Henry Fielding, Feminist

A lot of people who should know better (I’m talking to you, Samuel Johnson, and you, Jane Austen) have a low opinion of Henry Fielding. I grant that he indulged a certain liberality of spirit, but it was no more than the spirit of the age. And you have to credit him for candor: Somerset Maugham suggested that polite young ladies would do well to read Tom Jones to find out what men were really like (especially, perhaps, if they had no brothers). Maugham might have been thinking of this passage, where Fielding discusses the domestic situation of Squire Western, in his character (as he understands it) of “a good husband”:

He very seldom swore at [his wife] (perhaps not above once a Week) and never beat her: She had not the least Occasion for Jealousy, and was perfect Mistress of her Time; for she was never interrupted by her Husband, who was engaged all the Morning in his Field Exercises, and all the Evening with Bottle Companions. She scarce indeed ever saw him but at Meals; where she had the Pleasure of carving those Dishes which she had before attended at the Dressing. From these Meals she retired about five Minutes after the other Servants, having only stayed to drink the King over the Water. Such were, it seems, Mr. Western’s Orders: For it was a Maxim with him, that Women should come in with the first Dish, and go out after the first Glass. Obedience to these Orders was perhaps no difficult Task: For the Conversation (if it may be called so) was seldom such as could entertain a Lady. It consisted chiefly of Hollowing, Singing, Relations of sporting Adventures, B—d-y, and Abuse of Women and of the Government.

These, however, were the only Seasons when Mr. Western saw his Wife: For when he repaired to her Bed, he was generally so drunk that he could not see; and in the sporting Season he always rose from her before it was light. Thus was she perfect Mistress of her Time …

Henry Fielding, Tom Jones 338-9 (Wesleyan Univ. Ed. 1975)

In fairness, Mrs. Western did not always take her role as “faithful upper Servant” in good grace:

[S]he had contracted a little Gloominess of Temper: For she was rather a good Servant than a good Wife; nor had she always the Gratitude to return the extraordinary Degree of roaring Mirth, with which the Squire received her, even with a good-humoured Smile.

Id.