CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION TO SEVERAL WORKS
PREFACE
DEDICATION TO THE PUBLIC

INTRODUCTION TO THE VOYAGE TO LISBON
THE VOYAGE



INTRODUCTION TO SEVERAL WORKS

When it was determined to extend the present edition of Fielding,
not merely by the addition of Jonathan Wild to the three
universally popular novels, but by two volumes of Miscellanies,
there could be no doubt about at least one of the contents of
these latter.   The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, if it does not
rank in my estimation anywhere near to Jonathan Wild as an
example of our author's genius, is an invaluable and delightful
document for his character and memory.  It is indeed, as has been
pointed out in the General Introduction to this series, our main
source of indisputable information as to Fielding dans son
naturel, and its value, so far as it goes, is of the very
highest.   The gentle and unaffected stoicism which the author
displays under a disease which he knew well was probably, if not
certainly, mortal, and which, whether mortal or not, must cause
him much actual pain and discomfort of a kind more intolerable
than pain itself; his affectionate care for his family; even
little personal touches, less admirable, but hardly less pleasant
than these, showing an Englishman's dislike to be "done" and an
Englishman's determination to be treated with proper respect, are
scarcely less noticeable and important on the biographical side
than the unimpaired brilliancy of his satiric and yet kindly
observation of life and character is on the side of literature.

There is, as is now well known since Mr. Dobson's separate
edition of the Voyage, a little bibliographical problem about the
first appearance of this Journal in 1755.  The best known issue
of that year is much shorter than the version inserted by Murphy
and reprinted here, the passages omitted being chiefly those
reflecting on the captain, etc., and so likely to seem invidious
in a book published just after the author's death, and for the
benefit, as was expressly announced, of his family.  But the
curious thing is that there is ANOTHER edition, of date so early
that some argument is necessary to determine the priority, which
does give these passages and is identical with the later or
standard version.  For satisfaction on this point, however, I
must refer readers to Mr. Dobson himself.

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