ABSTRACT
One of the characters in Henry Fielding’s 1732 play The Lottery accurately portrays historians’ and sociologists’ ideas about emulation and pleasurable consumption. Chloe is a young woman who has purchased a single ticket in the upcoming English State Lottery and can think of nothing “but how I shall lay it [the £10,000 prize] out,” and then proceeds to enumerate how she will spend her winnings:
I will buy one of the best houses in town, and furnish it. Then I intend to set up my coach and six, and have six fine tall footmen. Then I will buy as many jewels as I can wear. All sorts of fine clothes I’ll have too. These I intend to purchase immediately: and then for the rest, I shall … spend it in housekeeping, cards, plays, and masquerades, and other diversions. 1
Chloe’s musings are not merely in the quest of emulation, but are also in line with theories on pleasurable consumption, especially when she notes after this list that if she draws the large prize, “I shall be a happy creature.” 2