An

himself,' relate in the main to the captain of the ship, and to the captain's nephew, a military coxcomb of the type of Ensign Northerton. There is also a difference in the name of the landlady who, to use Horace Walpole's Hippant phrase, "treated and teased" the sick man's dropsy in the Isle of Wight. obvious inference from these last-mentioned omissions and variation would doubtless be that, in 1755, the parties concerned were still living; and that, in a volume for which the widest sale was desired, it was, to say the least, inexpedient to include matter which might give rise to contention or expostulation. Indeed, it may well be that Mrs. Fielding and her daughter returned from Portugal in the very ship that carried them out, a circumstance which would make the almost immediate publication of a book containing satirical comments upon the captain an ungracious and even un1 See note to p. 24, 1. 3.

2 See notes to p. 145, 1. 4, and p. 175, l. 10.

generous act, especially as he was probably known personally to the novelist's brother John, who had carried out the arrangements for the passage to Lisbon." 1

1

This explanation of the existence of an earlier and a shorter version than that included among Fielding's complete works is so plausible that, in the absence of any more reasonable theory, it should require but little persuasion to procure its acceptance. Unluckily, it has been discovered, during the progress of the present reprint, that, besides the edition hitherto regarded as the first, there exists another, published by the same publisher, and having the same date, dedication, and title-page, but corresponding in all respects with the longer version. When was it issued from the press? Upon this question contemporary advertisements throw no light; and the only solution which suggests itself is hypothetical. The book, as reference to the "Public Adver1. 14.

1 See p. 41,

tiser" shows, was freely advertised in February and March, 1755. Then, for some eight months, there is no mention of it whatever, until, on the 4th December, the advertisements again begin to appear for a short time, in much the same terms as before, the reference to Fielding's family being the only thing omitted, and "Printed" by Andrew Millar being substituted for "Sold." As to the reason for this re-advertisement there need be no long speculation. On the Ist of November had taken place the famous earthquake at Lisbon. The contemporary magazines and newspapers were full of references to this "topical" subject, and Millar no doubt saw in it an admirable pretext for pushing the account of Fielding's voyage to a place that was occupying so much attention. The book had to be hastily reprinted; and as it had now probably become his own property, he reprinted it, not as it had been edited for the press, but as it had been originally left in manuscript by its author. It is, of course, com

But

petent for casuistry to contend that the longer version was really the first; that it had been withdrawn upon objection; and that, until 1762, when it was again issued in extenso, the shorter version continued to be sold. A certain colourable support is given to this supposition by the fact that an unauthorized edition, published by James Hoey of Dublin, follows, not the longer, but the shorter version, which looks, at first sight, as if the shorter version were the later. the Dublin reprint, seeing that it contains a supplementary account of Lisbon "as it stood before the Ist of Nov. 1755," was plainly prompted by the earthquake; and, though dated 1756, might really have been printed before the longer version had found its way over to Ireland. It might, in factBut to proceed further is to enter a jungle of conjecture. Upon the whole, the presumption that the longer version succeeded the shorter is not only a natural but a logical one; and that it

did so rather prematurely must be attributed to the excitement of the earthquake.1

In both versions there is one thing that deserves notice. From the longer version we learn the captain's Christian name, since his nephew addresses him familiarly as "Dick"; but in neither is given his surname or the name of his vessel. These particulars were for the first time revealed by the publication, in Jesse's "Memoirs of Celebrated Etonians," 1875, of the following letter, now, as then, in the collection of Mr. Locker-Lampson. It

1 Since this was first written, a close examination of contemporary reviews has supplied practical proof, if not of the whole of the above hypothesis, at least of the priority of the shorter version. The "Monthly Review" for March, 1755, says incidentally that the "Comment on Bolingbroke" occupies twenty-seven pages. To speak precisely, in the shorter version it occupies twenty-seven pages and a half (pp. 201-228); but in the longer version it occupies only twenty-two and a half (pp. 223-245). It is clear, therefore, that as the book was first published on the 25th February, 1755, the shorter version was the one reviewed, and consequently is the earlier.