July 26, 2025 • 13 mins
Embark on a memorable sailing voyage from England to Portugal in the mid-eighteenth century, as narrated by one of the eras leading humorists, satirists, novelists, and playwrights. This poignant work, recorded during the final chapter of his life, interweaves the authors declining health with the captivating details of his journey.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Introduction of Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon. This is
a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by James Carson. Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
by Henry Fielding Introduction introduction to several works. When it
(00:28):
was determined to extend the present edition of Fielding not
merely by the addition of Jonathan Wilde to the three
universally popular novels, but by two volumes of Miscellaney Ease,
there could be no doubt about at least one of
the contents of these latter, the Journal of a Voyage
(00:48):
to Lisbon, if it does not rank, in my estimation
anywhere near to Jonathan Wilde as an example of our
author's genius, is an invaluable and deedlas delightful document for
his character and memory. It is, indeed, as has been
pointed out in the general introduction to this series, our
(01:09):
main source of indisputable information as to Fielding dnsan natural
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,
(01:32):
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,
(01:57):
are scarcely less noticeable and in 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
mister Dobson's separate edition of The Voyage, a little bibliographical
(02:20):
problem about the first appearance of this journal in seventeen
fifty five. 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
et cetera, and so likely to seem invidious in a
(02:42):
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
(03:04):
later or standard version. For satisfaction on this point, however,
I must refer readers to mister Dobson himself. There might
have been a little, but not much doubt as to
a companion piece for the journal. For indeed, after we
close this with or without its fragment on Bolingbrook, the
(03:26):
remainder of Fielding's work lies on a distinctly lower level
of interest. It is still interesting, or it would not
be given here. It still has at least that part
which here appears seems to its editor to have interest
intrinsic and simple of itself. But it is impossible for
(03:48):
anybody that speaks critically to deny that we now get
into the region where work is more interesting because of
its authorship than it would be if its authorship were
different or unknown. To put the same thing in a
sharper antithesis. Fielding is interesting first of all because he
(04:10):
is the author of Joseph Andrews, of Tom Jones, of Amelia,
of Jonathan Wilde, of the journal, his plays, his essays,
his miscellaney ease generally are interesting, first of all because
they were written by Fielding. Yet of these works, the
Journey from This World to the Next, which by a
(04:33):
grim trick of fortune, might have served as a title
for the more interesting voyage with which we have yoked
it stands clearly first, both in scale and merit. It
is indeed very unequal, and as the author was to
leave it unfinished, it is a pity that he did
(04:54):
not leave it unfinished much sooner than he actually did.
The first ten chapters, if of a kind of satire
which has now grown rather obsolete, for the nonce or
of a good kind and good in their kind, the
history of the mentemph Psychosis of Julian is of a
(05:16):
less good kind, and less good in that kind. The
dative composition of the piece is not known, but it
appeared in the Miscellanies of seventeen forty three, and may
represent almost any period of its author's development prior to
that year. Its form was a very common form at
(05:36):
the time, and continued to be so. I do not
know that it is necessary to assign any very special
origin to it, though Lucian, its chief practitioner, was evidently
and almost devowedly a favorite study of Fieldings. The Spanish romancers,
whether borrowing it from Lucian or not, had been fond
(05:59):
of it. Their French followers, of whom the chief were
Fontanelle and Lessage, had carried it northwards. The English essayists
had almost from the beginning, continued the process of acclimatization.
Fielding therefore found it ready to his hand, though the
(06:20):
present condition of this example would lead us to suppose
they did not find his hand quite ready to it. Still,
in the actual journey, there are touches enough of the master,
not yet quite in his stage of mastery. It seemed
particularly desirable not to close the series without some representation
(06:41):
of the work to which Fielding gave the prime of
his manhood, and from which had he not, fortunately for
English literature, been driven decidedly against his will, we had had,
in all probability no Joseph Andrews, and pretty certainly no
Tom Fielding's periodical and dramatic work has been comparatively seldom reprinted,
(07:07):
and has never yet been reprinted as a whole. The dramas,
indeed are open to two objections, the first that they
are not very proper, the second, and much more serious,
that they do not redeem this want of propriety by
the possession of any remarkable literary merit. Three or two
(07:28):
and part of a third seemed to escape this double censure.
The first two acts of the author's farce practically a
piece to themselves, for the puppet show which follows is
almost entirely independent the famous burlesque of Tom Thumb, which
stands between the rehearsal and the critic, but nearer to
(07:50):
the former, and Pasquin, the maturest example of Fielding's satiric
work in drama. These, accordingly have been selected the rest
I have read, and he who likes may read. I
have read many worse things than even the worst of them,
but not often worse things by so good a writer
(08:12):
as Henry Fielding. The next question concerned the selection of
writings more miscellaneous, still, so as to give in little
a complete idea of Fielding's various powers and experiments. Two
difficulties beset this part of the task, want of space
and the absence of anything so markedly good as absolutely
(08:36):
to insist on inclusion. The essay on Conversation, however, seemed
pretty peremptorily to challenge a place. It is in a
style which Fielding was very slow to abandon, which indeed
has left strong traces even on his great novels. And
if its mannerism is not now very attractive, the separate
(09:00):
traits in it are often sharp and well drawn. The
book would not have been complete without a specimen or
two of Fielding's journalism The Champion. His first attempt of
this kind, has not been drawn upon, in consequence of
the extreme difficulty of fixing with absolute certainty on Fielding's
(09:21):
part in it. I do not know whether political prejudice
interferes more than I have usually found it interfere with
my judgment of the two Hanovarian partisan papers of the
forty five time. But there certainly seem to me to
fail in redeeming their dose of rancor and misrepresentation by
(09:42):
any sufficient evidence of genius, such as to my taste,
saves not only the party journalism in verse and prose
of Swift and Canning and Pride on one side, but
that of Wolcott and Moore and Sidney Smith on the other.
Even the often quoted journal of Events in London under
(10:02):
the Chevalier is overwrought and tedious. The best thing in
the True Patriot seems to me to be Parson Adams's
letter describing his adventure with a young Beaux of his day,
and this I select, together with one or two numbers
of the Covent Garden Journal. I have not found in
(10:26):
this latter any more characteristic than Murphy's selection. Though mister Dobson,
with his unfeeling kindness, lent me an original and unusually
complete set of the journal itself. It is to the
same kindness that I owe the opportunity of presenting the
reader with something indisputably Fieldings and very characteristic of him,
(10:51):
which Murphy did not print, and which has not, so
far as I know, ever appeared either in a collection
or a selection of Fielding. After the success of David Simple,
Fielding gave his sister, for whom he had already written
a preface to that novel, another preface for a set
of familiar letters between the characters of David Simple and others.
(11:17):
This preface Murphy reprinted, but he either did not notice
or did not choose to attend to a note towards
the end of the book, attributing certain of the letters
to the author of the preface, the attribution being accompanied
by an agreeably warm and sisterly denunciation of those who
(11:38):
ascribed to Fielding matter unworthy of him. From these the
letter which I have chosen, describing a row on the Thames,
seems to me not only characteristic, but, like all these
miscellaneous work, interesting, no less for its weakness than for
its strength. In hardly any other instance known to me
(12:01):
can we trace so clearly the influence of a suitable
medium and form on the genius of the artist. There
are some writers, Dryden is perhaps the greatest of them,
to whom form and medium seem almost indifferent there all around, craftsmanship,
being such that they can turn any kind and every
(12:22):
style to their purpose. There are others of whom I
think our present author is the chief, who are never
really at home, but in one kind. In Fielding's case,
that kind was narrative of a peculiar sort, half sentimental,
half satirical, and almost wholly sympathetic, narrative which has the
(12:46):
singular gift of portraying the liveliest character, and yet of
admitting the widest discretion and soliloquy until comparatively late in
his too short life when he found this special path
of his, And it is impossible to say whether the
actual finding was in the case of Jonathan or in
(13:09):
the case of Joseph. He did but flounder and slip
when he had found it and was content to walk
in it. He strode with as sure and steady a
step as any other, even the greatest of those who
carry and hand on the torch of literature through the ages.
But it is impossible to derive full satisfaction from his
(13:31):
feats in this part of the race without some notion
of his performances elsewhere. And I believe that such a
notion will be supplied to the readers of his novels
by the following volumes, in a very large number of
cases for the first time and of introduction
Introduction of Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon. This is
a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by James Carson. Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
by Henry Fielding Introduction introduction to several works. When it
(00:28):
was determined to extend the present edition of Fielding not
merely by the addition of Jonathan Wilde to the three
universally popular novels, but by two volumes of Miscellaney Ease,
there could be no doubt about at least one of
the contents of these latter, the Journal of a Voyage
(00:48):
to Lisbon, if it does not rank, in my estimation
anywhere near to Jonathan Wilde as an example of our
author's genius, is an invaluable and deedlas delightful document for
his character and memory. It is, indeed, as has been
pointed out in the general introduction to this series, our
(01:09):
main source of indisputable information as to Fielding dnsan natural
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,
(01:32):
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,
(01:57):
are scarcely less noticeable and in 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
mister Dobson's separate edition of The Voyage, a little bibliographical
(02:20):
problem about the first appearance of this journal in seventeen
fifty five. 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
et cetera, and so likely to seem invidious in a
(02:42):
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
(03:04):
later or standard version. For satisfaction on this point, however,
I must refer readers to mister Dobson himself. There might
have been a little, but not much doubt as to
a companion piece for the journal. For indeed, after we
close this with or without its fragment on Bolingbrook, the
(03:26):
remainder of Fielding's work lies on a distinctly lower level
of interest. It is still interesting, or it would not
be given here. It still has at least that part
which here appears seems to its editor to have interest
intrinsic and simple of itself. But it is impossible for
(03:48):
anybody that speaks critically to deny that we now get
into the region where work is more interesting because of
its authorship than it would be if its authorship were
different or unknown. To put the same thing in a
sharper antithesis. Fielding is interesting first of all because he
(04:10):
is the author of Joseph Andrews, of Tom Jones, of Amelia,
of Jonathan Wilde, of the journal, his plays, his essays,
his miscellaney ease generally are interesting, first of all because
they were written by Fielding. Yet of these works, the
Journey from This World to the Next, which by a
(04:33):
grim trick of fortune, might have served as a title
for the more interesting voyage with which we have yoked
it stands clearly first, both in scale and merit. It
is indeed very unequal, and as the author was to
leave it unfinished, it is a pity that he did
(04:54):
not leave it unfinished much sooner than he actually did.
The first ten chapters, if of a kind of satire
which has now grown rather obsolete, for the nonce or
of a good kind and good in their kind, the
history of the mentemph Psychosis of Julian is of a
(05:16):
less good kind, and less good in that kind. The
dative composition of the piece is not known, but it
appeared in the Miscellanies of seventeen forty three, and may
represent almost any period of its author's development prior to
that year. Its form was a very common form at
(05:36):
the time, and continued to be so. I do not
know that it is necessary to assign any very special
origin to it, though Lucian, its chief practitioner, was evidently
and almost devowedly a favorite study of Fieldings. The Spanish romancers,
whether borrowing it from Lucian or not, had been fond
(05:59):
of it. Their French followers, of whom the chief were
Fontanelle and Lessage, had carried it northwards. The English essayists
had almost from the beginning, continued the process of acclimatization.
Fielding therefore found it ready to his hand, though the
(06:20):
present condition of this example would lead us to suppose
they did not find his hand quite ready to it. Still,
in the actual journey, there are touches enough of the master,
not yet quite in his stage of mastery. It seemed
particularly desirable not to close the series without some representation
(06:41):
of the work to which Fielding gave the prime of
his manhood, and from which had he not, fortunately for
English literature, been driven decidedly against his will, we had had,
in all probability no Joseph Andrews, and pretty certainly no
Tom Fielding's periodical and dramatic work has been comparatively seldom reprinted,
(07:07):
and has never yet been reprinted as a whole. The dramas,
indeed are open to two objections, the first that they
are not very proper, the second, and much more serious,
that they do not redeem this want of propriety by
the possession of any remarkable literary merit. Three or two
(07:28):
and part of a third seemed to escape this double censure.
The first two acts of the author's farce practically a
piece to themselves, for the puppet show which follows is
almost entirely independent the famous burlesque of Tom Thumb, which
stands between the rehearsal and the critic, but nearer to
(07:50):
the former, and Pasquin, the maturest example of Fielding's satiric
work in drama. These, accordingly have been selected the rest
I have read, and he who likes may read. I
have read many worse things than even the worst of them,
but not often worse things by so good a writer
(08:12):
as Henry Fielding. The next question concerned the selection of
writings more miscellaneous, still, so as to give in little
a complete idea of Fielding's various powers and experiments. Two
difficulties beset this part of the task, want of space
and the absence of anything so markedly good as absolutely
(08:36):
to insist on inclusion. The essay on Conversation, however, seemed
pretty peremptorily to challenge a place. It is in a
style which Fielding was very slow to abandon, which indeed
has left strong traces even on his great novels. And
if its mannerism is not now very attractive, the separate
(09:00):
traits in it are often sharp and well drawn. The
book would not have been complete without a specimen or
two of Fielding's journalism The Champion. His first attempt of
this kind, has not been drawn upon, in consequence of
the extreme difficulty of fixing with absolute certainty on Fielding's
(09:21):
part in it. I do not know whether political prejudice
interferes more than I have usually found it interfere with
my judgment of the two Hanovarian partisan papers of the
forty five time. But there certainly seem to me to
fail in redeeming their dose of rancor and misrepresentation by
(09:42):
any sufficient evidence of genius, such as to my taste,
saves not only the party journalism in verse and prose
of Swift and Canning and Pride on one side, but
that of Wolcott and Moore and Sidney Smith on the other.
Even the often quoted journal of Events in London under
(10:02):
the Chevalier is overwrought and tedious. The best thing in
the True Patriot seems to me to be Parson Adams's
letter describing his adventure with a young Beaux of his day,
and this I select, together with one or two numbers
of the Covent Garden Journal. I have not found in
(10:26):
this latter any more characteristic than Murphy's selection. Though mister Dobson,
with his unfeeling kindness, lent me an original and unusually
complete set of the journal itself. It is to the
same kindness that I owe the opportunity of presenting the
reader with something indisputably Fieldings and very characteristic of him,
(10:51):
which Murphy did not print, and which has not, so
far as I know, ever appeared either in a collection
or a selection of Fielding. After the success of David Simple,
Fielding gave his sister, for whom he had already written
a preface to that novel, another preface for a set
of familiar letters between the characters of David Simple and others.
(11:17):
This preface Murphy reprinted, but he either did not notice
or did not choose to attend to a note towards
the end of the book, attributing certain of the letters
to the author of the preface, the attribution being accompanied
by an agreeably warm and sisterly denunciation of those who
(11:38):
ascribed to Fielding matter unworthy of him. From these the
letter which I have chosen, describing a row on the Thames,
seems to me not only characteristic, but, like all these
miscellaneous work, interesting, no less for its weakness than for
its strength. In hardly any other instance known to me
(12:01):
can we trace so clearly the influence of a suitable
medium and form on the genius of the artist. There
are some writers, Dryden is perhaps the greatest of them,
to whom form and medium seem almost indifferent there all around, craftsmanship,
being such that they can turn any kind and every
(12:22):
style to their purpose. There are others of whom I
think our present author is the chief, who are never
really at home, but in one kind. In Fielding's case,
that kind was narrative of a peculiar sort, half sentimental,
half satirical, and almost wholly sympathetic, narrative which has the
(12:46):
singular gift of portraying the liveliest character, and yet of
admitting the widest discretion and soliloquy until comparatively late in
his too short life when he found this special path
of his, And it is impossible to say whether the
actual finding was in the case of Jonathan or in
(13:09):
the case of Joseph. He did but flounder and slip
when he had found it and was content to walk
in it. He strode with as sure and steady a
step as any other, even the greatest of those who
carry and hand on the torch of literature through the ages.
But it is impossible to derive full satisfaction from his
(13:31):
feats in this part of the race without some notion
of his performances elsewhere. And I believe that such a
notion will be supplied to the readers of his novels
by the following volumes, in a very large number of
cases for the first time and of introduction
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