ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS

FIELDING

BY AUSTIN DOBSON




PREFATORY NOTE.


From a critical point of view, the works of Fielding have received
abundant examination at the hands of a long line of distinguished
writers. Of these, the latest is by no means the least; and as Mr.
Leslie Stephen's brilliant studies, in the recent _edition de luxe_ and
the _Cornhill Magazine_, are now in every one's hands, it is perhaps no
more than a wise discretion which has prompted me to confine my
attention more strictly to the purely biographical side of the subject.
In the present memoir, therefore, I have made it my duty, primarily, to
verify such scattered anecdotes respecting Fielding as have come down to
us; to correct (I hope not obtrusively) a few mis-statements which have
crept into previous accounts; and to add such supplementary details as I
have been able to discover for myself.

In this task I have made use of the following authorities:--

I. Arthur Murphy's _Essay on the Life and Genius of Henry Fielding,
Esq._ This was prefixed to the first collected edition of Fielding's
works published by Andrew Millar in April 1762; and it continued for a