The early plays of Henry Fielding mark the beginning of Fielding's literary career. His early plays span the time period from his first production in 1728 to the beginning of the Actor's Rebellion of 1733, a strife within the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane that divided the theatrical community and threatened to disrupt London stage performances. These plays introduce Fielding's take on politics, gender, and morality and serve as an early basis for how Fielding develops his ideas on these matters throughout his career.
Background Fielding first produced a play in February 1728. Although his first production, Love in Several Masques, lasted only a few nights, it was the start of his career in theatre.Rivero 1989 p. 6 On 16 March 1728, Fielding enrolled at the University of Leyden, but he did not abandon the theatre. His early plays were those of an amateur hobby, but he later returned to London to earn a living. Arthur Murphy, in his 1762 biographical introduction to Fielding's works, believed that Fielding returned to London and treated the theatre as a career because his father stopped an allowance of 200 pounds a year.Hume 1988 pp. 34–35
However, there is little evidence that Fielding lacked funds, or that such a lack of funds would cause him to leave Leyden to return to writing plays; Fielding eventually returned to Leyden on 22 February 1729. It is not known when or why Fielding left the school, but he produced The Temple Beau on 26 January 1730, which suggests that he returned to London by November 1729.Hume 1988 pp. 35–37 By the time of his return, he had three plays, either still in draft form or complete: Don Quixote in England, The Wedding-Day and The Temple Beau. Of these, only The Temple Beau was accepted for the stage.Hume 1988 p. 45
When Fielding returned to working with the Royal Theatre, his piece The Lottery became an immediate success and lasted for decades after.Hume 1988 p. 120 Combined with The Modern Husband, Fielding could have received up to 1,000 pounds from the plays' first run. This placed Fielding at the position of being the main contributor of plays to the Royal Theatre.Hume 1988 pp. 126–129 Currently, Fielding is primarily viewed as a novelist, but his plays suggest that he wished to be a playwright and that his career would be in theatre.Hume 1988 p. vii Although Fielding wrote twenty-six plays, only a handful of them were ever published in critical editions before 1990.Rivero 1989 p. xi
Early plays The early plays include Love in Several Masques, The Temple Beau, The Author's Farce, Tom Thumb, Rape upon Rape, The Tragedy of Tragedies, The Letter Writers, The Welsh Opera, The Grub-Street Opera, The Lottery, The Modern Husband, The Old Debauchees, The Covent-Garden Tragedy, and The Mock Doctor. These plays start in 1727, when Fielding first worked on Love in Several Masques, until the disruption of the winter 1732–1733 theatre season at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.Paulson 2000 pp. 33–35 This disruption, caused by illness, management problems, and other incidents, started the Actor Rebellion of 1733.Hume 1988 pp. 143, 155–156
1727–1728 Love in Several Masques was Fielding's first play, and was first released on 16 February 1728. Though the play was never revivedFielding 2004 p. 9 and only ran for four nights,Rivero 1989 pp. 6–7 it still did moderately well especially when compared with the competing plays at that time.Rivero 1989 pp. 6–7 In the play, three respectable males each meet a female counterpart three times, and share a parallel incident with letters and an unmasking. Fielding focuses on men and how he believes they should prove their worth before marriage. It also highlights Fielding's belief in the relationship of morality and libertine beliefs and introduces character types that Fielding would use throughout his plays and novels.Potter 1999 p. 34
Don Quixote in England was started as Fielding's second play, but it was not finished and produced until the later part of his career. After Fielding returned to London from the University of Leyden during the end of 1729, he brought with him a version of Don Quixote in England. It was refused by the Theatre Royal and it was not produced or printed until 1734. The only information on the origins of this play come from Fielding's 1734 preface. It was his second play, and Fielding attributes it to being written at Leyden during 1728. It was intended more as amusement than as a serious production and was an imitation of Cervantes's Don Quixote. After the prompting of Barton Booth and Colley Cibber, Fielding put away the play until 1733, when the Drury-Lane actors asked him for a new play. Soon after, Fielding rewrote parts of the play.Hume 1988 pp. 44–45
The Wedding Day was started as his third play, but it was not finished until years later and finally brought out on both the stage and in print after his theatrical career ended. After Fielding returned to London from the University of Leyden during the end of 1729, he brought with him a version of The Wedding-Day. It was refused by John Rich to be staged, and it was not produced until 1743 by David Garrick. The only information on the origins of this play come from Fielding's preface to the play in his Miscellanies (1743). In it, Fielding says that he intended the leads, Millamour and Charlotte, for Robert Wilks and Anne Oldfield. However, Oldfield died before the play could be produced, and Fielding and Wilks got into a fight, which made it impossible for Fielding to convince him to join the production.Hume 1988 pp. 44–45
1729–1730 Fielding started work on his fourth play, The Temple Beau, in April 1729, but did not finish until the end of the year.Fielding 2004 p. 99 Rejected by his first theatre,Rivero p. 23 the play had to be performed at another one, where it had 13 shows its first year and few revivals thereafter. The play is about Wilding, a young law student who gives up his studies to seek pleasure, and his attempts to marry a woman for her money. Fielding focuses on hypocrisy and gender equality in marriage with characters' interaction with Wilding.Pagliaro 1998 p. 62
Fielding's fifth play, The Author's Farce and the Pleasures of the Town, first opened on 30 March 1730 at the Little Theatre, Haymarket, and initially ran for 41 nights, which marked it as a major success. The play incorporates Fielding's response to Drury Lane and their previous rejection of his works. It also contains a third act, a puppet show, that pokes fun at theatre and the literary community as a whole. The play was revived many times in its original formatFielding 2004 pp. 192–197 and later in the medium of puppet show for its entire format.Speaight 1990 p. 157 The plot focuses on Harry Luckless, an author, as he attempts to have a successful writing career, pursue women, dodge his landlady, and eventually put on a show within the show. To emphasise the literary satire, Fielding introduced his persona "Scriblerus Secundus" and adopts the tradition of the Scriblerus Club.Rivero 1989 pp. 31–37
Tom Thumb, Fielding's sixth play, was added to the ninth showing of The Author's Farce, 24 April 1730. Together, the shows lasted at the Haymarket until they were replaced by Fielding's next production, Rape upon Rape. Tom Thumb was later included with other productions, including Rape upon Rape, and later transformed into the Tragedy of Tragedies.Rivero 1989 p. 53 In the print edition, Fielding added footnotes, prefaces, and prologues, which introduced the narratorial style found in Fielding's later works.Rivero 1989 p. 57 The plot deals with the English hero, Tom Thumb, who is of only tiny proportions. After defeating a group of giants, Tom Thumb is handsomely rewarded by King Arthur, which later erupts in a comical love triangle between Tom, Arthur's wife Queen Dollalolla, and Princess Huncamunca.Rivero 1989 pp. 61–63 Tom is eventually swallowed by a cow and killed. Soon after, his ghost appears but meets an untimely death. This scene reportedly provoked Jonathan Swift to laughter, a rare feat.Hillhouse 1918 note p. 150 The farcical nature of Tom Thumb pokes fun at 17th and 18th-century tragedy,Rivero 1989 pp. 55–58 gender roles and gender politics.Campbell 1995 pp. 19–20
Fielding's seventh play, Rape upon Rape; or, The Justice Caught in His Own Trap, was a five-act comedic play that first ran on 23 June 1730 at the Little Theatre for eight nights. The play enjoyed some success until it was renamed The Coffee-House Politician and was altered to possibly update the play as it focused on mocking current news events.Fielding 2004 pp. 405–417 The play is a love comedy that incorporates a corrupt judge that stands in the lovers' way. Eventually, various characters attempt to stop the judge, but he prevails albeit in a comedic fashion. Fielding's focus in the play is to point out corruption in government and to attack those who abuse their power.Rivero 1989 pp. 80–89
1731
Fielding's expanded version of Tom Thumb, The Tragedy of Tragedies, first ran on 24 March 1731. Its printed edition was "edited" and "commented" on by Fielding's pseudonym H. Scriblerus Secundus who pretends not to be the original author,Rivero 1989 pp. 70–73 and it contains a frontispiece by Hogarth, which serves as the earliest proof of a relationship between Fielding and Hogarth.Dudden 1966 p. 60 There are few major changes to the plot's outline except that Grizzle became Tom's rival for Huncamunca's heart, and Tom is not killed by Grizzle. Instead, Tom is able to defeat Grizzle, which changes the outcome of the play. Furthermore, there is an emphasis on faulty language and Fielding emphasises the problems within poorly written tragedies.Rivero 1989 pp. 63–71
Fielding's ninth play, the unsuccessful The Letter Writers Or, a New Way to Keep a Wife at Home, ran for four nights as a companion piece to The Tragedy of TragediesHume 1988 p. 91 but was soon after replaced by The Welsh Opera on 22 April 1731.Rivero 1989 p. 88 The play followed two characters whose wives are busy having affairs and how they attempt to keep their wives faithful. The immoral characters are forgiven within the play and there is a lack of moral commentary within the plot.Hume 1988 pp. 91–93
The tenth play and new companion piece to The Tragedy of Tragedies, The Welsh Opera, ran many times until it was expanded into The Grub-Street Opera. The expanded version of the play, The Grub-Street Opera, was not put on for an audience, which provoked E. Rayner to print The Welsh Opera without Fielding's consent.Rivero 1989 p. 88 The play serves both as a tribute to the Scriblerians, especially Gay and Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and to put forth a political allegory that satirises Walpole's government and the British monarchy.Rivero 1989 pp. 91–92 In particular, it mocked the feud between Walpole and Pulteney, a Privy Councillor.Fielding 2004 II pp. 1–4
The expanded and altered version of The Welsh Opera, The Grub-Street Opera, was first rehearsed in May 1731,Hume 1988 pp. 96–97 but it never ran on stage. It was printed and exists in a complete printed format,Rivero 1989 p. 88 and it is possible that it was not performed because of government intervention.Goldgar 1976 p. 113 Its original printing was done without Fielding's consent,Rivero 1989 pp. 88–89 and it is uncertain as to when Fielding's official version of the play was printed.Morrissey 1973 pp. 19–23 The plot focuses on a standard love story but with characters that exhibit less than virtuous characteristics.Rivero 1989 p. 104 The title pokes fun at the Grub Street Journal and also links to the theme within the plot of attacking theatre in general.Rivero 1989 pp. 95–97
1732