

                                 Henry Fielding

                        The History of the Adventures of

                        Joseph Andrews and of His Friend

                               Mr. Abraham Adams

    Written in Imitation of The Manner of Cervantes, Author of »Don Quixote«

                                    Preface

As it is possible the mere English Reader may have a different Idea of Romance
with the Author of these little Volumes; and may consequently expect a kind of
Entertainment, not to be found, nor which was even intended, in the following
Pages; it may not be improper to premise a few Words concerning this kind of
Writing, which I do not remember to have seen hitherto attempted in our
Language.
    The EPIC as well as the DRAMA is divided into Tragedy and Comedy. Homer, who
was the Father of this Species of Poetry, gave us a Pattern of both these, tho'
that of the latter kind is entirely lost; which Aristotle tells us, bore the
same relation to Comedy which his Iliad bears to Tragedy. And perhaps, that we
have no more Instances of it among the Writers of Antiquity, is owing to the
Loss of this great Pattern, which, had it survived, would have found its
Imitators equally with the other Poems of this great Original.
    And farther, as this Poetry may be Tragic or Comic, I will not scruple to
say it may be likewise either in Verse or Prose: for tho' it wants one
particular, which the Critic enumerates in the constituent Parts of an Epic
Poem, namely Metre; yet, when any kind of Writing contains all its other Parts,
such as Fable, Action, Characters, Sentiments, and Diction, and is deficient in
Metre only; it seems, I think, reasonable to refer it to the Epic; at least, as
no Critic hath thought proper to range it under any other Head, nor to assign it
a particular Name to itself.
    Thus the Telemachus of the Arch-Bishop of Cambray appears to me of the Epic
Kind, as well as the Odyssey of Homer; indeed, it is much fairer and more
reasonable to give it a Name common with that Species from which it differs only
in a single Instance, than to confound it with those which it resembles in no
other. Such are those voluminous Works commonly called Romances, namely, Clelia,
Cleopatra, Astræa, Cassandra, the Grand Cyrus, and innumerable others which
contain, as I apprehend, very little Instruction or Entertainment.
    Now a comic Romance is a comic Epic-Poem in Prose; differing from Comedy, as
the serious Epic from Tragedy: its Action being more extended and comprehensive;
containing a much larger Circle of Incidents, and introducing a greater Variety
