determined to adopt the more seductive occupation of living by his wits.
At this date he was in the prime of youth. From the portrait by Hogarth
representing him at a time when he was broken in health and had lost his
teeth, it is difficult to reconstruct his likeness at twenty. But we may
fairly assume the "high-arched Roman nose" with which his enemies
reproached him, the dark eyes, the prominent chin, and the humorous
expression; and it is clear that he must have been tall and vigorous,
for he was over six feet when he died, and had been remarkably strong
and active. Add to this that he inherited a splendid constitution, with
an unlimited capacity for enjoyment, and we have a fair idea of Henry
Fielding at that moment of his career, when with passions "tremblingly
alive all o'er"--as Murphy says--he stood,

"This way and that dividing the swift mind,"

between the professions of hackney-writer and hackney-coachman. His
natural bias was towards literature, and his opportunities, if not his
inclinations, directed him to dramatic writing.

It is not necessary to attempt any detailed account of the state of the
stage at this epoch. Nevertheless, if only to avoid confusion in the
future, it will be well to enumerate the several London theatres in
1728, the more especially as the list is by no means lengthy. First and
foremost there was the old Opera House in the Haymarket, built by
Vanbrugh, as far back as 1705, upon the site now occupied by Her
Majesty's Theatre. This was the home of that popular Italian song which
so excited the anger of thorough-going Britons; and here, at the
beginning of 1728, they were performing Handel's opera of _Siroe_, and
delighting the _cognoscenti_ by _Dite che fa_, the echo-air in the same
composer's _Tolomeo_. Opposite the Opera House, and, in position, only