BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

ENGLISH HUMOURISTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY

LONG before Thackeray set to work upon his series of lectures upon eighteenth-century humourists, he had shown great interest in the subject not only by references in his stories but also when reviewing Roscoe's edition of Fielding's works for The Times in 1840. The review which was, of course, anonymous, gives evidence of the writer's knowledge of, and sympathy with, his theme. Ten years later, when he had decided to turn his attention to lecturing for a while, with the object of making money for his family in case of his death, it is not surprising that he fixed upon this subject of the eighteenth-century humourists. His doing so was probably the indirect cause of his writing Esmond, on which he worked while travelling about on his first lecturing tour.

The six lectures were first delivered in London, at Willis's Rooms, in 1851, on Thursdays from May 22 to July 3. The great success of Vanity Fair and Pendennis made the appearance of the author one of considerable public interest, and a large number of Thackeray's notable contemporaries attended, so that he suffered from preliminary nervousness. Public

lecturing was not so common in those days—although