Richard Steele

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The British essayist, dramatist, and politician Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) is best known for his collaboration with Addison on a series of essays for the "Tatler" and the "Spectator".

Richard Steele was born in Dublin, Ireland, in March 1672. The exact date of his birth is not known, but he was baptized on March 12. Steele's father, an attorney, died in 1676, and his mother died the next year. He was placed under the guardianship of his maternal uncle, Henry Gascoigne, who was secretary and confidential agent to the Duke of Ormonde. In 1684 he began attending Charterhouse School, London, where he met Joseph Addison. Both Steele and Addison went to Oxford, Steele entering Christ Church in 1689 and transferring to Merton College in 1691. His Oxford career was undistinguished, and he left in 1692 without taking a degree in order to volunteer for cadet service under the command of the Duke of Ormonde. Steele then served in the Life Guards and later transferred to the Coldstream Guards. In 1695 Lord Cutts, to whom Steele had dedicated a poem on the funeral of Queen Mary, became Steele's patron. Steele first served him as private secretary and then became an officer in Cutts's regiment in 1697. Two years later Steele received a captaincy in a foot regiment.

During these years of military service in London, Steele became acquainted with a circle of literary and artistic figures, and he began to write. His first comedy, The Funeral, or Grief A-la-mode, was performed successfully at Drury Lane Theatre in 1701. This play was a satire on the new profession of undertaking. It was followed by The Lying Lover, or The Ladies' Friendship in 1703. His third comedy, The Tender Husband, or The Accomplished Fools, produced in 1705, achieved some success, perhaps because Addison helped him write it.

A constant need for money dominated much of Steele's life because his spending habits were impulsive and extravagant. In 1705 he married an elderly and propertied widow, Margaret Stretch. She died in 1706, leaving him an annual income of £850, and in 1707 Steele married Mary Scurlock (died 1718), the "Dear Prue" of a series of delightful letters he addressed to her. They had four children, but only Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, survived to maturity. Steele lived in considerable style after his second marriage, and his habits continued to be free-spending and improvident. He left the army in 1707, or perhaps earlier, and in the years following secured several minor appointments.

On April 12, 1709, Steele launched his own paper, the Tatler, to be published three times weekly. Partly a newspaper and partly a journal of politics and of society events, the Tatler soon featured essays on general questions of manners, morality, and entertainment. The great majority of the Tatler issues were authored by Steele, Addison writing about 46 by himself and about 36 in conjunction with Steele. The Tatler, though prosperous, discontinued publication for obscure reasons on Jan. 2, 1711.

The first issue of the Tatler's brilliant successor, the Spectator, appeared on March 1, 1711. It was a joint venture of Steele and Addison, who was the chief contributor to the new paper. However, in this paper, as in the Tatler, Addison followed Steele's choice of subjects. The Steele-Addison literary partnership ranks as one of the most successful in the history of English literature. Both men were Whigs and sympathized with the moral attitudes of England's rapidly growing middle class. They differed greatly in temperament, Steele being impulsive and warmhearted and Addison restrained and sedate. The Spectator had a run of 555 daily numbers, discontinuing publication on Dec. 6, 1712. Of this number, Steele authored about 240 issues.

Steele made many additional forays into periodical journalism. The most notable of these, some of which were purely political, were the Guardian (March 12-Oct. 1, 1713); the Englishman (Oct. 6, 1713-Feb. 11, 1714; July 11-Nov. 21, 1715); and the Lover (Feb. 25-May 27, 1714), which saw the publication of 40 essays by Steele. The Plebeian (1718), Steele's most famous political journal, involved him in a dispute with Addison, whose death in 1719 frustrated Steele's attempt at reconciliation.

During these years Steele served as the chief Whig propagandist; as the principal journalist of the Whigs in opposition, he was the antagonist of Jonathan Swift, who held the corresponding job for the Tories. Steele's writings frequently made his political career perilous. Appointed commissioner of stamps in 1710, he was forced to resign from this office in 1713. That same year he was elected to Parliament from Stockbridge, but he was expelled in 1714 on a charge of sedition.

After the accession of George I to the English throne in 1714, Steele obtained a number of political favors. In 1715 he was knighted and was reelected to Parliament. Steele's intemperance gradually undermined his health, and he suffered from gout for many years. In 1722 he wrote his last and most successful comedy, The Conscious Lovers. In 1724 - still notoriously improvident, impulsive, ostentatious, and generous - Steele was forced to retire from London because of his mounting debts and his worsening health. He went to live on his wife's estate of Llangunnor in Wales, and in 1726 he suffered a paralytic stroke. His health broken, Steele died at Carmarthen, Wales, on Sept. 1, 1729.

Further Reading

Most of Steele's works are available in modern editions. The Tatlerwas edited by George A. Aitken (4 vols., 1899) and The Spectator by Donald F. Bond (5 vols., 1965). The standard biographies of Steele are George A. Aitken, The Life of Richard Steele (2 vols., 1889), and Willard Connely, Sir RichardSteele (1934). Other studies of value include George S. Marr, The Periodical Essayists of the Eighteenth Century (1923); F. W. Bateson, English Comic Drama, 1700-50 (1929); John Loftis, Steele at Drury Lane (1952); Rae Blanchard, ed., The Englishman: A Political Journal (1955); Arthur R. Humphreys, Steele, Addison and Their Periodical Essays (1959); and Bertrand A. Goldgar, The Curse of Party: Swift's Relations with Addison and Steele (1961).

Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729). Irish writer, soldier, and politician. Educated at Charterhouse and Merton College, Oxford, Steele entered the army before turning to writing plays. Appointed gazetteer in 1707, Steele embarked on a hugely successful journalistic career, assisted by Addison in the Tatler and then the enormously popular Spectator. MP for Stockbridge in 1713 and recruited by the Whigs to head their propaganda campaign against the Harley administration, Steele responded with papers like the Guardian and the Englishman. Rewarded for his services on the Hanoverian succession, Steele was knighted and appointed supervisor of Drury Lane theatre.

Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729), playwright, essayist, and moralist. Born in Dublin, son of an attorney, he was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, which he left to join the Life Guards (1694). In 1700 he fought a duel with another Irishman, Kelly, leaving the latter seriously wounded. His remorse inspired the high moralizing tone of his first play, The Christian Hero (1701). This was followed by The Funeral (1701), The Lying Lover (1703), and The Tender Husband (1705). In 1709 he turned his journalistic talents to a partnership with Joseph Addison in The Tatler. The venture failed in 1711, and from then on he and Addison ran The Spectator (1711-12), The Guardian (1713), and The Englishman (1713-14). His final play, The Conscious Lovers (1722), is a fine example of 18th-cent. sentimental comedy.

Steele, Richard (1672–1729), English essayist and dramatist. Steele's name is associated with that of Joseph Addison, with whom he collaborated. Born in poor circumstances in Dublin, Steele was brought up by his aunt and uncle, Lady Katherine Mildmay and Henry Gascoigne. His extended family were influential Protestant gentry, but little is known of his parents. At fourteen, Steele went to the Charterhouse School, where he met Addison.

In 1689 Steele went to Oxford University, where he did not take a degree but joined the second troop of Life Guards in 1692. His first publication was a poem on the death of Queen Mary II in 1694; it was dedicated to Lord Cutts, colonel of the Coldstream Guards, who rewarded him with the rank of captain and made him his secretary. Steele had a daughter with Elizabeth Tonson. He did not acknowledge the fact at first, but later brought the child up in his home. While stationed in Suffolk as commander of a garrison, he composed The Christian Hero (1701). In this reforming tract and moral manual, Steele contrasted the passion and universal heroism of Christianity with his perception of the false reasoning of Stoicism of the Roman emperors. Steele wrote his first play, The Funeral, or Grief à la Mode, the same year. A didactic satire on hypocritical undertakers and dishonest lawyers, it was praised by William III. Unfortunately, the king died before conferring any favors on Steele. Finding promotion in the army increasingly difficult to achieve without powerful connections, Steele left in 1705 to pursue success as a writer. In his second play, The Lying Lover (1702), he continued his didactic dramatic vision, portraying virtuous characters as models for audiences to emulate, as opposed to the predominantly "immoral" characters on the Restoration stage.

In 1705, Steele married Margaret Ford Stretch. Because of his theatrical success, he was well acquainted with London society and became involved in Whig politics. He was appointed gentleman waiter to Prince George of Denmark, Queen Anne's husband, in 1706. Engaging in the pamphlet war with satirical essayist Jonathan Swift, his public opponent, Steele wrote The Crisis, attacking the Tory ministry for its unenthusiastic support for a Protestant successor to the throne. In 1707, after his first wife's death, Steele married Mary Scurlock. At this time he was editor of the London Gazette, the official government periodical.

Steele's fame rests on his founding of The Tatler (1709–1711) and The Spectator (1711–1712), forerunners of modern journalism, which he wrote anonymously with Joseph Addison with the object of targeting the intellectual and political melting pots of London's coffeehouses and bookshops. The Tatler, a series of thrice-weekly papers in which Steele planned to educate "Politick Persons," was addressed predominantly to fashionable society, whereas The Spectator appealed to a wider audience. Using the idea of a club of different personalities, politics, culture, and foreign and domestic topics were explored in The Tatler. Steele used the figure of Isaac Bickerstaff, created by Jonathan Swift, to satirize the annual almanacs. Steele's fundamental purpose was moral didacticism: he wished to inculcate a practical morality in an accessible style. Swift, however, attacked Steele's loose use of syntax and the use of juxtaposition in his writing.

Published daily, The Spectator developed from The Tatler and included essays on relationships between the sexes, manners, London life, taste, and politics. The Spectator assembled a club of narrators whose personalities, eccentricities, and political viewpoints were revealed in concrete detail. Led by Mr. Spectator, the narrators included the Tory country squire Sir Roger de Coverly, and Sir Andrew Freeport, a Whig mercantilist. Steele's contribution to The Spectator is distinguished for his use of the letter form and the dialogue between either fictional personae or a writer and a reader (real or imagined). His essays on women such as "The Education of Girls" (no. 66, 16 May 1711) reveal both his sentimentalism and his open, sympathetic stance towards women's social and sexual status.

Steele's desire to be more politically outspoken against the Tory ministry produced two anti-Tory periodicals, The Guardian (with Addison's help) in 1713, and The Englishman (1713–1714), as well as several pamphlets and short-lived periodicals. Elected as M.P. for Stockbridge in 1713, his position in the House of Commons was disputed, and a Tory majority expelled him. Steele was granted a governorship of Drury Lane Theatre in 1714 to, as he expressed it in his pamphlet Town Talk, "Chastise the Vices of the Stage, and promote the Interests of Virtue and Innocence." In 1715, he was knighted by George I, and made a surveyor of the royal stables. Steele argued publicly with Addison in 1718 over the peerage bill, an incident that led to the revocation of the Drury Lane patent. He then began a biweekly paper called The Theater and later issued pamphlets about the South Sea Bubble. His last play, The Conscious Lovers (1722), was based on Terence's Andria; in it Steele portrayed ideals of male and female manners and began the tradition of the sentimental comedy. The play's success enabled him to settle his debts. Steele retired in ill health to his estate in Wales and died in Carmarthenshire in 1729.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Steele, Richard. The Plays of Richard Steele. Edited by Shirley Strum Kenny. Oxford, 1971.

——. Selections from The Tatler and The Spectator. Edited by Angus Ross. London, 1982. Reprint 1988.

——. The Spectator. Edited by Donald F. Bond. 5 vols. Oxford, 1987.

——. The Tatler. Edited by Donald F. Bond. 3 vols. Oxford, 1987.

Secondary Sources

Alsop, J. D. "New Light on Richard Steele." British Library Journal (1999): 23–33. Examines the evidence that Steele may have had a brother.

Dammers, Richard H. Richard Steele. Boston, 1982. An introductory overview of Steele's life and work.

Winton, Calhoun. Captain Steele: The Early Career of Richard Steele. Baltimore, 1964. The standard biography, which examines Steele's life up to 1714 with generous excerpts from The Tatler and The Spectator.

——. Sir Richard Steele M.P.: The Later Career. Baltimore, 1970. The sequel to the above volume.

—MAX FINCHER

Quotes:

"It is to be noted that when any part of this paper appears dull there is a design in it."

"I cannot think of any character below the flatterer, except he who envies him."

"The fool within himself is the object of pity, until he is flattered."

"A healthy old fellow, who is not a fool, is the happiest creature living."

"That man never grows old who keeps a child in his heart."

"Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip."

See more famous quotes by Sir Richard Steele

This is about the 18th-century author, for others, see Richard Steele (disambiguation) page.

Richard Steele

Sir Richard Steele (bap. 12 March 1672 – 1 September 1729) was an Irish writer and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine The Spectator.

Steele was born in Dublin, Ireland to Richard Steele, an attorney, and Elinor Symes (née Sheyles); his sister Katherine was born the previous year. A member of the Protestant gentry, he was educated at Charterhouse School, where he first met Addison. He went on to Merton College, Oxford, then with joined the Life Guards of the Household Cavalry. He disliked British Army life, and his first published work, The Christian Hero (1701), attempted to point out the differences between perceived and actual masculinity. He afterwards became a dramatist, and his comedies, such as The Tender Husband (1703) met with some success. In 1706 he was appointed to a position in the household of Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne of Great Britain. He also gained the favour of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford.

In 1705, Steele married a widow, Margaret Stretch, who died in the following year. At her funeral he met his second wife, Mary Scurlock, whom he nicknamed "Prue" and married in 1707. In the course of their courtship and marriage, he wrote over 400 letters to her. They were a devoted couple, their correspondence still being regarded as one of the best illustrations of a happy marriage, but their relationship was stormy. Mary died in 1718, at a time when she was considering separation. Their daughter, Elizabeth (Steele's only surviving legitimate child), married John Trevor, 3rd Baron Trevor.

In 1709, Steele founded a thrice-weekly satirical magazine, Tatler, which lasted only two years in its first incarnation. Addison was a frequent contributor. Following the demise of the Tatler, the two men founded The Spectator. A member of the Whig Kit-Kat Club, Steele became a Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1713, but was soon expelled for issuing a pamphlet in favour of the Hanoverian succession. When George I of Great Britain came to the throne in the following year, Steele was knighted and given responsibility for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. While at Drury Lane, Steele wrote and directed The Conscious Lovers, which was an immediate hit. However, he fell out with Addison and with the administration over the Peerage Bill (1719), and in 1724 he retired to his wife's homeland of Wales, where he spent the remainder of his life.^[1]

Steele remained in Carmarthen after Mary's death, and was buried there, at St Peter's Church. During restoration of the church in 2000, his skull was discovered in a lead casket, having previously been accidentally disinterred during the 1870s.

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Richard Steele

References

1. ^ http://www.luminarium.org/eightlit/steele/steelebio.htm

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Richard Steele

• Works by Richard Steele at Project Gutenberg
• Essays by Steele at Quotidiana.org
• [1]
• Works by or about Richard Steele in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Dobson, Austin (1886). Richard Steele. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by The Earl of Barrymore George Dashwood	Member of Parliament for Stockbridge with Thomas Brodrick 1713–1714	Succeeded by Thomas Brodrick The Earl of Barrymore
Preceded by Sir Brian Stapylton, Bt Edmund Dunch	Member of Parliament for Boroughbridge with Thomas Wilkinson 1715–1718, Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bt 1718–1722 1715–1722	Succeeded by Conyers Darcy James Tyrrell
Preceded by Sir Roger Hill Richard Grenville	Member of Parliament for Wendover with Richard Hampden 1722–1727	Succeeded by Richard Hampden The Viscount of Limerick

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