Henry Fielding
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 5 July 1834; in Table Talk (New York, 1835) 2:171.
What a master of composition Fielding was! Upon my word, I think the Oedipus Tyrannus, the Alchemist, and Tom Jones, the three most perfect plots ever planned. And how charming, how wholesome, Fielding always is! To take him up after Richardson, is like emerging from a sick room heated by stoves, into an open lawn.