 The reception of Fielding 's plays received early recognition ; his early plays placed him in a position of popularity alongside Gay . George Bernard Shaw believed that Fielding was " the greatest practising dramatist , with the single exception of Shakespeare , produced in England between the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century . " However , modern critics rarely agree with Shaw , as Robert Hume points out , " Few scholars have been much interested in Fielding 's highly successful career as a dramatist . To most it has seemed a false start . Readers tend to find the conventional plays derivative and sentimental , the topical ones scrappy and superficial . " In particular , only one book until 1988 was published on the topic , which was Ducrocq 's Le theatre de Fielding , 1728 – 1737 , et ses prolongements dans l 'oeuvre romanesque . This critical approach is not limited to just Fielding , but to the whole field ; the reputation of Colley Cibber was ruined by Pope 's characterising him as the Arch Dunce and " Since the plays of Cibber 's only serious rival , Henry Fielding , are hardly even read these days , let alone performed , the earlier eighteenth @-@ century theater tends to be passed over with ( at best ) a polite cough . " 
