Letters of Recommendation and False Vizors: Physiognomy in the Novels of Henry Fielding

Letters of Recommendation and False Vizors: Physiognomy in the Novels Of Henry FieldingGraeme Tytler Readers of eighteenth-century European literature can hardly have failed to notice references of one kind or another to physiognomy and physiognomists in fiction, drama, and essays. Physiognomy was, to be sure, by no means a new thing at that time, having already had a long and illustrious history stretching back to the ancient cultures of Egypt, Babylonia, Arabia, and China.1 The etymology of physiognomy should be enough to indicate the importance of the science in classical antiquity, and to remind us that it was written and spoken about by several philosophers, orators, and scientists, notably Pythagoras, Galen, Hippocrates, Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle.2 The earliest surviving treatise 1 For relevant studies, see Youssef Mourad, La Physiognomonie arabe et le Kitäb Al-Firâsa de Fakhr al-Dîn Al-Razl (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1939); Fritz Rudolf Kraus, Die physiognomischen Omina der Babylonier, Mitteilungen der VOrderasiatisch-Aegyptischen Gesellschaft, 40, Heft 2 (Leipzig, 1935); idem, Texte zur babylonischen Physiognomatik, Archivfür Orientforschung, Beiheft 3 (Berlin, 1939); Anna Rottauscher, Charakter und Schicksalsdeutung der Chinesen aus Gesicht und Händen, Aus chinesischen Urtexten zusammengestellt (Biettigheim-Württemberg: Turm Verlag, 1964); Roger Pack, The Greek and Latin Literary Textsfrom Greco-Roman Egypt (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1965); Livia Kohn, "A Textbook of Physiognomy: The Tradition of the Shenxiang quanbian," Asian Folklore Studies, 45 (1986), 227-58. 2 For a useful early history of physiognomy from classical antiquity down to Lavater, see Georg Füllebom, Beyträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie (Züllichau und Freystadt: Frommannische Buchhandlung, 1796), III, ü. The most important studies on Aristotle's physiognomical writings date from the nineteenth century, notably Valentin Rose, De Aristotelis Librorum Ordine et Auctoritate Commentatio (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1854); idem, Aristoteles Pseudoepigraphus (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1863); Richard Foerster, Dissertatio de translation latina physiogEIGHTEENTH -CENTURY FICTION, Volume 2, Number 2, January 1990 Reproduced by permission of McMaster University Library. PHYSIOGNOMY IN FIELDING 95 on physiognomy from that era is Aristotle's Physiognomonica,3 which, appearing in a host of editions and translations from the twelfth century onward, was largely instrumental in the revival of the cult in the Middle Ages.4 Physiognomy then formed an integral part of philosophy and science, and was given serious discussion in such well-known nomonicorum quae feruntur Aristoteles (Kiel: Schmidt & Klaunig, 1884); idem. De Aristoteles quaeferumur Secretis Secretorum commentatio (Kiel: Schmidt & Klaunig, 1888); idem, "Handschriften und Ausgaben des pseudoaristotelischen Secretum Secretorum," Centralblattfür Bibliothekwesen 6 (1889), 1-22, 57-76; idem "De Aristotelis quae feruntur physiognomonlcorum indole ac condicione," Philologische Abhandlungen, Martin Hertz zum siebzigsten Geburtstag (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1888), 283-303. For studies on other classical physiognomists as well as on Aristoüe, see Richard Foerster, Die Physiognomik der Griechen (Kiel: Schmidt & Klaunig , 1884); idem, De Polemonis physiognomonicis (Kiel: Schmidt & Klaunig, 1886); idem, Scriptores Physiognomonici Graeci et Latini (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1893); R. Asmus, "De Loxi Physiognomonia," Rheinisches Museum fir Philologie, Neue Folge, 43 (1888), 505-11; idem, "Vergessene Physiognomonilcer," Philologus, Neue Folge, 19 (1906), 410-24; G. Misener , "Loxus, Physician and Physiognomist," Classical Philology, 18 (1923), 1-22; Josef Mesk, "Die Beispiele in Polemons Physiognomonik," Wiener Studien, 50 (1932), 51-67; R.A. Pack, "Physiognomical Entrance-Examinations," Classical Journal, 31 (1935), 42-43; Elizabeth C. Evans, "Quo modo voltusque hominum auctores latini descripserunt " (Diss. Harvard University, 1930); idem, "Roman Descriptions of Personal Appearance in History and Biography," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 46 (1935), 43-84; idem, "The Study of Physiognomy in the Second Century A.D.," Transactions of the American Philological Association, 72 (1941), 96108 ; idem, "Galen the Physician as Physiognomist," Transactions ofthe American Philological Association, 76 (1945), 287-98; idem, "Physiognomies in the Roman Empire," Classical Journal , 45 (1950), 277-82; idem, Physiognomies in the Ancient World (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1969); Johanna Schmidt, "Physiognomik" in Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, 39 (1941), 1064-74; A.M. Armstrong, "The Methods of the Greek Physiognomists," Greece and Rome, 5 (1958), 52-56; Rolf Megow, "Antike Physiognomielehre ," DasAltertum, 9 (1963), 213-21; R.A. Pack, "On the Greek Chiromantie Fragment," Transactions of the American Philological Association, 103 (1972...