Fielding - Henry Fielding

British novelist. Born on April 22nd into a distinguished family in Somersetshire. He grew up in a wealthy household, but his mother died when he was 11, and after his father remarried, his family life was not necessarily blessed. He studied at Eton College, but did not go on to a university in England. In 1728, after his first play, The Varieties of Love, was performed in London, he enrolled at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where he studied for about a year and a half, mainly studying classical literature. He then settled in London, and wrote over twenty plays, both large and small, between 1730 and 1737. At one point, he even ran a theater himself, and established a position in the theatrical world. He is best known for his play The Life of Tom Thumb (1730). At the time, there were many political satire scripts, and he was also skilled in that field, so the Walpole government at the time was frightened and enacted the Censorship Act in 1837, and many of the theatres were closed, which brought a setback to his theatrical activities, both his writing and his theatre management. He began studying law in the same year, and was registered as a lawyer in 1840. He continued to practice law until his death, and from 1848 he became a judge in London.

As a writer, he contributed to and managed the Champion, a three-times-a-week newspaper, from the autumn of 1739. Even after he had made a name for himself as a novelist, he managed newspapers and wrote regularly for them three times: The True Patriot from 1745-46, The Jacobite from 1747-48, and The Covent Garden in 1752.

In 1740, inspired or repelled by the success of S. Richardson's novel "Pamela," he anonymously published the play "Shamela" (meaning "False Pamela") the following year, and wrote his first novel, "Joseph Andrews," in 1742. The protagonist is Pamela's younger brother, and the opening line is a mockery of Richardson, but in the preface he declares his work a "comic epic in prose" and claims to be a work that exposes the laughable lies of human beings. He pioneered an artistic field completely different from Richardson's, and received extremely good reviews. From then on, the two became lifelong rivals. His epic novel "Tom Jones" (1749) was written with the same purpose, but it was larger in scale, more well-structured, and showed a more discerning eye for human beings, and became his masterpiece. He also wrote two other works, "The Life of Jonathan Wilde the Robber" (1743, revised edition 1754) and "Amelia" (1751), which were based on real people, but neither of them reached the level of the above two. While Richardson excelled at describing the psychology of women, he made brisk men flourish. "Amelia," which has a female protagonist, may have been born from a sense of rivalry with Richardson, but it was not his forte. His tendency to do good deeds, which came from his familiarity as a judge, is also evident. However, the above two works have left him unshakable as a representative writer of the establishment of the English novel. In his later years, he suffered from gout, so he resigned from his post and went on a trip to Lisbon for relaxation, where he died on October 8, 1754. His grave is still there today. "A Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon" (1755) was published posthumously. He also wrote petitions for crime prevention from the perspective of a judge.

[Akamuta Natsuo]

"Fielding" by Natsuo Shumuta (1966, Kenkyusha Publishing)" ▽ "Shamira" translated by Tanoguchi Tatehiko (1985, Asahi Publishing)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イギリスの小説家。4月22日、サマーセットシャの名門の家に生まれる。幼時は裕福に育ったが、11歳で母に死なれ、父が再婚したあとはかならずしも家庭的に恵まれなかった。イートン校に学んだが、イギリスの大学には進まず、1728年、処女戯曲『恋の種々相』をロンドンで上演させたのち、オランダのライデン大学に入学して1年半ほど在籍、主として古典文学を学んだ。以後ロンドンに定住、30年から37年までに大小二十数編の戯曲を書き、一時は自ら一劇場の経営にもあたって、劇壇での地位を築いた。劇作では『トム・サム一代記』（1730）あたりが有名。当時は政治風刺の脚本が多く、彼もそのほうに手腕を発揮したため、時のウォルポール内閣はこれに恐れをなして、37年「検閲令」を制定、かつ劇場の多くを閉鎖させ、彼の劇壇活動は、執筆、劇場経営ともここで頓挫(とんざ)の憂き目をみた。この年法律の勉強を始め、40年法律家として登録、以後死ぬまで表芸は法律家であり、48年以後はロンドンの判事となった。

　文筆のほうでは1739年秋から『チャンピオン』という週3回発行の新聞に健筆を振るい、かつその経営にもあたった。なお彼はこののち小説家として名をなしてからも、新聞を経営、同時に定期的執筆をした時期が三度ある。45～46年の『真の愛国者』新聞、47～48年の『ジャコバイト』新聞、52年の『コベント・ガーデン』新聞がそれである。

　1740年、S・リチャードソンの小説『パミラ』の成功に刺激あるいは反発を感じて、翌41年戯作(げさく)『シャミラ』（『にせパミラ』の意）を匿名で発表、さらに42年、小説としての第一作『ジョーゼフ・アンドルーズ』を書いた。主人公はパミラの実弟という趣向で、リチャードソンを揶揄(やゆ)する書き出しだが、序文で自作を「散文による喜劇的叙事詩」と宣言し、人間の笑うべき虚偽を暴露する作品を標榜(ひょうぼう)して、リチャードソンとはまったく別の芸術境を開拓し、すこぶる好評を得て、以後リチャードソンと生涯の好敵手というべき関係になった。雄編『トム・ジョーンズ』（1749）も同じ趣旨の執筆だが、規模も大きく、首尾も整い、人間をみる目も肥えて、彼の代表作となった。ほかに、実在の人物をモデルにした『大盗ジョナサン・ワイルド伝』（1743、改版1754）と『アミーリア』（1751）の両作があるが、どちらも前記二作に及ばない。リチャードソンが女性心理の描写を得意としたのに対し、彼はきびきびした男性を縦横に活躍させた。女性を主人公とした『アミーリア』は、リチャードソンへの対抗意識から生まれたかもしれないが、やはり彼の本領ではなかった。判事職が板についたための教訓癖も目だつ。しかし前記二作でイギリス小説確立期の代表作家たる地位は揺るがない。晩年は痛風に苦しみ、職を辞してリスボンに保養の旅に出かけたが、54年10月8日、同地で客死した。墓はいまも同地にある。『リスボン航海日記』（1755）は死後出版。このほか、判事の立場から犯罪防止のための建白なども執筆している。

［朱牟田夏雄］

『朱牟田夏雄著『フィールディング』（1966・研究社出版）』▽『田能口盾彦訳『シャミラ』（1985・朝日出版社）』

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