Today is the anniversary of Henry Fielding’s birth, in 1707. He was born in England, to a privileged family (his uncle was an Earl), he was raised by his grandmother after his mother died when he was 11. Not too much is known about his early years, but he was probably not a model child — when he was 18 he became infatuated with his cousin Sarah and tried to kidnap her. It was a serious enough attempt that he had to run away to stay out of jail.
A couple of years later he enrolled in university in Leiden, Netherlands, but returned to London when he ran out of money. He started writing plays, and did very well at it. Many, if not most of his plays were political satires that were critical of the British government. Some were savage enough that he published them anonymously — and his work is said to be the source of the Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737, which required all plays to be submitted for censorship and approval before being performed.
Once the Licensing Act was in effect, it was impossible to stage a play that was a political satire. Since that was Fielding’s specialty, he stopped writing plays for a while and became, of all things, a lawyer. He had a wife and children by then, but in spite of being a working lawyer, he was evidently a very poor money manager, and the family was frequently impoverished. They were helped out by Fielding’s wealthy friend Ralph Allen. But while he wasn’t writing plays, he was still writing satires — some of which were formatted as plays, but not intended to be produced. They appeared only as “printed plays,” which at the time was a popular genre. This avoided the Theatrical Licensing Act, but since they were still poking fun at the government and public figures, Fielding published many of them under pseudonyms like “H. Scriblerus Secundus,” which was based on the Scriblerus Club founded by the famous writers Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and John Gay.
Fielding published articles in newspapers and magazines, mostly either political criticism or what today would be called “op-ed pieces.” Then in 1741 he published his first novel, Shamela. It was a parody of a then-successful novel by Samuel Richardson, Pamela. It was successful, and he followed it up with Joseph Andrews, which was about “Pamela’s” brother. This one was not exactly parody, but what marked Fielding’s debut of what would later be called a “humorist” like Samuel Clemens. In fact, it was one of the very first modern-style novels that depicted the everyday lives of contemporary characters instead of fables and myths. On the basis of that, and his later novels, Fielding is regarded as one of the two creators of the “English novel” genre (the other is his foil Samuel Richardson). His best, and most remembered work was The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. He published it in 1749, and it’s still in print — and has been produced as operas, movies, plays, and at least one TV miniseries in 2023.
Fielding was still a lawyer, too, and in the 1740s became a chief magistrate in Westminster. He used his experiences in office in his novels and stories, and also, in 1749, founded the Bow Street Runners, which was arguably London’s first police force. By all reports he was quite an effective and fair magistrate, too.
In the early 1750s, though, Fielding’s health began to deteriorate. He began using crutches because of gout, suffered from asthma, and reportedly contracted cirrhosis of the liver. He traveled to Portugal in 1754 hoping a warmer climate would provide a cure, but died there. He was only 47. His friend Ralph Allen stepped in to provide for his family and children’s education. Fielding left behind a long list of plays, novels, poems, and other writings, and has been remembered on postage stamps, a monument in Lisbon, and the many adaptations of his work, particularly Tom Jones. The Welsh singer Tom Jones, whose real name is Thomas Woodward, took his stage name from the 1963 film adaptation.
