{"title":"Jonathan Wild: Spinoza, the Foil, and the Jacobites","authors":"Mark Loveridge","doi":"10.1353/sip.2023.0005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay argues from the nature of Henry Fielding's Jonathan Wild as a miscellaneous linguistic salmagundi to a proposition that it is held together by a leitmotif of equally miscellaneous and perplexing opposites, which Fielding refers to as foils: the good-natured Heartfree being a foil to the villainous and hypocritical Wild. Fielding's usual ethical positives are foiled not only by Wild, but also by the strangely metaleptic \"Good-natured Hole\" in Laetitia's \"Handkerchief,\" which exposes her bosom. Mrs. Heartfree's appeal to divine \"PROVIDENCE\" is foiled by the insertion of a phrase and an episode derived from the subversive philosophy of Baruch Spinoza, which gives notice of a contrary attitude to cause and effect. Anti-Walpole satirical innuendoes are accompanied by another set of winks and nudges which develop a previously unnoticed anti-Jacobite subtext with which Walpole would have been in full agreement.","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2023.0005","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:This essay argues from the nature of Henry Fielding's Jonathan Wild as a miscellaneous linguistic salmagundi to a proposition that it is held together by a leitmotif of equally miscellaneous and perplexing opposites, which Fielding refers to as foils: the good-natured Heartfree being a foil to the villainous and hypocritical Wild. Fielding's usual ethical positives are foiled not only by Wild, but also by the strangely metaleptic "Good-natured Hole" in Laetitia's "Handkerchief," which exposes her bosom. Mrs. Heartfree's appeal to divine "PROVIDENCE" is foiled by the insertion of a phrase and an episode derived from the subversive philosophy of Baruch Spinoza, which gives notice of a contrary attitude to cause and effect. Anti-Walpole satirical innuendoes are accompanied by another set of winks and nudges which develop a previously unnoticed anti-Jacobite subtext with which Walpole would have been in full agreement.
期刊介绍:
Founded in 1903, Studies in Philology addresses scholars in a wide range of disciplines, though traditionally its strength has been English Medieval and Renaissance studies. SIP publishes articles on British literature before 1900 and on relations between British literature and works in the Classical, Romance, and Germanic Languages.