long time to be the recognised authority for Fielding's life. It is
possible that it fairly reproduces his personality, as presented by
contemporary tradition; but it is misleading in its facts, and
needlessly diffuse. Under pretence of respecting "the Manes of the
dead," the writer seems to have found it pleasanter to fill his space
with vagrant discussions on the "Middle Comedy of the Greeks" and the
machinery of the _Rape of the Lock_, than to make the requisite
biographical inquiries. This is the more to be deplored, because, in
1762, Fielding's widow, brother, and sister, as well as his friend
Lyttelton, were still alive, and trustworthy information should have
been procurable.

II. Watson's _Life of Henry Fielding, Esq_. This is usually to be found
prefixed to a selection of Fielding's works issued at Edinburgh. It also
appeared as a volume in 1807, although there is no copy of it in this
form at the British Museum. It carries Murphy a little farther, and
corrects him in some instances. But its author had clearly never even
seen the _Miscellanies_ of 1743, with their valuable Preface, for he
speaks of them as one volume, and in apparent ignorance of their
contents.

III. Sir Walter Scott's biographical sketch for Ballantyne's _Novelist's
Library_. This was published in 1821; and is now included in the
writer's _Miscellaneous Prose Works_. Sir Walter made no pretence to
original research, and even spoke slightingly of this particular work;
but it has all the charm of his practised and genial pen.

IV. Roscoe's Memoir, compiled for the one-volume edition of Fielding,
published by Washbourne and others in 1840.