Henry Fielding (1707-54) is renowned as a pioneer of the
English novel, particularly due to his best-known work “Tom Jones”. He was also
a reforming London magistrate.
Henry Fielding was born on 22nd April 1707 at
Sharpham Park in Somerset, this being the estate of his maternal grandfather.
His father was an army general. His mother died when he was aged only 11.
He was educated at Eton, where he was not particularly
well-behaved but came away with an excellent knowledge of Latin and Greek.
When aged 19 he attempted to run away with an heiress, and
during the years before he eventually married (when aged 27) his life could be
described as “rakish”, mixing with various dubious characters and thoroughly
enjoying himself. His fortunes varied between poverty and good living, the
latter funded by the writing of popular plays of a generally satirical nature –
around 20 in total - and the patronage of a wealthy distant cousin.
His marriage was a happy one, spent mainly on a small
country estate in north Dorset, although the Licensing Act of 1737, which
introduced much stricter censorship of what could be performed in theatres, led
to Fielding having to seek a new way of maintaining his lifestyle. He therefore
sold his estate and began to study for a career in the law. He accomplished
this aim in three years whereas it normally took twice that long.
He became a barrister in 1740 and began to practice the law,
although his health started to give him problems and his career did not last
long.
He therefore turned to writing prose fiction, the result of
which was “The Adventures of Joseph Andrews”, published in 1742. Fielding had
been annoyed by “Pamela” a prose work published in 1740 by Samuel Richardson
that had proved to be highly popular but which Fielding considered to be
pretentious and over-sentimental. He first wrote an anonymous satire entitled
“Shamela”, but followed this with the more extensive “Joseph Andrews”, which
purported to be the adventures of Pamela’s brother.
“Joseph Andrews” can be regarded as the first comic novel in
English. The author acknowledged on the title page his debt to Cervantes and
“Don Quixote” for the loose plot structure, but his use of comic situations and
presentation of well-rounded characters such as Parson Adams was entirely
original to him. It is easy to see how Charles Dickens in turn made use of
Fielding’s example when writing his “Pickwick Papers”.
Tragedy struck in 1743 when Henry Fielding’s wife Charlotte
died and he became seriously depressed. He was helped through this time by Mary
Daniel who had been the family’s maid but became a firm friend. They were
married in 1747.
In 1748 Henry Fielding was appointed Justice of the Peace
for Westminster, which served to broaden his already extensive knowledge of the
London underworld of criminals and ne’er-do-wells. This experience provided
much material for his greatest prose work, “The History of Tom Jones”,
published in 1749.
At the heart of the story is the interplay of the three main
characters – exuberant and sensuous Tom, cold and heartless Blifil, and the
object of desire for both of them, Sophia. There are several other memorable
characters including Squire Western, Mr Allworthy and Harriet Fitzpatrick.
Fielding’s gift was to base his characters on aspects of
real people that he had come across in his travels and work as a magistrate,
and also to create situations that interest the reader and make him/her want to
continue turning the pages. There is a certain amount of coarseness in the
book, and plain descriptions of sexual encounters, but none of this was at all
false to contemporary society in Fielding’s time.
Dr Samuel Johnson was highly critical of “Tom Jones”, much
preferring Henry Fielding’s third and final novel, “Amelia” (1751), although
this is rarely read today. This is a domestic novel, set around the marriage of
Amelia and Captain Booth, which is generally regarded as a pen-portrait of
Fielding’s own blissful love affairs.
Most people today would regard the depictions of squalor in
Newgate Jail, a pawnshop in Monmouth Street and a bailiff’s lock-up in Gray’s
Inn Road as being of much greater interest.
The book was a huge success, with Fielding being paid a
thousand guineas for the copyright and a second edition being called for on the
first day of publication.
Fielding was a magistrate for only five years, but he made a
considerable contribution during that time to improving the lot of his fellow
Londoners. For one thing, he set an example in his own court by refusing to
take the customary cut from fines imposed on people found guilty of minor
offences, which tended to lead to innocent people being convicted in error.
He wrote a pamphlet that pointed to connections between
crime, poverty and the consumption of cheap gin. This inspired his friend
William Hogarth to produce his series of prints on “Gin Lane and Beer Alley”,
with the net result being an Act of Parliament that restricted the sale of
spirits.
Another pamphlet by Henry Fielding sought to tackle the causes
of crime by proposing that hostels, workshops and infirmaries should be
established to help alleviate overcrowding and unemployment. However, these
suggestions were never acted upon.
In 1753 the Prime Minister, Henry Pelham, asked Henry
Fielding to suggest a plan for breaking up robber gangs that were then
terrorizing London. Fielding was not at well at the time, but he delayed a
visit to Bath, designed as a health cure, to undertake the work, which had an
entirely successful outcome. With winter approaching he decided to go to
Portugal instead of Bath, but did not live long enough to return.
However, his final piece of literary work was his “Journal
of a Voyage to Lisbon” that he wrote when on board ship. This piece is notable
for its humour and freshness as he notes the idiosyncrasies of the ship’s crew
and fellow passengers and bemoans the incompetence of bureaucrats and the
insolence of Customs officers.
Henry Fielding died in Lisbon on 8th October
1754, at the age of 47.
© John Welford
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