 Fielding first produced a play in February 1728 . Although his first production , Love in Several Masques , lasted only a few nights , it was the start of his career in theatre . On 16 March 1728 , Fielding enrolled at the University of Leyden , but he did not abandon the theatre . His early plays were those of an amateur hobby , but he later returned to London to earn a living . Arthur Murphy , in his 1762 biographical introduction to Fielding 's works , believed that Fielding returned to London and treated the theatre as a career because his father stopped an allowance of 200 pounds a year . 
