But stoop'd to Truth, and moraliz'd his song: That not for Fame, but Virtue's better end, He stood the furious foe, the timid friend, The damning critic, half approving wit, The coxcomb hit, or fearing to be hit; Laugh'd at the loss of friends he never had, The dull, the proud, the wicked, and the mad; The distant threats of vengeance on his head, The blow unfelt, the tear he never shed; The tale reviv'd, the lie so oft o'erthrown, 350 Th' imputed trash, and dulness not his own; He lash'd him not, but let her be his wife. Let Budgel charge low Grubstreet on his quill, The morals blacken'd when the writings And write whate'er he pleas'd, except his The libel'd person, and the pictur'd Let the two Curlls of Town and Court, shape; abuse 380 Abuse, on all he lov'd, or lov'd him, His father, mother, body, soul, and muse. known, Yet why? that Father held it for a rule, His life, tho' long, to sickness past un- His death was instant, and without a THE PERIODICAL ESSAY: ADDISON AND STEELE Ar the beginning of the eighteenth century many of the shorter forms of writing which to-day find their natural place in the newspapers and magazines had much more difficulty in attaining publication. True, the editorial and the news story might be published as a broadside, and the article would make a pamphlet; but casual pieces like the essay, until the time of Addison and Steele, generally had to be kept. until enough of them were accumulated to make a book. The establishment of the Tatler in 1709 marks a new era in the history of the essay. The literary periodical practically came into existence with the Tatler. Previous to Steele's venture periodical publications had been little more than news sheets containing information, real or alleged, about current events. In 1704, however, Defoe had begun a Review which in addition to news contained, as its title announced, "an entertaining part in every sheet, being advice from the Scandal Club, to the curious, in answer to letters sent for that purpose." The essays which appeared in this second part thus formed a regular feature of his paper, and many of them might easily have been printed in the Tatler. In numerous respects Defoe's Review was an important forerunner of Steele's paper. Steele in 1709 was the editor of the official government newspaper, The London Gazette. As such he was in a favorable position to obtain news, some of which doubtless he could not use in the Gazette. He conceived the idea of publishing a periodical which should combine information about current events with essays on all subjects which polite readers could be expected to take an interest in. The Tatier first appeared April 12, 1709, and it continued to come out three times a week for twenty-one months. In form it was merely a single folio sheet printed on both sides. After the first month Addison joined his friend in the undertaking. Gradually the part devoted to news disappeared and the contents, except for a few advertisements at the end, were purely literary. Two months after the Tatler was discontinued the first number of the Spectator appeared (March 1, 1711). The new paper was wholly literary from the beginning, appeared daily, and each number generally consisted of a single essay. It ran until February 6, 1712, attaining an average circulation of from 1500 to 2000 copies a day. The essay that was evolved under these conditions is quite different from what it was in the hands of Bacon. It absorbed a number of elements from other forms, including the "character," the "familiar letter," the so-called "table talk," and others. As a result it was a much more varied thing. While in the hands of Addison and Steele it might still at times be the Baconian essay on honor, friendship, modesty. conversation, it might on other occasions deal with local or temporary things such as the Italian opera, London street-cries, duelling; again it is a didactic tale or an imaginative character portrayed as a model or a warning for the reader; sometimes it is a satirical sketch of contemporary life and manners, sometimes a veiled attack upon a current foible or affectation, sometimes an excursion into literary criticism. The periodical essay contains the germs of several forms that were later to become differentiated, but even to-day the essay shows, in its ability to assume various shapes, its descent from the periodical essay of the Tatler and the Spectator. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele were both born in 1672. Their friendship began in the Charterhouse School, was continued at Oxford, and lasted almost till Addison's death. Steele entered the army; Addison went into the civil service, rising to the position of Secretary of State. Steele also wrote a number of plays; Addison wrote a tragedy, Cato, and some poetry. Steele's warm-hearted nature and Addison's polish and gentle kindliness are equally revealed in the essays. JOSEPH ADDISON (1672-1719) THE TATLER PROSPECTUS and well-affected members of the commonwealth may be instructed, after their reading, what to think; which shall be the end and purpose of this my paper, wherein I shall, from time to time, report and consider all matters of what kind soever that shall occur to me, and publish such my advices and reflections every Tuesday, [Tatler, No. 1. Steele. Tuesday, April Thursday, and Saturday in the week, for 12, 1709.] Quicquid agunt homines nostri est farrago libelli.1 Though the other papers, which are published for the use of the good people of England, have certainly very wholesome effects, and are laudable in their particular kinds, they do not seem to come up to the main design of such narrations, which, I humbly presume, should be principally intended for the use of politic persons, who are so public-spirited as to neglect their own affairs to look into transactions of state. Now these gentlemen, for the most part, being persons of strong zeal, and weak intellects, it is both a charitable and necessary work to offer something, whereby such worthy Whatever men do is fodder for our booklet. the convenience of the post. I resolve to have something which may be of entertainment to the fair sex, in honor of whom I have invented the title of this paper. I therefore earnestly desire all persons, without distinction, to take it in for the present gratis, and hereafter at the price of one penny, forbidding all hawkers | to take more for it at their peril. And I desire all persons to consider, that I am at a very great charge for proper materials for this work, as well as that, before I resolved upon it, I had settled a correspondence in all parts of the known and knowing world. And forasmuch as this globe is not trodden upon by mere drudges of business only, but that men of spirit and genius are justly to be esteemed as considerable agents in it, we shall not, upon a dearth of news, present you with musty foreign edicts, and dull proclamations, but shall divide our rela tion of the passages which occur in action or discourse throughout this town, as well COMPANIONS as elsewhere, under such dates of places [Tatler, No. 45, III. Steele. Saturday, I once more desire my reader to consider, that as I cannot keep an ingenious man to go daily to Will's under two-pence each day, merely for his charges; to White's under six-pence; nor to the Grecian, without allowing him some plain Spanish, to be as able as others at the learned table; and that a good observer cannot speak with even Kidney 2 at St. James's without clean linen; I say, these considerations will, I hope, make all persons willing to comply with my humble request (when my gratis stock is exhausted) of a penny apiece; especially since they are sure of some proper amusement, and that it is impossible for me to want means to entertain them, having, besides the force of my own parts, the power of divination, and that I can, by casting a figure, tell you all that will happen before it comes to pass. But this last faculty I shall use very sparingly, and speak but of few things until they are passed, for fear of divulging matters which may offend my superiors. July 23, 1709.] From my own Apartment, July 22. I am got hither safe, but never spent time with so little satisfaction as this evening; for, you must know, I was five hours with three Merry, and two Honest, Fellows. The former sang catches; and the latter even died with laughing at the noise they made. "Well," says Tom Bellfrey, "you scholars, Mr. Bickerstaff, are the worst company in the world." "Ay," says his opposite, "you are dull to-night; pr'ythee be merry." With that I huzzaed and took a jump cross the table, then came clever upon my legs, and fell a-laughing. "Let Mr. Bickerstaff alone," says one of the Honest Fellows; "when he is in a good humor, he is as good company as any man in England." He had no sooner spoke but I snatched his hat off his head and clapped it upon my own and burst out a-laughing again; upon which we all fell a-laughing for half an hour. One of the Honest Fellows got behind me in the interim and hit me a sound slap on the back; upon which he got the laugh out of my hands; and it was such a twang on my shoulders that I confess he was much merrier than I. I was half angry; but resolved to keep up the good humor of the company; and after hallooing as loud as I could possibly, I drank off a bumper of claret that made me stare again. "Nay," says one of the Honest Fellows, "Mr. Isaac is in the right; there is no conversation in this; what signifies jumping, or hitting one another on the back? let us drink about." |