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tampfen hatte. Der eben so unerfahrene ale feurige Jüngling liefs sich in dieser gefährlichen Stadt zu Aus schweifungen aller Art hinreifsen, und gerieth dadurch bald in die hülflosesten Umstände. In dieser Verlegenheit fing er un, für das Theater zu schreiben. Seine beiden ersten Stücke, Love in several masques, und the Temple beau wurden mit Beifall aufgenommen. Weniger gefielen die folgenden, nicht weil sie schlechter waren, denn eie verrathen sämmtlich viele Menschenkenntnifs, und eine ächte vis co mica (s. Murphy's Essay on the life and genius of Henry Fielding), sondern weil seine Feinde das Publikum gegen ihn einzunehmen wussten. 1736 endigte er seine theatralische Laufbahn, nachdem er 18 Stücke geliefert hatte, die man in Ben vollständigen Sammlungen seiner Werke in chronologischer Ordnung aufgeführt findet. Works of Henry Fielding, London 1767, vIII Vols. 8. 1775, xit Vols. 8. Edinburgh 1767, x Vols. 8. London 1808, 14 Vols. 8. (von Mur phy besorgt). Er arbeitete indessen nicht blofs für die Bühne. Sein Essay on conversation, Knowledge of the characters of men, Journey from this world to the next und History of Jonathan Wild würden bekannter seyn, wenn sie nicht durch seine später erschienenen Meisterstücke verdunkelt worden wären. In dem gedachten Jahre verliefs er London, um mit einem schönen, aber armen Frauenzimmer, das er um diese Zeit geheirathet hatte, zu Stower in Dorsetshire, einem ihm durch den Tod seiner Mutter zugefallenen Landgute, zu leben. Seine Einkünfte, hinreichend, saine Bedürfnisse zu be¬ friedigen, konnten seinem Hange zur Üppigkeit kein Genüge leisten. In weniger als 3 Jahren war ihm nichts als seine Talente übrig. In den elendesten Umständen kehrté er gegen 1740 nach London zurück, um sein Glück als Rechtsge lehrter zu versuchen. Er trat auch wirklich in Westminsterhall mit Beifall auf. Da aber die Ausschweifungen seiner Jugend seine sonst dauerhafte Gesundheit dergestalt untergraben hatten, dafs er ununterbrochen am Podagra litt, so ward es ihm unmöglich, auf diesem Wege seinen Unterhalt zu erwerben. Br griff also von neuem zur Feder, und arbeitete einige Zeit an einer periodischen Schrift, politischen Inhalts, the Champion, die vorzüglich ihm ihre Aufnahme verdankte. Unter diesen Umständen, die jedes andere Genie seiner Schnellkraft beraubt haben würden, schrieb er seine mor

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trefflichen Romane Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones *) und Amelia, Zierden der Englischen Literatur. Da ihn jedoch auch diese Werke nicht vor Dürftigkeit zu sichern vermochten, so nahm er 1750 das Amt eines Friedensrichters in der Grafschaft Middlesex an, verwaltete es aber nicht lange. Seine Ärzte riethen ihm, zur Wiederherstellung seiner Gesundheit eine Reise nach dem milden Klima von Lissabon zu unternehmen. Er that es, und starb 2 Monate nach seiner Ankunft daselbst, im 47sten Jahre seines Alters. Das Tagebuch dieser Reise erschien 1755. The journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, by Henry Fielding, Esq. London, 8. Das Leben dieses merkwürdigen Schriftstellers war eine Kette von Zerstreuungen, Ausschweifungen, und daraus entspringenden Unfällen. Er war unglücklich, sagt Murphy, oft unbesonnen, aber nie lasterhaft. Dafs er ein Mann von grofsem Verstande, wohlgeordneter Einbildungskraft und gründlichen Kenntnissen gewesen ist, bezeugen seine Schriften, besonders sein Tom Jones, der in den Händen eines jeden Freundes geschmackvoller Lektüre ist. Joseph Andrews, zufolge der Vorrede eine Nachahmung des Stils und der Manier des Cervantes, erreicht sein Original nicht, und Amelia, das letzte Produkt Fielding's, steht dem Tom Jones eben so weit nach, als die Odyssee der Iliade. Joseph Andrews erschien London 1750. 2 Vols. 8. Tom Jones ib. 1750, 4 Vols. 8. Amelia ib. 1752, 2 Vols. 8. Die vorzüglichste Quelle über Fielding's Leben ist the Companion to the Play-house, wovon das vor der oben erwähnten Edinburger Ausgabe der sämmtlichen Werke stehende und hier benutzte Leben ein Auszug ist.

I

HISTORY OF THE MAN OF THE HILL **).

was born in a village of Somersetshire, called Mark, in the year 1657; my father was one of those whom they call gentlemen-farmers***). He had a little estate of about 300l.

*) Ein Buchhändler hatte ihm für das Manuskript des Tom Jones fünf und zwanzig Pfund geboten, und Fielding war schon ziemlich geneigt, das Werk um diesen Preis zu verkaufen, als er zum Glück den berühmten Buchhändler Andreas Millar kennen lernte, der ihm zweihundert Pfund gab. **) Tom Jones, Book VIII. chapt. 11 14. ***) gentleman farmer. Mit diesem Na

a year of his own, and rented another estate of near the same value. He was prudent and industrious, and so good a husbandman, that he might have led a very easy and comfortable life, had not an arrant vixen of a wife soured his domestic quiet. But though this circumstance perhaps made him miserable, it did not make him poor: for he confined her almost entirely at home, and rather chose to bear eternal upbraidings in his own house, than to injure his fortune by indulging her in the extravagances she desired abroad.

By this Xanthippe he had two sons, of which I was the younger. He designed to give us both a good education; but my elder brother, who, unhappily for him, was the favourite of my mother, utterly neglected his learning; insomuch that after having been five or six years at school with little or no improvement, my father being told by his master, that it would be to no purpose to keep him longer there, at last complied with my mother in taking him home from the hands of that tyrant, as she called his master; though indeed he gave the lad much less correction than his idleness deserved, but much more it seems, than the young gentleman liked, who constantly complained to his mother of his severe treatment, and she as constantly gave him a hearing.

My brother now, at the age of fifteen, bid adieu to all learning, and to every thing else but to his dog and gun, with which latter he became so expert, that, though perhaps you may think it incredible, he could not only hit a standing mark with great certainty but hath actually shot a crow as it was flying in the air. He was likewise excellent at finding a hare sitting, and was soon reputed one of the best sportsmen in the country. A reputation which both he and his mother enjoyed as much as if he had been thought the finest scholar.

The situation of my brother made me at first think my lot the harder, in being continued at school: but I soon changed my opinion, for as I advanced pretty fast in learning,

men benennt man solche Männer, welche liegende Gründe haben, die sie nicht verpachten, sondern selbst verwalten und anbauen. Diese sind ein Mittelding zwischen unserm Deutschen Landjunker und reichem Bauer. Manche von diesen gentlemen-farmers pachten aufserdem oft noch Ländereien von gröfsern Güterbesitzern, und so gränzen sie sehr nahe an die eigentlichen farmers.

my labours became easy, and my exercise so delightful that holidays were my most unpleasant time: for my mother, who never loved me, now apprehending that I had the greater share of my father's affection, and finding, or at least thinking, that I was more taken notice of by some gentlemen of learn, ing, and particularly by the parson of the parish, than my brother, she now hated my sight, and made home so disagreeable to me, that what is called by schoolboys Black Monday *), was to me the whitest in the whole year.

Having, at length, gone through the school at Taunton**), I was thence removed to Exeter College in Oxford, where I remained four years; at the end of which an accident took me off entirely from my studies; and hence I may truly date the rise of all which happened to me afterwards in life.

There was at the same college with myself one Sir***) George Gresham, a young fellow who was entitled to a very considerable fortune; which he was not, by the will of his father, to come into full possession of till he arrived at the age of twenty-five. However, the liberality of his guardians gave him little cause to regret the abundant caution of his father: for they allowed him five hundred pound a year while he remained at the university, where he kept his horses and his whore, and lived as wicked and as profligate a life, as he could have done, had he been never so entirely master of his fortune; for besides the five hundred a year which he received from his guardians, he found means to spend a thousand more. He was above the age of twenty-one, and had no difficulty in gaining what credit he pleased.

This young fellow, among many other tolerable bad qualities, had one very diabolical. He had a great delight in destroying and ruining the youth of inferior fortune, by drawing them into expences which they could not afford so well as himself; and the better, and worthier, and soberer any young man was, the greater pleasure and triumph had he in his destruction, thus acting the character which is recorded of the devil, and going about seeking whom he might devour.

Black Monday, der erste Montag nach den Schulferien.
Taunton, ein Markiflecken in Somorsotshire: ***) Siche

die Anmerkung 8. 14:

It was my misfortune to fall into an acquaintance and intimacy with this gentleman. My reputation of diligence in my studies made me a desirable object of his mischievous intention; and my own inclination made it sufficiently easy for him to effect his purpose; for though I had applied myself with much industry to books, in which I took great delight, there were other pleasures in which I was capable of taking much greater: for I was highmettled, had a violent flow of animal spirits, was a little ambitious, and extremely

amorous.

I had not long contracted an intimacy with Sir George, before I became a partaker of all his pleasures, and when I was once entered on that scene, neither my inclination, nor my spirit, would suffer me to play an under-part, I was second to none of the company in any acts of debauchery; nay, I soon distinguished myself so notably in all riots and disorders, that my name generally stood first in the roll of delinquents; and, instead of being lamented as the unfortunate pupil of Sir George, I was now accused as the person who had misled and debauched that hopeful young gentleman; for though he was the ringleader and promoter of all the mischief, he was never so considered. I fell at last under the censure of the vice-chancellor, and very narrowly escaped expulsion,

on

You will easily believe, Sir, that such a life as I am now describing, must be incompatible with my further progress in learning; and that in proportion as I addicted myself ́ more and more to loose pleasure, I must grow more and more remiss in application to my studies. This was truly the consequence; but this was not all. My expences now greatly exceeded not only my former income, but those additions which I extorted from my poor generous father, pretences of sums being necessary for preparing for my approaching degree of bachelor of arts. These demands, how-› ever, grew at last so frequent and exorbitant, that my father, by slow degrees, opened his ears to the accounts which he received from many quarters of my present behaviour: and which my mother failed not to echo very faithfully and loudly, adding:,,Ay, this is the fine gentleman, the scholar "who doth so much honour to his family, and is to be the making of it. I thought what all this learning would come sto. He is to be the ruin of us all, I find, after his elder

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