Henry Fielding: Concepts and Characters Quiz

Answer: Partridge

Nightingale is Mrs. Miller's lodger, Sancho Panza is the servant of Don Quixote (one of Fielding's inspirations), and Wemmick would be a character in "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens (who was in turn inspired by Fielding, naming one of his own sons "Henry Fielding Dickens").

Answer: Pamela, eponymous heroine of Samuel Richardson's novel

Fielding famously began his career as a novelist with the spoof, "Shamela," which attacked what he saw as the false and self-serving chastity of Richardson's Pamela Andrews. In "Joseph Andrews," Fielding goes a step further by introducing Pamela's brother, Joseph, whose concern for his own chastity garners the opening salvo of laughs in the novel.

Answer: The Licensing Act, which required that all plays be approved and licensed before presentation

If Fielding's uproarious political satires had not precipitated the Licensing Act, he might never have turned to novels and we might never have had a "Tom Jones" or "Joseph Andrews."

Answer: Puritans and the new dynastic line of King George

Squire Western, the hilarious and hard-drinking country squire in "Tom Jones," sympathized with the Stuart dynasty and its Jacobite followers but not with the Puritans (whose preferred hair style gained them the "roundheads" epithet) or the dynasty of George I (who had come to England from Hanover). He was probably too much at his bottle to know much of the Grub Street booksellers.

Answer: Albert Finney

Finney was beaten out by Sidney Poitier for best actor, but "Tom Jones" did win best film of the year.

Answer: Amelia

As editor of "The Monthly Review," Cleland had a respected voice in literary circles of the day. Future generations, however, would know Cleland best as the writer of the salacious "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," aka "Fanny Hill."

Answer: Any of the other so-called virtues can be used for good or bad purposes, depending on the nature of the person possessing them

The novels are full of characters who use each of these three virtues to serve others or to serve themselves. For Fielding the moral bottom line was whether a person was good-natured (generous) or ill-natured (selfish); this would determine the use to which he or she put all the other so-called virtues.

Answer: Square (1), Thwackum (2), Western (3), Allworthy (4)

Perhaps as a result of the blocking and badinage techniques he had taken from the stage, Fielding often sets up a scene so that multiple characters respond to a single event in a way that shows each character's "predominant passion." In this case, Square the Deist judges by the law of nature (or rather justifies his perceived self-interest with reference to the law of nature), Thwackum the religious tutor judges by the law of God (or rather justifies his perceived self-interest with reference to the law of God), Western would prefer a round of drinks to either belief system, and Allworthy's inclination to be generous leaves him easily deceived.

Answer: Parson Adams

This description, in particular the combination of solid good nature and utter naivete, sets up Parson Adams as one of Fielding's most memorable characters. Fielding would certainly not consider any of the other three "good natured."

Answer: Latitudinarian theologians, who emphasized generosity, tolerance, and tenderness as markers of good nature

Fielding is at pains to criticize Deism and the Puritan/Calvinist theology, shows less concern for Catholic mysticism, and explicitly praises Latitudinarian divines for their emphasis on generosity, tolerance, and tenderness as markers of good nature.