Part 11 (1/2)

Lyttelton not only suggested and approved the great Comic Epic, and enabled distressed genius to live while composing it; his own worth and benevolence, together with those of the generous Allen, afforded Fielding, as he tells us, the materials for the picture here presented of Allworthy.

”The World,” he says, speaking of this picture, ”will not, I believe, make me the Compliment of thinking I took it from myself. I care not: This they shall own, that the two Persons from whom I have taken it, that is to say, two of the best and worthiest Men in the World, are strongly and zealously my Friends.” And a point of still closer personal interest is the fact, already noticed, that in the lovely character and person of Sophia Western, Fielding raised an enduring memorial to that beloved wife whose death had occurred a few years before the publication of _Tom Jones_. The authenticity of the portrait is explicitly stated in the _Invocation_ prefixed to Book xiii. Apostrophizing that 'gentle Maid,' bright 'Love of Fame,' Fielding bids her, in the eighteenth century phrase that falls so strangely on a modern ear, ”Foretell me that some tender Maid, whose Grandmother is yet unborn, hereafter, when under the fict.i.tious Name of _Sophia_ she reads the real worth which once existed in my _Charlotte_, shall, from her sympathetic Breast, send forth the _Heaving Sigh_.” Then follows, immediately, his own desire that he too may live in the knowledge and honour of far distant readers. Fielding lies buried under southern skies, far from his wife's English grave; but in the immortal pages of his masterpiece they are not divided.

[1] The Fiat appointing Fielding as Magistrate for the City and Borough of Westminster, now in the House of Lords, is dated July 30, 1748.

[2] On the house identified with Mr Graves' description, and now known as ”Fielding's Lodge,” a tablet has recently been placed, through the energy of Mr R. G. Naish of Twerton.

[3] See _Life of the Earl of Hardwicke_. G. Harris. 1847. Vol. II. pp.

456-7.

[4] _Tom Jones_. Dedication.

[5] See Appendix for this, hitherto unpublished, receipt.

[6] _London Magazine_. Feb. 1749.

[7] In Germany an edition of 1771 was followed by a second in 1780, and a third in 1786. In 1765 a lyrical comedy founded on the famous novel was acted in Paris; and the same year it was transformed into a German comedy by J.H. Steffens.

[8] S. T. Coleridge. Ma.n.u.script notes in a copy of _Tom Jones_, now in the British Museum.

[9] Ibid.

[10] J. T. Smith. _Nollekens and his Times_. Vol. i. pp. 124-5.

CHAPTER XII

MR JUSTICE FIELDING

”The princ.i.p.al Duty which every Man owes is to his Country.”

_Enquiry into the ... Increase of Robbers_.

To have created the English novel were, it might seem, achievement enough to tire for a while the most vigorous of intellects; but to the author of _Tom Jones_ the apathy of repose was unknown. At no period of Fielding's short life can he be discerned as doing nothing; and, indeed, to an insight so penetrating, to an ardour so irrepressible, the England of George the Second can have afforded but very little inducement to inaction.

Thus, in the one month of October 1748, the pages of _Tom Jones_ must have been nearing completion, if indeed the sheets were not already pa.s.sing through the press. The Hanoverian philippics of ”Mr Trott-Plaid” were still resounding in the _Jacobite's Journal_. While, on the 26th. of the month, Fielding's oaths were received for an entirely new role, that of a Justice of the Peace for Westminster. [1] Ten days later the _Jacobite's Journal_ had ceased to exist; and that a rumour was abroad connecting this demise of the _Journal_ with the bestowal of a new and arduous post on its editor appears from a paragraph in the _London Evening Post_. On Nov. 8, that organ prepares its readers for the fact that the now defunct ”Mr Trott-Plaid” may possibly ”rise awful in the Form of a Justice.” Within four weeks of this announcement 'Justice Fielding's' name appears for the first time in the Police-news of the day, in a committal dated December 10th [2]. And two days later he is sending three thieves to the Gatehouse, and admitting a suspected thief to bail, ”after an Examination which lasted several hours.” And it is interesting to notice that throughout this first month of his magisterial work the now 'awful form' of Justice Henry Fielding was kept constantly tempered in the public mind by the fact of his still undiminished popularity as a dramatist. In this December his comedies, with the inimitable 'romp' Kitty Clive as _Miss Lucy_, or the _Intrigueing Chambermaid_ or _Chloe_, as the case might be, were played no fewer than nine times on the Drury Lane boards.

Scarcely had Fielding bent his genius to these new responsibilities of examining Westminster suspects and sending the rogues of that city to prison, than he appears preparing for an extension of those duties over the county of Middles.e.x. To be a county magistrate in 1750, however, necessitated the holding of landed estate worth 100 per annum; and Fielding's estate, for many years, seems to have been his pen. In this difficulty he turned to the Duke of Bedford, whose public virtues, and private generosity, were so soon to be acknowledged in the Dedication of _Tom Jones_. It was but three weeks after his appointment that the Westminster magistrate wrote as follows to the giver of those ”princely Benefactions”:

”Bow Street. Decr. 13. 1748.

”My Lord,

”Such is my Dependence on the Goodness of your Grace, that before my Gout will permit me to pay my Duty to you personally, and to acknowledge your last kind Favour to me, I have the Presumption to solicite your Grace again. The Business of a Justice of Peace for Westminster is very inconsiderable without the Addition of that for the County of Middles.e.x.

And without this Addition I cannot completely serve the Government in that office. But this unfortunately requires a Qualification which I want. Now there is a House belonging to your Grace, which stands in Bedford St., of 70l. a year value. This hath been long untenanted, and will I am informed, require about 300l. to put in Repair. If your Grace would have the Goodness to let me have a Lease of this House, with some other Tenement worth 30l. a year, for 21 years, it would be a complete Qualification. I will give the full Worth for this lease, according to the valuation which any Person your Grace shall be pleased to appoint sets upon it. The only favour I beg of your Grace is, that I be permitted to pay the Money in two years, at four equal half-yearly Payments. As I shall repair the House as soon as possible, it will be in Reality an Improvement of that small Part of your Grace's estate, and will be certain to make my Fortune.

”Mr Butcher will acquaint your Grace more fully than perhaps I have been able to do; and if Your Grace thinks proper to refer it to him, I and mine will be eternally bound to pray for your Grace tho I sincerely hope you will not lose a Farthing by doing so vast a service to,

”My Lord your Grace's ”Most obliged most obed' humble servant ”H. Ffielding.” [3]

It seems probable that the Duke found better means of helping wit and genius, than by the leasing of the dilapidated tenement in Bedford Street.