True Patriot" under the date of December 3, 1745. There was nothing, it will be remembered, except what he could eat, that Heliogabalus liked better than Mr. Trottplaid, for the editor so dealt with the questions and news of the day as to please an epicure of the most exquisite palate. He began, said his admirer, with a sober essay, and ended as he ought, with humorous comment on current events, thereby giving "a delicious flavour" to what would otherwise be "flat and insipid." In both the newspaper and the novel, Fielding was perhaps paying a compliment to "a famous cook" named Lebeck, whose house, a few doors from Mrs. Hussey's, was made conspicuous by a large portrait of himself hung out for a sign.* The letter of Heliogabalus, which of course Fielding himself wrote, is as conclusive evidence as one can get, in the absence of a diary, that "Tom Jones" was not in the making on December 3, 1745; it is also indicative that the day when Fielding sat down to his novel was not far off-no farther at most than the six months ahead when "The True Patriot" came to an end.

This conclusion receives support from references to Dr. John Freke in the fourth chapter of the second book and again in the ninth chapter of the fourth book. During the autumn of 1746, this London surgeon and dabbler in natural science was involved in a controversy with William Watson over the nature of electricity. In June Watson had published an account of some very interesting experiments much like Franklin's; and in October Freke set up a wild theory against him in "An Essay to shew the Cause of Electricity; and why some Things are non-electricable." Fielding's references are to Freke's pamphlet. The first of them, taken by itself, might be regarded as an interpolation made during revision; but when considered with the second, the inference is inevitable that Fielding was writ*Nollekens and his Times,'' 1917, I, 105.

ing "Tom Jones" at the very time the discussion was at its height. In the second reference Fielding asks Mr. Freke, before publishing "the next edition of his book," to inquire into certain analogies between frictional electricity and the effects of the switch when applied to a shrew, first to inflame and then to quiet her. The next or second edition of Freke's essay appeared in November. Hence, unless we are to suppose Fielding unaware of this fact, he was midway in his fourth book by November, 1746. To be exact, he had then composed 279 pages.

Another stage in the progress of "Tom Jones," no less definite than this, is marked by the chapter placed at the head of the twelfth book. It is an essay concerning plagiarism, based upon a passage in the preface to the Abbé Banier's "Mythology and Fables of the Ancients," which Fielding half seriously interprets to imply that a writer may take whatever he pleases from Latin and Greek authors without appending place or name, provided he preserve strict honesty towards his poor brethren still living. The translation of the French savant's compendium from which Fielding quotes, though it had first appeared several years before, was advertised by Andrew Millar as "this day published" in "The Jacobite's Journal" for January 9, 1748.* This was a new edition. Three weeks later, on January 30, the Court of Criticism recommended the work to the public "as the most useful, instructive, and entertaining book extant"; and on February 20, Mr. Trottplaid ran up a parallel between Banier's disquisition on the origin of fables and the origin of Jacobite

Fielding appears to have written the advertisement. I surmise that William Young made the translation under Fielding's supervision. The book in question is "La Mythologie et les Fables expliquées par L'Histoire," 3 tom., Paris, 1738-1740. The English translation, brought out by Millar, appeared in instalments, 1739-1741. It is advertised as complete in four octavo volumes in The London Magazine," Feb., 1741, X, 104. This work Millar reissued in 1748.

doctrines. Inasmuch as Fielding never again quoted from Banier, it is a safe assumption that his praise of the work here in "Tom Jones" for its "great erudition" and "equal judgment" was nearly contemporary with the similar encomiums passed upon it in "The Jacobite's Journal" of January 30, 1748. This means that by February Fielding had written eleven of the eighteen books of "Tom Jones," or 1,097 of the 1,818 pages (not counting the dedication and title-pages) comprised in the novel. There yet remained for the year 1748 about seven hundred pages.

The speed with which Fielding composed these later books might be deduced by a Sherlock Holmes from an incident in the plot. As related in the eleventh chapter of the thirteenth book, Sophia went with a companion to the theatre to see a new play; but they both fled before the end of the first Act, terrified by a violent conflict between those who came to applaud and those who came to damn the performance. A struggle of this noisy character between two parties-the one for and the other against an authorwas no very uncommon occurrence. Several of Fielding's own plays had gone down to a like disaster in the uproar of the audience. It so happens, however, that exactly what Sophia saw on that memorable night appears to have occurred at Drury Lane several times in February and March of 1748 during the performance of "The Foundling," that comedy by Fielding's friend Edward Moore. Whether to withdraw the play or to go on with it was the question at intervals for a month. While the town divided on its merits, Fielding (as has been related in the previous chapter) came forward with a just appreciation of its art in his Court of Criticism for March 19, 1748; and when his own novel was ready for the press he honoured Moore by appropriating the title of the play. The novel was to be called "The History of a Foundling." Its longer title was an afterthought. So great was Fielding's interest

in the threatened failure of his friend's comedy that he may indeed have had it in mind when he sent Sophia to the theatre and then home again in fright. Between the quotation from Banier and the first mention of the disturbance at the theatre, there intervene 210 pages. Supposing the play to have been Moore's, the time between the composition of the two passages was roughly six weeks. That is, Fielding was then writing at the rate of nearly 150 pages a month, in addition to his work on "The Jacobite's Journal." If he continued at this rapid pace, he should have had the end in sight by the summer of 1748.

This is precisely what happened, as may be seen from the following document:

"June 11 1748

Reed of Mr. Andrew Millar Six hundred Pounds being in full for the sole Copy Right of a Book called the History of a Foundling in Eighteen Books. And in Consideration of the said Six Hundred Pounds I promise to asign over the said Book to the said Andrew Millar his Executors and assigns for ever when I shall be thereto demanded.

£ £600,

S

00,

d. 00.

HEN: FFIELDING

The said Work to contain Six Volumes in Duodecimo."* When Fielding signed this receipt, "Tom Jones" could not have been completed. At least Fielding was engaged, we must suppose, through the summer and early autumn in readjustments, revisions, and the composition of several of those introductory chapters, which he said cost him more labour than all other parts of the novel. The dedication was written in October or early in November.

As in the case of Homer, many places have claimed the honour of giving birth to "Tom Jones." The only clue that the author cared to put into the hand of the reader

* Taken from the autograph in the library of J. P. Morgan, Esq. It is a scrap of foolscap, 34 inches in length by 74 inches in width.

may be found in the first chapter of the thirteenth book. When Fielding there had a vision of his future fame, of the time when "I shall be read, with honour, by those who never knew nor saw me, and whom I shall neither know nor see," he was writing in a "little parlour" as meanly furnished as the narrow box that would soon contain him. About the room were "his prattling babes," whose innocent play and laughter had been often hushed that he might be quiet in his labours. It was Harriot playing with William. In that parlour, wherever it may have been, were written long stretches of "Tom Jones." It was not in the house at East Stour, for the Fielding farm had long been in possession of another. There is an old story that Fielding composed parts of the novel on the tennis court at Sharpham during the intervals of the game. Just as the younger Pliny found hunting and Addison found wine conducive to composition, so Fielding, it used to be said, received the greatest assistance from tennis.* The tale is too absurd for comment. Nor is it probable that Fielding was then spending his summers in the house at the foot of Milford Hill near Salisbury, now that his wife Charlotte had long since been dead. Nor had he yet taken Fordhook House at Ealing on the Uxbridge Road beyond Hammersmith, nor the house at Barnes across the Thames in Surrey, where it is said he dwelt later. All these places must be eliminated from serious consideration; for during more than half the time Fielding was at work on "Tom Jones," parochial taxes were assessed against him as tenant of a house in Old Boswell Court, covering the entire year 1746 and three quarters of the year 1747.† In November, 1747, he gave up the house in Old Boswell Court and took one, as I have already related, for Mrs. Fielding out at Twickenham. In the face of these records, the old romantic

Burke, "History of the Commoners," 1838, III, 570.

+ Mr. J. Paul de Castro, "Notes and Queries,'' 12 S. I, 264 (April 1, 1916).