How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
Little more worth remembering occurred during the play, at the end of which Jones asked him, "Which of the players he had liked best?" To this he answered, with some appearance of indignation at the question, "The king, without doubt." "Indeed, Mr Partridge," says Mrs Miller, "you are not of the same opinion with the town; for they are all agreed, that Hamlet is acted by the best player who ever was on the stage." "He the best player!" cries Partridge, with a contemptuous sneer, "why, I could act as well as he myself. I am sure, if I had seen a ghost, I should have looked in the very same manner, and done just as he did." (16.5.14)
Partridge is pretty funny during this whole sequence, when he keeps commenting loudly on a performance of Shakespeare's play Hamlet. But by the end, Partridge's comments about what makes a good actor actually speak to what Fielding is trying to do with his larger project in Tom Jones. Partridge thinks that the actor who plays Hamlet is an idiot because if he had seen that ghost, he would have "looked in the very same manner, and done just as he did." Partridge believes that Hamlet is a bad actor because he looks too natural and too realistic—he reacts just like any real person would react! Partridge wants his actors to ham it up, so he knows that they are performing.
Now, Partridge is obviously not a reliable judge of acting. But his objection to this performance of habit is kind of self-mocking on Fielding's part. After all, Fielding has said over and over again that he wants Tom Jones to appear natural and realistic. However, people reading his book may find it a little too bare of stylish flourishes and marks that show that it is Literature-with-a-capital-L. Like this poor actor, Fielding runs the risk that readers won't understand the skill and technique that goes into writing a novel about the everyday lives of regular folk.