gentlemen, which would, perhaps, be better maintained by living unlike them. "But, to return from so long a digression, to which the use of so improper an epithet gave occasion, and to which the novelty of the subject allured, I will make the reader amends by concisely telling him, that the captain poured forth such a torrent of abuse, that I very hastily, and very foolishly, resolved to quit the ship. I gave immediate orders to summons a hoy to carry me that evening to Dartmouth, without considering any consequence. Those orders I gave in no very low voice; so that those above stairs might possibly conceive there was more than one master in the cabin. In the same tone I likewise threatened the captain with that which, he afterwards said, he feared more than any rock or quick sand. Nor can we wonder at this, when we are told he had been twice obliged to bring to, and cast anchor there before, and had neither time escaped without the loss of almost his whole cargo. "The most distant sound of law thus frightened a man, who had often, I am convinced, heard numbers of cannon roar round him with intrepidity. Nor did he sooner see the hoy approaching the vessel, than he ran down again into the cabin, and, his rage being perfectly subsided, he tumbled on his knees, and a little too abjectly implored for mercy. "I did not suffer a brave man and an old man, to remain a moment in this posture; but I immediately forgave him. "And here, that I may not be thought the sly trumpeter of my own praises, I do utterly disclaim all praise on the occasion. Neither did the greatness of my mind dictate, nor the force of my Christianity exact this forgiveness. To speak truth, I forgave him from a motive which would make men much more forgiving, if they were much wiser than they are; because it was convenient for me so to do." PAGE 177, 1. 19. "the cabin."-After this, in the later version, comes a full stop, and the sentence: "I will not endeavour to describe his lamentations with more prolixity than barely by saying, they were grievous, and seemed to have some mixture of the Irish howl in them." PAGE 180, 1. 8. “in the days of Sir Matthew Hale."-It is the one blot in the career of this able and otherwise blameless Lord Chief Justice, that in 1665, at the Bury St. Edmund's assizes, he condemned two women for witchcraft, in which, during the trial, he declared himself to be a believer. The poor creatures were executed. PAGE 183, 1. II. and acquaintance.”—After this, in the later version, comes: "though this foundation of intimacy seemed to her to be no deeper laid than in an accidental dinner, eaten many years before, at this temple of hospitality, when the captain lay wind-bound in the same bay." PAGE 193, 1. 14. 66 my teeth not being good.” This is evident from Hogarth's portrait (see frontispiece), which represents Fielding at the age of forty-eight, or in the year of his death. PAGE 195, 1. 8. "Not a single cloud."—A writer in the "Quarterly Review" for December, 1855, says of this passage: "His [Fielding's] versatile emotions answered to every call of pleasure, animal or mental, and wherever he was, he sunned himself in the ray which was shining at the hour, and, fixing all his attention upon the genial influence, enjoyed it in spite of the surrounding shadows." PAGE 197, 1. 23. "a snow."-Snows, like the "pinks" and "galleys" so common in the eighteenth-century "Ship News," were formerly much in use. They had two masts, and differed from brigs only in having their fore-and-aft main-sail fitted to a try-sail mast. PAGE 197, 1. 26. "with an audible voice."The later version has: "and with but one mistake, of a lion for Elias, in the second lesson for this day." PAGE 199, 1. 19. "in a hurry.”—In the later version follows: "as he was to lose nothing by his delay. Tuesday. This is," etc. PAGE 205, 1. 5. "the night."-Corrected to "the evening" in the later version. PAGE 208, 1. 22. "hic finis chartæq; viæq;" -Fielding started from Fordhook on Wednesday, June 26th, 1754; he landed at Lisbon on Wednesday, August 14th, being exactly fifty days, both inclusive. He had anticipated that the voyage would occupy three weeks at the most (see p. 271, l. 16). From the notices in contemporary newspapers, the mails from Falmouth to Lisbon, under favourable conditions, took from seven to eight days. Of Fielding's life in Portugal we have no particulars, except that he there wrote the "Preface" (see p. 15 n.), and perhaps the "Introduction," to his "Journal." He died on the 8th of October, and was buried in the English Cemetery. LUGET BRITANNIA GREMIO NON DARI CHISWICK PRESS-C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. |