perhaps for the posthumous works it has no real authority. As a consequence, the current editions abound in readings that, to say the best for them, almost certainly were not Fielding's own. It has seemed to me better, therefore, as I have not had access to all the editions published in the author's lifetime and so have been unable to make a critical text, to give a reprint of some one specified edition in each case. Thus we can read the words as Fielding once wrote them in any case, which is better than reading what the careless Murphy chose to print, even if we miss a few changes made by the author himself. The only liberty I have taken with the text has been to modernize the capitalization. A very few omissions are indicated in the notes, and three or four words necessary for the sense have been supplied in brackets. Changed titles are also indicated by brackets. It is difficult to annotate Fielding without making the comment burdensome; but I have tried to do it as briefly as is consistent with the proper elucidation of the text. Grateful acknowledgment is due several friends and colleagues who have answered cheerfully the numerous questions propounded to them from time to time, to the general editors of the series, and also to Mr. W. C. Lane for permission to use the library of Harvard University. G. H. G. BRYN MAWR COLLEGE CONTENTS VI. MATTER PREFATORY IN PRAISE OF BIOGRAPHY VII. OF WRITING LIVES IN GENERAL, AND PARTICULARLY IX. OF THOSE WHO LAWFULLY MAY, AND OF THOSE WHO MAY NOT WRITE SUCH HISTORIES AS THIS XV. AN ESSAY TO PROVE THAT AN AUTHOR WILL WRITE BETTER, FOR HAVING SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUBJECT ON WHICH HE WRITES XVI. A LITERARY CONVERSATION IN ELYSIUM. XX. SHEWING THE WHOLESOME USES DRAWN FROM RE- CORDING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THOSE WON- INTRODUCTION I BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH "Our immortal Fielding," wrote Gibbon,1 66 was of the younger branch of the Earls of Denbigh, who drew their origin from the Counts of Hapsburgh. The successors of Charles V may disdain their brethren of England: but the romance of Tom Jones, that exquisite picture of humour and manners, will outlive the palace of the Escurial and the imperial Eagle of Austria." In contrast to the splendor of this panegyric may be set the circumstances of Fielding's life. Like most citizens of the republic of letters, of which he wrote so pleasantly, he knew early and well both struggle and disappointment. His descent from the houses of Hapsburgh and Denbigh did not save him from poverty or the consequences of his own reckless youth. Undoubtedly Fielding was of excellent birth. He was the son of Edmund Fielding, a soldier who served under Marlborough and who rose before his death to the grade of major general. Edmund was the grandson of George, Earl of Desmond, who came to that title by a curious bargain made in his favor by his uncle, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, at the time when the earldom of Desmond was created. This George Fielding was the second son of the first Earl of Denbigh, so that the novelist was a scion of the cadet branch of 1 Miscellaneous Works, I, 415. 2 The Covent Garden Journal, no. xxiii (see pp. 72-78 of this volume). 3 The Dramatic Works of Sir William D'Avenant (ed. Maidment and Logan), I, 311, 312. 1 that house. Edmund Fielding married for his first wife Sarah, daughter of Sir Henry Gould, Knt., of Sharpham Park, Somerset. It has been conjectured with some probability 1 that the match was a secret one. At all events, Sarah Fielding continued to live at Sharpham Park, and there on April 22, 1707, their first son, Henry, was born. After the death of Sir Henry in 1710, Captain Fielding removed with his family to East Stour, Dorsetshire, where in November of the same year was born Sarah Fielding, who became the author of David Simple and numerous other works which were regarded by a rather limited circle as only less excellent than those of her illustrious brother. Of Henry's childhood, as is natural, we know next to nothing. For his early education he was intrusted to "a certain Mr. Oliver," who was probably the clergyman of a neighboring village. The unenviable portrait of Parson Trulliber in Joseph Andrews is said 2 to have been fashioned from recollections of this teacher; but whether or not such was the case there is no means of knowing. In 1718 Mrs. Fielding died. It was shortly after this event, probably, that Henry was sent to Eton College. Of his career at school we are not better informed than of his childhood. Certainly he must have acquired there the knowledge of the classics which he was perhaps too fond of parading in later days. As certainly he made friends with at least two men who were to achieve distinction in public life,-George Lyttelton and Charles Hanbury, the former of whom became a statesman of acknowledged worth and the latter, as Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, a famous wit and a useful if not altogether reputable politician. From his later life we can imagine what 3 1 Dobson, Henry Fielding (revised and enlarged ed.), 4. 2 Murphy, Essay on the Life and Genius of Henry Fielding, Esq. 3 He was created Baron Lyttelton in 1756. |