Q1 / Discuss briefly Chapter One

In Chapter One, Fielding justifies the moral agenda of his novel by observing that “Examples work more forcibly on the Mind than Precepts.” Inspiring stories about virtuous figures will have a better moral effect than the recital of maxims, because in them “Delight is mixed with Instruction, and the Reader is almost as much improved as entertained.”

As instances of the positive moral influence of written accounts of exemplars of virtue, Fielding cites two recent publications, in both cases sarcastically. The first is Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740), an epistolary novel about a virtuous maid-servant; Fielding detested the novel and the moral system implicit in it, and both Joseph Andrews and his previous effort in fiction, Shamela, are spoofs of Richardson’s novel. The second is the Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber (1740), the autobiography of the scantly talented Poet Laureate who was despised by Fielding, Alexander Pope, and almost every other contemporary writer of note.