de of
a clock, whilst she knew all the finer springs and movements of its
inside. See _Richardson's Correspondence_, ii. 105.

[10] Fielding blundered rather strangely in the celebrated Betsy Canning
case, as Balzac did in the 'Affaire Peytel'; but the story is too long
for repetition in this place. The trials of Miss Canning and her
supposed kidnappers are amongst the most amusing in the great collection
of State Trials. See vol. xix. of the 8vo edition. Fielding's defence of
his own conduct in the matter is reprinted in his 'Miscellanies and
Poems,' being the supplementary volume of the last collected edition of
his works.

[11] They were really the property not of Fielding but of the once
famous '_beau_ Fielding.' See _Dictionary of National Biography_.

[12] See _Tom Jones_, book xiv. chap. i.

[13] See _Voyage to Lisbon_ (July 21) for some very good remarks upon
this word, which, as he says, no two men understand in the same sense.

[14] In his interesting Life of Godwin, Mr. Paul claims for his hero (I
dare say rightly) that he was the first English writer to give a
'lengthy and appreciative notice' of 'Don Quixote.' But when he infers
that Godwin was also the first English writer who recognised in
Cervantes a great humourist, satirist, moralist, and artist, he seems to
me to overlook Fielding and others. So Warton in his essay on 'Pope'
calls 'Don Quixote' the 'most original and unrivalled work of modern
times.' The book must have been popular in England from its publication,
as we know from the preface to Beaumont and Fletcher's 'Knight of the
Burning Castle'; and numerous translations and imitations show that
Cervantes was always enjoyed, if not criticised. Fielding's frequent
references to 'Don Quixote' (to say nothing of his play, 'Don Quixote in
England') imply an admiration fully as warm as that of Godwin. 'Don
Quixote,' says Fielding, is more worthy the name of history than
Mariana, and he always speaks of Cervantes in the tone of an
affectionate disciple. Fielding, I will add, seems to me to have admired
Shakespeare more heartily and intelligently than ninety-nine out of a
hundred modern supporters of Shakespeare societies; though these
gentlemen are never happier than when depreciating English
eighteenth-century critics to exalt vapid German philosophising.
Fielding's favourite play seems from his quotations to have been
'Othello.'

[15] Book x. chap. i.

[16] _Tom Jones_, book xv. chap. i.

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