SOURCE: "The Comedy of Forms: Low and High," in Henry Fielding, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House, 1987, pp. 43-50. Originally published in Martin Price, To the Palace of Wisdom: Studies in Order and Energy from Dryden to Blake (Price, 1964; Feffer & Simons, 1970).

In the following excerpt, originally published in 1964 and reprinted in 1970 and 1987, Price maintains that the low social status of Fielding's virtuous characters subverts both social and generic expectations.

It would have been useless for our Lord Jesus Christ to come like a king, in order to shine forth in His kingdom of holiness. But He came there appropriately in the glory of His own order.

It is most absurd to take offence at the lowliness of Jesus Christ, as if His lowliness were in the same order as the greatness which He came to manifest. It we consider this greatness. we shall see it to be so...