Newspaper war of 1752/53

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Six people on stage. Two people in the middle are arguing, the person between the two tries to mediate. Three watch the whole thing.
The Conjurers (1753): Shown are Fielding (left of center) and Hill (right of center)

In 1752 the so-called newspaper war was started by the English novelist and satirist Henry Fielding . The newspaper war manifested itself in a dispute between residents of London's Grub Street , a London street inhabited by impoverished writers, scribes and publishers . The dispute mainly concerned Fielding and the writer and pharmacist John Hill in the beginning , but it developed into a "war" in which other writers such as Christopher Smart , Bonnell Thornton , William Kenrick , Arthur Murphy and Tobias Smollett fought with their works involved.

Many London newspapers and magazines were involved in this dispute, which lasted until 1753, in the course of which a large number of publications appeared. For example, Smart's parodying heroic poem The Hilliad , which tells the story of the hero Hillario , who ultimately develops into an arch-dunce , an ore fool . The exact cause of this dispute remained unknown and split most of the London scribes into supporters of either Fielding or Hill.

background

Fielding declared war on the so-called "hack writers" in the first edition of his magazine The Covent-Garden Journal on January 4, 1752. John Hill replied to this in the London Daily Advertiser on January 9, 1752: Fielding had previously met with him to publish a hoax about a newspaper war in which he intended to involve the London authorship,

"to deal blows that really don't hit anyone, but silently enjoy their benefits."
"giving Blows that would not hurt, and sharing the Advantage in Silence."

A meeting between the two may have taken place on December 28, 1751. It is known, however, that both writers had a business conversation between December 26 and 28, 1751.

On January 8, 1752, prior to this unveiling, Hill Fielding attacked Amelia in the London Daily Advertiser , in which the main character Amelia Booth had an accident that disfigured her face. Hill pokes fun at Fielding's description of the scene, claiming

"She could enrapture the world even without a nose."
"she could charm the world without the Help of a Nose."

In response to Hill's personal attacks and revealing their agreement, Fielding wrote on January 11, 1752:

"As if the breach of a private agreement wasn't shameful enough, no, its" lowliness "makes itself either a liar or a fool. If he had signed, he would be the former, nobody doubts it and only a few would not accept it for the latter hold, he would have refused. "
"If the Betrayer of a private Treaty could ever deserve the least Credit, yet his" Lowness "here must proclaim himself either a Liar, or a Fool. None can doubt that he is the former, if he hath feigned this Treaty, and I. think few would scruple to call him the latter, if he had rejected it. "

Regardless of Hill's statements about the actual background of Fielding's publication, an actual "newspaper war" was soon started with the third issue of The Covent-Garden Journal . Fielding escalated his satirical tirades against John Hill.

While Hill, Fielding, Smart, Thornton, Kenrick, Murphy, Smollett, and others were known to be involved in the dispute, not all of them wrote under their real names. Some related pseudonyms. Fielding wrote as "Sir Alexander Drawcansir", Hill was "The Inspector", Thornton wrote as "Madam Roxanna" and Smart referred to himself as "Mrs. Mary Midnight". Soon more and more publications were known under these names, the position on Fielding's plans to introduce a "central office" for the authorship, in addition to the fact that Fielding had already started an argument with his former employee Philip D'Halluin a few months earlier. D'Halluin had set up a rival "central office" on King Street in Covent Garden and hired Christopher Smart's close friend Bonnell Thorton, whom he put on Fielding and Hill. However, the two had worked together on this matter.

Hill's response to Fielding's and Smart's tirades was anonymously published in the only issue of Impertinent on August 13, 1752 . Hill's authorship was well known and on August 25, 1752, a column under the pseodonym "The Inspector" in the London Daily Advertiser , where he harshly criticized Smart's work. Ultimately, Fielding withdrew from the dispute after the sixth edition of the Covent-Garden Journal .

Course of the "newspaper war"

It is possible that the first publications that could be ascribed to a newspaper war were already by Smart on April 29, 1751, or even in Hill's papers between February and March 1751. Fielding's first attack in his magazine The Covent-Garden Journal on January 4, 1752, however, was quickly received by the writers of Grub Street and is considered to be the cause of the conflict. Hill wrote of the possible hoax on January 9, 1752, Smollet attacked Hill's presentation on January 15, 1752, and Thornton appealed against Fielding in Have At You All: or, The Drury Lane Journal on January 16, 1752.

The works of the individual writers, such as B. Fielding's "Amelia" were attacked. Fielding's answer was to be read in the Covent-Garden Journal on January 11, 1752 :

"A famous doctor who" Mrs. Amelia Booth "had healed so well from her severe nose injury that scarcely a scar was visible, is being prosecuted against some vicious and defamatory individuals who claim that the said lady has no nose only because the author of her story has his Forgot to inform readers of this detail. "
"a famous Surgeon, who absolutely cured one Mrs Amelia Booth, of a violent Hurt in her Nose, insomuch, that she had scarce a Scar left on it, intends to bring Actions against several ill-meaning and slanderous People, who have reported that the said Lady had no nose, merely because the Author of her History, in a Hurry, forgot to inform his Readers of that Particular. "

Not only Hill attacked Fielding's work. Thornton scoffed at "Amelia" in the Drury-Lane Journal . Thornton's satire was published on January 16, 1752. He advertised a work called "Shamelia", a reference to Fielding's parody, of Samuel Richardson's work Pamela , Shamela through a bogus advertisement . On February 13, 1752 Thornton published "A New Chapter in Amelia ." another parody of Fielding's work. Tobias Smollett followed suit and published on January 15, 1752 Habbakkuk Hilding under his pseudonym. Despite the many attacks on Fielding's work, there was also isolated support, such as an anonymous tribute to "Amelias". On January 25, 1752, Fielding continued to write about a trial in the fictional Court of Censorial Inquiry in which Hill and his other critics were the accusers. However, these were instead of "Amelia" in the dock.

The Covent-Garden Journal was Fielding's primary weapon in this "war". He used the rubric:

"Protocol of the current newspaper war between the armed forces of Sir Alexander Drawcansir and the Army of Grub Street."
"Journal of the present Paper War between the Forces under Sir Alexander Drawcansir, and the Army of Grub-street" .

These writings were based on Jonathan Swift's work The Battle of the Books , in which Fielding pretended to be a military leader who led the "English VETERANS" against his opponents. In the fourth edition of January 14, 1752, however, he changed his remarks to the effect that he described himself as a judge. In February, William Kenrick processed the "Paper War" in a piece called "Fun", in which he took Fielding in support. Charles Macklin followed Kenrick's lead and held a Covent Garden fundraiser on April 8, 1752 with the two-act The Covent Garden Theater, or Pasquin Turn'd Drawcansir . In the play he described how Fielding mastered the "Hill" and attacked his followers in "The Town".

An article in the London Daily Advertiser entitled The March of the Lion of January 29, 1752 brought many of the London authors into connection with the "newspaper war" and described for the first time Smart's pseudonym "Mrs. Mary Midnight", although it had not been used until then the argument had intervened. He took part for the first time on August 4, 1752 with The Midwife , a parody of Hill's "Inspector". In it, Smart responded to Hill's attacks on his play "Old Woman's Oratory", which Hill described as a "dead piece". Hill responded quickly, attacking Fielding and Smart in the only edition of Impertinent on August 13, 1752 , claiming, "As a writer, you write either because you are" intelligent and astute "or" just because you are hungry ". " He continued to mock that Smart

"Seen from a distance it is an incredibly funny phenomenon. Because whenever he opens his mouth, even if it is only to eat, the world, in view of his indifferent and stubborn way of twisting his tongue, starts a roaring laugh."
"wears a ridiculous comicalness of aspect, that makes people smile when they see him at a distance: His mouth opens, because he must be fed; and the world often joins with the philosopher in laughing at the insensibility and obstinancy that make him prick his lips with thistles. " "

"The Impertinent" was published anonymously and was first attributed to Samuel Johnson. Hill continued to veil his authorship by attacking his own work on August 25, 1752 in "Inspector" (No. 464). It soon became known, however, that Hill was behind both writings, so he wrote in the London Daily Advertiser on August 25, 1752. Hill criticized Smart's "Seals wherever possible", although he wanted to give the impression of paying tribute to Smart. Betty Rizzo claimed Hill did it in a way

"that he managed to insult and humiliate Smart with condescending encouragement."
"that managed to insult and degrade Smart with patronizing encouragement."

Arthur Murphy took up criticism in the Gray's Inn Journal on October 21, 1752 , followed by Thornton, who criticized both Hill and Fielding in the Spring-Garden Journal on November 16, 1752. The November 1752 edition of the Gentleman's Journal wrote: Hill's supporters advocated "a gentleman's cause" while Fielding's supporters supported a "comedian." This led to nothing less than an even greater division between the two groups. Hills and Murphy's subsequent dispute was reprinted in the December issue.

On February 1, 1753, Smart published his heroic poem The Hilliad , which Lance Bertelsen dubbed the "loudest broadside" of the entire war. A response to The Hilliad came promptly: Samuel Derrick published The Smartiad and Arthur Murphy criticized Smart's personal hostility. Using the rules of a clear mind , he tried to provoke further reactions from Smart. However, he did not go into it any further and Hill had not commented on it since December 1752.

See also

Literature year 1752

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Poetical Works p. 443
  2. ↑ a b c Bertelsen p. 135
  3. ↑ Bertelsen p 149
  4. ↑ Battesin p. 556
  5. ↑ a b c Sabor p. 96
  6. ↑ Covent-Garden Journal No. 3, 11 January 1752
  7. ↑ Battesin p. 555-556
  8. ↑ a b Bertelsen p. 137
  9. ↑ a b c d e Bertelsen p. 138
  10. ↑ Goldgar p. 119
  11. Jump up ↑ Mahony and Rizzo Item 128
  12. ↑ a b Battesin p. 534
  13. ↑ a b Sabor p. 97
  14. ↑ a b Battesin p. 537
  15. ↑ a b c Battesin p. 555
  16. ↑ a b Battesin p. 557
  17. ↑ Bertelsen p. 139
  18. ↑ a b c d e Bertelsen p. 143
  19. ↑ a b The Impertinent No August 1, 13, 1752
  20. ↑ Bertelsen p. 143-144
  21. ↑ Rizzo p. 343
  22. ↑ a b c Bertelsen p. 144
  23. ↑ a b Rizzo pp. 344-345
  24. ↑ a b Mounsey p. 142

bibliography

  • Battestin, Martin. Henry Fielding: A Life . New York: Routledge, 1989. ISBN 978-0-415-01438-0 .
  • Bertelsen, Lance. "'Neutral Nonsense, neither False nor True': Christopher Smart and the Paper War (s) of 1752–53." In Christopher Smart and the Enlightenment , Clement Hawes, 135-52. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1999. ISBN 978-0-312-21369-5 .
  • Goldgar, Bertrand. "Fielding's Periodical Journalism." In The Cambridge Companion to Henry Fielding , Claude Rawson, 94-108. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-85451-1 .
  • Mahony, Robert and Rizzo, Betty. Christopher Smart: An Annotated Bibliography 1743–1983 . New York: Garland, 1984. ISBN 978-0-8240-9226-9 .
  • Mounsey, Chris. Christopher Smart: Clown of God . Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8387-5483-2 .
  • Rizzo, Betty. "Notes on the War between Henry Fielding and John Hill, 1752-53," The Library 6, vii (1985). pp. 338-353. doi : 10.1093 / library / s6-VII.4.338 .
  • Sabor, Peter. "Amelia." In The Cambridge Companion to Henry Fielding , Claude Rawson, 94-108. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-85451-1 .
  • Smart, Christopher. The Poetical Works of Christopher Smart, IV: Miscellaneous Poems English and Latin . Ed. Karina Williamson. Oxford: Clarendon, 1987. ISBN 978-0-19-812768-0 .