Authors, English -- 18th century -- Biography; Fielding, Henry, 1707-1754
_Miss Lucy in Town_, as its sub-title explains, was a sequel to the
_Virgin Unmask'd_, and was produced at Drury Lane in May 1742. As
already stated in chapter ii., Fielding's part in it was small. It is a
lively but not very creditable trifle, which turns upon certain
equivocal London experiences of the Miss Lucy of the earlier piece; and
it seems to have been chiefly intended to afford an opportunity for some
clever imitation of the reigning Italian singers by Mrs. Clive and the
famous tenor Beard. Horace Walpole, who refers to it in a letter to
Mann, between an account of the opening of Ranelagh and an anecdote of
Mrs. Bracegirdle, calls it "a little simple farce," and says that "Mrs.
Clive mimics the Muscovita admirably, and Beard Amorevoli tolerably."
Mr. Walpole detested the Muscovita, and adored Amorevoli, which perhaps
accounts for the nice discrimination shown in his praise. One of the
other characters, Mr. Zorobabel, a Jew, was taken by Macklin, and from
another, Mrs. Haycock (afterwards changed to Mrs. Midnight), Foote is
supposed to have borrowed Mother Cole in _The Minor_. A third character,
Lord Bawble, was considered to reflect upon "a particular person of
quality," and the piece was speedily forbidden by the Lord Chamberlain,
although it appears to have been acted a few months later without
opposition. One of the results of the prohibition, according to Mr.
Lawrence, was a _Letter to a Noble Lord_ (the Lord Chamberlain) ...
_occasioned by a Representation ... of a Farce called "Miss Lucy in
Town."_ This, in spite of the Caveat in the Preface to the
_Miscellanies_, he ascribes to Fielding, and styles it "a sharp
expostulation ... in which he [Fielding] disavowed any idea of a
personal attack." But Mr. Lawrence must plainly have been misinformed on
the subject, for the pamphlet bears little sign of Fielding's hand. As
far as it is intelligible, it is rather against Miss Lucy than for her,
and it makes no reference to Lord Bawble's original. The name of this
injured patrician seems indeed never to have transpired; but he could
scarcely have been in any sense an exceptional member of the Georgian
aristocracy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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