Hubbry Logo
Henry FieldingHenry FieldingMain
Open search
Henry Fielding
Community hub
Henry Fielding
logo
8 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia

Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English writer and judge known for the use of humour and satire in his works.[1] His 1749 comic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was a seminal work in the genre. Along with Samuel Richardson, Fielding is seen as the founder of the traditional English novel. He also played an important role in the history of law enforcement in the United Kingdom, using his authority as a magistrate to found the Bow Street Runners, London's first professional police force.

Key Information

Early life

[edit]

Henry Fielding was born on 22 April 1707 at Sharpham Park, the seat of his mother's family in Sharpham, Somerset. He was the son of Lt.-Gen. Edmund Fielding and Sarah Gould, daughter of Sir Henry Gould. A scion of the Earl of Denbigh, his father was nephew of William Fielding, 3rd Earl of Denbigh.[2]

Educated at Eton College, Fielding began a lifelong friendship with William Pitt the Elder.[3] 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, but he continued to see his father in London.[4]

In 1725, Henry tried to abduct his cousin Sarah Andrews, with whom he was infatuated, while she was on her way to church. He fled to avoid prosecution.[5]

In 1728, Fielding travelled to Leiden to study classics and law at the university.[3] Penury forced him back to London, where he began writing for the theatre. Some of his work savagely criticised the government of Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole.

Dramatist and novelist

[edit]

Returning from his studies at Leiden late in 1729, Fielding “came up to London … thrown upon his own resources” and determined to earn his living by the pen.[6] Early the next year he enlisted fellow writer James Ralph to provide the prologue for his comedy The Temple Beau (licensed January 1730).[7] Ralph’s recently published miscellany The Touch-Stone; or, The Taste of the Town (1728; re-issued 1731) urged dramatists to abandon imported opera and classical heroes in favour of “home-bred” stories, mocked the vogue for “merry Tragedies,” and celebrated the satirical possibilities of puppet shows and fair-ground spectacle.[8]

Fielding’s response was almost instantaneous. The Author’s Farce; or, The Pleasures of the Town opened at the Haymarket on 30 March 1730 with a concluding puppet-show whose dramatis personae—Don Tragedio, Signior Opera, Monsieur Pantomime, Mrs Novel, Punch and Jack Pudding—mirror the catalogue in Ralph’s treatise.[9] Its dialogue repeats Ralph’s gibes at Bartholomew and Southwark fairs and even alludes to the recent “rabbit-woman” hoax of 1726.[10] Barely a month later, on 24 April 1730, Fielding produced the two-act afterpiece Tom Thumb (expanded in 1731 as The Tragedy of Tragedies). Echoing Ralph’s programme, the preface hails “home-bred Subjects,” the prologue ridicules tragedies that aim chiefly to raise laughter, and the play itself casts a diminutive hero amid outsized props while repeating the comic story of the protagonist “dropp’d in a pudding.”[11] These two farces mark Fielding’s decisive pivot from polite comedy to the satirical burlesque that would dominate his dramatic output throughout the 1730s and shape the ironic voice of his later novels.[12]

According to George R. Levine, Henry Fielding, in his first writings used two forms of "rhetorical poses" that were popular during the eighteenth century.[13] Henry Fielding would construct "the non-ironic pseudonym such as Addison and Steele used in the Spectator, and the ironic mask or Persona, such as Swift used in A Modest Proposal."[13] The Theatrical Licensing Act 1737 is said to be a direct response to his activities in writing for the theatre.[3][14] 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 stage became all but impossible. Fielding retired from the theatre and resumed his legal career to support his wife Charlotte Craddock and two children by becoming a barrister,[3][14] joining the Middle Temple in 1737 and being called to the bar there in 1740.[15]

Fielding's lack of financial acumen meant the family often endured periods of poverty, but they were 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 from Jonathan Wild

Fielding never stopped writing political satire and satires of current arts and letters. Issued in 1731, the printed play The Tragedy of Tragedies—for which William Hogarth supplied a celebrated frontispiece—proved especially popular. Published under the pseudonym “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.[5] He also contributed several works to journals.

From 1734 to 1739, Fielding wrote anonymously for the leading Tory periodical, The Craftsman, against the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole.[16] His patron was the opposition Whig MP George Lyttelton, a boyhood friend from Eton to whom he later dedicated Tom Jones. 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.[17] In The Craftsman, Fielding voiced an opposition attack on bribery and corruption in British politics.[18] Despite 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.[19]

Fielding dedicated his play Don Quixote in England to the opposition Whig leader Lord Chesterfield. It appeared on 17 April 1734, the same day writs were issued for the general election.[20] He dedicated his 1735 play The Universal Gallant to Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, a political follower of Chesterfield.[21] The other prominent opposition paper, Common Sense, founded by Chesterfield and Lyttelton, was named after a character in Fielding's Pasquin (1736). Fielding wrote at least two articles for it in 1737 and 1738.[22]

Fielding continued to air political views in satirical journalism in the late 1730s and early 1740s. He co-founded and initially edited the thrice-weekly The Champion; or, British Mercury (launched 15 November 1739), writing under the persona “Captain Hercules Vinegar”;[23] from April 1740 it appeared as Champion; or, Evening Advertiser.[24] Fielding remained principal editor until June 1741, when James Ralph succeeded him;[25] the paper continued until 31 August 1742.[26]

After stepping down from the paper, Fielding turned to prose fiction. In response to the popularity of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, he issued the anonymous parody Shamela, his first success in the new form.[27]

Fielding followed this with Joseph Andrews (1742), an original work supposedly dealing with Pamela's brother, Joseph.[3] His purpose was more than parody, for as stated 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 the novels to come was use of everyday reality of character and action, as opposed to the fables of the past.[4] While begun as a parody, it developed into an accomplished novel in its own right and is seen as 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 text for "The Roast Beef of Old England", whose tune 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.

Fielding's 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.[6] Though a minor piece in his life's work, it reflects his preoccupation with fraud, shamming and masks.

His greatest work is The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), a meticulous comic novel with elements of the picaresque and the Bildungsroman, telling a convoluted tale of how a foundling came into a fortune. The novel tells of 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. It triumphs as a 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 dimension to a conventional, straightforward narrative.[4]

Sister

[edit]

Fielding's younger sister, Sarah, also became a successful writer.[28] Her novel The Governess, or The Little Female Academy (1749) is thought to be the first in English aimed expressly at children.[29]

Marriages

[edit]

Fielding married Charlotte Craddock in 1734 at the Church of St Mary in Charlcombe, Somerset.[30] 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.[14] Mary bore five children: three daughters who died young, and two sons, William and Allen.[31]

Jurist and magistrate

[edit]
A Henry Fielding Memorial at Widcombe Lodge in Bath

Despite the scandal, Fielding's consistent anti-Jacobitism and support for the Church of England led to his appointment a year later as Westminster'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 led into crime. The income from his office ("the dirtiest money upon earth") dwindled as he refused to take money from the very poor.[4] Joined by his younger half-brother John, he helped found what some call London's first police force, the Bow Street Runners, in 1749.[32]

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.[33]

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, 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,[34] arguing that the murder rate was rising due to neglect of the Christian religion.[35] In 1753 he wrote Proposals for Making an Effectual Provision for the Poor.

Death

[edit]

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,[5] and with other afflictions sent him to Portugal in 1754 to seek a cure. He died two months later in Lisbon, reportedly in pain and mental distress.[14][36] His tomb there is in the British Cemetery (Cemitério Inglês), the graveyard of St. George's Church, Lisbon.

List of works

[edit]
Fielding on a 1957 Soviet stamp

Novels

[edit]

Partial list of poems

[edit]
  • The Masquerade – (Fielding's first publication)
  • Part of Juvenal's Sixth Satire, Modernized in Burlesque Verse

Plays

[edit]

Further Adaptations

  • The Opera of Operas; Or, Tom Thumb the Great Alter’d from the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great and Set to Musick after the Italian Manner.  As It Is Performing at the New Theatre in the Hay-Market, (1733) written by Eliza Haywood and William Hatchett, music by Thomas Arne, adapted from the Fielding
  • Tom Thumb the Great: A Burlesque Tragedy from Fielding (1805–1810), written by Kane O’Hara Esq., adapted from Fielding
  • Squire Badger: A burletta in two acts, Thomas Arne composer and librettist (1772), after Henry Fielding's Don Quixote in England (1729).  The work was revived under the name The Sot in 1775.
  • The Rival Queens (1794), adapted by William Holcroft from Fielding's The Covent-Garden Tragedy
  • Lock Up Your Daughters (1959), musical based on Rape Upon Rape, book by Bernard Miles, lyrics by Lionel Bart, music by Laurie Johnson.  Made into a non-musical film (1969).

Miscellaneous writings

[edit]

References

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Henry Fielding

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English novelist, playwright, journalist, and magistrate whose satirical writings helped shape the early English novel. Born at Sharpham Park in Somerset to a family of modest gentry, Fielding initially gained prominence in London's theater scene with plays like The Author's Farce (1730) and Pasquin (1736), which lampooned political corruption and theatrical pretensions, prompting the Licensing Act of 1737 that curtailed dramatic satire. Shifting to prose, he produced The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams (1742), a parody of Samuel Richardson's Pamela that introduced comic realism and moral inquiry into narrative fiction, followed by The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), a sprawling picaresque epic praised for its psychological depth and social observation. As a justice of the peace at Bow Street Magistrates' Court from 1748, Fielding applied his reformist zeal by creating the Bow Street Runners, a precursor to modern police forces, which targeted street crime and corruption through proactive patrols and information networks, earning him recognition as a pioneer in law enforcement despite his own financial struggles and health decline leading to his death in Lisbon. His works, blending humor with ethical critique, influenced later novelists by emphasizing providence, character development, and the follies of human nature over sentimentality.

Early Life and Education

Family Background and Childhood

Henry Fielding was born on 22 April 1707 at Sharpham Park, the estate of his maternal grandfather, Sir Henry Gould, a of the King's Bench, located near . He was the eldest of seven children born to Lieutenant-General Edmund Fielding, an army officer of origins whose father had been of , and Sarah Gould, whose 1706 marriage to Edmund was a runaway match opposed by her family. The family's aristocratic ties were strained by Edmund's extravagance, which dissipated inherited wealth despite his military promotions to major-general in 1735 and lieutenant-general in 1739. Fielding's mother died in April 1718, leaving him at age eleven as the eldest child amid ensuing family discord. His father remarried shortly thereafter to an Italian woman, relocating to and fathering additional children, which prompted a custody by Sarah's mother, Lady Gould, who gained legal guardianship of Henry and his siblings. Under his grandmother's care in Dorset, Fielding experienced relative indulgence from maternal relatives, though he maintained contact with his charming yet irresponsible father during visits to , influences that shaped his early exposure to both stability and dissipation.

Eton and Early Intellectual Formation

Fielding entered in 1719, at the age of twelve, after his mother's death the previous year and amid family disruptions from his father's remarriage. He remained at the school until 1724, receiving the standard curriculum of the era, which emphasized classical languages and texts. This education immersed him in Latin and Greek authors, including , , and , cultivating a command of ancient literature that underpinned his satirical techniques and narrative structures in later prose works. During his time at Eton, Fielding formed enduring friendships with contemporaries such as William Pitt the Elder (later ) and George Lyttelton, both of whom shared his classical interests and would intersect with his political commentary in adulthood. ) Other schoolmates included Charles Hanbury Williams and Thomas Winnington, fostering networks that exposed him to aristocratic and intellectual circles.) These associations, combined with the school's emphasis on and moral philosophy drawn from classics, honed his critical faculties and appreciation for irony and human folly, traits central to his emergent worldview. A notable disruption occurred in spring 1721, when Fielding absconded from Eton, possibly reflecting a rebellious or dissatisfaction with , though he subsequently returned to finish his . This incident, amid an otherwise formative period, did not derail his intellectual progress; rather, Eton's regimen solidified his proficiency in classical and , as evidenced by his adult quotations and adaptations from sources like and . The school's environment thus provided the foundational erudition that distinguished Fielding from less classically trained contemporaries, enabling his blend of humor, ethics, and social observation in early dramatic and journalistic efforts post-Eton.

Literary Career

Dramatic Works and Theatrical Satire

Fielding commenced his dramatic career in 1728 with Love in Several Masques, a comedy of intrigue premiered on 16 February at Theatre.) This debut was followed by a prolific output of plays in the early 1730s, including Rape upon Rape (also titled The Coffee-House Politician), staged in 1730; The Temple Beau (1730); The Author's Farce (1730), a burlesque on literary hackery; The Grub Street Opera (1731); The Tragedy of Tragedies (1731), parodying ; The Modern Husband (1732); The Old Debauchees (1732); and The Covent Garden Tragedy (1732), which satirized sentimental theater and urban vice. These works blended , farce, and mock-tragedy to expose social hypocrisies, marital infidelity, and the pretensions of the stage, drawing on classical models like while adapting them to contemporary English follies. By 1735, Fielding had established the Great Mogul's Company at the Little Theatre (or New Theatre) in Haymarket, shifting toward bolder amid growing opposition to Robert Walpole's administration. His breakthrough came with Pasquin: A Dramatick Satire on the Times, debuted on 5 1736, which framed a of two contrasting plays—a realistic street and a bombastic —to deride theatrical artifice, parliamentary , and ministerial favoritism, enjoying an unprecedented run of 45 performances. This was swiftly followed by The Historical Register for the Year 1736 (premiered 21 January 1737 at Haymarket), a sequel-like afterpiece that directly lampooned Walpole as "the Quidnunc" and critiqued taxes, , and blunders through allegorical puppets and absurd debates. The incisive political edge of these satires, which amassed audiences exceeding 50,000 over their runs and fueled public discourse on governmental overreach, prompted Walpole's government to enact the Theatrical Licensing Act on 21 June 1737 (10 Geo. II c. 28). The statute mandated prior approval from the for all new plays, restricted performances to patent theaters ( and ), and curtailed unlicensed venues like Haymarket, effectively suppressing Fielding's operation and curtailing his dramatic output thereafter. While earlier burlesques targeted cultural vanities, Fielding's later works exemplified causal linkages between unchecked power and moral decay, employing layered irony and populist wit to advocate reform without endorsing partisan extremes, though their perceived threat to stability underscored tensions between artistic liberty and state control in Hanoverian Britain. This legislative backlash redirected Fielding toward , where his satirical acuity persisted.

Journalism and Political Commentary

Fielding entered periodical journalism in the wake of the Licensing Act of 1737, which effectively banned his satirical plays by requiring government approval for new theatrical works, prompting a pivot to prose satire as a vehicle for political critique. On November 15, 1739, he launched The Champion; or, British Mercury, a thrice-weekly newspaper edited under the persona of Hercules Vinegar, self-styled "Censor of ," which combined humorous essays, moral reflections, and sharp attacks on the administration of Prime Minister , whom Fielding accused of corruption and ministerial tyranny. Fielding authored numerous pieces, identifiable by signatures such as "C" or "L," targeting not only political figures but also journalistic rivals and social hypocrisies, with the publication running until June 1741 and achieving significant circulation through its blend of patriotism and invective. Following Walpole's resignation in February 1742 amid the fallout from the , Fielding's commentary aligned more closely with the succeeding Pelham ministry, reflecting a pragmatic shift toward supporting the established against factionalism. This evolution culminated during the , when he initiated The True Patriot: And the History of Our Own Times on November 5, 1745, a weekly periodical that ran for 33 issues until June 17, 1746, explicitly defending the Hanoverian dynasty, chronicling European affairs, and decrying rebellion as treasonous anarchy. The paper included sections on and anti-Jacobite propaganda, positioning Fielding as a staunch advocate for constitutional stability amid fears of . In his later journalistic venture, The Covent-Garden Journal, launched on January 4, 1752, and published twice weekly until November of that year under the pseudonym Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Fielding—now a —integrated reports from his court with literary essays, social observations, and calls for moral reform, critiquing urban vice, , and electoral while promoting . This periodical, sold initially at three pence per issue, exemplified Fielding's mature style of blending entertainment with advocacy for legal and ethical improvements, influencing subsequent reformist journalism by emphasizing empirical exposure of crime over mere partisanship. Throughout these efforts, Fielding's writings privileged unvarnished critique of power abuses, grounded in his firsthand observations of society, though his pro-government stance post-1742 drew accusations of from opponents.

Major Novels and Prose Innovations

Fielding's first significant prose work, An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, published anonymously in April 1741, served as a direct of Samuel Richardson's (1740), exposing the hypocrisies underlying sentimental virtue narratives through the character of Shamela, a cunning opportunist masquerading as chaste. The novella's epistolary format mimicked Richardson's style while inverting its moral pretensions, highlighting how social climbing and sexual manipulation could be cloaked in pious language. This satirical impulse expanded in The History of the Adventures of and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams (1742), initially conceived as a male counterpart to Pamela—with as Shamela's brother resisting —but evolving into a fuller comic narrative featuring road adventures, clerical folly, and critiques of vanity across classes. In its , Fielding articulated a foundational theory for the , defining it as a "comic epic poem in " that differs from or romance by representing "not those things minute and trifling, which some writers of this kind have vulgarly affected," but rather ludicrous actions of low characters to provoke mirth while instructing through ridicule of vices like and avarice. The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (1743), included in Fielding's Miscellanies, inverted heroic biography to satirize political "greatness" as mere dominance through cunning and , modeling its anti-hero on the real-life (executed 1725) to lampoon figures of power who betray public trust for self-interest. The work's ironic elevation of villainy as virtue underscored Fielding's disdain for empty grandeur, employing mock-epic elevation to expose how ambition without principle leads to societal harm. Fielding's magnum opus, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), comprised 18 books divided into six segments of three, emulating epic structure while chronicling the bastard protagonist's picaresque journey from rural innocence to urban trials, interwoven with providential plot twists, romantic entanglements, and social observations on benevolence versus self-love. Its innovations included a self-conscious omniscient narrator who intrudes to comment on events, classify characters by moral "species," and defend the work's realism—such as synchronizing fictional time with an for —against romantic improbabilities, thereby elevating the as a for ethical inquiry amid comic abundance. Amelia (1751), Fielding's final novel, shifted toward domestic tragedy, focusing on the virtuous wife Amelia Booth's endurance of poverty, infidelity, and urban vice in , with her husband Captain Booth embodying flawed humanity redeemed through suffering rather than innate goodness. Less comedic than predecessors, it critiqued , legal , and inequities, yet retained authorial interventions to moralize on and Christian resignation. Fielding's prose innovations collectively advanced the novel from episodic burlesque toward structured realism, pioneering the "comic epic in prose" genre that integrated Homeric machinery with contemporary manners, used irony and burlesque to dissect social pretensions, and asserted narrative authority through digressions that framed human actions within a providential order, influencing subsequent writers by prioritizing moral causation over mere sentiment. His works privileged empirical of character motives—rooted in self-interest balanced by virtue—over idealized romance, establishing the form's capacity for causal analysis of societal ills like corruption and class hypocrisy.

Personal Life

Marriages and Domestic Relationships

Fielding married Charlotte Craddock, the daughter of a Salisbury clergyman, on 28 February 1734. The couple resided initially in East Stour, Dorset, before relocating to , where Craddock's inheritance of £1,500 provided financial support amid Fielding's uncertain career. They had five children, though only one daughter survived to adulthood. Craddock died on 7 November 1744 following complications from childbirth. Following Craddock's death, Fielding developed a relationship with Mary Daniel, who had served as maid to his first wife and assisted during her final illness. On 27 November 1747, Fielding married Daniel at St Benet Paul's Wharf in , disregarding social conventions as she was six months pregnant with their child at the time, which provoked . The union produced five children, including sons William (born 1748) and John (born 1750), though three daughters died in infancy. Daniel accompanied Fielding on his final voyage to in 1754 for health treatment and outlived him, dying in 1802. This second marriage stabilized Fielding's household during his later judicial and literary endeavors, with Daniel managing domestic affairs amid his growing family obligations.

Family Ties and Literary Collaborations

Henry Fielding maintained close familial bonds with his siblings, born to parents Edmund Fielding, an army officer, and Sarah Gould, who died in 1718 when Henry was eleven. His siblings included Catharine (b. 1708, d. 1750), Ursula (b. 1709, d. 1750), Sarah (b. November 8, 1710, d. April 9, 1768), Beatrice (b. 1714, d. 1751), and later half-siblings such as John Fielding (b. 1721, d. 1780), who succeeded Henry as a magistrate but did not pursue literature. These ties were strained by family disputes following their mother's death and their father's remarriage, yet Henry and Sarah developed a particularly affectionate and supportive relationship, with Sarah joining him in London during the 1740s, possibly residing with his household and children. Sarah Fielding emerged as a notable author in her own right, publishing works including the The Adventures of David Simple (1744), which explored themes of benevolence and human folly akin to her brother's satirical style. Henry actively supported her literary endeavors, authoring a for the second edition of David Simple in which he praised her "vast Penetration into " and capacity for expressing "lofty and noble Sentiments." He also revised and corrected portions of the text, influencing subsequent editions and blurring attributions due to his greater fame, as early readers sometimes mistook her anonymous publications for his own. Their collaboration extended to mutual intellectual exchange, evidenced by surviving discussing literary matters, composition, and critiques of contemporaries like . While no joint-authored works are definitively confirmed, scholarly analysis suggests Henry's hand in sections of Sarah's later The History of (1760), incorporating revisions that align with his techniques. This familial literary interplay positioned Sarah within the era's evolving novelistic tradition, benefiting from Henry's editorial guidance and network without subordinating her independent voice.

Financial Pressures and Health Decline

Fielding's income as a Westminster magistrate, appointed in 1748, consisted of an annual government stipend of £400 supplemented by fees from the office, though the latter often fell short of expectations and totaled around £300 in practice due to his principled refusal to engage in corrupt practices common among contemporaries. This modest remuneration strained his resources, as he supported a large family—including his second wife Mary Daniel, whom he married in November 1747, and several children from both marriages—while maintaining a household amid London's high living costs. Earlier literary successes, such as Tom Jones (1749), provided temporary relief but were insufficient to offset ongoing expenditures, including the operational costs of his Bow Street office and the establishment of the thief-takers (precursors to the Bow Street Runners), which he funded partly from personal means without adequate reimbursement. By the early 1750s, these pressures compounded as his deteriorating health curtailed his ability to ride the Western Circuit as a barrister, further eroding potential earnings. Fielding's health began a marked decline in the winter of 1753–1754, exacerbated by a severe cold spell that aggravated his chronic conditions. He suffered from , , , and advanced dropsy (), which caused massive fluid accumulation in his and legs, rendering him emaciated, lame, and largely ; by 1754, surgeons had tapped him three times to remove excess water—14 quarts initially, then 13, with subsequent procedures yielding less as his body weakened. Ethical constraints prevented him from augmenting his income through exploitative fees, leaving his family "very slenderly provided for" even as he received a small . In a desperate bid for recovery, advised by physicians that a warmer offered his last chance, Fielding embarked on a sea voyage to on June 26, 1754, from the Downs, accompanied by his wife and youngest daughter; en route, he underwent another tapping on June 28, removing 10 quarts of fluid, yet arrived in frail and unable to walk without aid. He succumbed to his ailments there on October 8, 1754, at age 47, documenting the ordeal in Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, published posthumously.

Judicial Career

Appointment as Magistrate

Following unsuccessful practice as a on the Western Circuit after being called to the bar on November 7, 1740, Henry Fielding faced mounting financial pressures that prompted a shift toward in support of the Pelham administration. This alignment, evidenced in his periodical The Jacobite's Journal (1747–1748), positioned him as a loyalist, facilitating his entry into judicial service. In late 1748, Fielding received commissions as for Westminster on October 25 and subsequently for , with his primary courthouse established at a residence on in . The appointments carried no fixed but allowed through fees from hearings and commitments, providing essential amid his debts exceeding £2,000. He commenced magisterial duties by early , ceasing his final journalistic on 5. These roles endowed him with authority over criminal examinations, , and licensing, though overlapped with unpaid constables, limiting initial enforcement capacity. Fielding's selection reflected trust in his legal acumen—honed at from 1728 to 1729—and reformist zeal, despite his prior satirical critiques of corruption. Operating from the Bow Street house, leased from the , he prioritized proactive justice over passive adjudication, laying groundwork for subsequent innovations like paid informants. This phase stabilized his household, including his second wife Mary Daniel and dependents, while channeling his observations of London's underclass into later writings.

Establishment of Bow Street Runners

In late , Henry Fielding was appointed a for Westminster and , taking his oath on 25 October at the Middlesex Sessions House. He established his residence at No. 4 , , as the operational hub for magisterial activities, transforming it into a centralized for handling complaints, issuing warrants, and prosecuting cases. This move addressed the inefficiencies of the existing system, where unpaid parish constables often neglected duties or colluded with criminals amid London's post-war crime surge following the 1745 Jacobite Rising, which had unleashed demobilized soldiers into urban vice and theft. To counter this, Fielding assembled an initial cadre of six to eight trusted constables—former parish officers and informants—whom he paid retainers from his own funds, dubbing them "Mr. Fielding's People." By 1749, this group formalized as the , or more precisely the Principal Officers of Westminster, London's earliest professional detective force, tasked with patrolling streets, executing arrests, and pursuing thieves across jurisdictions. Unlike amateur watchmen, these officers received salaries—initially supplemented by government rewards for convictions—and operated under Fielding's direct oversight, enabling rapid responses to reported felonies such as highway robbery and . Fielding's innovations extended beyond personnel; he instituted a rudimentary intelligence network by compiling weekly crime bulletins distributed via his periodical The Covent Garden Journal (1752), fostering cooperation among officers and informants while publicizing rewards to incentivize captures. This system yielded tangible results, including the 1750 disruption of the "Black Boy Gang" of coin-clippers through coordinated raids, demonstrating the efficacy of paid, accountable enforcement over the corrupt, decentralized watch system. By Fielding's death in 1754, the force had expanded influence, paving the way for his half-brother John Fielding's further with state funding of £200 annually by 1753.

Reforms Against Corruption and Crime

As magistrate from 1748, Fielding targeted systemic corruption among thief-takers—private informers who often committed crimes themselves and betrayed accomplices solely for statutory rewards—by deploying his newly organized constables to outpace and prosecute them, thereby reducing their influence and restoring trust in apprehensions. These thief-takers, reliant on bribes and selective prosecutions, exemplified the plaguing London's quasi-professional enforcers, which Fielding countered through salaried officers funded partly by grants of £200 annually, minimizing incentives for graft. His office also pursued corrupt public officials, including negligent and constables who prioritized personal gain over duty, leading to convictions that deterred malfeasance within the rudimentary policing apparatus. In his 1751 pamphlet An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers, Fielding diagnosed corruption as intertwined with broader societal vices like luxury-induced idleness and lax enforcement, arguing that "the Corruption of our Manners" and "the great Negligence and Corruption in the Execution of our Laws" fueled crime waves post-1745 Jacobite rising. He proposed remedies including reformed reward systems to encourage honest detections, stricter accountability for magistrates and constables via fixed salaries over fees, and coordinated patrols to preempt robberies rather than react punitively. These ideas extended his practical interventions, such as publicizing offender descriptions in handbills and newspapers to facilitate captures without corrupt intermediaries. Fielding's reforms emphasized proactive deterrence over mere punishment, including advocacy for victims to prosecute via subsidized and the establishment of a centralized network at for rapid response to felonies like highway robbery, which had surged to over 300 reported cases annually in the late . By 1753, these measures contributed to a reported decline in metropolitan robberies, though limited resources constrained scalability; his brother later institutionalized many of these anti-corruption protocols after Henry's death. Fielding's approach privileged empirical observation of London's dynamics over theoretical ideals, underscoring causal links between official and unchecked criminality.

Political Views and Controversies

Early Opposition to Walpole and Censorship

In the early 1730s, Henry Fielding emerged as a vocal critic of Walpole's administration through a series of satirical plays staged at London's theaters, targeting perceived corruption, bribery, and ministerial overreach. His 1730 play The Author's Farce, performed at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, allegorically lampooned Walpole's government as a show manipulated by corrupt figures, reflecting broader opposition sentiments in and Country party circles. This marked the onset of Fielding's theatrical assaults, which intensified amid Walpole's long tenure since 1721 and growing public discontent with excise taxes and patronage scandals. Fielding's opposition peaked in 1736–1737 with Pasquin, premiered on March 15, 1736, at the Haymarket under his management, which drew over 40 performances by satirizing legal and political hypocrisy through parallel street and court masques that mirrored Walpole's regime. Followed by The Historical Register for the Year 1736 on January 21, 1737, the latter featured undisguised ridicule of Walpole as "the " in a skit exposing governmental , contributing to its 53-night run despite mounting pressure. These works, aligned with anti-Walpole periodicals like The Craftsman, amplified Patriot opposition but provoked retaliation, as Walpole viewed the stage as a direct threat to his authority amid parliamentary challenges. The culmination came with the Theatrical Licensing Act (10 George II c. 28), introduced in on March 23, 1737, and receiving on June 21, 1737, which mandated prior submission of play scripts to the for approval, effectively censoring on stage. Enacted explicitly in response to Fielding's Haymarket productions, the Act limited performances to patent theaters ( and ) and silenced unlicensed venues, forcing Fielding to abandon theater management by summer 1737 and pivot to prose . While framed as regulating public morals, contemporaries recognized it as a tool to suppress Walpolean critiques, with Fielding's satires cited in debates as inciting disorder, though the measure endured until 1968 with minimal repeal efforts. This censorship curtailed Fielding's early career trajectory but underscored his role in highlighting executive overreach through unsparing dramatic exposé.

Evolution Toward Governmental Support

Following the fall of Robert Walpole's ministry in February 1742, Fielding's political stance underwent a notable shift from vehement opposition to alignment with the succeeding Whig administrations led by the Pelham brothers, and Thomas Pelham-Holles (). Previously a prolific satirist targeting Walpole's perceived corruption through plays like Pasquin (1736) and journalism in opposition outlets, Fielding began advocating for governmental stability amid threats like the Jacobite rising of 1745. His periodical The True Patriot (November 1745–June 1746), subtitled "A Bull-Dog, &c.," explicitly defended the Hanoverian regime and Pelham policies against Stuart pretenders, framing support as patriotic duty rather than partisan loyalty. This evolution reflected pragmatic adaptation to postwar challenges, including rising crime and social disorder, which Fielding addressed in pro-administration writings. In 1747–1748, his Covent-Garden Journal praised Pelham's fiscal prudence and administrative reforms, marking it as the primary periodical endorsing the ministry during that period. Pamphlets such as An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers (1751) aligned with Pelham interests by critiquing opposition-fueled leniency in while proposing stricter measures, though no direct evidence ties these to ministerial commissions. Fielding's appointment as for Westminster and on 9 October further embedded him in governmental structures, where he pursued initiatives that complemented rather than challenged executive authority. Scholars attribute this transition less to ideological volte-face—Fielding retained Whig principles emphasizing and anti-Jacobitism—than to disillusionment with factional opposition's inefficacy and personal circumstances, including financial strains that judicial office alleviated. By the early , his journalism and legal efforts prioritized national order over earlier hyperbolic critiques, influencing Pelham's broader agenda against crime waves post-1748. This phase culminated in Fielding's role as a quasi-official reformer, bridging literary with state-supported until health decline curtailed his activities.

Critiques of Social Hypocrisy and Morality

Fielding's satirical works relentlessly exposed the chasm between societal professions of and underlying , particularly among the , , and aspiring social climbers of 18th-century . He viewed as a pervasive threat to genuine benevolence, arguing in his 1743 essay "An Essay on the Knowledge of the Characters of Men" that dissemblers who conceal vices under moral rhetoric undermine social trust and ethical progress more than overt villains. This perspective informed his narrative technique, which juxtaposed priggish hypocrites against flawed but honest protagonists to advocate a pragmatic rooted in innate human benevolence tempered by , rather than rigid doctrinal pretense. In Shamela (1741), Fielding parodied Samuel Richardson's Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740) by transforming the ostensibly chaste servant into a calculating opportunist who feigns prudery to manipulate her employer into marriage, thereby lampooning the sentimental cult of apparent modesty that rewarded artifice over authentic character. The novella critiques how literary and social conventions elevated hypocritical virtue-signaling, with Shamela's letters revealing her strategic lewdness beneath pious language, a tactic Fielding extended to ridicule broader cultural hypocrisies in courtship and class mobility. Joseph Andrews (1742) further dissected moral posturing through the titular footman's steadfast chastity amid assaults by lecherous gentlewomen and corrupt parsons, contrasting Adams—a bumbling yet sincere cleric—with hypocritical superiors who preach charity while practicing and lasciviousness. Fielding used episodic misadventures to mock the era's stratified society, where the poor endured exploitation under the guise of paternalistic benevolence, and the elite invoked providence to justify avarice; the posits that true emerges from instinctive goodness, not affected . Fielding's Tom Jones (1749) amplified these themes on an epic scale, pitting the impulsive foundling's natural generosity against sanctimonious antagonists like the tutor Square, who espouses stoic rationalism yet pursues adulterous affairs, and Thwackum, a Calvinist divine who sermonizes against while embodying tyranny and . Blifil's calculated , feigned to secure inheritance, exemplifies how inherited privilege fosters duplicity, with Fielding's intrusive narrator decrying such "prudence" as masked that erodes communal bonds. The novel's resolution affirms providence rewarding over , though Fielding tempers by acknowledging human frailty's role in moral lapses. Through The History of the Life of the Late Mr. the Great (1743), Fielding equated criminal ambition with respectable "greatness," portraying Wild's rise via and as a mirror to politicians and magnates who cloak rapacity in patriotic or philanthropic . The mock- inverts heroic biography to argue that self-promotion, not , defines success, critiquing how societal honors reward the cunning dissembler over the ethically consistent. This work underscores Fielding's causal view that unchecked corrupts institutions, from courts to churches, by inverting into apparent .

Death and Legacy

Final Years and Voyage to Lisbon

Fielding's health declined precipitously in the early 1750s, afflicted by , dropsy, and other ailments that confined him to crutches and impaired his mobility. Despite these debilities, he maintained his role as a , conducting examinations and raids against criminals with reported vigor as late as 1753. Seeking respite from England's damp climate, Fielding resolved in 1754 to travel to , where warmer conditions were thought to benefit sufferers of dropsy. Accompanied by his wife Mary and daughter Mary, along with servants, he left his residence on 26 June and boarded the Queen of Portugal at . The voyage proved arduous, delayed by contrary winds that extended the passage beyond a month, during which Fielding endured intense physical pain, seasickness, and the vessel's squalid conditions. Fielding recorded the ordeal in The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, composed en route and published posthumously in 1755, offering a candid mix of autobiographical , critiques of naval mismanagement, and ironic commentary on fellow passengers and crew. The narrative highlights his wife's steadfast care amid shared hardships, including storms and inadequate provisions, while underscoring the causal toll of his overwork on his frailty. The party reached in August 1754, but Fielding's symptoms persisted unrelieved. He died there on 8 October 1754, aged 47, and was buried in the British Cemetery.

Posthumous Publications and Reception

Fielding's Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, documenting his arduous sea journey from to in June 1754 in pursuit of treatment for his advancing illness, appeared in print shortly after his death on 8 October 1754. Published in February 1755 by London bookseller Andrew Millar, the work blends travelogue, personal reflection, and , detailing physical torments aboard ship alongside wry commentary on human folly and medical quackery. Millar, who had issued Fielding's major novels, marketed it as a final testament, capitalizing on the author's established readership; the edition included a fragment of commentary on Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke's essays, though its authenticity has been debated among scholars due to editorial interventions. Subsequent compilations of Fielding's oeuvre emerged to meet demand, beginning with multi-volume sets that aggregated his novels, plays, essays, and journalism. A 12-volume edition of The Works of Henry Fielding, Esq., featuring a biographical preface, was issued around 1771, encompassing texts like Tom Jones (1749) and Amelia (1751) alongside lesser-known pieces. This was followed by a 10-volume set in 1784, again with a life sketch, reflecting publishers' efforts to present Fielding's output as a cohesive legacy rather than scattered pamphlets. By 1845, Henry G. Bohn released a single-volume condensation, signaling broader accessibility amid rising literacy rates, though critics noted omissions of Fielding's more licentious early dramas to suit Victorian sensibilities. These editions, often prefaced with hagiographic accounts emphasizing his judicial reforms over literary vices, preserved his corpus against obsolescence, with print runs driven by reprints of Tom Jones, which sold over 10,000 copies in its first year and sustained revenue posthumously. Fielding's reception solidified in the decades following his death as a pioneer of narrative realism and comic epic, distinct from Samuel Richardson's epistolary sentimentality. Late 18th-century reviewers, such as those in the Critical Review, lauded his structural innovations—omniscient narration, interpolated essays, and plot symmetry—as elevating the novel from Grub Street ephemera to a morally instructive form capable of dissecting social corruption. His emphasis on providence guiding flawed characters through vice toward virtue influenced Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott, who echoed his ironic detachment and critique of hypocrisy, though some moralists decried the earthy vitality of figures like Tom Jones as perilously indulgent. By the early 19th century, Fielding's works were staples in circulating libraries, with Tom Jones adapted for stage and serialized, underscoring his causal view of human behavior—rooted in innate appetites checked by reason and law—over abstract idealism. This enduring appeal stemmed from empirical fidelity to observed manners, unmarred by didactic excess, positioning him as a counterweight to Rousseauian romanticism in European letters.

Enduring Impact on Literature and Law

Fielding's contributions to the form endure through his pioneering use of the omniscient authorial voice, which allowed for ironic commentary on character motivations and societal flaws, as exemplified in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), widely regarded as one of the first great comic novels in the language. This technique, combined with structured plots drawing on epic models, shifted prose fiction from episodic sentimentality—such as in Samuel Richardson's works—toward realistic narrative arcs that integrated moral philosophy with humor, influencing later realists like and . His emphasis on empirical observation and causal sequences in storytelling, evident in the detailed social milieus of (1742) and Tom Jones, prefigured the novel's role as a vehicle for dissecting and institutional corruption without didactic moralizing, establishing conventions still echoed in modern satirical fiction. Scholars note that Fielding's self-reflexive prefaces, such as the "Bilbilian" analogy in Tom Jones, formalized the genre's theoretical foundations, distinguishing it from romance and . On the legal front, Fielding's creation of the Bow Street Runners in 1749 introduced England's first salaried detective force, comprising six constables who patrolled streets, pursued thieves, and compiled systematic crime intelligence, departing from the reactive, underpaid watchmen system prevalent since the 1730s. These "thief-takers," funded partly by parliamentary grants and rewards, reduced highway robberies through proactive measures like horse patrols and victim coordination, with records showing over 300 arrests in their early years. Continued by his blind half-brother John Fielding until 1780, the model emphasized prevention via lighting reforms and public notices, influencing Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, which professionalized policing nationwide on similar principles of visibility and accountability. Fielding's Charge to the Jury (1749) and pamphlets further codified procedural fairness, advocating evidence-based prosecutions that curbed corruption in magistracy courts.

List of Works

Novels

An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews (1741) is Fielding's satirical parodying Samuel Richardson's Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), portraying the titular character as a cunning opportunist who feigns chastity to ensnare a gentleman, thereby exposing perceived hypocrisies in sentimental fiction. The work, published anonymously under the Conny Keyber, critiques moral pretensions through epistolary form and exaggeration, influencing Fielding's later narrative techniques. The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams (1742), Fielding's first full-length novel, extends the Shamela by inverting Richardson's plot: , Pamela's brother, resists seduction while traveling with the virtuous parson Adams, blending picaresque elements with comic episodes that satirize social vanities and champion innate goodness over affected propriety. Published in February 1742 by A. Millar, it marks Fielding's shift to "comic epic in prose," drawing on Cervantes for mock-heroic structure and episodic adventures. The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (1743), included in Fielding's Miscellanies volume, satirizes through the biography of a real-life turned gang leader, executed in 1725, equating "greatness" with selfish villainy and critiquing figures like via ironic . Released in spring 1743, the employs anti-heroic irony to dissect ambition and hypocrisy, distinguishing true benevolence from fraudulent power. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), Fielding's magnum opus, chronicles the bastard Tom's roguish yet good-hearted journey from rural foundling to rightful heir, interwoven with subplots exposing class pretensions, romantic follies, and providential across 18 books. Published in six volumes on 28 1749 by A. Millar, it sold copies rapidly, pioneering omniscient and moral essays to advocate prudence tempered by benevolence. Amelia (1751), Fielding's final novel, shifts to domestic tragedy, following virtuous Amelia Booth's endurance of her husband Billy's imprudence, imprisonment, and temptations in , emphasizing conjugal fidelity amid urban and critiquing legal inequities. Issued on 19 December 1751 in four volumes, it reflects Fielding's experiences, subordinating to sentimental realism while probing themes of and redemption.

Plays

Fielding authored twenty-eight plays between 1728 and 1742, primarily comedies, burlesques, and political satires staged at venues such as the Royal, , and the Little Theatre in the Haymarket. These works often lampooned corruption in government, theater conventions, and social pretensions, contributing to his reputation as a leading dramatist before the Licensing Act of 1737 curtailed unlicensed performances. Key plays include:
  • Love in Several Masques (premiered 1728), a comedy of intrigue marking his debut as a playwright.
  • The Temple Beau (1730), satirizing legal and clerical hypocrisy.
  • Rape upon Rape; or, The Justice Caught in His Own Trap (1730), a farce critiquing judicial miscarriage.
  • The Author's Farce (1730), a meta-theatrical puppet show parodying aspiring writers and dramatic failures.
  • Tom Thumb (premiered 14 April 1730 at the Haymarket Theatre), a burlesque tragedy expanded in 1731 as The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great, mocking heroic bombast in contemporary drama.
  • The Modern Husband (1732), exposing marital infidelity and mercenary marriages.
  • Pasquin: A Dramatick Satire on the Times (premiered 5 March 1736), a rehearsal play-within-a-play that ran for 46 performances and targeted political theater and corruption, exacerbating calls for censorship.
  • The Historical Register, for the Year 1736 (1737), a short satirical afterpiece alluding to Prime Minister Robert Walpole, performed just before the Licensing Act's passage on 21 June 1737 effectively ended Fielding's dramatic career.
Later efforts, such as (1737), adapted mythological elements for contemporary critique but saw limited success amid regulatory constraints. Many plays were collected posthumously in The Dramatic Works of Henry Fielding, Esq. (1755).

Journalism, Essays, and Poems

Fielding's journalistic endeavors began with The Champion (1739–1741), a tri-weekly periodical co-edited with James Ralph that blended , , and moral essays under Fielding's Captain Vinegar; he contributed regularly from its inception on November 15, 1739, until June 1740, focusing on critiques of and theatrical matters. Later, during the Jacobite rising, he launched The True Patriot (November 5, 1745–June 17, 1746), a pro-Hanoverian publication with 37 issues that defended the government through essays on loyalty and patriotism, often signed "Sir Beltjacket." In 1747, The Jacobite's Journal (January 3–November 5, 1747) appeared as an ironic pro-government satire in 49 numbers, mocking Jacobite sympathizers while promoting Whig values; Fielding wrote under the persona of a Jacobite convert to orthodoxy. His final major periodical, The Covent-Garden Journal (January 4–November 25, 1752), ran for 72 twice-weekly issues, combining court reports from his magistracy with essays on , law, and social reform, signed as "Sir Alexander Drawcansir." Fielding's essays, often embedded in his journals or collected separately, emphasized moral philosophy, conversation, and human character. In Miscellanies (1743), a three-volume set, he included key pieces such as "An Essay on the Knowledge of the Characters of Men" (analyzing psychological motivations), "An Essay on Conversation" (advocating over ), and "An Essay on the Account of the Conduct of the World" (exploring providence and vice). Other notable essays from periodicals include "A Farewell to the Reader" (1741, reflecting on public taste) and "An Essay on Nothing" (1743, a satirical defense of triviality). These works drew from classical influences like and , prioritizing empirical observation of society over abstract speculation. His poetic output, though less central to his reputation, featured early satirical and verses. Fielding's debut publication was The Masquerade (1728), a poem critiquing social affectation at public assemblies. Other examples include "Part of Juvenal's Sixth Satire, Modernized in Burlesque Verse" (1730s, parodying marital vices) and occasional pieces like "A Pipe of " (verses toasting simple pleasures over pretension). Collected in Miscellanies and later editions, these poems employed Hudibrastic couplets for humor, aligning with his broader satirical style but yielding fewer enduring works compared to his prose.

References

  1. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG27186
  2. https://udpress.udel.edu/book-title/henry-fielding-1707-1754-novelist-playwright-journalist-magistrate-a-double-anniversary-tribute/
  3. https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/henry-fielding/
  4. https://openyls.law.yale.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/d4b76c54-7843-45ff-9c02-a886768e6031/content
  5. https://victorianweb.org/previctorian/fielding/bio.html
  6. https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1525
  7. https://susannahfullerton.com.au/22-april-1707-henry-fielding-is-born/
  8. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/j/joseph-andrews/henry-fielding-biography
  9. https://www.grubstreetproject.net/people/270/
  10. https://findoes.etoncollege.com/henry-fielding/
  11. https://www.jstor.org/stable/438107
  12. https://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/28583/henry-fielding-was-an-old-etonian-novelist-who-understoodf-common-humanity/
  13. https://alg.manifoldapp.org/read/part-4-neoclassicism-and-the-eighteenth-century-1603-1688/section/04bb89c9-a507-4ee2-aba5-2d5cb139adbd
  14. https://www.addall.com/books-in-order/henry-fielding/
  15. https://geniuses.club/genius/henry-fielding
  16. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%257CA206866538&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=10654917&p=LitRC&sw=w
  17. https://thehistoricalregister.wordpress.com/the-stage-licensing-act-of-1737/
  18. https://archive.org/details/historicalregist00fiel
  19. https://www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com/abstract/10.1093/actrade/9780199257911.book.1/actrade-9780199257911-div1-40
  20. https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1115
  21. https://thewritingpost.com/2020/06/10/theatrical-licensing-act-of-1737/
  22. https://www.artandpopularculture.com/Licensing_Act_of_1737
  23. https://brill.com/display/book/9789042028883/B9789042028883-s004.pdf
  24. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Fielding
  25. https://books.openedition.org/psn/4579?lang=en
  26. https://www.amazon.com/Champion-Containing-Humourous-Political-Critical/dp/1379375479
  27. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/political-biography-of-henry-fielding/4C0A0480BCE50576C75C8B2135F6128E
  28. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-True-Patriot-And-the-History-of-Our-Own-Times
  29. https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7989
  30. https://www.weslpress.org/9780819551276/the-true-patriot-and-related-writings/
  31. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Covent-Garden-Journal
  32. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-covent-garden-journal-and-a-plan-of-the-universal-register-office-9780198185093
  33. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Covent-Garden_Journal
  34. https://www.enotes.com/topics/henry-fielding-shamela/criticism/criticism/sheridan-baker-essay-date-1953
  35. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30962
  36. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/j/joseph-andrews/summary-and-analysis/authors-preface
  37. https://www.gradesaver.com/joseph-andrews/e-text/authors-preface
  38. https://ir.ua.edu/bitstream/123456789/9610/1/675059.pdf
  39. https://content.ucpress.edu/title/9780520230699/9780520230699_chapter_one.pdf
  40. https://literariness.org/2019/05/28/analysis-of-henry-fieldings-novels/
  41. https://www.salisburycivicsociety.org.uk/plaques/charlotte-cradock-1712%25C2%25B1-1744/
  42. https://www.madamegilflurt.com/2013/10/on-this-day-death-of-henry-fielding.html
  43. https://swetenham.org/getperson.php?personID=I1833&tree=1
  44. https://www.thepeerage.com/p24513.htm
  45. https://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/fldgh/about.htm
  46. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Daniel-7814
  47. https://www.grubstreetproject.net/people/11198/
  48. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/413218/summary
  49. https://www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com/view/10.1093/actrade/9780199266753.book.1/actrade-9780199266753-div1-13
  50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt130jpdf
  51. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/516702/summary
  52. https://cincinnatistate.ecampus.com/correspondence-henry-sarah-fielding/bk/9780198112730
  53. https://www.bsanz.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/Script-and-Print-2004_2020/Script-and-Print_30_2006/Volume-30_No-2/SP_2006_Vol30_No2_pp093-102.pdf
  54. https://academic.oup.com/book/34655/chapter/295278179
  55. https://academic.oup.com/book/34655/chapter/295278804
  56. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1146/1146-h/1146-h.htm
  57. https://www.jstor.org/stable/435170
  58. https://www.history.co.uk/this-day-in-history/25-october/henry-fielding-becomes-justice-of-the-peace
  59. https://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/30742/henry-fielding-was-a-great-novelist-journalist-and-magistrate/
  60. https://www.londonlives.org/static/Pretrial.jsp
  61. https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/henry-fielding
  62. https://www.monash.edu/arts/philosophical-historical-indigenous-studies/eras/past-editions/edition-five-2003-november/1063-2
  63. https://www.londonlives.org/book/chapter5.html
  64. https://lahilden.com/bow-street-runners-londons-first-police-force/
  65. https://www.gcsehistory.com/faq/bowstreetrunners.html
  66. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Bow-Street-Runners/
  67. https://study.com/academy/lesson/bow-street-runners-history-facts.html
  68. https://www.regencyhistory.net/blog/bow-street-runners-and-policing
  69. https://www.londonlives.org/static/Policing.jsp
  70. https://drangelabuckley.substack.com/p/the-bow-street-runners
  71. https://historiclondontours.com/tales-of-london/f/mr-fieldings-people
  72. https://objectbale.wordpress.com/2017/04/15/cops-and-robbers-the-fielding-brothers/
  73. https://www.quillsandquartos.com/post/the-bow-street-runners-england-s-first-police-force
  74. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37650/37650-h/37650-h.htm
  75. https://rictornorton.co.uk/gu03.htm
  76. https://www.jstor.org/stable/460481
  77. https://www.jstor.org/stable/564916
  78. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/469147/summary
  79. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00335636409382667
  80. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3817307
  81. https://www.huntington.org/verso/british-theater-censorship-georgian-era
  82. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/431806/summary
  83. https://books.google.com/books?id=FfsyZZy57UMC
  84. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/an-enquiry-into-the-causes-of-the-late-increase-of-robbers-and-related-writings-9780198185161
  85. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236774564_Henry_Fielding_Politician
  86. https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Enquiry_Into_the_Causes_of_the_Late_I.html?id=DJfFH437SVQC
  87. https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4991&context=utk_gradthes
  88. https://uh-ir.tdl.org/bitstreams/a9e380fb-7086-447f-9d00-af0134f49baa/download
  89. https://www.academia.edu/107060454/The_relationship_of_the_morality_of_Henry_Fieldings_novels_to_their_art
  90. https://arjonline.org/papers/arjhss/v9-i1/11.pdf
  91. https://www.academia.edu/102602510/The_problem_of_ridicule_in_Henry_Fieldings_Joseph_Andrews
  92. https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0104646
  93. https://www.english-lecturer.com/fieldings-jonathan-wild/
  94. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography%2C_1885-1900/Fielding%2C_Henry_%281707-1754%29
  95. https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-journal-of-a-voyage-_fielding-henry_1755
  96. https://www.biblio.com/book/journal-voyage-lisbon-late-henry-fielding/d/253622272
  97. https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-works-of-henry-field_fielding-henry_1771_12
  98. https://collections.soane.org/b10171
  99. https://archive.org/details/worksofhenryfiel00fiel
  100. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-henry-fielding/introduction/FA748BFF09721B1195AFA10BC1774A37
  101. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/abstract/document/obo-9780199846719/obo-9780199846719-0024.xml
  102. https://a2zliterature.com/tom-jones-by-henry-fielding-a-critical-analysis/
  103. https://utppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3138/ecf.27.2.201
  104. https://fiveable.me/literature-in-english-late-17th-to-mid-19th-century/unit-7/fieldings-influence-development/study-guide/hmYnUIvByORy0ZLi
  105. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9f4srd/revision/3
  106. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-notes/21913621
  107. https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_an-apology-for-the-life-_fielding-henry_1741
  108. https://jacklynch.net/Texts/shamela.html
  109. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9611/9611-h/9611-h.htm
  110. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5256/5256-h/5256-h.htm
  111. https://www.whitmorerarebooks.com/pages/books/6892/henry-fielding/the-history-of-tom-jones-a-foundling
  112. https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=fielding%2Bhenry&ds=5&fe=on&n=&sortby=1&tn=the%2Bhistory%2Bof%2Btom%2Bjones&cm_sp=mbc-_-ats-_-filter
  113. https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/fielding-henry/amelia/127864.aspx
  114. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6098/6098-h/6098-h.htm
  115. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/henry-fielding-9780199257898
  116. https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2905
  117. https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/english-literature-1500-1799-biographies/henry-fielding
  118. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O186333/
  119. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/henry-fielding---plays-volume-iii-1734-1742-9780199257911
  120. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Champion.html?id=DrXT0AEACAAJ
  121. https://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/items/fadbd77b-e705-4419-ab7c-5cadb309d3e7
  122. https://philpapers.org/rec/BARHFF
  123. https://ia801605.us.archive.org/0/items/selectedessaysof00fiel/selectedessaysof00fiel.pdf
  124. https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691625720/essays-on-fielding-miscellanies
  125. https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/metabook?id=worksfielding
  126. https://allpoetry.com/Henry-Fielding
Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.