Lyttelton, under the name of Gosling Scrag, in the first edition of Peregrine Pickle (1751), in which work there was also a contemptuous reference to Fielding's second marriage. It is one of the most piquant ironies in the annals of literature that the great Dr. Johnson strongly maintained that the character of the Respectable Hottentot, in Lord Chesterfield's Letters, was intended for Lyttelton, whereas it is notorious that the Respectable Hottentot was Johnson himself. Lyttelton himself was an author of considerable merit, his chief works being the Persian Letters, in imitation of those of Montesquieu (1735); Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul (1747); Dialogues of the Dead (1760); and The History of the Life of K. Henry the Second (1767, etc.). Page viii. the princely benefactions of the Duke of Bedford. John, Duke of Bedford (1710-1771) had been on terms of intimacy with Fielding for a considerable number of years before the publication of Tom Jones. He, together with Lyttelton, had been one of the leaders of the opposition, or country party as it was then called, against the Walpole administration, and was associated with Fielding in making the Little Theatre, in the Haymarket, an organ of the opposition. After the fall of Walpole, he became First Lord of the Admiralty and a Privy Councillor, and Fielding's pen was used on several occasions in The Jacobite's Journal, to defend him from the attacks of his political enemies. It was owing to the generosity of the Duke of Bedford, in granting him a lease for 21 years of various properties in the county of Middlesex, that Fielding was able to qualify as a justice of the peace for that county, in January, 1749; and this was probably one of the 'princely benefactions' to which Fielding alludes in his dedication. If Chesterfield's portrait of him is correct, he was not of equal moral fibre with those associated with him in this dedication. Lord Chesterfield writes that 'he was more considerable for his rank and immense fortune than for either his parts or his virtues. He had rather more than a common share of common sense, but with a head so wrong-turned, and so invincibly obstinate, that the share of parts which he had was of little use to him, and very troublesome to others.' (Quoted from The Life of Henry Fielding, by F. Lawrence, 1855, page 251.) Page ix. as a great poet says of one of you, (he might justly have said it of all three) you 'Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.' 'This is the second line of the famous couplet of Pope's, which occurs in his Epilogue to the Satires of Horace, and which refers to Fielding's great friend and benefactor Ralph Allen, of Bath, (1694-1764), to whom Fielding makes more than one allusion in Joseph Andrews. Ralph Allen was a man of lowly origin, but rose to considerable affluence, and became famous for his philanthropy and munificence. As deputy-postmaster of Bath, he devised a system of cross-posts for England and Wales, which he farmed himself, at an average profit of £12,000 a year. Lawrence, in his Life of Henry Fielding, states that Allen presented the novelist with 200 guineas, before he had any personal knowledge of him, and that, after his death, Allen took charge of his family, provided for their education, and bequeathed them an annuity of £100 a year. Ralph Allen is often stated to be the original from whence the Squire Allworthy of the novel is derived, but it would be more correct to say, and more consonant with the declaration of the author himself in the dedication, that Allworthy is a composite portrait of his three friends-a portrait, however, in which the features of Allen are more easily distinguishable than those of Lyttelton or Bedford. Page x. he will find in the whole course of it nothing prejudicial to the cause of religion and virtue; nothing inconsistent with the strictest rules of decency, etc. This statement was not allowed to go unchallenged, and in Old England for May 27, 1749, a writer attacks Selim Slim for being so lavish of his commendations on the History of Tom Jones. Having pointed out what the writer considers three instances of indecency, he goes on to attack 'this noble History of Bastardism, Fornication, and Adultery' as highly prejudicial to the cause of religion, in the gross ridicule and abuse which it wantonly throws on religious characters. Richardson was not behindhand in attacking his rival, and in a letter to M. Defreval, one of his French correspondents, he wrote: Tom Jones is a dissolute book. Its run is over even with us. Is it true that France had virtue enough to refuse to license so profligate a performance?' This last question arose from the almost incredible fact that a French translation of Tom Jones, by M. de la Place, and with engravings by Gravelot, which appeared in 1750, was actually prohibited by a royal arrét, presumably on account of its immoral tendencies—and this, at a time, when the decidedly immodest tales of Crébillon were popular in Paris! There were not wanting those, who improving on the lead given them by Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, in his 'Pastoral Letter,' attributed the earthquake-shocks, experienced in London in the early spring of 1750, partly to the reading of lewd books, more especially one called Tom Jones. The immunity enjoyed by Paris from these cosmic disturbances was ascribed to the fact that they had had the good sense to suppress that book. (See The Mitre and Crown, May 1749, The London and Gentleman's Magazines, 1750, and the History of Henry Fielding, by Mr. Wilbur M. Cross.) Page 3. the best cook which the present age. Mr. Cross suggests that it is not improbable that Fielding is here paying a compliment to 'a famous cook' named Lebeck, who lived a few doors from Mrs. Hussey, whose inclusion later in the novel forms the subject of a famous anecdote. He also points out that the whole of the opening chapter is but an elaboration of a letter written by Fielding, over the pseudonym of 'Heliogabalus,' which appeared in The True Patriot of December 3, 1745. (Op. cit., Vol II, pp. 104 and 105.) Page 28. to cry out with Thisbe in Shakespear, ‘O wicked, wicked wall!' This reference to A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act V, Sc. 1, is not strictly accurate, as the exclamation 'O wicked wall' is made by Pyramus, and not Thisbe. Page 63. we wish Mr. John Fr-, or some other such philosopher. John Freke (1688-1756), to whom a further reference is made on page 177, was surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, from 1729 to 1755. He was a man of considerable parts, and somewhat of a connoisseur in music and art. Whilst Fielding was engaged in writing the earlier chapters of Tom Jones, Freke was embroiled in a controversy on the nature of electricity, echoes of which are to be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for October and November, 1746. Page 84. The same submission to a Hoadley. Benjamin Hoadley (1676-1761), to whom reference was also made in Joseph Andrews, (q.v.) was successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He was a prominent and aggressive leader of the extreme latitudinarian party in church and state, and was evidently held in high esteem by Fielding. Page 104. when Tom attended the reverend Mr. Thwackum. Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1758-1838), antiquary and historian, states that the Rev. Richard Hele, Canon of Salisbury and Master of the Choir School, was the original of the pedagogue Thwack um. Page 106. Mr. Square the philosopher. The original of Square was Thomas Chubb (1679-1747), who like Hele was a native of Salisbury. He was first apprenticed to glover in Salisbury, but his eyesight failing, he eventually became a tallow-chandler. He wrote many tracts of a deistical tendency, to which Fielding was considerably indebted. Some lines in his memory printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for March 1747, give us a contemporary view of this Sarumprodigy. 'In honest trade, to lawful business bred, To books in evil hour Tom turn'd his head. In judgment weak, in self-conceit too strong, Woe to the world, Tom Chubb cou'd read and write!' Page 134. the higler. 'One who buys poultry, etc., in the country, and brings it to town to sell.' (Bailey's Dictionary, 1773.) Page 137. If we may believe the opinion of Butler, who attributes inspiration to ale. This is an allusion to Butler's invocation to his muse in the first canto of Hudibras, lines 645 to 664. "Thou that with ale, or viler liquors, Of nature and their stars, to write, etc.' Page 138. the famous author of Hurlothrumbo. A play, by Samuel Johnson (1705-1773), a dancing master from Chester; an absurd compound of extravagant incidents and unconnected dialogues;' which, however, made a consider |