The Temple Beau

The play, well received at Goodman's Fields, depicts a young law student forsaking his studies for pleasure.

By portraying hypocrisy in a comedic manner, Fielding shifts his focus from a discussion of love and lovers.

[5] For the first author's benefit on 28 January, Fielding added a new song titled "Like the Whig and the Tory".

A revised version of the play titled The Temple Beau; or, The Intriguing Sisters was performed on 21 September 1782 at the Haymarket theatre.

[8] The cast according to the printed billing:[9] Wilding is a young law student who gives up his studies to seek pleasure.

[13] This is not to say that the play was different from his first; The Temple Beau (1730), like Love in Several Masques (1728), exemplified Fielding's understanding of traditional Post-Restoration comedic form.

"[15] The Temple Beau is straightforward unlike Love in Several Masques, and it relies on a simpler set of patterns: instead of triplicates, the images are repeated only once.

[16] When it comes to matters of gender, the play expresses a view of equality between the sexes that manifests in marriage.

[17] The Temple Beau was one of the best received new plays at Goodman's Fields, with only James Ralph's The Fashionable Lady as a rival.

A few plays may have been influenced by The Temple Beau, including Theophilus Cibber's The Lovers (1730) or Benjamin Hoadly's The Suspicious Husband (1747).

"[24] Albert Rivero believed that "The initial rejection of The Temple Beau, however, convinced Fielding that his future success would depend on his ability to satisfy the town's taste for less conventional entertainments.