ABSTRACT
The Adventures of David Simple, a novel by Henry Fielding’s sister Sarah (1710–1768), was published in May 1744 and—with corrections and improvements by Henry—again later in the year. This extract is part of a platitudinous performance by a tavern-critic, who can ‘run through most of the famous Authors, without committing any Error … yet … like a School-boy saying his Lesson’ (II. iii; ed. Malcolm Kelsall, Oxford English Novels (1969), p. 89).
