October 8

Scratch any serious writer and under the surface you will find a lawyer struggling to break free. In most cases, if you look in the bottom right hand drawer of most writers desks you will invariably find a gavel and a very distinguished black robe just waiting to be worn. Englishman Henry Fielding, the author of Tom Jones and numerous other pieces, was no exception. Fielding died on the 8th of October in 1754. After a brief fling with writing for the theater, Fielding ventured in to the practice of law. He experienced some success in the field and in 1748 became a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex and Westminster. Among Fielding’s many contributions to English jurisprudence was the issuance of a warrant for the arrest of Colley Cibber for “murder of the English language.” A cursory reading of Cibber’s autobiographical “An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber”, published in 1740, is prima facie evidence of Cibber’s guilt.