and full of sweethefs; his cheeks and chin every way delightful, while the other parts of his body were fo fitly united, that one could not but admire and love him the moment he appeared; for his amiable countenance, in which there was imprinted a natural smile, could not fail to infpire the fpectators with a warmth of affection not to be accounted for :these endowments of body were but indica tions of the beauties of the nobler part, and which, as he poffeffed them both in their highest perfection, it is imagined, that all true lovers of liberty will imitate the fteps of him, who was the darling of his country, and whom human nature may ever boast of for having produced fo great a fon.

THE

THE LIFE OF

HENRY FIElding.

ENRY FIELDING was born at

Hsharpham-park, in Somersetshire, near

Glastonbury, on the twenty-fecond of April, 1707.

His father, Edmund Fielding, ferved in the wars under the duke of Marlborough, and arrived to the rank of lieutenant-general, at the latter end of George I. or the beginning of George II. His mother was the daughter of judge Gold, the grandfather of the prefent Sir Henry Gold, one of the barons of the Exchequer.

By these his parents he had four fifters, Catharine, Urfula, Sarah, and Beatrice; and one brother, Edmund, who was an officer in the marine fervice. Sarah Fielding, his third fifter, is well known to the literary world by many elegant performances.

Our author's mother having paid her debt to nature, lieutenant-general Fielding married a fecond time, and the iffue of that marriage was fix fons, George, James, Charles, John, William, and Bafil; all dead except John, who is at prefent in the commiffion of the

F 2

peace

peace for Middlefex, Surry, Effex, and the liberties of Westminster.

Henry Fielding received the firft rudiments of his education at home, under the care of the reverend Mr. Oliver, of whom he has given a very humorous and ftriking portrait in Jofeph Andrews, under the name of parfon Trulliber.

From Mr. Oliver's care he was removed to Eton fchool, where he became acquainted with lord Lyttleton, Mr. Fox, Mr. Pitt, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the late Mr. Winnington, &c. When he left this great feminary, he was faid to be uncommonly verfed in the Greek and Latin claffics; for both which he ever retained a strong admiration.

From Eton he was fent to Leyden, and there he ftudied the civilians for about two years; but remittances failing, at the age of twenty, or thereabout, he returned from Leyden to London; where, though under age, he found himself his own mafter; from which fource flowed all the inconveniencies that attended him throughout the remainder of his life, The brilliancy of his wit, the vivacity of his humour, and his high relifh of focial enjoyment, foon brought him into request with the men of tafle and literature, and with the voluptuous of all ranks. His finances were not equal to the frequent draughts made upon him by the extravagance which naturally followed. He was allowed, indeed, two hundred pounds

a year

a year by his father; but, as he himself ufed to fay, any body might pay it that would.

The fact was, general Fielding havi g married again foon after the death of our author's mother, had fo large an increase of family, and that too fo quick, that he could not spare any confiderable difbursements for the maintainance of his eldest fon. Of this truth Henry Fielding was fenfible; and he was therefore, in whatever difficulties he might be involved, never wanting in filial piety; which, his neareft relations agree, was a fhining part of his character.

Difappointments, indeed, were obferved to provoke him into occafional peevishness, and feverity of animadverfion; but his general temper was remarkably gay, and, for the moft part, overflowing into wit, mirth and goodhumour.

As he difdained all littleness of fpirit, where ever he met with it in his dealings with the world, his indignation was apt to rife; and, as he was of a penetrating difcernment, he could always develope felfifhnefs, miftruft, pride, avarice, interested friendship, the ungenerous, and the unfeeling temper, however plaufibly difguifed; and, as he could read them to the bottom, fo he could likewife affault them with the keenest strokes of fpirited and manly fatire. Difagreeable impreffions never continued long upon his mind; his imagination was fond of feizing every gay prospect; and, in his worst F 3 adverfities,

:

adverfities, filled him with fanguine hopes of a better fituation. To obtain this, he flattered himfelf that he fhould find his refources in his wit and invention; and accordingly he commenced a writer for the ftage in the year 1727, being then about twenty years of age.

His first dramatic piece foon after adventured into the world, and was called Love in Several Mafques. It immediately fucceeded the Provoked Hufband, a play, which, for the continued space of twenty-eight nights, received as great and as juft applaufes as ever were beftowed on the English ftage. Notwithstanding these obstacles, Fielding's play was favourably received.

His fecond play, the Temple Beau, appeared the year after. From the year 1727 to the end of 1736, almost all his plays and farces were written, not above two or three having appeared fince that time; fo that he produced about eighteen theatrical performances, plays and farces included, before he was quite thirty years old.

Though in the plan of his pieces he is not always regular, yet he is often happy in his diction and ftile; and, in every groupe that he has exhibited, there are to be feen particular delineations that will amply recompenfe the attention bestowed upon them. The comedy of the Mifer, which he has moftly taken from Moliere, has maintained its ground upon the ftage ever fince it was first performed; and has the value of a copy from a great painter by an eminent hand.