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.-STUART, LADY LOUISA, 1837, Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ed. Wharncliffe, Introductory Anecdotes. Let travellers devote one entire morning to inspecting the Arcos and the Mai das agoas, after which they may repair to the English church and cemetery, Pere-lachaise in miniature, where, if they be of England, they may well be excused if they kiss the cold tomb, as I did, of the author of "Amelia," the most singular genius which their island ever produced, whose works it has long been the fashion to abuse in public and to read in secret.BORROW, GEORGE, 1843, The Bible in Spain. I cannot offer or hope to make a hero of Harry Fielding. Why hide his faults? Why conceal his weaknesses in a cloud of periphrasis? Why not show him, like him as he is, not robed in a marble toga, and draped and polished in a heroic attitude, but with inked ruffles, and claret stains on his tarnished lace coat, and on his manly face the marks of good fellowship, of illness, of kindness, of care, and wine. Stained as you see him, and worn by care and dissipation, that man retains some of the most precious and splendid human qualities and endowments. He has an admirable natural love of truth, the keenest instinctive antipathy to hypocrisy, the happiest satirical gift of laughing it to scorn. His wit is wonderfully wise and detective; it flashes upon a rogue and lightens up a rascal like a policeman's lantern. He is one of the manliest and kindliest of human beings: in the midst of all his imperfections, he respects female innocence and infantine tenderness, as you would suppose such a great-hearted, courageous soul would respect and care for them. He could not be so brave, generous, truth-telling as he is, were he not infinitely merciful, pitiful, and tender. He will give any man his purse-he cannot help kindness and profusion. He may have low tastes, but not a mean mind; he admires with all his heart good and virtuous men, stoops to no flattery, bears no rancour, disdains all disloyal arts, does his public duty uprightly, is fondly loved by his family, and dies at his work. THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE, 1853, The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century. In a very The day of reckoning came. short time Fielding found that all was spent and gone-all swallowed up in the abyss of ruin! It seemed like a dream, a wild, incoherent vision. The roar of mirth, the deafening cheer, the splendid liveries, prancing horses, staring rustics, fullmouthed dogs, faded before him like some "insubstantial pageant." He had been generous, hospitable, profuse; and what was his reward? Those who had sat at meat with him now ridiculed his extravagance. Even the gaping boors of the neighbourhood cracked their heavy jokes at his expense. The prudent gentlemen and ladies who had not scrupled to sit at his jovial board, and partake of his cheer, now shook their heads, and gravely condemned his prodigality. Those of his more ambitious neighbours whom he had recently outshone in splendour, rejoiced in his downfall, without attempting to conceal their satisfaction. In the midst of all these untoward circumstances, he had to escape from his creditors as best he might, and to seek for happiness and a livelihood in some other sphere. How bitterly Fielding cursed his folly, and how penitently he bewailed his imprudence, can be well imagined. His sorrow-now, alas! unavailing-was not unmixed with feelings of resentment. The jealousy with which he had been regarded in the height of his ostentatious career, and the treatment he experienced in his reverses, long rankled in his breast. He could not easily forget the sneers and slights of those whom in his heart he so much despised; and from this time forth, therefore, the Squirearchy of England had to expect little mercy at his hands. -LAWRENCE, FREDERICK, 1855, The Life of Henry Fielding, p. 75. 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 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 late 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 tradition of the Tucker family, Sophia Western was intended to portray Miss Andrew.ROBERTS, GEORGE, 1855, Letter to the Athenæum, Nov. 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 animal enjoyments. That previous to his marriage he ran headlong into every species of dissipation, is, I fear, not to be doubted; but, 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.-KEIGHTLEY, THOMAS, 1858, On the Life and Writings of Henry Fielding, Fraser's Magazine, vol. 57, pp. 209, 210. Fielding protests on behalf of nature; and certainly to see his actions and his persons, we might think him made expressly for that: a robust, strongly built man, above six feet high, sanguine, with (an excess of good humor and animal spirits, loyal, generous, affectionate, and brave, but imprudent, extravagant, drinker, a roysterer, ruined as it were by heirloom, having seen the ups and down. of life, bespattered, but always jolly. a Force, activity, invention, tenderness, all overflowed in him. He had a mother's fondness for his children, adored his wife, became almost mad when he lost her, found no other consolation than to weep with his maid-servant, and ended by marrying that good and honest girl, that he might give a mother to his children; the last trait in the portrait of his valiant plebeian heart, quick in telling all, possessing no dislikes, but all the best parts of man, except delicacy. We read his books as we drink a pure, wholesome, and rough wine, which cheers and fortifies us, and which wants nothing but bouquet. -TAINE, H. A., 1871, History of English Literature, tr. Van Laun, vol. II, bk. iii, ch. vi, p. 170. And what was his reward, after wasting disappointments? The then not very reputable post of Middlesex magistrate at Bow Street. But, to his credit be it told, the corrupt practices which disgraced that important though subordinate seat of criminal justice were swept away by his judicious and indefatigable management, and from being a nest rather for the nursing care of some delinquents than for their utter extermination, it became in his hands the dread of incorrigible evil doers; while the weary and heavy-laden met with compassionate consideration. Of these facts there is no one but must feel assured who has read what may be called his dying words, which are so impressively told in his "Voyage to Lisbon"-his last resting place. BROWNE, JAMES P., 1872, ed., Miscellanies and Poems by Henry Fielding, Preface, p. xviii. Fielding was no hero. Ginger was hot in the mouth with him, and he was always apt to prefer the call of pleasure to the call of duty.-NICOLL, HENRY J., 1882, Landmarks of English Literature, p. 221. I do not deny that Fielding's temperament was far from being over nice. I am willing to admit, if you will, that the woof of his nature was coarse and animal. I should not stop short of saying that it was sensual. Yet he liked and admired the highest and best things of his time-the art of Hogarth, the acting of Garrick, the verse of Pope. He is said indeed to have loved low company, but his nature was so companionable and his hunger for knowledge so keen, that I fancy he would like any society that was not dull, and any conversation, however illiterate, from which he could learn anything to his purpose.-LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, 188390, Fielding, Address on Unveiling the Bust of Fielding, Taunton, Sept. 4; Prose Works, Riverside ed., vol. VI, p. 59. The real monument which Fielding's memory most needs is one that does not ask for the chisel of any sculptor or the voice of any orator. It is, moreover, a memorial which it would neither be difficult to raise nor pecuniarily unprofitable. That memorial is a complete edition of his writings. Though one hundred and thirty years have gone by since his death, this act of justice to his reputation has never yet been performed. Apparently, it has never once been contemplated. A portion A portion of his work-and, in a certain way, of work especially characteristic-is practically inaccessible to the immense majority of English-speaking men. We are the losers by this neglect more than he. The mystery that envelops much of Fielding's career can never be cleared away, the estimate of his character and conduct can never be satisfactorily fixed, until everything he wrote has been put into the hands of independent investigators pursuing separate lines of study. LOUNSBURY, THOMAS R., 1884, Open Letters, The Century, vol, 27, p. 635. He was too frank, may be ; and dared Then, from that garbled record-list, And was he? Nay,-let who has known Wrought on our noblest island-plan, We dimly make out that the chief incident of Fielding's dramatic career was his share in a quarrel between Cibber, then manager, and certain actors to whom, as Fielding thought, Cibber had behaved unfairly. Cibber, the smart, dapper little Frenchified coxcomb, was just the type of all the qualities which Fielding most heartily despised; and they fell foul of each other with great heartiness. On the other hand, he was equally enthusiastic on behalf of his friends. Chief among them were Hogarth, whose paintings are the best comment on Fielding's novel, and Garrick, whom, though of very different temperament, he admired and praised with the most cordial generosity. "Harry Fielding," as his familiars call him, was no doubt a wild youth, but to all appearance a most trustworthy and warm-hearted friend.-STEPHEN, LESLIE, 1897, Henry Fielding, Library of the World's Best Literature, ed. Warner, vol. x, p. 5696. DRAMAS 'Twas from a sense of this concluding jumble, this unnatural huddling of events, that a witty friend of mine, who was himself a dramatic writer, used pleasantly, though perhaps rather freely, to damn the man who invented fifth acts. So said the celebrated Henry Fielding, who was a respectable person both by education and birth. His "Joseph Andrews" and "Tom Jones" may be called masterpieces in the comic epopée, which none since have equalled, though multitudes have imitated; and which he was peculiarly qualified to write in the manner he did, both from his life, his learning, and his genius. Had his life been less irregular (for irregular it was, and spent in a promiscuous intercourse with persons of all ranks), his pictures of human-kind had neither been so varicus nor so natural. Had he possessed less of literature, he could not have infused such a spirit of classical elegance. Had his genius been less fertile in wit and humour, he could not have maintained that uninterrupted pleasantry which never suffers his reader to feel fatigue.-HARRIS, JAMES, 1750, Philological Inquiries, pt. ii. Though it must be acknowledged, that in the whole collection there are few plays likely to make any considerable fig. ure on the stage hereafter, yet they are worthy of being preserved, being the works of a genius, who, in his wildest and most inaccurate productions, yet occasionally displays the talent of a master. Though in the plan of his pieces he is not always regular, yet is he often happy in his diction and style; and, in every groupe that he has exhibited, there are to be seen particular delineations that will amply recompense the attention bestowed upon them.MURPHY, ARTHUR, 1762, An Essay on the Life and Genius of Henry Fielding, Esq., Works, ed. Chalmers, vol. I, p. 14. Can any reason be assigned, why the inimitable Fielding, who was so perfect in Epic fable, should have succeeded so indifferently in Dramatic? Was it owing to the peculiarity of his genius, or of his circumstances? to any thing in the nature of Dramatic writing in general, or of that particular taste in Dramatic Comedy which Congreve and Vanburgh had introduced, and which he was obliged to comply with? -BEATTIE, WILLIAM, 1776-9, Essays on Poetry and Music, p. 102, note. Fielding was a comic writer, as well as a novelist; but his comedies are very inferior to his novels: they are particularly deficient both in plot and character. The only excellence which they have is that of the style, which is the only thing in which his novels are deficient. The only dramatic pieces of Fielding that retain possession of the stage are, "The Mock Doctor" (a tolerable translation from Moliere's Medecin malgrelui), and his "Tom Thumb," a very admirable piece of burlesque.-HAZLITT, WILLIAM, 1818, On the Comic Writers of the Last Century, Lecture viii. While it must be acknowledged that Fielding's genius was not decidedly dramatic, it was something that he escaped disapprobation, though he was at times. received with indifference. ROSCOE, THOMAS, 1840, Life and Works of Henry Fielding. Notwithstanding the ill fate which attended "Pasquin," I venture to pronounce it a work of the highest talent, if genius be not the more appropriate word. The humour is excellent; nor do I think that the satire in it at all oversteps the fair bounds of comic writing. . . . Fielding's other burlesque, "Tom Thumb," had better fortune, and still keeps possession of the stage. It is, however, the barbaric version of Kane O'Hara which is represented; and they who wish to appreciate this genuine specimen of good-humoured ridicule, must look to Fielding's pages, and not to the theatre. Indeed, in any form, "Tom Thumb" is a play rather to be read than to be seen. Tom Thumb and Glumdalca ought to be left to our imagination, and not to the Property-man. If the popularity of this work of Fielding's pen is to be ascertained by a common test, the number of quotations from it, that are universally current, it will be rated very high indeed.-CREASY, SIR EDWARD, 185076, Memoirs of Eminent Etonians, p. 318. Of all Fielding's dramatic pieces "Pasquin" seems deserving of the highest praise, and it touches pretty freely upon the political corruptions of the times. Considered in the light of a satire alone it may be pronounced very successful, showing its author as usual at his best in the unsparing use of the lash.-SMITH, GEORGE BARNETT, 1875, Poets and Novelists, p. 301. None of Fielding's plays, with the exception, perhaps, of his adaptation of the "Miser," can be said to have "kept the stage" few even of the students of literature have read them, and those who have read them have dismissed them too hastily. The closest students these plays have ever had were the dramatists of the following generation, whose works, notably those of Sheridan, contain many traces of their assiduity. The tradition about his writing scenes after his return from tavern carousals on the papers in which his tobacco had been wrapt, and his cool reception of Garrick's desire that he should alter some passage in the "Wedding-Day," have helped the impression that they were loose, ill-considered, illconstructed productions, scribbled off hastily to meet passing demands. There is only a fraction of truth in this notion. That the plays are not the work of a dull plodder or a mechanician of elaborate ingenuity goes without saying; but, though perhaps rapidly considered and rapidly constructed, they are neither ill-considered nor ill-constructed, and bear testimony to the large and keen intelligence, as well as the overflowing humor and fertile wit of their author.-MINTO, WILLIAM, 1879, Fielding, Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. IX. are The dramatic pieces that he wrote during his early period were, it is true, shamefully gross, though there humorous hints in them that have been profitably worked up by later writers; but what strikes me most in them is that there is so little real knowledge of life, the result of personal experience, and that the social scenery and conception of character are mainly borrowed from his immediate predecessors, the dramatists of the Restoration. In grossness his plays could not outdo those of Dryden, whose bust has stood so long without protest in Westminster Abbey. As to any harm they can do there is little to be apprehended, for they are mostly as hard to read as a Shapira manuscript.-LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, 1883-90, Fielding, Address on Unveiling the Bust of Fielding, Taunton, Sept. 4; Prose Works, Riverside ed., vol. VI, p. 58. As a dramatist he has no eminence; and though his plays do not deserve the sweeping condemnation with which Macaulay once spoke of them in the House of Commons, they are not likely to attract any critics but those for whom the inferior efforts of a great genius possess a morbid fascination. Some of them serve, in a measure, to illustrate his career; others contain hints and situations which he afterwards worked into his novels; but the only ones that possess real stage qual ities are those which he borrowed from Regnard and Molière. "Don Quixote in England," "Pasquin," the "Historical Register, can claim no present consideration commensurate with that which they received as contemporary satires, and their interest is mainly antiquarian; while "Tom Thumb" and the "Covent-Garden Tragedy," the former of which would make the reputation of a smaller man, can scarcely hope to be remembered beside "Amelia" or "Jonathan Wild."-DOBSON, AUSTIN, 1883, Fielding (English Men of Letters), p. 176. JOSEPH ANDREWS the story of Wilson; and throughout he shows himself well read in Stage-Coaches, Country Squires, Inns, and Inns of Court. His reflections upon high people and low people, and misses and masters, are very good.-GRAY, THOMAS, 1742, Letter to Richard West. The worthy parson's learning, his simplicity, his evangelical purity of heart and benevolence of disposition, are so admirably mingled with pedantry, absence of mind, and with the habit of athletic and gymnastic exercise, then acquired at the universities by students of all descriptions, that he may be safely termed one of the richest productions of the Muse of Fiction. SCOTT, SIR WALTER, 1820, Henry Fielding. Joseph Andrews is a hero of the shoulder-knot: it would be hard to canvass his pretentions too severely, especially considering what a patron he has in Parson Adams. That one character would cut up into a hundred fine gentlemen and novel heroes!-HAZLITT, WILLIAM, 1830? Men and Manners. While, however, it is highly probable that he had Cervantes in his eye, it is certain that the satiric and burlesque portion of "Joseph Andrews" was suggested to him by the perusal of Richardson's "Pamela," on the overwrought refinement and strained sentiment of which it affords a humorous commentary in the adventures of her professed brother, the hero. Besides its intrinsic wit and excellence, it has thus a twofold attraction in the comic and burlesque spirit it maintains throughout, in the same way as the adventures of the Spanish knight and his squire, however ludicrous in themselves, are relished with a double zest for the contrast they offer to the dignified bearing and marvellous deeds of the old Paladins. How exquisitely Fielding has caught the humour, assumed gravity, and delicate satire of his prototype, they who have compared the two master-pieces will readily admit; and that he loses nothing in point of originality.-ROSCOE, THOMAS, 1840, Life and Works of Henry Fielding. Resemblances have been found, and may be admitted to exist, between the Rev. Charles Primrose and the Rev. Abraham Adams. They were from kindred genius; and from the manly habit which Fielding and Goldsmith shared of discerning what |