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Notes
The only other extant literary MSS by Fielding are the two autograph poems (written c. 1729 and 1733) discovered by Isobel Grundy among the papers of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: see "New Verse by Henry Fielding," PMLA, 87 (1972), 213-245.
In an article forthcoming in Modern Philology, Thomas Lockwood persuasively argues for Fielding's authorship of an essay entitled, "Some Thoughts on the present State of the Theatres, and the Consequences of an Act to destroy the Liberty of the Stage," published in the Daily Journal (25 March 1737) in the series called "The Occasional Prompter." Since this series was specifically devoted to theatrical affairs, Fielding presumably considered it the most appropriate forum for expressing his views on such subjects. With this issue, however, "The Occasional Prompter" ceased its run, the Daily Journal itself coming to an end on 9 April. I am grateful to Prof. Lockwood for sharing his important discovery with me.
See "Fielding Notes," MLN, 34 (1919), esp. 222-224. That Molloy wrote the leader in question is clear from the MS, which is in his hand (PRO: SP9/35, items 25-26). Molloy clinches the attribution by assigning to a "Poet" who in the context can only be Fielding, "Pasquin's" concluding simile comparing ridicule to the operations of "Ward's Pill." Cf. also Tom Jones (VIII.ix), on self-interest: "This is indeed a most excellent Medicine, and like Ward's Pill, flies at once to the particular Part of the Body on which you desire it to operate, whether it be the Tongue, the Hand, or any other Member, where it scarce ever fails of immediately producing the desired Effect" (eds. Battestin and Bowers [1975], p. 442). The "Pasquin" letter is conveniently reprinted in R. Paulson and T. Lockwood, eds. Henry Fielding: The Critical Heritage (1969), pp. 102-105; and I. Williams, ed. The Criticism of Henry Fielding (1970), pp. 23-26.
See Cross, The History of Henry Fielding (1918), I, 334 and n., III, 301; and Williams, op. cit., pp. 325-334.
The best discussion of this subject is in B. A. Goldgar, Walpole and the Wits: The Relation of Politics to Literature, 1722-42 (1976).
See William Coxe, Memoirs of the Life and Administration of Sir Robert Walpole (1800), II, 182ff.
Ibid., III, 38. The article on Yonge in the DNB provides a good summary of the qualities Fielding satirizes. An M.P. from Devon, where "Mum Budget" also resides, he was appointed Secretary at War in 1735. Walpole, it is said, "'caressed him without loving him and employed him without trusting him.'" He had a universal reputation as an unprincipled tool of the minister and as one who, in Chesterfield's words, "by a fitness of tongue raised himself successively to the best appointments in the kingdom." As Paul Whitehead characterizes him in The State Dunces (1733), however, Yonge's speeches were as empty as they were glib:
Pours forth melodious Nothings from his Tongue!
How sweet the Accents play around the Ear,
Form'd of smooth Periods, and of well-turn'd Air! (p. 14)
The Making of "Jonathan Wild", Columbia University Studies in English and Comparative Literature, No. 153 (1941), p. 117, n. 142.
Theophilus Cibber was known for his characterization of Shakespeare's Pistol (Henry IV), and from 1733-34, when he led the revolt of the actors at Drury Lane, he was often caricatured under that name. (See An Apology for the Life of Mr. T[heophilus] C[ibber], Comedian [1740], pp. 16-17.) In The Historical Register, Act II, Cibber as "Pistol" is thus introduced at the head of a mob, whom he harangues in the "Sublime" style, or rather in a ranting burlesque of heroic blank verse; in Act III he bullies his father, Ground-Ivy, this time in couplets. The characterization of "Pistol" in the letter to Common Sense is quite similar to Fielding's conception of him in the farce. That "Pistol" writes his letter from "King's Coffee-House, Covent Garden," seems to support the case for Fielding's authorship: in Tumble-Down Dick that disreputable resort is also the setting for the dance of rakes and whores who burlesque the pantomimes at Drury Lane, where "Pistol" was now acting manager. The specific occasion for the satire in Common Sense, however, was political rather than theatrical: rumor had it that Theophilus Cibber had recently assumed a new role and was scribbling Gazetteers in defense of Walpole. For the general background, as well as a comment specifically on this letter, see the Apology, Ch. IX.
The agents, Janus Brettell and Jonathan Wiggs, endorsed item 65v as follows: "Out of Mr Purser's back Parlour where he does his Bussiness 27th June 1739." Item 63 carries a similar endorsement: "June ye 28 1739 / Out of a Trunk upon the two pair of Stairs head / Mr. Molloys papers"; see also items 61, 182. Presumably referring to these seizures, Molloy made the following announcement in Common Sense (7 July 1739): "The Printer of this Paper having receiv'd an unseasonable Visit last Week,—what was design'd for the Entertainment of the Publick this Week hath been lost . . . ." What caused the raids appears to have been the leader of 23 June, which openly accused the members of Parliament of corruption and Walpole of corrupting them—and which, by the way, concludes by comparing the prime minister and his party to Wild and his gang.
See, for instance, the transcripts of his correspondence with the Duke of Bedford and his agent, in the Appendix to M. C. and R. R. Battestin, "Fielding, Bedford, and the Westminster Election of 1749," ECS, 11 (1978), 175-182.
Perfection . . . Silence] Molloy revised this to read, "Perfection that human Wisdom is capable of attaining to is, Silence".
Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690), I, iii ("No Innate Practical Principles"). Locke here demonstrates that no one "moral rule" can claim "universal assent."
Cf. Thomas Tickell in Spectator, No. 634 (17 December 1714), who calls the Stoics "the most virtuous Sect of Philosophers."
Fielding apparently confuses the Stoics with the disciples of Pythagoras, who, according to Diogenes Laertius, required that his scholars prepare themselves as philosophers by keeping silent for five years (Lives of Eminent Philosophers, VIII, 10). Addison speaks of their "Apprenticeship of Silence" in Spectator, No. 550 (1 December 1712), to which Fielding alludes later in this essay. See also Thomas Stanley, History of Philosophy, 3rd ed. (1701), pp. 358, 372; and André Dacier, Life of Pythagoras (1707), pp. 24-26.
Iliad, III.8: "But the Achaeans came on in silence, breathing fury . . ." (trans. A. T. Murray, Loeb Classical Library, 1946).
"The day would be too short if I wished to run through them all." Fielding apparently paraphrases Cicero's De Natura Deorum, III, xxxii, 81: "Dies deficiat si velim enumerare . . . ." With the present passage, compare The Covent-Garden Journal (7 January 1752): "Such are, in short, the Virtues of this Age; that, to use the Words of Cicero, Si vellem [sic] omnia percurrere Dies deficeret—I shall therefore omit the rest . . . ."
From the first number Mr. Spectator claims to have distinguished himself by keeping a "most profound Silence," a trait which earns him the reputation of "a dumb Man" (No. 4, 5 March 1711). In the present passage Fielding especially recalls No. 550 (1 December 1712), where Mr. Spectator remarks: "As a Monosyllable is my Delight, I have made very few Excursions in the Conversations which I have related beyond a Yes or a No." In founding a new club, however, he intends to be more talkative in the future: "But that I may proceed the more regularly in this Affair, I design upon the first Meeting of the said Club to have my Mouth opened in Form, intending to regulate my self in this Particular by a certain Ritual which I have by me, that contains all the Ceremonies which are practised at the opening the Mouth of a Cardinal." (D. F. Bond, ed. [1965], IV, 470-471.)
In An Argument against the Abolishing of Christianity in England (1708), Swift assures his readers that he wishes to preserve only "nominal," not "real" Christianity, the latter "having been for some time wholly laid aside by general Consent, as utterly inconsistent with our present Schemes of Wealth and Power" (H. Davis, ed. Bickerstaff Papers and Pamphlets on the Church [1957], p. 28).
In Act III of The Historical Register Fielding ridiculed Walpole in the character of Quidam, who, though not exactly silent, is more remarkable for his actions than his words: after winning over some disaffected Patriots with a bribe, he produces a fiddle and leads them all in a dance.
This famous legend about the philosopher Roger Bacon (1214?-94) was dramatized by Robert Greene in Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1594). Friar Bacon, it is said, made a head of brass and with the Devil's help gave it speech. The allusion here is doubly apt, Walpole being known to the Opposition as "Bob Brass."
Cf. the obscure political allegory in Common Sense (24 September 1737), referring to one "Gaspar Cornaro," a Venetian empiric: "Your Wits have abundance of By-names for him; as . . . Haberdasher of Small Wit, &c."
Presumably a pun: a "Drum" was a large party usually held in the evening for the purpose of playing at cards. Fielding often ridicules this fashionable diversion: e.g. True Patriot (28 January 1746), Tom Jones (XVII,vi), Amelia (IX,vii).
maintaind . . . lived.] Molloy obliterated Fielding's phrasing beyond recovery and substituted these words. This change may have caused the apparent error in the plural form "Coffee-Houses" earlier in the sentence.
The OED surmises that "mumbudget" was originally a children's game in which silence was required. Examples include The Merry Wives of Windsor (1598), V.ii.7; Butler's Hudibras (1663), I.iii.208; and John Taylor, the Water Poet (1630): "The magazin of taciturnitie, the mumbudget of silence. . . ." "Budget" signifying a pouch or wallet, the phrase "to open one's budget" in colloquial usage means "to speak one's mind."
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