Sir Richard Steele | Article about Sir Richard Steele by The Free Dictionary Sir Richard Steele | Article about Sir Richard Steele by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Medical , Wikipedia . Steele, Sir Richard, 1672–1729, English essayist and playwright, b. Dublin. After studying at Charterhouse and Oxford, he entered the army in 1694 and rose to the rank of captain by 1700. His first book, a moral tract entitled The Christian Hero, appeared in 1701. The same year saw a production of his first play, The Funeral, a sentimental comedy, which he followed with two more comedies, The Lying Lover (1703) and The Tender Husband (1705). In 1722 he produced his last and most important play, The Conscious Lovers. A year after the death of his first wife in 1706, he married Mary Scurlock, the "dear Prue" of his famous letters. Steele, however, was not made for a domestic life, and much of his time was spent carousing with his companions.

He held several minor government positions before beginning his famous periodical, the Tatler (1709–11), the writing of which was soon joined by his close friend Joseph Addison Addison, Joseph, 1672–1719, English essayist, poet, and statesman. He was educated at Charterhouse, where he was a classmate of Richard Steele, and at Oxford, where he became a distinguished classical scholar. ..... Click the link for more information. . This was followed by the Spectator Spectator, English daily periodical published jointly by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele with occasional contributions from other writers. It succeeded the Tatler, a periodical begun by Steele on Apr. 12, 1709, under the pseudonym Isaac Bickerstaff. ..... Click the link for more information. (1711–12), the Guardian (1713), and later periodicals of lesser importance. The partnership of Steele and Addison was one of the most successful in the history of English letters. Although they differed greatly in temperament, their aims and tastes were in the main united. They were Whig partisans, and sympathetic with the moral attitude of the rapidly growing middle class.

Although Steele's prose lacks the polished grace of Addison's, his writing reflects his charm, spontaneity, wit, and imagination. In 1713, Steele carried on a celebrated political controversy with Swift, the chief Tory spokesman, in the course of which he wrote his pamphlet The Crisis. He became a Whig member of Parliament in 1713, was expelled by his political enemies the following year, but returned under the Hanoverians, and was knighted in 1715. His opposition to the Peerage Bill in his weekly, the Plebeian (1719), involved him in a quarrel with Addison, and Steele's attempt at reconciliation was frustrated by his friend's death. He founded the first theatrical paper, the Theater, in 1720. His improvidence and free-living finally caught up with him, and debts forced his retirement to Wales in 1724, where he spent his remaining years in obscurity. Bibliography See his plays edited by G. A. Aitken (1894, repr. 1968); The Spectator, complete ed. by D. F.

Bond (1966); his correspondence (1941, repr. 1971); biographies by G. A. Aitkin (1889, repr. 1968) and C. Winton (2 vol., 1964 and 1970). Steele, Sir Richard Encyclopedia > People > Literature and the Arts > English Literature, 1500 to 1799: Biographies Sir Richard Steele Steele, Sir Richard, 1672–1729, English essayist and playwright, b. Dublin. After studying at Charterhouse and Oxford, he entered the army in 1694 and rose to the rank of captain by 1700. His first book, a moral tract entitled The Christian Hero, appeared in 1701. The same year saw a production of his first play, The Funeral, a sentimental comedy, which he followed with two more comedies, The Lying Lover (1703) and The Tender Husband (1705). In 1722 he produced his last and most important play, The Conscious Lovers.

A year after the death of his first wife in 1706, he married Mary Scurlock, the "dear Prue" of his famous letters. Steele, however, was not made for a domestic life, and much of his time was spent carousing with his companions. He held several minor government positions before beginning his famous periodical, the Tatler (1709–11), the writing of which was soon joined by his close friend Joseph Addison . This was followed by the Spectator (1711–12), the Guardian (1713), and later periodicals of lesser importance. The partnership of Steele and Addison was one of the most successful in the history of English letters. Although they differed greatly in temperament, their aims and tastes were in the main united. They were Whig partisans, and sympathetic with the moral attitude of the rapidly growing middle class. Although Steele's prose lacks the polished grace of Addison's, his writing reflects his charm, spontaneity, wit, and imagination. In 1713, Steele carried on a celebrated political controversy with Swift, the chief Tory spokesman, in the course of which he wrote his pamphlet The Crisis.

He became a Whig member of Parliament in 1713, was expelled by his political enemies the following year, but returned under the Hanoverians, and was knighted in 1715. His opposition to the Peerage Bill in his weekly, the Plebeian (1719), involved him in a quarrel with Addison, and Steele's attempt at reconciliation was frustrated by his friend's death. He founded the first theatrical paper, the Theater, in 1720. His improvidence and free-living finally caught up with him, and debts forced his retirement to Wales in 1724, where he spent his remaining years in obscurity. See his plays edited by G. A. Aitken (1894, repr. 1968); The Spectator, complete ed. by D. F. Bond (1966); his correspondence (1941, repr. 1971); biographies by G. A. Aitkin (1889, repr. 1968) and C. Winton (2 vol., 1964 and 1970). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. The Life of Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) SIR RICHARD STEELE, English man of letters in the reign of Queen Anne, is inseparably associated in the history of literature with his personal friend Addison . He cannot be said to have lost in reputation by the partnership, because he was inferior to Addison in purely literary gift, and it is Addison's literary genius that has floated their joint work above merely journalistic celebrity; but the advantage was not all on Steele's side, inasmuch as his more brilliant coadjutor-has usurped not a little of the merit rightly due to him.

Steele's often-quoted generous acknowledgment of Addison's services in the Tatler has proved true in a somewhat different sense from that intended by the writer: "I fared like a distressed prince who calls in a powerful neighbour to his aid; I was undone by my auxiliary; when I had once called him in I could not subsist without dependence on him." The truth is that in this happy alliance the one was the complement of the other; and the balance of mutual advantage was much more nearly even than Steele claimed or posterity has generally allowed. The famous literary pair were born in the same year. Steele, the senior by less than two months, was baptized on the 12th of March 1672 in Dublin. His father, also Richard Steele, was an attorney. He died before his son had reached his sixth year, but the boy found a protector in his maternal uncle, Henry Gascoigne, secretary and confidential agent to two successive dukes of Ormond. Through his influence he was. nominated to the Charterhouse in 1684, and there first met with Addison.

Five years afterwards he proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford, and was a postmaster at Merton when Addison was a demy at Magdalen. Their schoolboy friendship was continued at the university, and probably helped to give a more serious turn to Steele's mind than his natural temperament would have taken under different companionship. Addison's father also took an interest in the warm-hearted young Irishman; but their combined influence did not steady him sufficiently to keep his impulses within the lines of a regular career; without waiting for a degree he volunteered into the army, and served for some time as a cadet "under the command of the unfortunate duke of Ormond" (i.e. the first duke's grandson, who was attainted in 1715). This escapade was made without his uncle's consent, and cost him, according to his own account, "the succession to a very good estate in the county of Wexford in Ireland." Still, he did not lack advancement in the profession he had chosen.

A poem on the funeral of Queen Mary (1695), dedicated to Lord Cutts, colonel of the Coldstream Guards, brought him under the notice of that nobleman, who took the gentleman trooper into his household as a secretary, made him an officer in his own regiment, and ultimately procured for him a captaincy in Lord Lucas's regiment of foot. His name was noted for promotion by King William, but the king's death took place before anything had been done for Captain Steele. A duel which he fought with Captain Kelly in Hyde Park in 1700, and in which he wounded his antagonist dangerously, inspired him with the dislike of the practice that he showed to the end of his life. Steele probably owed the king's favour to a timely reference to his majesty in The Christian Hero, his first prose treatise, published in April 1701.

The "reformation of manners" was a cherished purpose with King William and his consort, which they tried to effect by proclamation and act of parliament; and a sensible well-written treatise, deploring the irregularity of the military character, and seeking to prove by examples - the king himself among the number - "that no principles but those of religion are sufficient to make a great man," was sure of attention. Steele complained that the reception of The Christian Hero by his comrades was not so respectful; they persisted in trying him by his own standard, and would not pass "the least levity in his words and actions" without protest. His uneasiness under the ridicule of his irreverent comrades had a curious result: it moved him to write a comedy. "It was now incumbent upon him," he says "to enliven his character, for which reason he writ the comedy called The Funeral." Although, however, it was Steele's express purpose to free his character from the reproach of solemn dullness, and prove that he could write as smartly as another, he showed greater respect for decency than had for some time been the fashion on the stage.

The purpose, afterwards more fully effected in his famous periodicals, of reconciling wit, good humour and good breeding with virtuous conduct was already deliberately in Steele's mind when he wrote his first comedy. It was produced and published in 1701, and received on the stage with favour. In his next comedy, The Lying Lover; or, the Ladies' Friendship, based on Corneille's Menteur, produced two years afterwards, in December 1703, Steele's moral purpose was directly avowed, and the play, according to his own statement, was "damned for its piety." The Tender Husband, an imitation of Moliere's Sicilien, produced eighteen months later (in April 1705), though not less pure in tone, was more successful; in this play he gave unmistakable evidence of his happy genius for conceiving and embodying humorous types of character, putting on the stage the parents or grandparents of Squire Western, Tony Lumpkin and Lydia Languish. It was seventeen years before Steele again tried his fortune on the stage with The Conscious Lovers, the best and most successful of his comedies, produced in December 1722.

Meanwhile the gallant captain had turned aside to another kind of literary work, in which, with the assistance of his friend Addison , he obtained a more enduring reputation. There never was a time when literary talent was so much sought after and rewarded by statesmen. Addison had already been waited on in "his humble lodgings in the Haymarket," and advanced to office, when his friend the successful dramatist was appointed to the office of gazetteer. This was in April or May 1707. It was Steele's first connexion with journalism. The periodical was at that time taking the place of the pamphlet as an instrument for working on public opinion. The Gazette gave little opening for the play of Steele's lively pen, his main duty, as he says, having been to "keep the paper very innocent and very insipid"; but the position made him familiar with the new field of enterprise in which his inventive mind soon discerned materials for a project of his own. The Tatler made its first appearance on the 12th of April 1709. It was partly a newspaper, a journal of politics and society, published three times a week.

Steele's position as gazetteer furnished him with special advantages for political news, and as a popular frequenter of coffeehouses he was at no loss for social gossip. But Steele not only retailed and commented on social news, a function in which he had been anticipated by Defoe and others; he also gradually introduced into the Tatler, special features on general questions of manners and morality. It is not strictly true that Steele was the inventor of the English essai - there were essayists before the 18th century, notably Cowley and Temple; but he was the first to use them for periodical purposes, and he and Addison together developed a distinct species, to which they gave a permanent character, and in which they had many imitators. As a humbler motive for this fortunate venture Steele had the pinch of impecuniosity, due rather to excess of expenditure than to smallness of income.

He had £300 a year from his gazetteership (paying a tax of £45), £100 as gentleman waiter to Prince George, £850 from the Barbadoes estates of his first wife, a widow named Margaret Stretch, and some fortune by his second wife - Mrs Mary Scurlock, the "dear Prue" of his charming letters. But Steele lived in considerable state after his second marriage, and before he started the Tatler was reduced to the necessity of borrowing. The assumed name of the editor was Isaac Bickerstaff, but Addison discovered the real author in the sixth number, and began to contribute in the eighteenth. It is only fair to Steele to state that the success of the Tatler was established before Addison joined him, and that Addison contributed to only forty-two of the two hundred and seventy-one numbers that had appeared when the paper was stopped, obscurely, in January 1711. Some papers satirizing Harley appeared in the Tatler, and Steele lost or resigned the post of gazetteer. It is possible that this political recklessness may have had something to do with the sudden end of the venture.

Only two months elapsed between the stoppage of the Tatler and the appearance of the Spectator, which was the organ of the two friends from the 1st of March 1711 till the 6th of December 1712. Addison was the chief contributor to the new venture, and the history of it belongs more to his life. Nevertheless, it is to be remarked as characteristic of the two writers that in this as in the Tatler Addison generally follows Steele's lead in the choice of subjects. The first suggestion of Sir Roger de Coverley was Steele's although it was Addison that filled in the outline of a good-natured country gentleman with the numerous little whimsicalities that convert Sir Roger into an amiable and exquisitely ridiculous provincial oddity. Steele had neither the fineness of touch nor the humorous malice that gives life and distinction to Addison's picture; the Sir Roger of his original hasty sketch has good sense as well as good nature, and the treatment is comparatively commonplace from a literary point of view, though unfortunately not commonplace in its charity. Steele's suggestive vivacity gave many another hint for the elaborating skill of his friend.

The Spectator was followed by the Guardian, the first number of which appeared on the 12th of March 1713. It had a much shorter career, extending to only a hundred and seventy-six numbers, of which Steele wrote eighty-two. This was the last of his numerous periodicals in which he had the material assistance of Addison. But he continued for several years to project journals, under various titles, some of them political, some social in their objects, most of them very short-lived. Steele was a warm partisan of the principles of the Revolution, as earnest in his political as in his other convictions. The Englishman was started in October 1733, immediately after the stoppage of the Guardian, to assail the policy of the Tory ministry. The Lover, started in February 1714, was more general in its aims; but it gave place in a month or two to the Reader, a direct counterblast to the Tory Examiner. The Englishman was resuscitated for another volume in 1715; and he subsequently projected in rapid succession three unsuccessful ventures - Town Talk, the Tea Table and Chit Chat.

Three years later he started his most famous political paper the Plebeian, rendered memorable by the fact that it embroiled him with his old ally Addison. The subject of controversy between the two lifelong friends was Sunderland's Peerage Bill. Steele's last venture in journalism was the Theatre, 1720, the immediate occasion of which was the revocation of his patent for Drury Lane. Besides these journals he wrote also several pamphlets on passing questions - on the disgrace of Marlborough in 1711, on the fortifications of Dunkirk in 1713, on the "crisis" in 1714, An Apology for Himself and his Writings (important biographically) in the same year, and on the South Sea mania in 1720. The fortunes of Steele as a zealous Whig varied with the fortunes of his party. Over the Dunkirk question he waxed so hot that he threw up a pension and a commissionership of stamps, and went into parliament as member for Stockbridge to attack the ministry with voice and vote as well as with pen.

But he had not sat many weeks when he was expelled from the house for the language of his pamphlet on the Crisis, which was stigmatized as seditious. The Apology already mentioned was his vindication of himself on this occasion. With the accession of the House of Hanover his fortunes changed. Honours and substantial rewards were showered upon him. He was made a justice of the peace, deputy-lieutenant of Middlesex, surveyor of the royal stables, governor of the royal company of comedians - the last a lucrative post - and was also knighted (1715). After the suppression of the Jacobite rebellion he was appointed one of the commissioners of forfeited estates, and spent some two years in Scotland in that capacity. In 1718 he obtained a patent for a plan for bringing salmon alive from Ireland. Differing from his friends in power on the question of the Peerage Bill he was deprived of some of his offices, but when Walpole became chancellor of the exchequer in 1721 he was reinstated.

With all his emoluments however the imprudent, impulsive, ostentatious and generous Steele could never get clear of financial difficulties, and he was obliged to retire from London in 1724 and live in the country. He spent his last years on his wife's estate of Llangunnor in Wales, and, his health broken down by a paralytic seizure, died at Carmarthen on the 1st of September 1729. Excerpted from: Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller. © National Portrait Gallery , London. With their generous permission. Site copyright ©1996-2006 Anniina Jokinen. All Rights Reserved. Created by Anniina Jokinen on November 11, 2006.

Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, journalist, playwright, satire, satirist, writer, Whig, poems, poem, poetry, literature, comedy, Renaissance, London, British, English, England, author, Restoration, eighteenth century, 18th century, history of literature, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, William Congreve, Daniel Defoe, Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, journalist, playwright, satire, satirist, writer, Whig, poems, poem, poetry, literature, comedy, Renaissance, London, British, English, England, author, Restoration, eighteenth century, 18th century, history of literature, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, William Congreve, Daniel Defoe Sir Richard Steele facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Sir Richard Steele COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. Sir Richard Steele 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). □ Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright The Columbia University Press Sir Richard Steele, 1672–1729, English essayist and playwright, b. Dublin. After studying at Charterhouse and Oxford, he entered the army in 1694 and rose to the rank of captain by 1700. His first book, a moral tract entitled The Christian Hero, appeared in 1701. The same year saw a production of his first play, The Funeral, a sentimental comedy, which he followed with two more comedies, The Lying Lover (1703) and The Tender Husband (1705). In 1722 he produced his last and most important play, The Conscious Lovers.

A year after the death of his first wife in 1706, he married Mary Scurlock, the "dear Prue" of his famous letters. Steele, however, was not made for a domestic life, and much of his time was spent carousing with his companions. He held several minor government positions before beginning his famous periodical, the Tatler (1709–11), the writing of which was soon joined by his close friend Joseph Addison . This was followed by the Spectator (1711–12), the Guardian (1713), and later periodicals of lesser importance. The partnership of Steele and Addison was one of the most successful in the history of English letters. Although they differed greatly in temperament, their aims and tastes were in the main united. They were Whig partisans, and sympathetic with the moral attitude of the rapidly growing middle class. Although Steele's prose lacks the polished grace of Addison's, his writing reflects his charm, spontaneity, wit, and imagination. In 1713, Steele carried on a celebrated political controversy with Swift, the chief Tory spokesman, in the course of which he wrote his pamphlet The Crisis.

He became a Whig member of Parliament in 1713, was expelled by his political enemies the following year, but returned under the Hanoverians, and was knighted in 1715. His opposition to the Peerage Bill in his weekly, the Plebeian (1719), involved him in a quarrel with Addison, and Steele's attempt at reconciliation was frustrated by his friend's death. He founded the first theatrical paper, the Theater, in 1720. His improvidence and free-living finally caught up with him, and debts forced his retirement to Wales in 1724, where he spent his remaining years in obscurity. See his plays edited by G. A. Aitken (1894, repr. 1968); The Spectator, complete ed. by D. F. Bond (1966); his correspondence (1941, repr. 1971); biographies by G. A. Aitkin (1889, repr. 1968) and C. Winton (2 vol., 1964 and 1970).

Cite this article The Oxford Companion to British History © The Oxford Companion to British History 2002, originally published by Oxford University Press 2002. Steele, Sir Richard (1672–1729). Irish writer, soldier, and politician. Educated at Charterhouse and Merton College, Oxford, Steele entered the army, rising to the rank of captain, before turning to writing plays. Appointed gazetteer in 1707, a post he held until 1710, Steele embarked on a hugely successful journalistic career, assisted by Addison in the Tatler and then the enormously popular Spectator . Elected 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, as well as The Crisis, the bombastic pamphlet for which he was expelled the House in March 1714. Rewarded for his services on the Hanoverian succession, Steele was knighted and appointed supervisor of Drury Lane theatre.

He continued to publish pamphlets and periodicals, and had a success with his sentimental comedy The Conscious Lovers (1722). J. A. Downie II. Steele and Addison: Bibliography. Vol. 9. From Steele and Addison to Pope and Swift. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 190721 Correspondence of J. Hughes and Mr. Addison, 1773. Johnson, Brimley. Eighteenth Century Letters, 1897, vol. 1 with introd. by Lane-Poole, S. Letters by several eminent persons deceased, 1772. Letters of Mr. Addison and Mr. Pope from 17111715, 1735. Warner, Rebecca. Epistolary curiosities consisting of unpublished letters illustrative of the Herbert family from Joseph Addison, part 11, 1818. E. Biography, Criticism and Addisoniana Addison, Joseph, ou un attique en Angleterre. 1873.

Addison, Joseph, and Sir Andrew Fountaine; or the Romance of a Portrait. [Rptd. from the Athenaeum.] 1858. Addisoniana. 2 vols. 1803. Aikin, Lucy. Life of Joseph Addison. 2 vols. 1843. (See Macaulays Essay below.) Ashton, J. Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne. New edn. 1883. Beljame, A. Le public et les hommes de lettres en Angleterre au dix-huitième siècle. 1881. [pp. 225338.] British Censor, The. 1712. [Poetical satire.] Contrast, The; or, Addison and Hume; describing their respective feelings and opinions. 1831. Courthope, W. J. Addison (English Men of Letters). 1884. D. [Paul, A.]. Addisons influence on the social reform of his age. 1876. Dobson, A. Side-Walk Studies. 1902. Drake, N.

Essays, Biographical, Critical, and Historical, Illustrative of the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian. 3 vols. 1805. Elton, O. The Augustan Ages. Edinburgh, 1899. General Dictionary. The Life of Addison extracted from to which is prefixed the life of Lancelot Addison his father. 1733. Gosse, E. W. A History of Eighteenth Century Literature. 1887. Hazlitt, W. Lectures on the English Comic Writers. Works, vol. VIII. Edd. Waller, A. R. and Glover, A. 1903. J., G. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Right Hon. Joseph Addison, Esq.; with his Character by Sir Richard Steele. 1719. Johnson, Samuel. Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. 177981; ed. Cunningham, P., 1854; ed. Waugh, A. 1896. Kippis, A. Addison. In Biographia Britannica. 2nd edn. 1778.

Macaulay, T. B. The Life and Writings of Addison. [Review of Life by Aikin, Lucy.] In Edinburgh Review, July, 1843. [See Hadow, G. E., Essay on Addison by Macaulay and Thackeray, with twelve essays by Addison, 1907.] Memoirs of the life of Addison, with a particular account of his writings. 1719. Perry, T. S. English Literature in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 13082. 1883. Punchard, C. D. Helps to the study of Addisons Essays. 1898. Ramsay, A. Richy and Sandy, A Pastoral on the death of Addison. 1720. Regel, E. Thackerays Lectures on the English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century, mit bibliographischem Material, litterarischer Einleitung und sachlichen Anmerkungen für Studierende. 1886. Sande, C. L. E. Die Grundlagen der literarischen Kritik bei Joseph Addison. 1906.

Spence, J. Anecdotes, Observations and Characters of Books and Men. 1820. Steele, R. Dedicatory Epistle to The Drummer. See ante, sec. B. [Rptd. in Arbers English Garner, VI, 523.] Swift, J. The Journal to Stella. [See index to edn. by Aitken, G. A. 1901.] Thackeray, W. M. The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. 1852. The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century. 1853. Thomson, Mrs. K. Celebrated Friendships. Vol. 1. 1861. Tickell, T. To the Earl of Warwick on the Death of Mr. Addison. Works, vol. 1. 1721. Tyers, T. An historical Essay on Mr. Addison. 1783. Vetter, T. Der Spectator als Quelle der Discourse der Maler. 1887. Young, E. A letter to Mr. Tickell, occasioned by the death of Addison.

1719. II. STEELE [For complete bibl. see Aitken, G. A., Life of Richard Steele, vol. II, appendix V, 1889.] A. Collected Editions [Collections of British essayists and dramatists are mentioned under individual works.] Dramatic: First three comedies published 1712; Complete plays, with The Christian Hero, 1759. Best modern ed. by Aitken, G. A. (Mermaid Series), 1903. Political: The Political Writings of Sir Richard Steele, 1715, 1723. Oeuvres Diverses de Mr. Richard Steele, sur les Affaires de la Grande Bretagne. Traduit de lAnglois, Amsterdam, 1715. Essays: Nichols, J.: (1) The Lover and Reader; to which are prefixed The Whig Examiner, and a selection from the Medley of Papers written by the principal authors of The Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, 1789.

(2) The Theatre, The Anti-Theatre; the character of Sir John Edgar; Steeles Case with the Lord Chamberlain; the Crisis of Property, with the Sequel, Two Pasquins, etc., 1791. (3) The Town Talk, the Fish Pool, The Plebeian, The old Whig, The Spinster 1789, 1790. B. Particular (including Dramatic) Works The Christian Hero: an Argument proving that no Principles but those of Religion are sufficient to make a great man. 1701. [About 20 edns. up to 1820.] The Funeral; or Grief a-la-Mode. Acted at Drury Lane and published 1701, but dated 1702. [About 20 edns up to 1811.] Modern rpts: Bells British Theatre, vol. VIII, 1776; vol. XXVII, 1794; The New Engl. Theatre, vol. VII, 1777; Modern British Drama, vol.

IVComedies, 1811; Aitken, G. A., Dramatic Works of R. Steele (Mermaid Series), 1903. Translations: French: Les Funérailles, 1749; vol. VIII of Le Théâtre anglois by La Place, P. A. de, 17469. Italian: Il Funerale, 1742. See A Comparison between the two stages, with some critical remarks on the Funeral and others, April, 1702 [attributed to Gildon, C.]. The Lying Lover; or, The Ladies Friendship. Acted Dec., 1703, published 1704. 8th edn. 1776. Rpt, Aitken, G. A. (Mermaid Series), 1894. The Tender Husband; or, The Accomplished Fools. Acted April and published May, 1705. 14th edn. 1799. Rpts: Bell, vol. VIII, 1778; vol.

XX, 1791; Mod. Brit. Drama vol. IVComedies, 1811; Dibdins London Theatre, vol. XXVI, 1818; London Stage, vol. III., 1824 and 1826; Joness Brit. Drama, vol. II, 1824 and 1853; Dicks Standard Plays, no. 139, 1884; Aitken, G. A. (Mermaid Series). The Englishmans Thanks to the Duke of Marlborough. Jan., 1712. [Signed Scoto-Britannus.] Letter to Sir Miles Wharton concerning Occasional Peers. March, 1713. [Signed F. Hicks.] Poetical Miscellanies. Consisting of Original Poems and Translations By the best Hands. Published by Mr. Steele. 1714 (actually Dec., 1713). [Contains two of Steeles productions: To Mr.

Congreve, occasiond by his comedy called The Way of the World and Procession; a Poem on her Majesties Funeral. By a gentleman of the Army, 1695.] The Importance of Dunkirk considerd. In defence of the Guardian of August the 7th. In a Letter to the Bailiff of Stockbridge. By Mr. Steele. Sept., 1713. [4 edns the same year.] French trans.: Réflexions sur limportance de Dunkerque, 1715. [Steele had urged the demolition of the fortifications of Dunkirk in no. 128 of the Guardian. The Examiner having retorted by accusing him of disloyalty, Steele replied with the above pamphlet, which Swift met with Importance of the Guardian considerd.] The Crisis: Or a Discourse representing, from the most authentic Records, the just causes of the late Happy Revolution With some Seasonable Remarks on the Danger of a Popish Successor. Jan., 1714. 3 more edns same year.

Republication of a portion, 1745, as The Wisdom of our Fore Fathers recommended to the present times, shewing the noble stand made by them at the Revolution, and their care to provide against a Popish Succession, and 1746 as Extracts from Sir Richard Steeles Crisis, adapted to the present more dangerous and more important Crisis. Translations: French: La Crise, London and Amsterdam, both in 1714. German: Des Herrn Richard Steele Crisis, 1714; Rpt., Famous Pamphlets [Morleys Universal Lib.], 1886. [Treats of the Hanoverian Succession. Answered by Swifts Public Spirit of the Whigs, Feb., 1714, which stirred up a formidable paper war, and was the chief cause of Steeles expulsion from the House of Commons, 18 March, 1714.] Romish Ecclesiastical History of late years. May, 1714. French trans.: LHistoire ecclésiastique de Rome. (By Sallengre, A. H.

de.) Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning the Bill for preventing the Growth of Schism, June, 1714. 3 more edns. same year. Answered by Schism destructive of the Government being a defence of the Bill 1714. The Ladies Library. Written by a Lady. Published by Mr. Steele. 3 vols. 1714. French trans.: Janiçon, F. M. La Bibliothèque des Dames, 1717, 1719, 1724 (Amsterdam). Dutch: De Boekzaal der Juffers. Uit het Engelsch vertaalt (Amsterdam), 1764. See Mr. Steele Detected: Or, the poor and oppressed Orphans Letters Complaining of the great injustice done by the Ladies Library 1714. [By Meredith, R.] Mr. Steeles Apology for himself and his Writings. Oct., 1714.

[A defence of his political character, containing allusions to his literary works.] The Court of Honour; or, the laws, rules and ordinances establishd for the suppression of Duels in France With some observations thereon by Sir Richard Steele. 1720. The Crisis of Property. An Argument proving that the Annuitants for ninety-nine years, as such, are not in the condition of other subjects of Great Britain, but by compact with the Legislature are exempt from any new direction relating to the said estates. 1 Feb., 1720; 2nd edn. same year. [Answered by Meres, Sir J., The Equity of Parliaments vindicated; and The Crisis of Honesty, both in 1720. On 27 Feb. appeared a sequel by Steele, A Nation a Family.] Preface to 2nd edn. of The Drummer (see ante, sec. I. B), 1721. [Addressed to William Congreve in reply to Tickells preface to Addisons Works, 1721. Rptd. in Arbers English Garner, vol.

VI.] The State of the Case between the Lord-Chamberlain of His Majestys Household, and the Governor of the Royal Company of Comedians. With the opinions of Pemberton, Northey and Parker, concerning the Theatre. 1720. The Conscious Lovers. Acted Nov., 1722. Published in vol. 1 of Select Collection of English Plays. Edinburgh, 1755. Rpts. by Bell, Mrs. Inchbald, Brit. Theatre, vol. XII, 1808, and Dibdin, and in Modern British Drama and in London Stage. Ed. with notes, introduction, etc. by Aitken, G. A. (Mermaid Series). Translations: French: Quétant, F. A., Les Amans réservés, Paris, 1778; Vasse, Mme. de, Les Amants généreux. Théâtre Anglois, Paris, 1784. German: Ober-Elbe, Geandern von der [i. e. Müldener, J.

E.], The Conscious Lovers, das ist: Die sich mit einander verstehenden Liebhaber Dresden, 1752. See, also, Victor, B., An Epistle to Sir Richard Steele, on his play calld The Conscious Lovers, 1722, and Dennis, J., Remarks on The Conscious Lovers, 1723. The School of Action and The Gentleman. Fragments printed by Nichols, 1809, and Aitken, as above. C. Essays The Tatler. By Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., appeared tri-weekly, 12 April, 17092nd Jan., 1711, 271 nos., about 188 by Steele. Rptd. in 4 vols., 171011. About 25 edns. up to 1797. Re-ed.

Nichols, J., with notes, etc., 1786, 1789, 1797; Bisset, R., 1797; Chalmers, A., 1803, 1806, 1808; Sharpes Brit. Classics, vols. IIV, 1804, 1815. Also in Chalmers and Lynams Brit. Ess. as above. Ed. Aitken, G. A., with notes, introduction, etc., 4 vols. 18989. [Standard edn.] [Swifts pamphlet, from which Steele borrowed the name, was Predictions for the Year 1708. Followed by other Predicitions, of uncertain authorship.] Translations: French: Le Babillard, 2 vols., Amsterdam, 1723, 1725, 17345, 1737 (twice), See, also, Annotations on the Tatler, written originally in French, by Mons.

Bournelle, and translated into English by Walter Wagstaffe, Esq. (W. Oldisworth) 1710. Dutch: De Snapper of de britsche Tuchtmeester. Door den Ridder Richard Steele. Uit het Engelsch vertaalt door P. le Clerc. 4 vols. Amsterdam, 173352. Selection: Dobson, A., 1896. Mottos: see under Spectator. The Spectator: See under Addison. Steele contributed 236 papers. The Guardian. Appeared daily 12 March1 Oct., 1713. 175 nos. 2 vols. Dec., 1713 (dated 1714). [About 26 edns. by 1797.] Rpts. by Sharpe, Chalmers, Ferguson, Lynam, etc. Translations: French: Le Mentor Moderne, Rouen, 1725, Amsterdam, 1727 and 1728, Bâle, 1737.

Dutch: De Guardiaen of de britsche Zedenmeester, Amsterdam, 1723 [incomplete]. All these trans. by Van Effen, J. Also by Clercq, P. de, Rotterdam, 3 vols., 17301, 1734. German: Der getreue Hofmeister, sorfältige Vormund und neue Mentor, oder einige Discurse über die Sitten der gegenwärtigen Zeit . Frankfort und Leipzig, 1725; Der Engländische Guardian oder Aufseher, 1749, by Gottsched, L. A. V. Mottos: The Mottoes to the Two Volumes of Guardians, translated into English, 1713. The Englishman; Being the Sequel to the Guardian. 56 nos., 6 Oct., 171311 Feb., 1714; 57th No. appeared 15 Feb., 1714, as The Englishman. Being the Close of the Paper so called.

Revived 11 July21 Nov., 1715. The Lover. By Marmaduke Myrtle, Gent. 40 nos., 25 Feb.27 May, 1714. Rpt., Nichols, J., 1789; Harrisons Brit. Classics, vol. VIII, 1797; Lewin, W. (Camelot Series). 1887. The Reader. 9 nos. 22 April10 May, 1714; Rpt, Nichols, J., 1789. Town Talk. In a Letter to a Lady in the Country. 9 nos., 17 Dec., 171513 Feb. 1716. Rpt, Nichols, J., 1789, 1790. The Tea-Table. 3 nos., 2 Feb.March, 1716. Chit-Chat. In a Letter to a Lady in the Country. 3 nos., March, 1716. Plebeian. To be continued weekly.

4 nos., 14 March6 April, 1719. [Started to denounce Lord Sunderlands bill for limiting the power of creating peers. Addison replied in The Old Whig (rptd. by Nichols, J., 1790); also met by The Patrician In answer to the Plebeian. 4 nos., 1719.] The Theatre. By Sir John Edgar. 28 nos., 2 Jan.5 April, 1720. Rpt., Nichols, J., 1791. D. Correspondence Letters of Mr. Steele and Mr. Pope. 1735. Nichols, J. The Epistolary Correspondence of Sir Richard Steele with literary and historical anecdotes. 1787. 2nd edn. [including his familiar letters to his wife and daughters; to which are prefixed fragments of three Plays ]. 1809. Johnson, B. Eighteenth Century Letters, vol. 1. 1897. E. Biography, Criticism and Ana S e, also, I. E ante Aitken, G. A. Life of Richard Steele. 2 vols.

1889. Dennis, J. Studies in English Literature. 1883. Dilke, C. W. Papers of a Critic. 1875. Dobson, A. A Paladin of Philanthropy. 1899. Eighteenth Century Vignettes. 1892. Richard Steele. (English Writers.) 1888. Forster, J. Historical and Biographical Essays. Vol. II. 1858. G[ay], J. The Present State of Wit. 1711. Hartmann, H. Steele als Dramatiker. Königsberg. 1880. Hazlitt, W. Lectures on the English Comic Writers. 1819. [Hoffmann, F.] Two Very Odd Characters tho the Number be Even. 1714. John Dennis, the Sheltring Poets Invitation to Richard Steele, The Secluded Party-Writer, and Member; to come and live with him in the Mint 1714. (Imitation of Horaces Epp. bk 1, ep.

1.) Kawczynski, M. von. I. Einleitung und Verzeichniss der englischen, deutschen, französischen moralischen Zeitschriften. II. Über den Tatler. Studien zur Literaturgeschichte des XVIII ten Lacy, J. The Steeleids, or the Tryal of Wit. 1714. Lewis. L. The Advertisements of the Spectator. With intr. note by Kittredge, G. L. 1909. Montgomery, H. R. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Sir Richard Steele, with his correspondence and notices of his Contemporaries, the Wits and Statesmen of Queen Annes Time. 1865. Ricken, W. Bemerkungen über Anlage und Erfolg der wichtigsten Zeitschriften Steeles und den Einfluss Addisons auf die Entwicklung derselben. 1885. Swift, J. The First Ode of the Second Book of Horace paraphrasd and addressed to Richard Stle. 1714. The Journal to Stella. [See index to edn.

by Aitken, G. A. 1901.] Toby, Abels Kinsman. The Character of Richard Stle, Esq. 1713. Wagstaffe, Dr. W. Miscellaneous Works. 1726. Ward, A. W. English Dramatic Literature. 2nd edn., 3 vols. 1899. [Vol. III.] For bibliographies of Tickell, Ambrose Philips and Henry Carey see bibl. to Chap. VI. For bibl. of Budgell see bibl. to Chap. VIII, post. Richard Steele : definition of Richard Steele and synonyms of Richard Steele (English) This article is about the 18th-century author. For others, see Richard Steele (disambiguation) . Sir 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 in March 1672 to Richard Steele, an attorney, and Elinor Symes (née Sheyles); his sister Katherine was born the previous year. Steele was largely raised by his uncle and aunt, Henry Gascoigne and Lady Katherine Mildmay. [1] A member of the Protestant gentry, he was educated at Charterhouse School , where he first met Addison. After starting at Christ Church in Oxford, he went on to Merton College, Oxford , then with joined the Life Guards of the Household Cavalry in order to support King William's wars against France. He was commissioned in 1697, and rose up in the ranks to captain of the 34th Foot in 2 years. [2] He disliked British Army life, and left the army in 1705, perhaps due to the death of the 34th Foot’s commanding officer, and with him, his opportunities of promotion. It may, then, be no coincidence that Steele's first published work, The Christian Hero (1701), attempted to point out the differences between perceived and actual masculinity.

In 1706 Steele 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. 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 . 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. [3] A member of the Whig Kit-Kat Club , 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. Contents 4 External links Steele as a Writer As mentioned above, in 1701, Steele published his first booklet entitled "The Christian Hero," which was written while Steele was serving in the army, and was his idea of a pamphlet of moral instruction. "The Christian Hero" was ultimately ridiculed for what some thought was hypocrisy because he did not necessarily follow his own preaching. He was criticized for publishing a booklet about morals when he, himself, enjoyed drinking, occasional dueling, and debauchery around town. In fact, Steele even had an illegitimate child Elizabeth Ousley, whom he later adopted.

Steele wrote a comedy that same year titled The Funeral. This play was met with wide success and was performed at Drury Lane, bringing him to the attention of the King and the Whig party. Next, Steele wrote The Lying Lover, which was one of the first sentimental comedies, but was a failure on stage. In 1705, Steele wrote The Tender Husband with Addison’s contributions, and later that year wrote the prologue to The Mistake, by John Vanbrugh, also an important member of the Whig Kit-Kat Club with Addison and Steele. The Tatler, Steele’s first journal, first came out on 12 April 1709, and ran three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Steele wrote this periodical under a pseudonym of Isaac Bickerstaff and gave him an entire, fully developed personality. Steele described his motive in writing The Tatler as "to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our behavior".

Steele founded the magazine, and although he and Addison collaborated, Steele wrote the majority of the essays; Steele wrote roughly 188 of the 271 total, Addison 42, and 36 were the pair’s collaborative works. While Addison contributed to The Tatler, it is widely regarded as Steele’s work. Following the demise of The Tatler, the two men founded The Spectator and also the Guardian . In Popular Culture Steele plays a minor role in the novel The History of Henry Esmond by William Makepeace Thackeray . It is during his time with the Life Guards, where he is mostly referred to as Dick the Scholar and makes mention of his friend "Joe Addison." He befriends the title character when Esmond is a boy. References Sir Richard Steele | British author and politician | Britannica.com British author and politician Sir Richard Steele, pseudonym Isaac Bickerstaff (born 1672, Dublin , Ire.—died Sept. 1, 1729, Carmarthen , Carmarthenshire, Wales ), English essayist, dramatist, journalist, and politician, best known as principal author (with Joseph Addison) of the periodicals The Tatler and The Spectator.

Steele, detail of an oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1711; in the National Portrait Gallery, … Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London Early life and works. Steele’s father, an ailing and somewhat ineffectual attorney, died when the son was about five, and the boy was taken under the protection of his uncle Henry Gascoigne, confidential secretary to the Duke of Ormonde, to whose bounty, as Steele later wrote, he owed “a liberal education.” He was sent to study in England at Charterhouse in 1684 and to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1689. At Charterhouse he met Joseph Addison , and thus began one of the most famous and fruitful of all literary friendships, which lasted until disagreements (mainly political) brought about a cooling and a final estrangement shortly before Addison’s death in 1719. Steele moved to Merton College in 1691 but, caught up with the excitement of King William’s campaigns against the French, left in 1692 without taking a degree to join the army.

He was commissioned in 1697 and promoted to captain in 1699, but, lacking the money and connections necessary for substantial advancement, he left the army in 1705. Meanwhile, he had embarked on a second career, as a writer. Perhaps partly because he gravely wounded a fellow officer in a duel in 1700 (an incident that inspired a lifelong detestation of dueling), partly because of sincere feelings of disgust at the “irregularity” of army life and his own dissipated existence, he published in 1701 a moralistic tract , “The Christian Hero,” of which 10 editions were sold in his lifetime. This tract led to Steele’s being accused of hypocrisy and mocked for the contrast between his austere precepts and his genially convivial practice. For many of his contemporaries, however, its polite tone served as evidence of a significant cultural change from the Restoration (most notably, it advocated respectful behaviour toward women). The tract’s moralistic tenor would be echoed in Steele’s plays. In the same year (1701) Steele wrote his first comedy , The Funeral.

Performed at Drury Lane “with more than expected success,” this play made his reputation and helped to bring him to the notice of King William and the Whig leaders. Late in 1703 he followed this with his only stage failure, The Lying Lover, which ran for only six nights, being, as Steele said, “damned for its piety.” Sententious and ill-constructed, with much moralizing, it is nevertheless of some historical importance as one of the first sentimental comedies. Britannica Stories Scientists Ponder Menopause in Killer Whales A third play, The Tender Husband, with which Addison helped him (1705), had some success, but Steele continued to search for advancement and for money. In the next few years he secured various minor appointments, and in 1705, apparently actuated by mercenary motives, he married a widow, Margaret Stretch, who owned considerable property in Barbados. Almost immediately the estate was entangled in his debts (he lost two actions for debt, with damages, in 1706), but, when, late in 1706, Margaret conveniently died, she left her husband with a substantial income.

Steele’s second marriage, contracted within a year of Margaret’s death, was to Mary Scurlock, who was completely adored by Steele, however much he might at times neglect her. His hundreds of letters and notes to her (she is often addressed as “Dear Prue”) provide a vivid revelation of his personality during the 11 years of their marriage. Having borne him four children (of whom only the eldest, Elizabeth, long survived Richard), she died, during pregnancy, in 1718. Mature life and works. British Culture and Politics Steele’s most important appointment in the early part of Queen Anne’s reign was that of gazetteer—writer of The London Gazette , the official government journal . Although this reinforced his connection with the Whig leaders, it gave little scope for his artistic talents, and, on April 12, 1709, he secured his place in literary history by launching the thrice-weekly essay periodical The Tatler . Writing under the name (already made famous by the satirist Jonathan Swift) of Isaac Bickerstaff , Steele created the mixture of entertainment and instruction in manners and morals that was to be perfected in The Spectator .

“The general purpose of the whole,” wrote Steele, “has been to recommend truth, innocence, honour, and virtue, as the chief ornaments of life”; and here, as in the later periodical, can be seen his strong ethical bent, his attachment to the simple virtues of friendship, frankness, and benevolence , his seriousness of approach tempered by the colloquial ease and lightness of his style. Addison contributed some 46 papers and collaborated in several others, but the great bulk of the 271 issues were by Steele himself, and, apart from bringing him fame, it brought a measure of prosperity. The exact cause of The Tatler’s demise is uncertain, but probably the reasons were mainly political: in 1710 power had shifted to the Tories and Steele, a Whig, had lost his gazetteership and had come near to losing his post of commissioner of stamps. The Tatler had contained a good deal of political innuendo , some of it aimed at Robert Harley, the Tory leader, himself, and Harley may well have put pressure on Steele to discontinue the paper.

Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies The Tatler’s greater successor, first appearing on March 1, 1711, was avowedly nonpolitical and was enormously successful. The Spectator was a joint venture; Steele’s was probably the more original journalistic flair, and he evolved many of the most celebrated ideas and characters (such as Sir Roger de Coverley), although later Addison tended to develop them in his own way. Steele’s attractive, often casual style formed a perfect foil for Addison’s more measured, polished, and erudite writing . Of the 555 daily numbers, Steele contributed 251 (though about two-thirds made up from correspondents’ letters). Of Steele’s many later ventures into periodical journalism, some, such as The Englishman, were mainly politically partisan. The Guardian (to which Addison contributed substantially) contains some of his most distinguished work, and The Lover comprises 40 of his most attractive essays. Other, short-lived, periodicals, such as The Reader, Town-Talk, and The Plebeian, contain matter of considerable political importance.

Steele became, indeed, the chief journalist of the Whigs in opposition (1710–14), his writings being marked by an unusual degree of principle and integrity . His last extended literary work was The Theatre, a biweekly periodical. Steele’s political writings had stirred up enough storms to make his career far from smooth. He resigned as commissioner of stamps in 1713 and was elected to Parliament, but, as a consequence of his anti-Tory pamphlets “The Importance of Dunkirk Consider’d” and “The Crisis” (advocating the Hanoverian succession), he was expelled from the House of Commons for “seditious writings.” Calmer weather, however, and rewards followed on George I’s accession: Steele was appointed to the congenial and fairly lucrative post of governor of Drury Lane Theatre in 1714, knighted in 1715, and reelected to Parliament in the same year. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Steele’s health was gradually undermined by his cheerful intemperance, and he was long plagued by gout.

Nevertheless, he busied himself conscientiously with parliamentary duties and, more erratically, with his part in the management of Drury Lane. One of his main contributions to that theatre’s prosperity was his last and most successful comedy, The Conscious Lovers (1722)—one of the most popular plays of the century and perhaps the best example of English sentimental comedy . In 1724 Steele retired to his late wife’s estate in Wales and began to settle his debts. His closing years were quiet, but his health continued to deteriorate. Assessment. Both as man and writer Steele is one of the most attractive figures of his time, much of his writing—easy, rapid, slipshod, but deeply sincere—reflecting his personality. “There appears in his natural temper,” wrote his contemporary, the philosopher George Berkeley , “something very generous and a great benevolence to mankind.” An emotional, impetuous , good-natured, and idealistic man, he always found it easier to get money than to keep it, and his career can be seen as in part shaped by the constant need to keep his head above the waters of debt. More about Sir Richard Steele 8 References found in Britannica Articles Assorted Reference

Question: Which English playwright ("The Conscious Lovers") founded the "Tatler", the "Spectator" and the "Guardian"?
Answer: Sir Richard Steele