ABSTRACT
The publication of Tom Jones carried Henry Fielding's fame to its height; but seems to have been attended with no consequences to his fortune, beyond the temporary relief which the copy-money afforded him. Some resources were necessary for a man of pleasure, and he found them in his pen, having, as he used to say himself, no alternative, but to be a hackney writer, or a hackney coachman. His comedies and farces were brought on the stage in hasty succession; and play after play, to the number of eighteen, sunk or swam on the theatrical sea, betwixt the years 1727 and 1736. His Novels show few instances of pathos; it was, perhaps, inconsistent with the life which he was compelled to lead; for those who see most of human misery become necessarily, in some degree hardened to its effects.
