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Recent studies of Fielding*s work have concentrated on the elucidation of his morality in an attempt to demonstrate that Fielding was not only a comic novelist but also possessed depth and moral earnestness. Prior to this "moralistic" phase of "Fielding" studies, oritics had devoted their attention to the oomic aspects of his art. But each of these approaches is inadequate and limited. The weakness of the first is that Fielding* s novels are made to read like heavily didactic, overtly moralistic sermons rather than complex works of art. Biis is clearly exemplified in Martin Battestin'a book, Ihe Moral Basis of Fielding's Art and, to a oertain extent, in George Sherburn's essay, "Fielding's Amelia; an Interpretation". The second approach has the disadvantage of leaving the impression that Fielding's works are hilarious (perhaps even bawdy) but are completely lacking in depth and serious meaning. Behind these two approaches lies the assumption that there is tension between the "oomio" and the "moralistic" and that the two oannot be blended. A modern critic, Professor Andrew Wrigit, goes so far as to suggest that Fielding had no moral intention and that the atmosphere in his work is festive rather than lenten. Another, Professor Ian Watt, believes that the comedy in some of the scenes alleviates the brutality and forestalls moral condemnation. But the truth must be that the comic and moralistic are interdependent and that Fielding's comedy is part of the technique he evolved for promoting moral judgement.

This thesis consists of two parts. The first pert is a detailed study of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in the context of Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell and the social background of the eighteenth century. It has five chapters, in the first of which an attempt has been made to sketch an outline of social cohditions and relationship in eighteenth century England. There are two reasons for doing this. First, Blake's writings reflect his contemporary social conditions an class conflict. When he attacks Swedenborg, Newton and Locke, for example, he is indeed attacking as most radical and romantic writers did, the whole social order that they formed and represented. From the evidence thus obtained one may conclue that Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Swedenborg's' Heaven and Hell must be studied in this social context. 'Heaven' and 'Hell' are not abstract terms. They represent social conditions. 'Heaven' represents the rich and propertied or higher clerical class epitomised by Swedenborg in conflict with 'Hell' which represents the poor and working class epitomised by Blake. Those who are in 'Heaven' are called Angels, and those in 'Hell' Devils. Secondly, Heaven and Hell and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell reflect two contrasting philosophies, two types of social outlook and literature in defence of two opposing interests. Chapter Two shows first that The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is essentially written as moral criticism of Swedenborg's social system, that 'The Argument' in The Marragae refers to Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell and that Rintrah represents Swedenborg as a passive and fallen character who punishes the 'just' man in himself and people in 'Hell'.

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This thesis advances a new perspective on Henry Fielding's self-awareness as author, as it appears in his writings of various genres from <I>The Author's Farce </I>to <I>The Covent-Garden Journal. </I>The principal argument is that Fielding's problematic self-awareness as author and idea of literary authority evolved through a series of ambivalent relationships with literary and political authorities of his age. At each stage of his career, Fielding found himself in tensioned relations to the Scriblerians, particularly Pope 'the great Poet', Robert Walpole 'the Great Man', and the great or 'High People' at large, including his own patrons. The 'Trade of Authoring' seemed at best a dubious alternative to attain financial (and moral) independence, and Fielding considered himself denied the aesthetic and moral authority to write serious satire by public readership, the new patrons of commercialised letters. Instead of the Fielding we are familiar with, that is, the authoritative Augustan satirist and master of comic fiction, Fielding as appears in the present thesis is essentially 'an author of a farce', by his own self-demeaning denomination, who sees in himself a 'humble servant' to either the great patrons or the paying audience, with only some Drawcansirian mock-authority at best. Chapter I offers analyses of <I>The Author's Farce, </I>a dramatisation of Fielding the novice playwright's ambivalence towards the great in letters and politics, and of his anti-Walpole plays in 1736-37, each in the format of a rehearsal by the 'Author', through whom Fielding converts his self-awareness as author without authority into an opposition formula to veto Walpole's political authority. Chapter II continues to discuss Fielding's peculiar infusion of his authorial concern into the anti-Walpole satire in <I>The Champion </I>and <I>Jonathan Wild. </I>

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This thesis undertakes to explore the way in which the emergence of new science epistemological, linguistic, and ethical ideals influenced and transformed the ways in which seventeenth- and eighteenth-century writers conceived of lyric experience, bringing about a metamorphosis of the lyric from a minor to a major genre. The <I>Introductory Preamble</I> establishes the polemical and intellectual bases for this study, drawing attention to the way in which eighteenth-century criticism devalues the contribution of the lyric in eighteenth-century culture and society. It shows how the lyric was the most popular poetic form throughout the century, and it provides evidence of a changing view of its expressive abilities from the early to the later decades. The <I>Preamble</I> concludes with the thesis that the lyric's change in generic valuation occurs because it shared many of the epistemological assumptions which conditioned or modified most thought and feeling throughout the century, that lyric experience evolved as part of a cultural circumambience in which, through both ideological and rhetorical precepts, experimental science was exerting an hegemonic force on every aspect of day-to-day experience. The lyric genre was that form which most readily expressed the new experience and appreciation of nature brought about by the experimental science. <I>Chapter One</I> assesses why the modern critical tradition has conceived the image of the eighteenth-century lyric as it has done for about two hundred years. This review yields theoretical and historical fruits for the arguments of later chapters. <I>Chapter Two</I>, focusing on Bacon's <I>The Advancement of Learning</I>, the work of Wilkins, Sprat, Locke, and others, examines those particular components of the new science which directly influenced the metamorphosis of the lyric genre--the rejection of authority, the development of epistemological principles, and adherence to a linguistic, rhetorical, and ethical code.

The chief aim of this thesis is to set Young's dramatic work in its critical and theatrical context, and to refute the view that his tragedies were the back work of an ignorant and incompetent blunderer. Chapter 1 sets out to show that Young was widely esteemed as a tragic dramatist in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, particularly or account of The Revenge, which eventually became a stock play in the repartoires of the theatres of London and Dublin and helped to establish the reputations of a number of distinguished actors. It also provides a brief account of the demoralised condition of the English stage and the difficulties that a new dramatist had to face at the time of Young's theatrical debut. Chapter 2 examines Young's critical writings, especially An Epistle to Lord Lansdown and Conjectures on Original Composition, for the important light that they throw on the development of his ideas about the nature and function of tragedy. It argues-that Young was one of the very first to appreciate the implications of Shaftesbury's doctrine of the natural affections for the theory and practice of tragedy, and shows how Young ultimately came to value the cultivation of emotion in drama primarily for its own sake rather than for any putative more1 benefits it might bring After a brief analysis of Young's "epic tragedy," The Force of Religion, Chapter 3 proceeds to examine of the praotical consequences of Young's affective view of drama, namely, his readiness to sacrifice consiatenoy of character, impression, and tone for the sake of immediate theatrical or emotional effect. It claims that Busiris is radically flawed, since, in his eagernss to satisfy as many dramatic tastes as possible. Young: has divided the spectator's interest among three heroes, each of whom enshrines a different conception of tragedy - the moral, the sentimental, and the heroic. It also illustrates Young's intimate knowledge of contemporary theatrical conventions, fashions, and conditions, as. well as his obvious familiarity with the various rhetorical and histrionic devices for registering and arousing the passions. Evidence of Young's ability to learn from theatrical experience and hostile criticism is provided at the beginning of Chapter 4 by a comparison of Busiris and The Revenge, which suggest that Young was no longer content to produce a series of discrete dramatic and emotional crises at the expense of unity of total effect, and by an analysis of the most important differences between the printed text of The Revenge and the Chandos manuscript, which seems to indicate that Young made a conscious effort to tone down the verbal extravagances of his second play. The main concern of this chapter, however, is to consider the nature and extent of Young's debt to Othello. This debt, it is suggested, is much lees extensive than has been generally recognised, since it is the differences rather than the similarities between the two tragedies that are of primary significance: indeed, the shift of interest end sympathy in Young's play from the victims of the intrigue to the villain alters. the emotional and moral balance of the entire drama. The true relationship between The Revenge and Othello, the chapter concludes, is not so much one of "imitation" as of "emulation." The final chapter begine by considering the tradition that Young's last play was written and rehearsed about thirty years before it was actually produced on the stage. In the course of this discussion, both the accepted date for the original rehearsal of The Brothers and ths reason commonly adduced for its subsequent withdrawn by the author are challenged. The bulk of this chapter, howaver, is devoted to rebutting the allegation that Young's play is little more than a translation of Thomas Corneille's tragedy, Parsee at Demetrius. The Brothers, it concludes, is a good example of the change of taste that took place in the early eighteenth century, as. well as a striking illustration of Young's own dictum that pathos is "the life and soul" of tragedy. An account of the most important differences between the acted and printed versions of this play is given in an Appendix.

Part 1: Commentary: An Introduction discusses the nature and subject-matter of Monboddo's printed works, and modern reaction to them, as well as identifying the principal task of the present thesis: an examination of Monboddo's views on poetry, and the presentation of an edited text of some of the principal MSS in which these views are expressed. Chapter 1 traces the genesis of an unpublished Volume VII of Monboddo's Of the Origin and Progress of Language, and infers its intended form from the MSS incorporated in Part 2. Chapter 2 examines and evaluates Monboddo's writings on aesthetics as contained in both the published works (Origin and Progress and Antient Metaphysics) and unpublished MSS. His opposition to the prevalent empiricist school, and to the inner sense theorists, is demonstrated. Unresolved tensions in Monboddo's own theory of poetic imitation are attributed to his espousal of incompatible Aristotelian and Platonic doctrines; Monboddo's rationalist theory of beauty, asserting it to consist in system, is analyzed, and his debt to Shaftesbury commented on. Monboddo's concessions to the cult of sensibility are noted, and the rationale by which he applies his aesthetics to literary criticism studied. Monboddo's relations with other critics, particularly Dr. Johnson, are documented. Chapter 3 assesses the state of prosodic theory at the time Monboddo wrote, then investigates his own view that modern scansion is a degenerate form of the classical; and places his views in context against those of his acquaintances. Chapter 4 assembles a collection of Monboddo's criticism of individual poets, drawn from his printed and MS writings. Homer is identified as the standard against which all modern poetry is to be measured. The entire medieval era Monboddo dismisses out of hand. Shakespeare's "barbarity" is censured, but his characters praised. Monboddo's informed and valuable criticism of both the style and content of Milton's poetry is examined in depth, and the prosodic licence of Monboddo's interpretation of Dryden's Alexander's Feast criticized. Shaftesbury Monboddo praises; Pope (although decadently Gallic in style) is esteemed as a satiric force, as is Swift; Fielding's use of epic devices, however, is censured. Thomson's Castle of Indolence and Armstrong's Art of Preserving Health are admired, and the works of "Ossian" considered as food for linguistic thought. Among dramatic works, Monboddo particularly approves of Home's Douglas. Part 2: Text and Notes: Part 2 provides an edited text of six MSS of particular importance in shedding light on Monboddo's theory of poetry, his poetic criticism and the nature of Origin and Progress VII. An Apparatus Criticus records all textual alterations; Notes elucidate literary allusions, explicate difficult passages and provide miscellaneous points of information.