| Richard Steele |
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Introduction
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(1672-1729).—
Essayist and dramatist, son of a Dublin
attorney, who died when his son was 5 years old, was, on the
nomination of the Duke of Ormond, sent to the Charterhouse School,
where his friendship with Addison began, and thence went to Oxford,
but left without taking a degree, and enlisted in the Horse Guards,
for which he was disinherited by a rich relation. He, however, gained
the favour of his colonel, Lord Cutts, himself a poet, and rose to the
rank of captain. With the view of setting before himself a high ideal
of conduct (to which unhappily he was never able to attain), he at
this time wrote a treatise on morals entitled The Christian
Hero (1701). Abandoning this vein, he next produced three
comedies, The Funeral, or Grief a la Mode (1702) The Tender
Husband (1703), and The Lying Lover (1704). Two years later
he was appointed Gentleman Waiter to Prince George of Denmark, and in
1707 he was made Gazetteer; and in the same year he m. as his
second wife Mary Scurlock, his “dear Prue,” who seems,
however, to have been something of a termagant. She had considerable
means, but the incorrigible extravagance of S. soon brought on
embarrassment. In 1709 he laid the foundations of his fame by starting
the Tatler, the first of those periodicals which are so
characteristic a literary feature of that age. In this he had the
invaluable assistance of Addison, who contributed 42 papers out of a
total of 271, and helped with others. The Tatler was followed
by the Spectator, in which Addison co-operated to a still
greater extent. It was even a greater success, and ran to 555 numbers,
exclusive of a brief revival by Addison in which S. had no part, and
in its turn was followed by the Guardian. It is on his essays
in these that the literary fame of S. rests With less refinement and
delicacy of wit than Addison, he had perhaps more knowledge of life,
and a wider sympathy, and like him he had a sincere desire for the
reformation of morals and manners. In the keen political strife of the
times he fought stoutly and honestly on the Whig side, one result of
which was that he lost his office of Gazetteer, and was in 1714
expelled from the House of Commons to which he had just been
elected. The next year gave a favourable turn to his fortunes. The
accession of George I. brought back the Whigs, and S. was appointed to
various offices, including a commissionership on forfeited estates in
Scotland, which took him to Edinburgh, where he was welcomed by all
the literati there. Nothing, however, could keep him out of
financial embarrassments, and other troubles followed: his wife died;
differences arose with Addison, who died before a reconciliation could
be effected. The remaining years were clouded by financial troubles
and illhealth. His last work was a play, The Conscious Lovers
(1722). He left London and lived at Hereford and at Carmarthen, where
he died after a partial loss of his faculties from paralysis.
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By PanEris
using Melati.
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