Finally, I should be wanting in gratitude should I fail to express my thanks to my masters, Professors Legouis and Cazamian, whose example, encouragement and advice have been invaluable in helping me to carry out my work. My thanks are also due to my translators, who have done a difficult task with the most faithful and intelligent attention. Nowhere have I found my intention betrayed or my meaning obscured in their version of my book

Paris, June, 1924.

A. D.

Birth; family; his father marries again; Child-

hood in the country; at School at Eton; Adventure

at Lyme Regis; family suffers a serious financial

loss;
produces The Masquerade and Love in

Several Masques ; goes to the University of

Leyden; The Temple Beau; The Author's Farce;

Tom Thumb and Rape upon Rape; The Letter-

Writers and The Welsh Opera; The Grub Street

Opera, The Lottery and The Modern Husband;

The Old Debauchees or the Jesuit Caught; The

Covent Garden Tragedy; Fielding translates le

Médecin malgré lui and l'Avare; Corrections

made to Molière's play; the Intriguing Chamber-

maid; Don Quixote in England; Fielding's

marriage; An Old Man taught wisdom, The

Universal Gallant and Pasquin; Tumble-Down

Dick, Eurydice, The Historical Register for the year

1736; Licensing Act obliges Fielding to close his

theatre; the Champion, first paper published by

Fielding; The Crisis, On True Greatness; The

Vernoniad; Full Vindication of the Dutchess Dowager

of Marlborough, projected translation of Aristo-

phanes; Miscellanies and Joseph Andrews; death

of Mrs Fielding; A Serious Address to the people of

Great Britain, a Dialogue between the Pope, the

Devil and the Pretender, The True Patriot. The

Page

I

CHAPTER I continued

Page

Female Husband, Ovid's Art of Love, the History of

the Rebellion; Dialogue between a gentleman of

London and an honest Alderman, a Proper answer to

a late scurrilous libel, Preface to Sarah Fielding's

Familiar Letters; Fielding's second marriage, The

Jacobite's Journal, Tom Jones; Fielding becomes a

Magistrate; his energy, Address to the Grand Jury;

Enquiry into the causes of the late increase of robbers;

Examples of the Interposition of Providence,

Proposal for making an effectual provision for the

poor; the Cases of Bosavern Penlez and Elizabeth
Canning; Amelia; The Covent Garden Journal ;
Fielding's illness increases and he leaves for
Lisbon, where he dies; his biographers, Murphy,
Thackeray, Austin Dobson; the true Fielding.

CHAPTER II: JOSEPH ANDREWS

Joseph Andrews a polemical work; Fielding there

attacks Colley Cibber, already mishandled in

An Apology for the life of Mr T.C.; Richardson's

Pamela and its success; its enemies; Fielding

probably the author of Shamela; some other

Adversaries; moral weakness of Pamela and why

necessary not to compare it with Marivaux's

Marianne; subject of Joseph Andrews; part

played in it by pure parody; character of Joseph;

of his betrothed Fanny and of Pamela ; " dramatic"

construction of Joseph Andrews; points of difference

from a play; character of Abraham Adams;

minor characters, Mrs Slipslop; country types;

the form of the book, flexibility and delicacy of the

style; comedy and realism; moral aim of his

comedy; Fielding and Richardson both admired;

Fielding nurtured upon Molière.

39

CHAPTER III: JONATHAN WILD THE GREAT Page

(AND THE MISCELLANIES)

The Miscellanies, a resumé of Fielding's literary

past; sources of the Journey from this World to

the next; contains some good passages; Jonathan

Wild; popularity of thieves in England; the thief

Wild and his legend; ironical attitude of Fielding;

the literary theme of the criminal conqueror; he

appears again in real life with Charles XII;

Fielding translates Adlerfeld's Charles XII; how

he comes to take up the old theme; his hatred of

Walpole; the irony of Jonathan Wild goes beyond

Walpole; way in which the portrait is generalized;

education and character of Wild; the early version

and later additions; Heartfree opposed to Wild ;

problem of the composition of Jonathan Wild;

Heartfree and Lillo; irony of Jonathan Wild;
progress in comedy; Fielding sometimes forgets
his ironical intention; foretaste of later works in
Jonathan Wild; disturbing character of his irony.

CHAPTER IV: TOM JONES

Richardson and

Tom Jones, a positive work;

Fielding; Tom Jones a counterblast to Clarissa;

sentimental logic of Clarissa; deep pathos of its

heroes; their moral weakness; Fielding's criticisms;

both paint the same world from a different point of

view; character of Tom Jones, the good ne'er-do-

well; it is a plea pro domo; Sophia Western

contrasted with Clarissa; her character; moral

pedants attacked in Tom Jones; Square and

Thwackum; Squire Western; Taine's mistaken

ideas on this point; Western already old-fashioned

in Fielding's time; odious characters; Blifil; all

91