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Fiction

Notes The Justice declines to read the clerk’s depositions and skips right to the mittimus (a warrant
to commit the accused to prison). When Mr. Adams objects to being sent to prison without
having been able to speak in his own defense, the Justice explains that there will be time for
that at his trial at the Assizes in several months. The clerk also presents to the Justice Mr.
Adams’s volume of Aeschylus, which is “written, as he apprehended it, in Ciphers.” The
company eventually recognizes the characters as Greek, and the Parson of the Parish, who is
in attendance, pronounces the volume “a Greek Manuscript, a very fine piece of Antiquity,”
which Adams has undoubtedly stolen.
Luckily, a Squire in the crowd has recognized Mr. Adams and vouches for his being a real
clergyman “and a Gentleman of a very good Character.” The Justice immediately agrees not
to commit Mr. Adams, though he still plans to commit Fanny Goodwill. He agrees, however,
to hear Adams’s version of events, which he then believes entirely on the strength of Adams’s
social status. Fanny’s attacker makes his escape during this tale, angering the Justice, but
eventually things settle down and the Justice and Mr. Adams have a drink together while
Fanny goes off in the care of a maid-servant. Soon a quarrel erupts outside among the young
men, who are drunk now and still contesting who would have received the greatest share of
the reward if Adams had been convicted. Mr. Adams regrets “to see so litigious a Temper in
Men” and tells a story about three candidates for a clerkship in one of his parishes, the moral
of which is “the Folly of growing warm in Disputes, in which neither Party is interested.” The
Justice then begins to “sing forth his own Praises,” but a dispute arises between the Justice
and the clergyman regarding the former’s handling of the recent case, with Mr. Adams actually
arguing that the Justice ought, “in strictness of Law, to have committed him, the said Adams,”
to prison. They might have quarreled, had not Fanny interrupted with the news that a young
man is about to depart for the very inn where Joseph has stopped.

Notes Mr. Adams, seeing that Fanny is eager to go, agrees to accompany her.

Chapter XII

Mr. Adams, Fanny, and their young Guide set out for the inn in the middle of the night. A
violent storm forces them to shelter in an alehouse, where Fanny impresses everyone with her
appearance. Fielding gives a complimentary description of her as a type of unpretentious rural
beauty, possessing “a natural Gentility, superior to the Acquisition of Art, which surprised all
who beheld her.” While Fanny and Adams are sitting by the fire, she hears a voice singing and
recognizes it as Joseph’s. Her shocked reaction alarms Mr. Adams, who throws his Aeschylus
into the fire and calls for assistance. Joseph arrives to revive Fanny from her swoon, and the
lovers have an ecstatic reunion. Mr. Adams is delighted, until the sight of his smoldering
Aeschylus ruins his mood. He rescues Aeschylus while Fanny recovers herself and becomes
suddenly self-conscious. She curtsies to Mrs. Slipslop, who scornfully refuses to return the
gesture and withdraws from the room.

3.2.1 Analysis

The conclusion of “The Unfortunate Jilt” winds up Leonora’s biography in a manner consistent
with Fielding’s vigorous ethics. Leonora and Bellarmine are, in a sense, made for each other.
The lady has a “greedy Appetite of Vanity,” and the cavalier has not only a coach and six to
gratify that appetite but also a wardrobe that is “as remarkably fine as his Equipage could be”:
“he had on a Cut-Velvet Coat of a Cinnamon Colour, lined with a Pink Satten,” and so on, “all

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