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Synopsis: Joseph Andrews, Book 4
Ch. 1 — Lady Booby arrives at her country estate; Fielding comments that the tenants of the estate are happy to see her only because they have no source of income while she’s gone; however, their welcome of Parson Adams, Fanny, and Joseph is heartfelt and genuine. We learn that Lady Booby has become more infatuated with Joseph during his absence; her emotional state swings dramatically between a desire to reward him for his goodness and a desire to punish him for being unavailable to her. Mrs. Slipslop reports to her how much Joseph suffered on his journey home. Lady Booby has just about decided to re-employ Joseph when she hears the banns — the first announcement of his engagement to Fanny — read aloud during Sunday services.
Ch. 2 — Lady Booby calls Adams to her and criticizes him for associating with a young man she has fired for moral crimes (Joseph). Adams defends Joseph and Fanny, but Lady Booby insists that he prevent their marriage. Adams tells her he can’t do that, because they are both legal residents of the village. Lady Booby threatens to have Adams fired, but he tells her he doesn’t care; he serves a greater Master than her.
Ch. 3 — Lady Booby consults a lawyer, Mr. Scout, and is enraged to find out that she can’t legally keep Joseph from living in the area. Scout believes, however, that a corrupt Justice in the area will be able to bend the law enough to get rid of Joseph and Fanny.
Ch. 4 — On the following Tuesday (a holy day), the banns are read for Joseph and Fanny’s marriage a second time. Lady Booby, angered, returns home after church to find that Joseph and Fanny have been brought before the Justice on unspecified charges. She begins to worry that Joseph will be hanged, when all she really wanted to do was get rid of Fanny. Her late husband’s nephew, Mr. Booby, and his bride Pamela (Joseph’s sister) arrive for a visit. Lady Booby, however, has no idea at first that Pamela is Joseph’s sister and welcomes her politely.
Ch. 5 — Mr. Booby (also referred to as the Squire), learning of Joseph’s arrest, resolves to help him. They go to the Justice, who informs them that Joseph and Fanny have been accused of stealing a hazel-twig from Lawyer Scout’s field; for this crime they are being sentenced to one month in prison and a severe whipping. Mr. Booby asks that Joseph and Fanny be put in his custody instead, and gives Joseph a nice suit of clothes to put on. He takes Joseph and Fanny back to Lady Booby’s and explains who he is on the way. Mr. Booby asks Lady Booby to welcome Joseph as a houseguest, and Lady Booby, impressed by seeing Joseph dressed respectably, happily agrees. She refuses, however, to take in Fanny. She is sent to stay with Adams and his family.
Ch. 6 — Joseph is joyously reunited with his sister, but she seems to be just as jealous of Fanny as Lady Booby is. She and Lady Booby get along well, however, being equally proud and fashionable. Joseph and Fanny make plans to marry the next Monday, after the third banns are read on Sunday. Meanwhile, Lady Booby and Slipslop criticize Pamela behind her back. Lady Booby becomes angry when Slipslop says she knows Lady Booby tried to get Fanny thrown out of town because of her love for Joseph; Lady Booby protests that her behavior has been above reproach and calls Slipslop common. They bicker, and Slipslop again defends Joseph, secure in her ability to blackmail Lady Booby.
Ch. 7 — Fielding pauses to consider the factors that create the type of character known as the coquette, of which Lady Booby is an example. He theorizes that girls are raised by their mothers to be afraid of men, in an attempt to protect their virtue. Therefore, when they are older, girls will disguise any feelings of love and pretend that they really hate all men. This theory explains why, the more Lady Booby loves Joseph, the more erratic and irritable her behavior becomes. She instructs Mr. Booby to tell Joseph to give up Fanny, if he ever wishes to become a gentleman, and Mr. Booby agrees. He and Pamela try to pressure Joseph, reminding him that Fanny is beneath him now that he is a gentleman’s brother-in-law (Pamela in particular resents it when Joseph equates Fanny with her socially), but Joseph swears he will never part with Fanny. Meanwhile, Fanny is walking on a country road when a fashionable gentleman (named Beau Didapper, as we will later learn) rides by and attempts to rape her. She is stronger than he is, however, so he leaves a servant to guard her while he rides on to the Booby estate. The servant then tries to rape her, tearing her clothes, but she is rescued by Joseph, who luckily arrives just in time. The attacker runs away, and Joseph becomes fascinated by the sight of Fanny’s uncovered bosom. However, her blushes make him realize his near-sin and they return, still chaste, to Parson Adams’ house.
Ch. 8 — Adams and his wife, meanwhile, are arguing about the match between Joseph and Fanny — Mrs. Adams fears that none of their children will be allowed to work for the Boobys if Adams angers the family with his support for Joseph. Even Mrs. Adams is inclined to believe that Fanny can’t possibly be both so beautiful and so good as well. Joseph and Fanny arrive and Joseph asks Adams to help him push the marriage ahead, believing that he can better protect Fanny’s virtue as her husband. Adams sternly tells Joseph that such haste would imply his marriage is motivated mainly by lust; good Christians do things in the proper time and accept whatever consequences may happen with patience. He says that he fears Joseph loves Fanny too much — so much that Joseph would choose her over God (i.e., if he lost her, he would despair). At this moment, someone comes in and tells Adams that his youngest son has drowned, and Adams becomes hysterical with grief. Joseph tries to comfort Adams with his own words — that Christians must accept God’s will, that he’ll see his little boy in heaven, etc. Adams refuses to be comforted, and when the little boy arrives home wet but safe (rescued by a passing Pedlar, a traveling salesman), Adams is likewise hysterical in his joy. Joseph points out rather irritably that Adams is not very good at taking his own advice, and Adams argues that love for one’s wife can’t be compared to the love for one’s child. Joseph and Mrs. Adams are unimpressed with this logic.
Ch. 9 — Lady Booby, learning that her guest, Beau Didapper, is infatuated with Fanny, plans to use him to lure Fanny from Joseph. She invites Didapper and the Boobys to visit Parson Adams in order to laugh at his poverty. Didapper is described as rich but weak, passive, foolish and ignorant (much like Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night), with a habit of ridiculing everyone and everything. Didapper begins to flirt with Fanny. Lady Booby admires Adams’ youngest child (little Dick), and Adams instructs the boy to read to the group.
Ch. 10 — The boy reads a moral story about a a squabbling couple and their friend’s failed efforts to act as a marriage counselor. His tale is interrupted, though.
Ch. 11 — The interruption occurs when Joseph sees Didapper try to fondle Fanny and punches him in the head. Didapper draws his sword but Adams talks them out of fighting. The Boobys and Parson Adams begin to argue about whether Joseph is right to fight for Fanny’s honor. Lady Booby cautions Adams that his defense of Joseph is not good policy if he wants to keep his position; she and her guests leave, as do Joseph and Fanny. Mrs. Adams and their oldest daughter both criticize Adams about putting his feelings for Joseph and Fanny before his responsibility to his own family; they both resent Fanny for trying to marry above her station. Joseph and Fanny return with the Pedlar who rescued the little boy, and invite the Adamses to join them at the Tavern for dinner.
Ch. 12 — At dinner, the Pedlar reveals that he knows who Fanny’s real parents are (she was adopted by a local family at the age of three). He tells them that years before, when he was a soldier, he had married a Gypsy woman who confessed on her deathbed that she had stolen a beautiful girl child and sold her to Sir Thomas Booby. The original parents were a Mr. and Mrs. Andrews. At the news that Joseph is actually her brother, Fanny faints, while Adams loudly gives thanks that Fanny’s identity was discovered before the sin of incest was committed.
Ch. 13 — Meanwhile, Lady Booby has taken to her bed with love-sickness. She begins to consider whether she might be willing to brave social ridicule and marry Joseph after all. Slipslop encourages her. Left alone, Lady Booby has second thoughts and begins to hate herself for loving a footman — and one who prefers a low-born girl like Fanny anyway. But when Slipslop comes in with the news that Fanny and Joseph are sister and brother, Lady Booby immediately loves Joseph again. Joseph, Fanny, Adams and the Pedlar arrive at Lady Booby’s with the news, which upsets Pamela in particular. She insists that her parents be brought over to confirm the story before she’ll believe it. She also criticizes Joseph for being so upset at the news: if he really loved Fanny so purely, the fact that she was his sister rather than his sweetheart should make no difference. Because of a storm, the company plans to stay overnight at the Boobys’ while waiting for the Andrews.
Ch. 14 — During the night, Didapper sneaks into the room he thinks is Fanny’s and crawls into the bed. He mimics Joseph’s voice and announces that news has just arrived that he is not her brother, so they can sleep together. He discovers, however, that the bed’s occupant is Mrs. Slipslop. She was willing enough when she thought it was Joseph but, thinking that Didapper was sent to her as a trap or virtue-test by Lady Booby, begins crying rape — but also won’t let him go. Adams hears Didapper’s high-pitched cries for help and runs in to rescue what he believes is a damsel in distress (mistaking Didapper’s soft skin) from a male rapist (mistaking Slipslop’s hairy chin). Didapper runs away and Adams struggles with Slipslop; they are discovered in this embarrassing position when Lady Booby comes in to investigate the noise. Adams, confused and believing he’s been bewitched, apologizes profusely. Lady Booby laughs and leaves. Adams leaves as Slipslop begins to reach for him, and enters what he thinks is his room (but is really Fanny’s), climbs into bed and goes to sleep, unaware he’s lying next to the sleeping Fanny. At dawn, Joseph discovers the two in the same bed; after some confusion (Adams still believes he’s been bewitched), they laugh at the mistake.
Ch. 15 — Joseph and Fanny decide mutually that, since they can’t marry, they will love one another together Platonically, living chastely as brother and sister, and never marry anyone. Gaffer and Gammer (Mr. and Mrs.) Andrews arrive. When told of the Pedlar’s story, Mr. Andrews denies that they ever had a daughter stolen. Mrs. Andrews, however, confesses that, while Mr. Andrews was away in the army for three years, the child she was pregnant with when he left was born: a girl who was indeed stolen by two Gypsy women, and a sickly boy baby left in her place. She decided to take care of the boy as if he were her own, and never told her husband that he wasn’t actually his child. She happily embraces Fanny as her long-lost daughter. The Pedlar asks whether the boy-child had a strawberry mark on his breast, and Joseph shows that he has. Adams thinks the strawberry mark sounds familiar, but is called outside by a servant. The Pedlar tells Joseph that he knows his father is a gentleman, but can’t remember his name. Coincidentally, Mr. Wilson (the kind man who had told them his life story) happens by. Hearing that a stolen child with a strawberry mark has just been discovered, Mr. Wilson frantically asks to see Joseph and immediately recognizes him as his long-lost son. Everyone is overjoyed except Lady Booby.
Ch. 16 — Mr. Booby and Pamela are polite to their new relations, but leave quickly because Lady Booby is so distraught, inviting the Andrews, Adams, and Mr. Wilson to follow them to their home. Joseph asks his (real) father’s permission to marry Fanny; he agrees, but asks Joseph to wait until he has been reunited with his mother. Mr. Booby kindly sends his coach to pick her up, and she happily agrees to Joseph and Fanny’s marriage. Their marriage is described sentimentally — compare the description to that of Adam and Eve’s wedding-night in Paradise Lost. Fielding, speaking in the present tense, then informs us that Joseph and Fanny have bought an estate next to the Wilsons, with the generous dowry Mr. Booby gave her. Parson Adams has also been given a living with a much larger salary by Mr. Booby, who has also employed the kindly Pedlar as a manager on his estate. Lady Booby has returned to London and lives a fashionable life. Joseph and Fanny, like the Wilsons, have chosen a quiet country life and intend to live happily ever after, with no more adventures.
