This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Anonymous Dissident (talk | contribs) at 07:15, 5 April 2009 (+ image). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 07:15, 5 April 2009 by Anonymous Dissident (talk | contribs) (+ image)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
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". It was Fielding's fourth and final periodical, and one of his last written works.
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 consisting 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 Fielding was in turn criticised for.