(5) from his blindness to the beauty and vast worth of the Burschenschaft as the embodiment of a much needed reform of student conduct; (6) from his false claim that the Burschenschafter aimed at unification through obliteration of state individuality; (7) from his careless, unfair, and occasionally dishonest use of sources to suit his impressionistic purpose as an historian.

A DIALOGUE-POSSIBLY BY

HENRY FIELDING

By HELEN SARD HUGHES
Wellesley College

John Watts, printer and bookseller, with a printing-office in Wild-Court near Lincoln's-Inn Fields, brought out in the years 1729-31 a work in six volumes entitled, The Musical Miscellany; Being a Collection of Choice Songs, Set to the Violin and Flute, By the most Eminent Masters.1 This collection contained examples of the songs popular on the stage, in the gardens and other places of amusement, and doubtless in polite drawing-rooms as well.2 There are conventional pastoral lyrics, love-songs of a decadent Jacobean type, a few English ballads, old and new, and a surprising number of the songs and ballads of Scotland but lately published in London by Allan Ramsey. There were, moreover, many songs from popular operas and plays of the day. In volume VI appears a song in dialogue form, then much in vogue; it is not of distinctive literary value, though written with facility and with adroitness of satire. The song's significance lies in the name of its author, in the possibility that it represents another early effort in verse of Henry Fielding. The song is as follows:

A DIALOGUE between a BEAU'S HEAD and his HEELS, taken from their Mouths as they were spoke at St. James's Coffee-House.

1 This is the title of volume I (1729); the subtitle varied in later volumes. In volume VI, with which this article is concerned, the title read: The Musical Miscellany; Being a Collection of Choice Songs, and Lyrick Poems: With the Basses to each Tune, and Transpos'd for the Flute. By the most Eminent Masters.

2 Vide the arraignment of the "Profaneness and Immorality" of the songs taught to "Young Gentlewomen" by singing-masters, in Bedford's The Great Abuse of Music, London, 1711.

Head

Ye indolent Dogs! do you dare to refuse

So little a Walk, in a new Pair of Shoes!
My Legs too, methinks, might have gratefully gone,
Since a new Pair of Calves I this Morning put on.
Fa, la, la, la, etc.

Heels

Do you call us ungrateful? the Favours you prize,
Were design'd not to gratify us, but your Eyes;
Is the Footman oblig'd to his Lordship, or Grace,
Who, to feed his own Pride, has equipp'd him with Lace?

We think we have very good Cause to complain,
That you thus are exalted without any Brain;
As our Merits are equal, we justly may plead
A Title sometimes to walk on our Head.
Fa, la, la, la, etc.

Head

Very fine! at this rate all the Beaus in the Town
Wou'd fairly, like Tumblers, be turn'd up-side down;
But when I'm dissected, to shew you my Brains,
May all the World cry-He's a Fool for his Pains!
Fa, la, la, la, etc.

But if I may argue; Pray, Sir, who takes Snuff,

Why Ogles, who Smiles? I think Title enough;

Can you Sing, can you Laugh, can you Speak, can you See?
Or what can you do, silly Dogs, without me?

Fa, la, la, la, etc.

And to shew you how much your Ambition's my Scoff,
When next you rebel, I'll e'en shake you off;

Tho' I stand not without you, I'm sure I can sit,

In Parliament too, tho' bereft of my Feet.

Fa, la, la, la, etc.

Heels

Do you twit us with that? You have Reason, we hear:
We danc'd with the Wives, or you had not got there.
But to dash you at once, let us tell you, 'tis said

That some have sat there without any Head.

Head

Gad's Curse! and that's true; so a Word in your Ear:
To oblige you for once,-Here, Boy, call a Chair.
Let us henceforth together, like wise Men agree,
I'll strive to set you off, you shall set off me.

In the first Place, I'll sit very light on your Shoulder;
For, Nature revers'd, grow lighter as older:
When you dance a Minuet, I'll smile my best;
And do you cut a Caper, when I cut a Jest.

Fa, la, la, la, etc.

[The Musical Miscellany; Being a Collection of Choice Songs, and Lyric Poems, etc. (London: John Watts, 1729-31. 6 vols.) Vol. VI (1731) pp. 170-73.]

We note at once that John Watts, the publisher of the Musical Miscellany, was also the publisher of many of the plays of Henry Fielding, who, recently returned from Leyden, was at this time rising in reputation as a writer of comedies chiefly concerned with the satire and burlesque of contemporary manners. He cannot, however, be positively identified with the "Mr. Fielding" of the Dialogue, since there flourished at the same time one Timothy Fielding, who has more than once caused confusion for the biographers of Henry Fielding.

Timothy Fielding, according to Professor W. L. Cross, was a third-rate comedian at Drury Lane "who with a company of cheap actors used to amuse the town at the George Inn in Smithfield during the time of the Bartholomew Fair. This Timothy Fielding, who had a booth at Tottenham Court also, died on August 22, 1738, at his house, the Buffalo Head Tavern in Bloomsbury.""

Information about this man comes chiefly from advertisements of his entertainments. In 1730 he was giving a farce, The Comical Humours of Noodle and his Man Doodle. In 1732 there appeared in the London Evening Post and the Daily Post the following series of notices of his entertainment at Bartholomew Fair that year:

"We hear that Mr. Fielding from the Theatre Royal in DruryLane and Mr. Hippisley from the Theatre Royal in Lincoln's-InnFields, are making great preparations, and have engaged several

3 Cross, The History of Henry Fielding, (New Haven, 1918) III, 233.

4 Fielding, The Tragedy of Tragedies, ed. Hillhouse, (New Haven, 1918) p. 155.

of the best Hands from both Houses, in order to entertain the Town after the best Manner at their usual Booth in the great Yard of the George Inn in Smithfield."-London Evening Post, July 1113, 1732.

"Yesterday Mr. Fielding (who has erected a large Theatrical Booth against Bartholomew Fair, in the George Inn-yard in West Smithfield) rehears'd a new Dramatic Piece, call'd, The Envious Statesman; or The Fall of Essex: With an excellent Operatical Entertainment call'd The Forc'd Physician, which was perform'd with the utmost Applause and Satisfaction, and we hear, there will be another Rehearsal on Monday next at Ten o'Clock."-London Evening Post, August 15-17, 1732.

Daily Post, July 12, 1732: the same as the London Evening Post for July 11-13, 1732.

"We hear that the following Comedians, (viz.) Mr. Bullock, Mr. Miller, Mr. Mills, Mr. Cates, and Mr. Fielding began yesterday to raise their Booths in West Smithfield, and are making great preparations to entertain the Town as usual, during the time of St. Bartholomew Fair."-Daily Post, August 11, 1732.

Daily Post, August 17, 1732: the same as the London Evening Post, for August 15-17, 1732.

"The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor will proclaim BartholomewFair To-morrow morning; and Mr. Fielding yesterday rehearsed his diverting new Tragi-Comic Opera to a numerous Audience who express'd the utmost Satisfaction at the Performance, and he is resolv'd to begin immediately after the Fair is proclaim'd.”— Daily Post, August 22, 1732.

The Daily Post of August 23, 1732, foretells an event, described the following day, when a "Set of Gentlemen and Tradesmen of Bloomsbury (neighbors of Mr. Fielding)" proceeded in "a great Number of Coaches" to witness the performance with which they were "extreamly well pleased." The same paper for August 26 and 27, 1732, announces a performance for the entertainment of the Blue-Coat Boys of Christ's Hospital. The notice of August 30 states that the Prince and Princess attended an exhibition "and were so well pleased as to stay to see it twice performed. ''5

5 For all of these excerpts from London papers I am indebted to Professor Wilbur L. Cross.