Page images
PDF
EPUB

receive the license of the Lord Chamber- his success. He could not afford to be idle, lain."

while striving to overcome this and the other difficulties which he found, in common with all young barristers, in his way. He had a tenderly loved wife and child, who depended solely on his exertions; the money was failing, and he was forced, during his regular attendance on the courts, and amidst his persevering study of the law, to find time for the writing of such light matter as was likely to bring an immediate return.

About this time Fielding became connected with "The Champion," a paper published three times a week, and was assisted in his management of it by James Ralph, a man of some note in his day, who had come originally from Philadelphia. It is a great proof of the esteem in which this publication was held, that it lived through the hard winter of 1739-40, when the Thames was frozen over, and all provisions, as well as In 1741, the General, Fielding's father, coals, and even water, reached an enormous died, at the age of sixty-five. His son was price. Literature in general was, as might none the richer by his death, as the General be expected, at a time when money was so seems always to have lived up to his fortune. much needed for the necessaries of life, in a In the February of the following year, Fieldmost depressed state. Many writers of first- ing brought out his first novel "The Adrate abilities were thankful to do the ill-paid ventures of Joseph Andrews, and his friend work of a drudge. Samuel Boyse, the au- Abraham Adams." It had probably been thor of "The Deity," a poem of some merit, written during his leisure time, at the close was forced to lie in bed for want of clothes; of the year 1741. Richardson's "Pamela " the death of Savage occurred at this time; had come out in 1740, and sold with astonAmherst, for many years a respectable ed- ishing rapidity: it was translated into French itor, died of grief and want, and found a within twelve months of its appearance; was grave by the charity of his bookseller; and so well known that the "Gentlemen's MagThomson, the author of "The Seasons," azine" abstained from reviewing "what was laboring hard at uncongenial work, to every one had read," and it was eulogized get a bare livelihood. But all this while even from the pulpit. It was with a view to The Champion" of which Dr. Drake throw ridicule on the low order of the morsays, "with the exception of The Free-ality of this novel, which rewards virtue thinker,' it is superior to any similar publi- with a fine wedding-dress, a handsome bridecation up to the time of its appearance, since the close of the eighth volume of the Spectator," made its way; and it is in its number for June 30th of this year (1740) that we find Fielding's first tribute to the genius of Hogarth.

groom, and a coach-and-six, that Fielding composed "Joseph Andrews." The inimitable Parson Adams, like most of Fielding's best characters, had an original; he was drawn from one of Fielding's intimate friends, the Rev. William Young.

As Fielding approached the time when he Mr. Young must have been an honorable would enter upon the active duties of his exception, in many points, to his fellow-clerprofession, he seems to have been anxious to gy of the day, when Sir Roger de Coverly, give up the name of being connected with in choosing a chaplain, found himself comliterature. He announced to his subscribers pelled to limit his requisitions to "a person that he should withdraw from "The Cham- of plain sense, rather than of much learning; pion," and soon after gave up his share in of good aspect, a clear voice, a sociable temthat paper, the editorship of which was made perament; and, if possible, a man that unover to Ralph. Fielding continued, how-derstood a little of backgammon." ever, for twelve months after his call to the bar, to contribute to its columns.

In describing the position of Parson Adams, Fielding was, no doubt, faithfully representing what he saw around him, and such a low estimate of the clergy could only have been brought about by their own shortcomings. Parson Adams

It was on the 20th of June, 1740, that Fielding assumed the wig and gown of a barrister. He chose the Western Circuit, in which he had many friends and relations, as his sphere of labor. He was very regular" Had no nearer access to Sir Thomas Booby and in his attendance on the circuit and sessions, my lady than through the waiting gentlewoman. and was rarely absent from Westminster... They both regarded the curate as a kind of Hall in the term times; he was not at all domestic only, belonging to the parson, who was averse to his profession, and had in himself at that time at variance with the knight; for all the qualities which usually cause a man the parson had for many years lived in a state to shine in it; he compiled an excellent of civil war, or which is perhaps as bad, civil work on criminal law, and acquired a great law, with Sir Thomas himself and the tenants of reputation for legal lore. But the name of a wit and a man of letters clung to him, and seems to have acted as an effectual barrier to

the manor."

The "Spectator" describes a state of things somewhat analogous to this, as exist

ing between the Parson and the Squire, of a parish contiguous to that of the good Sir Roger,

"The parson is always preaching at the squire, and the squire, to be revenged on the parson, never comes to church. The squire has made all his tenants atheists and tithe-stealers; while the parson instructs them every Sunday in the dignity of his order, and insinuates to them in almost every sermon, that he is a better man than his patron. In short, matters are come to such an extremity, that the squire has not said his prayers, either in public or in private, this half-year; and the parson threatens him, if he does not mend his manners, to pray for him in the face of the whole congregation."

short-lived splendor in Dorsetshire. "Some-
times," says Lady Mary Wortley Montague,
"they lived in decent lodgings, sometimes in
a garret." She was always cheerful and
uncomplaining; and Fielding speaks of her
in his preface to the Miscellanies, as
66 one
from whom I draw all the solid comfort of
my life;
"but her troubles at last did their

work upon her, and in this year, after many
months of declining health, she took a fever,
and died in the arms of her husband. Field-
ing's grief was so wild, and at the same
time so deep and lasting, that his friends
greatly feared for his reason.

The

On recovering from the immediate effects of this great calamity, Fielding applied once more to the law. In a preface which he It was the common custom for the poorer wrote at this time, to the second edition of clergy to engage in agricultural pursuits, his sister's book, "David Simple," he gave like Parson Trulliber; and even those of a the world to understand that, as he was now higher grade were ready to drive a bargain, making some progress in his profession, he and "smoke a pipe at the market ordinary," wished no longer to be regarded as a man of with the most mercenary of their flock. letters. It was not long, however, before he Fielding, unlike the sentimental Richardson, was again active in literature. In 1745, drew things as he saw them, and contrived, without idealizing his parson, to delineate a character which as far surpasses in beauty the perfect heroes of his fellow-novelist, as a natural rose, with its slight irregularities, does its mathematically correct prototype in wax. "How charming, how wholesome is Fielding! "said Coleridge to his friends; "to take him up after Richardson is like emerging from a sick-room, heated by stoves, into an open lawn on a breezy day in May." Richardson, who for the time being held a much higher rank as a novelist than the former comedian, was greatly enraged that one, so much his inferior, should dare to ridicule his successful novel, and he did not fail to communicate his anger to the two sisters of the offender, who joined with all the other women of the day in idolizing the author of "Pamela." "He told them that their brother was a person of low habits, and complained bitterly of his scurrility. From this time forth he could never see a single merit in anything the fellow wrote, and he persuaded his friends to think or say

so too."

Notwithstanding the anger of Richardson and his clique, the new novel made its way rapidly; a second edition was called for in the course of 1742, and a third in the March of the year following. Richardson consoled himself by saying that the success of Joseph Andrews was but a gush of ephemeral popularity; but "that his Pamela' would be remembered long after Joseph Andrews and its author were alike forgotten."

Mrs. Fielding had long been in delicate health, having been subject to many privations and vicissitudes since the time of her

when the Rebellion broke out, he started a newspaper in support of Government, to which he gave the name of "The New Patriot; " the immediate object of which was to write down the Jacobites. greater part of this paper is lost, only a few numbers having been preserved in Mr. Murphy's edition of Fielding's works. It had a good sale till the suppression of the Rebellion, when its publication was discontinued. In 1747, Fielding started another political paper, called "The Jacobite's Journal," the object of which was to put a finishing stroke to the life of those principles which had received so severe a shock at Culloden. At this period, Fielding was subjected to a violent and unjust persecution from his fellow-laborers in literature, who, not contented with fair weapons of attack, thrust before the publie the former errors of his private life. It is curious to find his enemies accusing him, among other offences, of having produced "the dry and unnatural character of Parson Adams."

On the death of his wife, Fielding had found great consolation in deploring her loss, and in talking over her virtues with a faithful and attached maid, whom she had left. Their common sorrow and common attachment to the memory of " the flower of Sarum gave birth to a feeling of strong mutual friendship, and three years after the death of his Charlotte, Fielding, thinking he could find no more faithful guardian for his children, or more sympathizing companion for himself, married this humble friend of his former wife, nor had he, as far as we know, ever reason to regret the step.

In 1749, just seven years after the appear

ance of Joseph Andrews, Fielding published full credence from Fielding, and many of his his "Tom Jones." This work was not, as has been stated, written "amidst the bustle of magisterial duties;" on the contrary, many years, and "those not the brightest of his life," had been spent in its composition. It had an immediate sale and became at once widely popular. The bookseller, Millar, who had purchased the copyright for six hundred pounds, added another hundred to the stipulated sum. There are few books upon which more widely different opinions have been expressed. Richardson saw in it nothing but vulgarity and immorality; Johnson spoke of Fielding as a "rascal," and in the meantime, his books have been translated into almost every European language.

brother magistrates. A gipsy woman, named Squires, was found in the house indicated by the girl, and sworn to, as having been engaged in the transaction, and notwithstanding an "alibi" attested by many witnesses, she was condemned to death on the testimony of Elizabeth Canning. The Mayor of London saved the poor creature's life, and a short time after, the girl herself was tried for wilful and corrupt perjury, and the whole story then appearing to be an invention, she was transported for life to the American Plantations. Fielding wrote a pamphlet on her case, which was replied to by his enemy, Sir John Hill. By this time Fielding's health was fast sinking, and his only hope of prolonging his life seemed to be "Tom Jones" was soon followed by a journey to another climate. At first, ar"Amelia." By this time the indiscretions rangements were made for his removal to of Fielding's youth began to tell upon his Bath, but it was found at the last moment constitution. He was, however, full of that his public services could not be well mental energy, and commenced a new peri- dispensed with. Street robberies, accomodical called The Covent Garden Journal," panied with violence, had become alarmalmost immediately after the publication of ingly prevalent, and Fielding, whose heart his last novel. In this Journal he commenced seems always to have been in his work, could a vigorous onslaught on some of the inferior not be spared when there was real work to writers of the day, and set apart a portion do. On the application of the Duke of Newof it for what he called "a Journal of the castle, he drew up a plan for the suppression War." The person principally attacked of street robberies, which proved to be so was Sir John Hill, who returned all Field- effective, that the dark nights of November ing's abuse with interest in a paper of his and December, 1753, passed without a single own called "The Inspector." Fielding had outrage. Fielding's life was now drawing to a powerful enemy, too, at this period in a close, and he had still made no provision Smollet, who seems rather to have disliked for his family, but he entertained a strong him for his intimacy with George Lyttleton, than from any personal cause. An abusive attack against the two friends, which appeared at this time, is attributed to Smollet, who was, at all events, guilty of a violent and scurrilous attack upon the justice and his patron, inserted in the first editon of his Peregrin Pickle, but withdrawn from the subsequent editions. Fielding had a third enemy in Bonnell Thornton, who edited the Drury Lane Journal. After editing the "Covent Garden Journal" for several months, Fielding was compelled to give it up on account of his increasing infirmities. He did not, however, neglect his magisterial duties, and in 1753, we find him taking an active part in the case of Elizabeth Canning, that case which puzzled so many of the wise heads of that day. Elizabeth Canning was an illiterate servant girl, who, being absent from her master's service for a month, accounted for her disappearance by telling a minute and circumstantial tale of being waylaid, and carried to a house of ill-fame, where she affirmed that she was forcibly detained, and fed on bread and water till she contrived to escape. Though there were some discrepancies in the story, it received

hope that this successful attempt to serve the public would be repaid after his death to those for whose future he had so many misgivings. During the whole winter he suffered severely with dropsy, and when summer arrived, he prepared to depart to a warmer air, and in the month of June, 1754, embarked in a trading vessel for Lisbon. A Journal which he kept on the passage records the inconvenience and discomforts under which a sea voyage was made in those days; in this last production of his pen, his buoyant spirits are everywhere to be traced. He reached Lisbon in August, to die two months after.

In closing our retrospect of the days of Henry Fielding, we must not neglect to acknowledge our obligation to Mr. Lawrence, to whose work we have been indebted for much information. Mr. Lawrence's entertaining book is, as its title tells us, not only a Life of Fielding, but a notice of his contemporaries; and in these contemporaneous notices consists, to say the least, half the interest of the work. In becoming a man's biographer, we are bound to follow, year after year, in his track, whether he introduces us to strange and moving scenes, or

E

[ocr errors]

keeps us by his side in the chimney-corner; much he had got. I can't tell you yet, sir,'
but, in a "notice," we are free to pick and said David. Here's half-a-crown from Mrs.
choose our materials, and Mr. Lawrence has Cibber, Got pless her- here's a shilling from
used this freedom with tact and discrimina- Mr. Macklin here is two from Mr. Havard
tion. His notices are generally so managed Got pless his merry heart. By this time David
- and here is something more from the poet,
as to contain just such information and just had unfolded the paper, when, to his great aston-
such amusement as one cares to have con-ishment, he saw it contained no more than one
cerning the characters one meets by the way,
in following another man's life. Were we
to begin to extract from the piquant anec-
dotes in this book, we should not know where
to end. We may, however, give two, which,
though partly belonging to the sketch of
Garrick, have sufficient connection with
Fielding to claim a place here:

hisses;

'If

penny! Garrick felt nettled at this, and next day spoke to Fielding about the impropriety of jesting with a servant. Jesting!" said Fielding, with seeming surprise; so far from it, I meant to do the fellow a real piece of service; for had I given him a shilling or half-a-crown, I know you would have taken it from him; but by giving him only a penny, he had a chance of calling it his own.'"

"At the rehearsal of the Wedding-Day, the young actor (Garrick) told Fielding that he We conclude with an appropriate extract feared the audience might express their disap- from Mr. Thackeray's Lectures: "I cannot probation of a particularly objectionable passage; hope to make a hero of Henry Fielding. and added, that a repulse might so flurry his Why hide his faults? Why conceal his spirits as to disconcert him for the rest of the weaknesses in a cloud of periphrasis? Why night.' But Fielding was inexorable. the scene is not a good one,' he said, let them in a marble toga, and draped and polished not show him, like him, as he is, not robed find that out. The actor's forebodings, how-in a heroic attitude, but with inked ruffles ever, turned out to be well grounded. The objectionable passage was met with a storm of and claret stains, in his tarnished laced coat, and Garrick, who was peculiarly sensitive and on his manly face the marks of good on such matters, retired from the stage in a fellowship, of illness, of kindness, of care, huff, and sought for consolation in the gossip and wine. Stained as you see him, and of a green-room. There he found Fielding worn by care and dissipation, that man sitting over a bottle of champagne, of which he retains some of the most precious and splenhad drunk rather freely. What's the matter, did human qualities and endowments. He Garrick?' he exclaimed, as the actor entered the room in a somewhat excited state. What are they hissing now?' He was angrily informed it was the scene he had been advised to retrench. O!' said the author, with an oath, coolly resuming his pipe of tobacco, they have

found it out, have they?""

[ocr errors]

Garrick was as niggardly as Fielding was profuse in his habits, and it was the great delight of Fielding to ridicule on the parsimony of his friend:

has an admirable natural love of truth, the keenest instinctive antipathy to hypocrisy, the happiest satirical gift of laughing it to

scorn.

detective; it flashes upon a rogue, and His wit is wonderfully wise and lightens up a rascal, like a policeman's

lantern. He is one of the manliest and kindliest of human beings. In the midst of all his imperfections he respects female innocence and infantine tenderness, as you would suppose such a great-hearted, courageous soul would respect and care for them. He could "Garrick, we are told, had given a dinner at not be so brave, generous, truth-telling as he his lodgings to Fielding, Macklin, Havard, (the is, were he not infinitely merciful, pitiful, comedian), Mrs. Cibber, and others; and veils and tender. He will give any man his purse to servants being then much in fashion, Mackhe can't help kindness and profusion. He lin, and most of the company, gave Garrick's man (David, a Welshman) something at parting may have low tastes, but not a mean mind; —some a shilling, some half-a-crown, whilst he admires, with all his heart, good and Fielding very formally slipped a piece of virtuous men, stoops to no flattery, bears no in his hand, with something folded in the inside. rancor, disdains all disloyal arts, does his When all the company were gone, David seem- public duty rightfully, is loved by his family, ing to be in high glee, Garrick asked him how I and dies at his work."

paper

AN important movement, according to the versity, attendance on the classical classes of Morning Herald, is in progress amongst the University College is to be part of the scheme. most influential of the English Jews for the estab- Hebrew and theology are to be placed under the lishment of a college for the education of mem- direction of the Chief Rabbi. A school is to be bers of the ancient faith in London. With a established in connection with the college. Premview of obtaining degrees in the London Uni-ises have been taken in Finsbury Square.

PRESERVING THE PURITY OF ELECTIONS.

In the northwest portion of the state of Ohio, in the county of Auglaize, there is a township, the citizens of which are principally German, and notwithstanding their "sweet accent," they are all democrats of the regular "unterrified" stripe. From the time of the erection of the county up to the year eighteen hundred and fifty-two, there had never been a whig vote cast in the township spoken of, although there were over six hundred voters; but at the fall election of that year, upon counting the ballots, it appeared that there was one whig amongst them. There was the proof, a regular straight-out whig ticket, and they dare not pass it by. This caused great commotion; their escutcheon was dimmed; there was a whig amongst them; that blot must be wiped out, and with their courage (Dutch of course) up to fever heat in the shade, they went to work slyly to find the man who had dared to vote the "Vig dicket;" but their labors were unsuccessful. In the meantime another year rolled round, and the good "beeples were again assembled at the election precinct. It had not been forgotten, however, that at the last election some one had voted the "Vig dicket ;" and it was now the subject of open remark and wonder.

[ocr errors]

While they were having an out-door discussion of the subject, Sam Starrett, a late immigrant from the eastern shore of Maryland, came along, and demanded the cause of the commotion.

"Vell, ve vas a vondering who it vas voted the Vig dicket at de last election," said an old Dutchman.

"It was me," said Sam, "and it wan't nobody else!"

"I dinks not," said the old Dutchman, and the balance shook their heads incredulously.

"I tell you it was, though," said Sam, pulling out a whig ticket, "and may I be chawed up if I ain't going to do it again. I am going to vote that (holding out the ticket), and vote it open, too. I'll let you know that I'm an independent American citizen, and I'll vote just as I please, and you can't help it, by Jemima!"

So in he went to deposit his ballot. There sat the three old Dutch judges of election, "calm as a summer morning ;" and true to his word, Sam handed over his ticket, open. One of the old judges took it, and scanning it a few seconds, handed it back toward the independent voter, and said:

"Yaw, dat ish a Vig dicket."

"Well, put it in the box," said Sam. "Vat you say?" said the old Dutchman, his eyes big with surprise; "put him in de box?" "Yes sir-ee, put it in the box! I am goin' to vote it!"

"O no! nix goot, nix goot! Dat ish a Vig dicket," said the old Dutchman, shaking his head.

"Well, I reckon I know it's a whig ticket," said Sam, “and I want you to put it in the box, darnation quick, too!"'

"No, no! dat ish not goot; dat ish a Vig ticket; we not take 'em any more," said the old judge, turning to receive "goot dickets" from some of his German friends.

Sam went out and cursed till all was blue - said he had come thar to vote, and he'd be flambergasted if he wan't goin' to vote, in spite of all the Dutch in the township. So, after cooling off a little, he again went in, and tendered his ticket, very neatly rolled up. The old judge took it again, and notwithstanding Sam's demurring, unrolled it and looked it over; then turning to Sam, in a manner and tone not to be misunderstood, said:

"I tell you dat ish a Vig dicket; dat it ish nix goot; and dat we not take 'em any more!" Sam again retired, cursing all democrats generally, and the Dutch particularly, and assigning them the hottest corners of the brimstone region; and was going on to curse everybody that did n't curse them, when he was interrupted by an old Dutchman in the crowd, with:

"Sam Sdarrett, I tells you vat it ish, if you will vote der Dimergrat dicket, and leef der gounty, we gifs you so much monish as dakes you vere you cum vrom."

Sam scratched his head, studied awhile, and then said that as he had come thar to vote, and wan't goin' away without votin', he guessed he'd do it.

Again Sam made his appearance before the judges, and tendered his vote. The same old judge took it, and looking it over quietly, turned to Sam and said:

"Yaw, dat ish goot; dat ish a Dimergratic dicket!" and dropped it into the box.

It is only further necessary to say that Sam went back to the eastern shore at the expense of the township; and that, at that election, and ever since, that German township has been O. K. That is what I call "preserving the purity of elections." D. T. Knickerbocker.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »