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Fiction

Notes Lady Booby, in a last-ditch attempt to sabotage the marriage, brings a young beau named
Didapper to Adams’ house to seduce Fanny. Fanny is unattracted to his bold attempts of
courtship. Didapper is a little too bold in his approach and provokes Joseph into a fight. The
Lady and the beau depart in disgust, but the pedlar, having seen the Lady, is compelled to
relate a tale. The pedlar had met his wife while in the army, and she died young. While on
her death bed, she confessed that she once stole an exquisitely beautiful baby girl from a
family named Andrews, and sold her on to Sir Thomas Booby, thus raising the possibility that
Fanny may in fact be Joseph’s sister. The company is shocked, but there is general relief that
the crime of incest may have been narrowly averted.

The following morning, Joseph and Pamela’s parents arrive, and together with the pedlar and
Adams, they piece together the question of Fanny’s parentage. The Andrews identify her as
their lost daughter, but have a twist to add to the tale: when Fanny was an infant, she was
indeed stolen from her parents, but the thieves left behind a sickly infant Joseph in return,
who was raised as their own. It is immediately apparent that Joseph is the above mentioned
kidnapped son of Wilson, and when Wilson arrives on his promised visit, he identifies Joseph
by a birthmark on his chest. Joseph is now the son of a respected gentleman, Fanny an in-law
of the Booby family, and the couple no longer suspected of being siblings. Two days later they
are married by Adams in a humble ceremony, and the narrator, after bringing the story to a
close, and in a disparaging allusion to Richardson, assures the reader that there will be no
sequel.

5.1 Book IV, Chapters I through VIII

Chapter I

Lady Booby returns to Booby Hall, to the relief of the parish poor who depend on her charity.
Mr. Abraham Adams receives a more heartfelt welcome, however, and Joseph Andrews and
Fanny Goodwill enjoy a similarly kind reception. Adams takes his two companions to his
home, where Mrs. Adams provides for them.
Fielding gives a record of the emotional turbulence Lady Booby has endured since the departure
of Joseph from London. She eventually resolved to retire to the country, on the theory that this
change of scene would help her to conquer her passion for Joseph. On her first Sunday in the
country, however, she goes to church and spends more time leering at Joseph than attending
to Parson Adams. During the service, Adams announces the wedding banns of Joseph and
Fanny, and later in the day Lady Booby summons the clergyman for a chat.

Chapter II
Lady Booby criticizes Mr. Adams for associating with a footman whom Lady Booby dismissed
from her service and for “running “about the Country with an idle Fellow and Wench.” She
rebukes him for “endeavouring to procure a Match between these two People, which will be
to the Ruin of them both.” Mr. Adams defends the couple, but Lady Booby takes offense at
his emphasize on Fanny’s beauty and orders Adams to cease publishing their banns. (A couple’s
wedding banns must be published three times before a marriage can take place.) When Adams
demands a reason for this action, Lady Booby denounces Joseph as a “Vagabond” whom she
will not allow to “settle” in her parish and “bring a Nest of Beggars” into it. Adams advises
her, however, of what he has learned from Lawyer Scout, “that any Person who serves a Year,
gains a Settlement [i.e. legal residence] in the Parish where he serves.” The clergyman indicates
that he will marry the hopeful couple, in spite of Lady Booby’s threat to have him dismissed

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