published, of Richardson's _Clarissa_. The pen is the pen of an
imaginary "correspondent," but the words are unmistakably Fielding's:--

"When I tell you I have lately received this Pleasure [i.e. of reading a
new master-piece], you will not want me to inform you that I owe it to
the Author of CLARISSA. Such Simplicity, such Manners, such deep
Penetration into Nature; such Power to raise and alarm the Passions, few
Writers, either ancient or modern, have been possessed of. My Affections
are so strongly engaged, and my Fears are so raised, by what I have
already read, that I cannot express my Eagerness to see the rest. Sure
this Mr. _Richardson_ is Master of all that Art which _Horace_ compares
to Witchcraft

--Pectus inaniter angit,
Irritat, mulcet, falsis terroribus implet
Ut Magus.--"

Between the discontinuance of the True Patriot and the establishment of
its successor occurred an event, the precise date of which has been
hitherto unknown, namely, Fielding's second marriage. The account given
of this by Lady Louisa Stuart is as follows:--

"His [Fielding's] biographers seem to have been shy of disclosing that
after the death of this charming woman [his first wife] he married her
maid. And yet the act was not so discreditable to his character as it
may sound. The maid had few personal charms, but was an excellent
creature, devotedly attached to her mistress, and almost broken-hearted
for her loss. In the first agonies of his own grief, which approached to
frenzy, he found no relief but from weeping along with her; nor solace,
when a degree calmer, but in talking to her of the angel they mutually