spunging-houses, are all drawn from what he has seen and known."*

However this may be, I think that of all the novels of that period, 'Amelia' is the one which gives the most generally truthful idea of the manners and habits of middle-class society then. There is little if any exaggeration or caricature, and I have no doubt that Fielding intended faithfully to depict society, such as he knew it, with its merits and its faults,-its licentious manners, and domestic virtues; its brawls, its oaths, its prisons, and its masquerades.

* This is bitter spite on the part of Richardson. Fielding describes Amelia as having her nose injured by a fall before her marriage. Dr. Johnson said "Fielding's' Amelia' was the most pleasing heroine of all the romances, but that vile broken nose, never cured, ruined the sale of perhaps the only book which being printed off betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night."

CHAPTER IX.

SMOLLETT.- -DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIM AND FIELDING.

PEREGRINE PICKLE.' 'HUMPHRY CLINKER.'' THE SPIRITUAL QUIXOTE.'

HE jolly, riotous kind of life which I have spoken of as characteristic of one class of novels of the last century is fully displayed in the pages of Smollett. He reflects, in many respects, the character of the age more fully than any other writer,-its material pleasures-its coarse amusements-its hard drinking, loud swearing, and practical jokes. His heroes are generally libertines, full of mirth and animal spirits, who make small account of woman's chastity; and whose adventures are intrigues, and their merriment broad farce. Such are the chief features of 'Roderick Random' and Peregrine Pickle' -neither of which, however, is so offensive as the Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom,' the hero of which is a blackguard and a scoundrel, without a redeeming virtue.

The French critic, M. Taine, whom I have already quoted, thus speaks of Smollett: "He exaggerates caricature; he thinks he amuses us in showing us mouths gaping to the ears, and noses half-a-foot long; he exaggerates a national prejudice or a professional trick until it absorbs the whole character. He flings together personages the most revolting with the most grotesque-a Lieutenant Lismahago, half-roasted by Red Indians; sea wolves who pass their lives in shouting and travestying all their ideas into a sea jargon; old maids as ugly as she asses, as withered as skeletons, and as acrid as vinegar; maniacs steeped in pedantry, hypochondria, misanthropy, and silence. from sketching them slightly, like Gil Blas, he brings into prominent relief each disagreeable trait, and overloads it with details, without considering whether they are too numerous, without reflecting that they are excessive, without feeling that they are odious, without seeing that they are disgusting. The public whom he addresses is on a level with his energy and roughness, and in order to shake such nerves a writer cannot strike too hard."*

Far

One of the chief differences between Smollett and Fielding is this-the scenes and adventures

* 'Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise,' vol. iv. p. 323.

in Smollett's novels are laughable and farcical in themselves; but have little or no bearing upon the progress of the story. They are too much like the disconnected slides in a magiclantern. But Fielding makes each separate adventure, especially in Tom Jones,' subservient to the plot, the issue of which is worked out with admirable consistency and skill.

6

It will be sufficient, for the purpose of giving an idea of Smollett's humour, to take two of his stories, Peregrine Pickle' and 'Humphry Clinker.' Peregrine Pickle is the son of Gamaliel Pickle, and at his birth his mother conceived an unnatural aversion to him, which she continued to feel until her death. He is adopted by an uncle, Commodore Trunnion, who, with his friend and companion Lieutenant Jack Hatchway (with a wooden leg), and his former boatswain Tom Pipes, has retired from the navy and ensconced himself not far from his brother's house near the sea-side, in an habitation which is called the Garrison, defended by a ditch, over which he had laid a draw-bridge and planted his courtyard with patereroes continually loaded with shot. There is little doubt that Sterne took the idea of Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim in Tristram Shandy' from Commodore Trunnion and Jack Hatchway.

The Commodore gives everything a nautical turn, and hardly ever speaks without uttering a volley of oaths. Smollett himself had been a surgeon's mate, and was perfectly at home in sea phrases. Mr. Gamaliel Pickle has a sister Grizzle, "with a very wan, not to say sallow, complexion," a cast in her eye, and an enormous mouth, and slightly addicted to brandy, who sets her heart on engaging the affections of the Commodore. She is aided in her schemes by Jack Hatchway, who persuaded Pipes to get on the chimney belonging to the Commodore's chamber at midnight, and lower down by a rope a bunch of rotten and phosphorescent whitings, while he put a speaking-trumpet to his mouth and in a voice like thunder shouted out " Trunnion! Trunnion! turn out and be spliced, or lie still and be d—d." This so terrifies the gallant sailor that he yields to the lady's advances, exclaiming, "Well, since it must be so, I think we must e'en grapple. But . . . 'tis a hard case that a fellow of my years should be compelled, d'ye see, to beat up to windward all the rest of my life, against the current of my inclination." I have already described the dress he wore at his wedding, but not the adventure that befel him on the occasion. When he had mounted his horse, attended by his lieutenant, to meet