When Satire More Than Closed on Saturday Night: Henry Fielding and the Licensing Act of 1737

When Satire More Than Closed on Saturday Night Henry Fielding and the Licensing Act of 1737 Steven Dedalus Burch George S. Kaufman once famously defined satire as what closed Saturday night. This comment renders satire, among other comedic forms, to be uncommercial, not ready to support the weight and economic obligation of a mainstream comedy. Besides, satires become dated and irrelevant very quickly—hence, the warning to would-be producers and authors. In eighteenth-century England, however , Henry Fielding wrote satires that closed not only Saturday night but virtually everything within the London theatre. In the 1730s, after some false starts, Fielding began to find his mature voice as a playwright, through literary burlesque and, only later, political satire. Burlesque, defined as an exaggerated parody of a literary form or style, had been around since the ancient Greek theatre of Aristophanes , especially his parodies of Euripides. (Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria [411 BCE] and The Frogs [405 BCE] are among the earliest burlesques.) Fielding began his career with a succession of burlesques on such topics as Shakespeare and heroic tragedy, neoclassicism, Italian opera, and Colley Cibber with such audience favorites as The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great (1731), The Welsh Opera (1731), and Covent-Garden Tragedy (1732) and within a few short years could claim to be the most popular playwright in London.1 These burlesques opened up in Fielding a channel for his anger at the banal, pretentious writing and musical fads of the day. But, more important , they were to provide him with a platform for his political revulsion at the open corruption of the court of George II, his chief minister Robert Walpole, and the Parliament. Robert Walpole, who had become Fielding’s chief opponent and sa- 76 S T E V E N D E D A L U S B U R C H tirical target, had become the first Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer under George I, a position he maintained when George II ascended to the throne. He quickly became the king’s favorite and, subsequently, the most powerful and influential of the king’s ministers. In point of fact, most historians date the birth of the modern British prime minister to Walpole’s administration. Throughout his ministry, which lasted more than two decades, Walpole exercised extraordinary cunning in his manipulation of the House of Commons, exerting a profound influence on the structure of eighteenth -century politics. But that cunning was seriously undermined by his open and blatant use of patronage and even outright bribery in maintaining his political power. His opposition included many writers of the day, and several, including Fielding, wrote for the opposition newspaper, The Craftsman. These writers scathingly lampooned Walpole’s ministry in pamphlets, ballads, and newspapers, helping to bring about a complete and utter contempt by the public toward Parliament and politics. In 1736 Fielding wrote a five-act masterpiece of inspired, sustained comic invective, Pasquin, and it was a box-office and critical sensation. So much so that Fielding was encouraged to pursue a newer, looser form of writing, merging the literary burlesque he had recently mastered, especially in The Tragedy of Tragedies, with a scattershot satirical approach to the politics and culture of England. Sadly, the result of Fielding’s growth as a dramatist helped to bring about the Licensing Act of 1737, which abruptly terminated his career in the theatre. The effects of the Licensing Act have been well documented and will only be summarized here. Leading up to that summary, this essay will look at three of Fielding ’s last plays, beginning with Pasquin (1736) and then turning to The Historical Register of 1736 and Eurydice Hiss’d (both 1737) and examine how Fielding blends burlesque with topical satire in addition to breaking new ground in the drama.2 Pasquin Pasquin is a rehearsal play of the type established by George Villiers in his The Rehearsal (1671). In The Rehearsal we watch the ego-inflated author , Mr. Bayes, rehearse a company of actors in his new play as invited guests observe. “As Bayes screams directions and simpers foolishly to his guests, the poor...