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Unit 1: Henry Fielding—Joseph Andrews

a minor item in Fielding’s total oeuvre, the subject is consistent with his ongoing preoccupation Notes
with fraud, sham, and masks. His greatest work was Tom Jones (1749), a meticulously constructed
picaresque novel telling the convoluted and hilarious tale of how a foundling came into a
fortune. Charlotte, on whom he later modelled the heroines of both Tom Jones and Amelia,
died in 1744. Three years later Fielding – disregarding public opinion – married Charlotte’s
former maid, Mary, who was pregnant.

Task Explain Biography of Henry Fielding.

Despite this, his consistent anti-Jacobitism and support for the Church of England led to him
being rewarded a year later with the position of London’s Chief Magistrate, and his literary
career went from strength to strength. Joined by his younger half-brother John, he helped
found what some have called London’s first police force, the Bow Street Runners in 1749.

Notes According to the historian G. M. Trevelyan, they were two of the best magistrates
in eighteenth-century London, and did a great deal to enhance the cause of judicial
reform and improve prison conditions.

His influential pamphlets and enquiries included a proposal for the abolition of public hangings.
This did not, however, imply opposition to capital punishment as such—as evident, for example,
in his presiding in 1751 over the trial of the notorious criminal James Field, finding him guilty
in a robbery and sentencing him to hang. Despite being now blind, John Fielding succeeded
his older brother as Chief Magistrate and became known as the ‘Blind Beak’ of Bow Street for
his ability to recognise criminals by their voice alone.
In January 1752, Fielding started a biweekly periodical titled The Covent-Garden Journal,
which he would publish under the pseudonym of “Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Knt. Censor of
Great Britain” until November of the same year. In this periodical, Fielding directly challenged
the “armies of Grub Street” and the contemporary periodical writers of the day in a conflict
that would eventually become the Paper War of 1752–1753.
Fielding’s ardent commitment to the cause of justice as a great humanitarian in the 1750s (for
instance, his support of Elizabeth Canning) coincided with a rapid deterioration in his health.
This continues to such an extent that he went abroad to Portugal in 1754 in search of a cure.
Gout, asthma and other afflictions meant that he had to use crutches.

Did u know? Henry Fielding were died in Lisbon in the year 1754. His tomb is located
inside the city’s English Cemetery.

Partial list of works

• The Masquerade – a poem (Fielding’s first publication)
• Love in Several Masques – play, 1728
• Rape upon Rape – play, 1730. Adapted by Bernard Miles as Lock Up Your Daughters!
in 1959, filmed in 1974
• The Temple Beau – play, 1730

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