THE CHAMPION--JOSEPH ANDREWS.
The _Historical Register_ and _Eurydice Hiss'd_ were published together
in June 1737. By this time the "Licensing Act" was passed, and the
"Grand Mogul's Company" dispersed for ever. Fielding was now in his
thirty-first year, with a wife and probably a daughter depending on him
for support. In the absence of any prospect that he would be able to
secure a maintenance as a dramatic writer, he seems to have decided, in
spite of his comparatively advanced age, to revert to the profession for
which he had originally been intended, and to qualify himself for the
Bar. Accordingly, at the close of the year, he became a student of the
Middle Temple, and the books of that society contain the following
record of his admission: [Footnote: This differs slightly from previous
transcripts, having been verified at the Middle Temple.]--
[574 G] 1 Nov 1737.
_Henricus Fielding, de East Stour in Com Dorset Ar, filius et haeres
apparens Brig: Genlis: Edmundi Fielding admissus est in Societatem Medii
Templi Lond specialiter et obligator una cum etc.
Et dat pro fine 4. 0. 0._
It may be noted, as Mr. Keightley has already observed, that Fielding is
described in this entry as of East Stour, "which would seem to indicate
that he still retained his property at that place;" and further, that
his father is spoken of as a "brigadier-general," whereas (according to
the _Gentleman's Magazine_) he had been made a major-general in December
1735. Of discrepancies like these it is idle to attempt any explanation.
But, if Murphy is to be believed, Fielding devoted himself henceforth
with remarkable assiduity to the study of law. The old irregularity of
life, it is alleged, occasionally asserted itself, though without
checking the energy of his application. "This," says his first
biographer, "prevailed in him to such a degree, that he has been
frequently known, by his intimates, to retire late at night from a
tavern to his chambers, and there read, and make extracts from, the most
abstruse authors, for several hours before he went to bed; so powerful
were the vigour of his constitution and the activity of his mind." It is
to this passage, no doubt, that we owe the picturesque wet towel and
inked ruffles with which Mr. Thackeray has decorated him in _Pendennis_;
and, in all probability, a good deal of graphic writing from less able
pens respecting his _modus vivendi_ as a Templar. In point of fact,
nothing is known with certainty respecting his life at this period; and
what it would really concern us to learn--namely, whether by "chambers"
it is to be understood that he was living alone, and, if so, where Mrs.
Fielding was at the time of these protracted vigils--Murphy has not told
us. Perhaps she was safe all the while at East Stour, or with her
sisters at Salisbury. Having no precise information, however, it can
only be recorded, that, in spite of the fitful outbreaks above referred
to, Fielding applied himself to the study of his profession with all the
vigour of a man who has to make up for lost time; and that, when on the
20th of June 1740 the day came for his being "called," he was very
fairly equipped with legal knowledge. That he had also made many friends
among his colleagues of Westminster Hall is manifest from the number of
lawyers who figure in the subscription list of the _Miscellanies_.
To what extent he was occupied by literary work during his probationary
period it is difficult to say. Murphy speaks vaguely of "a large number
of fugitive political tracts;" but unless the _Essay on Conversation_,
advertised by Lawton Gilliver in 1737, be the same as that afterwards
reprinted in the _Miscellanies_, there is no positive record of anything
until the issue of True Greatness, an epistle to George Dodington, in
January 1741, though he may, of course, have written much anonymously.
Among newspapers, the one Murphy had in mind was probably the
_Champion_, the first number of which is dated November 15, 1739, two
years after his admission to the Middle Temple as a student. On the
whole, it seems most likely, as Mr. Keightley conjectures, that his
chief occupation in the interval was studying law, and that he must have
been living upon the residue of his wife's fortune or his own means, in
which case the establishment of the above periodical may mark the
exhaustion of his resources.
The _Champion_ is a paper on the model of the elder essayists. It was
issued, like the _Tatler_, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Murphy
says that Fielding's part in it cannot now be ascertained; but as the
"Advertisement" to the edition in two volumes of 1741 states expressly
that the papers signed C. and L. are the "Work of one Hand," and as a
number of those signed C. are unmistakably Fielding's, it is hard to
discover where the difficulty lay. The papers signed C. and L. are by
far the most numerous, the majority of the remainder being distinguished
by two stars, or the signature "Lilbourne." These are understood to have
been from the pen of James Ralph, whose poem of _Night_ gave rise to a
stinging couplet in the _Dunciad_, but who was nevertheless a man of
parts, and an industrious writer. As will be remembered, he had
contributed a prologue to the _Temple Beau_, so that his association
with Fielding must have been of some standing. Besides Ralph's essays in
the _Champion_, he was mainly responsible for the _Index to the Times_
which accompanied each number, and consisted of a series of brief
paragraphs on current topics, or the last new book. In this way Glover's
_London_, Boyse's _Deity_, Somervile's _Hobbinol_, Lillo's _Elmeric_,
Dyer's _Ruins of Rome_, and other of the very minor _poetae minores_ of
the day, were commented upon. These notes and notices, however, were
only a subordinate feature of the _Champion_, which, like its
predecessors, consisted chiefly of essays and allegories, social, moral,
and political, the writers of which were supposed to be members of an
imaginary "Vinegar family," described in the initial paper. Of these the
most prominent was Captain Hercules Vinegar, who took all questions
relating to the Army, Militia, Trained-Bands, and "fighting Part of the
Kingdom." His father, Nehemiah Vinegar, presided over history and
politics; his uncle, Counsellor Vinegar, over law and judicature; and
Dr. John Vinegar his cousin, over medicine and natural philosophy. To
others of the family--including Mrs. Joan Vinegar, who was charged with
domestic affairs--were allotted classic literature, poetry and the
Drama, and fashion. This elaborate scheme was not very strictly adhered
to, and the chief writer of the group is Captain Hercules.
Shorn of the contemporary interest which formed the chief element of its
success when it was first published, it must be admitted that, in the
present year of grace, the _Champion_ is hard reading. A kind of
lassitude--a sense of uncongenial task-work--broods heavily over
Fielding's contributions, except the one or two in which he is quickened
into animation by his antagonism to Cibber; and although, with our
knowledge of his after achievements, it is possible to trace some
indications of his yet unrevealed powers, in the absence of such
knowledge it would be difficult to distinguish the _Champion_ from the
hundred-and-one forgotten imitators of the _Spectator_ and _Tatler_,
whose names have been so patiently chronicled by Dr. Nathan Drake. There
is, indeed, a certain obvious humour in the account of Captain Vinegar's
famous club, which he had inherited from Hercules, and which had the
enviable property of falling of itself upon any knave in company, and
there is a dash of the _Tom Jones_ manner in the noisy activity of that
excellent housewife Mrs. Joan. Some of the lighter papers, such as the
one upon the "Art of Puffing," are amusing enough; and of the visions,
that which is based upon Lucian, and represents Charon as stripping his
freight of all their superfluous incumbrances in order to lighten his
boat, has a double interest, since it contains references not only to
Cibber, but also (though this appears to have been hitherto overlooked)
to Fielding himself. The "tall Man," who at Mercury's request strips off
his "old Grey Coat with great Readiness," but refuses to part with "half
his Chin," which the shepherd of souls regards as false, is clearly
intended for the writer of the paper, even without the confirmation
afforded by the subsequent allusions to his connection with the stage.
His "length of chin and nose," sufficiently apparent in his portrait,
was a favourite theme for contemporary personalities. Of the moral
essays, the most remarkable are a set of four papers, entitled _An
Apology for the Clergy_, which may perhaps be regarded as a set-off
against the sarcasms of _Pasquin_ on priestcraft. They depict, with a
great deal of knowledge and discrimination, the pattern priest as
Fielding conceived him. To these may be linked an earlier picture, taken
from life, of a country parson who, in his simple and dignified
surroundings, even more closely resembles the Vicar of Wakefield than
Mr. Abraham Adams. Some of the more general articles contain happy
passages. In one there is an admirable parody of the Norman-French
jargon, which in those days added superfluous obscurity to legal
utterances; while another, on "Charity," contains a forcible exposition
of the inexpediency, as well as inhumanity, of imprisonment for debt.
References to contemporaries, the inevitable Cibber excepted, are few,
and these seem mostly from the pen of Ralph. The following, from that of
Fielding, is notable as being one of the earliest authoritative
testimonies to the merits of Hogarth: "I esteem (says he) the ingenious
_Mr. Hogarth_ as one of the most useful Satyrists any Age hath produced.
In his excellent Works you see the delusive Scene exposed with all the
Force of Humour, and, on casting your Eyes on another Picture, you
behold the dreadful and fatal Consequence. I almost dare affirm that
those two Works of his, which he calls the _Rake's_ and the _Harlot's
Progress_, are calculated more to serve the Cause of Virtue, and for the
Preservation of Mankind, than all the _Folio's_ of Morality which have
been ever written; and a sober Family should no more be without them,
than without the _Whole Duty of Man_ in their House." He returned to the
same theme in the Preface to _Joseph Andrews_ with a still apter phrase
of appreciation:--"It hath been thought a vast Commendation of a
Painter, to say his Figures seem to breathe; but surely, it is a much
greater and nobler Applause, that they appear to think." [Footnote:
Fielding occasionally refers to Hogarth for the pictorial types of his
characters. Bridget Allworthy, he tells us, resembled the starched prude
in _Morning_; and Mrs. Partridge and Parson Thwackum have their
originals in the _Harlot's Progress_. It was Fielding, too, who said
that the _Enraged Musician_ was "enough to make a man deaf to look at"
(_Voyage to Lisbon_, 1755, p. 50).]
When the _Champion_ was rather more than a year old, Colley Cibber
published his famous _Apology_. To the attacks made upon him by Fielding
at different times he had hitherto printed no reply--perhaps he had no
opportunity of doing so. But in his eighth chapter, when speaking of the
causes which led to the Licensing Act, he takes occasion to refer to his
assailant in terms which Fielding must have found exceedingly galling.
He carefully abstained from mentioning his name, on the ground that it
could do him no good, and was of no importance; but he described him as
"a broken Wit," who had sought notoriety "by raking the Channel" (i.e.
Kennel), and "pelting his Superiors." He accused him, with a scandalised
gravity that is as edifying as Chesterfield's irony, of attacking
"Religion, Laws, Government, Priests, Judges, and Ministers." He called
him, either in allusion to his stature, or his pseudonym in the
_Champion_, a "_Herculean_ Satyrist," a "_Drawcansir_ in Wit"--"who, to
make his Poetical Fame immortal, like another _Erostratus_, set Fire to
his Stage, by writing up to an Act of Parliament to demolish it. I shall
not," he continues, "give the particular Strokes of his Ingenuity a
Chance to be remembered, by reciting them; it may be enough to say, in
general Terms, they were so openly flagrant, that the Wisdom of the
Legislature thought it high time, to take a proper Notice of them."
Fielding was not the man to leave such a challenge unanswered. In the
_Champion_ for April 22, 1740, and two subsequent papers, he replied
with a slashing criticism of the _Apology_, in which, after
demonstrating that it must be written in English because it was written
in no other language, he gravely proceeds to point out examples of the
author's superiority to grammar and learning--and in general, subjects
its pretentious and slip-shod style to a minute and highly detrimental
examination. In a further paper he returns to the charge by a mock trial
of one "Col. _Apol._" (i.e. Colley-_Apology_), arraigning him for that,
"not having the Fear of Grammar before his Eyes," he had committed an
unpardonable assault upon his mother-tongue. Fielding's knowledge of
legal forms and phraseology enabled him to make a happy parody of court
procedure, and Mr. Lawrence says that this particular "_jeu d'esprit_
obtained great celebrity." But the happiest stroke in the controversy--
as it seems to us--is one which escaped Mr. Lawrence, and occurs in the
paper already referred to, where Charon and Mercury are shown denuding
the luckless passengers by the Styx of their surplus _impedimenta_.
Among the rest, approaches "an elderly Gentleman with a Piece of
wither'd Laurel on his head." From a little book, which he is discovered
(when stripped) to have bound close to his heart, and which bears the
title of _Love in a Riddle_--an unsuccessful pastoral produced by Cibber
at Drury Lane in 1729--it is clear that this personage is intended for
none other than the Apologist, who, after many entreaties, is finally
compelled to part with his treasure. "I was surprized," continues
Fielding, "to see him pass Examination with his Laurel on, and was
assured by the Standers by, that _Mercury_ would have taken it off, if
he had seen it."
These attacks in the _Champion_ do not appear to have received any
direct response from Cibber. But they were reprinted in a rambling
production issued from "Curll's chaste press" in 1740, and entitled the
_Tryal of Colley Cibber, Comedian, &c._ At the end of this there is a
short address to "the _Self-dubb'd Captain_ Hercules Vinegar, _alias_
Buffoon," to the effect that "the malevolent Flings exhibited by him and
his Man _Ralph_," have been faithfully reproduced. Then comes the
following curious and not very intelligible "Advertisement:"--
"If the Ingenious _Henry Fielding_ Esq.; (Son of the Hon. Lieut. General
_Fielding_, who upon his Return from his Travels entered himself of the
_Temple_ in order to study the Law, and married one of the pretty Miss
_Cradocks of Salisbury_) will _own_ himself the AUTHOR of 18 strange
Things called Tragical _Comedies_ and Comical _Tragedies_, lately
advertised by _J. Watts_, of _Wild-Court_, Printer, he shall be
_mentioned_ in Capitals in the _Third_ Edition of Mr. CIBBER'S _Life_,
and likewise be placed _among_ the _Poetae minores Dramatici_ of the
Present Age: Then will both his _Name and Writings be remembered on
Record_, in the immortal _Poetical Register_ written by Mr. GILES
JACOB."
The "poetical register" indicated was the book of that name, containing
the _Lives and Characteristics of the English Dramatic Poets_, which Mr.
Giles Jacob, an industrious literary hack, had issued in 1723. Mr.
Lawrence is probably right in his supposition, based upon the foregoing
advertisement, that Fielding "had openly expressed resentment at being
described by Cibber as 'a broken wit,' without being mentioned by name."
He never seems to have wholly forgotten his animosity to the actor, to
whom there are frequent references in _Joseph Andrews_; and, as late as
1749, he is still found harping on "the withered laurel" in a letter to
Lyttelton. Even in his last work, the _Voyage to Lisbon_, Cibber's name
is mentioned. The origin of this protracted feud is obscure; but, apart
from want of sympathy, it must probably be sought for in some early
misunderstanding between the two in their capacities of manager and
author. As regards Theophilus Cibber, his desertion of Highmore was
sufficient reason for the ridicule cast upon him in the _Author's Farce_
and elsewhere. With Mrs. Charke, the Laureate's intractable and
eccentric daughter, Fielding was naturally on better terms. She was, as
already stated, a member of the Great Mogul's Company, and it is worth
noting that some of the sarcasms in _Pasquin_ against her father were
put into the mouth of Lord Place, whose part was taken by this undutiful
child. All things considered, both in this controversy and the later one
with Pope, Cibber did not come off worst. His few hits were personal and
unscrupulous, and they were probably far more deadly in their effects
than any of the ironical attacks which his adversaries, on their part,
directed against his poetical ineptitude or halting "parts of speech."
Despite his superlative coxcombry and egotism, he was, moreover, a man
of no mean abilities. His _Careless Husband_ is a far better acting play
than any of Fielding's, and his _Apology_, which even Johnson allowed to
be "well-done," is valuable in many respects, especially for its account
of the contemporary stage. In describing an actor or actress he had few
equals--witness his skilful portrait of Nokes, and his admirably graphic
vignette of Mrs. Verbruggen as that "finish'd Impertinent," Melantha, in
Dryden's _Marriage a-la-Mode_.
The concluding paper in the collected edition of the _Champion_,
published in 1741, is dated June 19, 1740. On the day following Fielding
was called to the Bar by the benchers of the Middle Temple, and (says
Mr. Lawrence) "chambers were assigned him in Pump Court." Simultaneously
with this, his regular connection with journalism appears to have
ceased, although from his statement in the Preface to the
_Miscellanies_,--that "as long as from _June_ 1741," he had "desisted
from writing one Syllable in the _Champion_, or any other public Paper,"
--it may perhaps be inferred that up to that date he continued to
contribute now and then. This, nevertheless, is by no means clear. His
last utterance in the published volumes is certainly in a sense
valedictory, as it refers to the position acquired by the _Champion_,
and the difficulty experienced in establishing it. Incidentally, it pays
a high compliment to Pope, by speaking of "the divine Translation of the
_Iliad_, which he [Fielding] has lately with _no Disadvantage to the
Translator_ COMPARED with the Original," the point of the sentence so
impressed by its typography, being apparently directed against those
critics who had condemned Pope's work without the requisite knowledge of
Greek. From the tenor of the rest of the essay it may, however, be
concluded that the writer was taking leave of his enterprise; and,
according to a note by Boswell, in his _Life of Johnson_, it seems that
Mr. Reed of Staple Inn possessed documents which showed that Fielding at
this juncture, probably in anticipation of more lucrative legal duties,
surrendered the reins to Ralph. The _Champion_ continued to exist for
some time longer; indeed, it must be regarded as long-lived among the
essayists, since the issue which contained its well-known criticism on
Garrick is No. 455, and appeared late in 1742. But as far as can be
ascertained, it never again obtained the honours of a reprint.
Although, after he was called to the Bar, Fielding practically
relinquished periodical literature, he does not seem to have entirely
desisted from writing. In Sylvanus Urban's Register of Books, published
during January 1741, is advertised the poem _Of True Greatness_
afterwards included in the _Miscellanies_; and the same authority
announces the _Vernoniad_, an anonymous burlesque Epic prompted by
Admiral Vernon's popular expedition against Porto Bello in 1739, "with
six Ships only." That Fielding was the author of the latter is
sufficiently proved by his order to Mr. Nourse (printed in Roscoe's
edition), to deliver fifty copies to Mr. Chappel. Another sixpenny
pamphlet, entitled _The Opposition, a Vision_, issued in December of the
same year, is enumerated by him, in the Preface to the _Miscellanies_,
among the few works he had published "since the End of _June_ 1741;"
and, provided it can be placed before this date, he may be credited with
a political sermon called the _Crisis_ (1741), which is ascribed to him
upon the authority of a writer in Nichols's _Anecdotes_. He may also,
before "the End of _June_ 1741," have written other things; but it is
clear from his _Caveat_ in the above-mentioned "Preface," together with
his complaint that "he had been very unjustly censured, as well on
account of what he had not writ, as for what he had," that much more has
been laid to his charge than he ever deserved. Among ascriptions of this
kind may be mentioned the curious _Apology for the Life of Mr. The'
Cibber, Comedian_, 1740, which is described on its title-page as a
proper sequel to the autobiography of the Laureate, in whose "style and
manner" it is said to be written. But, although this performance is
evidently the work of some one well acquainted with the dramatic annals
of the day, it is more than doubtful whether Fielding had any hand or
part in it. Indeed, his own statement that "he never was, nor would be
the Author of _anonymous_ Scandal [the italics are ours] on the private
History or Family of any Person whatever," should be regarded as
conclusive.
During all this time he seems to have been steadily applying himself to
the practice of his profession, if, indeed, that weary hope deferred
which forms the usual probation of legal preferment can properly be so
described. As might be anticipated from his Salisbury connections, he
travelled the Western Circuit; and, according to Hutchins's _Dorset_, he
assiduously attended the Wiltshire sessions. He had many friends among
his brethren of the Bar. His cousin, Henry Gould, who had been called in
1734, and who, like his grandfather, ultimately became a Judge, was also
a member of the Middle Temple; and he was familiar with Charles Pratt,
afterwards Lord Camden, whom he may have known at Eton, but whom he
certainly knew in his barrister days. It is probable, too, that he was
acquainted with Lord Northington, then Robert Henley, whose name appears
as a subscriber to the _Miscellanies_, and who was once supposed to
contend with Kettleby (another subscriber) for the honour of being the
original of the drunken barrister in Hogarth's _Midnight Modern
Conversation_, a picture which no doubt accurately represents a good
many of the festivals by which Henry Fielding relieved the tedium of
composing those MS. _folio_ volumes on Crown or Criminal Law, which,
after his death, reverted to his half-brother, Sir John. But towards the
close of 1741 he was engaged upon another work which has outweighed all
his most laborious forensic efforts, and which will long remain an
English classic. This was _The History of the Adventures of Joseph
Andrews, and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams_, published by Andrew
Millar in February 1742.
In the same number, and at the same page of the _Gentleman's Magazine_
which contains the advertisement of the _Vernoniad_, there is a
reference to a famous novel which had appeared in November 1740, two
months earlier, and had already attained an extraordinary popularity.
"Several Encomiums (says Mr. Urban) on a Series of _Familiar Letters_,
publish'd but last month, entitled PAMELA or _Virtue rewarded_, came too
late for this Magazine, and we believe there will be little Occasion for
inserting them in our next; because a Second Edition will then come out
to supply the Demands in the Country, it being judged in Town as great a
Sign of Want of Curiosity not to have read _Pamela_, as not to have seen
the _French_ and _Italian_ Dancers." A second edition was in fact
published in the following month (February), to be speedily succeeded by
a third in March and a fourth in May. Dr. Sherlock (oddly misprinted by
Mrs. Barbauld as "Dr. Slocock") extolled it from the pulpit; and the
great Mr. Pope was reported to have gone farther and declared that it
would "do more good than many volumes of sermons." Other admirers ranked
it next to the Bible; clergymen dedicated theological treatises to the
author; and "even at Ranelagh"--says Richardson's biographer--"those who
remember the publication say, that it was usual for ladies to hold up
the volumes of Pamela to one another, to shew that they had got the book
that every one was talking of." It is perhaps hypercritical to observe
that Ranelagh Gardens were not opened until eighteen months after Mr.
Rivington's _duodecimos_ first made their appearance; but it will be
gathered from the tone of some of the foregoing commendations that its
morality was a strong point with the new candidate for literary fame;
and its voluminous title-page did indeed proclaim at large that it was
"Published in order to cultivate the Principles of Virtue and Religion
in the Minds of the Youth of Both Sexes." Its author, Samuel Richardson,
was a middle-aged London printer, a vegetarian and water-drinker, a
worthy, domesticated, fussy, and highly-nervous little man. Delighting
in female society, and accustomed to act as confidant and amanuensis for
the young women of his acquaintance, it had been suggested to him by
some bookseller friends that he should prepare a "little volume of
Letters, in a common style, on such subjects as might be of use to those
country readers, who were unable to indite for themselves." As Hogarth's
Conversation Pieces grew into his Progresses, so this project seems to
have developed into _Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded_. The necessity for some
connecting link between the letters suggested a story, and the story
chosen was founded upon the actual experiences of a young servant girl,
who, after victoriously resisting all the attempts made by her master to
seduce her, ultimately obliged him to marry her. It is needless to give
any account here of the minute and deliberate way in which Richardson
filled in this outline. As one of his critics, D'Alembert, has
unanswerably said--_"La, nature est bonne a imiter, mais non pas
jusgu'a l'ennui"_--and the author of _Pamela_ has plainly disregarded
this useful law. On the other hand, the tedium and elaboration of his
style have tended, in these less leisurely days, to condemn his work to
a neglect which it does not deserve. Few writers--it is a truism to say
so--have excelled him in minute analysis of motive, and knowledge of the
human heart. About the final morality of his heroine's long-drawn
defence of her chastity it may, however, be permitted to doubt; and, in
contrasting the book with Fielding's work, it should not be forgotten
that, irreproachable though it seemed to the author's admirers, good Dr.
Watts complained (and with reason) of the indelicacy of some of the
scenes.
But, for the moment, we are more concerned with the effect which
_Pamela_ produced upon Henry Fielding, struggling with the "eternal want
of pence, which vexes public men," and vaguely hoping for some
profitable opening for powers which had not yet been satisfactorily
exercised. To his robust and masculine genius, never very delicately
sensitive where the relations of the sexes are concerned, the strange
conjunction of purity and precaution in Richardson's heroine was a thing
unnatural, and a theme for inextinguishable Homeric laughter. That
Pamela, through all her trials, could really have cherished any
affection for her unscrupulous admirer would seem to him a sentimental
absurdity, and the unprecedented success of the book would sharpen his
sense of its assailable side. Possibly, too, his acquaintance with
Richardson, whom he knew personally, but with whom he could have had no
kind of sympathy, disposed him against his work. In any case, the idea
presently occurred to Fielding of depicting a young man in circumstances
of similar importunity at the hands of a dissolute woman of fashion. He
took for his hero Pamela's brother, and by a malicious stroke of the pen
turned the Mr. B. of _Pamela_ into Squire Booby. But the process of
invention rapidly carried him into paths far beyond the mere parody of
Richardson, and it is only in the first portion of the book that he
really remembers his intention. After chapter x. the story follows its
natural course, and there is little or nothing of Lady Booby, or her
frustrate amours. Indeed, the author does not even pretend to preserve
congruity as regards his hero, for, in chapter v., he makes him tell his
mistress that he has never been in love, while in chapter xi. we are
informed that he had long been attached to the charming Fanny. Moreover,
in the intervening letters which Joseph writes to his sister Pamela, he
makes no reference to this long-existent attachment, with which, one
would think, she must have been perfectly familiar. These discrepancies
all point, not so much to negligence on the part of the author, as to an
unconscious transformation of his plan. He no doubt speedily found that
mere ridicule of Richardson was insufficient to sustain the interest of
any serious effort, and, besides, must have been secretly conscious that
the "Pamela" characteristics of his hero were artistically
irreconcilable with the personal bravery and cudgel-playing attributes
with which he had endowed him. Add to this that the immortal Mrs.
Slipslop and Parson Adams--the latter especially--had begun to acquire
an importance with their creator for which the initial scheme had by no
means provided; and he finally seems to have disregarded his design,
only returning to it in his last chapters in order to close his work
with some appearance of consistency. The _History of Joseph Andrews_, it
has been said, might well have dispensed with Lady Booby altogether, and
yet, without her, not only this book, but _Tom Jones_ and _Amelia_ also,
would probably have been lost to us. The accident which prompted three
such masterpieces cannot be honestly regretted.
It was not without reason that Fielding added prominently to his title-
page the name of Mr. Abraham Adams. If he is not the real hero of the
book, he is undoubtedly the character whose fortunes the reader follows
with the closest interest. Whether he is smoking his black and
consolatory pipe in the gallery of the inn, or losing his way while he
meditates a passage of Greek, or groaning over the fatuities of the man-
of-fashion in Leonora's story, or brandishing his famous crabstick in
defence of Fanny, he is always the same delightful mixture of
benevolence and simplicity, of pedantry and credulity and ignorance of
the world. He is "compact," to use Shakespeare's word, of the oddest
contradictions,--the most diverting eccentricities. He has Aristotle's
_Politics_ at his fingers' ends, but he knows nothing of the daily
_Gazetteers_; he is perfectly familiar with the Pillars of Hercules, but
he has never even heard of the Levant. He travels to London to sell a
collection of sermons which he has forgotten to carry with him, and in a
moment of excitement he tosses into the fire the copy of _AEschylus_
which it has cost him years to transcribe. He gives irreproachable
advice to Joseph on fortitude and resignation, but he is overwhelmed
with grief when his child is reported to be drowned. When he speaks upon
faith and works, on marriage, on school discipline, he is weighty and
sensible; but he falls an easy victim to the plausible professions of
every rogue he meets, and is willing to believe in the principles of Mr.
Peter Pounce, or the humanity of Parson Trulliber. Not all the
discipline of hog's blood and cudgels and cold water to which he is
subjected can deprive him of his native dignity; and as he stands before
us in the short great-coat under which his ragged cassock is continually
making its appearance, with his old wig and battered hat, a clergyman
whose social position is scarcely above that of a footman, and who
supports a wife and six children upon a cure of twenty-three pounds a
year, which his outspoken honesty is continually jeopardising, he is a
far finer figure than Pamela in her coach-and-six, or Bellarmine in his
cinnamon velvet. If not, as Mr. Lawrence says, with exaggerated
enthusiasm, "the grandest delineation of a pattern-priest which the
world has yet seen," he is assuredly a noble example of primitive
goodness and practical Christianity. It is certain--as Mr. Forster and
Mr. Keightley have pointed out--that Goldsmith borrowed some of his
characteristics for Dr. Primrose, and it has been suggested that Sterne
remembered him in more than one page of _Tristram Shandy_.
Next to Parson Adams, perhaps the best character in _Joseph Andrews_--
though of an entirely different type--is Lady Booby's "Waiting-
Gentlewoman," the excellent Mrs. Slipslop. Her sensitive dignity, her
easy changes from servility to insolence, her sensuality, her inimitably
distorted vocabulary, which Sheridan borrowed for Mrs. Malaprop, and
Dickens modified for Mrs. Gamp, are all peculiarities which make up a
personification of the richest humour and the most life-like reality.
Mr. Peter Pounce, too, with his "scoundrel maxims," as disclosed in that
remarkable dialogue which is said to be "better worth reading than all
the Works of _Colley Cibber_," and in which charity is defined as
consisting rather in a disposition to relieve distress than in an actual
act of relief; Parson Trulliber with his hogs, his greediness, and his
willingness to prove his Christianity by fisticuffs; shrewish Mrs. Tow-
wouse with her scold's tongue, and her erring but perfectly subjugated
husband,--these again are portraits finished with admirable spirit and
fidelity. Andrews himself, and his blushing sweetheart, do not lend
themselves so readily to humorous art. Nevertheless the former, when
freed from the wiles of Lady Booby, is by no means a despicable hero,
and Fanny is a sufficiently fresh and blooming heroine. The characters
of Pamela and Mr. Booby are fairly preserved from the pages of their
original inventor. But when Fielding makes Parson Adams rebuke the pair
for laughing in church at Joseph's wedding, and puts into the lady's
mouth a sententious little speech upon her altered position in life, he
is adding some ironical touches which Richardson would certainly have
omitted.
No selection of personages, however, even of the most detailed and
particular description, can convey any real impression of the mingled
irony and insight, the wit and satire, the genial but perfectly
remorseless revelation of human springs of action, which distinguish
scene after scene of the book. Nothing, for example, can be more
admirable than the different manifestations of meanness which take place
among the travellers of the stage-coach, in the oft-quoted chapter where
Joseph, having been robbed of everything, lies naked and bleeding in the
ditch. There is Miss Grave-airs, who protests against the indecency of
his entering the vehicle, but like a certain lady in the _Rake's
Progress_, holds the sticks of her fan before her face while he does so,
and who is afterwards found to be carrying Nantes under the guise of
Hungary-water; there is the lawyer who advises that the wounded man
shall be taken in, not from any humane motive, but because he is afraid
of being involved in legal proceedings if they leave him to his fate;
there is the wit who seizes the occasion for a burst of facetious
double-meanings, chiefly designed for the discomfiture of the prude;
and, lastly, there is the coachman, whose only concern is the shilling
for his fare, and who refuses to lend either of the useless greatcoats
he is sitting upon, lest "they should be made bloody," leaving the
shivering suppliant to be clothed by the generosity of the postilion ("a
Lad," says Fielding with a fine touch of satire, "who hath been since
transported for robbing a Hen-roost"). This worthy fellow accordingly
strips off his only outer garment, "at the same time swearing a great
Oath," for which he is duly rebuked by the passengers, "that he would
rather ride in his Shirt all his Life, than suffer a Fellow-Creature to
lie in so miserable a Condition." Then there are the admirable scenes
which succeed Joseph's admission into the inn; the discussion between
the bookseller and the two parsons as to the publication of Adams's
sermons, which the "Clergy would be certain to cry down," because they
inculcate good works against faith; the debate before the justice as to
the manuscript of AEschylus, which is mistaken for one of the Fathers;
and the pleasant discourse between the poet and the player which,
beginning by compliments, bids fair to end in blows. Nor are the stories
of Leonora and Mr. Wilson without their interest. They interrupt the
straggling narrative far less than the Man of the Hill interrupts _Tom
Jones_, and they afford an opportunity for varying the epic of the
highway by pictures of polite society which could not otherwise be
introduced. There can be little doubt, too, that some of Mr. Wilson's
town experiences were the reflection of the author's own career; while
the characteristics of Leonora's lover Horatio,--who was "a young
Gentleman of a good Family, bred to the Law," and recently called to the
Bar, whose "Face and Person were such as the Generality allowed
handsome: but he had a Dignity in his Air very rarely to be seen," and
who "had Wit and Humour, with an Inclination to Satire, which he
indulged rather too much"--read almost like a complimentary description
of Fielding himself.
Like Hogarth, in that famous drinking scene to which reference has
already been made, Fielding was careful to disclaim any personal
portraiture in _Joseph Andrews_. In the opening chapter of Book iii. he
declares "once for all that he describes not Men, but Manners; not an
Individual, but a Species," although he admits that his characters are
"taken from Life." In his "Preface," he reiterates this profession,
adding that in copying from nature, he has "used the utmost Care to
obscure the Persons by such different Circumstances, Degrees, and
Colours, that it will be impossible to guess at them with any degree of
certainty." Nevertheless--as in Hogarth's case--neither his protests
nor his skill have prevented some of those identifications which are so
seductive to the curious; and it is generally believed,--indeed, it was
expressly stated by Richardson and others,--that the prototype of Parson
Adams was a friend of Fielding, the Reverend William Young. Like Adams,
he was a scholar and devoted to AEschylus; he resembled him, too, in his
trick of snapping his fingers, and his habitual absence of mind. Of this
latter peculiarity it is related that on one occasion, when a chaplain
in Marlborough's wars, he strolled abstractedly into the enemy's lines
with his beloved _AEschylus_ in his hand. His peaceable intentions were
so unmistakable that he was instantly released, and politely directed to
his regiment. Once, too, it is said, on being charged by a gentleman
with sitting for the portrait of Adams, he offered to knock the speaker
down, thereby supplying additional proof of the truth of the allegation.
He died in August 1757, and is buried in the Chapel of Chelsea Hospital.
The obituary notice in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ describes him as "late
of Gillingham, Dorsetshire," which would make him a neighbour of the
novelist. [Footnote: Lord Thurlow was accustomed to find a later
likeness to Fielding's hero in his _protege_, the poet Crabbe.] Another
tradition connects Mr. Peter Pounce with the scrivener and usurer Peter
Walter, whom Pope had satirised, and whom Hogarth is thought to have
introduced into Plate i. of Marriage _a-la-Mode_. His sister lived at
Salisbury; and he himself had an estate at Stalbridge Park, which was
close to East Stour. From references to Walter in the _Champion_ for May
31, 1740, as well as in the _Essay on Conversation_, it is clear that
Fielding knew him personally, and disliked him. He may, indeed, have
been among those county magnates whose criticism was so objectionable to
Captain Booth during his brief residence in Dorsetshire. Parson
Trulliber, also, according to Murphy, was Fielding's first tutor--Mr.
Oliver of Motcombe. But his widow denied the resemblance; and it is hard
to believe that this portrait is not overcharged. In all these cases,
however, there is no reason for supposing that Fielding may not have
thoroughly believed in the sincerity of his attempts to avoid the exact
reproduction of actual persons, although, rightly or wrongly, his
presentments were speedily identified. With ordinary people it is by
salient characteristics that a likeness is established; and no variation
of detail, however skilful, greatly affects this result. In our own days
we have seen that, in spite of both authors, the public declined to
believe that the Harold Skimpole of Charles Dickens, and George Eliot's
Dinah Morris, were not perfectly recognisable copies of living
originals.
Upon its title-page, _Joseph Andrews_ is declared to be "written in
Imitation of the Manner of Cervantes," and there is no doubt that, in
addition to being subjected to an unreasonable amount of ill-usage,
Parson Adams has manifest affinities with Don Quixote. Scott, however,
seems to have thought that Scarron's _Roman Comique_ was the real model,
so far as mock-heroic was concerned; but he must have forgotten that
Fielding was already the author of _Tom Thumb_, and that Swift had
written the _Battle of the Books_. Resemblances--not of much moment--
have also been traced to the _Paysan Parvenu_ and the _Histoire de
Marianne_ of Marivaux. With both these books Fielding was familiar; in
fact, he expressly mentions them, as well as the _Roman Comique_, in the
course of his story, and they doubtless exercised more or less influence
upon his plan. But in the Preface, from which we have already quoted, he
describes that plan; and this, because it is something definite, is more
interesting than any speculation as to his determining models. After
marking the division of the Epic, like the Drama, into Tragedy and
Comedy, he points out that it may exist in prose as well as verse, and
he proceeds to explain that what he has attempted in _Joseph Andrews_ is
"a comic Epic-Poem in Prose," differing from serious romance in its
substitution of a "light and ridiculous" fable for a "grave and solemn"
one, of inferior characters for those of superior rank, and of ludicrous
for sublime sentiments. Sometimes in the diction he has admitted
burlesque, but never in the sentiments and characters, where, he
contends, it would be out of place. He further defines the only source
of the ridiculous to be affectation, of which the chief causes are
vanity and hypocrisy. Whether this scheme was an after-thought it is
difficult to say; but it is certainly necessary to a proper
understanding of the author's method--a method which was to find so many
imitators. Another passage in the Preface is worthy of remark. With
reference to the pictures of vice which the book contains, he observes:
"First, That it is very difficult to pursue a Series of human Actions,
and keep clear from them. Secondly, That the Vices to be found here
[i.e. in _Joseph Andrews_] are rather the accidental Consequences of
some human Frailty, or Foible, than Causes habitually existing in the
Mind. Thirdly, That they are never set forth as the Objects of Ridicule
but Detestation. Fourthly, That they are never the principal Figure at
the Time on the Scene; and, lastly, they never produce the intended
Evil." In reading some pages of Fielding it is not always easy to see
that he has strictly adhered to these principles; but it is well to
recall them occasionally, as constituting at all events the code that he
desired to follow.
Although the popularity of Fielding's first novel was considerable, it
did not, to judge by the number of editions, at once equal the
popularity of the book by which it was suggested. _Pamela_, as we have
seen, speedily ran through four editions; but it was six months before
Millar published the second and revised edition of _Joseph Andrews;_ and
the third did not appear until more than a year after the date of first
publication. With Richardson, as might be expected, it was never popular
at all, and to a great extent it is possible to sympathise with his
annoyance. The daughter of his brain, whom he had piloted through so
many troubles, had grown to him more real than the daughters of his
body, and to see her at the height of her fame made contemptible by what
in one of his letters he terms "a lewd and ungenerous engraftment," must
have been a sore trial to his absorbed and self-conscious nature, and
one which not all the consolations of his consistory of feminine
flatterers--"my ladies," as the little man called them--could wholly
alleviate. But it must be admitted that his subsequent attitude was
neither judicious nor dignified. He pursued Fielding henceforth with
steady depreciation, caught eagerly at any scandal respecting him,
professed himself unable to perceive his genius, deplored his "lowness,"
and comforted himself by reflecting that, if he pleased at all, it was
because he had learned the art from _Pamela_. Of Fielding's other
contemporary critics, one only need be mentioned here, more on account
of his literary eminence than of the special felicity of his judgment.
"I have myself," writes Gray to West, "upon your recommendation, been
reading Joseph Andrews. The incidents are ill laid and without
invention; but the characters have a great deal of nature, which always
pleases even in her lowest shapes. Parson Adams is perfectly well; so is
Mrs. Slipslop, and the story of Wilson; and throughout he [_the author_]
shews himself well read in Stage-Coaches, Country Squires, Inns, and
Inns of Court. His reflections upon high people and low people, and
misses and masters, are very good. However the exaltedness of some minds
(or rather as I shrewdly suspect their insipidity and want of feeling or
observation) may make them insensible to these light things, (I mean
such as characterise and paint nature) yet surely they are as weighty
and much more useful than your grave discourses upon the mind, the
passions, and what not." And thereupon follows that fantastic utterance
concerning the romances of MM. Marivaux and Crebillon _fils_, which has
disconcerted so many of Gray's admirers. We suspect that any reader who
should nowadays contrast the sickly and sordid intrigue of the _Paysan
Parvenu_ with the healthy animalism of _Joseph Andrews_ would greatly
prefer the latter. Yet Gray's verdict, though cold, is not
undiscriminating, and is perhaps as much as one could expect from his
cloistered and fastidious taste.
Various anecdotes, all more or less apocryphal, have been related
respecting the first appearance of _Joseph Andrews_, and the sum paid to
the author for the copyright. A reference to the original assignment,
now in the Forster Library at South Kensington, definitely settles the
latter point. The amount in "lawful Money of Great Britain," received by
"Henry Fielding, Esq." from "Andrew Millar of St. Clement's Danes in the
Strand," was L183 11s. In this document, as in the order to Nourse of
which a _facsimile_ is given by Roscoe, both the author's name and
signature are written with the old-fashioned double f, and he calls
himself "Fielding" and not "Feilding," like the rest of the Denbigh
family. If we may trust an anecdote given by Kippis, Lord Denbigh once
asked his kinsman the reason of this difference. "I cannot tell, my
lord," returned the novelist, "unless it be that my branch of the family
was the first that learned to spell." In connection with this
assignment, however, what is perhaps even more interesting than these
discrepancies is the fact that one of the witnesses was William Young.
Thus we have Parson Adams acting as witness to the sale of the very book
which he had helped to immortalise.