_ (1612), _Amends for
Ladies_ (1618), and (with Massinger) _The Fatal Dowry_ (1632).

FIELDING, HENRY (1707-1754).--Novelist, was _b._ at Sharpham Park, near
Glastonbury. His father was General Edmund F., descended from the Earls
of Denbigh and Desmond, and his mother was the _dau._ of Sir Henry Gould
of Sharpham Park. His childhood was spent at East Stour, Dorset, and his
education was received at first from a tutor, after which he was sent to
Eton. Following a love affair with a young heiress at Lyme Regis he was
sent to Leyden to study law, where he remained until his _f._, who had
entered into a second marriage, and who was an extravagant man, ceased to
send his allowance. Thrown upon his own resources, he came to London and
began to write light comedies and farces, of which during the next few
years he threw off nearly a score. The drama, however, was not his true
vein, and none of his pieces in this kind have survived, unless _Tom
Thumb_, a burlesque upon his contemporary playwrights, be excepted. About
1735 he _m._ Miss Charlotte Cradock, a beautiful and amiable girl to
whom, though he gave her sufficient cause for forbearance, he was
devotedly attached. She is the prototype of his "Amelia" and "Sophia."
She brought him L1500, and the young couple retired to East Stour, where
he had a small house inherited from his mother. The little fortune was,
however, soon dissipated; and in a year he was back in London, where he
formed a company of comedians, and managed a small theatre in the
Haymarket. Here he produced successfully _Pasquin, a Dramatic Satire on
the Times_, and _The Historical Register for 1736_, in which Walpole was
satirised. This enterprise was brought to an end by the passing of the
Licensing Act, 1737, making the _imprimatur_ of the Lord Chamberlain
necessary to the production of any play. F. thereupon read law at the
Middle Temple, was called to the Bar in 1740, and went the Western
Circuit. The same year saw the publication of Richardson's _Pamela_,
which inspired F. with the idea of a parody, thus giving rise to his
first novel, _Joseph Andrews_. As, however, the characters, especially
Parson Adams, developed in his hands, the original idea was laid aside,
and the work assumed the form of a regular novel. It was _pub._ in 1742,
and though sharing largely in the same qualities as its great successor,
_Tom Jones_, its reception, though encouraging, was not phenomenally
cordial. Immediately after thi