Item talk:Q229686

Education: taught Latin at home by John Oliver; Eton College 1719, ran away in 1721; University of Leiden 1728-30; entered the Middle Temple to begin preparing for the bar 1737

Patrons: sought the patronage of Sir Robert Walpole for a time (in 1729–30 he wrote an unfinished burlesque of Pope's Dunciad satirizing the minister's enemies); oddly, appears to have been a benefactor of sorts from 1740-2, paying him to suppress a book and subscribing to his Miscellanies; Lyttelton; James Harris of Salisbury; Ralph Allen of Bath; the duke of Bedford -- his most powerful patron; appointed Fielding high steward of the New forest, a royal preserve, held 1746-1748

Coteries: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu; George Lyttelton; William Pitt; Sir Charles Hanbury Williams; James Ralph; Thomas Cooke

Periodicals etc.: pieces published either anonymously or pseudonymously in the anti-ministerial papers Mist's (later Fog's) Weekly Journal and The Craftsman in 1728 and 1730; The Champion; or, British mercury. under the pseud. By Capt. Hercules Vinegar, of Pall-Mall, 1739-40; 1740-3; published essays anonymously in The Craftsman and in Common Sense (under the pseud. Mum Budget), 1738; History of Our Own Times, a short-lived magazine attributed to Fielding and Rev. William Young 1741; The True patriot: and the history of our own times, edited by Fielding 1745-6; The British magazine (Increase of Robbers), 1746; the Jacobite's Journal (under the ironic persona of John Trott-Plaid), 1747-8 -- ridiculed Tory opposition; launched the Covent-Garden Journal, 1752 -- intended to advertise for the Universal Register Office and inform the public of his magisterial activities; made enemies of John Hill and Smollett

Overall: His father's lavish lifestyle and large family left little inheritance for Fielding, forcing him to write for a living. He began by writing poems and plays. After a rocky start, he gained a reputation as a prolific playwright until June 1737, when the Theatrical Licensing Act effectively ended his career. This led to a period of financial burden, when he was imprisoned briefly for debt and attempted to alleviate his distress by translating the Military History of Charles XII for his bookseller John Nourse. He then wrote a number of original prose works, under a mix of patronage and writing for London booksellers. After the publication of his enormously popular Tom Jones, in conjunction with the revenue from his career as a magistrate, he had plenty of money, but spent it unwisely. He is remembered as a playwright, novelist, journalist, and magistrate.

Jacob Sider Jost/ Mary Naydan/ Noah Fusco, “Poets of the 1730s: A Digital Humanities Seedling” (2017/ 2021)