Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, And of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. Written in Imitation of The Manner of Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote. In Two Volumes

London

Printed for A. Millar

1742

"Yes, I thank Heaven and my Pride, I have now perfectly conquered this unworthy Passion"

"What am I doing? How do I suffer this Passion to creep imperceptibly upon me! How many Days are past since I could have submitted to ask myself the Question? --Marry a Footman! Distraction! Can I afterwards bear the Eyes of my Acquaintance? But I can retire from them; retire with one in whom I propose more Happiness than the World without him can give me! Retire--to feed continually on Beauties, which my inflamed Imagination sickens with eagerly gazing on; to satisfy every Appetite, every Desire, with their utmost Wish. --Ha! and do I doat thus on a Footman! I despise, I detest my Passion. --Yet why? Is he not generous, gentle, kind? --Kind to whom, to the meanest Wretch, a Creature below my Consideration. Doth he not? --Yes, he doth prefer her; curse his Beauties, and the little low Heart that possesses them; which can basely descend to this despicable Wench, and be ungratefully deaf to all the Honours I do him. --And can I then love this Monster? No, I will tear his Image from my Bosom, tread on him, spurn him. I will have those pitiful Charms which now I despise, mangled in my sight; for I will not suffer the little Jade I hate to riot in the Beauties I contemn. No, tho' I despise him myself; tho' I would spurn him from my Feet, was he to languish at them, no other should taste the Happiness I scorn. Why do I say Happiness? To me it would be Misery. --To sacrifice my Reputation, my Character, my Rank in Life, to the Indulgence of a mean and a vile Appetite. --How I detest the Thought! How much more exquisite is the Pleasure resulting from the Reflection of Virtue and Prudence, than the faint Relish of what flows from Vice and Folly! Whither did I suffer this improper, this mad Passion to hurry me, only by neglecting to summon the Aids of Reason to my Assistance? Reason, which hath now set before me my Desires in their proper Colours, and immediately helped me to expel them. Yes, I thank Heaven and my Pride, I have now perfectly conquered this unworthy Passion; and if there was no Obstacle in its way, my Pride would disdain any Pleasures which could be the Consequence of so base, so mean, so vulgar--." Slipslopreturned at this Instant in a violent Hurry, and with the utmost Eagerness, cry'd out,--"O, Madam, I have strange News. Tom the Footman is just come from the George; where it seems Joseph and the rest of them are ajinketting ; and he says, there is a strange Man who hath discovered that Fanny and Joseph are Brother and Sister." --"How, Slipslop," cries the Lady in a Surprize. --"I had not time, Madam," cries Slipslop, "to enquire about Particles, but Tom says, it is most certainly true."
(pp. 273-6)

War::Conquest::Conquer Passion

Searching "conque" and "passion" in HDIS (Prose)

Text from Henry Fielding, The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, And of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. Written in Imitation of The Manner of Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote, 2 vols. (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1742). <Link to ECCO>

See also Henry Fielding, The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and An Apology for the Life of Shamela Andrews, ed. Douglas Brooks-Davies. World Classics Edition (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1980).

01/25/2005