Editing Henry Fielding (section)

==Dramatist and novelist==
According to George R. Levine, Henry Fielding, in his first writings used two forms of "rhetorical poses" that were popular during the eighteenth century.<ref name="Levine 1967 31">{{Cite book|last=Levine|first=George R.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/971364640|title=Henry Fielding and the dry mock : a study of the techniques of irony in his early works.|date=1967|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-140039-6|location=Berlin/Boston|pages=31|oclc=971364640}}</ref> Henry Fielding would construct "the non-ironic pseudonym such as Addison and Steele used in the ''Spectator,'' and the ironic mask or ''Persona'', such as Swift used in A Modest Proposal."<ref name="Levine 1967 31"/> The [[Theatrical Licensing Act 1737]] is said to be a direct response to his activities in writing for the theatre.<ref name="dorset"/><ref name="booksandwriters">{{Cite web |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hfieldin.htm |title=Henry Fielding |website=Books and Writers |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090706134943/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hfieldin.htm |archive-date=6 July 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Although the play that triggered the act was the unproduced, anonymously authored ''[[The Golden Rump]]'', Fielding's dramatic satires had set the tone. Once it was passed, political satire on stage became all but impossible. Fielding retired from the theatre and resumed his legal career to support his wife Charlotte Craddock and two children by becoming a [[barrister]],<ref name="dorset"/><ref name="booksandwriters"/> joining the [[Middle Temple]] in 1737 and being [[called to the bar]] there in 1740.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, Volume I |page=322}}</ref>

Fielding's lack of financial acumen meant the family often endured periods of poverty, but they were helped by [[Ralph Allen]], a wealthy benefactor, on whom Squire Allworthy in ''Tom Jones'' would be based. Allen went on to provide for the education and support of Fielding's children after the writer's death.

[[File:Henry Fielding c 1743 etching from Jonathan Wild the Great.jpg|thumb|''Henry Fielding'', about 1743, etching from ''Jonathan Wild'']]
Fielding never stopped writing political satire and satires of current arts and letters. ''[[The Tragedy of Tragedies]]'' (for which [[William Hogarth|Hogarth]] designed the frontispiece) was, for example, quite successful as a printed play. Based on his earlier ''[[Tom Thumb (play)|Tom Thumb]]'', this was another of Fielding's irregular plays published under the name of H. Scriblerus Secundus, a pseudonym intended to link himself ideally with the [[Scriblerus Club]] of literary satirists founded by [[Jonathan Swift]], [[Alexander Pope]] and [[John Gay]].<ref name="ODNB"/> He also contributed several works to journals.

From 1734 to 1739, Fielding wrote anonymously for the leading [[Tories (British political party)|Tory]] periodical, ''The Craftsman'', against the Prime Minister, Sir [[Robert Walpole]].<ref name="Battestin1989">{{Cite book |last=Battestin |first=Martin C. |title=New Essays by Henry Fielding: His Contributions to the Craftsman, 1734-1739 and Other Early Journalism |year=1989 |publisher=University Press of Virginia |isbn=978-0-8139-1221-9 |chapter=Introduction |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/newessaysbyhenry00fiel }}, p. xvi</ref> His patron was the opposition [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] MP [[George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton|George Lyttelton]], a boyhood friend from Eton to whom he later dedicated ''[[The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling|Tom Jones]]''. Lyttelton followed his leader [[Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham|Lord Cobham]] in forming a Whig opposition to Walpole's government called the [[Cobhamites]], which included another of Fielding's Eton friends, William Pitt.<ref>Battestin (1989), p. xx.</ref> In ''The Craftsman'', Fielding voiced an opposition attack on bribery and corruption in British politics.<ref>Battestin (1989), p. xiii.</ref> Despite writing for the opposition to Walpole, which included Tories as well as Whigs, Fielding was "unshakably a [[Whiggism|Whig]]" and often praised Whig heroes such as the [[John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough|Duke of Marlborough]] and [[Gilbert Burnet]].<ref>Battestin (1989), p. 61.</ref>

Fielding dedicated his play ''Don Quixote in England'' to the opposition Whig leader [[Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield|Lord Chesterfield]]. It appeared on 17 April 1734, the same day writs were issued for the [[1734 British general election|general election]].<ref>Battestin (1989), p. xxiii.</ref> He dedicated his 1735 play ''[[The Universal Gallant]]'' to [[Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough]], a political follower of Chesterfield.<ref>Battestin (1989), p. xxv.</ref> The other prominent opposition paper, ''Common Sense'', founded by Chesterfield and Lyttelton, was named after a character in Fielding's ''[[Pasquin (play)|Pasquin]]'' (1736). Fielding wrote at least two articles for it in 1737 and 1738.<ref>Battestin (1989), p. 299n and 62.</ref>

Fielding continued to air political views in satirical articles and newspapers in the late 1730s and early 1740s. He was the main writer and editor from 1739 to 1740 for the satirical paper ''The Champion'', which was sharply critical of Walpole's government and of pro-government literary and political writers. He sought to evade libel charges by making its political attacks so funny or embarrassing to the victim that a publicized court case would seem even worse. He later became chief writer for the Whig government of [[Henry Pelham]].<ref>Battestin (1989), p. 4.</ref>

Fielding took to novel writing in 1741, angered by [[Samuel Richardson]]'s success with ''[[Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded|Pamela]]''. His first success was an anonymous parody of that novel, called ''[[An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews|Shamela]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Sham Marriages and Proper Plots: Henry Fielding's Shamela and Joseph Andrews |journal=English Studies |date=18 August 2015 |issn=0013-838X |pages=636–53 |volume=96 |issue=6 |doi=10.1080/0013838X.2015.1045728 |first=Anaclara |last=Castro-Santana |s2cid=163073219}}</ref> This follows the model of Tory satirists of the previous generation, notably Swift and Gay.

Fielding followed this with ''[[Joseph Andrews]]'' (1742), an original work supposedly dealing with Pamela's brother, Joseph.<ref name="dorset"/> His purpose, however, was more than parody, for as stated in the preface, he intended a "kind of writing which I do not remember to have seen hitherto attempted in our language." In what Fielding called a "comic epic poem in prouse", he blended two classical traditions: that of the epic, which had been poetic, and that of the drama, but emphasizing the comic rather than the tragic. Another distinction of ''Joseph Andrews'' and the novels to come was use of everyday reality of character and action, as opposed to the fables of the past.<ref name="Henry Fielding Facts"/> While begun as a parody, it developed into an accomplished novel in its own right and is seen as Fielding's debut as a serious novelist. In 1743, he published a novel in the ''Miscellanies'' volume III (which was the first volume of the Miscellanies): ''[[The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great]]'', which is sometimes counted as his first, as he almost certainly began it before he wrote ''Shamela'' and ''Joseph Andrews''. It is a satire of Walpole equating him and [[Jonathan Wild]], the gang leader and highwayman. He implicitly compares the [[British Whig Party|Whig]] party in [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]] with a gang of thieves run by Walpole, whose constant desire to be a "Great Man" (a common epithet with Walpole) ought to culminate in the antithesis of greatness: hanging.

{{listen
|filename=Roast Beef of England.ogg
|title=The Roast Beef of Old England
|description= Henry Fielding wrote the text for "The Roast Beef of Old England", whose tune is used by both the [[Royal Navy]] and the [[United States Marine Corps]], in 1731. [[Richard Leveridge]] later arranged it. This version is performed by the [[United States Navy Band]].
}}

Fielding's anonymous ''[[Mary Hamilton (transvestite)|The Female Husband]]'' (1746) fictionalizes a case in which a female transvestite was tried for duping another woman into marriage; this was one of several small pamphlets costing sixpence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cross |first= Wilbur L. |title= The History of Henry Fielding |volume=2 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofhenryf02crosuoft |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |place=New Haven, CT |year=1918}}</ref> Though a minor piece in his life's work, it reflects his preoccupation with fraud, shamming and masks.

His greatest work is ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'' (1749), a meticulous comic novel with elements of the picaresque and the [[Bildungsroman]], telling a convoluted tale of how a foundling came into a fortune. The novel tells of Tom's alienation from his foster father, Squire Allworthy, and his sweetheart, Sophia Western, and his reconciliation with them after lively and dangerous adventures on the road and in London. It triumphs as a presentation of English life and character in the mid-18th century. Every social type is represented and through them every shade of moral behaviour. Fielding's varied style tempers the basic seriousness of the novel and his authorial comment before each chapter adds a dimension to a conventional, straightforward narrative.<ref name="Henry Fielding Facts"/>

===Sister===
Fielding's younger sister, [[Sarah Fielding|Sarah]], also became a successful writer.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1525 |title=Henry Fielding (1707–1754) |publisher=The Literary Encyclopedia |access-date=9 September 2009}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Her novel ''[[The Governess, or The Little Female Academy]]'' (1749) is thought to be the first in English aimed expressly at children.<ref>H. Carpenter and M. Prichard. 1984. ''The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature'', Oxford University Press.</ref>