Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Author's Note
- Introduction
- 1 ‘So Dissipated, Though Well Born and Well-Educated a Youth’
- 2 ‘Unshap'd Monsters of a Wanton Brain!’: 1728–1731
- 3 ‘Court Poet’?: 1732–1735
- 4 ‘Dramatick Satire’: 1736–1739
- 5 ‘Writ in Defence of the Rights of the People’: 1739–1741
- 6 The Political Significance of The Opposition. A Vision
- 7 ‘There are Several Boobies who are Squires’: 1742–1745
- 8 ‘A Strenuous Advocate for the Ministry’: 1745–1748
- 9 ‘A Hearty Well-Wisher to the Glorious Cause of Liberty’: Tom Jones and the Forty-Five
- 10 ‘This Botcher in Law and Politics’: 1749–1754
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
1 - ‘So Dissipated, Though Well Born and Well-Educated a Youth’
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Author's Note
- Introduction
- 1 ‘So Dissipated, Though Well Born and Well-Educated a Youth’
- 2 ‘Unshap'd Monsters of a Wanton Brain!’: 1728–1731
- 3 ‘Court Poet’?: 1732–1735
- 4 ‘Dramatick Satire’: 1736–1739
- 5 ‘Writ in Defence of the Rights of the People’: 1739–1741
- 6 The Political Significance of The Opposition. A Vision
- 7 ‘There are Several Boobies who are Squires’: 1742–1745
- 8 ‘A Strenuous Advocate for the Ministry’: 1745–1748
- 9 ‘A Hearty Well-Wisher to the Glorious Cause of Liberty’: Tom Jones and the Forty-Five
- 10 ‘This Botcher in Law and Politics’: 1749–1754
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
Our immortal Fielding was of the younger branch of the Earls of Denbigh, who drew their origin from the Counts of Hapsburg, the lineal descendants of Ethico, in the seventh century, Duke of Alsace. Far different have been the fortunes of the English and German divisions of the family of Hapsburg. The former, the knights and sheriffs of Leicestershire, have slowly risen to the dignity of a peerage; the latter, the emperors of Germany and kings of Spain, have threatened the liberty of the old, and invaded the treasures of the new world. The successors of Charles the Fifth may disdain their brethren of England; but the romance of Tom Jones, that exquisite picture of human manners, will outlive the palace of the Escurial and the imperial eagle of the house of Austria.
Memoirs of the Life of Edward GibbonGibbon's prediction that Tom Jones would outlive the Austrian House of Habsburg has been borne out by the passage of time. But even if the fanciful notion that Henry Fielding was descended from the royal family which provided numerous Holy Roman Emperors has now been discredited, the myth is not without significance to the biographer. As J. Paul Hunter rightly observes: ‘Fielding came from more patrician stock than any other major English writer in the eighteenth century’. When considering his various satirical portraits of degenerate peers and booby squires, it is worth bearing in mind that Fielding was himself descended on his father's side from members of the English and Irish nobility, and on his mother's from stolid representatives of the Somersetshire gentry. While one might not wish to go along with the suggestion of his first biographer, Arthur Murphy, that Fielding actually yearned, in all seriousness, to be nothing more than a private landed gentleman living on his country estate, it is important to identify his social background with accuracy. On both sides of his family, he was descended from the ranks of the nobility and gentry which together made up the English ruling elite.
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- A Political Biography of Henry Fielding , pp. 13 - 20Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014