Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October

1754) was an English novelist and
dramatist known for his rich, earthy
humour and satirical prowess, and as the
author of the picaresque novel Tom Jones.
Additionally, he holds a significant place in
the history of law enforcement, having
used his authority as a magistrate to
found (with his half-brother John) what
some have called London's first police
force, the Bow Street Runners. His younger
sister, Sarah, also became a successful
writer.[1]
 Henry Fielding

Born 22 April 1707

Sharpham, Somerset,
England
Died 8 October 1754
(aged 47)
Lisbon, Kingdom of
Portugal
Pen name "Captain Hercules
Vinegar", "H. Scriblerus
Secundus", also some
works published
anonymously

Occupation novelist, dramatist and

 magistrate
Nationality English
Period 1728–54
Genre satire, picaresque
Literary movement Enlightenment,
Augustan Age
Relatives Sarah Fielding, John
Fielding

Early life
Fielding was born at Sharpham, Somerset,
and educated at Eton College, where he
established a lifelong friendship with
William Pitt the Elder.[2] His mother died
when he was 11. A suit for custody was
brought by his grandmother against his
charming but irresponsible father, Lt Gen.
Edmund Fielding. The settlement placed
Henry in his grandmother's care, although
he continued to see his father in London.[3]
In 1725, Henry tried to abduct his cousin,
Sarah Andrews, while she was on her way
to church. He fled to avoid prosecution.[4]
In 1728, he travelled to Leiden to study
classics and law at the university.[2]
However, lack of money obliged him to
return to London and he began writing for
the theatre. Some of his work was
savagely critical of the government of
Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole.
Dramatist and novelist
The Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737 is
said to be a direct response to his
activities in writing for the theatre.[2][5]
Although the play that triggered the act
was the unproduced, anonymously
authored The Golden Rump, Fielding's
dramatic satires had set the tone. Once it
was passed, political satire on the stage
became virtually impossible. Fielding
retired from the theatre and resumed his
career in law to support his wife Charlotte
Craddock and two children by becoming a
barrister.[2][5]
Fielding's lack of financial acumen meant
he and his family often endured periods of
poverty, but he was helped by Ralph Allen,
a wealthy benefactor, on whom Squire
Allworthy in Tom Jones would be based.
Allen went on to provide for the education
and support of Fielding's children after the
writer's death.

Henry Fielding, about 1743, etching by Jonathan Wild

Fielding never stopped writing political
satire and satires of current arts and
letters. The Tragedy of Tragedies (for which
Hogarth designed the frontispiece) was,
for example, quite successful as a printed
play. Based on his earlier Tom Thumb, this
was another of Fielding's "irregular" plays
published under the name of H. Scriblerus
Secundus, a pseudonym intended to link
himself ideally with the Scriblerus Club of
literary satirists founded by Jonathan
Swift, Alexander Pope and John Gay.[4] He
also contributed a number of works to
journals of the time.
From 1734 until 1739 he wrote
anonymously for the leading Tory
periodical, The Craftsman, against the
Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole.[6]
Fielding's patron was the opposition Whig
MP George Lyttelton, a boyhood friend
from Eton. Lyttelton followed his leader
Lord Cobham in forming a Whig
opposition to Walpole's government called
the Cobhamites (which included another
of Fielding's Eton friends, William Pitt).[7] In
the Craftsman, Fielding voiced the
opposition attack on bribery and
corruption in British politics.[8] Although
writing for the opposition to Walpole,
which included Tories as well as Whigs,
Fielding was "unshakably a Whig" and
often praised Whig heroes such as the
Duke of Marlborough and Gilbert Burnet.[9]

Fielding dedicated his play Don Quixote in

England to the opposition Whig leader Lord
Chesterfield. It was published on 17 April
1734, the same day writs were issued for
the general election.[10] He dedicated his
1735 play The Universal Gallant to Charles
Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, a
political follower of Chesterfield.[11] The
other prominent opposition newspaper,
Common Sense, founded by Chesterfield
and Lyttelton, was named after a character
in Fielding's Pasquin (1736). Fielding wrote
at least two articles it in 1737 and 1738.[12]

Fielding continued to air his political views

in satirical articles and newspapers in the
late 1730s and early 1740s. He became
the chief writer for the Whig government
of Henry Pelham.[13]

Fielding took to novel writing in 1741,

angered by Samuel Richardson's success
with Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. His first
success was an anonymous parody of
that: Shamela.[14] This follows the model
of Tory satirists of the previous generation,
notably Swift and Gay.
Fielding followed this with Joseph
Andrews (1742), an original work
supposedly dealing with Pamela's brother,
Joseph.[2] His purpose, however, was more
than parody, for as announced in the
preface, he intended a "kind of writing
which I do not remember to have seen
hitherto attempted in our language." In
what Fielding called a "comic epic poem in
prouse," he blended two classical
traditions: that of the epic, which had been
poetic, and that of the drama, but
emphasizing the comic rather than the
tragic. Another distinction of Joseph
Andrews and of the novels to come was
the use of everyday reality of character
and action as opposed to the fables of the
past.[3] Although begun as a parody, it
developed into an accomplished novel in
its own right and is considered to mark
Fielding's debut as a serious novelist. In
1743, he published a novel in the
Miscellanies volume III (which was the first
volume of the Miscellanies): The Life and
Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great, which is
sometimes counted as his first, as he
almost certainly began it before he wrote
Shamela and Joseph Andrews. It is a satire
of Walpole equating him and Jonathan
Wild, the gang leader and highwayman. He
implicitly compares the Whig party in
Parliament with a gang of thieves run by
Walpole, whose constant desire to be a
"Great Man" (a common epithet with
Walpole) ought to culminate in the
antithesis of greatness: hanging.

The Roast Beef of Old England

Henry Fielding wrote "The Roast Beef

of Old England", which is used by both
the Royal Navy and the United States
Marine Corps, in 1731. Richard
Leveridge later arranged it. This
version is performed by the United
States Navy Band.

Problems playing this file? See media

help.
His anonymous The Female Husband
(1746) fictionalizes a case in which a
female transvestite was tried for duping
another woman into marriage; this was
one of several small pamphlets costing
sixpence.[15] Though a minor piece of
Fielding's œuvre, it reflects his
preoccupation with fraud, shamming and
masks.

His greatest work was Tom Jones (1749),

a meticulously constructed picaresque
novel telling the convoluted and hilarious
tale of how a foundling came into a
fortune. The plot of Tom Jones is too
ingenious for simple summary; its basis is
Tom's alienation from his foster father,
Squire Allworthy, and his sweetheart,
Sophia Western, and his reconciliation
with them after lively and dangerous
adventures on the road and in London. The
triumph is its presentation of English life
and character in the mid-18th century.
Every social type is represented, and
through them every shade of moral
behaviour. Fielding's varied style tempers
the basic seriousness of the novel and his
authorial comment before each chapter
adds a marked dimension to a
conventionally straightforward narrative.[3]

Marriages
Fielding married Charlotte Craddock in
1734 at the Church of St Mary in
Charlcombe, Somerset.[16] She died in
1744, and he later modelled the heroines
of Tom Jones and of Amelia on her. They
had five children; their only daughter
Henrietta died at the age of 23, having
already been "in deep decline" when she
married a military engineer, James Gabriel
Montresor, some months before. Three
years after Charlotte's death, Fielding
disregarded public opinion by marrying her
former maid Mary Daniel, who was
pregnant.[5] Mary bore five children: three
daughters who died young, and two sons,
William and Allen.[17]
Jurist and magistrate
Despite this scandal, Fielding's consistent
anti-Jacobitism and support for the
Church of England led to his being
appointed a year later as London's chief
magistrate, while his literary career went
from strength to strength. Most of his
work concerned London's criminal
population of thieves, informers, gamblers
and prostitutes. Though living in a corrupt
and callous society, he became noted for
impartial judgements, incorruptibility and
compassion for those whom social
inequities forced into crime. The income
from his office ("the dirtiest money upon
earth") dwindled as he refused to take
money from the very poor.[3] Joined by his
younger half-brother John, he helped
found what some call London's first police
force, the Bow Street Runners, in 1749.[18]

According to the historian G. M. Trevelyan,

the Fieldings were two of the best
magistrates in 18th-century London, who
did much to enhance judicial reform and
improve prison conditions. Fielding's
influential pamphlets and enquiries
included a proposal for abolishing public
hangings. This did not, however, imply
opposition to capital punishment as such
– as is evident, for example, in his
presiding in 1751 over the trial of the
notorious criminal James Field, finding
him guilty in a robbery and sentencing him
to hang. John Fielding, despite being blind
by then, succeeded his older brother as
chief magistrate, becoming known as the
"Blind Beak of Bow Street" for his ability to
recognise criminals by their voices
alone.[19]

Henry Fielding's grave in the cemetery of the Church of

England St. George's Church, Lisbon
In January 1752 Fielding started a
fortnightly, The Covent-Garden Journal,
which he published under the pseudonym
"Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Knt., Censor of
Great Britain" until November of that year.
Here Fielding challenged the "armies of
Grub Street" and periodical writers of the
day in a conflict that became the Paper
War of 1752–1753.

Fielding then published Examples of the

Interposition of Providence in the Detection
and Punishment of Murder (1752), a
treatise rejecting deistic and materialistic
visions of the world in favour of belief in
God's presence and divine judgement,[20]
arguing that the murder rate was rising
due to neglect of the Christian religion.[21]
In 1753 he wrote Proposals for Making an
Effectual Provision for the Poor.

Fielding's humanitarian commitment to

justice in the 1750s (for instance in
support of Elizabeth Canning) coincided
with rapid deterioration in his health. Gout,
asthma and cirrhosis of the liver left him
on crutches,[4] and with other afflictions
sent him to Portugal in 1754 to seek a
cure, only to die two months later in
Lisbon, reportedly in pain and mental
distress.[5][22] His tomb there is in the
English Cemetery (Cemitério Inglês), now
the graveyard of St. George's Church,
Lisbon.

List of works
Novels

1. Shamela – novella, 1741

2. The History of the Adventures of
Joseph Andrews and his Friend, Mr.
Abraham Abrams – 1742
3. The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild,
the Great – 1743, ironic treatment of
Jonathan Wild, a notorious
underworld figure of the time.
 Published as Volume 3 of
Miscellanies.
4. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
– 1749
5. A Journey from this World to the Next
– 1749
6. Amelia – 1751

Partial list of poems

The Masquerade – (Fielding's first

publication)
Part of Juvenal's Sixth Satire, Modernized
in Burlesque Verse

Plays
Love in Several Masques – 1728
Rape upon Rape – 1730. Adapted by
Bernard Miles as Lock Up Your
Daughters! in 1959, filmed in 1974
The Temple Beau – 1730
The Author's Farce – 1730
The Pleasures of the Town
The Letter Writers or A New Way to Keep
a Wife at Home, A Farce – 1731
The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, The Life and
Death of Tom Thumb the Great – 1731
The Copper-House Politician or The
Justice Caught in his own Trap, A
Comedy - 1731
The Debauchees, or The Justice Caught -
1731
The Grub Street Opera – 1731
The Modern Husband – 1732
The Mock Doctor or The Dumb Lady
Cured, a Comedy done from Molière –
1732
The Miser, A Comedy taken from Plautus
and Molière – 1732
The Lottery – 1732
The Covent Garden Tragedy – 1732
The Intriguing Chambermaid - 1734
An Old Man Taught Wisdom, or The Virgin
Unmasked, A Farce- 1734
Miss Lucy in Town, A Farce
Don Quixote in England – 1734
The Universal Gallant, or The Different
Husbands, A Comedy – c. 1735
Pasquin – 1736
Eurydice, A Farce – 1737
Eurydice Hiss'd, or A Word to the Wise –
1737
The Historical Register for the Year 1736
– 1737
Tumbledown Dick or Phaeton in the Suds
The Wedding-Day, A Comedy
The Fathers: Or, the Good-Natur'd Man –
published posthumously in 1778
Miscellaneous writings

Miscellanies – collection of works, 1743,

contained the poem "Part of Juvenal's
Sixth Satire, Modernized in Burlesque
Verse"
The Female Husband or the Surprising
History of Mrs Mary alias Mr George
Hamilton, who was convicted of having
married a young woman of Wells and
lived with her as her husband, taken from
her own mouth since her confinement –
pamphlet, fictionalized report, 1746
"Examples of the interposition of
Providence in the Detection and
Punishment of Murder containing above
 thirty cases in which this dreadful crime
has been brought to light in the most
extraordinary and miraculous manner;
collected from various authors, ancient
and modern " (1752)
The Covent-Garden Journal – periodical,
1752
Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon – travel
narrative, 1755

References
1. "Henry Fielding (1707–1754)" . The
Literary Encyclopedia. Retrieved
9 September 2009. (subscription
required)
2. "Henry Fielding" . People. The Dorset
Page. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
3. "Henry Fielding Facts" .
biography.yourdictionary.com.
Retrieved 4 May 2017.
4. Battestin, Martin C. (23 September
2004). "Fielding, Henry (1707–1754),
author and magistrate" .
www.oxforddnb.com. Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography.
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128
.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-
9400 . Retrieved 6 April 2019.
(subscription required)
 5. Liukkonen, Petri. "Henry Fielding" .
Books and Writers. Finland:
Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived
from the original on 6 July 2009.
6. Battestin, Martin C. (1989).
"Introduction". New Essays by Henry
Fielding: His Contributions to the
Craftsman, 1734-1739 and Other Early
Journalism. University Press of
Virginia. ISBN 978-0-8139-1221-9., p.
xvi
7. Battestin (1989), p. xx.
8. Battestin (1989), p. xiii.
9. Battestin (1989), p. 61.
10. Battestin (1989), p. xxiii.
11. Battestin (1989), p. xxv.
12. Battestin (1989), p. 299n. 62.
13. Battestin (1989), p. 4.
14. Castro-Santana, Anaclara (18 August
2015). "Sham Marriages and Proper
Plots: Henry Fielding's Shamela and
Joseph Andrews". English Studies. 96
(6): 636–53.
doi:10.1080/0013838X.2015.104572
8 . ISSN 0013-838X .
15. Cross, Wilbur L. (1918). The History of
Henry Fielding . 2. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press.
16. "Henry Fielding (I1744)" . Stanford
University. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
17. Battestin, Martin C. (2000). A Henry
Fielding Companion. Westport, CT:
Greenwood. pp. 10, 15.
18. "Henry Fielding" . Spartacus
Educational. Archived from the
original on 17 May 2009. Retrieved
9 September 2009.
19. "Words, Words, Words", From the
Beginnings to the 18th Century, La
Spiga languages, 2003.
20. Fielding, Henry. 1988. An Enquiry Into
the Causes of the Late Increase of
Robbers and Related Writings. Oxford:
Clarendon, 1988.
21. Valier, Claire. 2005. Crime and
Punishment in Contemporary Culture.
Routledge. p. 20.
22. Fielding, Henry (1999). Hawley, Judith
(ed.). Joseph Andrews/Shamela.
Penguin. p. ii. ISBN 978-0-14043386-9.

External links

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Henry Fielding

Wikisource has original works written

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Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding at the Eighteenth-
Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
Works by Henry Fielding at Project
Gutenberg
Works by or about Henry Fielding at
Internet Archive
Works by Henry Fielding at LibriVox
(public domain audiobooks)
Famous Quotes by Henry Fielding
Portraits of Henry Fielding at the
National Portrait Gallery, London
"Archival material relating to Henry
Fielding" . UK National Archives.
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Henry_Fielding&oldid=891383270"

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