content in his whole life to produce four Comedies and one Tragedy, yet the exigence of our Author's affairs required at his hand no less than eight entire Plays, befides fifteen Farces, or pieces of a fubordinate nature. It has been often a matter of wonder that he, who most undoubtedly poffeffed a vein of true and genuine humour, fhould not have proved more fuccefsful in his theatrical productions, that is to fay, fhould not in fome legitimate Comedy have difcovered the future father of JOSEPH ANDREWS, TOM JONES, and AMELIA. This, however, from what has been premifed, feems pretty fairly accounted for; but yet, for the real cause of this inequality, we must still go fomewhat deeper than this remark, which lies too palpable upon the furface of things." The enquiry is not incurious, and it is purfued in its due place, when Mr. Murphy comes to analyse our Author's genius, and determine its nature and quality.

"At the age of twenty years Fielding returned from Leyden to London, in the fulleft vigour of conftitution, which was remarkably ftrong, and patient of fatigue; ftill unshaken by exceffes of pleasure, and unconquered by midnight watchings, till frequent returns of the gout attacked him with a feverity, that made him, in the latter part of his days, a melancholy repentant for the too free indulgencies of his youth, and drove him at length to Lisbon, in the hopes of lingering a little longer in life. From the account of his voyage* to that place we may judge of the activity of his mind, and the ftrenuous flow of his fpirits, which, under a complication of infirmities, could yet prompt him to the exercife of his wit and the fallies of his imagination. What then must have been the gaity and quickness of his fancy, when his ftrength was yet unimpaired by illness, and when young in life curiofity was eager to know the world, and his paffions were ready to catch at every hook pleasure had baited for them? It is no wonder that, thus formed and difpofed for enjoyment, he launched wildly into a career of diffipation. Though under age, he found himself his own mafter, and in London: Hoe fonte derivata clades! From that fource flowed all the inconveniencies that attended him throughout the remainder of his life. The brilliancy of his wit, the vivacity of his humour, and his high relish of focial enjoyment, foon brought him into high requeft with men of taste and literature, and with the voluptuous of all ranks; to the former he was ever attentive,

• See Review, Vol. XII. p. 234.

and

and gladly embraced all opportunities of affociating with them; if the latter often enfnared him, and won from him too great a portion of his time, it cannot be wondered at, confidering the greennefs of his years, the fenfibility of his temper, and the warmth of his imagination. His finances were not anfwerable to the frequent draughts made upon him by the extravagance which naturally followed. He was allowed two hundred pounds a year by his father, which, as he himself used to say, any body might pay that would.'

"The fact was, General Fielding, with very good inclinations to fupport his fon in the handsomest manner, very foon found it impracticable to make fuch appointments for him, as he could have wifhed. He had married again foon after the death of our Author's mother, and had fo large an increafe of family, and that too fo quick, that, with the neceffary demands of his ftation for a genteel and fuitable expence, he could not spare out of his income any confiderable disbursements for the maintenance of his eldeít fon. 'Of this truth Henry Fielding was fenfible, and he was therefore, in whatever difficulties he might be involved, never wanting in filial piety; which, his nearest relations agree, was a fhining part of his character. By difficulties his refolution was never fubdued; on the contrary, they only rouzed him to ftruggle through them with a peculiar fpirit and magnanimity. When he advanced a little more in life, and his commerce with mankind became enlarged, difappointments were obferved by his acquaintance to provoke him into an occafional peevishnefs, and feverity of animadverfion. This, however, had not a tendency to embitter his mind, or to tinge his general temper, which was remarkably gay, and for the most part overflowing into wit, mirth, and good humour. As he 'difdained all littleness of fpirit, wherever he met with it in his dealings with the world, his indignation was apt to rife; and as he was of a penetrating difcernment, he could always develope felfifhnefs, miftruft, pride, avarice, interefted friendship, the ungenerous, and the unfeeling temper, however plaufibly difguifed: and, as he could read them to the bottom, fo he could likewife affault them with the keeneft ftrokes of fpirited and manly fatire. Amongst the many fine traits of defcription in that character, which TACITUS has left us of AGRICOLA, there is a very delicate touch, which occurs to me at prefent, and feems applicable to the temper of our Author; his reproof was fometimes thought to carry with it a degree of afperity; as to the good and amiREV. May, 1762.

B b

able,

able, he was polite; to the unworthy, he was rather harf; but his anger, once vented, there remained no trace of it: from his fecrecy and filence you had nothing to apprehend. Apud quofdam acerbior in conviciis narrabatur; ut bonis comis, ita adverfus malos injucundus. Ceterum ex iracundia nihil fupererat fecretum & filentium ejus non timeres. Difagreeable impreffions never continued long upon his mind; his imagination was fond of feizing every gay profpect, and in his worft adverfities filled him with fanguine hopes of a better fituation. To obtain this, he flattered himself that he fhould find his refources in his wit and invention; and accordingly he commenced a Writer for the Stage in the year 1727, being then about twenty years of age.

"His first dramatic piece foon after adventured into the world, and was called Love in feveral Mafques. It immediately fucceeded the Provoked Husband, a play, which, as our Author obferves, for the continued fpace of twenty-eight nights received as great and as juft applaufes, as ever were bestowed on the English ftage. Thefe, fays Mr. Fielding, were difficulties, which feemed rather to require the fuperior force of a Wycherley or a Congreve, than a raw and unexperienced pen (for I believe I may boast that none ever appeared fo early on the tage. Notwithstanding thefe obftacles, the play, we find, was favourably received. His fecond play, the Temple Beau, appeared the year after, and contains a great deal of spirit and real humour. Perhaps in those days, when audiences were in the era of delicate and higher comedy, the success of this piece was not very remarkable; but furely pieces of no very fuperior merit have drawn crowded houfes within our own memory, and have been attended with a brilliancy of fuccefs: not but it must be acknowleged that the picture of a Temple Rake fince exhibited by the late Dr. Hoadly in the Sufpicious Hufband, has more of what the Italians call FORTUNATO, than can be allowed to the carelefs and hasty pencil of Mr. Fielding. It would lead a great way from the intention of this Eflay, fhould we attempt to analyse the feveral dramatic compofitions of this Author; and, indeed, as he confeffedly did not attain to pre-eminence in this branch of writing, at leaft was unequal to his other productions, it may be fufficient to obferve that from the year 1727 to the end of 1736, almost all his plays and farces were written, not above two or three having appeared fince that time: fo that he produced about eighteen theatrical performances, plays and farces included, before he was quite thirty years old.

No felection has been made of thofe pieces, but they are all printed together in this Edition, that the Public might have the entire Theatre of Henry Fielding. For though it muft be acknowleged that in the whole collection there are few plays likely to make any confiderable figure on the ftage hereafter, yet they are worthy of being preferved, being the works of a genius, who in his wildest and most inaccurate productions, yet occafionally difplays the talent of a master. Though in the plan of his pieces he is not always regular, yet he is often happy in his diction and ftyle; and in every groupe, that he has exhibited, there are to be feen particular delineations that will amply recompenfe the attention bestowed upon them. The comedy of the Mifer, which he has mostly taken from Moliere, has maintained its ground upon the ftage ever fince it was firft performed, and has the value of a copy from a great painter by an eminent hand. If the comedy of Pafquin were reftored to the flage, it would perhaps be a more favourite entertainment with our audiences, than the much admired Rehearfal; a more rational one it certainly would be, as it would undoubtedly be better understood..

"The Pafquin of Fielding, though its fuccefs was confiderable, never fhone forth with a luftre equal to its merit; and yet it is a composition that would have done honour to the Athenian ftage, when the Middle Comedy, under the authority of the laws, made ufe of fictitious names to fatyrize vice and folly, however dignified by honours and employments. But the Middle Comedy did not flourish long at Athens; the archness of its aim, and the poignancy of its fatire, foon became offenfive to the officers of state: a law was made to prohibit those oblique ftrokes of wit, and the comic mufe was reftrained from all indulgencies of perfonal fatire, however humorously drawn, under the appearance of imaginary characters. The fame fate attended the ufe of the Middle Comedy in England; and it is faid that the wit and humour of our modern Aristophanes, Mr. Fielding, whofe quarry in fome of his pieces, particularly the Hiftorical Regifter, was higher game than in prudence he should have chofen, were principal inftruments in provoking that law, under which the British theatre has groaned ever fince. But the minifter was fore, and in his refentment he ftruck too deep a blow. Had he confidered that by the bill, which af terwards paffed into a law, he was entailing flavery on the mufes, and that a time might come, when all dramatic genius fhould thereby be led a vallal in the train of the managers of Bb 2

the.

the theatre, to be graciously fostered, or haughtily oppreffed, according to their caprice and prejudice; perhaps then, as he was himself of a large and comprehenfive understanding, and poffeffed befides the virtues of humanity, he might have been contented with milder reftrictions, and not have made the remedy almoft worse than the difeafe*. But licentiousness was to be retrenched, and liberty received a stab in the operation; luxuriant branches, that were extravagant in their growth, were to be lopped away; and, to make short work of it, the woodman in a fit of anger applied his axe to the root of the tree.

But it may be asked, are the Players to be judges of the King's Minifters? Shall grimace and mimickry attack the moft exalted characters; and must the great officers of ftate be, at the mercy of the actors, exhibited on a public ftage? Why no;-except in a Coronation, I think, his Majefty's fervants fhould not be made ridiculous; and the dangerous tendency of this buffooning kind of humour is ftrongly marked by a learned Writert, when he obferves that This weapon, in the diffolute times of Charles II. compleated the ruin of the beft Minister of that age. The Hiftorians tell us, that • Chancellor Hyde was brought into his Majefty's contempt by this court argument. They mimicked his walk and gefture, with a fire-fhovel and bellows for the mace and purfe. Thus it being the reprefentation, and not the object reprefented, which ftrikes the fancy, vice and virtue muft fall indifferently before it.'

"If fuch were the effects of private mimickry, public drolls would undoubtedly be found of more pernicious confequence. Away with them therefore; they are illiberal, they are unworthy; let licentioufnefs be banished from the theatres, but let the liberty of the free-born mufe be immortal! true idea of liberty confifts in the free and unlimited power of doing whatever fhall not injure the civil and religious inftitutions of the ftate, nor be deemed invafive of the peace

The

*If it behoved the Minifter to confider the liberty of the Prefs, and the independency of the Mufes, fmarting and fore as our Biographer confeffes him to have been, under the lath of a licentious Satyrift, it was certainly much more incumbent on the Satyrift himself to have taken these circumstances under confideration, and not to have wantonly provoked that refentment which proved fo fatal to Letters. If thofe who are infpired by the Mufes, are imprudent enough thus to endanger the caule of literature, who can we expect will take it under their protection?

The Author of the Divine Legation of Moses:

and