of morals, but he likes them to be sincere; he has no palliation for their rancid varieties. He has his eye always on conduct; he is keen to observe not what a man pretends or protests, but what he does, and this he records to us, sometimes with scant respect for our susceptibilities. But it has been a magnificent advantage for English fiction to have near the head of it a writer so vigorous, so virile, so devoid of every species of affectation and hypocrisy. In all the best of our later novelists there has been visible a strain. of sincere manliness which comes down to them in direct descent from Fielding, and which it would be a thousand pities for English fiction to relinquish.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) was the eldest of the five children of Lieutenant Edmund Fielding and his wife Sarah Gould, of East Stour, in Dorsetshire; the novelist was born on the 22nd of April 1707, at Sharpham Park, the house of his grandfather, Sir Henry Gould. The family resided at East Stour until Henry Fielding was eleven; he went up to Eton, and is said to have left that school to proceed directly to Leyden to study law under "the learned Vitriarius" in 1726. Returning to London in 1728, he endeavoured to support himself by writing for the theatres, in which he was encouraged by his celebrated kinswoman, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. He produced a large number of burlesques and farces, some of which (in particular Tom Thumb, afterwards The Tragedy of Tragedies, in 1730) enjoyed considerable success; but the plays of Fielding were most of them slight and flimsy, and he did not make them his regular employment after 1737. In the spring of 1735 Fielding married Miss Charlotte Cradock of Salisbury, a lady whose mental and physical characteristics, idealised by her lover's fancy, reappear in the portraits of Sophia Western and of Amelia ;

he had known her for many years. For a short time he kept house at East Stour with splendid extravagance, and then, "having entirely devoured a little patrimony," came up to London again. The Licensing Act of 1737 put difficulties in the way of his dramatic projects which he found insuperable, and he dropped his puppet-shows for the study of the law, supporting himself in the meantime by journalism. Fielding now for a while worked hard at his profession, and we are told that he assiduously attended the Wiltshire sessions. The success of Richardson's Pamela in 1740 drew his attention to the possibility of parodying that tale of female virtue rewarded, in a parallel tale of no less consummate masculine virtue, and Joseph Andrews was the result in 1742. Richardson was excessively angry, and for the remainder of Fielding's life continued to be his detractor. Fielding now recommenced for a while his career as dramatist with much

THE

HISTORY

OF

TOM JONES, activity, but with little or no success; the latest

A

of all his plays, of which nearly thirty have survived, was The Wedding Day of 1743. Later in the same year Fielding collected in three FOUNDLING. volumes his Miscellanies, consisting of poems,

In SIX VOLUMES.

plays, essays, A Journey from this World to the Next, and-most important of all-the sinister romance of Mr. Jonathan Wild, which occupied the whole of the third volume; this had pro

By HENRY FIELDING, Efqs bably been written earlier than Joseph Andrews.

-Mores hominum multorum vidit.

LONDON:

Printed for A. MILLAR, over- against
Catharine-ftreet in the Strand.
MDCCXLIX.

Title-page of First Edition
of "Tom Jones"

It was the pretended biography of a notorious rogue who had been hanged at Tyburn twenty years before. The biographers of Fielding have been unable to follow his career during the next six years. It is thought that his admirable wife died towards the close of 1743, and we are told that "the fortitude with which he met all the other calamities of life deserted him on this most trying occasion." He married again, after four years of widowhood; his second wife, "an excellent creature," had been his first wife's maid, and his only associate when her loss had left him broken-hearted. Fielding is faintly traced in many parts of town and country through these years, and it is thought that the Duke of Bedford and Lord Lyttelton were among those friends whose good-nature enabled him to survive. At last, in the closing days of 1748, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Westminster, and his worst financial difficulties were over. During his retirement Fielding had been writing a novel, which was by this time complete; it was published in February 1749 as The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. He had been paid the relatively large price of £700 for this book before it had been. published three months; it was universally read and widely imitated at home and abroad. Fielding was now settled in a house in Bow Street, which was to be his home almost to the last. He was eminently zealous and successful as a magistrate, and set himself to check the lawlessness which had invaded the streets of London. In the winter

Kass all Monty this Preputs that & Vonry Preding of the Middle Eimple Myr for and in consideration of the dune of the bird d Mimely nine sounds Sia Phillings of lawful Mooney of Great Britten b me in Hand paid by Andrew Miller of 5 Former James in the Strand Bookseller, that Arwipt whword of is howly achenstiged, and phoing to acqout the seind Andres, Millar Aus Ervin and Aftigey have Payained but delivered assigned and let over and to host Poßen do Parga in tell. Wliver assign and sot over all that my tight Fittle Right and Property in and to a cortam Boot printed in two bohome Qis kiilud Mr Abraham Davis written in. of Gotophetredens by the name woted hotle of the History of the doontons Priolation of the Menner of Conante, Butter of Conanter Author of den Enipotle, and also In and to a certain I and called by the name of Miss Lung in Mon, a tequel to the brigin unmatqued. And also ni and to a certam Pamphle called a full Undication of the Butibos Dowager of Markbormiptive with all Improvements, Portions, or alteration whatever whit and are or here after shall at any time by made by me or any one by my Authority to the said Cost Band or Pamphlet & have to hold the hand bargained Premises unto the sued Audices theillar his Hen Dönen or assigns to the only proper life and Bolors of the said Andrew Millal his Press Amor Assigns for ever and I do howly Covenant th and with the Fall Andrew Mither This lass korn and assigns that If the said Henry Greeding the Auther of the said bargained Memises have not at any time. Centipre done coumuished or Sufford any act or thing which form o Premises of any Part Lymeans whereof the said bargaind thered in orthall to impoached or inauubord in and If the ди the sund Bonny Wicking for myself my ten camps and actigen Well werent and Brenn til Bechaine Bennerhe Bemitor over against all Possous what souver claiming condor me my Ann er assigns. In withops where of there bereunt sit Bund and seal this 13 of Apul. 1942.

my

Lyned seals and delivered. by

the

Witwen named Wen:

with Disord of Wm Young
day and year
Won Hawkes

and year within mentioned