prevent a Man from getting a Livelihood in an honest and inoffensive
Way, and make a jest of starving him and his Family." The plea is a good
one if the play is good; but if not, it is worthless. In this respect
the public are like the French Cardinal in the story; and when the
famished writer's work fails to entertain them, they are fully justified
in doubting his _raison d'etre_. There is no reason for supposing that
the _Universal Gallant_ deserved a better fate than it met with.

Judging from the time which elapsed between the production of this play
and that of _Pasquin_ (Fielding's next theatrical venture), it has been
conjectured that the interval was occupied by his marriage, and brief
experience as a Dorsetshire country gentleman. The exact date of his
marriage is not known, though it is generally assumed to have taken
place in the beginning of 1735. But it may well have been earlier, for
it will be observed that in the above quotation from the Preface to the
_Universal Gallant_, which is dated from "Buckingham Street, Feb. 12,"
he indirectly speaks of "his family." This, it is true, may be no more
than the pious fraud of a bachelor; but if it be taken literally, we
must conclude that his marriage was already so far a thing of the past
that he was already a father. This supposition would account for the
absence of any record of the birth of a child during his forthcoming
residence at East Stour, by the explanation that it had already happened
in London; and it is not impossible that the entry of the marriage, too,
may be hidden away in some obscure Metropolitan parish register, since
those of Salisbury have been fruitlessly searched. At this distance of
time, however, speculation is fruitless; and, in default of more
definite information, the "spring of 1735," which Keightley gives, must
be accepted as the probable date of the marriage.

Concerning the lady, the particulars are more precise. She was a Miss