  We report on Keck and Hubble Space Telescope optical observations of the
eclipsing binary pulsar system PSR B1718-19, in the direction of the globular
cluster NGC 6342. These reveal a faint star ($m_{\rm F702W}=25.21\pm0.07$; Vega
system) within the pulsar's 0\farcs5 radius positional error circle. This may
be the companion. If it is a main-sequence star in the cluster, it has radius
$\rcomp\simeq0.3 \rsun$, temperature $\teff\simeq3600 $K, and mass
$\mcomp\simeq0.3 \msun$. In many formation models, however, the pulsar (spun up
by accretion or newly formed) and its companion are initially in an eccentric
orbit. If so, for tidal circularization to have produced the present-day highly
circular orbit, a large stellar radius is required, i.e., the star must be
bloated. Using constraints on the radius and temperature from the Roche and
Hayashi limits, we infer from our observations that $\rcomp\simlt0.44 \rsun$
and $\teff\simgt3300 $K. Even for the largest radii, the required efficiency of
tidal dissipation is larger than expected for some prescriptions.
