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Unit 5: Joseph Andrews-IV: Detailed Study of the Text

household, promising the amusing spectacle of a large family subsisting on a meager income. Notes
Mrs. Adams is embarrassed to receive her upper-class visitors without having tidied up the
house for them. The Beau flirts with Fanny, and Lady Booby compliments the young son, Dick
Adams, on his appearance. When she asks to hear him read, Mr. Abraham Adams issues the
command in Latin, confusing Dick, but eventually they understand each other and Dick consents
to read.

Chapter X

Dick reads the story of Leonard, a married man, and Paul, his unmarried friend. Paul pays a
lengthy visit to Leonard and his wife and discovers that the couple is prone to have vigorous
disputes, often concerning the most trivial matters. Paul always maintains neutrality during
these disputes, but one day in private talks he tells each spouse that he or she may be right
on the merits of the argument but ought to yield the point anyway, “for can any thing be a
greater Object of our Compassion than a Person we love, in the wrong?” This Doctrine of
Submission has such good effects on the couple that they begin separately to appeal to Paul
for advice during every disagreement. One day, however, they have an argument in his absence
and begin to compare notes regarding the counsel he has given each of them; soon they
discover numberless “Instances, in all which Paul had, on Vows of Secrecy, given his Opinion
on both sides.” The couple is now united in their anger toward the two-faced Paul, who
returns to find both husband and wife suddenly cold toward him. Paul figures out quickly
what has happened, and he and Leonard have a confrontation, the conclusion of which is
preempted by an event that interrupts Dick’s reading of the story.

Chapter XI

Beau Didapper makes a move on Fanny, prompting Joseph to box him on the ear. A melee
ensues, which Mr. Booby finally breaks up. In the aftermath, Lady Booby, Mr. Booby, and
Pamela Andrews Booby all suggest that Fanny’s virtue was hardly worth defending and that
Joseph’s marriage to her would shame the family. Joseph leaves with Fanny, “swearing he
would own no Relation to any one who was an Enemy to her he loved more than all the
World.” After all the visitors have left, Mrs. Adams and their eldest daughter scold the clergyman
for advocating for the young couple. Suddenly Joseph and Fanny return with the Pedlar to
invite the Adamses to dine at a nearby alehouse.

Chapter XII
The Pedlar has been researching the Booby family and has discovered that Sir Thomas bought
Fanny from a traveling woman when Fanny was three or four. After the dinner at the alehouse,
he offers to reveal to Fanny who her parents are. He tells a story of having been a drummer
with an Irish regiment and coming upon a woman who thereafter lived with him as his
mistress. Eventually she died of a fever, but on her deathbed she confessed having stolen and
sold a child during a time when she was traveling with a band of gypsies. The buyer was Sir
Thomas, and the original parents were a couple named Andrews who lived about thirty miles
from the Squire. Everyone reacts strongly to this information; Mr. Adams falls on his knees
and gives thanks “that this Discovery had been made before the dreadful Sin of Incest was
committed.”

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