HENRY FIELDING Literary Lives General Editor: Richard Dutton, Professor of English Lancaster University This series offers stimulating accounts of the literary careers of the most admired and influential English-language authors. Volumes follow the outline of the writers' working lives, not in the spirit of traditional biography, but aiming to trace the professional, publishing and social contexts which shaped their writing. A list of the published titles in the series follows overleaf
Published titles Morris Beja JAMES JOYCE Cedric C. Brown JOHN MILTON Peter Davison George Orwell Richard Dutton WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Jan Fergus JANE AUSTEN James Gibson THOMAS HARDY Kenneth Graham HENRY JAMES Paul Hammond JOHN DRYDEN W. David Kay BEN JONSON Mary Lago E. M. FORSTER Clinton Machann MATTHEW ARNOLD Alasdair D. F. Macrae W B. YEATS Joseph McMinn JONATHAN SWIFT Kerry McSweeney GEORGE ELIOT John Mepham VIRGINIA WOOLF Michael O'Neill PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Leonee Ormond ALFRED TENNYSON Harold Pagliaro HENRY FIELDING George Parfitt JOHN DONNE Gerald Roberts GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS Felicity Rosslyn ALEXANDER POPE Tony Sharpe T S. ELIOT Grahame Smith CHARLES DICKENS Gary Waller EDMUND SPENSER Cedric Watts JOSEPH CONRAD John Williams WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Tom Winnifrith and Edward Chitham CHARLOTTE AND EMILY BRONTE John Worthen D. H. LAWRENCE Literary Lives Series Standing Order ISBN 0-333-71486-5 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Henry Fielding A Literary Life Harold Pagliaro Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor Emeritus of English Literature Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania f&
Harold E. Pagliaro 1998 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WI P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 1998 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-63323-6 ISBN 978-0-230-37814-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230378148 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 321 00 99 98 Published in the United States of America 1998 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-21032-8
To Blake Robert Susanna John
Contents Preface ix 1 A Biographical Sketch, 1707-50 1 2 Fielding in the Theatre 46 3 The Novels and Other Prose Fiction 119 4 The Final Years, 1751-54 187 Notes and References 201 Index of References to Fielding's Works 227 General Index 231 vn
Preface My aim in the book that follows is to inform those who are near the beginning of their Fielding studies and to engage readers among advanced students as well. Though not exhaustive, the biographical sketch I offer in the first and fourth chapters is meant to be thorough. My discussions of the plays, which are often unfamiliar even to specialists, are shaped to remind the reader of dramatic action at the same time providing contextual and formal commentary. Discussions of the novels and other prose fiction generally attempt to locate the works historically and to analyse some of the conjunctions of literary technique and content, Fielding's synergy of form and meaning. In addition, these chapters on the drama and prose fiction keep Fielding the man very much in sight. I hope my book may help readers to appreciate enough of Fielding's life, art and times to make the journey through it worthwhile. In writing the following chapters, I incurred an enormous debt to Fielding scholarship, as a look at my notes will indicate. Without this authoritative silent assistance, I could not have completed the book. I owe special thanks to Martin Battestin, William Appleton and John Richetti for reading early drafts of the major sections of the book. Professor Battestin helped me to improve the chapter on Fielding's life; Professor Appleton made useful comments on the chapter treating the eighteenth-century London theatre and Fielding's plays; and Professor Richetti suggested ways of revising the chapter on the novels. I am grateful for their help. Finally, I wish to express deep appreciation to my wife, Judith Egan, for patiently reading the entire manuscript for clarity and consistency of style. Errors of fact or judgment that may remain are, of course, mine alone. HAROLD PAGLIARO IX