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l^JP * x ,v The Moral A Basis of Fielding's Art Study of Joseph Andrews bv MARTIN C. BATTESTIN wmy- V IM. s XV. 4Z M ?£S % m& 1 -^v- * $3^ K• Fielding's Ethics moral To grasp mind two the implications of satire, we must hold distinct thematic layers that function in concomitantly: a thesis attacking vice and folly, and an antithesis comprising a positive ethical alternative, the standard against which the satirized are measured. The Joseph Andrews, called to our satiric thesis of may be attention in the author's Preface, true Ridiculous" in society— affectation vanity and hypocrisy. defined as "the its was simply various manifestations, a quality that usually synonymous with sense than its twin causes, In practice, however, the object of Fielding's savage indignation its and selfishness in was vanity, understood in a darker use in the Preface would imply. remarks Mr. Wilson, "is him for "Vanity," the worst of Passions, and more Mind than any other: for, as Selfishmuch more general than we please to allow it, so apt to contaminate the ness is natural to hate and envy those who stand between us and the Good we desire" ( III, 3 ) And in The Champion (April 15, 1740), Fielding had declared that "vanity is it is . the true source of ridicule"; "No passion hath ascendant in the composition of which, in its worst form, is human so much the nature as vanity," "at the bottom of most villainy, and the cause of most human miseries." 1 But perhaps the significance of the term to Fielding's satiric rationale is 52 Fielding's Ethics best revealed in a burlesque apostrophe in Joseph An- much more than merely drews; here vanity connotes meaning fecting false Characters" or "Ostentation," the to which Fielding apparently confines O Vanity! How it "af- in his Preface: little is thy Force acknowledged, or thy How wantonly dost thou deceive Man- Operations discerned! kind under different Disguises! Sometimes thou dost wear the Face of Pity, sometimes of Generosity: nay, thou hast the Assurance even to put on those glorious Ornaments which belong only to heroick Virtue. Thou odious, deformed Monster! whom Priests Poets ridiculed. Is have railed there a thee for an Acquaintance in to enjoy thee in private? Men through their Lives. at, Philosophers despised, and Wretch abandoned publick?— yet, how few so as to own will refuse nay, thou are the Pursuit of most The practised to please thee; nor is greatest Villanies are daily the meanest Thief below, or Thy Embraces are often Reward of the private Robbery and the plundered Province. It is to pamper up thee, thou Harlot, that we attempt to withdraw from others what we do not want, or to withhold from them what they do. All our Passions are thy Slaves. Avarice itself is often no more than thy Handmaid, and even Lust t