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Unit 3: Joseph Andrews-II: Detailed Study of the Text

“if Fear had too much Ascendance in the Mind, the Man was rather to be pitied than abhorred.” Notes
The Sportsman repeats his conviction of the transcendent importance of courage and country
and then, upon hearing Adams mention the stage-coach, tells him that the last coach is three
miles ahead of them and invites the curate to stay the night at his house. Mr. Adams accepts,
and they begin the walk to the Sportsman’s house, with the Sportsman “renewing his Discourse
on Courage, and the Infamy of not being ready at all times to sacrifice our Lives to our
Country.”
While they are walking, they hear a woman’s screams. Mr. Adams, armed with a stick, hastens
to the spot, while “the Man of Courage made as much Expedition towards his own House,
whither he escaped in a very short time without once looking behind him: where we will leave
him, to contemplate his own Bravery, and to censure the Want of it in others.” Mr. Adams
finds the screaming woman fending off a sexual assault; he bludgeons the attacker with the
stick and then endures a “drubbing” from him, playing rope-a-dope until the attacker tires
himself and Mr. Adams can deliver a series of punches, including a well-placed blow to the
chin, which succeeds so well that Mr. Adams fears he may have killed his opponent. He and
the woman discuss the circumstances of the attack, and he learns that she is on her way to
London. Mr. Adams, who believes that he has killed the attacker, then begins to consider
whether the woman’s testimony will be sufficient to acquit him of murder, and “whether it
would be properer to make his Escape, or to deliver himself into the hands of Justice.”

Chapter X

The woman Adams has rescued does not entirely trust him, worrying that he may be no better
a companion than was her attacker. While Adams stands considering whether to run or turn
himself in, a group of young men comes by, looking for birds to catch; Adams asks them to
hold their lantern over the felled attacker to determine whether he is alive or not. He is alive,
in fact, and he extemporize a story for the young men, claiming to be “a poor Traveller, who
would otherwise have been robbed and murdered by this vile Man and Woman.” The young
men lay hold of Mr. Adams and the woman to carry them before the Justice. As they all walk
along, Mr. Adams tries to comfort and encourage the woman he has rescued while the young
men argue about how they will split their reward. When Mr. Adams mentions Joseph Andrews,
the woman realizes who her rescuer is and introduces herself as Joseph’s beloved, Fanny
Goodwill. In the ensuing discussion, Fanny feigns a lack of interest in Joseph but then asks
“a thousand Questions, which would have assured any one but Adams, who never saw farther
into People than they desired to let him, of the Truth of a Passion she endeavoured to conceal.”
Word had reached her about the attack on Joseph by the Two Ruffians, and she immediately
set out to find the man “whom, notwithstanding her Shyness to the Parson, she loved with
inexpressible Violence, though with the purest and most delicate Passion.”

Chapter XI

They reach the Justice’s house, where the Justice does not wish to interrupt his dinner and so
orders that the prisoners should be detained in the stable, where they soon attract a crowd.
Eventually the Justice, “being now in the height of his Mirth and his Cups,” sends for the
prisoners, thinking to “have good Sport in their Examination.” He makes several lewd jokes
about Fanny while his clerk takes down the depositions. The assembled companies also ridicule
Mr. Adams’s clerical dress, assuming that he has stolen it. They play along with his clergyman
persona by addressing him in Latin, prompting him to criticize their pronunciation; when he
disputes a quotation and agrees to bet a guinea on it, he finds he lacks the requisite funds and
the retraction of his bet allows the company to award the distinction in Latin expertise to his
opponent.

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