Henry Fielding's novels and the classical tradition

Although scholars have noted that Henry Fielding frequently uses classical allusions and quotations in his novels, they have underestimated the importance of the classics to our understanding of his readers, his sources, his characterization, and his rhetorical strategies. By studying his classical references within the context of what readers in the eighteenth century knew about ancient literature, we gain new insights into Fielding, his readers, and the genealogy of his fiction.;Evidence from schools, handbooks, and the ESTC reveals the classical knowledge of Fielding's audience. His readers had varying levels of classical learning: some read ancient authors in the original, while others knew only a few Latin tags or read the classics only in translation. Although their expertise in Latin differed, all knew Horace, Virgil, Homer, Cicero, and Ovid. Fielding's library and the classical references in his periodicals indicate that he was well trained in Latin but not Greek; it also shows that Horace, not Lucian, significantly influenced Fielding's critical theories and practice.;Against this background, a study of the classical references leads to several conclusions about Fielding's novels. (1) Fielding directed his work to all three audiences; most of his allusions to classical literature had a different meaning for each type of reader. (2) He refers so rarely to Lucian and other ancient satirists that ancient satire cannot be a source for his novels. (3) The number of references to Virgil, Homer, Aristotle, and Horace suggests that epic played a more significant role in Fielding's concept of the novel than many modern scholars assume. (4) His characters' use of the classics conditions our responses to their actions; it also sets up a contrast between the narrator and characters, in which the narrator emerges as the only figure in the novels who applies classical learning effectively. This comparison enhances the narrator's authority and distances the reader increasingly from the characters. (5) The importance of the classics indicates that Fielding's novels grew out of a different literary tradition from that of Defoe and Richardson. Thus, histories of the novel that only consider a single genealogy for this genre need revision.