Political Biography of Henry Fielding

Existing accounts of Fielding's political ideas are insufficiently aware of the structure of politics in the first half of the eighteenth century, and of the ways in which Whig political ideology developed following the Revolution of 1688. This political biography explains and illustrates what 'being a Whig' meant to Fielding. Introduction; Chapter 1 ‘So Dissipated, Though Well Born and Well-Educated a Youth’; Chapter 2 ‘Unshap’d Monsters of a Wanton Brain!’: 1728—1731; Chapter 3 ‘Court Poet’?: 1732—1735; Chapter 4 ‘Dramatick Satire’; Chapter 5 ‘Writ in Defence of the Rights of the People’: 1739—1741; Chapter 6 The Political Significance of the Opposition. A vision; Chapter 7 ‘There are Several Boobys Who are Squires’: 1742—1745; Chapter 8 ‘A Strenuous Advocate for the Ministry’: 1745—1748; Chapter 9 ‘A Hearty Well-Wisher to the Glorious Cause of Liberty’: Tom Jones and the Forty-Five; Chapter 10 ‘This Botcher in Law and Politics’: 1749—1754; conclusion Conclusion;