Fielding

Fielding, by Austin Dobson

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Title: Fielding (English Men of Letters Series)
Author: Austin Dobson
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6689] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 13,
2003]

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ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS
FIELDING
BY AUSTIN DOBSON

PREFATORY NOTE.
From a critical point of view, the works of Fielding have received
abundant examination at the hands of a long line of distinguished
writers. Of these, the latest is by no means the least; and as Mr. Leslie
Stephen's brilliant studies, in the recent edition de luxe and the Cornhill
Magazine, are now in every one's hands, it is perhaps no more than a
wise discretion which has prompted me to confine my attention more
strictly to the purely biographical side of the subject. In the present
memoir, therefore, I have made it my duty, primarily, to verify such
scattered anecdotes respecting Fielding as have come down to us; to
correct (I hope not obtrusively) a few mis-statements which have crept
into previous accounts; and to add such supplementary details as I have
been able to discover for myself.
In this task I have made use of the following authorities:--

I. Arthur Murphy's Essay on the Life and Genius of Henry Fielding,
Esq. This was prefixed to the first collected edition of Fielding's works
published by Andrew Millar in April 1762; and it continued for a long
time to be the recognised authority for Fielding's life. It is possible that
it fairly reproduces his personality, as presented by contemporary
tradition; but it is misleading in its facts, and needlessly diffuse. Under
pretence of respecting "the Manes of the dead," the writer seems to
have found it pleasanter to fill his space with vagrant discussions on the
"Middle Comedy of the Greeks" and the machinery of the Rape of the
Lock, than to make the requisite biographical inquiries. This is the more
to be deplored, because, in 1762, Fielding's widow, brother, and sister,
as well as his friend Lyttelton, were still alive, and trustworthy
information should have been procurable.
II. Watson's Life of Henry Fielding, Esq. This is usually to be found
prefixed to a selection of Fielding's works issued at Edinburgh. It also
appeared as a volume in 1807, although there is no copy of it in this
form at the British Museum. It carries Murphy a little farther, and
corrects him in some instances. But its author had clearly never even
seen the Miscellanies of 1743, with their valuable Preface, for he
speaks of them as one volume, and in apparent ignorance of their
contents.
III. Sir Walter Scott's biographical sketch for Ballantyne's Novelist's
Library. This was published in 1821; and is now included in the
writer's Miscellaneous Prose Works. Sir Walter made no pretence to
original research, and even spoke slightingly of this particular work;
but it has all the charm of his practised and genial pen.
IV. Roscoe's Memoir, compiled for the one-volume edition of Fielding,
published by Washbourne and others in 1840.
V. Thackeray's well-known lecture, in the English Humourists of the
Eighteenth Century, 1853.
VI. The Life of Henry Fielding; with Notices of his Writings, his Times,
and his Contemporaries. By Frederick Lawrence. 1855. This is an
exceedingly painstaking book; and constitutes the first serious attempt

at a biography. Its chief defect--as pointed out at the time of its
appearance--is an ill-judged emulation of Forster's Goldsmith. The
author attempted to make Fielding a literary centre, which is impossible;
and the attempt has involved him in needless digressions. He is also not
always careful to give chapter and verse for his statements.
VII. Thomas Keightley's papers On the Life and Writings of Henry