816 
FieMling- voted Husband. His second play, The Temple Beau, 
~~’ which came out in the follow: 
year, was also well 
received ; and from this period, down to the year 1737, 
he continued to bring forward a number of plays 
and farces for the stage. But although these produc- 
tions considerable merit, it anes allowed 
that Fielding’s genius did not qualify him to excel in 
tlramatic writing. In his plays is a good deal of 
humour and vivacity ; considerable knowledge of life 
and manners, and abundant proof of an attentive ob- 
servation of the humours, foibles, and affectations of 
mankind ; but they were evidently written with care- 
lessness and haste: he disregarded the rules of drama- 
tic decorum, despised the criticism of the stage, and 
obstinately refused to make any sacrifice to the feelings 
er taste of his audience. 
The emoluments which he derived from his drama- 
tic labours were by no means great ; and his imprudent 
extravagance still continuing, he found himself obliged 
te resort to some extraordinary expedient to supply his 
necessities. With this view, about the year 1735, he 
determined to bring forward a new, but certainly ra- 
ther hazardous species of public entertainment ; which 
is particularly worthy of notice, as it eventually pro- 
duced an extraordinary change in the constitution of 
the dramatic system, He brought together a great 
number of actors, and made preparations for exhibiting 
aap are ary f of a ped tendency, at the 
ittle theatre in the Haymarket, under the whimsical 
title of The Great Mogul's Company of Comedians. It 
is probable, that, in this singular undertaking, Fielding 
was actuated, in some degree, by resentment against 
the minister, Sir Robert Walpole, whom he had _for- 
merly flattered, but who hitherto neglected him. 
The project had the charm of novelty, and succeeded, 
at first, so well, as to answer his most sanguine expec- 
tations. But this novelty wore off with the first sea- 
son; and the design afterwards received so little en- 
coaragement, that he was forced to abandon it. The 
severity of the satire, however, which was contained in 
the pieces represented at the Haymarket theatre, galled 
the minister extremely ; and he determined, not only 
to put down this modern Aristo , but, like the 
At enian government upon a similar occasion, to re- 
strain the public theatres from becoming the scour, 
of statesmen at any future period. Accordingly, he 
laid hold of a piece, written by somebody or other, called 
the Golden Rump, which was full of abuse, not only 
against the parliament, the council, and the ministry, 
hut even against majesty itself ; and made such use of 
it, as occasioned the bringing into parliament a bill for 
the regulation of the theatre, and to explain an act 
made in the 12th year of the reign of Queen Anne, for 
reducing the laws concerning rogues, v. mds, com- 
mon players of interlude, &c. y this bill, which pas- 
sed into a law, after some opposition, in the year 1737, 
the representation of dramatic ‘ormances was con-. 
fined to Westminster and its liberties, or where the 
royal family should at any time reside ; and the theatres 
were prohi ited from bringing forward any play, or even 
prologue, ue, OF Eons .wishons its being first in- 
spected, and obtaining the licence of the Lord Chamber- 
lain. This act also took from the crown the power of li- 
censing any more theatres ; and inflicted heavy penal- 
ties on those who should afterwards bring forward 
pd perfgmenee, in defiance of the regulations of the 
Among the earlier publications.of Fielding, may be 
noticed an Essay on Conversation; an a on thie 
FIELDING. 
cn the 3 a Jo 
owledge of the Characters of Men ; a Journey a Rime 
this World to the next, and the history of Jonathan 
the Great ; in which he displayed his natural humour 
and knowledge of mankind, but of which the moral 
tendency is, at least, questionable. ° to? ef 
Some years after he to write for the stage, he 
married Miss Craddock, a young lady from 4 
who possessed a great share of beauty, and a fortune of 
L. 1500 nds ; and about the same time, he suc- 
ceeded, ugh his mother, to an estate at Stower, in 
Dorsetshire, of somewhat better than L. 200 an- 
num. With this fortune, he wisely determi to bid 
adieu to all the follies and dissipation, to which he had 
. been hitherto addicted, and to retire, with his wife, to 
his seat in the country. But his natural disposition, 
and passion for society and show, unfortunately pre-~ 
vailed over all his prudent resolutions ; and in less than 
three years from the period of his retirement from tow1i; 
his extravagance, and total neglect of economy, redu- 
ced him to his former state of poverty, dependence and 
distress. His ardent temperament, however, did not 
suffer him to be easily vp es Having determi- 
ned once more to exert his abilities, in a in; 
to procure a competent subsistence, he applied himselt’ 
to the study of the law; and, after the usual period of 
probation at the baron being called to the bar, he 
made no inconsiderable figure in Westminster Hall. 
But the intemperance of his early life now began to af: 
fect his health so seriously, as to prevent him from be« 
stewing the requisite attention on the duties of his la- 
borious profession, and consequently from reaching that 
degree of eminence, which his talents and learni 
might otherwise have enabled him to attain. ai 
all the severities of pain and poverty, however, he stilt 
found resources in his genius. For some years he de- 
voted his talents, in a great measure, to politics ; he 
was concerned in a political periodical paper, called 
the Champion, which owed its principal support to his 
prolific pen ; aid he was Hirscclf ‘the conductor of two 
publications,—the True Patriot, and the Jacobite Jour« 
nal, in which he supported the principles of the Hano- 
verian succession. About this period, he had the mis 
fortune to lose his wife, whom he had ever tenderly: lo- 
ved ; and the fortitude which he had oe 
the former distressing’ situations of his life, is said:to 
have entirely deserted him upon this trying occasion: 
His grief, indeed, was.so violent, that great apprehen- 
den were, for a considerable period, entertained of /his 
being ever again possessed of the ordinary powers of 
reason, ; : Baer 
Hitherto the genius of Fielding had been chiefly em- 
pores upon dramatic effusions, written, no doubt, 
with the view of supplying the exigencies of the mo< 
ment; or upon miscellaneous subjects of mere tempo 
rary interest. But the powers of his mind were now, 
fortunately, directed to a species of composition, in 
which he was liarly qualified to excel, and to which: 
he is principally indebted for his reputation with-pos- 
terity His celebrated noyels of Joseph Andrews, Ton 
Jones, and Amelia, penta in the maturity of his ge- 
nius, may be considered as forming a sort of era in the 
history of his own life, as well as in the literary history 
of his country ; and have elevated Fielding to the first 
rank among the writers of fictitious PPA.) 
But the employment, of his pen.could evidently afford 
him only a precarious subsistence ; and although he oc- 
casionally received large contributions from his friends, 
he is al 
and the pressure of want, to the extremity of distress. 
— 
to have been frequently reduced, by disease 
