of victims of all manner of +theft. For two comprehensive notices appear in the +<em>Advertiser</em> for this month, repeating the previous +invitation accorded to such sufferers in the <em>Covent Garden +Journal</em>. On January 1, all persons cognizant of any burglary +robbery or theft are desired to communicate immediately with Mr +Brogden, clerk to Justice Fielding, "at his office at the said +Justice's in Bow Street." And again, towards the end of the month, +"All Persons that have been robbed on the Highway in the County of +Middlesex within this three months last past, are desired to apply +to Mr Brogden, at Mr Justice Fielding's in Bow Street, Covent +Garden." And here, too, came the solicitors that sought counsel's +opinion on their client's behalf, with their fees; the magistrate +of this period being under no disability in regard to his private +practice.</p> + +<p>It was to his reputation as an advising barrister, and perhaps a +little to the kindness of heart that must have been familiar to all +who knew him, that Fielding owed his connection with that +extraordinary popular excitement of 1753, the mysterious case of +the servant girl Elizabeth Canning. On the 29th of January 'Betty +Canning' presented herself, after a month's disappearance, at the +door of her mother's house in London, in a deplorable state of +weakness and distress, and declared that she had been kidnapped by +two men on New Year's night, taken to a house on the Hertford road, +and there confined by an old gipsy woman for twenty-eight days, in +a hay loft, with a pitcher of water and a few pieces of bread for +sole sustenance. On the twenty ninth day, according to her own +account, she escaped through a window and made her way back to her +home. Her neighbours, fired with pity for her sufferings, +subscribed means for a prosecution; and, says Fielding, in the +pamphlet which he published two months after these events, "Mr. +<em>Salt</em>, the Attorney who hath been employed in this Cause, +... upon this Occasion, as he hath done upon many others, ... fixed +upon me as the Council to be advised with." Then we have the +following little domestic sketch, the only picture left to us of +Henry Fielding as a practising barrister: "Accordingly, upon the +6<em>th</em> of <em>February</em>, as I was sitting in my Room, +Counsellor <em>Maden</em> being then with me, my Clerk delivered me +a Case, which was thus, as I remember, indorsed at the Top, The +Case of Elizabeth Canning <em>for</em> Mr Fielding's +<em>opinion</em>, and at the Bottom, <em>Salt</em>, Solr. Upon the +Receipt of this Case, with my Fee, I bid my Clerk give my Service +to Mr. <em>Salt</em> and tell him, that I would take the Case with +me into the Country, whither I intended to go the next Day, and +desired he would call for it the <em>Friday</em> Morning +afterwards; after which, without looking into it, I delivered it to +my Wife, who was then drinking Tea with us, and who laid it +by."</p> + +<p>Mr Brogden however presently returned upstairs, bringing the +solicitor with him, who earnestly desired his counsel not only to +read the case at once but also to undertake in his capacity of +magistrate an examination of the injured girl, and of a supposed +confederate of the gipsy. This task Fielding at first declined, +principally on the ground that he had been "almost fatigued to +death with several tedious examinations" at that time, and had +intended to refresh himself with a day or two's interval in the +country, where he had not been "unless on a Sunday, for a long +time." The persuasions of the solicitor, curiosity as to the +extrordinary nature of the case, and "a great compassion for the +dreadful condition of the girl," however induced him to yield; and +the next day the eighteen year old heroine of a story that was soon +to set all London quarrelling, was brought in a chair to Bow +Street, and then led upstairs, supported by two friends, into the +presence of the Justice. An issue of warrants followed upon her +examination, and a further examination of a suspected confederate +of the gipsy; the gipsy herself and her chief abettor having +already been arrested by another magistrate. Some days later, +Fielding being then out of town, "several noble Lords" sent to his +house, desiring to be present while he examined the gipsy woman; +and the matter being arranged, "Lord Montfort," says Fielding, +"together with several gentlemen of fashion came at the appointed +time." The company being in the Justice's room, the prisoners and +witnesses were brought up; and apparently some charge was +afterwards brought against Fielding as to the manner of his +examination, for he here takes occasion to declare, what all who +knew him must have known to be the truth, "I can truly say, that my +Memory doth not charge me with having ever insulted the lowest +Wretch that hath been brought before me." Public opinion became +hotly divided as to whether Betty Canning had indeed suffered all +she declared at the hands of the gipsy, Mary Squires, or had +maliciously endeavoured to perjure away the old woman's life. The +Lord Mayor, Sir Crisp Gascoyne, and Fielding's old antagonist the +despicable Dr Hill ardently supported the gipsy; Fielding, in the +pamphlet already quoted, and which was published in March, as +warmly espoused the cause of the maid servant whom he calls "a +poor, honest, innocent, simple Girl, and the most unhappy and most +injured of all human Beings." The excitement of the Town over this +melodramatic mystery is reflected in the fact that a second edition +of Fielding's pamphlet (entitled <em>A clear state of the Case of +Elizabeth Canning</em>) was advertised within a few days of its +first <a name="fnref16-3">publication</a>. <a class="footnote" +href="#fn16-3">3</a> And, also, in the appearance of the sixpenny +print, here for the first time reproduced, in which occurs the only +representation of Henry Fielding known to have been drawn during +his life time. This print, which bears the inscription "drawn from +the life by the Right Honourable the Lady Fa--y K--w," shows +Fielding's tall figure, his legs bandaged for gout, the sword of +Justice in his hand and her scales hanging out of his pocket, +speaking on behalf of his trembling client Elizabeth Canning; while +opposed to him are my Lord Mayor, the notorious Dr Hill, and the +old gipsy. The background is adorned with pictures of the newly +built Mansion House, and of the College of <a name= +"fnref16-4">Surgeons</a>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn16-4">4</a></p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i365"><img src="images/365.jpg" alt= +"Henry Fielding, defending Betty Canning from her accusers, the Lord Mayor, Dr Hill, and the Gipsy" + width="610" height="520"></a></p> + +<p>But for the glimpses it affords us of Fielding as a barrister, +and for his characteristic championship of what he was convinced +was the cause of innocence oppressed, this once famous case might +have been left undisturbed in the dust of the <em>State +Trials</em>, had it not incidentally been the means of preserving +two of the extremely rare letters of the novelist. These <a name= +"fnref16-5">letters</a>, <a class="footnote" href="#fn16-5">5</a> +hitherto unpublished, are addressed by Fielding to the Duke of +Newcastle, and were both written in the month following the +publication of his pamphlet. The fact that both letters are dated +from Ealing shows that his connection with what was then a pleasant +country village was earlier than has been supposed; and the acute +suggestions in the second letter seem to indicate a suspicion of +some of Betty Canning's supporters, if his conviction in the girl's +own innocence still remained unshaken.<br> +</p> + +<p>"My Lord Duke</p> + +<p>"I received an order from my Lord Chancellor immediately after +the breaking up of the Council to lay before your Grace all the +Affidavits I had taken since the Gipsey's Trial which related to +that Affair. I then told the Messenger that I had taken none, as +indeed the fact is the Affidavits of which I gave my Lord +Chancellor an Abstract having been all sworn before Justices of the +Peace in the Neighbourhood of Endfield, and remain I believe in the +Possession of an Attorney in the City.</p> + +<p>However in Consequence of the Commands with which your Grace was +pleased to honour me yesterday, I sent my Clerk immediately to the +Attorney to acquaint him with these Commands, which I doubt not he +will instantly obey. This I did from my great Duty to your Grace +for I have long had no Concern in this Affair, nor have I seen any +of the Parties lately unless once when I was desired to send for +the Girl (Canning) to my House that a great Number of Noblemen and +Gentleman might see her and ask her what Questions they pleased. I +am, with the highest Duty,</p> + +<p>"My Lord,<br> +"Your Graces most obedient<br> +"and most humble servant<br> +"Henry Ffielding.<br> +"Ealing. April 14, 1753<br> +"His Grace the<br> +"Duke of Newcastle."</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"My Lord Duke,</p> + +<p>"I am extremely concerned to see by a Letter which I have just +received from Mr Jones by Command of your Grace that the Persons +concerned for the Prosecution have not yet attended your Grace with +the Affidavits in Canning's Affair. I do assure you upon my Honour +that I sent to them the Moment I first received your Grace's +Commands and having after three Messages prevailed with them to +come to me I desired them to fetch the Affidavits that I might send +them to your Grace being not able to wait upon you in Person. This +they said they could not do, but would go to Mr Hume Campbell their +Council, and prevail with him to attend your Grace with all their +Affidavits many of which, I found were sworn after the Day +mentioned in the order of Council. I told them I apprehended the +latter could not be admitted, but insisted in the strongest terms +on their laying the others immediately before your Grace, and they +at last promised me they would, nor have I ever seen them since. I +have now again ordered my Clerk to go to them to inform them of the +last Commands I have received, but as I have no Compulsory Power +over them I can not answer for their Behaviour, which indeed I have +long disliked, and have therefore long ago declined giving them any +Advice, nor would I unless in Obedience to your Grace have anything +to say to a set of the most obstinate Fools I ever saw; and who +seem to me rather to act from a Spleen against my Lord Mayor, than +from any Motive of protecting Innocence, tho' that was certainly +their Motive at first. In Truth, if I am not deceived, I Suspect +they desire that the Gipsey should be pardoned, and then to +convince the World that she was guilty in order to cast the greater +Reflection on him who was principally instrumental in obtaining +such Pardon. I conclude with assuring your Grace that I have acted +in this Affair, as I shall on all Occasions with the most dutiful +Regard to your Commands, and that if my Life had been at Stake, as +many know, I could have done no more.</p> + +<p>"I am, with the highest Respect,<br> +"My Lord Duke<br> +"Y Grace's most obedient,<br> +"and most humble servant,<br> +"Henry Ffielding.<br> +"Ealing<br> +"April 27. 1753.<br> +"His Grace the Duke of Newcastle."</p> + +<p>The dates of these letters show Fielding to have been at Ealing +in the early spring of this year; and thus afford some confirmation +of Lysons' remark in his <em>Environs of London</em>, published +forty years later that "Henry Fielding had a country house at +Ealing where he resided the year before his <a name= +"fnref16-6">death</a>." <a class="footnote" href="#fn16-6">6</a> In +May a connection with Hammersmith is indicated, in the burial there +of his little daughter Louisa. The entry in the Hammersmith +Registers is as follows: "May 10th. Louisa, d. of Henry Fielding +Esqr."</p> + +<p>The nearer Fielding's life draws to its premature close, the +greater his physical suffering, so much the more eager seems his +desire to leave behind him some practical achievement. We have +already seen and wondered at his gigantic scheme for poor-law +reform, published in the beginning of this year of fast declining +'health and life.' Six months later came the commission in the +execution of which the remains of that health and life were +literally sacrificed in the effort to win some provision for his +family, in the event of his own death. Early in August the +distinguished Court surgeon John Ranby had persuaded him to go +immediately to Bath. And he tells us, in that <em>Journal of a +Voyage to <a name="fnref16-7">Lisbon</a>,</em> <a class="footnote" +href="#fn16-7">7</a> from which we have, from his own lips, the +details of these last months, "I accordingly writ that very night +to Mrs Bowden, who, by the next post, informed me she had taken me +a lodging for a month certain." At this moment, when preparing for +his journey, and while "almost fatigued to death with several long +examinations, relating to five different murders, all committed +within the space of a week, by different gangs of street robbers," +Fielding received what might indeed be called a fatal summons to +wait on the Duke of Newcastle, at his house in Lincoln's Inn +Fields, to consult on a means for "putting an immediate end to +those murders and robberies which were every day committed in the +streets." This visit cost him a severe cold; but, notwithstanding, +he produced, in about four days, a scheme for the destruction of +the "then reigning gangs" of robbers and cut-throats, and for the +future protection of the public, which was promptly accepted, and +the execution of which was confided into Fielding's hands. "I had +delayed my Bath-journey for some time," he proceeds, "contrary to +the repeated advice of my physical acquaintance, and to the ardent +desire of my warmest friends, tho' my distemper was now turned to a +deep jaundice; in which case the Bath-waters are generally reputed +to be almost infallible. But I had the most eager desire of +demolishing this gang of villains and cut-throats." After some +weeks the requisite funds were placed at Fielding's disposal; and +so successful were his methods, that within a few days, the whole +gang was dispersed, some in custody, others in flight. His health +was by this time "reduced to the last extremity"; but still, he +tells us, he continued to act "with the utmost vigour against these +villains." And, amid all his 'fatigues and distresses,' the +satisfaction he so ardently desired came to him. During the +"remaining part of the month of November and in all December," +those darkest of months, not only was there no such thing as a +murder, but not one street robbery was committed. When we recall +the amazing condition of London at this time, when street robberies +and murders were of almost daily occurrence, we realise the +magnitude of this achievement on the part of a dying man. "Having +thus fully accomplished my undertaking," Fielding continues, "I +went into the country in a very weak and deplorable condition, with +no fewer or less diseases than a jaundice, a dropsy, and an asthma, +altogether uniting their forces in the destruction of a body so +entirely emaciated, that it had lost all its muscular flesh." It +was now too late to apply the Bath treatment; and even had it been +desirable it was no longer possible, for the sick man's strength +was so reduced that a ride of six miles fatigued him intolerably. +The Bath lodgings, which Fielding, surely with his old invincible +hopefulness, had hitherto kept were accordingly relinquished; and +even his sanguine nature realised the desperate condition of his +case. At this point in his narration he breaks off with a +characteristically frank disclosure of the chief motive which had +inspired him to the heroic exertions of these later months of 1753. +At the beginning of the winter his private affairs it seems, "had +but a gloomy aspect." The aspect of his own tenure of life we know. +And hence to distress of body was added that keenest of all +distresses of the mind, the despair of putting his family beyond +the reach of necessity. It was gladly therefore that Fielding +offered up the 'poor sacrifice' of his shattered health, in the +hope of securing a pension for his family, in case his own death +were hastened by these last labours for the public.</p> + +<p>If sickness was not allowed to hinder Fielding's energies for +the benefit of the public, and for the future provision of his +family, neither did he permit it to dull the activities of +friendship. Early in December, when his illness must have been +acute, he wrote the following hitherto unpublished letter to the +Lord Chancellor, on behalf of his friend Mr Saunders <a name= +"fnref16-8">Welch</a>: <a class="footnote" href="#fn16-8">8</a></p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"My Lord,</p> + +<p>"As I hear that a new Commission of the Peace is soon to pass +the Great Seal for Westm'r. give me Leave to recommend the name of +Saunders Welch, as well as to the next Commission for Middx. 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 justifie 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,</p> + +<p>"My Lord,<br> +"Your Lordship's most obedient<br> +"and most humble servant,<br> +"Henry Ffielding."<br> +"Decr 6. 1753<br> +"To the Lord High Chancellor"</p> + +<h2><a name="chapter17">CHAPTER XVII</a><br> +<br> +VOYAGE TO LISBON--DEATH</h2> + +<p class="quoted">"satisfied in having finished my life, as I have +probably lost it in the service of my country."<br> + <em>Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon</em>.</p> + +<p>To a man dying of a complication of disorders the terrible +winter of 1753-4 brought added danger; a winter which, says +Fielding, "put a lucky end, if they had known their own interests, +to such numbers of aged and infirm valetudinarians." But this, too, +his splendid constitution struggled through; and in February 1754, +he was back in town, in a condition less despaired of, he tells us, +by himself than by any of his friends.</p> + +<p>And if he did not allow himself to despair, neither did he, even +now, relinquish all his magistrate's work. On the 26th of February +cases are actually recorded as brought before <a name= +"fnref17-1">him</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fn17-1">1</a> But +within a few days, apparently, of this date treatment employed on +the advice of Dr Joshua Ward, so weakened a body already 'enervate' +and emaciated, that at first the patient "was thought to be falling +into the agonies of death." On March 6, he was, he tells us, at his +worst--that "memorable day when the public lost Mr Pelham. 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."</p> + +<p>Before the expiration of these two months that 'little degree of +strength' was again being expended in the drudgery of the Bow +Street court-room. "Yesterday," states the <em>Public +Advertiser</em> of April 17, "Elizabeth Smith was committed to +Newgate by Henry Fielding Esqre; being charged with stealing a +great quantity of <a name="fnref17-2">Linnen</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn17-2">2</a> And five days later, on April 22, a +committal is recorded in the Middlesex <em>Sessions <a name= +"fnref17-3">Book</a></em>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn17-3">3</a></p> + +<p>Although Fielding could now leave his sickroom, when called +thence to commit a thief to Newgate, a newspaper paragraph, dated a +little earlier in this same month of April, shows that the public +were apprehensive that the protection afforded them by their +indefatigable magistrate was now of a very precarious duration. The +writer refers to the complete success of Mr Fielding's +<em>Plan</em> for the subjugation of criminals, executed the +previous winter, pointing out that "the Public who had such Reason +to suspect the contrary have suffered fewer Outrages than have +happened any Winter this Twenty years." And without making any +direct statement as to the fast failing strength of the author and +executor of that <em>Plan</em>, he continues in words that plainly +indicate the abdication of those zealous energies: "The whole Plan +we are assured is communicated to Justice John Fielding and Mr +Welch who are determined to bring it to that perfection of which it +is capable." This 'assurance' of the <em>Advertiser</em> is +confirmed by Fielding's own words in the <em>Voyage to Lisbon</em>. +"I therefore" he says, speaking clearly of the winter or spring of +1753-4, "resigned the office [of principal Justice of the Peace in +Westminster] and the farther execution of my plan to my brother, +who had long been my assistant."</p> + +<p>This blind brother, who in his turn became famous as a London +magistrate, was now a Justice of the Peace for <a name= +"fnref17-4">Middlesex</a> <a class="footnote" href="#fn17-4">4</a> +as well as for Westminster; and was at this time living in the +Strand, as the Resident <a name="fnref17-5">Proprietor</a> <a +class="footnote" href="#fn17-5">5</a> of that enterprising +<em>Universal Register Office</em> which has won incidental +immortality in his brother's pages, and which combined such +heterogeneous activities as those of an Estate Office, Registry for +servants of good character, Lost Property Office, Curiosity Shop +and General Agency.</p> + +<p>Another announcement in the columns of the <em>Advertiser</em> +links this last Spring of Fielding's life with that earlier Spring +of 1743, when as a popular play-wright and a struggling barrister, +absorbed in anxiety for the health of a beloved wife and with his +own health already attacked, he published that masterpiece of irony +<em>Jonathan Wild</em>. Now, while he was still slowly drawing his +'feet out of the grave,' after those critical first days of March, +a new edition of the <em>History</em> of that "Great Man," with +"considerable Corrections and Additions," was advertised; the +actual date of publication being, apparently, about March 19. The +new edition appeared with a prefatory note, "from the Publisher to +the Reader," which although it bears no signature conveys, +undoubtedly, Fielding's intention, if not his actual words. There +is the familiar protest against the "scurrility of others," the +odium of which had fallen on the innocent shoulders of "the author +of our little book"; and there is a solemn declaration that the +said little book shows no reason for supposing any 'personal +application' to be meant in its pages "unless we will agree that +there are without those Walls [i.e. of Newgate], some other bodies +of men of worse morals than those within; and who have +consequently, a right to change places with its present +inhabitants." Then follows an explicit reference to a chapter in +the <em>History</em> of the arch-villain Wild, which is obviously +designed to satirise the condition of English politics, if not the +person of any one politician. The disclaimer, seems on the whole, +to partake very properly of the ironic nature of the ensuing pages; +although it recalls that youthful declaration of the young +dramatist, prefixed to his first comedy acted nearly thirty years +before, that no private character was the target of his pen.</p> + +<p>At the end of these two months of March and April, spent as we +have seen in acquiring some little degree of strength, and in at +least attempting to expend the same on the consignment of petty +thieves to Newgate, Fielding again submitted his dropsy to the +surgeon, the consequences of which he now bore much better. This +improvement, he tells us, he attributed greatly to "a dose of +laudanum prescribed by my surgeon. It first gave me the most +delicious flow of spirits, and afterwards as comfortable a nap." +Lady Mary Wortley Montagu has recorded how her cousin's 'happy +constitution,' even when half-demolished, could enjoy, with +undiminished zest "a venison pasty, or a flask of champagne." +Surely none other than Henry Fielding could have recorded with like +zest this 'delicious flow of spirits' and 'comfortable nap' derived +from a dose of laudanum.</p> + +<p>The month of May, with its promise of relief from the still +lingering winter, had now begun. Fielding therefore resolved, he +says, to visit a little country house of his "which stands at +Ealing, in the county of Middlesex, in the best air, I believe, in +the whole <a name="fnref17-6">kingdom</a>." <a class="footnote" +href="#fn17-6">6</a> Towards the end of the month, he had resort to +a long forgotten eighteenth century panacea, the tar-water +discovered by Bishop Berkeley; and very soon experienced effects +far beyond his "most sanguine hopes." Success beyond Fielding's +most sanguine hopes must have been great indeed; and accordingly we +hear how this tar-water, from the very first, lessened his illness, +increased his appetite, and very slowly added to his bodily +strength. By the end of the month a third application by his +surgeon revealed distinctly favourable symptoms; but still both the +dropsy and the asthma were becoming more serious; and the summer, +which the doctors seemed to think the sick man's 'only chance of +life' seemed scarce likely to visit England at all in that sunless +year. "In the whole month of May the sun scarce appeared three +times" we learn, from the <em>Voyage</em>. Fearing therefore the +renewed assaults of winter, before he had recruited his forces so +as "to be in anywise able to withstand them," Fielding resolved, +with the approval of a very eminent physician, to put an already +formed project into immediate execution. This was to seek further +recovery in some warmer climate. At first Aix was thought of, but +here the difficulties of travel in the reign of George II. for +invalids of slender means, proved insuperable. The journey by land, +"beside the expense of it," Fielding found to be "infinitely too +long and fatiguing"; and no ship was announced as sailing within +'any reasonable time' for that part of the Mediterranean. Lisbon +accordingly was decided upon; and John Fielding soon discovered a +ship with excellent passenger accommodation, and which was due to +sail in three days. "I eagerly embraced the offer," writes +Fielding, as though he were starting on a pleasure cruise, instead +of facing all the miseries of travel, when unable to make the least +use of his limbs, and when his very appearance "presented a +spectacle of the highest horror"; and he adds "I began to prepare +my family for the voyage with the utmost expedition." Twice, +however, the captain put off his sailing, and at length his +passenger invited him to dinner at Ealing, a full week after the +declared date of departure. Meanwhile Fielding's condition seems at +least to have become no worse, for the <em>Public Advertiser</em> +of June 22 has "the pleasure to assure the Publick that the Report +of the Death of Henry Fielding Esquire; inserted in an Evening +paper of Thursday is not true, that Gentleman's Health being better +than it has been for some Month's past."</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i366"><img src="images/366.jpg" alt= +"Justice Saunders Welch" width="332" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>It was not till the 26th of June that, in the memorable opening +words of the <em>Voyage</em>, "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." The morning was +spent with his children, the eldest of whom was then a boy of six; +and "I doubt not," he writes, "whether, in that time, I did not +undergo more than in all my distemper." At noon his coach was at +the door, and this "was no sooner told me than I kiss'd my children +round, and went into it with some little resolution." His wife, +behaving "more like a heroine and philosopher, tho' at the same +time the tenderest mother in the world," and his eldest daughter, +followed him; and the invalid was swiftly driven the twelve miles +to Rotherhithe. Here the task of embarking a man quite bereft of +the use of his limbs had to be accomplished. This difficulty was +overcome with the aid of Saunders Welch, the friend of whom +Fielding says "I never think or speak of but with love and <a name= +"fnref17-7">esteem</a>" <a class="footnote" href="#fn17-7">7</a>; +and, at last, the traveller was "seated in a great chair in the +cabin," after fatigues, the most cruel of which he declares to have +been the inhuman jests made upon his wasted and helpless condition +by the rows of sailors and watermen through whom he had been +compelled to pass.</p> + +<p>From this moment we may read of the pleasures and thoughts, the +experiences and meditations, but scarcely ever of the sufferings of +the dying novelist, in the pages of what has been well called "one +of the most unfeigned and touching little tracts in our own or any +other <a name="fnref17-8">literature</a>" <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn17-8">8</a> Confined for six weeks in the narrow prison of an +eighteenth century trading vessel; unable to move save when lifted +by unskilled hands; with food often intolerable to the healthiest +appetite; with no relaxation save the company of the rough old +sea-dog who commanded the <em>Queen of Portugal;</em> and fully +conscious that his was a mortal illness,--the inexhaustible +courage, the delight in man and in nature, the genius of Henry +Fielding still triumphed over every external circumstance. +Throughout the voyage, fortune, moreover, seemed determined to heap +on the unhappy traveller all manner of additional discomforts; and +yet when we lay down this little volume "begun in pain, and +finished almost at the same period with <a name= +"fnref17-9">life</a>," <a class="footnote" href="#fn17-9">9</a> the +pictures left on the mind glow almost as brightly as those which +fill the pages written in the full vigour of Fielding's manhood, +and which, as Coleridge said, breathe the air of a spring +morning.</p> + +<p>First came a delay of three days off the squalid shores of +Wapping and Rotherhithe, whereby opportunity was afforded of +"tasting a delicious mixture of the air of both these sweet +places," and of enjoying such a concord of the voices of seamen, +watermen, fishwomen, oyster women and their like as Hogarth +indicated "in that print of his which is enough to make a man deaf +to look at." This delay, moreover, threatened to bring Fielding +within need of a surgeon when none should be procurable. His friend +Mr William Hunter of Covent Garden, brother of the more famous John +Hunter, relieved this apprehension; but now fresh trouble occurred +in the torments of toothache which befell Mrs Fielding. A servant +was despatched in haste to Wapping, but the desired 'toothdrawer,' +arrived after the ship had at last, on Sunday morning, the 30th of +June, left her unsavoury moorings. That Sunday morning "was fair +and bright," and the diarist records how, dropping down to +Gravesend, "we had a passage thither I think as pleasant as can be +conceiv'd." The yards of Deptford and Woolwich were 'noble sights'; +the Thames with its splendid shipping excelled all the rivers of +the world; and the men of war, the unrivalled Indiamen, the other +traders, and even the colliers and small craft, all combined to +form "a most pleasing object to the eye, as well as highly warming +to the heart of an Englishman, who has any degree of love for his +country, or can recognise any effect of the patriot in his +constitution." And here Fielding gives us a notable example of his +own healthy taste in recreation; a taste agreeing very ill with the +scurrilous popular myths concerning him, but entirely consonant +with the manifest atmosphere of his genius. He deplores the general +neglect of "what seems to me the highest degree of amusement: that +is, the sailing ourselves in little vessels of our own"; an +amusement which need not "exceed the reach of a moderate fortune, +and would fall very short of the prices which are daily paid for +pleasures of a far inferior rate."</p> + +<p>Fortune, as we have said, seemed to grudge every little pleasure +that could have alleviated the condition of the helpless invalid on +board the <em>Queen of Portugal.</em> The relief obtained from Mr +Hunter, he tells us, "the gaiety of the morning, the pleasant +sailing with wind and tide, and the many agreeable objects with +which I was constantly entertained during the whole way, were all +suppressed and overcome by the single consideration of my wife's +pain, which continued incessantly to torment her." The second +despatch of a messenger, in great haste to bring the best reputed +operator in Gravesend recalls Murphy's words: "Of sickness and +poverty he was singularly patient and under pressure of those evils +he could quietly read <em>Cicero de Consolatione;</em> but if +either of them threatened his wife he was impetuous for her +relief." The remedies both of the Gravesend 'surgeon of some +eminence,' and of yet another practitioner, who was sent for from +Deal, were ineffectual; but about eight in the evening of the +following day, when the ship under contrary winds, was at anchor in +the Downs, Mrs Fielding fell asleep; and to that accident we owe +one of the most characteristic passages in the <em>Voyage.</em> His +wife's relief from pain would, Fielding tells us, "have given me +some happiness, could I have known how to employ those spirits +which were raised by it: but unfortunately for me, I was left in a +disposition of enjoying an agreeable hour, without the assistance +of a companion, which has always appeared to me necessary to such +enjoyment; my daughter and her companion were both retired sea-sick +to bed; the other passengers were a rude school boy of fourteen +years old, and an illiterate Portuguese friar, who understood no +language but his own, in which I had not the least smattering. The +captain was the only person left, in whose conversation I might +indulge myself; but unluckily for me, besides his knowledge being +chiefly confined to his profession, he had the misfortune of being +so deaf, that to make him hear my words, I must run the risque of +conveying them to the ears of my wife, who, tho' in another room +(called, I think, the state-room; being indeed a most stately +apartment capable of containing one human body in length, if not +very tall, and three bodies in breadth) lay asleep within a yard of +me. In this situation necessity and choice were one and the same +thing; the captain and I sat down together to a small bowl of +punch, over which we both soon fell fast asleep, and so concluded +the evening." In the record of the previous day, while sketching +the humours of Jacks in office, Fielding incidentally shows himself +as no less careful of the respect due to his wife than he was +solicitous for her comfort. A ruffianly custom-house officer had +appeared in their cabin, wearing a hat adorned with broad gold +lace, and 'cocked with much military fierceness.' On eliciting the +information that 'the gentleman' was a riding surveyor, "I +replied," says Fielding, "that he might be a riding surveyor, but +could be no gentleman, for that none who had any title to that +denomination, would break into the presence of a lady, without any +apology or even moving his hat. He then took his covering from his +head, and laid it on the table, saying he asked pardon." To this +'riding surveyor' we owe also an indication that Fielding found +room in the narrow confines of a cabin for his Plato; for the rude +insolence of that functionary recalls to his mind the Platonic +theory of the divine original of rulers, and he proceeds to quote a +long passage from the <em>Laws</em>, which even his ready +scholarship could scarce have had by heart.</p> + +<p>Contrary winds continued to baffle all Captain Veal's +seamanship, and afforded his passenger opportunities for a spirited +protest concerning the need of some regulation both of the charges +of long-shore boatmen, and of the manners of captains in the Royal +Navy. On the evening of July 8 the <em>Voyage</em> records that "we +beat the sea off Sussex, in sight of Dungeness, with much more +pleasure than progress; for the weather was almost a perfect calm, +and the moon, which was almost at the full, scarce suffered a +single cloud to veil her from our sight"; and on the 18th of the +month the <em>Queen of Portugal</em> put in to Ryde, at which place +she remained wind-bound for no less than eleven days.</p> + +<p>These eleven days Fielding spent, by his wife's persuasions, on +shore, at the poor village inn which, together with a little church +and some thirty houses, then constituted the village of Ryde. Of +the hardships and humours of that sojourn the <em>Voyage</em> +affords an account worthy of a place among the pages of either of +the three great novels. The landlady, an incredibly mean and +heartless shrew, inflicted daily annoyances and extortions on her +wind-bound victims. The squalid building, partly constructed of +wreck-wood, could scarce house the party. The food supplies, other +than those the visitors brought with them, were chiefly 'rusty +bacon, and worse cheese,' with very bad ale to drink. And on the +first afternoon, the house was found to be so damp from recent +scrubbing that Mrs Fielding, who "besides discharging excellently +well her own, and all the tender offices becoming the female +character; who besides being a faithful friend, an amiable +companion, and a tender nurse, could likewise supply the wants of a +decrepit husband, and occasionally perform his part," hastily +snatched the invalid from "worse perils by water than the common +dangers of the sea," and ordered dinner to be laid in a dry and +commodious barn. So seated, "in one of the most pleasant spots, I +believe, in the kingdom," and regaled on bacon, beans, and fish, +"we completed," says Fielding, "the best, the pleasantest, and the +merriest meal, with more appetite, more real, solid luxury, and +more festivity, than was ever seen in an entertainment at +White's."</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i367"><img src="images/367.jpg" alt= +"Ryde--1795" width="642" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>On Sunday the three ladies went to church, "attended by the +captain in a most military attire, with his cockade in his hat, and +his sword by his side" (Captain Veal had commanded a privateer); +and Fielding, while left alone, pursued those researches into human +nature of which he never wearied by conversation with the landlord, +a fine example of henpecked humanity. On the following day the +ladies, again attended by Captain Veal, enjoyed a four mile walk, +professing themselves greatly charmed with the scenery, and with +the courtesy of a lady who owned a great house on this part of the +coast, and 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." Within twenty four hours this generous +householder had sent a message to the inn, placing all that her +garden or house afforded at the disposal of the travellers. +Fielding's man-servant was despatched with proper acknowledgements, +and returned "in company with the gardener, both richly laden with +almost every particular which a garden at this most fruitful season +of the year produces."</p> + +<p>That evening, on a change of wind, Captain Veal came to demand +his passengers' instant return. This would have been "a terrible +circumstance to me, in my decayed condition," admits Fielding, +"especially as very heavy showers of rain, attended with a high +wind, continued to fall incessantly; the being carried thro' which +two miles in the dark, in a wet and open boat, seemed little less +than certain death." Happily the wind again veered till the +following morning, when Fielding and the three ladies, together +with their manservant and maid, were safely re-embarked, not +however without much agitation over the temporary loss of their +tea-chest. This calamity was first compensated by the prompt aid of +the hospitable lady aforementioned, and then averted by the +diligent search of William the footman who at last discovered the +hiding place of the missing 'sovereign cordial,' and thus, +concludes his master, "ended this scene, which begun with such +appearance of distress, and ended with becoming the subject of +mirth and laughter." Once more on board, Ryde and its beautiful +prospect, its verdant elms, its green meadows, and shady lanes all +combining in Fielding's opinion to make a most delightful +habitation, faded from view. And, by seven o'clock, "we sat down" +he says, "to regale ourselves with some roasted venison, which was +much better drest than we imagined it would be, and an excellent +cold pasty which my wife had made at Ryde, and which we had +reserved uncut to eat on board our ship, whither we all cheerfully +exulted in being returned from the presence of Mrs Humphreys, [the +landlady] who by the exact resemblance she bore to a fury, seemed +to have been with no great propriety settled in Paradise."</p> + +<p>It is while commenting on the charm of the view from Ryde,--"I +confess myself so entirely fond of a sea prospect, that I think +nothing on the land can equal it,"--that Fielding incidentally +utters that extraordinary reference to Sir Robert Walpole as "one +of the best of men and of ministers." The only explanation of these +words at all consonant with what we know of Fielding's life seems +to be that here he adopts once more his familiar use of irony.</p> + +<p>The cheerfulness of spirit with which the invalid encountered +every fresh distress, and 'exulted' in every pleasant sight and +trifling pleasure, during those days at Ryde, is very fully +reflected in the following letter, happily preserved from the +untoward fate which has apparently befallen every other intimate +word from his pen. It was written to his brother John, on the first +day of anchorage off Ryde.</p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>"On board the Queen of Portugal, Richd. Veal at anchor on the +Mother Bank, off Ryde, to the care of the Post Master of +Portsmouth--this is my Date and y'r Direction.</p> + +<p>"July 12 1754</p> + +<p>"Dear Jack, After receiving that agreeable Lre from Mess'rs. +Fielding & Co., 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 Well being 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 Incidents which +fall under yr Cognizance will possibly be consigned 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 Brethern in Commission, Please to direct yr Answer +to me on Board as in the Date, if gone to be returned, and then +send it by the Post and Pacquet to Lisbon to</p> + +<p>"Y'r affec't. Brother<br> +"H. <a name="fnref17-10">Fielding</a> <a class="footnote" href= +"#fn17-10">10</a><br> +"To John Fielding Esq. at his House in Bow Street Cov. Garden +London."</p> + +<p>It is probable, as Mr Austin Dobson has pointed out, that the +Mrs Daniel, whose anxieties Fielding here shows himself anxious to +relieve, was his second wife's mother. And by this time his brother +was doubtless occupying that house in Bow Street so frequently +advertised to the public, when any work was on foot for their +protection, as the residence of 'Henry Fielding, Esqre.'</p> + +<p>The almost diabolic figure of the Ryde landlady had scarcely +left his pages, when Fielding found a new subject for his +portraiture, in the pretentious ill-bred follies of a young +officer, a nephew of the captain, who arrived on board to visit his +uncle, and who serves as an excellent foil for the simple-hearted +merits of the elder man. A rising wind, however, cut short the +Lieutenant's stories, and two nights later blew a hurricane which +Fielding declares, "would have given no small alarm to a man, who +had either not learnt what it is to die, or known what it is to be +miserable"; continuing, in words that need no comment, "my dear +wife and child must pardon me, if what I did not conceive to be any +great evil to myself, I was not much terrified with the thoughts of +happening to them: in truth, I have often thought they are both too +good, and too gentle, to be trusted to the power of any man." The +sea he loved so well was not to be Fielding's grave. Early the next +morning the <em>Queen of Portugal</em> was at anchor in Torbay; and +the whole party sat down "to a very chearful breakfast."</p> + +<p>For a whole week the travellers were kept wind-bound off the +Devon coast, now at anchor, now making vain efforts to proceed. We +hear of the 'fine clouted cream,' and the delicious cyder of the +county (two hogsheads of which latter Fielding purchased as +presents for his friends); of the excellence of the local fish +named 'john dóree,' of the scandalous need of legislation for the +protection of sea-men when ashore from land-sharks, a digression +which includes a pleasant interpretation of the myth of Ulysses and +Circe as none other than the dilemma of a Homeric merchant skipper +whose crew Circe "some good ale-wife," had made drunk "with the +spirituous liquors of those days"; of the difficulty with which +Fielding could persuade his wife "whom it was no easy matter for me +to force from my side" to take a walk on shore; and of the +captain's grievous lamentations, which "seemed to have some mixture +of the Irish howl in <a name="fnref17-11">them</a>," <a class= +"footnote" href="#fn17-11">11</a> when his cat was accidentally +suffocated. Also, to these last wind-bound days belongs that famous +incident which does perhaps no less honour to the hot tempered +tyrannical old skipper than to his illustrious passenger.</p> + +<p class="centered"><a name="i368"><img src="images/368.jpg" alt= +"Lisbon--1793" width="660" height="500"></a></p> + +<p>Fielding, having just finished dinner, was enjoying some good +claret in the cabin, with his wife and her friend--a cheerful +moment, when conversation 'is most agreeable,' when Tom, the +captain's general factotum, burst in on them and began, without +saying a 'by your leave', to bottle half a hogshead of small beer. +After requests and protests, equally unavailing, this functionary +found himself, says Fielding, threatened "with having one bottle to +pack more than his number, which then happened to stand empty +within my reach." Thereupon Tom reported his version of the matter +to the captain, who came thundering down to the cabin in a rage +that knew no bounds of language or civility. This behaviour from a +man who had received not only liberal payment from his passenger +for accommodation, but also such frequent stores of fresh +provisions that Fielding's private purse had indeed gone some way +in maintaining the ship's crew, that passenger justly resented, and +to a hasty resolve of quitting the ship by a hoy that should carry +him to Dartmouth, he added threats of legal action. The 'most +distant sound of law,' however, he tells us, "frightened a man, who +had often, I am convinced, heard numbers of cannon roar round him +with intrepidity. Nor did he sooner see the hoy approaching the +vessel, than he ran down again into the cabin, and his rage being +perfectly subsided, he tumbled on his knees, and a little too +abjectly implored for mercy. I did not suffer a brave man and an +old man, to remain a moment in this posture; but I immediately +forgave him." It is this incident that Thackeray chooses to +complete his picture of the great novelist; adding that memorable +comparison between the "noble spirit and unconquerable generosity" +of Fielding, and the lives of many unknown heroes of the sea: "Such +a brave and gentle heart, such an intrepid and courageous spirit I +love to recognise in the manly the English Harry Fielding."</p> + +<p>Within a week of this reconciliation the ship had made such +progress southward that the captain 'in the redundancy of his good +humour, declared he would go to church at Lisbon on Sunday next' +(not the least pleasant of the pictures which Fielding gives us of +the privateer is that of his summoning all hands on deck on a +Sunday morning and then reading prayers 'with an audible voice'); +but again the wind played him false, becalming him near Cape +Finisterre. This last calm, however, brought with it sufficient +compensation: "tho' our voyage was retarded, we were entertained +with a scene which as no one can behold without going to sea, so no +one can form an idea of anything 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 +description, 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 presented 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."</p> + +<p>Four days later, at midnight, the anchor was cast off Lisbon, +after a calm and moonlit passage up the Tagus, a passage, Fielding +writes, "incredibly pleasant to the women, who remained three hours +enjoying it, while I was left to the cooler transports of enjoying +their pleasures at second-hand; and yet, cooler as they may be, +whoever is totally ignorant of such sensation, is, at the same +time, void of all ideas of friendship."</p> + +<p>On the day following, the 24th of June, he landed, and that +evening enjoyed the long unknown luxury of a good supper, in a kind +of coffee-house "very pleasantly situated on the brow of a hill, +about a mile from the city, [which] hath a very fine prospect of +the River Tajo from Lisbon to the sea." With that pleasant prospect +the Voyage closes. Begun as it was to while away the enforced +solitude of his cabin, a condition, which no man, he tells us, +disliked more than himself and which mortal sickness rendered +especially irksome, these pages, some of which "were possibly the +production of the most disagreeable hours which ever haunted the +author," reveal Fielding to us if not as Mr Lowell has said "with +artless inadvertence" at least with perfect fullness. The undimmed +gaiety of spirit, the tender affection, the constant desire to +remove those evils which he found oppressing his country-men by sea +not less than on land, the 'enthusiasm for righteousnes,' the +humour of the first of English novelists, burn here as brightly as +though the writer were but midway in his life's voyage. The hand +that exposed evil in its native loathsomeness in a Blifil and a +Wild has not lost its cunning in depicting Mrs Humphreys; the eye +that delighted in the green fields of England saw in the southern +sunset that which made human creations 'almost below the regard of +children.' And to the last the patriotic energies of the author of +<em>Pasquin</em> and of the <em>Champion</em>, of the whole hearted +social reformer, of the tireless magistrate, knew no relaxation. +Page after page of the <em>Voyage</em> justify the passage in which +he tells us how "I would indeed have this work, which, if I live to +finish it (a matter of no great certainty, if indeed of any great +hope to me), will be probably the last I shall ever undertake, to +produce some better end than the mere diversion of the reader"; and +manifest his desire, here explicitly stated, to finish life "as I +have probably lost it, in the service of my country."</p> + +<p>We have no knowledge concerning the four months following the +last entry in the pages of the <em>Voyage to Lisbon</em>. On +October 8, 1754, the end so calmly expected came; and in the +beautiful English cemetery, facing the great Basilica of the Heart +of Jesus, was laid to rest all that an alien soil could claim of +'our immortal Fielding.'</p> + +<h2>APPENDIX<br> +<a name="appendixa">A</a></h2> + +<p><em>The Hapsburg genealogy</em></p> + +<p>It appears that the Hapsburg descent, formerly claimed by the +Denbigh family, must now be abandoned. The arguments against this +descent, published by Mr Horace Round, have been accepted by Burke. +Further, Dr G. F. Warner permits me to publish his statement that +"I have myself seen the documents upon which it [the claim] rests, +and found them to be unmistakeable forgeries."</p> + +<p>As regards Henry Fielding's family it is interesting to find +that his grandfather the Rev. and Hon. John Fielding was not only +Canon of Salisbury, and a Doctor of Divinity, but also Archdeacon +of Dorsetshire. Canon John Fielding was buried at Salisbury. His +son George (Henry Fielding's uncle) was Lt. Colonel of the "Royal +Regiment of the Blues," and Groom of the Bed-chamber to Queen Anne +and to George II. He is buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor. (J. +Nichols. <em>History and Antiquities of Leicestershire</em>. 1810. +Vol. iv. pt. i. p. 394.)</p> + +<p><a href="#fn1-2">Back to Chapter 1, footnote 2.</a></p> + +<h2>APPENDIX<br> +<a name="appendixb">B</a></h2> + +<p><em>Receipt and Assignment of "Tom Jones"</em></p> + +<p>The following documents are in the possession of Alfred Huth +Esq., and are now first published</p> + +<p><br> +June 11 1748. Rec'd. of Mr. Andrew Millar Six hundred Pounds being +in full for the sole Copy Right of a Book called the History of a +Foundling in Eighteen Books. And in Consideration of the said Six +Hundred Pounds I promise to asign over the said Book to the said +Andrew Millar his Executors and assigns for ever when I shall be +thereto demanded.</p> + +<table summary="Table: 600 pounds"> +<tr> +<td>£</td> +<td>s</td> +<td>d</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>£600,</td> +<td>00,</td> +<td>00.</td> +<td>Hen. Ffielding</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>The said Work to contain Six Volumes in Duodecimo.</p> + +<p>Know all Men by these Presents that I Henry Fielding of St. +Paul's Covent Garden in the County of Middlesex Esq'r. for & in +consideration of the Sum of Six hundred Pounds of lawful Money of +Great Britain to me in hand paid by Andrew Millar of St. Mary le +Strand in the County afores'd. Bookseller the Receipt whereof is +hereby acknowledged and of which I do Acquit the s'd. Andrew Millar +his Executors & Assigns, have bargained sold delivered assigned +& set over all that my Title Right and Property in & to a +certain Book printed in Six Volumes, known & called by the Name +& Title of The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, inv'd. +written by me the s'd. Henry Fielding, with all Improvements, +Additions or Alterations whatsoever which now are or hereafter +shall at any time be made by me the s'd. Henry Fielding, or any one +else by my authority to the s'd. Book To Have and to Hold the s'd. +bargained Premises unto the s'd. Andrew Millar, his Ex'ors Adm'ors +or Assigns for ever And I do hereby covenant to & with the s'd. +Andrew Millar his Ex'ors Adm'ors & Assigns that I the s'd. +Henry Fielding the Author of the s'd. bargained Premises have not +at any time heretofore done committed or suffered any Act or thing +whatsoever by means whereof the s'd bargained Premises or any part +thereof is or shall be impeached or encumbered in any wise And I +the s'd Henry Fielding for myself my Ex'ors Adm'ors & Assigns +shall warrant & defend the s'd bargained Premises for ever +against all Persons whatsoever claiming under me my Ex'ors Adm'ors +or Assigns.</p> + +<p>In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal this +twenty fifth day of March One thousand seven hundred & forty +nine.</p> + +<table summary="Table: H Ffielding and Seal"> +<tr> +<td>H Ffielding</td> +<td><img src="images/seal.gif" alt="Seal" width="140" height="137"> </td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Signed sealed & delivered<br> +by the within named Henry<br> +Fielding the day and year within<br> +mentioned, in the presence of<br> +Jos. Brogden</p> + +<p><a href="#fn11-5">Back to Chapter 11, footnote 5.</a></p> + +<h2>APPENDIX<br> +<a name="appendixc">C</a></h2> + +<p>"<em>Pasquin turned Drawcansir</em>"</p> + +<p>The <em>General Advertiser</em> for March 13, 1752, Page 3, +advertises, as for Macklin's Benefit, at the Theatre Royal, Covent +Garden,</p> + +<p>"A New Dramatic Satire of Two Acts, call'd Covent Garden +Theatre; or Pasquin turned Drawcansir Censor of Great Britain</p> + +<p>Written on the Model of the Comedies of Aristophanes and the +Pasquinades of the Italian Theatre in Paris; With Chorusses of the +People after the manner of the Greek Drama. The Parts of the Pit, +and Boxes, the Stage, and the Town to be performed by themselves +for their Diversion; the Part of several dull disorderly Characters +in and about St. James, to be performed by certain Persons for +Example; and the Part of Pasquin-Drawcansir to be performed by his +Censorial Highness, for his Interest.</p> + +<p>The Satire to be introduced by an Oration, and to conclude by a +Peroration: Both to be spoken from the Rostrum, in the Manner of +certain Orators by Signer Pasquin."</p> + +<p>This advertisement is also in the <em>Covent Garden +Journal</em>, with the addition of "galleries" after the word +<em>Boxes</em>. According to Dibdin, <em>History of the Stage</em>, +Vol. V. (preface dated 1800) p. 156, this satire was <em>by</em> +Macklin.</p> + +<p><a href="#fn15-2">Back to Chapter 15, footnote 1.</a></p> + +<h2>APPENDIX<br> +<a name="appendixd">D</a></h2> + +<p><em>The Walpole 'anecdote'</em></p> + +<p>The following reference to Fielding occurs in a letter by Horace +Walpole, to George Montagu, dated May 18, 1749. It may be prefaced +by the statement that Fielding's strenuous opposition to Sir Robert +Walpole was not likely to be overlooked by Sir Robert's son; and by +Mr Austin Dobson's comment "his [Horace Walpole's] absolute +injustice, when his partisan spirit was uppermost, is everywhere +patent to readers of his Letters ... the story no doubt exaggerated +when it reached him, loses nothing under his transforming and +malicious pen." Walpole writes: "He [Rigby] and Peter Bathurst +t'other night carried a servant of the latter's, who had attempted +to shoot him, before Fielding; who, to all his other vocations, +has, by the grace of Mr Lyttelton, added that of Middlesex justice. +He sent them word he was at supper, that they must come next +morning. They did not understand that freedom, and ran up, where +they found him banqueting with a blind man, a whore, and three +Irishmen, on some cold mutton and a bone of ham, both in one dish, +and the dirtiest cloth. He never stirred nor asked them to sit. +Rigby, who had seen him so often come to beg a guinea of Sir C. +Williams, and Bathurst, at whose father's he had lived for +victuals, understood that dignity as little, and pulled themselves +chairs; on which he civilised."</p> + +<p>The 'blind man' was doubtless the half brother later to be +knighted for his distinguished public services, Sir John Fielding; +and, adds Mr Austin Dobson, "it is extremely unlikely the lady so +discourteously characterised could have been any other than his +wife, who Lady Stuart tells us 'had few personal charms.' There +remain the 'three Irishmen' who may, or may not, have been +perfectly presentable members of society. At all events, their mere +nationality, so rapidly decided upon, cannot be regarded as a +stigma." Bearing in mind, on the one hand, our knowledge of +Fielding as he reveals himself in his own pages, and in his +friendships, and on the other the character earned by Horace +Walpole's pen, it seems matter for doubt whether this 'anecdote' +deserves even a place in an appendix.</p> + +<p><a href="#fn13-2">Back to Chapter 13, footnote 2.</a></p> + +<h2>APPENDIX<br> +<a name="appendixe">E</a></h2> + +<p><em>Fielding's Will</em></p> + +<p>Fielding's will was discovered in the Prerogative Court of +Canterbury, by Mr G. A. Aitken. It is undated:--</p> + +<p>IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN--I HENRY FIELDING of the parish of +Ealing 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 whatsoever 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 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--</p> + +<p>Proved 14th November 1754.</p> + +<p>Extracted from the Principal Registry of the Probate Divorce and +Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice</p> + +<p>In the Prerogative Court of Canterbury</p> + +<p>November 1754</p> + +<p>HENRY FIELDING Esquire--On the fourteenth day Administration +(with the Will annexed) of the Goods Chattels and Credits of Henry +Fielding late of Ealing in the County of Middlesex but at Lisbon in +the Kingdom of Portugal Esquire deceased was granted to John +Fielding Esquire the Uncle and Curator or Guardian lawfully +assigned to Harriet Fielding Spinster a Minor and Sophia Fielding +an Infant the natural and lawfull Daughters of the said Deceased +and two of the Residuary Legatees named in the said Will for the +use and benefit of the said Minor and Infant and until one of them +shall attain the age of twenty one years for that Ralph Allen +Esquire the sole Executor and Residuary Legatee in Trust named in +the said Will hath renounced as well the Execution thereof as +Letters of Administration (with the said Will annexed) of the Goods +Chattels and Credits of the said deceased and Mary Fielding Widow +the Relict of the said deceased and the other Residuary Legatee +named in the said Will hath also renounced Letters of +Administration (with the said Will annexed) of the Goods Chattels +and Credits of the said deceased--the said John Fielding having +been first sworn duly to administer.</p> + +<p>In addition to the property mentioned here, Fielding possessed a +library, as Mr Austin Dobson <a name="fnrefa-1">discovered</a>, <a +class="footnote" href="#fna-1">1</a> which when sold six months +after his death, "for the Benefit of his Wife and Family," realised +£364, 7s. 1d. or "about £100 more than the public gave in 1785 for +the books of <a name="fnrefa-2">Johnson</a>." <a class="footnote" +href="#fna-2">2</a> Also according to the <em>Recollections of the +Late John Adolphus</em>, by Henderson, Fielding purchased a 90 +years' lease of a house near Canterbury, for one of his +daughters.</p> + +<p>Of the children mentioned in this will, William became, a +contemporary writer tells us, "an eminent barrister at law and +inherits the integrity of his father and a large share of his +brilliant <a name="fnrefa-3">talents</a>." <a class="footnote" +href="#fna-3">3</a> Mr Austin Dobson refers to William Fielding as +being like his father "a strenuous advocate of the poor and +unfortunate," and adds that the obituary notice in the +<em>Gentleman's Magazine</em> records his worth and <a name= +"fnrefa-4">piety</a>. <a class="footnote" href="#fna-4">4</a> +Harriet Fielding is said to have been of "a sweet temper and great +<a name="fnrefa-5">understanding</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fna-5">5</a> Allen Fielding became Vicar of St. Stephens +Canterbury, and was "greatly beloved by all, especially the little +children," writes a descendant. Allen Fielding's four sons all took +Orders, and of the second, Charles, it was written on his death, +that "he had not only a heart that could feel for others, but a +heart that lived in <a name="fnrefa-6">giving</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fna-6">6</a> The noble qualities of Henry +Fielding found their echo in his descendants.</p> + +<h2>APPENDIX<br> +<a name="appendixf">F</a></h2> + +<p><em>Fielding's Tomb and Epitaph</em></p> + +<p>Fielding's present tomb, in the beautiful English cemetery at +Lisbon, was erected in 1830. On one side is inscribed:</p> + +<p>LUGET BRITANNIA GREMIO NON DARI<br> +FOVERE NATUM</p> + +<p>On the other side are the following lines:</p> + +<p class="centered">Henrici Fielding<br> +A Somersetensibus apud Glastoniam oriundi<br> +Viri summo ingenio<br> +en quae restant:<br> +Stylo quo non alius unquam<br> +Intima qui potuit cordis reserare mores hominum excolendos<br> +suscepit<br> +Virtuti decorum, vitio foeditatem asseruit, suum cuique +tribuens;<br> +Non quin ipse subinde irritaretur evitandis<br> +Ardensin amicitia, in miseria sublevanda effusus<br> +Hilaris urbanus et conjux et pater adamantus.<br> +Aliis non sibi vixit<br> +Vixit sed mortem victricem vincit dum natura durat dum saecula<br> +currunt<br> +Naturae prolem scriptis prae se ferens<br> +Suam et sua genlis extendet <a name="fnrefa-7">famam</a>. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fna-7">7</a></p> + +<h2>APPENDIX<br> +<a name="appendixg">G</a></h2> + +<p><em>Fielding's posthumous play "The Fathers"</em></p> + +<p>Fielding's play <em>The Fathers</em> or <em>The Good-natured +Man</em> seems to have been lost (apparently after being submitted +to Sir Charles Hanbury Williams) till twenty years after Fielding's +death. It was discovered by M'r Johnes, M.P. for Cardigan, in 1775, +or 1776, who sent it to Garrick. Garrick recognised it as "Harry +Fielding's Comedy"; and, after revision, it was produced at Drury +Lane on November 30, 1778. Garrick not only appeared in the cast, +but also wrote both prologue and epilogue. A note, in the Morrison +Manuscripts, from Garrick to D'r John Hoadley, dated January 3, +1776, concludes thus "We have found the lost sheep, Henry +Fielding's Good Natured Man which was mislaid near twenty <a name= +"fnrefa-8">years</a>." <a class="footnote" href="#fna-8">8</a> In +the following pleasant letter Sir John Fielding commends Mrs +Fielding's Benefit night to Dr Hunter.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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 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 <a +name="fnrefa-9">Friendship</a>. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fna-9">9</a></p> + +<p>"Bow Street, Dec'r 4, 1778."</p> + +<h2>APPENDIX<br> +<a name="appendixh">H</a></h2> + +<p><em>Undated Accounts of Fielding at Salisbury and at +Barnes</em></p> + +<p>Research has so far failed to identify the period of Fielding's +traditional residence in Salisbury. According to the following +passage in <em>Old and New Sarum or Salisbury</em>, by R. Benson +and H. Hatcher, 1843, he occupied three houses in or near +Salisbury. "It is well known that Fielding the Novelist married a +lady of Salisbury named Craddock [sic] and was for a time resident +in our City. From tradition we learn that he first occupied the +house in the Close at the south side of St Anne's Gate. He +afterwards removed to that in St Anne's Street next to the Friary; +and finally established himself in the Mansion at the foot of +Milford Hill, where he wrote a considerable portion of his <em>Tom +<a name="fnrefa-10">Jones</a></em>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fna-10">10</a></p> + +<p>Fielding's residence in Barnes is no less illusive. The +following passage occurs in the edition of 1795 of <em>Lyson's +Environs of London</em>: "Henry Fielding, the celebrated Novelist, +resided at Barnes, in the house which is now the property of Mr <a +name="fnrefa-11">Partington</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fna-11">11</a> In the edition of 1811 the house is described as +"now the property of Mrs Stanton, widow of the late Admiral <a +name="fnrefa-12">Stanton</a>." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fna-12">12</a> In Manning and Bray's <em>Surrey</em> the name of +the house is given: "On Barnes Green is a very old house called +Milbourne House.... It was once the residence of Henry Fielding the +celebrated novel writer. The widow of Admiral Stanton is the +present owner of this <a name="fnrefa-13">house</a>." <a class= +"footnote" href="#fna-13">13</a> The Barnes Rate-books appear to +throw no light on the date of Fielding's residence at Milbourne +House. It is noteworthy that both the Barnes and Salisbury +statements indicate a man of some means, living as befitted a +Fielding.</p> + +<h2>APPENDIX<br> +<a name="appendixi">I</a></h2> + +<p><em>An undated letter of Fieldings to Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu</em></p> + +<p>The following undated letter is printed in <em>The Letters and +Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu</em> edited by Lord Wharncliffe +and W. M. Thomas. Lord Wharncliffe includes it with the letters +from originals among the Wortley <a name="fnrefa-14">papers</a>. <a +class="footnote" href="#fna-14">14</a></p> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p>Wednesday evening</p> + +<p>Madam,--I have presumed to send your ladyship a copy of the play +which you did me the honour of reading three acts of last spring, +and hope it may meet as light a censure from your ladyship's +judgment as then; for while your goodness permits me (what I esteem +the greatest, and indeed only happiness of my life) to offer my +unworthy performances to your perusal, it will be entirely from +your sentence that they will be regarded, or disesteemed by me. I +shall do myself the honour of calling at your ladyship's door +to-morrow at eleven, which, if it be an improper hour, I beg to +know from your servant what other time will be more convenient. I +am with the greatest respect and gratitude, madam,</p> + +<p>Your ladyship's most obedient, most devoted humble servant.</p> + +<h2>APPENDIX<br> +<a name="appendixj">J</a></h2> + +<p>FIELDING'S <em>Tom Thumb</em></p> + +<p>This play appears to have carried some political significance in +Fielding's day; if it was not, indeed, written with a political +intention. This may be gathered from an article in the <em>Daily +Post</em> of March 29, 1742, apropos of a performance of the +<em>Tragedy of Tragedies</em>, that night, at Drury Lane. The +article attributes, in detail, political intentions to the +<em>Tragedy</em>--"a Piece at first calculated to ridicule some +particular Persons and Affairs in Europe (at the Time it was writ) +but more especially in this Island."</p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 1</h3> + +<p><a name="fn1-1">1</a>. Chancery Proceedings 1720 sqq. +<em>Fielding</em> v. <em>Fielding</em>. From the records of this +Chancery suit, instituted on behalf of Henry Fielding and his +brother and sisters, as minors, by their grandmother Lady Gould, +are taken the hitherto unpublished facts concerning the novelist's +boyhood, contained in this chapter. The original documents are +preserved in the Record Office. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref1-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-2">2</a>. See <a href="#appendixa">Appendix A</a>. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref1-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-3">3</a>. By means of a legacy of £3000 left by her +father for his daughter's sole use, "her husband having nothing to +doe with it." <a class="footnote" href="#fnref1-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-4">4</a>. <em>History and Antiquities of +Leicestershire</em>. J. Nichols. 1810. Vol. iv. Part i. p. 292. +Nichols does not state his authority for this statement, and it is +not confirmed by local records. See Hutchins' <em>History of +Dorset</em> for the list of Stour Provost rectors. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref1-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-5">5</a>. Chancery Proceedings, 1722. +<em>Fielding</em> v. <em>Midford</em>. Record Office. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref1-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-6">6</a>. Edmund's name was added in October +following. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref1-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-7">7</a>. <em>Chancery Decrees and Order +Books</em>. Record Office. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref1-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-8">8</a>. Tom Jones, Book xiii. Introduction. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref1-8">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-9">9</a>. Ibid., Book viii., ch. xiii. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref1-9">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-10">10</a>. <em>Tom Jones</em>, Book ix. +Introduction. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref1-10">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-11">11</a>. See <em>infra</em>, chap. xi. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref1-11">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-12">12</a>. Fifty years ago a portrait of the +beautiful heiress, in the character of Sophia Western, was still +preserved at the house of Bellairs, near Exeter, then the property +of the Rhodes family. The present ownership of the picture has, so +far, eluded inquiry. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref1-12">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn1-13">13</a>. <em>Fielding</em>, Austin Dobson, p. +202. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref1-13">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 2</h3> + +<p><a name="fn2-1">1</a>. <em>Joseph Andrews</em>, Book iii. Chap. +iii. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref2-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn2-2">2</a>. <em>Miscellanies</em>,ed. 1743, vol. ii. +p. 62. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref2-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn2-3">3</a>. In the <em>Miscellanies</em> of 1743. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref2-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn2-4">4</a>. <em>Fielding</em>, Austin Dobson, 1907. +App. iv. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref2-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn2-5">5</a>. What appears to be the original autograph +of the above letter is now (1909) in the library of the Boston +Athenaeum, having been presented by Mr C. P. Greenough. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref2-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn2-6">6</a>. <em>Notitia Dramatica</em> (British +Museum. MSS. Dept.) and Genest give 1734 as the date of Don +Quixote; Murphy, edition of 1766, vol. iii p. 249, gives 1733. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref2-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn2-7">7</a>. For the refutation of Genest's confusion +of Timothy Fielding, a strolling player, with Henry Fielding, see +Austin Dobson, <em>Fielding</em>, pp. 28, 29. <a class="footnote" +href="#fnref2-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn2-8">8</a>. The <em>Miscellanies</em>. Edition 1743. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref2-8">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 3</h3> + +<p><a name="fn3-1">1</a>. <em>Tom Jones</em>. Book xiii. +Introduction. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref3-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn3-2">2</a>. See the registers of St Mary Charlcombe. +As Sarah Fielding, the novelist's sister, was buried in the +entrance to the chancel of this church, it would appear that some +connection existed between Charlcombe and the Fielding family. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref3-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn3-3">3</a>. <em>Seasonable Reproof--a Satire in the +manner of Horace</em>, 1735. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref3-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn3-4">4</a>. The entry in the East Stour Registers is +"W'm. Young, Curate 1731-1740." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref3-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn3-5">5</a>. <em>Voyage to Lisbon</em>. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref3-5">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for chapter 4</h3> + +<p><a name="fn4-1">1</a>. <em>Works of Henry Fielding</em>, Edited +by Edmund Gosse. Introduction, p. xxi. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref4-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn4-2">2</a>. <em>Life of Garrick</em>. T. Davies. +1780, vol. i. p. 223. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref4-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn4-3">3</a>. <em>Notitia Dramatica</em>, MSS. Dept. +British Museum, speaks of <em>Pasquin</em> as performed for the +fortieth time on April 21, 1736: and quotes an advertisement of the +play for March 5. There seems to be no record of the actual first +night. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref4-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn4-4">4</a>. Rich appears to have been the manager at +Covent Garden from 1733 to 1761. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref4-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn4-5">5</a>. <em>Autobiography of Mrs Delany.</em> +1861. Vol I. p. 554. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref4-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn4-6">6</a>. See Fielding's ironic reference to such +"iniquitous surmises" in the Dedication to the <em>Historical +Register</em>. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref4-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn4-7">7</a>. The earliest newspaper reference, so far +available, is that of the <em>Daily Journal</em> for April 6 1737, +which speaks of April 11 as the ninth day of the <em>Register</em>. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref4-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn4-8">8</a>. In the succeeding Epilogue of +<em>Eurydice Hiss'd</em> it must be admitted that Sir Robert's love +of the bottle is broadly satirised. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref4-8">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn4-9">9</a>. <em>Daily Advertiser</em>, April 29. +1737. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref4-9">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn4-10">10</a>. <em>Life of Garrick</em>, T. Davies, +vol. ii. p. 206. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref4-10">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 5</h3> + +<p><a name="fn5-1">1</a>. <em>Life of Garrick</em>. T. Davies, vol. +ii. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref5-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn5-2">2</a>. <em>Works of Henry Fielding</em>, edited +by Edmund Gosse. Introduction, p. xxix. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref5-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn5-3">3</a>. <em>The Works of Mr George Lillo, with +some Account of his Life</em>, T. Davies. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref5-3">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 6</h3> + +<p><a name="fn6-1">1</a>. The fullest newspaper for theatrical +notices at this date, preserved in the British Museum, the +<em>London Daily Post</em>, is unfortunately missing for this year. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref6-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-2">2</a>. Now first printed, from documents at the +Record Office. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref6-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-3">3</a>. A table inscribed by a former owner as +having belonged to Henry Fielding, Esq., novelist, is now in the +possession of the Somersetshire Archaeological Society. The +inscription adds that Fielding "hunted from East Stour Farm in +1718." He would then be eleven years old! <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref6-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-4">4</a>. From the hitherto unpublished original, +in the library of Alfred Huth, Esq. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref6-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-5">5</a>. "Cro: Eliz." is the legal abbreviation +for Justice Croke's law reports for the reign of Elizabeth. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref6-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-6">6</a>. <em>Champion</em>, February 26, 1740. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref6-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-7">7</a>. <em>The Tryal of Colley Cibber, Comedian +etc.</em> 1740. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref6-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-8">8</a>. Those of April 22, and April 29, 1740. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref6-8">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-9">9</a>. And see <em>Daily Gazeteer</em>, Oct. 9, +1740. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref6-9">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-10">10</a>. <em>Champion</em>, December 22, 1739. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref6-10">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-11">11</a>. For April 22, April 29, May 6, and May +17. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref6-11">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn6-12">12</a>. Boswell's <em>Johnson</em>, edited by +Birkbeck Hill. Vol. i. p. 169. n. 2: "Ralph ... as appears from the +minutes of the partners of the <em>Champion</em> in the possession +of Mr Reed of Staple Inn, succeeded Fielding in his share of the +paper before the date of that eulogium [1744]." <a class="footnote" +href="#fnref6-12">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 7</h3> + +<p><a name="fn7-1">1</a>. A tantalising reference to one such +acquaintance occurs in Lord Campbell's <em>Lives of the +Chancellors</em>. Vol. v. p. 357. In notes made by Lord Camden's +nephew, George Hardinge, for a proposed Life of the Lord Chancellor +there is this entry: "formed an acquaintance ... with Henry +Fielding ... called to the Bar." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref7-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn7-2">2</a>. Now in the possession of W. K. Bixby, +Esq., of St Louis, U.S.A. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref7-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn7-3">3</a>. In a manuscript copy of the Minutes, in +the possession of the present writer. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref7-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn7-4">4</a>. <em>London Daily Post</em>, June 18-26, +1741. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref7-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn7-5">5</a>. The hard frost would be the terrible +preceding winter of 1739-40, a winter long remembered for the +severity of the cold, the cost of provisions, and the suffering of +the poor. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref7-5">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 8</h3> + +<p><a name="fn8-1">1</a>. <em>Cleopatra and Octavia</em>. Sarah +Fielding. Introduction. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref8-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn8-2">2</a>. See the ledgers of Woodfall, the printer, +quoted in <em>Notes and Queries</em>, Series vi. p. 186.<a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref8-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn8-3">3</a>. It is interesting to note that Samuel +Rogers was heard to speak with great admiration of chapter xiii. of +Book iii., entitled "A curious Dialogue which passed between Mr +Abraham Adams and Mr Peter Pounce." (MS. note by Dyce, in a copy of +<em>Joseph Andrews</em>, now in the South Kensington Museum.) <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref8-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn8-4">4</a>. This copy, published in Amsterdam in +1775, is now in the possession of Mr Pierpont Morgan. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref8-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn8-5">5</a>. Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu. Vol. ii. p. 194. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref8-5">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 9</h3> + +<p><a name="fn9-1">1</a>. <em>Daily Post</em>, June 5, 1742. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref9-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn9-2">2</a>. MS. copy of the Minutes of the Meetings +of the Partners in the <em>Champion</em>, in the possession of the +present writer. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref9-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn9-3">3</a>. See <em>Daily Post</em>. May 29, 1742. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref9-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn9-4">4</a>. Preface to the <em>Miscellanies</em>. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref9-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn9-5">5</a>. Such as the inscription on some verses, +published in the <em>Miscellanies</em>, as "Written +<em>Extempore</em> in the Pump-room" at Bath, in 1742. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref9-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn9-6">6</a>. Preface to <em>David Simple</em>. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref9-6">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 10</h3> + +<p><a name="fn10-1">1</a>. These are in the Burney Collection, and +are inscribed "These papers are by the celebrated Henry Fielding +Esqre." <a class="footnote" href="#fnref10-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn10-2">2</a>. See the <em>Gentleman's Magazine</em>. +Dec. 1747. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref10-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn10-3">3</a>. <em>A Free Comment on the Late Mr. +W-G-N's Apology ... By a Lady ...</em> 1748. <a class="footnote" +href="#fnref10-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn10-4">4</a>. <em>The Patriot Analized</em>. 1748. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref10-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn10-5">5</a>. <em>True Patriot No. 14</em>. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref10-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn10-6">6</a>. <em>True Patriot</em>. No. 29. May 20, +1746. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref10-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn10-7">7</a>. R. Cobbett. <em>Memorials of +Twickenham</em>, 1872. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref10-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn10-8">8</a>. The <em>Journal's</em> epitaph was +promptly written by a scurrilous opponent in lines showing that the +prominences of Fielding's profile were well-known:</p> + +<p>Beneath this stone<br> + Lies <em>Trott Plaid John</em><br> + His length of chin and nose.</p> + +<p>See the <em>Gentleman's Magazine</em>, November 1748. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref10-8">Back</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 11</h3> + +<p><a name="fn11-1">1</a>. The Fiat appointing Fielding as +Magistrate for the City and Borough of Westminster, now in the +House of Lords, is dated July 30, 1748. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref11-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn11-2">2</a>. On the house identified with Mr Graves' +description, and now known as "Fielding's Lodge," a tablet has +recently been placed, through the energy of Mr R. G. Naish of +Twerton. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref11-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn11-3">3</a>. See <em>Life of the Earl of +Hardwicke</em>. G. Harris. 1847. Vol. II. pp. 456-7. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref11-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn11-4">4</a>. <em>Tom Jones</em>. Dedication. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref11-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn11-5">5</a>. See <a href="#appendixb">Appendix</a> +for this, hitherto unpublished, receipt. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref11-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn11-6">6</a>. <em>London Magazine.</em> Feb. 1749. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref11-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn11-7">7</a>. In Germany an edition of 1771 was +followed by a second in 1780, and a third in 1786. In 1765 a +lyrical comedy founded on the famous novel was acted in Paris; and +the same year it was transformed into a German comedy by J.H. +Steffens. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref11-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn11-8">8</a>. S. T. Coleridge. Manuscript notes in a +copy of <em>Tom Jones</em>, now in the British Museum. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref11-8">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn11-9">9</a>. Ibid. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref11-9">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn11-10">10</a>. J. T. Smith. <em>Nollekens and his +Times</em>. Vol. i. pp. 124-5. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref11-10">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 12</h3> + +<p><a name="fn12-1">1</a>. His Commission in the Peace for +Westminster bears date October 25. 1748. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref12-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-2">2</a>. An application is reported for the 2nd +of December before "Justice Fielding" of Meards Court, St. Anne's, +but for reasons given below this <em>may</em> refer to John +Fielding. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref12-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-3">3</a>. From the autograph now at Woburn Abbey, +and printed in the <em>Correspondence of John Fourth Duke of +Bedford</em>. Vol. i. p. 589. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref12-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-4">4</a>. Middlesex Records. Volume of +<em>Qualification Oaths for Justices of the Peace</em>. 1749. From +an entry dated July 13, 1749, in the same volume, Fielding appears +to have then owned leases in the three first named parishes only. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref12-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-5">5</a>. See the King's Writ, now preserved in +the Record Office. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref12-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-6">6</a>. Middlesex Records. <em>Sacramental +Certificates.</em> <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref12-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-7">7</a>. Middlesex Records. <em>Oath Rolls.</em> +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref12-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-8">8</a>. <em>Amelia.</em> Book i. Chapter ii. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref12-8">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-9">9</a>. The Westminster <em>Session Rolls</em>, +preserved among the Middlesex Records, contain many recognizances +all signed by Fielding. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref12-9">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-10">10</a>. "On Friday last," announces the +General Advertiser for May 17, "Counsellor Fielding, one of his +Majesty's Justices of the Peace was chosen Chairman of the Sessions +at Hicks Hall for the County of Middlesex"; a statement not very +compatible with the incontestable evidence preserved in the +<em>General Orders Books</em> of the Middlesex Records, by which it +appears that John Lane Esq're was elected Chairman of the Middlesex +General Sessions and General Quarter Session from Ladyday 1749 to +September 1752. The personal paragraphist of 1749 was perhaps no +less inaccurate than his descendant of to-day. But a few weeks +later this honour of chairmanship was certainly accorded to +Fielding by his brethren of the Bench for Westminster. An entry in +the <em>Sessions Book</em> of Westminster, 1749 runs as follows: +"May. 1749, Mr Fielding elected chairman of this present Session +and to continue untill the 2nd day of the next." <em>MSS Sessions +Books for Westminster. Vol. 1749.</em> Middlesex Records. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref12-10">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-11">11</a>. From the autograph now at Woburn +Abbey, and printed in the <em>Correspondence of John, Fourth Duke +of Bedford</em>, vol. ii. p. 35. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref12-11">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-12">12</a>. From the hitherto unpublished +autograph now in the British Museum. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref12-12">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn12-13">13</a>. This letter is now in the Dreer +Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, +U.S.A. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref12-13">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 13</h3> + +<p><a name="fn13-1">1</a>. Doubtless faithfully rendered in the old +print, here reproduced, of Fielding's blind half-brother, +assistant, and successor, Sir John Fielding, hearing a Bow Street +case. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref13-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-2">2</a>. See <a href="#appendixd">Appendix</a>. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref13-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-3">3</a>. Middlesex Records. <em>MSS. Sessions +Books</em>. 1750. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref13-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-4">4</a>. From the hitherto unpublished autograph, +now at Woburn Abbey. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref13-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-5">5</a>. This hitherto unpublished letter is now +in the British Museum. It is addressed to "--Perkins, Esq. at his +Chambers No. 7, in Lincolns Inn Square," and is sealed with +Fielding's seal, a facsimile of which appears on the cover of the +present volume. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref13-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-6">6</a>. <em>Fielding</em>. Austin Dobson. p. +156. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref13-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-7">7</a>. <em>The General Advertiser</em>. March +7, 1751. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref13-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-8">8</a>. The <em>London Magazine</em> for +February devoted five columns to an "Abstract of Mr Fielding's +Enquiry"; and in the following month the <em>Magazine</em> again +noticed the book, by printing a long anonymous letter in which +Fielding is attacked as a 'trading author' and a 'trading justice,' +and in which the writer shows his intellectual grasp by advocating +in all seriousness a law prohibiting the sovereign from gambling! +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref13-8">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-9">9</a>. See <em>Journals of the House of +Commons</em>. Vol. xxii. p. 27, and the <em>London Magazine</em>. +Vol. xx. p. 82. The <em>Catalogue of Printed Papers. House of +Commons</em>, 1750-51, includes "A Bill for the more effectual +preventing Robberies Burglaries and other Outrages within the City +and Liberty of Westminster--" &c. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref13-9">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-10">10</a>. This hitherto unpublished letter is +now in the British Museum. It is endorsed "Jan. 15, 1750(1)." <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref13-10">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-11">11</a>. 24 George II. c. 40. June 1751. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnref13-11">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-12">12</a>. Middlesex Records. <em>Sessions +Book</em>. 1751. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref13-12">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-13">13</a>. <em>General Advertiser</em>. Sept. 9. +1751. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref13-13">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn13-14">14</a>. Middlesex Records. <em>Sessions +Book</em>. October, 1751. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref13-14">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 14</h3> + +<p><a name="fn14-1">1</a>. <em>Anecdotes</em>. Mrs Piozzi. p. 221. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref14-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn14-2">2</a>. Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu. Introductory Anecdotes, p. cxxiii. <a class="footnote" +href="#fnref14-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn14-3">3</a>. Ibid. Vol. ii. p. 289. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref14-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn14-4">4</a>. It is curious that to this unlucky +incident, based according to Lady Louisa Stuart, Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu's grand-daughter, on a real accident to Mrs Fielding, Dr +Johnson attributed the failure of the book with the public: "that +vile broken nose ruined the sale," he declared. Early in January +Fielding himself protests in his <em>Covent Garden Journal</em> +that every reader of any intelligence would have discovered that +the effects of Amelia's terrible carriage accident had been wholly +remedied by "a famous Surgeon"; and that "the Author of her +History, in a hurry, forgot to inform his Readers of that +Particular." The particular has by now fallen into its due +insignificance, and, save for Johnson's explanation therein of the +poor sale of the book, is scarce worth recalling. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref14-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn14-5">5</a>. <em>London Magazine</em>. December 1751. +p. 531 and Appendix. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref14-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn14-6">6</a>. <em>Fielding</em>. Austin Dobson. p. +161. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref14-6">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 15</h3> + +<p><a name="fn15-1">1</a>. A dramatic satire, advertised in March +at Covent Garden Theatre and written (as stated by Dibdin, +<em>History of the Stage</em>. Vol. v. p. 156), by the actor +Macklin, bore for sub-title <em>Pasquin turned Drawcansir, Censor +of Great Britain</em>. The name, and the further details of the +advertisement, recall Fielding's early success with his political +<em>Pasquin</em>: but all further trace of this 'Satire' seems +lost. See <a href="#appendixc">Appendix C</a>. <a class="footnote" +href="#fnref15-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn15-2">2</a> <em>A faithful Narrative....</em> By +Drawcansir.... Alexander. 1752. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref15-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn15-3">3</a>. 25. G II. cap 36. <a class="footnote" +href="#fnref15-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn15-4">4</a>. All trace seems now lost of the actual +part Fielding may have taken in the drafting of this Act. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref15-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn15-5">5</a>. 25. G. II. c. 37. <a class="footnote" +href="#fnref15-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn15-6">6</a>. It would seem, from the following +advertisement, that Fielding's inexhaustible pen published, about +this time, a sixpenny pamphlet on 'a late Act of Parliament'; but +all trace of it has been lost:--"A speech made in the Censorial +Court of Alexander Drawcansir, Monday, 6th June, 1752, concerning a +late Act of Parliament. Printed for the Author. Price 6d." <em>The +General Advertiser</em>, June 27, 1752. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref15-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn15-7">7</a>. The <em>General Advertiser</em> March 4. +1752. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref15-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn15-8">8</a>. The <em>General Advertiser</em>, April +15, 1752. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref15-8">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 16</h3> + +<p><a name="fn16-1">1</a>. <em>Life of Henry Fielding</em>. +Frederick Lawrence, p. 138. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref16-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn16-2">2</a>. Saunders Welch. <em>A Letter on the +subject of Robberies, wrote in the year 1753</em>. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref16-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn16-3">3</a>. See the <em>Public Advertiser</em> 1753 +March 17, 20, 24 &c. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref16-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn16-4">4</a>. This unique contemporary print of +Fielding may be seen in the British Museum, Print Room, <em>Social +Satires</em>, No. 3213. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref16-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn16-5">5</a>. Record Office. <em>State Papers. +Domestic</em> G. II., 127, no. 24. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref16-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn16-6">6</a>. Lysons. <em>Environs of London</em>. +1795. Vol. ii. p. 229. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref16-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn16-7">7</a>. The quotations from the <em>Voyage to +Lisbon</em> are from the edition recently prepared by Mr Austin +Dobson, for the 'World's Classics.' <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref16-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn16-8">8</a>. This letter is now in the British +Museum. The endorsement on the back is: "Dec. 6, 1753 from Mr +Fielding recommending Mr. Saunders Welch to be in the Com. of ye +Peace for Westmr and Middx." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref16-8">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Chapter 17</h3> + +<p><a name="fn17-1">1</a>. The <em>Public Advertiser</em>, 1754, +February 26. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref17-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn17-2">2</a>. The <em>Public Advertiser</em> 1754, +April 17. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref17-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn17-3">3</a>. Middlesex Records. <em>Sessions +Book</em>. 1754. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref17-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn17-4">4</a>. See the Middlesex Records. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref17-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn17-5">5</a>. See the <em>Public Advertiser</em>. +February, 1754. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref17-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn17-6">6</a>. This little house was apparently +replaced by a larger house; and it is probably this second building +of which a sketch is inserted in a copy of Lysons' +<em>Environs</em> to be seen in the Guildhall Library. It is now +pulled down. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref17-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn17-7">7</a>. Dr Johnson spoke of Saunders Welch as +"one of my best and dearest friends." <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref17-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn17-8">8</a>. Austin Dobson. <em>Fielding</em>, p. +170. <a class="footnote" href="#fnref17-8">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn17-9">9</a>. "Dedication" of the <em>Voyage</em>, +written possibly by John Fielding. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnref17-9">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn17-10">10</a>. Austin Dobson. <em>Fielding</em>, p. +179. From the autograph in the possession of Mr Frederick Locker. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnref17-10">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fn17-11">11</a>. This and the following passage occur +in the second version of the <em>Voyage to Lisbon.</em> <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnref17-11">Back</a></p> + +<h3>Footnotes for Appendices</h3> + +<p><a name="fna-1">1</a>. Austin Dobson. <em>Fielding</em>. +Appendix IV. p. 212-13; <em>and Eighteenth Century Vignettes</em>, +1896, pp. 164-178. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnrefa-1">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-2">2</a>. Austin Dobson. <em>Fielding</em>. +Appendix IV. p. 212-13; <em>and Eighteenth Century Vignettes</em>, +1896, pp. 164-178. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnrefa-2">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-3">3</a>. J. Nichols. <em>History and Antiquities +of Leicestershire</em>. 1810. Vol. iv. Pt. I. p. 594. <a class= +"footnote" href="#fnrefa-3">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-4">4</a>. Austin Dobson. <em>Fielding</em>, p. 192. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnrefa-4">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-5">5</a>. T. Whitehead. <em>Original Anecdotes of +the late Duke of Kingston</em>, 1795. p. 95. <a class="footnote" +href="#fnrefa-5">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-6">6</a>. <em>Some Hapsburghs, Fieldings, Denbighs +and Desmonds</em>, by J. E. M. F. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnrefa-6">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-7">7</a>. <em>Somerset and Dorset Notes and +Queries</em>. Vol. viii. p. 353. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnrefa-7">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-8">8</a>. Morrison Manuscripts. Catalogue. <a +class="footnote" href="#fnrefa-8">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-9">9</a>. <em>The Athenaeum</em>. February 1. 1890. +<a class="footnote" href="#fnrefa-9">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-10">10</a>. <em>History of Wiltshire</em>. Sir R. +C. Hoare; volume entitled "Old and New Sarum or Salisbury," by R. +Benson and H. Hatcher, 1843. p 602. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnrefa-10">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-11">11</a>. Lysons. <em>Environs of London</em>, +edition of 1795. Vol. i. part iii. p. 544. <a class="footnote" +href="#fnrefa-11">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-12">12</a>. <em>Ibid</em>. Edition 1811. Vol. i. p. +10. <a class="footnote" href="#fnrefa-12">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-13">13</a>. Manning and Bray. <em>History of +Surrey</em>, 1814, vol. iii. p. 316. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnrefa-13">Back</a></p> + +<p><a name="fna-14">14</a>. Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu, edited by Lord Wharncliffe and W. M. Thomas. Vol. ii. p. +3, note I, and p. 22. <a class="footnote" href= +"#fnrefa-14">Back</a></p> + +<p><strong>Links to Appendices</strong></p> + +<p><a href="#appendixa">A</a> <a href="#appendixb">B</a> <a href= +"#appendixc">C</a> <a href="#appendixd">D</a> <a href= +"#appendixe">E</a> <a href="#appendixf">F</a> <a href= +"#appendixg">G</a> <a href="#appendixh">H</a> <a href= +"#appendixi">I</a> <a href="#appendixj">J</a></p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Henry Fielding: A Memoir, by G. M. 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