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The Covent Garden Journal was an English literary periodical published twice a week for the most part of 1752. It was incepted and edited by novelist and dramatist Henry Fielding, who wrote under the pseudonym of "Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Knt. Censor of Great Britain" and who supported it almost entirely by himself. It was Fielding's fourth and final periodical, and one of his last written works.

Content

The first number of the periodical was published on January 4, 1752. This initial release was delayed by several months; the London Daily Advertiser had reported on November 1, 1751 that the first number was to be released on the 23rd. The Journal was typical in its format. Each number consisted of an introductory remark or essay, written by Fielding; domestic and foreign news, with annotations; advertisements; an obituary; a births and marriages pannel; and other sundries. Throughout these sections, particularly in the opening comment or the news, Fielding was noted to have injected a certain degree of wit or "liveliness" not seen before in his previous publications, and he made sure to assert in the first number that he planned to avoid the "dullness" seen in other contemporary periodicals:

I do promise, as far as in me lies, to avoid with the utmost Care all Kind of Encroachment on that spacious Field, in which my... Contemporaries have such large and undoubted Possessions; and which, from Time immemorial, hath been called the Land of DULLNESS.

Discussion in the Journal was chiefly concerned with matters of literary criticism and "the social and moral health of the body politic". Fielding also put the periodical to significant use as an instrument of defence against criticism for his recent novel – Amelia – which had been published the December prior; and this was something he was in turn criticised for. It was this criticism that was said to have dissuaded Fielding from writing another novel.

The Paper War

The first four numbers are of particular note because they featured a journal of the "Paper War", a conflict Fielding instigated with the writers of other contemporary periodicals for the sake of generating sales. In the first number, along with the aforementioned promise to eschew the dullness of other periodicals, Fielding deliberately challenged "the armies of Grub Street" and proclaimed his disdain for the literary critics of the day:

As to my brother authors, who, like mere mechanics, are envious and jealous of a rival in their trade, to silence their jealousies and fears, I declare that it is not my intention to encroach on the business now carried on by them, nor to deal in any of those wares which they at present vend to the public.

To supplement this statement, "an introduction to a journal of the present paper-war between the forces under Sir Alexander Drawcansir, and the army of Grub Street" was also featured in the inaugural number, written in the tradition of Jonathan Swift's Battle of the Books.

The main responder to Fielding's words was John Hill, an English author, botanist, and literary critic who wrote a column called "The Inspector" in the London Daily Advertiser. Hill made use of this column several days later to attack Fielding and criticise his Amelia; Fielding replied in much the same fashion in the second issue of the Journal, while attempting to defend his novel. It was in this way that the exchange between the two was sustained, as each used their respective publication to joust with the other. Fielding would eventually withdraw from the conflict after the publishing of the fourth number, as the "war" had become more personal and hostile than he had originally intended. While The Covent Garden Journal would no longer be used to fuel the paper war, a similar but more moderated commentary later took its place, which Fielding termed the "Court of Criticism".

Although John Hill was Fielding's main combatant in the campaign against Grub Street, others made jabs at Fielding and his works in the first months of the Journal's run; Bonnell Thornton, who wrote satires of Amelia in the Drury-Lane Journal, was one, as was Tobias Smollet, who published a disparaging pamphlet entitled A Faithful Narrative of the base and inhuman Arts that were lately practised upon the Brain of Habbakuk Hilding, Justice, Dealer and Chapman, who now lies at his own House in Covent-Garden, in a deplorable State of Lunacy; a dreadful Monument of false Friendship and Delusion. on January 15. The paper war that Fielding started would continue into 1753, ultimately extending far beyond the personal conflict between Fielding and Hill and embroiling a large number of others, among them Christopher Smart, William Kenrick, and Arthur Murphy.

End of publication

By the summer of 1752, it was apparent that the Journal's circulation rates were steadily dropping, and it was losing popularity. It became less advertised after it made the transition to weekly publication on July 4, and, in the final months of 1752, its discussion of anything other than court decisions and political actions was minimal. In addition to that, Fielding himself had fallen into poor health and his inclination to continue the periodical had declined. The 72nd and final number of The Covent Garden Journal was published on 25 November, 1752.

Notes

1. ^ Lawrence, p.303
2. ^ Cleary, p.291
3. Lawrence, p.302
4. Battestin, p.25
5. ^ Wright, p.47
6. ^ Rawson, p.119
7. Lawrence, p.303-4
8. Lawrence, p.304
9. Lawrence, p.306
10. Lawrence, p.313
11. Cleary, p.296
12. Lawrence, p.314

References

• Lawrence, Frederick (1855). The Life of Henry Fielding. A. Hall, Virtue & co.