XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.language.latin
On Tue, 8 Oct 2024 22:38:02 +0000, Ross Clark wrote:
Sorry, a bit late today, but there's not much here.
Fielding (author of _Tom Jones_ etc.) wrote an early booklet, _Essay on Conversation_, which is advice on how to manifest "good breeding" when
taking part in conversation.
Don't
- talk more than your share
- lose your temper or raise your voice
- boast
- talk a lot about the "mysteries" of a profession
to which most of the company do not belong.
(He thinks lawyers - of which he was one -
are particularly guilty of this.)
interesting... i'm trying to remember ...
Do lawyers like to [talk shop]?
title (of Ph.D.(?) thesis) Henry Fielding's interest in law and its
influence upon his novels
Date Issued 1943
Author(s) Edwards, Phyllis Jeanne
My purpose in writing this thesis is to show Henry
Fielding's interest in law, his connection with it, the conflict in his
early life between law and his desire to write, and the way in which he incorporated law and humanitarianism in his writing.
The method employed in gathering this data was a careful study of the
body of Fielding's three most outstanding novels, Joseph Andrews, Tom
Jones and Amelia.
In each novel all references and applications to the law were considered
and the major points which he discussed were traced through the novel.
In these discussions I have covered the prevalence of legal terms,
corruption of officials, including justices, lawyers, prison keepers and bailiffs, various phases of bribery in courts, dealings with lawyers and
in the prisons, and the distortion and loopholes in the law itself.
The line of procedure in the development of this problem was to first
devote a chapter to the life and background of the lawyer.
In this chapter his experiences as a political dramatist, a young law
student, magistrate and novelist, have been discussed.
The second chapter deals with critical opinions of his general standing
in the period, the opinions of his contemporaries, and the early
reception of the three novels under examination.
Chapter three concerns Fielding's first novel, Joseph Andrews.
Originally begun with the idea of satirizing Samuel Richardson's novel
of perfect virtue, Pamela, Fielding developed his novel into an opening
attack upon the corruption of the law.
He touches upon the general status of the law among the common people,
the legal phrases and "gibberish" employed by lawyers to confuse the
public, the dishonesty of unscrupulous magistrates and lawyers, and the
amazing power of rank and wealth in the perversion of justice.
...............
...............
(Don't) talk a lot about the "mysteries" of a profession
maybe by "mysteries" he meant
what we today call "gibberish"
or shop-talk, jargon, ........
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