"The Tragedy rather, I think, Mr. _Fustian_." But whatever may have been
its preliminary difficulties, Fielding's first play was not exposed to
so untoward a fate. It was well received. As might be expected in a
beginner, and as indeed the references in the Preface to Wycherley and
Congreve would lead us to expect, it was an obvious attempt in the
manner of those then all-popular writers. The dialogue is ready and
witty. But the characters have that obvious defect which Lord
Beaconsfield recognised when he spoke in later life of his own earliest
efforts. "Books written by boys," he says, "which pretend to give a
picture of manners and to deal in knowledge of human nature must
necessarily be founded on affectation." To this rule the personages of
_Love in Several Masques_ are no exception. They are drawn rather from
the stage than from life, and there is little constructive skill in the
plot. A certain booby squire, Sir Positive Trap, seems like a first
indication of some of the later successes in the novels; but the rest of
the _dramatis personae_ are puppets. The success of the piece was
probably owing to the acting of Mrs. Oldfield, who took the part of Lady
Matchless, a character closely related to the Lady Townleys and Lady
Betty Modishes, in which she won her triumphs. She seems, indeed, to
have been unusually interested in this comedy, for she consented to play
in it notwithstanding a "slight Indisposition" contracted "by her
violent Fatigue in the Part of Lady Townly," and she assisted the author
with her corrections and advice--perhaps with her influence as an
actress. Fielding's distinguished kinswoman Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
also read the MS. Looking to certain scenes in it, the protestation in
the Prologue--

"Nought shall offend the Fair Ones Ears to-day,
Which they might blush to hear, or blush to say"--