MM UB I WB HM1WW H B5WiBOg BBl i— ml —P HHHGBnHM ■ Hlllli ^BEBBBll n BBI BtW meSSfl ■ Hills ■MiHlB sBKRIIll £ \ 0°' ^ / - tf ,-0 c ^ *7\ o5 -7*. v ^ v * * * ° / > • o- V V * ^ V «P THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF HENRY FIELDING, ESQ. One hundred and ten copies were printed. This is No. -ML HEMtt FIE1.DIXG.JETATIS XLVIII Portrait of Fielding from Hogarth's drawing The Life and Writings of Henry Fielding, Esq.; by Thomas Keightley. Taken from the pages of Frasers Magazine; and edited by Frederick Stoever Dickson. Cleveland: The Rowfant Club December, 1907 18 1908 < j- ass /♦- GOHY B. Copyright, 1907 BY THE ROWFANT CLUB CONTENTS PAGE Preface, by Frederick Stoever Dickson . . n Life and Writings of Henry Fielding, Esq. . 17 Annotations ........ 103 Appendix A: Biographies of Fielding . . 113 Appendix B: The First Edition of "Tom Jones" and the Second, compared . . . .129 Index . . . . . . . . -139 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Portrait of Fielding, from Hogarth's Drawing Frontispiece Portrait of Fielding, from bust in Town-hall, Taunton, England ...... 12 Portrait of Fielding, from miniature in posses- sion OF HIS GRAND-DAUGHTER, MlSS SOPHIA FIELD- ING . . . . . . . . .14 Book-plate of Rt. Hon. Basil Fielding, Earl of Denbigh; 1703 ....... 104 Title-page of the first issue of the six-volume edition (the genuine first edition) of "tom Jones" ......... 130 Title-page of the second issue of the six-volume edition of "Tom Jones". . , . . 130 f Page lxiii [Errata] of the first issue of the six-volume edition of "Tom Jones" . . 131 Page lxiii of the second issue of the six-volume edition of "Tom Jones" ..... 131 PREFACE. Thomas keightley, a son of Thomas Keightley of Newtoun, County Kildare, Ireland, was born in Dublin, October, 1789, and having received an ordi- nary education in the country, he entered Trinity Col- lege, Dublin, on the fourth of July, 1803, at the age of thirteen years and nine months. He was intended for the bar, but delicacy of constitution and other causes excluded him from this and the other professions, and he left college without taking a degree. He came to London in 1 824, at the age of thirty-five, as a literary adventurer, and his first exploit was aiding T. Crofton Croker in compiling the " Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland. " He wrote for various reviews, especially for the Foreign Quarterly. He published Outlines of History, 1829; a History of Rome, 1836; a History of Greece, 1835; a History of England, 1839; Fairy Mythology, revised edition, 1851; The Mythology of Greece and Italy, third edition, 1854; Virgil's Bucolics and Georgics, 1846; History of India, 1847; Satires and Epistles of Horace, 1848; Ovid, 1848; Sallust, 1849; a Life of Milton, 1855; the Poems of Milton, 1859; etc. 12 HENRY FIELDING Mr. Warren in his Law Studies highly commends Mr. Keightley's histories, and Doctor Allibone says "the works of this author have been praised in other quarters also, and by none with more earnestness than Mr. Keightley himself, who of course best understands their peculiar merits, " and he declares that " the pref- ace to his Fairy Mythology, and that to his Life of Milton, are certainly among the most curious chapters of literary history with which our researches have made us acquainted." Here Doctor Allibone refers to Mr. Keightley's modest confession that he had " high hopes of immortality " for his work, but why condemn Mr. Keightley for merely "high hopes" when every author knows his next book will be immortal though he says it not. Thomas Keightley died in Kent on the fourth of November, 1872, and here are his hopes of immortality realized — embalmed by the Rowfanters. In Frasers Magazine for January and February, 1858, Thomas Keightley contributed an essay On the Life and Writings of Henry Fielding, and in the number for June following there is a Postscript to Mr. Keightley s Articles on Henry Fielding. This essay was written in part as a review of Frederick Lawrence's Life of Henry Fielding, published in 1855. It is understood that Mr. Keightley used in this review material which he had Portrait of Fielding from bust in Town-Hall, Taunton, England ri&ne^^ i €c^.mjc (j(<>is'/s - yxc Celt //< PREFACE 13 collected for a Life of Fielding, a project which the ap- pearance of Lawrence's book caused him to abandon. Be this as it may, Keightley's essay contains much of interest and importance on several obscure points in Fielding's career, and biographers since his day cannot ignore his work. It is odd that this admirable essay should never have been reprinted, as it is today to be found only in the pages of Frasers Magazine, and the task of now reprinting it in suitable garb is very cheer- fully assumed by the Rowfant Club. The matter contained in the postscript, published in the June number of Fraser, is now printed with the text of the original article, the paragraphs thus inserted being indicated by being enclosed in brackets, and some few notes have been added by the editor. It is very nearly certain that when Fielding died no portrait of him was in existence, and that his friend William Hogarth attempted to supply the omission by sketching his features from recollection. There is a tradition that David Garrick aided in this by " making up" and posing for the artist, and on this imaginary incident M. de Segur founded his comedy, Le Portrait de Fielding, Comedie en un Acte; Paris An. VIII [1800], but both Steevens and Ireland, who wrote of the life and works of Hogarth, and who had exceptional opportunities for knowing, declare that the sketch was i 4 HENRY FIELDING drawn from memory. This sketch was engraved by James Basire for the first edition of Fielding's works, published in 1762. In Volume III of Nichols's Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, there is a portrait of Henry Fielding, published January 1, 1812, engraved by Roberts, and said to be "From a Miniature in the Possession of his Granddaughter Miss Sophia Fielding." This portrait has not to my knowledge ever been re- produced with the Hogarth drawing, and the two por- traits appear here for the first time in the same volume. It seems clear on comparison that the miniature was made from Hogarth's sketch. In the town-hall of Taunton is a bust of Fielding, unveiled on the fourth of September, 1883, on which occasion Mr. James Russell Lowell delivered an address. This bust of Fielding is also reproduced here, so that we have in this volume about all that we can ever know as to the appearance of Henry Fielding. In the description of the first edition of Tom Jones we have reproduced in facsimile the title-pages of both the first and second editions, for while variations exist they are so slight that mere word descriptions would scarce enable one to distinguish one from another. It has been thought worth while also to reproduce the leaf of errata, in the first volume of the first edition, and also the same page when numbered lxiii in the second edition. Portrait of Fielding from miniature in possession of his granddaughter, Miss Sophia Fielding Bern in 2 7 C y . died in. J7o4. ijfa+m .7s yfutua&izz sn/ /n^-^£y^-^Ut^?zy of ^cj l^fend&zaiA&ts isfu/. M/^n #/2*>62s Jscssam JV&riaf &y SJKdU, Jc Son. JmSj^iA*. PREFACE 15 The list of biographies of Henry Fielding does not pretend to give more than the more important items on the subject, together with the minor items contributed by authors who have also written matter extensive enough to justify inclusion in such a list. FREDERICK STOEVER DICKSON The Row f ant Club, Cleveland, J907. THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF HENRY FIELDING, ESQ. BY THOMAS KEIGHTLEY THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF HENRY FIELDING, ESQ. IN former days the following brief biographic notices would perhaps have been termed an Apology; for my object is to vindicate the character of Henry Fielding, who in my opinion has met with rather hard measure from friends as well as from foes. I even take under my patronage his two principal heroes, and hope to be able to show that they, too, have met with treatment which they did not altogether deserve. I have been led to it by a perusal of Mr. Lawrence's late work on this subject, which not a little disappointed me, as I believe it did almost every one else. This is much to be regretted, as Mr. Lawrence has shown extreme and most laudable diligence in the collection of materials, but unfortunately the artistic skill to combine and put them to advantage was wanting; for Mr. Lawrence does not possess the biographic talent — a talent which lies between those of the historian and the novelist, and seems in its perfection to be as rare as either of them. Accordingly he fails to make the due use of his materials; he does not always see what was, as it were, before his 20 HENRY FIELDING eyes, he fails to draw inferences, or draws erroneous ones. Add to this a habit of relating circumstances, occasionally of importance, without referring to any authority. My object, then, is to do what he has left undone; from his materials and references to make correct statements, and deduce just, or at least probable, conclusions, and if possible to represent Henry Fielding as he really was. I have given these remarks somewhat of the biographic form to keep up a certain degree of interest, and I will quote at length the statements of others, and then examine them critically. As Fielding was of a noble family, it seems necessary to say a few words respecting his pedigree. With some few exceptions, those genealogies which run far back into the middle ages are of a mythic char- acter; doubts respecting their accuracy will arise in the mind of a cautious inquirer, and the creative art of the herald be suspected. Perhaps this may be the charac- ter of that of the noble house of Denbigh, though there is certainly no violent improbability in the tradition of its founder having been a knight of the future Imperial House of Hapsburg, who, having lost his possessions in his native Germany, sought fortune in England in the time of Henry III. 1 Be this, however, as it may, the true glory of this house is not its imperial kindred, but its counting among its members him of whom I write, LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 21 whose name seems destined to live as long as Shak- speare's — that is, as long as the English language itself. To proceed, however: by marriage with sundry English heiresses, the family gradually acquired wealth and lands; and in 1622, Sir William was created Earl of Denbigh, and about two months later, his second son, George, Viscount Callan, in Ireland, with succession to the earldom of Desmond. This earl's eldest son after- wards became Earl of Denbigh on failure of the male line in the elder branch. All these particulars, I need hardly say, will be found in Sir Bernard Burke's Peerage. The name of the family is said to be derived from a district named Rhein-filding, belonging to the counts of Hapsburg; and it is curious enough that the sons of the first earl spelt it differently — the peer spelling it Feild- ing; his brother, Henry's grandfather, Fielding. There is a story, related as usual by Mr. Lawrence without giving any authority, that Lord Denbigh one day asked Henry how it was that, being of the one family, they spelt their names differently; "I cannot tell, my lord," said he, " unless it be that my branch of the family was the first that learned to spell." The anecdote is given by Kippis, 2 who says he was told it by a person who had it from one of Fielding's sons; so it may be true, and have come from Sir John Fielding. John, the fourth son of the first Earl of Desmond, 22 HENRY FIELDING took holy orders — a very unusual course at that time with the sons of the nobility, or even of the gentry. Why doth the world scorn that profession Whose joys pass speech ? Why do they think unfit That Gentry should join f amilie with it ? inquires the indignant muse of Dr. Donne; but the rea- son is a very simple one. With the Reformation expired the rich abbacies and priories, and bishopricks were shorn of their wealth and splendour; and though the presentation to most livings was in the hands of the aristocracy, the imperfect state of agriculture made them of small value. There was little then but the rare inducement of genuine piety and love of God's name to induce the well-born to enter the Church. In the fol- lowing century the Church, like every other part of society, advanced in wealth, and it then felt no lack of gentle blood among its members. Before we quit the Fielding family in general, it may be as well to mention that a niece of this high-born di- vine was married to the Duke of Kingston, and that the daughter of this lady was the celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montague, who was thus second cousin to Henry Fielding. Dr. Fielding, as Nichols, in his History of Leicester- shire, informs us, was chaplain to King William, dean (archdeacon ?) of Dorset, and a canon of Salisbury LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 23 Cathedral; he died, I believe, in 1697. By his mar- riage with Bridget, daughter of Scipio Cockain, Esq., of Somersetshire, he had a numerous family. His youngest son, Edmund, born, as we shall see, in 1676, entered the army in the reign of King William; but neither money nor family influence seems to have done much for him at first, for according to Nichols he was only a lieutenant when (1706?) he married Sarah, daugh- ter of Sir Henry Gould, Knt., of Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury, in Somerset, one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas. And here I cannot refrain from making a conjecture. It is well known that Field- ing — like Smollet, Goldsmith, and so many others — gives in his novels sundry traits of his personal and family history. It seems to me, then, not improbable that the match may have been a stolen one; and that in the nearly secret marriage of Lieutenant Booth with Amelia, and the subsequent forgiveness of the young couple by her mother, and her taking them to reside with her, we may have an adumbration of the marriage of Lieutenant Fielding with Sarah Gould, and the for- giveness of her father. It is certain that their first child, the subject of these pages, was born at Sharpham Park on the 22nd of April, 1707; and it is therefore highly probable that Mrs. Fielding had hitherto kept house for her father, and that she continued to do so, while her 24 HENRY FIELDING husband must have been pretty generally in quarters or on service with his regiment; for the War of the Suc- cession was at this time at its very height. We find, in Warner's History of Glastonbury, that Sir Henry Gould died on the 26th of March, 17 10. By his will, made in May, 1708 — which is in Doctors' Commons, whither none of the biographers have re- sorted — he devises to his daughter, Sarah Fielding, the sum of £3000, to be held in trust for her and her children by his son, William Day Gould, and to be invested in college leases or inheritance for her sole use; her hus- band, says the will, "to have nothing to do with it," her own receipt to be given for interest, &c. 3 Hence we may infer that the old judge had but a mean opinion of the prudence at least of his military son-in-law, perhaps had no great regard for him; and this gives probability to the supposition that the match was not much to his liking. It is probable that this money was laid out at once in the purchase of a little property at East Stour, near Shaftsbury, in Dorsetshire, for Sarah Fielding was born there in the following month of November. If it was, as Murphy says, of the value of £200 a year, the pur- chase would seem to have been an advantageous one; for that was seven per cent, for the money. It is prob- able that the land, at least the greater part of it, was let, LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 25 and that Captain Fielding (as he was then, we may suppose) and his family only occupied the house. Hutchins gives, in his History of Dorsetshire, from the parish register of East Stour, the following particu- lars respecting the births and deaths in the Fielding family while resident in that parish : — Baptisms Sarah, daughter of Hon. Edmund Fielding, born Nov. 8, baptized Nov. 23, 1710. Anne born June 1, baptized June 22, 1713. Beatrice baptized July 29, 1714. Edmund, son baptized April 22, 1716. Deaths Anne, daughter of Hon. Edmund Fielding, August 6, 171 6. Sarah, wife, &c April 10, 1718. I should suppose that in matters of this nature there can be no authority superior to that of a parish register, yet Mr. Lawrence, who was acquainted with the work of Hutchins, prefers the authority of Murphy, and gives the names of the children as follows, and in the following order — Catherine, Ursula, Sarah, Beatrice, giving thus four instead of three daughters, and making Sarah the third, while, I may here observe, on Sarah's monument in the Abbey-church in Bath, put up by "her friend," Dr. John Hoadly, she is said to have been the "second daughter of General Henry Fielding," and her birth is placed in 17 14. It may be, however, that a daughter 26 HENRY FIELDING of whom we have no account was born and died at Sharpham Park. Of these children, Sarah became distinguished as a scholar and as an author. She wrote the novel of 'David Simple,* and a work named The Cry, and she translated Xenophon's Memorabilia from the Greek. Of Beatrice we know nothing more. Edmund, Murphy says, en- tered the navy, and Mr. Lawrence adds that he died young. Henry, as we may see, was not quite eleven years old when he lost his mother. According to Murphy he had hitherto received his literary instruction from the Rev. Mr. Oliver (the family chaplain, adds Mr. Lawrence), probably the curate of the parish 5 (for East Stour is only a curacy), whose adulation of his high-born parish- ioner we may observe in the preceding extract. He is said by Murphy to have been the original of his pupil's "Parson Trulliber," whom he may no doubt have re- sembled in person; but I am slow to concede any further likeness between him and that vulgar, ignorant, sacerdo- tal pig-dealer; for he seems to have qualified his pupil for admission to Eton, whither he was sent, probably soon after the death of his mother. Here I must remark that in this portion of Fielding's history neither Murphy nor Mr. Lawrence makes the slightest allusion to East Stour, and they leave us to suppose (as I did till I insti- LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 27 tuted this inquiry) that Sharpham Park was the prop- erty and residence of General (?) Fielding. At Eton, Fielding was the contemporary' of William Pitt, Henry Fox, George (afterwards Lord) Lyttleton, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, and Air. Winnington. Whether he was intimate or not with the first two we are not informed; but the last three, especially Lyttleton, were his firm friends through life. He must while at Eton have applied himself very closely to his studies, for his literary works prove him to have been familiar with all the best writers of Greece and Rome; and even supposing him not to have read many of them till at a later period, the mastery of the classic languages which enabled him to do so must have been acquired at Eton. He remained there till he was about eighteen, when, his destination being the law (probably through his ma- ternal connexions), he was, as was then the usage, sent to Leyden to attend lectures on the civil law, prepara- tory to his study of the law of England. Murphy says that while there he studied hard. The place no doubt offered little inducement to anything else, but we have his own word for it that he sketched at least one comedy at this time. After a residence of about two years, either the conclusion of his studies, or, as Murphy says, the failure of remittances, made him determine on returning to England. 28 HENRY FIELDING Fielding reappeared in his native country in 1727. He was then twenty years of age, vigorous in both mind and body, tall and handsome, endowed with mental powers of a high order, but unfortunately very slenderly furnished with the gifts of fortune. His father, who had married a second time not long after the death of his first wife, had agreed, Murphy states, to allow him £200 a year; but which, as he adds, Fielding himself used to say, "anybody might pay that would;" so he had no choice, "as he said himself/' reports his lively kinswoman, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, "but to be a hackney-writer or a hackney-coachman. " But the extract given above from the will of Judge Gould throws some doubt on this account. Fielding had really no claim on his father, who had nothing whatever to do with the East Stour property, and had probably little beyond his pay, unless he got a fortune with his second wife; and I should suppose that on coming of age he could have claimed his share of his mother's fortune. This, however, perhaps he did not; and it is possible that he let his father receive the rent of East Stour, and manfully resolved to battle fortune single-handed; and he fixed on the drama as apparently the surest road to literary fame and profit. We must not, however, infer, as his biographers might lead us to do, that he was at once reduced to these straits; for though his first play LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 29 was brought out soon after his return from Holland, there was an interval of full two years between that and his second. It would also appear that he was at this time in the habit of making visits to his friends or relations in the country. Thus, among his Poems there is one entitled " A description of U n G (alias Hog's Norton), in county Hants, written to a young lady in the year 1728." And it is evident that he wrote it from that place. I may here observe, for the sake of future inquirers, that U n G is evidently Upton Grey (of Hog's Norton I know nothing), a parish a few miles south-west of Odiham. The poem is a humourous description of the dilapidated condition of the house in which Fielding was residing, with whose owner he was perhaps on a visit. As it was probably the only residence, much above a mere farm-house, in the parish, it may have been Hoddington House (did he form Hog's Norton from this ?), and on the site of it have been built the pres- ent mansion, the residence of Wm. Lutley Sclater, Esq., which Mr. Clarke informs us, in his lately published Gazetteer, "is a substantial brick house, erected about a century ago." We are also informed that Fielding was on terms of intimacy with the father of the Wartons, who lived at Basingstoke in that county. Another of Fielding's Poems, "Advice to the 3 o HENRY FIELDING Nymphs of New S m," i. e., Salisbury, was written in 1730; and to a third, "The Queen of Beauty t'other day," belonging to the same place, is appended the fol- lowing note — "The middle part of this poem (which was writ when the author was very young) was filled with the names of several young ladies, etc." From all this it is quite clear — and it has never, I believe, been observed before — that during the first years after his return from Holland, Fielding was not obliged to drudge for his daily bread in London. I am strongly inclined to think that his father, who must have left East Stour before or soon after his marriage, for there are no more entries in the parish register, may have settled at Salisbury; for there is a constant tradition there that Fielding resided at a place named Milford, about a mile from that city, and even in it, at the corner of the Friary in St. Anne-street. Now as we know that it is utterly impossible that Fielding himself could ever have had a residence in or near Salisbury, and the tra- dition is perhaps not utterly baseless, the probability is that his father may have lived in one or in both of those places; and that it was when visiting him that Henry made the acquaintance of the Misses Craddock and other young ladies of Salisbury. I may here observe en passant, that my own associations with Salisbury are of a most agreeable nature. Having applied for informa- LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 31 tion on my present subject to one high in the cathedral hierarchy, the reply was a most warm invitation to his house; and when there, I was introduced to the vener- able Canon Greenley, and all others who could assist me, which assistance was most cheerfully accorded. To this period of Fielding's life may, I think, be assigned the following event, unknown to all preceding biographers, and first related by Mr. Lawrence, but where he got it I am utterly unable to divine; for, more suo, he gives no authority or reference. On his return from Leyden (he tells us) he conceived a desperate attachment for his cousin, Miss Sarah Andrew. The young lady's friends had, however, so little con- fidence in her wild kinsman, that they took the precaution of removing her out of his reach; not, it is said, until he had attempted an abduction or elopement. . . . His cousin was afterwards married to a plain country gentleman, and in that alliance found perhaps more solid happiness than she would have experienced in an early and im- provident marriage with her gifted kinsman. Her image, however, was never effaced from his recollection, and there is a charming picture (so tradition tells) of her luxuriant beauty in the portrait of Sophia Western in Tom Jones. Mr. Lawrence's work was noticed in the Athenceum of Nov. 10th, 1855, and in the very next number of that journal appeared the following communication from Mr. George Roberts, author of the History of Lyme Regis : — Henry Fielding was at Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, for the purpose of carrying off an heiress, Miss Andrew, the daughter of Solomon Andrew, Esq., the last of a series of merchants of that name at Lyme. The young lady was living with Mr. Andrew Tucker, one of the Corporation, who sent her away to Modbury in South Devon, where she married an ancestor of the present Rev. Mr. Rhodes, of Bath, who possesses the 32 HENRY FIELDING Andrew property. The circumstances about the attempt of Henry Fielding to carry off the young lady, handed down in the ancient Tucker family, were doubted by the ate Dr. Rhodes, of Shapwick, &c. Since his death, I have found an entry in the old archives of Lyme about the fears of Andrew Tucker, Esq., as to his safety, owing to the behaviour of Henry Fielding and his attendant or man. According to the tradi- tion of the Tucker family, Sophia Western was intended to portray Miss Andrew. Here we have certainly a full confirmation of Mr. Lawrence's account, with the exception of the relation- ship of the parties; and it makes us the more anxious to know how he came by it. Mr. Lawrence further observes, that "amongst his miscellaneous poems there appears an imitation or 'modernization,' as he calls it, of the Sixth Satire of Juvenal, which he tells us was originally 'sketched out before he was twenty,' and 'was all the revenge taken by an injured lover.' ' He is perhaps correct in his inference that this is the circumstance alluded to; but in that case, unless Field- ing's memory deceived him, he must have returned from Holland a year earlier than is stated by Murphy. It would also seem as if he really had some ill-treatment on the part of the lady to complain of, for otherwise he, who was the most placable of men, would never have expressed himself in such terms after the lapse of more than a dozen years. The idea of Miss Andrew having been the model of Sophia Western must be at once rejected, for we know she is the portrait of his adored first wife. LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 33 [Certainly one of the most remarkable of the cir- cumstances relating to Fielding which have lately come to light, is the attempted abduction of Miss Andrew of Lyme Regis. If the allusion, as is most probable, is to her in his modernization of Juvenal's Sixth Satire, and his memory did not deceive him, Fielding must have left Leyden before the end of 1726, and not of 1727, as Murphy states; but how could he be so soon after in a place so distant from London as Lyme Regis ? Even supposing, as Mr. Lawrence asserts, that Miss Andrew was his cousin, she was living with a family with which he probably had not even an acquaintance. But the tradition of Lyme appears to know nothing of this relationship, and unless a knowledge of it is preserved in the Rhodes family, whence Mr. Lawrence may have obtained it, I see no proof of it]. [At all events it could hardly have been at Lyme that Fielding first met Miss Andrew after his return to England; and my hypothesis is, that she was on a visit with some friends at Salisbury, which is about sixty miles from Lyme, when Fielding first went down to that city. He probably made very ardent love to her, and she favoured his addresses; a correspondence was of course kept up after her return home, and she consented to an elopement. Their plan was frustrated, and she may, at the desire of her guardian, have written to break 34 HENRY FIELDING off the engagement, and thus have excited the ire of the disappointed lover, which would be still greater on the supposition of her having given her hand to Mr. Rhodes immediately after. Should this hypothesis be the truth, it forms one link more of the chain connecting Fielding with Salisbury, which city is evidently also the abode of Amelia and her family]. Fielding's first play, Love in several Masques, 2l regu- lar five-act comedy, was brought out in February, 1727-28. Wilks, Cibber, and Mrs. Oldfield performed in it, and the play had a very fair share of success, though coming immediately after the Provoked Husband, and though the Beggar s Opera was in full career, mak- ing Rich gay and Gay rich. In a modest and rather graceful prologue he alludes to this circumstance; and, what may to some cause a little surprise, plumes himself on the decorum of his scenes, which, he says, are char- acterized by Humour, still free from an indecent flame, Which, should it raise your mirth, must raise your shame. Indecency's the bane to ridicule, And only charms the libertine or fool. Nought shall offend the fair one's ears to-day, Which they might blush to hear or blush to say. And the claim is tolerably just, for with the exception of one scene, there is little to reprehend on the score of indecorum. LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 35 When printing it, he dedicated it to his distinguished kinswoman, who had read it in manuscript, and twice honoured its representation with her presence. In his preface he notices his youth; "for I believe," says he, "I may boast that none ever appeared so early on the stage." In this, however, he was in error, for though it is true he was not yet of age, Wycherley and Farquhar had made full as early an appearance, to say nothing of Calderon, who wrote his first play before he was four- teen years of age. His next play, the Temple Beau, was first acted in January, 1729-30, and the same year he produced three other pieces. Space does not permit me to enter into the details of his dramatic career. Let it suffice to observe that in the course of five years — 1730-34 — he wrote seventeen dramatic pieces; and as only one of them proved a total failure, and at a later period he speaks 0^50 as a very small result from one of his plays, we may fairly infer that each of these pieces, one with another, produced him more than that sum. Supposing them to have averaged no more than £75, he would have received from the theatres during those five years £1200, or more than £200 a year — a sum which, had he been prudent (which we know he was not), might have sup- ported him in independence. But in truth I may be much understating his income, for it is very possible 36 HENRY FIELDING that when the bookseller in Joseph Andrews says he knew of a hundred guineas being given for a play, the allusion may be to one of Fielding's own pieces; for there were not, I believe, any of superior merit to his brought out during the period of his dramatic career. [I doubt if I was justified in supposing that a pub- lisher may have given a hundred guineas for a play of Fielding's; it is probably some very popular play of an earlier period that is meant, such as the Provoked Hus- band or the Beggar s Opera. Fielding may have gotten for his plays various sums, as £20, £30, and even £50: but hardly more]. The truth is, during these years Fielding led a life of great dissipation. The tavern and the brothel were both familiar to him, as he confesses in an anecdote he relates in his Amelia', and by the disease of which the hero of his Journey from this World to the Next dies, and the lady to whom he pays his respects in the City of Diseases, he plainly intimates that his constitution had been seriously damaged by these early excesses. The same personage (z. e. y Fielding himself), at his entrance into Elysium, says: — I confessed 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; that I pretended to very little virtue more than general philanthropy and private friendship — . I was proceeding, when Minos bid me enter the gate, and not indulge myself with trumpeting forth my virtues. LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 37 It has often, also, appeared to me that in these fol- lowing words of Heartfort, in the Wedding-Day (volume 3), Fielding may have had his own case in view: — My practice, perhaps, is not equal to my theory, but I pretend to sin with as little mischief as I can to others. And this I can lay my hand on my heart and af- firm, that I never seduced a young woman to her ruin, nor a married one to the misery of her husband. It must be confessed that in Fielding's code of mor- ality those youthful excesses to which he pleads guilty ranked only as venial offences, and he viewed them in himself and others with a gentle eye. Neither in his own writings nor in Murphy's Essay do we find the slightest hint of his ever having been addicted to the fashionable vice of gaming. His animal spirits were too high, his organ of acquisitiveness too slightly developed, to suffer him to waste his time on cards and dice. I may further observe that there is nothing in his own works or in Murphy's which might lead us to suppose that at this or any other period of his life he kept low company; there is no knowledge shown by him of the language and habits of the lower classes that a gentleman might not have obtained without descending from his position. The reader must be aware that dress in those days was of a far more valuable and expensive nature than it is at present; it may be added that the ordinary un- dress was of a much coarser kind than anything now 38 HENRY FIELDING worn by any person in decent circumstances. Fielding, for example, tells us that Tom Jones when he entered London was habited in fustian. As a consequence, with imprudent men like our hero, the gaudy plumage was often in the hands of the pawnbroker. Mr. Lawrence quotes the following lines from a contemporary satire : — F g who yesterday appeared so rough, Clad in coarse frieze, and plastered down with snuff; See how his instant gaudy trappings shine! What playhouse bard was ever seen so fine ? But this not from his humour flows, you'll say, But mere necessity — for last night lay In pawn the velvet which he wears to-day. Murphy would seem to hint that Fielding received pecuniary aid from sundry noble personages. "The severity of the public," says he, "and the malice of his enemies, met with a noble alleviation from the patron- age of the late Duke of Richmond, John, Duke of Argyle, the late Duke of Roxborough, and many other persons of distinguished rank and character, among whom may be numbered the present Lord Lyttleton, etc.;" and hence Mr. Lawrence, with one of his customary flights of imagination, talks of him "now dining at the tables of the great, and quaffing champagne in ducal banquet- halls; and now seeking out the cheapest ordinary; or if dinner were impossible, solacing himself with a pipe of tobacco." LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 39 In this sketch of mine I shall frequently have to per- form the part of the critic rather than of the biographer. I must here, then, state that Murphy did not write his essay till more than a quarter of a century after this period of Fielding's career, and that he is exceedingly careless and inexact in his statements. The only one of those three dukes with whom we find Fielding at all in contact was the Duke of Richmond, to whom he dedi- cated his Miser in 1733, and there is nothing in the dedication which would lead us to suppose that he was personally acquainted with, much less under pecuniary obligations to that noble lord. As to Lyttleton he was the schoolfellow of Fielding, whose junior he was by about a year; and there is certainly no improbability in supposing that out of the liberal allowance made him by his father — who, by the way, lived nearly as long as Fielding himself — he may have occasionally relieved the necessities of his well-born but poor and extravagant fellow-Etonian. I consider, on the whole, the charge made against Fielding, of having taxed the bounty of his noble friends in the period from 1728 to 1735, to be, in Scottish law-parlance, not proven. It may be true, it may be false; we know nothing. The spring of 1735 forms an important era in the life of Fielding. I must here let Murphy speak, and then examine his statements: — 4 o HENRY FIELDING Mr. Fielding (says he, then) had not been long a writer for the stage when he mar- ried Miss Craddock, a beauty from Salisbury. About that time, his mother dying, a moderate estate at Stour, in Dorsetshire, devolved to him. To that place 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 un- fortunately 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 £200 a year, and his wife's fortune, which did not exceed £1500, he encumbered himself with a large retinue of servants, all clad in costly yellow liveries. For their master's honour, these people could not descend so low as to be careful in their apparel, but in a month or two were unfit to be seen; the squire's dignity required that they should be new equipped; and his chief pleasure consisting in society and con- vivial mirth, hospitality threw open his doors, and in less than three years, entertain- ments, hounds, and horses entirely devoured a little patrimony which, had it been man- aged with economy, might have secured him an independence for the rest of his life, etc. This statement of Murphy when critically examined will, if I mistake not, prove to be a mere tissue of error and inconsistency. The very opening sentence is incor- rect, and likely to lead astray; for " had not been long" hardly applies to a period of seven years; and "from Salisbury, " would seem to intimate that it was in some other place than Salisbury that Fielding met with his wife. His mother, as we have seen, died in 1718, when he was only eleven years old. The house at East Stour (of which an engraving may be seen in Hutchins's Dorset) was merely a tolerably respectable farm-house, in which it was hardly possible to give splendid entertain- ments, or maintain "a large retinue of servants." Hutchins, in fact, says that what was the kitchen in his time had been Fielding's parlour. And finally, as the LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 41 Fielding arms are argent and azure, the liveries must have been white, not yellow, and the waistcoat and small- clothes blue. But above all: instead of three years, Fielding was not even one year a resident at East Stour. The dedication to the Duke of Marlborough of his play of The Universal Gallant, is dated from Bucking- ham-street (Strand?), Feb. 12, 1734-35? so that at the earliest he could not have been married at Salisbury till toward the end of that month (the parish registers of Salisbury have been searched in vain for an entry of the marriage); and as he was in the spring of the following year at the head of a theatrical association in London, and must have been there some time previously arrang- ing it, we are hardly justified in allowing more than nine or ten months for his residence at Stour — a short time for running through £1500 and £200 a year! It may also be added that a pack of hounds cannot be impro- vised, and that the Dorset squires had probably too much pride to accept the invitations of one whom they affected to despise. As to Murphy's error with respect to the length of Fielding's residence, I think it is capable of a simple and easy solution, which shall be given in the sequel. [It may, I think, now be considered that Murphy's romance of Fielding's three years' career of extravagance in Dorsetshire, his hounds, his horses, his retinue of 42 HENRY FIELDING liveried servants, his open-housekeeping, has been proved to be a nearly baseless fiction. But the wonder is, that his family let it go uncontradicted. His brother John, to be sure, was but a lad at the time, and may have known nothing about it; but his sister Sarah was then four-and-twenty, and she lived some years after the appearance of Murphy's Essay. Yet this incubus has lain on Fielding's memory for nearly a century, and has mainly contributed to lower his moral char- acter. What led me to suppose that he was only nine or ten months in the country was the probability that he did not give up the house till the 25th of March; he may not have encumbered himself with the land. We are also to recollect that he had to give his sister her share of the income, unless he paid her off out of his wife's fortune; which, however, is not very likely]. [I must here confess that I was probably in error with respect to Fielding's liveries. I had always under- stood that it was a maxim in heraldry that the colours of the livery should be the same as those of the coat of arms, and hence I took it for granted that the Fielding liveries must have been white and blue. A lady, how- ever, has written to me, informing me that happening to dine at Lord Denbigh's, she was much struck by the liveries of his servants, which were coat and small- clothes of the brightest yellow, with black waistcoat LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 43 and stockings, silver and black shoulder tags, and silver garters. On mentioning this to a friend, he told her that the Fieldings kept to those colours to show their kindred to the house of Hapsburg. The Austrian col- ours, it is well known, are yellow and black. Murphy was therefore probably right, and I am bound to apolo- gize to his Manes]. Murphy is content to blame the folly of the husband, but Mr. Lawrence cannot avoid making a similar charge against the wife. Alas (says he), it is to be feared that from vanity or weakness she abetted him in his follies, or at the most confined herself to a timid remonstrance — without venturing on a firm expostulation. Poor girl! her fortune was soon dissipated to the winds; run away with by horses and hounds; lavished on yellow plush inexpressibles for idle flunkeys; banqueted on by foolish squires, or consumed by other senseless extravagancies. Not being a strong-minded woman — that is pretty clear — but rather it would seem a fond and foolish one, she was dazzled by this brief dream of pride and pleasure; and though the future might have worn to her eye a lowering aspect, she was too much grati- fied by her husband's popularity, and too proud of his wit and agreeable qualities, to check him in his mad career. Such is the character which Mr. Lawrence ventures to draw of the original of Amelia, and whom Lady Bute, who had known her, declared to have possessed all the perfections there ascribed to her! Let us, abandoning fancy, endeavour to form some sober and correct ideas about the marriage and the mar- ried life of Fielding. We have seen that he had been for many years well acquainted with Salisbury and its in- 44 HENRY FIELDING habitants. Among these were the Misses Craddock, three sisters celebrated for their beauty, and apparently in independent circumstances, for one of Fielding's poems shows that they resided in a house of their own. If we are to give credit to the malicious assertion of Richardson, they were of illegitimate birth, but of this circumstance we have no other proof, and I am able to add that the tradition of Salisbury knows nothing of it. I learned there that the Craddock family, which is now extinct, was highly respectable, though not in the first class of Salisbury society. The fortunes of these ladies may have been of the amount stated by Murphy. To Miss Charlotte Craddock — whom he celebrates in his poems, under the name of Caelia — Fielding would appear to have been attached for some years, and this length of service was probably caused, not by any co- quetry on the part of the lady, but by her observation of the imprudence of her lover's character, and on his part by the want of some fixed and certain source of income. This last obstacle, however, seems to have been removed in 1735, when his father, who was made a major-general this year, may, on this accession to his income, have re- signed his first wife's property to her children. It is true that Fielding must have been married in the spring, and that his father does not seem to have been gazetted till the following December; but the gazette may, though LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 45 not inserted in the Gentleman s Magazine, where we find it, till the last month, have contained all the promotions of the year; or the general, having a promise from the Government, may have thought he could act on it with safety. In possession of a house and land, and of a good sum of ready money, Fielding seems to have resolved to make a trial of country life, at least for some time; but with his habits and feelings it is hardly possible that he could have contemplated a permanent residence. We can easily conceive that he lost some money in farming; he may have had the temerity he ascribes to his Booth, of setting up a carriage, and have kept a hunter or two; he may have indulged in hospitality to- ward some of his neighbours, and have had friends to visit him from Salisbury; but that he should have run such a career of reckless extravagance as Murphy lays to his charge seems to be almost impossible, if, as I have observed, it were only for the size of his house. More- over, the whole time of his residence at East Stour could hardly, as we have seen, have exceeded nine or ten months; for he must have been back again in London early in the year 1736, and that not without money, as he was able to take the Haymarket Theatre, and engage a dramatic company. It is, in fact, not impossible that it was the intelligence that that theatre was to be let that 46 HENRY FIELDING drew him so soon from the country, of which by this time he may have grown heartily weary. Some time before Fielding had left London, his play of Don Quix- ote in England had been performed at the Haymarket by a volunteer company of actors, and the election scenes in it had been applauded. This appears to have led the sanguine author to fancy that he could, by his own unaided genius, continue for years to derive an income from a series of political dramatic satires on the model of the celebrated Rehearsal. He therefore took the theatre in the Haymarket, collected a corps of actors which he named "The Great Mogul's Company of Comedians/' and produced a piece named Pasquin: a Dramatic Satire on the Times. This was the rehearsal of two plays — a comedy, called The Election; and a tragedy, called The Life and Death of Common Sense. The piece was a bit; its novelty, and the keenness and boldness of the satire, recommended it to the public taste, and it had a run of fifty nights. We are not in- formed what other pieces were performed this year at this theatre; but The Fatal Curiosity, by the manager's friend, George Lillo, though not very successful, was, as Mr. Lawrence tells us, one, and there were probably others; at all events the profits of Pasquin must have yielded the author sufficient means for living in comfort and respectability. In the season of 1737 he brought LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 47 out a piece of a similar nature, entitled The Historical Register for 1736, in which he ventured to introduce the Minister of the day, Sir Robert Walpole, a circum- stance which led to the passing of the celebrated Licens- ing Act, by which it was provided that no dramatic piece should be represented without the license of the Lord Chamberlain. This of course put an end to Fielding's theatric project — a project which, however, must soon have failed of itself, as its attraction was its novelty, and it was hardly within the limits of human genius to be able to yield a constant supply of new and attractive political satire. Two or three other dramatic efforts of his at this time also had proved failures, and he saw clearly that for him to hope to support his family by his dramatic talent was preposterous. He accordingly resolved to devote himself to the profession for which he was originally intended; and toward the close of the year, in the thirty-first year of his age, he entered him- self as a student in the Middle Temple. Mr. Lawrence has given a copy of the record of his admission. It runs thus: — i° Nov ria 1737. Henricus Fielding de East Stour in Com. Dorset Ar: films et haeres apparens Brig. Gen hs Edmundi Fielding admissus est in Societat: Medij Templi Lond. specialiter et obligatum una cum, etc. Et dat pro fine £4. o. o. We may here observe that he is denominated of East 48 HENRY FIELDING Stour, which would seem to indicate that he still retained his property at that place; and further notice the strange circumstance that — as it must have been from himself that the information came — he should have styled his father only a brigadier-general, when, as we have seen, he was made a major-general two years be- fore. Perhaps it was only an instance of his want of thought. He may have been in the habit of calling his father the Brigadier, and it may have slipt from him on this occasion. Of Fielding's career as a law-student, Murphy gives the following account, which is probably in the main correct: — His application while he was a student in the Temple 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 spirit and vivacity to carry him into the wild enjoyments of the town, yet it was particular in him, that amidst all his dissipations, nothing could suppress the thirst he had for knowledge and the delight he felt in read- ing; and this prevailed in him to such a degree, that he has been frequently known by his intimates to return 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. This, it may be seen, is written with Murphy's usual vagueness and inaccuracy. Fielding could have had no chambers while a student; and from the manner in which his reading is spoken of, it would seem that his midnight studies were devoted rather to writers like Plato and Aristotle, than to Littleton, Coke, and the LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 49 other sages of the law. It is, however, agreed on all hands that he acquired a competent knowledge of law, and that he entered Westminster Hall with as large a stock of that knowledge as most of his contemporaries, when he was called to the bar on the 20th of June, 1740, and, as Mr. Lawrence informs us, chambers were as- signed him in Pump Court. We thus see that Fielding was engaged in the study of the law for a period of two years and a half, and the question is, how did he purchase the necessary books and support his family all that time ? There was then no reporting for newspapers, writing articles for reviews and magazines, and the other modes by which law- students of the present day are able to support them- selves. He may have written an occasional pamphlet of which no notice has reached us; but it was not till the close of the year 1739 that he started a periodical paper, named the Champion, in imitation of the Tatler and the Spectator, and from which, as it proved tolerably suc- cessful, he derived some income during the last six months of his probationary period. I must confess that I can see no other way in which he could have lived than on the remains of his own and his wife's property, and I would conjecture that it was at this time that he dis- posed of his interest in the house and lands at East Stour, in which case, however, he must have given his 50 HENRY FIELDING sister Sarah her fair proportion. And here I will intro- duce the promised explanation of Murphy's error re- specting the length of his residence there. Murphy, who we have reason to think was personally acquainted with Fielding, may have heard him say that he had only had that property in his possession for the space of three years, and he may have hastily inferred that he had been residing there all that time. Possibly his motive for com- mencing the Champion was the drying up of that source of supply. We are further to recollect that the winter of 1739-40, long known by the name of the hard frost, was one of unparalleled severity, and that the conse- quent dearness of provisions must have taxed the ener- gies of persons of slender means like Fielding. The success of the Champion at such a time, Mr. Lawrence regards as a proof of its merits; and it may be so, but at the same time we must recollect that the purchasers of such a paper are persons who would not be withheld by a rise in the price of bread and coals from indulging their inclination for amusement or instruction. On being called to the bar, Fielding withdrew from the editorship of the Champion; but he continued to be an occasional contributor to it for a twelvemonth longer, after which time the paper appears to have ceased to exist. I may here observe, en passant, that at this pe- riod Fielding lost his father, who died in May, 1 741, aged LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 51 sixty-five, having just lived to see his son a member of an honourable profession. He had himself, as the Gentleman s Magazine informs us, attained the rank of lieutenant-general, and was a colonel of invalids. His death brought his eldest son no increase of income. Fielding went the Western Circuit, of course, it being the one on which his connexions lay; he also for the same reason attended the Wiltshire Sessions, and we have no reason to suppose that he did not get at least some share of business in both; we can hardly doubt of his having had friends among the Salisbury attorneys at least. During term time, as Murphy assures us, he was most assiduous in his attendance at Westminster Hall; and I see no improbability in the supposition that by his labours at the bar he might have been able to have lived in comfort and independence had he not, probably in consequence of his early excesses, become at this time a victim to the gout, which often confined him to his bedroom when he should have been at cham- bers or in court. It was this probably that made him devote himself once more to literature. In February, 1742, he gave to the world Joseph Andrews, the first of his imperishable novels. Of this, along with his other works, I shall give an account in the sequel. The fol- lowing April he published, but anonymously, a pam- phlet in defence of Old Sarah, as she was called, the 52 HENRY FIELDING Dowager-Duchess of Marlborough, for which we can hardly doubt he was paid by her Grace. The next month he produced on the stage a ballad-farce, named Miss Lucy in Town, in which he says "he had but a small share," but without telling who was the coadjutor. Possibly it was Ralph, who had been joined with him in the Champion. The seventh night of its performance was the author's benefit, after which it was prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain, because a particular person of quality was supposed to be aimed at in the character of Lord Bawble, which, however, Fielding indignantly denied in a pamphlet which he published on the subject. Some time in this year we find he was at Bath — for in his Miscellanies there is a copy of verses "To Miss H — and at Bath, written extempore in the pump-room, 1742." He was therefore either there for his health, or went circuit this year. The winter of 1742-43 was a season of distress to poor Fielding. Speaking of it in the preface to his Miscellanies, he says — "While I was last winter laid up with 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. " By these circumstances he doubtless meant pecuniary em- barrassments, and the child, a daughter, as we shall see, LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 53 died, for he meets her in Elvsium in his 'Journey to the Next World, published the following year. While he was in this condition he was applied to bv his friend Garrick for a play. He had two lving by him, the Wedding-Day, the third play, he says, that he had written, and another, which he intended to call The Good-natured Man, both unfinished. The latter was the one he intended to give, but finding that it would require a good deal of labour, and that the part intended for Garrick was not a very important one, the time, more- over, being very short, he did what he could to the Wedding-Day, and it was produced on the 17th Feb- ruary, 1743. But though supported by the talents of Garrick and Macklin, and Mesdames Pritchard and Woffington, it had very poor success, being performed but six nights, and yielding the author only £50. The public taste, in fact, was altering for the better, and the want of decorum and propriety belonging to the school of YVvcherlev and Congreve, which it displayed, could no longer claim toleration, much less applause. Mur- phy gives the following anecdote relating to the first performance of this piece: — An actor who was principally concerned in the piece, and, though young, was then, bv the advantage of happy requisites, an early favourite of the public, told Mr. Fielding he was apprehensive that the audience would make free with him in a particular pas- sage, 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 54 HENRY FIELDING the bard, "if the scene is not a good one let them find that 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 champagne. He had by this time drank pretty plentifully; and cocking his eye at the actor, with streams of tobacco trickling down from the corner of his mouth, "What's the matter, Garrick ?" says he; "what are they hissing now?" "Why, the scene that I begged you to re-touch; 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." "Oh! d-mn 'em," replies the author, "they have found it out, have they?" Of the main truth of this anecdote there can be no doubt, as Murphy's Essay was published during the lifetime of Garrick, who must have read it, but it is embellished after the writer's usual manner. How, for instance, could tobacco run from a man's mouth ? and if he meant tobacco-juice, that could only be in conse- quence of chewing, and how a man could chew tobacco and drink wine at the same time it is not easy to see; further, champagne is not exactly a wine that a man would sit over. It may seem unfeeling in Fielding to have been thus indulging, with a wife on a sick-bed and a favourite child either dying or dead; but the presence of the author was requisite at the theatre, and the wine and the pipe were probably no more than a resource against the affliction and melancholy that were pressing on his mind. Necessity is stern. How often has the actor or actress, under her rigid command, convulsed LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 55 an audience with laughter, while their heart was burst- ing with grief! During the spring or summer of this year, Fielding published by subscription his Miscellanies, in three volumes, containing his Verses, "Miss Lucy in Town," "The Wedding-Day," "The Journey from this World to the Next," " Jonathan Wild," and some short pieces in prose. His legal brethren subscribed numerously, and the work seems to have reached a second edition the same year. It is very remarkable that the volumes appear to have gone out of existence. Even in the British Museum there is only an odd first volume of the second edition in the King's Library. 6 Some time in the course of this year, perhaps in the autumn, Fielding met with the greatest calamity that ever befell him — the loss of that beautiful, amiable, and affectionate woman, the companion and soother of all his cares, afflictions, and misfortunes, the model from whom he formed his delightful Sophia and Amelia. She had been for some time in a bad state of health, and now was attacked by a fever which carried her off. It tasked all the mental vigour and philosophy of the be- reaved husband to bear the shock of this overwhelming affliction, which, we are assured, well nigh deprived him of reason. Murphy gives us no account of this estimable woman, 56 HENRY FIELDING and all that was known of her till of late years, was that, as Fielding himself tells us, he had her in view when drawing his Sophia Western, and the generally known fact that she was the original of his Amelia. " Henry Fielding," says Lady Mary W. Montague, in one of her letters, "has given a true picture of himself and his first wife, in the character of Mr. and Mrs. Booth, some compliments to his own figure excepted; and I am persuaded several of the incidents he mentions are real matters of fact." Richardson also, in one of his letters, writes, "Amelia, even to her noselessness, is again his first wife." But the biographers in general seem to have overlooked the following passage in Fielding's own essay Of the Remedy of Afflictions for the Loss of our Friends, in which she is evidently the person alluded to, — "I remember the most excellent of women and tenderest of mothers, when, after a painful and danger- ous delivery, she was told she had a daughter, answering 'Good God! have I produced a creature who is to undergo what I have suffered ?' Some years after- wards I heard the same woman, on the death of that very child, then one of the loveliest creatures ever seen, comforting herself with reflecting that 'her child would never know what it was to feel such a loss as she then lamented/ " At length, in the present century, the late Lord LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 57 Wharncliffe was able, from the account of his grand- mother, Lady Bute, to give us information respecting Fielding and his affairs of which the world had pre- viously been in ignorance. Of Mrs. Fielding he says : — Only those persons are mentioned here of whom Lady Bute could speak from her own recollection or her mother's report. Both had made her well informed of every particular that concerned her relation, Henry Fielding, nor was she a 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, although this had suffered a little from the accident related in the novel — a frightful overturn, which destroyed the gristle of her nose. He loved her passionately, and she returned his affection; yet led no happy life, for they were almost always miserably poor, and seldom in a state of quiet and safety. Sometimes they were living in decent lodgings with tolerable comfort, some- times in a wretched garret without necessaries, not to speak of the spunging-houses and hiding-places where he was occasionally to be found. His elastic gaiety of mind 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. The statement here made requires examination. Lord Wharncliffe, as we see, derived his information from his grandmother, Lady Bute, the daughter of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and to whom, in imitation perhaps of Mme. de Sevigne, most of her letters are addressed. Lady Bute died in 1794, at an advanced age, when Lord Wharncliffe was only eighteen years old. Being probably a youth of an inquiring disposition, it is likely that he had his information directly from his grand- mother, and there seems no reason to suppose that he 58 HENRY FIELDING has not accurately related what he heard. But as this could hardly have been till the last two or three years of Lady Bute's life, and she was speaking of things that occurred more than half a century before; and as, from the difference of their social stations, her intimacy could scarcely have been very great with her less fortunate cousins, we may not unreasonably suspect some error and exaggeration in the foregoing account. In a word, I doubt if Fielding was ever in the abject poverty he is here represented in. I have shown that he could not have been very poor for the first two years after his return to London; for more than two more he was engaged in the study of the law, which hardly was com- patible with living in a garret and skulking in out-o'-the- way retreats; for the remainder of his wife's lifetime he was a practising barrister and going circuit, which, again, is incompatible with abject poverty. Add to this that the account presently to be noticed, which Lord Wharncliffe gives of the strong attachment of their maid- servant to her mistress, tends to prove that she had been living with them for some time, perhaps for some years. In fact, I doubt if the whole account of Fielding's pov- erty and distresses does not rest on the following passage in one of Lady Mary's letters to Lady Bute, and which possibly was Lord Wharncliffe's sole authority. "His natural spirits gave him rapture with his cook- LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 59 maid and cheerfulness when he was starving in a garret ;" of which the former circumstance will be explained in the sequel, and the latter, as we shall see, can only refer to the lifetime of his first wife. In reading it, we should recollect Lady Mary's love of point, and the tendency of women in general to exaggeration. On the whole, I think that Mrs. Fielding's distress may not at any time have been much greater than that of Amelia, who had to cook her own dinner, having only a little girl for a ser- vant; and who was under the necessity of taking her ornaments and even her clothes to the pawnbroker's, and of seeking her imprudent husband in a spunging- house. I cannot believe she ever was reduced to live in a garret. We have no means of ascertaining what children Fielding had by this admirable woman. One daughter, as we have seen, died just before herself; another we know survived her, and we hear of no other children. Booth and Amelia are, however, represented as having a son and a daughter; and in his dream in the True Patriot (1745), Fielding describes himself as having a son and a daughter. He may therefore have had a son whom he outlived. For a period of two years after the death of his wife, we have hardly any account of the occupations of Field- ing. From a preface which he prefixed in 1744 to the 60 HENRY FIELDING second edition of his sister Sarah's novel of David Sim- ple, it would appear that he was then applying himself vigorously to his profession, while we have indubitable evidence that at some period or other he was residing near Bath; and this, as we shall see, could only have been in some part of these two years. It is not, then, at all improbable, that as his infirmities increased on him he was ordered to Bath for the benefit of the waters. I found this opinion on the following circumstance: — The Rev. Mr. Graves, author of The Spiritual Quixote, and other works, who was appointed in 1750 to the rectory of Claverton, near Prior-park, the seat of Ralph Allen, gave the world anecdotes of that excellent man, who (let me add here, by way of parenthesis, what is not generally known) commenced his career, as Mr. Greenley informed me, as a mere letter-carrier between Bath and Marlborough, from which humble occupation he gradually rose through his own industry, honesty, and talent to be the noble-minded and generous master of Prior-park. In that work Mr. Graves informs us that Fielding, who was residing at Tiverton, near Bath, used to dine almost every day at Prior-park. I am inclined to think that this was the period when Fielding's fortune was at the lowest ebb. He was certainly now engaged on his Tom Jones; and in the dedication of that work to his friend Lyttleton he says, " I partly owe LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 61 to you my Existence during great Part of the Time which I have employed in composing it." It is quite plain, then, that Lyttleton gave him pecuniary aid; and he did more, for he induced the Duke of Bedford, whose liber- ality was not in general very conspicuous, to give him what in the same place Fielding terms "princely bene- factions;" and there can hardly be a doubt but that the good Allen did not confine his generosity to the mere giving him his dinner. Indeed, from the manner in which Fielding speaks of him in Joseph Andrews, in 1742, it is plain that even then he was intimate with him, and possibly had tasted of his hospitality, if not of his bounty. The handsome compliment, also, which he pays Warburton, in the Journey to the Next World, on his fanciful exposition of the Sixth Book of the Mneid, might seem to intimate a personal acquaintance, formed most probably at Prior-park, to which place there is also an allusion in that piece. We have not the means of ascertaining whether Fielding had his family with him at Tiverton or not, though it would seem most probable that he had, neither do we know how long he remained there. As, however, there does not seem to be any reason for his return to London, his abode at Tiver- ton may have continued till the autumn of 1745. [Twiverton, not Tiverton (in which I incautiously followed Mr. Lawrence), is the proper orthography of 62 HENRY FIELDING the name of the village popularly called Tiverton. For this correction I am indebted to the mayor of Bath (Dr. Wilbraham Falconer), who has also informed me that the house in which Fielding lived is still in existence]. We may probably also infer that his gout could not have been very severe at that time; for beside walking, as we must suppose, every day to the pump-room in Bath, and perhaps back again, his daily visit to Prior- park must have obliged him to go over a good deal of ground, as the distance between that and Tiverton is not inconsiderable. There is also, as I shall show when I come to the examination of Tom Jones, some reason to suppose that at this time, as well as at some earlier periods, Fielding may have gone from Bath to Hagley Park, on a visit to his friend Lyttleton. I fix upon the above date because Fielding was certainly in London previous to the month of November in that year. The Pretender had gained the victory at Preston Pans, and was now in England; and it probably occurred to Lyttleton, who was a member of the Govern- ment, what good service Addison had, on a somewhat similar occasion, done to his country by the publication of his Freeholder, and he may have thought that a series of essays of the same kind might be of essential service at the present conjuncture, and he may have proposed it to Fielding, who had already distinguished himself LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 63 as an essayist in the Champion; or the idea may have originated with Fielding himself, and have been ap- proved of by Lyttleton and some of the other members of the Government. The paper was written with great spirit, and a true love of rational liberty; for the writer, who was no mere mercenary hireling, threw his whole soul into it; and there can be little doubt that it was of use to the cause of the House of Brunswick. It is there- fore not unlikely that he received a promise from the Government that something would be done for him. In fact, as he tells us, in his Voyage to Lisbon, that he had a pension — of which he gives neither the date nor the amount, and for an account of which I have sought in vain in the Record Office — it may have been granted on the suppression of the Rebellion in 1746. Under these circumstances, and feeling the increase of his in- firmities, he seems to have thought that he might not imprudently unite himself (for the second time) in mar- riage, with one who he knew would prove a tender nurse and an affectionate friend. Lord Wharncliffe thus expresses himself on the subject: — His biographers seem to have been shy of disclosing that after the death of this charming woman 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 excel- lent 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 along with her — no solace, when a degree calmer, but in talk- 64 HENRY FIELDING i ng 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. In what is here said of Fielding's biographers there is an error, for none of them, except it may be Murphy, seems to have known anything about his second wife. Murphy was probably acquainted with her, for he says that he printed Amelia "from a copy corrected by the author's own hand;" and it is not unlikely that it was from his widow that he obtained it, as well as some of the materials of his scanty biography, and respect and grati- tude would then restrain him from mentioning a circum- stance of which he could hardly be ignorant, but which might tend to lower her in the estimation of the world. Still, I will not assert positively that Murphy was thus indebted to Mrs. Fielding, for his authority may have been John Fielding. The later biographers then, had nothing to guide them but Lady Mary W. Montague's saying, that "his natural spirits gave him rapture with his cook-maid," which one of them professes he could not understand. There is also in the following passages of the first edition of Peregrine Pickle — to which Sir Walter Scott has directed attention, and which Mr. Lawrence has, a I 'ordinaire, quoted silently — an evident allusion to Fielding's marriage; but as LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 65 the author very properly cancelled it in the subsequent editions, it is probable that few of them ever saw it. In his coarse attack on Lord Lyttleton, under the name of Gosling Scrag, he says, "I advise Mr. Spondy to give him the refusal of this same pastoral. Who knows but he may have the good fortune of being listed in the number of his beef-eaters ? in which case he may, in process of time, be provided for in the Customs or the Church. When he is inclined to marry his own cook- wench, his gracious patron may condescend to give the bride away; and may finally settle him, in his old age, as a trading Westminster justice. " The allusion here to Fielding is not to be mistaken, and what is a matter of some importance, we learn from it that his marriage must have met with the entire approbation of his vir- tuous friend and patron. The name of this excellent woman was Mary Mac- donnell, Macdonald, or Macdaniel, as it is variously spelt, and she was probably of Scotch extraction. She bore him four children, and survived him nearly half a century, as she died at Canterbury on the 1 ith March, 1802. The marriage seems to have taken place in the spring of 1746, for their first child was baptized at Twickenham, February 25th, 1747. [It does not seem to be quite certain that Fielding was married in 1746. I inferred it from the baptism 66 HENRY FIELDING of his first son in February, 1747; but the style was not changed till 1752, so that February, 1747, would really belong to 1748. Nichols, however, I think, made, as is usual, the requisite reduction, and 1746 is prob- ably the right year of Fielding's marriage. If so, the lodgings in which Warton spent the evening may have been Miss Fielding's (who had evidently an independ- ent income), and Henry may have only had a bed- room in the same house; if he was not married till the next year, the brother and sister may have been living together]. Mr. Lawrence also quotes the following lines from a poem, "On Felix married to a Cook-maid," in the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1746, which may refer to Fielding: Felix, who once an ode could write To a victorious duke, Must needs in humble strains endite Love-sonnets to a cook. * * * Marriage his wit may check — to show it Before he was too eager, Now better qualified for poet Since he became a beggar. This, as I have said, may refer to Fielding, with whose name the initial letter and the number of the sylla- bles in Felix correspond; but we have no account of his ever having written an ode to the Duke of Cumberland, LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 67 though one may have been ascribed to him. The term beggar might refer to his receiving benefactions from his friends. The whole theory, however, seems to be upset by the second stanza, which Mr. Lawrence has omitted, for Felix is there called "a rebel," and it is added that "the heroine was Bess;" while, as we have seen, the name of Fielding's wife was Mary. Felix may, then, have been a Jacobite who addressed an ode to the Duke of Cumberland, upbraiding him with his atrocities in Scotland. Mr. Lawrence, when showing from a poem by Walpole that Fielding had resided at Twickenham, says, "with respect to the period, ... it is not in our power to afford any accurate information," and he supposes it must have been while he was a mag- istrate. But we may now see that as his eldest son was born there, it is probable that he took up his residence at Twickenham before or soon after his marriage. At the same time he probably had a residence of some kind in London, for J. Warton, writing to his brother on the 29th October, 1746, says: — 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 enter- tained. The lady, indeed, retired 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, his Joseph Andrews above all his writings. He was extremely civil to me, I fancy on my father's account. We thus see that while Fielding had a residence for 68 HENRY FIELDING his wife at Twickenham (for it is quite plain she could not have been with him on this occasion), he must have had at least lodgings in London, where his sister appar- ently kept house for him. We also seem here to find a confirmation of his intimacy with Hampshire, for the Wartons' father lived near Basingstoke, in that county. It is rather strange to find him called the poet; but this may be on account of the poems in his Miscellanies, or rather Warton uses the word as synonymous with a writer of works of imagination, and may have had Joseph Andrews chiefly in view, which work Fielding himself, in the preface, styles a poem; and Sir Walter Scott observes, that "every successful novelist must be more or less of a poet, even although he may never have written a line of verse. " The True Patriot ceased when the rebellion had been completely put down; and we are not informed how Fielding occupied himself till toward the end of 1747, when, in the month of December, he commenced an- other paper, called the Jacobite Journal, of which the object was to cover with ridicule and hold up to general contempt the principles and members of the beaten party, and thus, as it were, tread out the embers of the late conflagration. It was published once a week, and was continued till November, 1748, when it ceased, probably in consequence of its writer being appointed LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 69 a magistrate for Westminster, which was the only reward for his public services that his friend Lyttleton was able to obtain for him from a Government that was lavishing its favours on persons of infinitely inferior powers and pretentions. Murphy, with his usual inaccuracy, says he was made " an acting magistrate in the commission of the peace for Middlesex ," and he has been followed by all the other biographers. The publication, however, of the Correspondence of John Duke of Bedford, enables us to correct this error. We there meet with a letter from Fielding to the Duke, dated Bow-street, December 13th, 1748, in which he speaks of himself as in the com- mission for Westminster, but adds that the profits of that office would be quite trifling unless he were in the commission for Middlesex also. But as for this a prop- erty qualification was requisite, he asks the Duke to let him have a twenty-one year lease of a house in Bedford- street, worth £70 a year, but which it would take £300 to put in repair, and of some other house worth £30 a year, and to let him pay the money in two years in half- yearly payments. It would appear that the Duke assented, for Fielding became a magistrate for Middle- sex. Fielding had been only three months in office when he gave the world to know how his leisure hours for the 7 o HENRY FIELDING last few years had been employed, by publishing his immortal novel of Tom Jones, of which the reception was most enthusiastic. In a letter to George Montague, dated May 18th, 1749, the flippant, cold-hearted, malignant Horace Walpole writes as follows: — Rigby gave me as strong a picture of nature [as a scene of low-life in Holborn]. He 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. Lyttleton, added that of Middlesex justice. He sent them word he was at supper, they must come next morning. They did not understand that freedom, and ran up, when 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 civilized. A piece of more concentrated venom than this it would be difficult to discover. The idea meant to be conveyed was, that Fielding the magistrate entertained in his official residence some of the lowest and most debased characters that Covent-garden and Drury-lane could supply; for one is led to suppose that the blind man was a beggar, and the Irishmen, chairmen, coster- mongers, or something worse. Now the truth is, the blind man was Fielding's younger brother, John, who succeeded him in his office; the whore was his wife, whose appearance was probably not very ladylike; and LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 71 the Irishmen, of whom Murphy was possiblv one., were law-students, or men who lived bv their pen, to whom he was alwavs kind and generous; the table-cloth was probablv merely a soiled one, and surely there was nothing so yen* extraordinary in two kinds of cold meat being placed in the one dish. Fielding no doubt did receive loans or gifts of money from his friend and schoolfellow, Sir Charles Williams, as he did from Lvttleton and Allen, and Rigbv may have been present on one or more of these occasions; but his ever having "lived for his victuals" at Bathurst's father's, seems utterly inconsistent with what we have seen of his life, and perhaps resolves itself into his having been frequent- ly invited to dine there, a thing easily accounted for if his father was Lord Bathurst, the friend of Pope and Swift. Mr. Rigbv's character is pretty well known from Junius and other sources, and he, at least, was not the equal of Fielding in birth. At all events they acted like a pair of scoundrels, and the malignant frib- ble who retails their fictions, and probably exaggerates them, was not sorry to meet with an opportunity for venting his spleen on a man whom his Tom Jones had recently covered with a literary glory to which he could never hope to attain. Perhaps, too, he knew who was meant bv lonathan \Yild. 7 [I think the conjecture of Murphy's forming one of 72 HENRY FIELDING the supper-party is confirmed by the circumstance of such being the name of the Salisbury attorney in Amelia, which was commenced in that or the following year. This name was probably adopted by way of a joke on the young Irish law-student, for no name is more thoroughly Irish than Murphy; and I doubt if even in the present day any respectable person bearing it could be found in any town in the south of England]. As a magistrate, Fielding was most active and ex- emplary in the discharge of his duties. On the 12th of May — just a week, by the way, previous to the date of Walpole's letter — he was unanimously elected by the Middlesex magistrates as chairman of the sessions at Hicks' Hall, "in the room," the newspaper states, "of Thomas Lane, Esq., now one of the Masters in Chan- cery;' ' so that it was no small compliment to his legal knowledge. On the 29th of June he delivered there the excellent charge which is printed in his works. Toward the close of this year he had so severe an attack of fever and gout that his life was thought to be in danger. The year 1750 was a busy year with him in his office, rob- beries having increased in a most awful manner. In January, 1751, he gave the world the results of his ex- perience in a pamphlet, named An Inquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers, &c, dedicated to the Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke, by whom, and by LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 73 several other eminent lawyers, it was highly estimated. The late Sir James Macintosh, it may be recollected, quoted it with approbation in Parliament. All this time Fielding was devoting his few leisure hours to the composition of another novel, the apotheosis, as it may be termed, of his adored first wife. Amelia was published at the end of this year. An able review- er of Mr. Lawrence's work wonders that the composi- tion of it did not break Fielding's heart. But had he any pangs of remorse to endure ? I doubt it much. We have no reason whatever to suppose that he had ever been unfaithful to her; unkind he certainly never was. He no doubt had to think on many an act of imprudence which must have caused her pain, and have gone over many a scene of distress endured in common, her conduct in which made her memory rise more lovely to his eyes. But I would almost venture to affirm that his predominant feeling during the com- position of this work was what the Portuguese express by their untranslatable word saudade, or what the French term douce melancolie, in which pleasure and pain are mingled in nearly equal quantities. Hardly had Amelia been out of his hands when the active mind of its author, in spite of gout and profession- al occupation, was again engaged in literature. On the 4th January, 1752, appeared the first number of 74 HENRY FIELDING The Covent Garden Journal, of which Fielding was the editor, and in a great measure the writer. It came out twice or thrice a week, and was continued to the end of the year, when the state of his health and the press of business obliged him to give it up. Arthur Murphy then started the Grays Inn Journal, of a similar character, which tends to confirm the fact of his intimacy with Fielding, already alluded to. Chalmers, in fact, in a note on Murphy's Essay on Fielding, says "Mr. Mur- phy's copy of this work (The Covent Garden Journal) is now in my possession. I strongly suspect he com- municated some article to it." In January, 1753, Fielding published a Proposal for making an effectual Provision for the Poor, &c. The case of that celebrated impostor Elizabeth Canning, by whom he was completely deceived, occupied much of his time and thoughts during this year, and he published what he termed "a clear state" of her case. In conse- quence of the state of his health he was preparing to go to Bath, when he was called on by the Duke of New- castle to devise some plan for the suppression of street- robberies. His plan was approved of, the money he required was issued from the Treasury, and he com- pletely broke up a desperate gang of ruffians who had filled the town with terror. From the careless manner in which Mr. Lawrence writes, we cannot ascertain LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 75 whether he went to Bath or not, and the other biog- raphers are silent. However, his case was now hopeless; he was attacked at once by jaundice, dropsy, and asth- ma. After struggling through the severe winter and uncongenial spring of 1754, he removed to a cottage near Ealing, whence he set out, on the 26th of June, with his wife and eldest daughter, to embark for Lisbon. Ever active in mind, he has left a narrative of that voy- age nearly as interesting as any of his fictions. He did not reach Lisbon till the middle of August, and on the 8th of October he there breathed his last, in the forty- eighth year of his age. In person Fielding was tall and large, being upwards of six feet high, and he seems to have attached much value to physical power, for he forms all his heroes after his own likeness. In consequence probably of his formation, he appears to have had a high relish for ani- mal enjoyments. His cousin, Lady Mary, gives it as her opinion that no man ever enjoyed life more than he did. "His happy constitution," she adds "even when he had with great pains half-demolished it, made him forget every evil when he was before a venison pasty or over a flask of champagne, and I am persuaded he has known more happy moments than any prince on earth." That previous to his marriage he ran headlong into every species of dissipation, is, I fear, not to be doubted; but, 76 HENRY FIELDING as I have endeavoured to show, we have no proof that his life was otherwise than regular after his marriage. Had he, for example, been unfaithful to his adored wife, such was his innate candour that we can hardly doubt but he would have seized some occasion of confessing and deploring it. Even in his most licentious days, he never lost his respect for religion and virtue. It is a beautiful trait in the character of Fielding, that unlike Richardson, Smollet, and others of the genus irritabile, he seems to have been totally free from malig- nity. It is mere banter and ridicule which he uses against Cibber and others, unless a suspicion respecting Sir Robert Walpole, hereafter to be mentioned, should be well founded. Even if it is, he seems to have re- canted, for in the Voyage to Lisbon he terms him the best of men and of Ministers. Of his second wife he speaks in the following terms in various parts of the journal of his voyage, all proving the sterling worth of her character. "My wife, who behaved more like a heroine and a philosopher, though at the same time the tenderest mother in the world" — "who, besides discharging excellently well her own and all the tender offices becoming the female character; besides being a faithful friend, an amiable companion, and a tender nurse, could likewise supply the wants of a decrepit husband" — "his dear wife and child were LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 77 both too good and too gentle to be trusted to the power of any man he knew." Surely a woman of whom one of his deep insight into human nature could thus so un- affectedly express himself, must have been one of the best of her sex. The daughter here spoken of, and named Eleanor Harriet, was by his first wife, but whether she was her first child or not we are not informed. She did not long survive her father. Nichols, in his History of Leicester- shire (iv, 394), gives, I presume on good authority, the following account of his family by his second wife: — "William, baptized at Twickenham, February 25th, 1747, a barrister, eminent as a special pleader, living in 1807; Rev. Allen, M. A., vicar of Shepherd's Well, Kent, 1783; Hadington, 1787, rector of St. Cosmas and Damian, in the Blean, 1803, living in 1807; Amelia and Louise, baptized 1753." Murphy, writing in 1762, says he left four children, "three of which are still living, and are now training up in a handsome course of educa- tion under the care of their uncle, with the aid of a very generous donation given annually by Ralph Allen, Esq., for that purpose." Chalmers adds in a note, "Mr. Allen died in 1764, and bequeathed to Mrs. Fielding and her children £100 each." Mr. Lawrence, as usual without giving any authority, says he "bequeathed to the family an annuity of £100 a year." 78 HENRY FIELDING The uncle here mentioned was Walpole's blind man, Fielding's brother John, who succeeded him in his office, and notwithstanding his want of sight, proved a most active and able magistrate. A blind lawyer is a most unusual phenomenon, for of all professions the law, where so much must be read, seems to stand most in need of vision. It would seem that Fielding, conscious of his own frail tenure of life, and aware of his brother's talent, and of his attachment to himself and family, be- came his instructor in the law so far as to render him capable of taking his place, which he counted on being able to obtain for him. And he was not disappointed in either respect. We have just quoted Murphy's testimony for the one, and as to the other, Fielding him- self says in his journal, " I therefore resigned the office ... to my brother, who had long been my assistant." He could not have told us in plainer language that his brother was his immediate successor; yet Mr. Law- rence says, "Mr. Saunders Welch succeeded Fielding as a justice of the peace." The pecuniary circumstances of Fielding for the last few years of his life seem worth inquiring into. Murphy says he had an income of £400 or £500 a year; his own account was that he had, as already mentioned, "a small pension," perhaps of £100 a year, "which," he adds, "would, I believe, have been larger had my LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 79 great patron been convinced of an error which I have heard him utter more than once — "That he could not indeed say that the acting as a principal justice of peace in Westminster was on all occasions very desira- ble, but that all the world knew it was a very lucrative office. " In opposition to this he says that, by compos- ing instead of inflaming the quarrels of porters and beg- gars . . . and by refusing to take a shilling from a man who most undoubtedly would not have had another left, I had reduced an income of about £500 a year of the dirtiest money on earth, to little more than £300, a considerable portion of which remained with my clerk. " This would lead us to suppose that his place was not worth more to him than £200 a year. His house was probably rent free, and he had his pension, whatever it was, in addition. But his writings at this period pro- duced him a good deal of money. He received £700 for Tom Jones, and £800 or £1000 for Amelia; and possibly the Covent Garden Journal and his pamphlets may have brought him in enough to raise the whole pro- ceeds of his pen to £1800 or £2000, which would be up- wards of £300 a year for the years 1749-54. It would, however, look as if he had not husbanded well these sums, for speaking of a period only a twelve- month after the publication of Amelia, he says, "I will confess that my affairs at the beginning of the winter (1752-53) had 80 HENRY FIELDING but a gloomy aspect." We are here to recollect that 1752 was the year of the existence of the Covent Garden Journal. Viewing, then, the matter how we will, it cannot be denied that imprudence with regard to money characterized him at all periods of his life. "His genius," writes Lady Mary (June 5th, 1754), "deserved a better fate; but I cannot help blaming that continued indiscretion, to give it the softest name, that has run through his life, and I fear still remains." It is somewhat remarkable that Fielding does not appear to have had much, if any, intimacy, or even acquaintance, with the literary men of the day; for if he had, it is not likely that he who I may say goes out of his way to praise Hogarth, for example, would have left their names and works unnoticed in his novels. As he and Thomson were both the intimates of Lyttleton, we might suppose they were acquainted; and if we believe a ridiculous story given by Mr. Lawrence, they were so, but certainly not in 1731, when the latter's play of Sophonisba was so unmercifully ridiculed in Tom Thumb. The truth perhaps is, that Fielding's associa- tions were chiefly with the theatres and the fashionable world, and he had little relish for the imaginative poetry of Thomson, Akenside, and the other poets of the time; while except Johnson, then little known, there was hardly any prose writer of eminence. LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 81 I will conclude these remarks with a few observa- tions on Fielding's principal works. It is well known that he failed as a dramatist, and it may sufficiently account for this failure to say that he had eminent success as a novelist. I might, like Sir Walter Scott and others, endeavour to account philo- sophically for this fact; but such displays of ingenuity are needless. It is a fact that as yet no man has suc- ceeded in both the drama and prose fiction; just as no poet has succeeded in the epos and in the drama. Nay more, to Shakspeare alone does it seem to have been given to succeed alike in tragedy and in comedy, but his poems prove that he would never have succeeded in the epos. Each department of literature appears to de- mand a different cast of intellect. Of Fielding's dra- matic pieces (many of them no doubt flung off with care- less rapidity), The Miser, The Mock Doctor, and Tom Thumb, alone have kept a place on the stage; all three having been played within the present century. The former two are indebted for their success to the genius of Moliere, from whom they were borrowed, the latter to its extravagance and comic absurdity. The far larger portion of its clever parodies must have escaped even its earliest audiences, as being on pieces little known or read; but it is certainly still very pleasant to read it with the notes of Scriblerus Junior. 82 HENRY FIELDING Joseph Andrews first revealed to Fielding where his real power lay. It had its origin, I am convinced, in pure fun and mischief. He saw that Pamela had its ridiculous side, and was capable of giving scope for parody; but in justice to Richardson, I must say that it is the utmost injustice to ascribe art to his heroine. Her character is, in my eyes, perfectly pure and inno- cent, but she has a secret and unconscious affection for the man who is seeking to destroy her virtue. But how absurd was it in Richardson to ascribe such sense, wis- dom I might say, and talents to a girl only turned of fifteen. Fielding is never so false to nature as this. Fielding tells us his romance is written in imitation of that of Cervantes. The resemblance, I presume, he considered to consist in this, that the one was intend- ed to ridicule the romances of chivalry, the other the biographies of Cibber and Pamela; that both employ the mock-epic in style; both contain the adventures of two personages rambling from place to place; both are diversified by episodes, &c. But there is one great advantage on the side of the original, it rarely if ever offends delicacy in scenes or language, while the imita- tor gives us scenes which — though not so bad as some in Pamela — offend, at least, female delicacy, and lan- guage unpleasing to modest ears. These blemishes, however, are confined to the first book, for in the re- LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 83 mainder of the work there are not more than a couple of offensive expressions. Still we must allow that, although Fielding uses coarse and indelicate language he is never prurient; his mind was too vigorous and manly to allow of it. So Shakspeare is often wanton, but never prurient. Fielding assures us that he took all his characters in this work direct from nature (and the same may be asserted of his other works), though he disguised them so that the original could not be recognised. There is, then, little doubt that his friend Young sat for Parson Adams, and Peter Walter for Peter Pounce. No doubt he had met with a Silpslop, but her language may have been suggested by that of Moria in the Cynthia s Revels of Ben Jonson, of whom Fielding was a reader and admirer. She is herself the original of Mrs. Malaprop. In all his works of fiction we meet his wife under one form or other; for as Albano's wife was the modello for his Venuses and other beautiful female forms, so Field- ing's appears in all his virtuous women. Fanny is what she would have been in a humble rank; Mrs. Wilson adumbrates her as the generous girl who without reserve bestows herself and her fortune on her imprudent lover. I am decidedly of opinion that Joseph Andrews had the further merit of having suggested the more graceful and elegant, but more improbable, Vicar of Wakefield. 84 HENRY FIELDING I regard the Vicar and Mrs. Primrose as Parson Adams and his wife, elevated, refined, and polished, idealized as it were. To any one who reads the two works care- fully, sundry traits will show that the author of the one had the other in his mind. Such are the reading of the little boy in each, and the rebuking of the merriment at the wedding, to which others might be added, if necessary. The Journey from this World to the Next is to me an unpleasing fiction. The main requisite for such a fiction is precisely that in which Fielding was most de- ficient — a poetic imagination. It will therefore rarely, I think, be read for pleasure, but it may be for infor- mation, for it is a fund of acute satire and profound observation on human nature. The idea seems to have been suggested by the Vision of Marraton in the Spectator, and the Dream in the Guardian (No. 158), while the transmigrations of Julian may have had their origin in Pug's letter (Spectator, No. 343), or in the verses in the first scene of Jonson's Volpone. One of the best things in it, to my mind, is the account Julian gives of his experiences as a beggar, in the nineteenth chapter; and the description of the palace of Death is the nearest approach that Fielding has ever made to the sublime. In this work alone, which however is unfin- ished, we find no portrait of the writer's wife. LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 85 The Life of Jonathan Wild has proved a perfect crux to the critics, a proof perhaps that it may have a recondite sense. It is not the real life of that villain, which may be found in the Newgate Calendar, or in Watson's Life of Fielding; it seems rather to be an attempt at forming the ideal of perfect and consummate villainy, absorbed in self and unchecked by feeling or remorse. It is probable that Fielding, while studying the law, used to attend at the Old Bailey, and at the justice-room at Bow-street, that he thus learned some of the language and modes of procedure of those whom he denominates prigs; and that thence the idea of such a work may have arisen. But this hypothesis does not quite satisfy me, and I must own that I am inclined to see in it a scathing political satire, like Dante's Inferno, where, from fear of the consequences, the real meaning is so veiled as to be hardly discoverable without a key. In a word, my suspicion is that the rather unusual terms, Prigs, and Prigism, stand for Whigs and Whigism; and that Jonathan Wild is Sir Robert Walpole; the political satire perhaps commencing with Wild's for- mation of his gang, what precedes being given chiefly for the purpose of putting the ordinary reader on a wrong scent. Many allusions to the life, both public and private, of this Minister, may, I think, be discerned throughout the work. Fielding had made two poetic 86 HENRY FIELDING addresses to this statesman, and he had dedicated to him his play of The Modern Husband in very adulatory terms. He may have been stung by his neglect, and been mortified by the treatment he received when danc- ing attendance on him, and have had a keen recollection of the Licensing Act and its consequences to him, and hence have conceived a bitter resentment, to which he thus gave vent. If it be objected that Fielding was a Whig himself, it may be replied that he was only so in the higher and purer sense, as the true friend of civil and religious liberty, while he had a thorough contempt and detestation of the arts and the corruption of states- men, whether Whig or Tory. There can certainly be little doubt but that the Roger Johnson whom Wild supplants in Newgate, is Robert Walpole, and this would seem to militate against my theory. But such changes are not unusual in this kind of satires, and I take Wild here to represent Pultney, who was the chief agent in overthrowing Walpole, and the chapter to have been inserted by Fielding in disgust at the conduct of Wal- pole's successors. Heartfree and his wife (the latter as usual adumbrated from Mrs. Fielding) seem to have been introduced only to vary the story and interest by contrast; yet even in them there may be a meaning which I am unable to discern. It may also be objected that this work was reprinted with additions and correc- LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 87 tions, in 1754, after Walpole, and with him Fielding's hostility, had been dead some years, and when he was soon to style him "the best of men." The reason may have been that the object of his satire had been so closely enveloped that it had not been discovered; the work had been generally regarded as a kind of romance, and under this character he was now well content to let it continue. [If my hypothesis respecting Jonathan Wild be correct, I think the work may have been formed in the following manner. Fielding may have written the satire in the heat of his indignation at the Licensing Act, but he did not publish it. With time and the fall of Wal- pole in 1742, his anger probably expired, and the satire would never have seen the light, had he not been pressed for materials to make up his Miscellanies in the follow- ing year. He may then have gone over his Life of Jonathan Wild, have made additions to it, and al- tered it so that the satire might not easily have been discovered, or that he might be able to deny that it contained any individual satire]. I now come to Tom Jones, the matchless Tom Jones, on which I could almost write a volume, while my limits only allow me to correct a few errors and misapprehen- sions. First as to its origin and the reason of its hero's birth 88 HENRY FIELDING being illegitimate. This Richardson maliciously as- cribed to the circumstance of the author's wife having been such; while Sir Walter Scott thinks that "a better reason may be discovered in the story itself; for had Miss Bridget been previously married to the father of Tom Jones, there could have been no adequate motive assigned for keeping his birth secret from a man so reasonable and compassionate as Airworthy." All this is very true, and yet I do not think it is the real reason. Tom Jones and Blifil are in fact the Edgar and Edmund of King Lear (they afterwards became Charles and Joseph Surface), and from what Fielding says in the dedication of his work to Lyttleton, I suspect that it was this last who suggested the subject to him,which, after an incubation of some years, as he says, came to the world in its present delightful form. Again, it is the vulgar opinion that Prior-park is Allworthy's house. Nothing can be more absurd than this idea, their sites are so totally different. The real site of Allworthy's mansion was Sharpham-Park, near Glastonbury Abbey, the author's birth-place. Thus a river was seen to meander from it for several miles, "till it emptied itself into the sea; with a large arm of which and an island beyond it the prospect was closed." In another part the view was "terminated by one of the towers of an old ruined abbey, grown over with ivy, and part of the front which LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 89 remained entire." Let the reader compare this with a map of Somersetshire, and he will see that I am right. Further, Allworthy's house was a Gothic, Allen's a Grecian structure. //The plot of Tom Jones is generally and justly ad- mired; the skill with which the secret of the hero's birth is preserved to near the end is deserving of all praise. Yet in Amelia the secret of Serjeant Atkinson's chaste and pure affection for his lovely foster-sister is kept almost as well; and in the Emma of the admirable Jane Austen, the female Fielding, as I may justly call her, no less than two love-secrets are kept so well that no one has a conception of them, and yet when they are at last revealed we find that numerous circumstances of the narrative have had an evident bearing on them. The only circumstances, I believe, in Tom Jones, after the early part and before the latter, which have a con- nexion with the denouement, are the coming of Dowling to Allworthy's, and Jones's meeting with him at Glou- cester, and on the road to Coventry, and with Mrs. Waters at Upton. It is curious that in a work so carefully written we should be able to find a glaring anachronism and an equally strong anachorism. It was certainly not till after many a perusal that I detected either. The former I find had been noticed by a correspondent of the 9 o HENRY FIELDING Gentleman s Magazine for 1 79 1, and I think it is to this that the late Mr. Armitage Brown alludes in his ingen- ious Autobiography of Shakspeare. I do not know that the anachorism has ever been discerned. The fifth book of this novel ends in the month of June, and the sixth, as the heading tells us, contains about three weeks, toward the close of which Jones is discarded by Airworthy; the seventh contains three days, and the eighth two, during which last Jones and Partridge left Gloucester at five o'clock, when it was nightfall, for, as the author observes, "it was now mid- winter!" It is winter during all the rest of the novel. How Fielding could have committed such an error is almost inexplicable. Possibly he may have done it to mystify the reader, and to imitate similar slips in Cer- vantes; but this hypothesis is not very satisfactory. 8 The following anachorism is, if possible, more inex- plicable. In the tenth chapter of the seventh book Jones, on his way to Bristol, goes astray, and when, after nightfall, he is inquiring his way of a rustic, a Quaker comes up, and induces him to stop for the night in the adjacent village, which village, as we are informed in a note in the last chapter of the tenth book, was named Hambrook. Now Hambrook is in Gloucestershire, with- in four miles of Bristol, and there neither was, nor I believe is, any bridge over the Avon between Bristol and LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 91 Bath, except the one near this last city. How, then, did not only Jones, but Sophia and Squire Western get across ? Further, Fielding was probably well acquaint- ed with this road, for from the manner in which he speaks of Mr, and Mrs. Whitfield, of the Bell Inn, in Gloucester, it is quite evident that he must have been more than once in their house, and he must also have seen the view which he describes from Mazzard Hill, between Gloucester and Upton. The only way in which I can account for this knowledge is by supposing that Fielding used occasionally, when the circuit was ended, to go from Bath or Bristol to Hagley Park, on a visit to his friend Lyttleton, whom we know Thomson used to visit once a year; for the worthy Sir Thomas allowed his son to take every liberty of this kind. Hence also Fielding seems so well acquainted with the road from Coventry to London. I really, then, can see no adequate way of accounting for the mistake about Hambrook: it is a strange specimen of oscitancy. [It seems to me extremely likely that one time or other, if not more than once, Lyttleton may have met Fielding at Bath, and they may have proceeded together to Hagley Park. I infer this from Fielding having seen the view from Mazzard Hill; for I do not believe that he had sufficient taste for natural scenery and ex- tensive rural prospects, to induce him to undergo the 92 HENRY FIELDING toil of ascending that hill by himself for their sake, while I can easily conceive him to have accompanied Lyttleton, who had that taste in such an excursion, and in compliment to whom he may have introduced the description. I cannot help thinking, by the way, that Sir Thomas Lyttleton and Hagley Park may have aided in the creation of Airworthy and his residence]. But there is another strange matter connected with Hambrook. It must have been pretty far in the night when the soldiery came there, and as they could only have come from Bristol, they must have left it at night and so have marched without halting all that night and all the next day, a most unusual circumstance, even supposing the march a forced one. It is rather amusing — some might say he had ex- perience for his guide in the matter — how he makes his personages to manage without money. Parson Adams is on his way, and with a horse, to London, with only nine and sixpence in his pocket; Jones is going as a volunteer, and then goes to London with only the sixteen guineas that Sophia had sent him; and strangest of all, Sophia herself, after sending him all she had and losing her bank-bill, has still plenty of money in her purse. I trust it will be believed that it is merely as matters of curiosity that I point out these slips in so great a LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 93 writer: Cervantes has fully as many, and of equal magnitude; and those in the Vicar of Wakefield are more numerous still. In fact, hardly any novelist, unless it be Jane Austen — in whose works I have been unable to detect any such — has escaped this danger. With respect to her, if we did not know that her narratives are fictitious, we might suppose they related nothing but real events. In Tom Jones, as in Fielding's other novels, every character may be said to be real; for he never painted without a modello. The tradition of Salisbury, as Mr. Greenley informed me, is that Thwackum was Dr. Hale, the master of the Cathedral-school; and that Square was Chubb, the deist, a tallow-chandler in that city; while two squires in the neighbourhood vie for the honour of being represented in Western. But this is all rather uncertain, and as for the Squire in particular, such characters were "plenty as blackberries" at that time in the country-parts of England. Lady Bellaston is said to have been Lady Townshend, but this I doubt, as she has none of that lady's peculiarities, like Lady Tempest in Pompey the Little, which certainly represents her. Airworthy is Allen and Lyttleton idealized; and Sophia, the charming Sophia, is of course Mrs. Fielding, in confirmation of which it may be observed that in Amelia there is hardly any description of the heroine's 94 HENRY FIELDING person, because that had been described at full length in the earlier tale. In a rather tasteless critique on Tom Jones, I find it stated that "a living (in 1811) female writer has ar- raigned the delicacy of Sophia for riding about the coun- try after her lover." The critic very properly defends her, and hints that the objector perhaps had never felt the power of love. In truth Sophia might have cried with Racine's Atalaide (and Racine knew something of these matters), Ah, Zaire ! Tamour a-t-il tant de prudence ? For my own part, I love Sophia all the better for this, and for her fib to Lady Bellaston, and her flattery of her aunt. It shows she was a real, genuine woman, and not an ideal creation. We constantly hear of the vices of Jones. I must confess I never could discern them. Vice is a habit, and he had no vicious habit. He did not drink, swear, lie, cheat, game, oppress, malign, &c. No doubt on a few occasions he yielded to temptations that few men could resist. I allude of course to his dealings with the fair sex. As to the first with Molly Seagrim, any one who recollects the kind of person that Jones is described as being, and what the English peasantry are, will see that it was almost impossible that some girl would not have laid herself out to seduce him, and of course have LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 95 succeeded. We must always recollect that Fielding painted men as they are, not as they ought to be, and that Xenocrates are rather rare. His renewed acquaint- ance with her on the day of Allworthy's recovery is ex- plained by his having drunk too much wine. The affair with Mrs. Waters, too, at Upton, is really a sort of matter of course; few young men of spirit would have refused the challenge. That with Lady Bellaston seems of a deeper die. Here the critics treat him as a degraded wretch who actually submitted to be taken into keeping. Even if he had done so, he would have had high people to keep him in countenance. Lord A. Hamilton, for ex- ample, a son of the Duke of Hamilton, was kept publicly at that time by a Miss Edwards, a lady of fortune, and he was not excluded from society (nor perhaps was she either). Lady Vane, who was married to his brother, describes him as coming to visit them in great state. The simple fact is, Jones was regularly trepanned by the artful lady, and a bank bill was forced upon him who had not a shilling in his pocket; the whole time of their acquaintance did not exceed a week, and after the first they had but one private meeting. What regular con- tract was there here ? what continuance of vicious inti- macy, as is usually assumed ? I declare I doubt if Jones's moral guilt is not greater in going to board and lodge himself and servant with poor Mrs. Miller, when he had 96 HENRY FIELDING no money, and no prospect of getting any. We must also never leave out of view that Jones is most severely punished for all his transgressions in this way. Think of his agonies when he learns from Partridge that Mrs. Waters was his mother! I once recommended Tom Jones to a lady who has since written some very pleasing novels. She read it, and wrote to me to say that in her opinion it was not merely a moral, but a religious book. And she was right, for the final and permanent impres- sion which it leaves on the mind is most strongly in fa- vour of religion and virtue. Who can escape improve- ment from the contemplation of such characters as Sophia and Allworthy ? It has been my favourite from my very boyhood, and I think I may say without vanity, that my moral sense is so strong that such could not have been the case if its tendency had been adverse to virtue; I never could take to Byron. [Mr. James Haywood Markhand has very kindly transmitted to me a lecture delivered by him in Bath, in August, 1856, on the history and antiquities of that city. It contains the following passage relating to Tom Jones'. — "An excellent prelate, now living, told me that he would not hesitate placing the book in the hands of a young man, if accompanied with suitable caution and advice."] LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 97 Amelia is no doubt the setting sun. Beautiful and interesting as it is, it wants the freshness, the vigour, the varied charms of its predecessors, its tone is too uniformly sombre. Amelia, indeed, stands forth in celestial puritv; Dr. Harrison is kind and good; honest Atkinson's pure and chaste love for his sweet foster- sister is delightful; and Mrs. Bennet, with all her pedantry* and vanity, is much to be liked; Colonel Bath is a preux chevalier. But Booth is weak — no worse, for I cannot assent to the terms worthless and such like so liberally bestowed on him — and almost all the rest are bad. Booth, like Jones, succumbs to tempta- tion twice. The first, all the circumstances considered, I must regard as irresistible by anv man of ordinary mould. In the latter, by a little virtuous resolution he might have escaped. Yet how many instances of simi- lar weakness have I known ! I regard the following circumstance as a proof of decadence in Amelia', manv characters and events are taken from the author's plavs. Thus in the Justice caught in his own Trap, we meet with the good and the bad justice, the bailiff and the spunging-house; in the Temple Beau, Yeromil recovers his propertv in the same manner as Amelia does; while in the Modern Husband we have in Mr. and Mrs. Bellamont, Mr. and Mrs. 98 HENRY FIELDING Modern, and Lord Richly, the germs of Booth and Amelia, Captain Trent, Miss Matthews, the Lord, and Colonel James. One valuable feature in Amelia is the directing attention to various legal and social evils, many of which were not removed till our own days. I am not quite sure that we are really so very far in advance of our forefathers in morality as we fancy; but we cer- tainly do not perform our immoral acts so openly as they did; we contrive to cast a veil over matters in which they had no concealment. It would now, for instance, be almost libellous to say that people in office or of influence touched, as it was termed, for procuring places, &c, yet the thing still exists. I know a case myself where an offer was made to procure a baronetcy, but it was intimated that the parties expected to touch pretty handsomely. Let us not, then, plume ourselves too much, when we recollect the railways, joint-stock banks, adulteration of food, accommodation bills, and many other circumstances of our own day. Amelia, too, has its improbabilities, of which I shall only notice the following. Miss Matthews in the prison receives a letter and a bank-bill from Colonel James. Now from her preceding history, it is utterly impossible that he could at that time have known anything about her. The appearance there of Amelia seems also inex- LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 99 plicable, and it is only at the end of the work that we can at all account for it, and that without any assistance from the author. Independently of their value as the creations of gen- ius, the novels of Fielding are inestimable as genuine pictures of English manners in the middle of the last century. "Oh!" exclaimed Dr. Arnold, "if we had but a Tom Jones of the times of Augustus ! " As an instance I may mention that from this novel we learn that it was so much the custom at that time for ladies to travel on horseback, that side-saddles were kept at all the inns throughout the country. I do not recollect to have met with any allusion to this custom in any other work, novel, play, or poem of that time. Sir Walter Scott also observes that Fielding's novels are so thoroughly English that no one can perfectly understand them who has not been born, or at least lived some time, in England. Of the truth of this remark I can myself bear witness; for I thought I understood them thoroughly till I went to live for some time in one of the southern counties, when I discovered many traits of manners in them, of the existence of which I had previously been uncon- scious. Without possessing the grace and elegance of Addi- son and Goldsmith, the lightness and vivacity of Lesage, or the dignity and rotundity of Cervantes, Fielding was ioo HENRY FIELDING master of a vigourous, manly, and truly English style, though occasionally incorrect. His most remarkable peculiarity is the constant employment, no matter who is the speaker, of hath and doth for has and does,. This occurs, I believe, in no other writer of the eighteenth century. Fielding is to be classed among those writers who are invidiously styled egotists, because they speak freely of themselves, their feelings, opinions, affairs, and works. This formula contains many great names — such as Horace, Montaigne, Milton, Boileau, Pope, and others (and most, if not all of these were eminent for good taste and knowledge of the world); besides the whole band of autobiographers. If I may judge by my own feelings, writers of this class are the most delightful. I never, in fact, could read the Exegi monumentum of Horace, or the Address to Fame of Fielding, without a secret elation of mind and rejoicing at seeing their anticipations so fully verified. The proper place for this egotism is the preface, which I regard as the author's manor, for a well-constructed work requires no preface; and if he adheres rigidly to truth, and endeavours to form a just estimate of himself and his powers, though the envious and little-minded may carp and sneer, he may be sure that he will command the sympathy of all whose minds have been cast in the mould of taste, good feeling, and generosity. LIFE BY KEIGHTLEY 101 I have now, I trust, fulfilled the promise I made at setting out. Had I not been limited in space I should have been more copious, and of course more convincing, on some points, and have treated of various other mat- ters which I have been obliged to omit. ANNOTATIONS ANNOTATIONS Book-plate of Rt. Hon. Basil Fielding Earl of Denbigh ; lyoj ucldixw Earls ofDenli 5 Sl^kl* ^ ANNOTATIONS 1 Mr. Keightley's doubts have been sustained by Mr. J. H. Round, in the Genealogist for April 1894, by Mr. A. C. Fox-Davies and other competent authorities, and the connection of the house of Den- bigh with the counts of Hapsburg is now generally discredited. It is well that this tradition was not dispelled before Gibbon wrote his fine passage: "The successors of Charles the Fifth may disdain their humble brethren of England; but the romance of Tom Jones, that exquisite picture of human manners, will outlive the palace of the Escurial and the Imperial Eagle of the house of Austria." 2 Andrew Kippis is referred to here. He edited the second edition of the Biographica Britannica in 1777-93. The anecdote is related in the Gentleman s Magazine for 1786. In a book-plate of Basil Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, dated 1703, and here reproduced, it will be noticed the Earl spells his name as the novelist spelled his. 3 To "Notes and Queries" for September 6, 1862 (Third Series, Vol. II, p. 199), Mr. Keightley communicates the following: "Some time ago, when engaged in inquiries relating to Fielding, I thought of looking at Doctors' Commons for the will of his grand- father, Sir H. Gould. I found it there and have a copy of it. It is very short, and seems chiefly to have been made for the sake of pro- viding for his daughter, Mrs. Fielding, and it was executed on the eighth of March, 1706-7, a little before the birth of her first child, Henry. In this he says, T give to my son William Day 3,000 1. in trust for the sole and separate use of my daughter Sarah Fielding,' io6 HENRY FIELDING &c. Then after giving ioo I. to his wife, he adds, 'And all the rest of my goods, chattels, and plates, debts and money, I give to my son Davidge Gould, whom I make my whole and sole executor of this my last will and testament.' I am no lawyer, but I presume that William Day Gould was the eldest son, who came in for the landed property; and I have an impression on my mind that he was the father of the second Sir Henry, who was, beyond doubt, Henry Fielding's first cousin, to whose Miscellanies he was a subscriber in 1743. "It is rather remarkable that the name of one of the witnesses to Sir Henry Gould's will is William Day, a relation it may be supposed." -Thos. Keightley. 4 To the second edition of David Simple, published in 1744, Henry Fielding contributed the introduction. In 1797 there was published in Paris the "CEuvres complettes de M. Fielding," and volumes 11 to 14 contain the "Aventures de Roderick Random; par Fielding," while volumes 18 to 20 are devoted to "David Simple; ou le Veritable Ami." Odder yet, George Virtue, the London publisher, issued in 1822 an edition of David Simple which he credited to "Henry Fielding, Esq., author of Tom Jones, &c, " and, though giving an extended biography of our author, in which David Simple is not once mentioned, the introduction, the only thing Henry Fielding contribut- ed to the volume, is omitted. 5 The clergyman of Motcombe, a neighbouring village says Hutchins, quoted by Austin Dobson. 6 The second edition of the Miscellanies is not as rare as Mr. Keightley supposes, but its identity is obscure. It bears the same date as the first, 1743. Volumes I and III are noted on the title- page as " The Second Edition " while Volume II omits this line. So this set is sometimes quoted by booksellers as " Vols. I and III, second edition; Vol. II, first edition." But these editions are easily ANNOTATIONS 107 to be distinguished from the fact that the first is noted as "Printed for the Author and Sold by A. Millar," while the second edition was "Printed for A. Millar." 7 Mr. George Saintsbury in his general Introduction to Field- ing's works published by Messrs. Dent & Co. in 1893, thus disposes of this story: "Horace Walpole at second-hand draws us a Fielding, pigging with low companions in a house kept like a hedge tavern; Fielding himself, within a year or two, shows us more than half- undesignedly in the Voyage to Lisbon that he was very careful about the appointments and decency of his table, that he stood rather upon ceremony in regard to his own treatment of his family, and the treat- ment of them and himself by others, and that he was altogether a per- son orderly, correct, and even a little finikin. Nor is there the slightest reasonable reason to regard this as a piece of hypocrisy, a vice as alien from the Fielding of fancy as from the Fielding of fact, and one the particular manifestation of which, in this particular place, would have been equally unlikely and unintelligible." 8 Errors in "Tom Jones "-Real and Unreal: This ana- chronism, the speedy transformation of the scene of the novel from summer to winter, was not discovered by Mr. Keightley,as he acknowl- edges, but was first pointed out by a correspondent in the Gentleman s Magazine for May, 1 79 1, vol. xli, page 434. As the item is brief it may be quoted entire: "Mr. Urban: May 6. I should be much obliged if any of your correspondents can inform me who was the author of the second volume of Maitland's History of Scotland; for, as the title-page teaches us, Maitland only wrote the first. "In the celebrated novel of Tom Jones, we find the first volume closes in the montb of June; the second volume contains three weeks, five days, twelve hours, and in the end we find a hard and long frost: the other two volumes proceed with winter trans- actions. How is this to be palliated ? Hinc Inde. - " 108 HENRY FIELDING The battle-royal took place at the latter end of June, call it, if you will, June 23. Book vi recounts the events of three weeks which would bring Jones's dismissal by Allworthy to July 14. Book vii ac- counts for three days and brings Jones to the Inn at Hambrook on, say, July 17. Book viii tells of two days only, and announces that it was now midwinter, tho' according to the author's chronology it could not have been later than July 19, or if you place the battle at June 30, the latest possible date, midwinter appears on July 26. This error simply cannot be explained away, but if we insist upon some explanation Mr. Keightley's effort will do as well as another. Mr. Keightley's own discovery, that Sophia had apparently plenty of money in her purse after losing her bank-bill, is of compara- tively little importance, I think. After sending Jones all the money she had, Sophia, in Book vii, Chapter ix, pretends to acquiesce in her father's demands, and the delighted squire gives her "a large bank note," but he may in addition have given her a hand-full of guineas and at the worst the author can be blamed only for his failure to re- count the incident. She was the daughter of a wealthy man and she may well have been possessed of money without it being absolutely necessary for the author to tell how she got it. Mr. Keightley's anachorism "is, if possible, more inexplicable," and we wonder how he could have written that "there neither was, nor I believe is, any bridge over the Avon between Bristol and Bath," and he asks, "how then did not only Jones, but Sophia and Squire Western get across ?" Bath is about twelve miles from Bristol by the old high- way, and there were in the eighteenth century at least two bridges crossing the Avon between Bath and Bristol. One, a stone bridge with a single arch, connected the two roads between Bath and Bristol about two miles from Bath, and the other crossed the Avon near Keynsham, five miles below the other bridge, or seven miles from ANNOTATIONS 109 Bath and five from Bristol, just below the mouth of the river Chew. Over either of these two bridges our travellers could have passed with- out hindrance from Somersetshire into Gloucestershire. Mr. Keight- ley could have proved the existence of these bridges by consulting Paterson's British Itinerary, 1785; or Archibald Robertson's Topo- graphical Survey of the great road from London to Bath and Bristol, 1792. Mr. J. F. Meehan, of Bath, writes me as follows under date of August 28, 1907: "The bridge over the Avon about two miles from Bath, connecting the two roads between Bath and Bristol, is now known as Newton Bridge. It was built by John Strahan, land sur- veyor and architect, of Bristol and Bath, about 1727-28. The bridge was rebuilt later in the 18th century, and widened about 1826. It was considerably repaired about three or four years ago. The bridge about five miles further on over the Avon is at the eastern side of Keynsham. This bridge is shown in a map of Somerset dated 161 1. It was partially destroyed to prevent Monmouth approaching Bristol in 1685, and was repaired by Monmouth in 1688." Mr. Keightley contributed all these criticisms to Notes and Queries, May 30, 1863, Third Series, Vol. Ill, pp. 424, 425; and it is strange that the wide-awake readers of this paper did not point out his errors in topography. To his list he adds the following: " I will notice another topographical error. Sophia and her cousin, on their flight from Upton, arrive at a town, where they meet the Irish Lord. From all the circumstances this town must have been Evesham, and they must have gone to London by Ox- ford. Yet when Jones follows them, he comes to Coventry; and so, though we hear nothing of it, must have passed through Stratford and Warwick. The only way I can account for this, is by supposing the work to have been laid aside again at the end of the eleventh no HENRY FIELDING book; and that the author, before he returned to it, had been down again at Hagley, going from London and returning through Cov- entry." Now why does Mr. Keightley insist that the town where Sophia and Mrs. Fitzgerald meet the Irish Lord must have been Evesham ? The Irish Lord was probably posting to London, having crossed the channel from Dublin to Holyhead and from there the most direct post road to London passed through Chester and Coventry and not through Evesham at all. Evesham again is far south of Coventry, and yet when Jones reaches this inn he tries to get horses to take him to Coven- try whither Sophia had gone on her way to London. Evesham is therefore entirely out of the question, and the inn must have been somewhere a few miles north of Coventry on the highway between London and Chester. Possibly this inn may have been at Coleshill, twelve miles beyond Coventry. Jones departed from the inn during the early evening, after dinner, and reached Coventry about midnight, though detained by storm in the barn with the gypsies for an hour or more. This would give the party three or four hours on the road and one or two in the barn, long enough for Partridge to get into trouble with the gypsy woman, and long enough for the saddle horses to carry the party twelve miles over a straight road to Coventry, but not long enough to take Jones and his party by night over cross-roads a dis- tance of more than thirty miles from Evesham to Coventry. From Coventry the road to London was easy to follow, though it passed through no considerable towns. Mr. Keightley insists that Sophia must have gone to London from Evesham through Oxford, but we are told in Chapter xiii of Book xii exactly what route Jones took, and that all the time he was following Sophia. He passes through Daventry, in Northamptonshire, nineteen miles from Coventry; also through Stratford, not on the Avon, for this is Old Stratford, or Stony AXXOTATIOXS in Stratford on the Ouse, on the border between Northampton and Bucks, and about twenty miles from Daventry. Dunstable, in Bedfordshire, eighteen miles further on, is reached the next dav at noon, a few hours after Sophia had left it, and vet according to Mr. Keightlev's theory she should have been at Oxford at that time. Thirteen miles more brings Jones to St. Albans, in Herts, only two hours behind Sophia. It was two miles beyond Barnet, or near Whetstone, that Jones fell in with the stranger who tried to rob him at a mile from Highgate, or some five miles north of London. There is no error in all of this except in Mr. Keightley's unreason- able speculation, that Evesham was the point of departure for London. Call the place Coleshill and all difficulty disappears. APPENDIX A BIOGRAPHIES OF FIELDING BIOGRAPHIES OF HENRY FIELDING Allibone, S. Austin. A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors Living and Deceased; from the Earliest Accounts to the latter half of the Nineteenth Century. Vol. I. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1874. Fielding, pp. 591-595. Contains valuable notes and references. Anonymous. Adventures in search of a Real Friend, through the Cities of London and Westminster. By Henry Fielding, Esq.; Author of Tom Jones, etc. London: Printed by S. Cave; and published by G. Virtue, 6 Panger Alley, Paternoster Row, 1822. Life of Henry Fielding, pp. vii-xvi. This biography is a mere abbreviation of Murphy's Essay, and this story of David Simple was written by Henry Fielding's sister Sarah. The only thing that Henry Fielding contributed to the story was the Preface, and this the sapient Editor omits. Barbauld, Mrs. Anna Letitia. The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. The British Novelists, Vol. XVIII. London: F. C. and J. Rivington, &c, 1810. "Fielding," pp. i-xxxii. Second edition, London, 1820. Creasy, Edward S. Memoirs of Eminent Etonians; with No- tices of the Early History of Eton College. By Edward S. Creasy, M. A., Barrister at Law; Professor of History in University College, London ; Late Fellow of King's College, Cambridge ; formerly New- castle scholar, Eton. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street; Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty, 1850. "Henry Fielding," pp. 281-299. u6 HENRY FIELDING Cunningham, George G. Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen, from Alfred the Great to the Latest Times; on an orig- inal plan. Vol. V. Glasgow: Fullarton & Co., no Brunswick Street; and 6 Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh, mdcccxxxvii. "Henry Fielding," pp. 221-227. Dobson, Austin. Fielding. London: Macmillan and Co., 1883. Pp.xii, 196. "English Men of Letters;'" edited by John Morley. Idem. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, Franklin Square, 1883. Pp. x, 184. Idem. Revised and Enlarged Edition. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, Publishers, N. D. [1900]. One prel. leaf, pp. xviii, 315. Portrait. Probably no better thing than this will be done for Fielding. Idem. London: Macmillan and Co., 1902. Pp. xii, 210. Does not contain the later notes incorporated in the New York edition of 1900. The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon. By Henry Field- ing; with Introduction and Notes by Austin Dobson. London: printed and issued by Charles Whittingham & Co., at the Chiswick Press, mdcccxcii. "Editor's Introduction," pp. v-xxi. [Hogarth's Sketch of Fielding], p. ii. "Illus- trative Notes,'" pp. 235-277. Notes reprinted in Vol. XVI of Fielding's Works, New York: Croscup and Sterling [1903], pp. 3, 169-176, 285-308. Eighteenth Century Vignettes. London: Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly, 1892. "Fielding's Voyage to Lisbon," pp. 68-78. Idem. Third Series. London: Chatto & Windus, 1896. "Fielding's Library," pp. 164-178. At the Sign of the Lyre. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. mdcccxxxv. "Henry Fielding. (To James Russell Lowell)," pp. 107-110. BIOGRAPHIES 117 Dobson, Austin. "Henry Fielding:" in Bibliographia,Vo\. I. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Company, Limited, 1895. Part II, pp. 163-173. This is the essay on Fielding's Library afterward incorporated in Eighteenth Cen- tury Vignettes: Third Series, 1896, pp. 164-178. English Men of Letters: Samuel Richardson. New York: The Macmillan Company. London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1902. Fielding, pp. 32, 37, 42-47, 96, 106-113, 116-119, 121, 122, 145, 146, 157, 162, 195,200. William Hogarth. London: Sampson Low, Marston, and Company, Limited, St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E. C, 1891. Fielding, pp. 47 n., 62, 63, 71 n., 72 n., 81, 115, 116, 123, i5on., 176,285. Horace Walpole, a Memoir. New York : Dodd, Mead and Company, 1890. Idem. London: James R. Osgood & Co., 1893. Fielding, pp. 79, 86, 161-163, 231, 284. Handbook of English Literature; originally compiled by Austin Dobson. New Edition, revised with New Chapters, and extended to the present time; by W. Hall Griffin, B. A., Professor of English Language and Literature at Queen's College. London: Crosby, Lockwood, and Son, 7 Stationers' Hall Court, Ludgate Hill, 1897. Fielding, pp. 139-140. Fielding and Sarah Andrew; in the Athenaum, June 2, 1883. Pp. 700, 701. Reprinted in Henry Fielding, by Austin Dobson. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company; n. d. [1900], pp. 277-285, and in London: Macmillan & Co., 1902, pp. 197-202. n8 HENRY FIELDING Dobson, Austin. Fresh Facts about Fielding; in Macmillan s Magazine, April, 1907. Vol. II, n. s., pp. 417-422. [Dowling, W.] The Eton Portrait Gallery; consisting of short Memoirs of the More Eminent Eton Men; by a Barrister of the Inner Temple. With Twelve Steel Engravings, designed and executed by Cavalier Gabrielli. Eton College: Williams and Son; London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1876. "Henry Fielding," pp. 539-542. Elwin, Rev. Whitwell. Some XVIII Century Men of Letters : Biographical Essays by the Rev. Whitwell Elwin, some time Editor of the Quarterly Review, with a Memoir, edited by his son, Warwick Elwin. Vol. II : Sterne - Fielding - Goldsmith - Boswell and Dr. Johnson - Gray. With portraits, etc. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1902. "Henry Fielding," pp. 83-152. Portrait facing p. 139. Gosse, Edmund. The Works of Henry Fielding, with an Intro- duction by Edmund Gosse. Vol. I. Westminster: Archibald Con- stable and Co. ; New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1898. "Introduction," pp. xiii-xl. A History of Eighteenth Century Literature (1660- 1780) ; by Edmund Gosse, M. A., Clark Lecturer in English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge. London: Macmillan and Co., and New York, 1889. Fielding, pp. 243, 244, 247, 251-259, 264, 265, 383, 384, 386. English Literature: an Illustrative Record; in four volumes. Vol. Ill, from Milton to Johnson; by Edmund Gosse, Hon. M. A. of Trinity College, Cambridge. New York : The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1903. "Henry Fielding," pp. 31 1-3 15. Eight illustrations. BIOGRAPHIES 119 Havard, J. A. Tom Jones, ou L* Enfant Trouve; imitation de T Anglais de Fielding, par de la Place. Tome Premier. Paris : A. Hiard, Libraire-Editeur de la Bibliotheque des Amis des Lettres, Rue Saint-Jacques, No. 131. 1832. "Notice sur Fielding et ses ouvrages," pp. 5-18, signed "J. A. Havard." Henley, W. E., LL.D. The complete Works of Henry Fielding, Esq.; with an essay on the Life, Genius and Achievement of the author. Miscellaneous Writings; in three volumes. Vol. III. Illustrated with reproductions of rare contemporary drawings and portraits. Printed for subscribers only by Croscup & Sterling Com- pany, New York [1902]. In 16 volumes. "Henry Fielding, 1707-1754;" pp. iii-xli. Nothing more delightful has been written of Fielding. Complete sets of the first and second galley proofs and of the final page proofs corrected and signed by Mr. Henley are in the collection of the editor of this volume. Views and Reviews; Essays in Appreciation. London: Published by David Nutt, in the Strand, 1890. Idem. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1890. Fielding, pp. 217, 218, 229-235. Herbert, David. The Writings of Henry Fielding; comprising his celebrated works of fiction; carefully revised and collated with the best authorities; with a Memoir by David Herbert, M. A. Edin- burgh: William P. Nimmo, 1872. Reprinted 1887. Memoir, pp. 5-10. Jeaffreson, J. C. Novels and Novelists, from Elizabeth to Victoria. By J. Cordy Jeaffreson. Author of "Crewe Rise," &c, &c. In two volumes. Vol. I. London : Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, successors to Henry Colburn, 13 Great Marlborough Street. 1858. "Henry Fielding," pp. 91 -1 1 7. 120 HENRY FIELDING Jesse, J. Heneage. Memoirs of celebrated Etonians; including Henry Fielding, Thomas Gray, the Earl of Chatham, George Selwyn, Home Tooke, Lord North, Horace Walpole, Earl of Bute, George Grenville, Earl Temple, etc. etc. etc.; by J. Heneage Jesse, author of Memoirs of The Reign of George III, The Court of the Stuarts, etc. In two volumes. Vol.1. London: Richard Bentley and Son, Pub- lishers in ordinary to Her Majesty. 1875. "Henry Fielding,''' pp. 62-88. Keightley, Thomas. On the Life and Writings of Henry Field- ing. In Two Parts. Part the First [Second] in Frasers Magazine, January, February, 1858. Vol. LVII, pp. 1-13, 205-217; also, Post- script to Mr. Keightley's "Article on Henry Fielding," June, 1858. Vol. LVII, pp. 762, 763. Never reprinted until issued in this volume by the Rowf ant Club. Lawrence, F. The Life of Henry Fielding; with notices of his Writings, his Times, and his Contemporaries. By Frederick Law- rence, of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. - Mores hominum multorum vidit. - Horace, De Arte Poetica. - London : Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co., 25, Paternoster Row. 1855. Pp. viii, 384. Lowell, J. R. Democracy and other Addresses. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; The Riverside Press, Cambridge. 1887. Idem. London: Macmillan and Company. 1887. Fielding — Address on Unveiling the Bust of Fielding, delivered at Shire Hall, Taunton, Somersetshire, England, September 4, 1883. Pp. 65-88. McSpadden, J. W. Standard Authors' Booklets: Henry Field- ing. Illustrated. New York: Croscup & Sterling Company, Pub- lishers, n. d. [1902]. Pp. 32. Portrait and 7 illustrations. BIOGRAPHIES 121 Mudford, William. The British . ^: .._ e "z y work of acknowledged merit which is usually classed under the denom- ination of Novels : accompanied with Biographical Sketches of the Authors, and a critical preface to each Work. Embellished with ele- gant engravings. Vol. IV. Containing Tom Jones and Jonathan Wild the Great. London : Published for the proprietors by W. Clark. New Bond Street; Goddard, Pall-Mali; Tavlor and Hessev, Fleet Street; J. M. Richardson, Cornhill; and Sherwood, Neely, and Tones, Paternoster Row. 1S11. -Life 2: He— Field-?."" pp. ;-ic. Murphy, Arthur. An Essay on the Life and Genius of Henrv Fielding, Esq. Signed "Arthur Murphy, Lincoln's Inn, March 25, 1762:" in The Works of Henry Fielding, Esq.; with the Life of the Author. In four volumes. Volume the First. London : Printed for A. Millar, opposite Catharine-Street, in the Strand, m.d.cc.lxii. Pp. 5-49. Tins. :'-t firs: ir.t~z: 2: 2. 'zlzpiz'zj ::' He 1177 la.zzz.:. — 1= zztzzztz ::r :ii:s. :~e £r;: eiirl:r_ :: iiis ::iie::ei — :rk.s. I: zzn been zz.izz.-j :i~es :e:-r_:e: :z ~h:le :: in part in various succeeding editions of the works. Hogarth's portrait of Fielding ~is er_rr;Tei z~ Bisire ::r :'~e £rs: eiiriin. Nichols, John. Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Centurv; comprising biographical memoirs of William Bower, Printer, F. S. A., and many of his learned Friends; An Incidental View of the Progress and Advancement of Literature in this Kingdom during the last Cen- turv; and Biographical Anecdotes of a Considerable Number of Emi- nent Writers and Ingenious Artists; with a verv copious Index. In six volumes. Vol. III. London: Printed for the author, by Nichols, Son, and Bentlev, at Cicero's Head. Red-Lion-Passa^e, F'.rr:-^::e7:. 1S12. "No. iv, Henry Fielding,'" pp. 356-385. Portrait, from a miniature in the pos- session of his granddaughter, Miss Sophia Fielding, engraved by Roberts. Other ref- :a. 170, 728. Vol. HI, p. 717. Vol. V, p. 251. Vol. VI, pp. 421, 441. Vol. Yin, pp. 197,446, 496. : 2:. --;:. Y;!.IX. r. t';:. 122 HENRY FIELDING Roscoe, Thomas. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling; by Henry Fielding, Esq.; with a Memoir of the Author, by Thomas Roscoe, Esq., and illustrations by George Cruikshank. In two vol- umes. Vol. I. London: James Cochrane and Co., n Waterloo Place, Pall Mall; and J. Andrews, 167 New Bond Street. 1831. "Memoir of the Author," pp. vii-xix. Many times reprinted. Merely an abridg- ment of Murphy's Essay. Saintsbury, George. The Adventures of Joseph Andrews and his friend Mr. Abraham Adams; by Henry Fielding, Esq. Vol. I. Edited by George Saintsbury; with illustrations by Herbert Railton & E. J. Wheeler. London : Published by J. M. Dent & Co. at Aldine House in Great Eastern Street, mdcccxciii. General Introduction, pp. xi-xxxvi. Contains portrait after the Taunton bust. An admirable piece of work. Scott, Sir Walter. The Novels of Henry Fielding, Esq., viz: I. Joseph Andrews, 2. Tom Jones, 3. Amelia, and 4, Jonathan Wild; complete in one volume. To which is Prefixed, a Memoir of the Life of the Author. London : Published by Hurst, Robinson and Co., 90, Cheapside. Printed by James Ballantyne and Company, at the Border Press: For John Ballantyne, Edinburgh. 1821. "Prefatory Memoir to Fielding,"" pp. i-xxiv. Dated "Abbotsford, October 25, 1820." Lives of the Novelists. Vol. I. Paris: Published by A. and W. Galignani, at the English, French, Italian, German and Spanish Library, 18 Rue Vivienne. 1825. Fielding, pp. 1-45. Miscellaneous Prose Works. In six volumes. Vol. III. Biographical Memoirs. Edinburgh: Printed for Cadell and Co., BIOGRAPHIES 123 Edinburgh; and Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London. 1827. "Henry Fielding," pp. 43, 44, 76, 77, 78, 89-130, 142, 184, 190-203. Scott, Sir Walter. Tom Jones, ou 1* Enfant Trouve. Tome Premier. A Paris: chez Dauthereau, Libraire, Rue de Richelieu, No. 20. 1828. "Notice Biographique et Litteraire sur Henry Fielding par Sir Walter Scott," pp. 1-48. Biographical Memoirs of English Novelists, and other Distinguished Persons. Vol. I. Robert Cadell, Edinburgh; Whit- aker and Co., London. 1834. "Henry Fielding," pp. 77-1 16. Tom Jones; Histoire d' un Enfant Trouve, traduction nouvelle, par Defaucoupret, precedee d* un Notice Biographique et Litteraire sur Fielding, par Walter Scott. Tome I. Paris: Furne, Libraire-Editeur, Quai des Augustins, No. 39. mdcccxxxv. "Notice Biographique et Litteraire sur Henry Fielding," pp. i-xxiv. Tom Jones; ou 1' Enfant Trouve, par Fielding; traduc- tion nouvelle par M. Leon de Wailly; precedee d' une notice sur Fielding, par Sir Walter Scott. Tome Premier. Paris, Charpentier, Libraire-Editeur, 29 Rue de Seine. 1841. "Vie de Henri Fielding, par Sir Walter Scott," pp. 1-21. Smith, George Barnett. Our First Great Novelist; in Macmil- lans Magazine, May, 1874. Vol. XXX, pp. 1-18. Poets and Novelists : a series of Literary Studies. Lon- don: Smith, Elder & Co., 15 Waterloo Place. 1875. Idem. New York: D. Appleton & Co., Broadway. 1876. • Fielding, pp. 251-306. i2 4 HENRY FIELDING Stapfer, Paul. Le Grand Classique du Roman Anglais : Henry Fielding; in Revue des Deux Mondes, September 15, 1890. Vol. CI, pp. 412-454. Stephen, Leslie. Hours in a Library. Third Series. London : Smith, Elder & Co., 15 Waterloo Place. 1879. Fielding's Novels, pp. 50-92. Hours in a Library. XIV: Fielding's Novels: in The Cornhill Magazine, February, 1877. Vol. XXXV, pp. 154-171. The Works of Henry Fielding, Esq.; edited with a Biographical Essay by Leslie Stephen. In Ten Volumes. Vol. I. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 15 Waterloo Place. 1882. "Henry Fielding,'" pp. i-civ. A valuable contribution. [Townsend, Geo. H.] The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling; by Henry Fielding. With Illustrations, and a Memoir of the Author. London: G. Routledge & Co., Farringdon Street; New York: 18 Beekman Street. 1857. "The Life and Works of Henry Fielding," pp. iii-xvi. Signed "G. H. T. January 30, 1857." Idem. London: George Routledge & Sons, Limited, Broadway House, Ludgate Hill, E. C. N. d. "The Life and Works of Henry Fielding,'''' pp. v-xviii. Signed "G. H. T." Idem. Vol. I. London: George Routledge & Sons, Broadway, Ludgate Hill; New York: 9 Lafayette Place. 1884. "The Life and Works of Henry Fielding," pp. v-xiv, unsigned. This is one of the limited editions common these days. It was reprinted from the same type in 1886 on thinner and smaller paper, but with illustrations by Phiz added. It has since been reprinted without date. Taine, H. A. History of English Literature; translated by H. Van Laun, one of the masters at the Edinburgh Academy: with a Preface by the Author. Vol. II. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas. 1871. Fielding, pp. 170-176. BIOGRAPHIES 125 Taine, H. A. History of English Literature. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas. 1874. Fielding, Vol. II, pp. 289-300. Thackeray, W. M. Fielding's Works in one volume; with a Memoir by Thomas Roscoe: in the Times , (London), September 2, 1840; fol. 6, cols. 1-3. Extract in Timbs, J., "Anecdote Lives of the Later Wits and Humorists." Lon- don: 1874. Vol. II, pp. 281-287. Reprinted in Stray Papers by William Makepeace Thackeray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Louis Melville. London: Hutchinson and Co., Paternoster Row, 1901. Pp. 103-112. Critical Papers in Literature, by William Makepeace Thackeray. London: Macmillan and Co., 1904. Pp. 202-210. The Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray, with In- troductions by William P. Trent and John Bell Henneman. Literary Essays. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., Publishers [1904]. Pp. 231-242. The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century : a series of Lectures, delivered in England, Scotland, and the United States of America; by W. M. Thackeray, author of "Esmond," "Pendennis," "Vanity Fair," &c. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 65 Cornhill. 1853. Lecture the Fifth: Hogarth, Smollett, and Fielding, pp. 219-268. Fielding, pp. 251-268. This lecture was first delivered at Willis's Rooms, London, June 26, 1851. Idem. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1853. Contains " Charity and Humour,"" for the first time reprinted. Idem. Leipzig: Tauchnitz. 1853. Idem. Second Edition: Revised. London: 1853. Idem. Third Edition. London: 1858. Idem. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1858. Idem. London: 1866. Idem. London: 1867. iz6 HENRY FIELDING Thackeray, W. M. The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century. New York: 1867. Idem. London: 1869. With the Four Georges, being Vol. XIX of the works. Idem. New York: Harper and Brothers. [1879]. Idem. Edited by Ernest Regel. Halle: Niemeyer. 1885-1890. Idem. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1893. Idem. Edited with an introduction and explanatory and critical Notes by William Lyon Phelps. New York : Henry Holt and Company. 1900. "Hogarth, Smollett, and Fielding," pp. 203-247. Fielding, pp. 206, 2X1, 213, 231-247, 332, 335, 337-341. An admirable piece of work. The Paris Sketch Book: by Mr. Titmarsh. With nu- merous designs by the author, on copper and wood. Vol. I. [II]. London: John Macrone, 1 St. Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square. 1840. Fielding, Vol. I, p. 173, "On Some French Fashionable Novels." Vol. II, pp. 29-33 . " Caricature and Lithography in Paris." The History of Pendennis: his Fortunes and Misfor- tunes; his Friends and his Greatest Enemy. With illustrations on wood by the author. Vol.1. [II]. London: Bradbury and Evans, 11 Bouverie Street. 1849. [1850]. Fielding, Vol. I, p. 290. Chapter xxx. (Chapter xxix of subsequent editions as a full chapter was cut out). Vol. II, p. vii (Preface). The Virginians : a tale of the Last Century. By W. M. Thackeray, author of "Esmond," "Vanity Fair," "The Newcomes," &c. &c. With illustrations on steel and wood by the author. Vol. I. [II]. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1 1 Bouverie Street. 1858. [1859]. Fielding, Vol. I, pp. 175 (Ch. xxii), 206, 207 (Ch. xxvi), 219 (Ch. xxviii), 254 (Ch. xxxii), 322 (Ch. xli). Vol. II, pp. 113 (Ch. xiv), 180 (Ch. xxii). BIOGRAPHIES 127 Thackeray, W. M. Thackerayana : Notes and Anecdotes, illus- trated by nearly six hundred sketches, by William Makepeace Thack- eray; depicting humorous incidents in his school life, and favourite scenes and characters in the books of his every-day reading. London : Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1875. Fielding, pp. 77-80, 127-129, containing six sketches of Joseph Andrews, and extracts from "The Paris Sketch Book." A Collection of Letters of Thackeray, 1847-1855; with portrait and reproductions of letters and drawings. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, mdccclxxxvii. Fielding, pp. 125, 126. From Scribner^s Magazine, July, 1887. Vol. II, pp. 30, 31. Idem. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1888. Fielding, p. 164. Trumble, Alfred. (Illustrated Sterling Edition). The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great; by Henry Fielding. A sketch of the life of Henry Fielding, by Alfred Trumble. Boston: Dana Estes & Company, Publishers. [1904]. "Henry Fielding," pp. i-xliv. Signed "Alfred Trumble; New York, August, 1889." This edition was published in New York as a subscription enterprise about 1889. The Boston publishers afterwards bought the plates and re-issued it without date. The Biography is an excellent piece of work. Watson, William. The Life of Henry Fielding, Esq. With Observations on his Character and Writings. Edinburgh : Printed for Mundell, Doig & Stevenson; and J. Murray, and T. Ostell, London. 1807. Pp. iv, 176. Prepared for the Select Works described below, and a few copies published separately. Select Works of Henry Fielding, Esq.: containing the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, the History of Tom Jones, Amelia, and the History of Jonathan Wild; to which is prefixed: an i 2 8 HENRY FIELDING Original Account of the Life and Writings of the Author. In Five Volumes. Vol. I. Edinburgh : Printed for Mundell, Doig & Stev- enson; and J. Murray, and T. Ostell, London. 1807. "The Life of Henry Fielding, Esq." 1 prel. leaf, pp. 7-176. There is an error in the paging, skipping from p. 72 to p. 81. Watson, William. Select Works of Henry Fielding. Second Edition. Edinburgh: Printed for Peter Hill, S. Doig, and A. Ster- ling; and John Ballantyne and Co., Edinburgh: Lackington, Allen, and Co., Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, R. Scholey, and Cradock and Joy, London; and M. Keene, Dublin. 1812. "The Life of Henry Fielding, Esq.," pp. 3-176. Same error in paging. Idem. Third Edition. Edinburgh: 1818. "The Life of Henry Fielding, Esq.," 1 prel. leaf, p. 168. The error noted above corrected, but p. 167 paged as 17 and p. 168 as 158. Watt, Robert. Bibliotheca Brittanica; or A General Index to British and Foreign Literature. In two parts : Authors and Subjects. Vol. I.: Authors. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh; and Longman, Hurst, Orme, Brown, & Green; and Hurst, Robinson, & Co., London. 1824. Fielding, pp. 366, o, 366, s. A mere list of Fielding's works. Whipple, E. P. The Life and Works of Henry Fielding: in North American Review, January, 1849. Vol. LXVIII, pp. 41-81. Essays and Reviews. Boston: 1850. "Henry Fielding," pp. 303-357, 406. Idem. In Two Volumes. Vol. II. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company; The Riverside Press, Cambridge. 1889. "Henry Fielding," pp. 303-357, 406. APPENDIX B THE FIRST EDITION OF "TOM JONES" AND THE SEC- OND COMPARED THE HISTORY O F TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING. t ... - . . _ — . — In SIX VOLUMES. By HENRY FIELDING, Efqj * Mores hominum multorum *uidit* — — LONDON: Printed for A. Millar, over-againft Catharine-Jlreet in the Strand. Mdccxlix> THE HISTORY O F TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING. In SIX VOLUMES. By HENRY FIELDING, Efq; Mores hominum multorum vidit LONDON: Printed for A. M i l l a r, over- againf; Catbarine-ftreet in the Strand. Mdccxlix. The Reader is defired to correct the following ERRATA. VOL. I. Page II, line 25. for was read had, p. 52, J. 18. dele that. p. 57, 1. 12. for Military read Militant, p. 60, 1. 6. for this read />. p. 68, 1. 14. read what it. p. 99, 1. 12. for bore read borne, p. 151,!. JO. for fevcnteen read nineteen, p. 209, 1. 15. for be could read could. » ■ VOL. II. Page 29, 1. 14. read twenty, p. 86, 1. 13. read whipped at. p. 195, 1. 24. dele on. p. 230,1.21. for /&?/2? read they. p. 273, 1. 16. for bore read £or»f. p. 289,1.4. iorWratb read wroth, p. 306, I.22. for juffered read induced, VOL. III. Page 19, 1. 10. dele that. p. 27, 1. 28. read as be rever concealed this Hatred, p. 40, 1. 10. for fatisfiedread con- vinced, p. 57, I.26. read preferves and requires, p. 134., ], 2. dele that. 1. 9. dele Jo. p. 238. 1. laft, for profiitute read />ro-* f.igate. p. 274, 1. 21. {ottkofe read ri?ey. p. 277, 1. 21. read Affronts, p. 294, 1. 16. read Louage. p. 307, 1. 8. dele Doom/- day Book, or. p. 330, 1. 14. read came. p. 348. 1. 12. put a Comma Only after charming. VOL. IV. Page 35, 1. 1. read pricked up. p. 90, 1. 20. read t bey are effetled, 1. 25. dele /&■£/!>. p. 91", 1« 3. for Ctf/fc read Gold. p. no, 1. 12. for our read 0///. p. ill, 1. 22. for which read and. p. 120, 1. 1. dele Comma after not. p. 122, 1. 8. dele by. p. 169, 1. 27. read think it material, 1. 28. d ele fo. p. 179, 1. 3. for its read her. p. 185, 1. 14. read the Truth, of His Degree of Suspicion I believe. 1. 23. for ivbo read ivhtcb. p. 193, 1. n. for Crime read Shame, p. 212, 1. 16. for »er read and. p. 231, 1. 13. for by r tad for. p. 235, 1. 20. fcr r»y«a read raifed. p. 270, I. 9. read Lalagen. p. 294, 1. 13. for Alternative read Alteration, VOL. V. Page 66. 1. 20. for Cannifier read Ztf/7/cr. p. 113, 1. I. read Cbaraclcrs. p. 172, 1. 6. read exifiing. p. 181, 1. 6. for in read on, p. 182, 1. II. read bringing her into. p. 223, 1. 12. dele wer. p. 249, 1. 25. read fat. p. 251, 1. 27. read two or three, p. 263, 1. 20. read Lady. p. 272,1. 12. dele that. p. 274, 1. 10. dele as. p. 282, 1. II. lor for read c/j. 1. 25. read ever, p. 283. 1. 9. read /« j&» /^y. Page lxiii of "Tom Jones" in first issue of the six -volume edition Page lxiii of "Tom Jones" in second issue of the six -volume edition CONTENTS of Vol. VI. lxiii CHAP. XI. The Hiftory draws nearer to a Conclufion. p. 267. CHAP. XII. Approaching ftill nearer to the End. p. 280. CHAP. The loft. In which the Hiftory is concluded. p. 293, THE THE FIRST EDITION OF "TOM JONES" AND THE SECOND COMPARED On February 28, 1749, the following advertisement appeared in the General Advertiser: This day is published, in six vols., i2mo., THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING. — Mores hominum mult or um vidit. — By Henry Fielding, Esq. It being impossible to get sets bound fast enough to answer the demand for them, such Gentlemen and Ladies as please may have them sewed in Blue Paper and Boards, at the price of 16 s. a set, of A. Millar, over-against Catharine- Street, in the Strand. Later in the same year an edition was published in four volumes and this is generally referred to as the "second edition," it not being known apparently to any of Fielding's biographers that there were two editions in six volumes bearing the date 1749, and that the first edition was practically exhausted by the time the sixth volume went to press. No distinction between these two editions has been made by the bibliographers or booksellers, except that in some cases the an- nouncement is made that a particular copy is "with the leaf of errata, usually wanting." I have records of the sale of nine copies with the 132 HENRY FIELDING leaf of errata and of fifty copies claiming to be first editions but with- out mentioning the errata leaf. In the first edition the errata leaf follows the Table of Contents in the first volume and is unpaged, but occupies what would be page lxiii. In the second edition the errata are corrected, the page suppressed, and the Table of Contents spread out so as to occupy a portion of page lxiii, in this case numbered, thus giving both editions the same number of pages. There is evidence also that not a little care was taken to make the pages of the second impression conform exactly to the first, but owing to carelessness on the part of some of the compositors this was not very successfully accomplished and many hundreds of variations have been noted. The errata, moreover, are confined to the first five volumes, making it clear, it seems to me, that this second edition was begun about the time the sixth volume went to press. I propose to point out here only the more prominent variations between those two editions, enough only to prove that there were two, and to make it possible to ascertain at a glance to which edition any volume of the six belongs, as the presence of the leaf of errata in any set can only go to prove that the first volume is of the first edition. VOL. I PAGE LINE FIRST EDITION SECOND EDITION xxxviii Has "Chap." at foot of page Has "Book" at foot of page. 1 Has no word at foot of page Has "Chap." at foot of page. lxiii Not paged. Contains Errata Vols. I-V .. . Paged. Has Chaps. XI, XII, and The Last. II 25 "Nature was always" "Nature had always" 15 Has 29 lines Has 28 lines. 17 Begins with Chapter IV Chapter IV begins on page 16. 38 Has 30 lines Has 29 lines. 5 2 18 57 12 60 6 68 H 99 12 151 10 209 *5 210 7 214 EDITIONS OF "TOM JONES" 133 PAGE LINE FIRST EDITION SECOND EDITION 39 Has 28 lines Has 27 lines. 42 Has 26 lines Has 27 lines. "for that Persons" "for, Persons " "Church Military, - " "Church Militant," "to discover this" "to discover it ™ "What almost distracts " "what it almost dis- tracts " "justly bore the " "justly borne the " "Age of Seventeen " "Age of Nineteen'''' "he could by no Means " "could by no Means " "The Higler " "The Highler " Hare in vignette Woman's face in vig- nette. VOL. II PAGE LINE FIRST EDITION SECOND EDITION 3 Word at foot of page "by" Word at foot of page "tised." 29 14 "Nineteen," "Twenty," 86 13 "Whipped" "Whipped at " 94 Word at foot of page "em" Word at foot of page "Western" 102 Has 29 lines Has 30 lines. 103 Has 29 lines Has 28 lines. 108 Has 28 lines Has 22 lines. 195 24 "recollecting on Mr."" "recollecting Mr." 230 21 "these had never" "they had never " 273 16 "formerly bore" "formerly borne " 289 4 "waxeth Wrath" "waxeth Wroth " 306 22 "could have suffered" "could have induced " 323 "enjoy" below note at foot of page "enjoy" above note. 324 Has 30 lines Has 28 lines. VOL. Ill PAGE LINE FIRST EDITION SECOND EDITION I Word at foot of page, "Representations". Word at foot of page, "Repre-" i 3 4 HENRY FIELDING *GE LINE »9 IO 27 28 40 IO 57 26 : 34 2 34 9 238 last 274 21 277 21 FIRST EDITION SECOND EDITION "that the Princess herself" "The Princess herself'' "and this Hatred as he never concealed", "and as he never con- cealed this Hatred " "he was satisfied" "he was convinced " "preserve and require" "preserves and re- quires " "that she should" "she should." "but so far from being" "but far from being " 149 "Vol. III. *3 And " at foot of page "And" only at foot of page. 171 "man" at foot of page "Woman" at foot of page. 233 "Vol. Ill nary" at foot of page "M3 dinary" at foot of page. "prostitute a Life," "profligate a Life " "for those impart " "for they impart " "Affront and Contempt" "Affronts and Con- tempt." 292 27 "Laquais a Louange " "Laquais a Louage " [In the Errata this is referred to as page 294 line 16.] 307 8 "than Doomsday Book, or the vast" "than the vast " 330 14 ["read came" says "Errata." The word is printed "came " in all copies I have seen before the four volume edition of 1749, ln w hich the word is changed to "come."] 348 12 "Arts of charming. Say," "Arts of charming, say," 349 "Vol. III." at foot of page "Vol. II." at foot of page. 370 cut if inches wide cut i\ inches wide. VOL. IV PAGE LINE FIRST EDITION SECOND EDITION Title Lines both project beyond the "B" of "By" The "B" of "By" projects beyond lines . I 4 lines of text 7 lines of text. EDITIONS OF "TOM JONES" 135 PAGE LINE FIRST EDITION SECOND EDITION 5 Note at foot of page This note is at the foot of page 4. Contains 21 lines Contains 14 lines. "pricked her Ears" "pricked up her Ears" 67-69 Double quotation marks used Single quotation marks used. "this is effected," "they are effected," "propose such a reward" "propose a reward." "Who Steals My Cash " "Who steals my Gold.''" "Our Englan d forever!" "Old England forever!" "which had preceeded" "and had preceeded " "and I know not, but" "and know not but " "but by that of" "but that of " Has 24 lines Has 25 lines. Has 29 lines Has 28 lines. "did not think material" "did not think it ma- terial " "so we would not" "we would not " "attends its benignant " "attends her benig- nant " 185 14 "And to confess the Truth of this Degree of "And to confess the Suspicion, I" Truth, of this Degree of Suspicion I " 185 23 "poor Hare, who" "poor Hare, which 1 ' 193 11 ["for Crime read Shame" is the direction in "Errata" but the change was not made in any copy of the second edition I have seen. The change was made in the 4 vol. edition, 1749, Vol. m> p. 133, lines 20, 21.] 212 16 "nor know nothing" "and know nothing " 231 13 "made amends by" "made amends for" 235 20 "Grace had risen " "Grace had raised " 270 9 " Lalagem' 1 '' "Lalagen " 294 13 "Alternative" "Alteration " VOL. V PAGE LINE FIRST EDITION SECOND EDITION Title 12 "Catharine-Street^'' " Catharine-Stueet " 6 35 1 -69 90 20 90 2 5 91 3 no 12 in 22 120 1 122 8 "43 144 169 27 169 28 179 3 136 HENRY FIELDING PAGE LINE FIRST EDITION 24 Has 28 lines 24 4 Has quotation mark before "answered." 24 7 Has no quotation mark after "Madam" 24 17 Has quotation mark before " Fitzpatrick. 25 Has 25 lines 66 20 "Mrs. Cannister" 113 1 "humourous Character" 172 181 182 223 249 251 263 272 274 282 282 283 2 5 27 20 12 10 2 5 9 "existed in the World;" .... "in the Affection" "bringing into your Family." "for I cannot, nor will not live 1 not sit , "two three times;" "who the Lade was.", "that I would think of "as she ascribed". . . . "for this Step" "had never yet" "in the Way of Jones" SECOND EDITION Has 27 lines. Has none. Has quotation mark. Has none. Has 26 lines. "Mrs. Miller." "humourous Charac- ters " " existing in the World ;" "on the Affection " " bringing her into your Family." "for I cannot nor will live " "not sat " "two or three times;" "who the Lady was." "I would think of " "she ascribed " "on this Step " "had ever yet " "in his Way," VOL. VI PAGE LINE FIRST EDITION Title 8 Lines project to left beyond "By'' 17 "die?" at foot of page 26 Has 26 lines 26 "having" at foot of page . 27 Has 25 lines . 46 Has 29 lines . 49 Has 30 lines . 59 Has 28 lines . SECOND EDITION "By" projects beyond lines. "Cradle?" at foot of page. Has 25 lines. "Western,'''' at foot of page. Has 26 lines. Has 28 lines. Has 29 lines. Has 29 lines. EDITIONS OF "TOM JONES" 137 PAGE LINE FIRST EDITION SECOND EDITION 75 Has 29 lines Has 28 lines. 81 Has 11 lines in first f Has 10 lines in first % 81 Has 7 lines in last ^f Has 8 lines in last % 106 Wrongly numbered "109'" Correctly numbered. 115 Has "self'' at foot of page Has "is" at foot of page. 130 Has 28 lines Has 27 lines. 148 Has "2" at foot of page No "2." 173 Has "4" at foot of page No "'4." 183 Has "Gen- - " at foot of page Has "Gentleman," at foot of page. 247 Has "such" at foot of page Has "you" at foot of page. 286 Has "rest" at foot of page Has "of" at foot of page. Note. — In volume I, page 210, line 7, the first edition refers to the man to whom Black George sold the hare as "The Higler." In the second edition this is printed "Highler," and the spelling is changed back to "Higler" in the four volume edition of 1749 (vol. I, p. 147, line 30). If a third edition of the six volume edition appeared this error may have been corrected in it. So also in volume IV, p. 193, line 11, the direction in the "Errata" is "for Crime read Shame" As noted this change was not made in the second edition, but if there was a third edition in six volumes it may have been made there. In the list of "Errata" referring to volume III, page 330, line 14, it says "read came.'" This is an error in the "Errata" list, and the word should have been printed there "come." The change was made in the four volume edition of 1749, volume II, p. 303, line 31. Here again it would be interesting to know if the change was made in any copy of the six volume edition. INDEX INDEX Addison, Joseph, 62, 99. Address to Fame, Fielding's, IOO. Advertisement of Tom "Jones, 131. ALneid, Virgil's, 61. Akenside, Mark, 80. Allen, Ralph, of Prior-park, 60, 61, 71, 77; as the original of "All- worthy," 93. Allibone, S. Austin, 12, 115. Airworthy, Miss Bridget, 88. Airworthy, Squire, 88; character of, 96; suggested by Ralph Allen and George Lord Lyttleton, 92, 93; discards Jones, 90, 108; re- covery of, 95; residence Sharpham-park, not Prior-park, 88, 89; suggested also by Hagley-park, 92. Amelia, 23, 72, 97, 98, 99; characters in, from Fielding's plays, 97, 98; Fielding received £800 or £1,000 for, 79; Fielding's copy of, 64; improbabilities of, 98; plot, 89; published, 73. Amelia, character of, founded on Mrs. Fielding, 43, 55, 56, 57, 59, 93; from Mrs. Bellamont in The Modern Husband, 97, 98; appearance at the prison, 98; residence in Salisbury, 34. Anachorism in Tom Jones, 89. Anachronism in Tom Jones, 89, 90. Andrew, Sarah, 31, 32, 33. Andrew, Solomon, 31. Argyle, John Duke of, as the patron of Fielding, 38. 142 HENRY FIELDING Aristotle, 48. Arnold, Dr. Thomas, on Tom Jones, 99. Atala'ide, Racine's, 94. Athenceum, 31. Atkinson, Serjeant, 89, 97. Augustus, a Tom Jones of the time of, 99. Austen, Jane, author of Emma, 89; her novels free from errors, 93. Austrian colors, 43. Autobiography of Shakespeare, 90. Avon, bridges over the, 90, 91, 108, 109. Barbauld, Mrs. Anna Letitia, 115. Barnet, Herts, III. Basingstoke, Hants, 29, 68. Basire, James, engraved first portrait of Fielding, 14. Bath, Col., in Amelia, 97. Bath, 60, 62, 74, 91; Mayor of, 62; Fielding at (1742), 52; Fielding and Lyttleton at, 91 ; Fielding residing near (1744), 60; Markhand's lec- ture on, 96; Sarah Fielding's monument in the Abbey-church in, 25. Bath and Bristol, bridges between, 90, 91, 108, 109; road from Lon- don to, 109. Bathurst, Lord, 70, 71. Bathurst, Peter, 70. Bedford, Duke of, 61; Correspondence of John Duke of, 69. Bedfordshire, in. Beggars Opera, 34, 36. Bell Inn, Gloucester, 91. Bellamont, Mr. and Mrs., the suggestion of Booth and Amelia, 97. Bellaston, Lady, 94; relations with Jones, 95; possibly taken from Lady Townshend, 93. INDEX 143 Bennet, Mrs., in Amelia, 97. Biographica Britannica, 1 05. Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth, 1 3. Biographies of Fielding, 113-128. Blifil and Tom Jones, 88. Boileau-Despreaux, Nicolas, 100. Book-plate of Earl of Denbigh, 105. Booth, Lt., in Amelia, 23, 97; resembles Fielding, 45, 56, 59; com- pared with Jones, 97; suggested by Bellamont in The Modern- Husband, 97. Booth, Mrs., Fielding's first wife, 43, 55, 56, 57, 59, 93. Bridges over the Avon, 90, 91, 108, 109. Bristol, 91; bridges between Bristol and Bath, 90, 91, 108, 109; Jones on his way to, 90; road from London to Bath and Bristol, 109; soldiers march to Hambrook from, 92. British Itinerary, by Paterson, 109. Brown, Armitage, 90. Brunswick, the House of, 63. Burke, Sir Bernard, Peerage, 21. Bute, Lady, on Fielding's first wife, 43, 57, 58. Byron, Lord, 96. Calderon de la Barca, Don Pedro, 35. Callan, Viscount, George Fielding, 21. Canning, Elizabeth, 74. Censorship of plays, 47. Cervantes, — Saavedra, Miguel de, 82, 90, 99; errors in Don Quixote, 93- Chalmers, Alexander, 74, 77. Champion, The, 49, 52, 63. i 4 4 HENRY FIELDING Characters in Amelia, 43, 55, 56, 57, 59, 93, 97, 98. Characters in Tom Jones, 93. Chester and Coventry to London, road from, no. Chew, the river, 109. Chubb, Thomas, the deist, was original of "Square/' 93. Church and the gentry, 22. Cibber, Colley, 76, 82; in Love in Several Masques, 34. Clarke's Gazetteer, 29. Claverton, near Prior-park, 60. Clear State of the Case of Elizabeth Canning, 74. Cockain, Bridget, 23. Cockain, Scipio, 23. Coke, Sir Edward, Lord chief justice, 48. Coleshill, Berks, inn at, no, III. Congreve, William, 53. Correspondence of John Duke of Bedford, 69. Covent Garden Journal, 74; profits of, 79, 80. Coventry, Warwickshire, 109, no; on the road to, 89. Craddock, Miss Charlotte, Fielding's first wife, 40, 44. Craddock, The Misses, of Salisbury, 30, 44. Creasy, Edward S., Memoirs of Eminent Etonians, 115. Criticism of Fielding by Gibbon, 105. Croker, T. Crofton, n. Cry, The, by Sarah Fielding, 26. Cumberland, Duke of, 66. Cunningham, George G., 115. . Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonson, 83. Dante, Alighieri, The Inferno, 85. Daventry, Northamptonshire, no, in. INDEX 145 David Simple, by Sarah Fielding, 26, 67; credited to Henry Fielding, 107; introduction by Henry Fielding, 60, 106, 107. Day, William, 106. Denbigh, house of, 20, 21; not from the Hapsburgs, 105; liveries, 42, 43- Denbigh, Basil Fielding, Earl of (1703), 104, 105; Sir William Field- ing created Earl of, 21. Desmond, George Fielding, Earl of, 21. Dobson, Austin, 106, 116, 117, 118. Donne, Dr. John, 22. Dowling, the attorney in Tom Jones, 89. Dowling, W., The Eton Portrait Gallery, 1 18. Dream in The Guardian, 84. Dunstable, Bedfordshire, in. Ealing, Fielding's cottage near, 75. East Stour, Dorsetshire, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30; Fielding's residence at, 47> 48, 49- Edgar and Edmund of King Lear, 88. Editions of Tom Jones published in 1749, 131, 132, 137. Edwards, Miss, kept Lord A. Hamilton, 95. Egotists, literary, 100. Eighteenth century prose writers, 80. Election, The, 46. Elwin, Rev. Whitwell, Some XVIII Century Men of Letters, 118. Emma, by Jane Austen, 89. English manners in the eighteenth century, 99. Errata page in Tom Jones, 130, 131, 132. Errors in Don Quixote, 93; in Tom Jones, 89-93, 107; in The Vicar of Wakefield, 93. 146 HENRY FIELDING Eton College, Henry Fielding at, 26, 27. Evesham, Sophia meets the Irish Lord at, 109; Sophia and Mrs. Fitzgerald at, no, III. Exegi Monumentum of Horace, 100. Falconer, Dr. Wilbraham, 62. "Fanny" in Joseph Andrews as Fielding's wife in humble rank, 83. Farquhar, George, 35. Fatal Curiosity, The, by George Lillo, 46. "Feilding" or "Fielding," 21. Fielding arms, 41, 42, 43. Fielding family, in East Stour, 25. Fielding, Rev. Allen, son of Henry by second wife, jj. Fielding, Amelia, daughter of Henry by second wife, JJ. Fielding, Ann, 25. Fielding, Basil, Earl of Denbigh (1703), 104, 105. Fielding, Beatrice, 25, 26. Fielding, Catherine, 25. Fielding, Damian, son of Henry by second wife, Jj. Fielding, Edmund, Major General, father of Fielding, 23, 24, 25, 28, Fielding, Edmund, Jr., 25, 26. Fielding, Eleanor Harriet, daughter of Henry by first wife, JJ. Fielding, George, Viscount Callan, Earl of Desmond, 21. Fielding, Haddington, son of Henry by second wife, JJ. Fielding, Henry, biographies of, 15, 1 13-128. — allowance from his father, 28. — appearance, 28, 63, 75. — as a barrister, 51. — as a magistrate, 69, 72. INDEX 147 Fielding, Henry {continued): — as a Whig, 86. — at Bath, 62, 91. — at Ealing, 75. — at East Stour, 24, 40, 41, 42, 45. — at Eton, 26, 27. — at Leyden, 27, 33. — at London, 36, 37, 38, 39. — at Milford, 30. — at Twickenham, 67. — at Twiverton, 60. — attempted elopement with Sarah Andrew, 31, 32, 33. — birthplace, 23, 88. — chambers at Pump Court, 49. — character vindicated, 19, 20, 76. — children by first wife, 59, yy. — children by second wife, JJ. — courtship and marriage to Miss Craddock, 40, 41, 44. — cousin of Lady Mary W. Montague, 22. — credited with writing David Simple, 106. — credited with writing Roderick Random, 107. — criticized, 70, 72, 99, 105, 107. — death, 75. — debt to Moliere, 81. — devotes himself to literature, 28, 51. — devotes himself to law, 27, 47, 48, 49. — dissipation, 36, 37. — distress in 1742-43, 52. — dramatic career, 34, 35, 36, 46, 47, 52, 53, 54, 81. — dress, 37, 38. 148 HENRY FIELDING Fielding, Henry {continued) : — earnings as a playwright, 35. — entered at Middle Temple, 47. — family, 59, 77. — grandfather's will, 105. — habits, 54, 75, 76, 107. — home life, 57, 58, 59. — house at East Stour pictured, 40. — improvidence, 80. — intimacy with Warton family, 29. — life, according to Horace Walpole, 70. — life after return from Holland, 30. — life in the country, 45. — literary acquaintances, 80. — liveries at East Stour, 40, 41, 42, 43. — married life, 43, 44. — noble ancestry, 20. — novels, 99. — pecuniary circumstances, 78, 79. — pension, 63, 78. — plays furnish characters for Amelia, 97, 98. — portrait by Hogarth, 4. — portrait in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, 14. — portrait in town hall, Taunton, 12. — poverty, 57, 58, 59. — references to his first wife, 56, 59. — relations with Rigby, 70, 71. — residence at East Stour, 24, 40, 41, 42, 45. — residence at London, 36, 37, 38, 39. — residence at Milford, 30. INDEX 149 Fielding, Henry (continued): — residence at Twiverton, 60. — respect for virtue, 76. — returns from Leyden to England, 27, 28. — second marriage (to wife's maid), 63, 64, 65, 76, ']']. — style, 83, 100. — takes Haymarket Theatre, 45, 46. — taste for natural scenery, 91. — theatrical career ends, 47. — treatment of his first wife, J^. — victim of the gout, 51, 62, 72. — wife (first), 43, 55, 56. as Amelia, 93. as Fanny, 83. as Mrs. Heartfree, 86. as Sophia, 93. not in Journey to Next World, 84. Fielding, Henry, principal works, 81-99. — Address to Fame, ioo. — Advice to the Nymphs of New S m, 29, 30. — Amelia, 23, 34, 36, 43, 55> 5 6 > 57, 59> 6 4> 73, 79, 8 9> 93, 97, 9 8 > 99- — A Clear State of the Case of Elizabeth Canning, 74. — Covent Garden Journal, 74. — Defence of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, 51, 52. — Description of U n, G , 29. — Don Quixote in England, 46. — Historical Register for 1736, 47. — Inquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers, 72. — Introduction to David Simple, 106, 107. — Jacobite's Journal, 68. 150 HENRY FIELDING Fielding, Henry {continued) : — Jonathan Wild, 55, 71, 85, 86, 87. — Joseph Andrews, 36, 51,61, 67, 82, 83, 84. — Journey from this World to the Next, 36, 53, 55, 61, 84. — Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, 63, 75, 76, 107. — Justice Caught in his own Trap, 97. — Life and Death of Common Sense, 46. — Love in Several Masques, 34. — Miscellanies, 55, 68, 87, 106. — Miss Lucy in Town, 52, 55. — Pasquin, 46. — Preface to David Simple, 60, 106, 107. — Proposal for making an Effectual Provision for the Poor, 74. — Remedy of Affliction for the Loss of our Friends, 56. — The Champion, 49, 52, 63. — The Election, 46. — The Good Natured Man, The Fathers, or, 53. — The Miser, 39, 81. — The Mock Doctor, 81. — The Modern Husband, 86, 97. — "The Queen of Beauty t'other Day," 30. — The Temple Beau, 35, 97. — The True Patriot, 59, 68. — The Universal Gallant, 41. — The Wedding Day, 3J, 53, 54, 55. — "To Miss H — and at Bath," 52. — Tom Jones, 14, 60, 61, 71, 76, 79, 87-96, 99, 105, 107, 129-137. — Tom Thumb, 80, 81. — "Verses," 55. Fielding, Rev. Dr. John, 21, 22, 23. INDEX 151 Fielding, Sir John, 21, 42, 64, 70, 78. Fielding, Louise, daughter of Henry by second wife, 77. Fielding, Mary M., Henry Fielding's second wife, 64, 65. Fielding, Sarah, author of David Simple, 24, 25, 26, 42, 50, 60, 66, 67, 105, 115. Fielding, Sophia, owned miniature of Henry Fielding, 14. Fielding, Ursula, 25. Fielding, William, son of Henry by second wife, 77. Fielding, Sir William, Earl of Denbigh, 21. Fitzgerald, Mrs., at Evesham, no. Fox, Henry, 27. Fox-Davies, A. C, 105. Frasers Magazine, Keightley's Life of Fielding in, 12, 13. Freeholder, Addison's, 62. Garrick, David, posing for Fielding's portrait, 13; in The Wedding D "y, 53, 54- Gay, John, author of The Beggar s Opera, 34. Genealogist, 105. General Advertiser, 131. Gentleman s Magazine, The, 45, 51, 66, 90, 105, 107. Gibbon, Edward, on Fielding, 105. Glastonbury, Somersetshire, 23; Bell inn at, 91; Abbey, 88. Gloucester, Jones meets Dowling at, 89; Jones and Partridge leave, 90. Goldsmith, Oliver, 23, 83, 84, 93, 99. Good Natured Man, The, or The Fathers, 53. "Gosling Scrag," Lord Lyttleton as, in Peregrine Pickle, 65. Gosse, Edmund, 118. Gothic architecture of Allworthy's house, 89. Gould, Davidge, 105. 152 HENRY FIELDING Gould, Sir Henry, 23, 24, 28, 105. Gould, Sarah, 23, 24. Gould, William Day, 24, 105, 106. Gout, Fielding a victim of, 51, 62, 72. Graves, Rev. Richard, author of The Spiritual Quixote, 60. Gray's Inn Journal, 74. Grecian architecture of Prior-park, 89. Greenley, Canon, 31, 60, 93. Guardian, The, dream in, 84. Gypsies in the barn, no. Hagley Park, Lord Lyttleton's residence, 62, 91, no; as All- worthy's residence, 92. Hale, Dr., Master of Cathedral School, as "Thwackum," 93. Hambrook, Gloucestershire, Jones meets Quaker at, 90, 91; Jones arrives at, 108; soldiers at, 92. Hamilton, Duke of, 95. Hamilton, Lord Anne (son of preceding), kept by Miss Edwards, 95. Hapsburg, House of, 20, 21, 43, 105. Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor, 72, J^. Harrison, Dr., in Amelia, 97. Havard, J. A., Notice sur Fielding et ses Ouvrages, 119. Haymarket Theatre, 45, 46. "Heartfree," in Jonathan Wild, 86. Henley, W. E., Essay on Henry Fielding by, 119. Henry III of England, 20. Herbert, David, Memoir of Henry Fielding by, 119. Highgate, Middlesex, in. Historical Register for 1 736, 47. Hoadly, Dr. John, erected monument to Sarah Fielding, 25. INDEX 35 Hoddington House, Hants, 29. Hogarth, William, 13, 14, So, 125, 126. Holyhead from Dublin, HO. Horace's Exegi Monumentum, IOO. Horseback riding tor ladies, 99. Hutchins, I.. History and Antiquities of the Court: of Dorset, 25. 40. Improbabilities, in Amelia, 98. Inquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers, ~l. Introduction to David Simple, 106, 107. Ireland, Samuel, 13. Irish Lord, 109, no. Jasobite's Journal, 68. James, Colonel, in Amelia, 98. jeaffreson, I. Cordv, Novels and Novelists, 119. Jesse, J. Heneage, Memoirs of Celebrated Etonians, 120. Johnson, Roger, of Newgate, 86. Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 80. Jonathan Wild, 55, 71, 85, 86, S7. Jones, Tom, and Bliril the Edgar and Edmund of King Lear, SS; at inn on way to Coventry, no; at Upton with Mrs. Waters, 95; compared with Booth, 97; crosses the Avon, 90, 108; dismissed bv Allworthv, 90, 108; dress of, 38; going as a soldier, 92; going to London, 92; leaves Gloucester, 90; mother thought to be Mrs. Waters, 96; on his wav to Bristol, 90; punished for mis- doing, 96; why made illegitimate, SS; supply of money, 10S; vices of, 94. Jonson, Ben, Cxnthia's Revels, 83. Joseph Andrews, 36, 51, 61, 67, 82, 83, 84. 154 HENRY FIELDING Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, 63, 75, 76, 107. Journey from this World to the Next, 36, 53, 55, 61, 84. Julian, the Apostate, 84. Justice Caught in his own Trap, The Debauchees, or, 97. Juvenal, the sixth Satire of, 32, 33. Keightley, Thomas, biography of, II, 12, 13; errors in Tom Jones, 107, 108, 109, no, in; errors of, no, in; letter to Notes and Queries, 106; life of Fielding, 12, 13, 17-101, 120; on bridges over the Avon, 109. Keynsham, bridge over the Avon near, 108, 109. King Lear, 88. Kingston, Duke of, 22. Kippis, Andrew, 21, 105; Biographica Britannica, 105. Lane, Thomas, Master in Chancery, 72. Lawrence, Frederick, Life of Henry Fielding, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 31, 38, 39, 43, 47, 49, 61, 64, 66, 67, 73, 74, 77, 120. Lesage, Alain Rene, author of Gil Bias, 99. Leyden, Henry Fielding at, 27. Licensing act, 47, 86, 87. Life and Death of Common Sense, The, 46. Life of Jonathan Wild the Great, 55, 71, 85, 86, 87. Lillo, George, The Fatal Curiosity, 46. Literary egotists, 100. Littleton, Thomas, 48. London, Irish Lord posting to, no; by Chester and Coventry, road to, no; by Oxford, road to, 109; to Bath and Bristol, 109. Love in Several Masques, 34. Lowell, James Russell, 14, 120. INDEX 155 Lyme Regis, Dorset, 31, 32, 33; History of Lyme Regis, 31. Lyttleton, George Lord, 27, 38, 39, 63, 65, 69, 70, 71, 80, 88; at Bath, 91; at Hagley Park, 62, 91; in part the original of "All- worthy," 93; taste for natural scenery, 92; Tom Jones dedicated to, 60, 61. Lyttleton, Sir Thomas, 91, 92, 93. Macintosh, Sir James, 73. Macklin, Charles, in The Wedding Day, 53. Markhand, James H., lecture on Bath, 96. Malaprop, Mrs., founded on "Slipslop," 83. Marlborough, John, Duke of, 41, 60. Marlborough, Sarah, Duchess of, 51, 52. Marraton, vision of, in The Spectator, 84. Matthews, Miss, in Amelia, 97, 98. Mazzard Hill, between Gloucester and Upton, 91. McSpadden, J. W., Henry Fielding, 120. Meehan, J. F., of Bath, 109. Memoirs of Eminent Etonians, by Creasy, 115. Middlesex, Fielding magistrate for, 69. Milford, Fielding's residence at, 30. Millar, A., publisher, 107, 131. Miller, Mrs., boarding-house keeper in Tom Jones, 95, 96. Milton, John, 100. Miscellanies, by Henry Fielding, 55, 68, 87, 106. Miser, The, 39, 81. Miss Lucy in Town, 52, 55. Mock Doctor, The, 81. Modbury, South Devon, 31. Modern Husband, The, 86, 97. 156 HENRY FIELDING Modern, Mr. and Mrs., as Captain Trent and Miss Matthews, 98. Moliere, Fielding's debt to, 81. Monmouth and the bridge over the Avon, 109. Montague, George, Walpole's letter to, 70. Montague, Lady Mary Wortley, 22, 28, 56, 57, 58, 59, 64, 80, 100. "Moria," in Cynthia's Revels, 83. Motcombe, County Dorset, 106. Mudford, William, Life of Henry Fielding, 121. Murphy, Arthur, Life of Fielding, 25, 26, 27, 28, 33, ^J, 3 8 > 39> 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 48,5°* 5 X > 53> 54, 55, 6 4, 69, 71, 72, 74, 77, 78, 121. "Murphy" the Salisbury Attorney in Amelia, 71. Newcastle, Duke of, 74. Newgate, 86. Newgate Calendar, 85. New Sarum, Salisbury, 30. Newton bridge, 109. Nichols, John, History of Leicestershire, 22, J J; Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, 14, 121. Northamptonshire, no, in. Notes and Queries, 105, 109. Novels of Fielding, 99. Odiham, Hants, 29. Old Bailey, 85. Old days and new, 98. Oldfield, Mrs. Anne, in Love in Several Masques, 34. Oliver, Rev. Mr., tutor to Henry Fielding, 26. Oxford, Sophia at, no, in; to London, road from, 109. INDEX 157 Page lxiii in the second edition of Tom Jones, 131, 132. Palace of Death, Fielding's description of, 84. Pamela, the inspiration of Joseph Andrews, 82. "Parson Adams," was Edward Young, 83; the original of the Vicar of Wakefield, 84; travels of, 92. Partridge, , leaves Gloucester, 90; trouble with the Gypsy woman, no; tells Jones Mrs. Waters was his mother, 96. Pasquin, 46. Paterson's British Itinerary, 109. Pension, Fielding's, 63. Peregrine Pickle, on Fielding's second marriage, 64. "Peter Pounce," was Peter Walter, 83. Pitt, William, at Eton, 27. Plato, 48. Plays of Fielding and Amelia, 97, 98. Plot of Amelia, 89 ; of Tom Jones, 89. Pompey the Little, Lady Tempest in, 93. Pope, Alexander, 71, 100. Portraits of Fielding, 4, 12, 14. Preface to David Simple, 60, 106, 107. Pretender at Preston Pans, 62. Primrose, Mrs., in Vicar of Wakefield, 84. Prior-park, 60, 61, 62, 88, 89. Pritchard, Mrs., in The Wedding Day, 53. Proposal for making an effectual Provision for the Poor, J4.. Prose writers, of the eighteenth century, 80. Provoked Husband, The, 34, 36. Pug's letter, in The Spectator, 84. Pultney, William, Earl of Bath, 86. Pump Court, Fielding's chambers in, 49. 158 HENRY FIELDING Quaker directs Jones to Inn, 90. "Queen of Beauty t'other Day," 30. Racine's Atalaide, 94. Ralph on The Champion, 52. Rebellion of 1746, 63. Rehearsal, The, 46. Remedy of Affliction for the Loss of Our Friends, 56. Rhein-filding, 21. Rhodes, Mr., married Sarah Andrew, 34. Rhodes, Rev. Mr., of Bath, 31, 32. Rich, Christopher, 34. Richardson, Samuel, 44, 56, 76, 82, 88. Richly, Lord, as Col. James, 98. Richmond, Duke of, 38, 39. Rigby, Richard, 70, 71. Roads, from Bath or Bristol to Hagley Park, 91; from Evesham to Coventry, no; Chester to London, no; Coventry to London, 91, no. Roberts, George, History of Lyme Regis, 31. Robertson's Topographical Survey of the Great Road from London to Bath and Bristol, 109. Roderick Random, credited to Fielding, 107. Roscoe, Thomas, Life of Fielding, 107, 122. Round, J. H., 105. Roxborough, Duke of, 38. Saintsbury, George, 107, 122. Salisbury, 30, 33, 34, 41, 43, 44; characters in Tom Jones at, 93. Sclater, Wm. Lutley, 29. INDEX 159 Scott, Sir Walter, 68, 81, 88, 99, 123. Scriblerus Junior, 81. Seagrim, Molly, 94, 95. Segur, M. de, Le Portrait de Fielding, 13. Sevigne, Mme. de, 57. Shakspeare, William, 21, 81, 83, 90; King Lear, 88. Sharpham-Park, near Glastonbury, Somerset, 23, 24, 25, 26, 89; birthplace of Fielding, 88. Side saddles at the inns, 99. Sixth Satire of Juvenal, 32, 33. "Slipslop," in Joseph Andrews, 83. Smith, George Barnett, 123. Smollett, Tobias, 23, 76, 125, 126. Soldiers' march from Bristol to Hambrook, 92. Sophia, and Sarah Andrew, 31, 32; as Fielding's wife, 55, 56, 93; at Coventry, no; at Dunstable, in; at Evesham, no; character of, 96; crosses the Avon, 91, 108; meets the Irish Lord, 109; route of, from Coventry to London, no, in; supply of money by, 92, 108. Spectator, The, 49; Pug's letter in, 84; vision of Marraton in, 84. Spondy, Mr., in Peregrine Pickle, 65. Square, original was Thomas Chubb, 93. St. Albans, Herts, in. Stapfer, Paul, 124. Steevens, George, Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth, 13. Stephen, Leslie, Memoir of Henry Fielding, 124. Stony Stratford, Bucks, no, in. Stour, East, Dorsetshire, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 40, 41. Strahan, John, land surveyor of Bristol, 109. Stratford, on the Ouse, 109, no, in. 160 HENRY FIELDING Summer to Winter in Tom Jones, 90, 108. Surface, Charles and Joseph, in The School for Scandal, 88. Swift, Jonathan, 71. Taine, H. A., 124, 125. Tatler, The, 49. Taunton, Bust of Fielding at, 12. Tempest, Lady, from Lady Townshend, 93. Temple Beau, The, 35, 97. Temple, Middle, 47. Thackeray, William Makepeace, 125, 126, 127. Thompson, James, 80, 91. Thwackum, from Dr. Hale, 93. Title-pages to Tom Jones, 14, 130. "To Miss H — and at Bath," 52. Tom Jones, 71, 87-96; advertisement of, 131; beginning of, 60; criticised, 94, 96, 99, 105; dedicated to George Lord Lyttleton, 60, 61; errors in, 89-93, 107; first and second editions compared, 129- 137; Gibbon on, 105; in the time of Augustus, 99; plot of, 89; published, 76, 131; sold for £700, 79; title-pages to, 14, 130. Tom Thumb, 80, 81. Townsend, George H., Life and Works of Henry Fielding, 124. Townshend, Lady Ethelreda Harrison, Viscountess, as Lady Bellaston, or Lady Tempest in Pompey the Little, 93. Travelling without money, 92. Trent, Captain, as Mr. Modern, 97. True Patriot, The, 59, 68. Trumble, Alfred, Henry Fielding, 127. Trulliber, Parson, and the Rev. Mr. Oliver, 26. Tucker, Andrew, of Lyme Regis, 31, 32. INDEX 161 Twickenham, Fielding at, 65, 67, 68. Twiverton, near Bath, Fielding's residence at, 60, 61, 62. Universal Gallant, The, 41. Upton, Worcestershire, 91; Jones and Mrs. Waters at, 89, 95; the flight from, 109. Upton Grey, County Hants, 29. Vane, Lady, wife of William Viscount Vane, and heroine of Smollett's "Memoirs of a Lady of Quality" in Peregrine Pickle, 95. Verses by Fielding in the Miscellanies, 55. Vicar of Wakefield, 83, 84, 93. Vices, of Tom Jones, 94; of our forefathers, 98. Virgil's Mneid, 61. Virtue, George, 107. Vision of Marraton, in The Spectator, 84. Voyage to Lisbon, 63, 76, 107. Walpole, Horace, 70, 72, 107. Walpole, Sir Robert, 47, 76, 85, 86, 87. Walter, Peter, as " Peter Pounce," 83. Warburton, Rev. Win., 61. Warner, R., History of Glastonbury, 24. Warren, Samuel, Law Studies, 12. Warton family, of Basingstoke, Hants, 29. Warton, Joseph, 66, 67, 68. Warwick, Warwickshire, 109. Waters, Mrs., at Upton with Tom Jones, 89, 95; thought to be mother of Jones, 96. Watson, William, Life of Fielding, 85, 127, 128. i6 2 HENRY FIELDING Watt, Robert, Bibliotheca Britannic a, 1 28. Wedding Day, The, 37, 53, 54, 55. Welch, Saunders, Fielding's successor as magistrate, 78. Western, Mrs., 94. Western, Squire, crosses the Avon, 91, 108; originals of, 93. Westminster and Middlesex, Fielding magistrate for, 69. Westminster Hall, 49, 51. Wharncliffe, Lord, on Fielding's first wife, 57, 58; on his second marriage, 63, 64. Whetstone, Middlesex, in. Whig, Fielding as a, 86. Whipple, E. P., Life and Works of Henry Fielding, 128. Whitfield, Mr. and Mrs., of the Bell inn, Gloucester, 91. Wilks, Robert, in Love in Several Masques, 34. Williams, Sir Charles Hanbury, 27, 70. Wilson, Mrs., 83. Wiltshire sessions, attended by Fielding, 51. Winnington, Thomas, at Eton with Fielding, 27. Winter from Summer in Tom Jones, 90, 108. Woffington, "Peg," in The Wedding Day, 53. Wycherley, William, 35, 53. Xenocrates rather rare, 95. 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