THE _TATLER_ AND _SPECTATOR_.
The career of Addison, as described in the preceding chapters, has
exemplified the great change effected in the position of men of letters in
England by the Restoration and the Revolution; it is now time to exhibit
him in his most characteristic light, and to show the remarkable service
the eighteenth century essayists performed for English society in creating
an organised public opinion. It is difficult for ourselves, who look on
the action of the periodical press as part of the regular machinery of
life, to appreciate the magnitude of the task accomplished by Addison and
Steele in the pages of the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_. Every day, week,
month, and quarter now sees the issue of a vast number of journals and
magazines intended to form the opinion of every order and section of
society; but in the reign of Queen Anne the only centres of society that
existed were the Court, with the aristocracy that revolved about it, and
the clubs and coffee-houses, in which the commercial and professional
classes met to discuss matters of general interest. The _Tatler_ and
_Spectator_ were the first organs in which an attempt was made to give
form and consistency to the opinion arising out of this social contact.
But we should form a very erroneous idea of the character of these
publications if we regarded them as the sudden productions of individual
genius, written in satisfaction of a mere temporary taste. Like all
masterpieces in art and literature, they mark the final stage of a long
and painful journey, and the merit of their inventors consists largely in
the judgment with which they profited by the experience of many
predecessors.
The first newspaper published in Europe was the _Gazzetta_ of Venice,
which was written in manuscript, and read aloud at certain places in the
city, to supply information to the people during the war with the Turks in
1536. In England it was not till the reign of Elizabeth that the increased
facilities of communication and the growth of wealth caused the purveyance
of news to become a profitable employment. Towards the end of the
sixteenth century newsmongers began to issue little pamphlets reporting
extraordinary intelligence, but not issued at regular periods. The titles
of these publications, which are all of them that survive, show that the
arts with which the framers of the placards of our own newspapers
endeavour to attract attention are of venerable antiquity: "Wonderful and
Strange newes out of Suffolke and Essex, where it rained wheat the space
of six or seven miles" (1583); "Lamentable newes out of Monmouthshire,
containinge the wonderfull and fearfull accounts of the great overflowing
of the waters in the said countrye" (1607).[27]
In 1622 one Nathaniel Butter began to publish a newspaper bearing a fixed
title and appearing at stated intervals. It was called the _Weekly Newes
from Italy and Germanie, etc._, and was said to be printed for _Mercurius
Britannicus_. This novelty provided much food for merriment to the poets,
and Ben Jonson in his _Staple of News_ satirises Butter, under the name
of Nathaniel, in a passage which the curious reader will do well to
consult, as it shows the low estimation in which newspapers were then
held.[28]
Though it might appear from Jonson's dialogue that the newspapers of that
day contained many items of domestic intelligence, such was scarcely the
case. Butter and his contemporaries, as was natural to men who confined
themselves to the publication of news without attempting to form opinion,
obtained their materials almost entirely from abroad, whereby they at once
aroused more vividly the imagination of their readers, and doubtless gave
more scope to their own invention. Besides, they were not at liberty to
retail home news of that political kind which would have been of the
greatest interest to the public. For a long time the evanescent character
of the newspaper allowed it to escape the attention of the licenser, but
the growing demand for this sort of reading at last brought it under
supervision, and so strict was the control exercised over even the reports
of foreign intelligence that its weekly appearance was frequently
interrupted.
In 1641, however, the Star-chamber was abolished, and the heated political
atmosphere of the times generated a new species of journal, in which we
find the first attempt to influence opinion through the periodical press.
This was the newspaper known under the generic title of _Mercury_. Many
weekly publications of this name appeared during the Civil Wars on the
side of both King and Parliament, _Mercurius Anlicus_ being the
representative organ of the Royalist cause, and _Mercurius Pragmaticus_
and _Mercurius Politicus_ of the Republicans. Party animosities were thus
kept alive, and proved so inconvenient to the Government that the
Parliament interfered to curtail the liberty of the press. In 1647 an
ordinance passed the House of Lords, prohibiting any person from "making,
writing, printing, selling, publishing, or uttering, or causing to be
made, any book, sheet, or sheets of news whatsoever, except the same be
licensed by both or either House of Parliament, with the name of the
author, printer, and licenser affixed." In spite of this prohibition,
which was renewed by Act of Parliament in 1662, many unlicensed
periodicals continued to appear, till in 1663 the Government, finding
their repressive measures insufficient, resolved to grapple with the
difficulty by monopolising the right to publish news.
The author of this new project was the well-known Roger L'Estrange, who in
1663 obtained a patent assigning to him "all the sole privilege of
writing, printing, and publishing all Narratives, Advertisements,
Mercuries, Intelligencers, Diurnals, and other books of public
intelligence." L'Estrange's journal was called the _Public Intelligencer_;
it was published once a week, and in its form was a rude anticipation of
the modern newspaper, containing as it did an obituary, reports of the
proceedings in Parliament and in the Court of Claims, a list of the
circuits of the judges, of sheriffs, Lent preachers, etc. After being
continued for two years it gave place first, in 1665, to the _Oxford
Gazette_, published at Oxford, whither the Court had retired during the
plague; and in 1666 to the _London Gazette_, which was under the immediate
control of an Under-Secretary of State. The office of Gazetteer became
henceforth a regular ministerial appointment, and was viewed with
different eyes according as men were affected towards the Government.
Steele, who held it, says of it: "My next appearance as a writer was in
the quality of the lowest Minister of State--to wit, in the office of
Gazetteer; where I worked faithfully according to order, without ever
erring against the rule observed by all Ministers, to keep that paper very
innocent and very insipid." Pope, on the other hand, who regarded it as an
organ published to influence opinion in favour of the Government, is
constant in his attacks upon it, and has immortalised it in the memorable
lines in the _Dunciad_ beginning, "Next plunged a feeble but a desperate
pack," etc.
In 1679 the Licensing Act passed in 1662 expired, and the Parliament
declined to renew it. The Court was thus left without protection against
the expression of public opinion, which was daily becoming more bold and
outspoken. In his extremity the King fell back on the servility of the
judges, and, having procured from them an opinion that the publishing of
any printed matter without license was contrary to the common law, he
issued his famous Proclamation (in 1680) "to prohibit and forbid all
persons whatsoever to print or publish any news, book, or pamphlets of
news, not licensed by his Majesty's authority."
Disregard of the proclamation was treated as a breach of the peace, and
many persons were punished accordingly. This severity produced the effect
intended. The voice of the periodical press was stifled, and the _London
Gazette_ was left almost in exclusive possession of the field of news.
When Monmouth landed in 1685 the King managed to obtain from Parliament a
renewal of the Licensing Act for seven years, and even after the
Revolution of 1688 several attempts were made by the Ministerial Whigs to
prolong or to renew the operation of the Act. In spite, however, of the
violence of the organs of "Grub Street," which had grown up under it,
these attempts were unsuccessful; it was justly felt that it was wiser to
leave falsehood and scurrility to be gradually corrected by public
opinion, as speaking through an unfettered press, than to attack them by a
law which they had proved themselves able to defy. From 1682 the freedom
of the press may therefore be said to date, and the lapse of the Licensing
Act was the signal for a remarkable outburst of journalistic enterprise
and invention. Not only did the newspapers devoted to the report of
foreign intelligence reappear in greatly increased numbers, but, whereas
the old _Mercuries_ had never been published more than once in the same
week, the new comers made their appearance twice and sometimes even three
times. In 1702 was printed the first daily newspaper, _The Daily Courant_.
It could only at starting provide material to cover one side of a half
sheet of paper; but the other side was very soon covered with printed
matter, in which form its existence was prolonged till 1735.
The development of party government of course encouraged the controversial
capacities of the journalist, and many notorious, and some famous names
are now found among the combatants in the political arena. On the side of
the Whigs the most redoubtable champions were Daniel Defoe, of the
_Review_, who was twice imprisoned and once set in the pillory for his
political writings; John Tutchin, of the _Observator_; and Ridpath, of the
_Flying Post_--all of whom have obtained places in the _Dunciad_. The old
Tories appear to have been satisfied during the early part of Queen Anne's
reign with prosecuting the newspapers that attacked them; but Harley, who
understood the power of the press, engaged Prior to harass the Whigs in
the _Examiner_, and was afterwards dexterous enough to secure the
invaluable assistance of Swift for the same paper. In opposition to the
_Examiner_ in its early days the Whigs, as has been said, started the
_Whig Examiner_, under the auspices of Addison, so that the two great
historical parties had their cases stated by the two greatest
prose-writers of the first half of the eighteenth century.
Beside the Quidnunc and the party politician, another class of reader now
appeared demanding aliment in the press. Men of active and curious minds,
with a little leisure and a large love of discussion, loungers at Will's
or at the Grecian Coffee-Houses, were anxious to have their doubts on all
subjects resolved by a printed oracle. Their tastes were gratified by the
ingenuity of John Dunton, whose strange account of his _Life and Errors_
throws a strong light on the literary history of this period. In 1690
Dunton published his _Athenian Gazette_, the name of which he afterwards
altered to the _Athenian Mercury_. The object of this paper was to answer
questions put to the editor by the public. These were of all kinds--on
religion, casuistry, love, literature, and manners--no question being too
subtle or absurd to extract a reply from the conductor of the paper. The
_Athenian Mercury_ seems to have been read by as many distinguished men of
the period as _Notes and Queries_ in our own time, and there can be no
doubt that the quaint humours it originated gave the first hint to the
inventors of the _Tatler_ and the _Spectator_.
Advertisements were inserted in the newspapers at a comparatively early
period of their existence. The editor acted as middleman between the
advertiser and the public, and made his announcements in a style of easy
frankness which will appear to the modern reader extremely refreshing.
Thus, in the "Collection for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade"
(1682), there are the following:
"If I can meet with a sober man that has a counter-tenor voice, I can
help him to a place worth thirty pound the year or more.
"If any noble or other gentleman wants a porter that is very lusty,
comely, and six foot high and two inches, I can help.
"I want a complete young man that will wear a livery, to wait on a
very valuable gentleman; but he must know how to play on a violin or
flute.
"I want a genteel footman that can play on the violin, to wait on a
person of honour."[29]
Everything was now prepared for the production of a class of newspaper
designed to form and direct public opinion on rational principles. The
press was emancipated from State control; a reading public had constituted
itself out of the _habitués_ of the coffee-houses and clubs; nothing was
wanted but an inventive genius to adapt the materials at his disposal to
the circumstances of the time. The required hero was not long in making
his appearance.
Richard Steele, the son of an official under the Irish Government, was,
above all things, "a creature of ebullient heart." Impulse and sentiment
were with him always far stronger motives of action than reason,
principle, or even interest. He left Oxford, without taking a degree, from
an ardent desire to serve in the army, thereby sacrificing his prospect of
succeeding to a family estate; his extravagance and dissipation while
serving in the cavalry were notorious; yet this did not dull the clearness
of his moral perceptions, for it was while his excesses were at their
height that he dedicated to his commanding officer, Lord Cutts, his
_Christian Hero_. Vehement in his political, as in all other feelings, he
did not hesitate to resign the office he held under the Tory Government in
1711 in order to attack it for what he considered its treachery to the
country; but he was equally outspoken, and with equal disadvantage to
himself, when he found himself at a later period in disagreement with the
Whigs. He had great fertility of invention, strong natural humour, true
though uncultivated taste, and inexhaustible human sympathy.
His varied experience had made him well acquainted with life and
character, and in his office of Gazetteer he had had an opportunity of
watching the eccentricities of the public taste, which, now emancipated
from restraint, began vaguely to feel after new ideals. That, under such
circumstances, he should have formed the design of treating current events
from a humorous point of view was only natural, but he was indebted for
the form of his newspaper to the most original genius of the age. Swift
had early in the eighteenth century exercised his ironical vein by
treating the everyday occurrences of life in a mock-heroic style. Among
his pieces of this kind that were most successful in catching the public
taste were the humorous predictions of the death of Partridge, the
astrologer, signed with the name of Isaac Bickerstaff. Steele, seizing on
the name and character of Partridge's fictitious rival, turned him with
much pleasantry into the editor of a new journal, the design of which he
makes Isaac describe as follows:
"The state of conversation and business in this town having long been
perplexed with Pretenders in both kinds, in order to open men's minds
against such abuses, it appeared no unprofitable undertaking to
publish a Paper, which should observe upon the manners of the
pleasurable, as well as the busy part of mankind. To make this
generally read, it seemed the most proper method to form it by way of
a Letter of Intelligence, consisting of such parts as might gratify
the curiosity of persons of all conditions and of each sex.... The
general purposes of this Paper is 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
behaviour."[30]
The name of the _Tatler_, Isaac informs us, was "invented in honour of the
fair sex," for whose entertainment the new paper was largely designed. It
appeared three times a week, and its price was a penny, though it seems
that the first number, published April 12, 1709, was distributed _gratis_
as an advertisement. In order to make the contents of the paper varied it
was divided into five portions, of which the editor gives the following
account:
"All accounts of Gallantry, Pleasure, and Entertainment, shall be
under the article of White's Chocolate-House; Poetry under that of
Will's Coffee-House; Learning under the title of Grecian; Foreign and
Domestic News you will have from Saint James' Coffee-House; and what
else I have to offer on any other subject shall be dated from my own
apartment."[31]
In this division we see the importance of the coffee-houses as the natural
centres of intelligence and opinion. Of the four houses mentioned, St.
James' and White's, both of them in St. James' Street, were the chief
haunts of statesmen and men of fashion, and the latter had acquired an
infamous notoriety for the ruinous gambling of its _habitués_. Will's, in
Russell Street, Covent Garden, kept up the reputation which it had
procured in Dryden's time as the favourite meeting-place of men of
letters; while the Grecian, in Devereux Court in the Strand, which was the
oldest coffee-house in London, afforded a convenient _rendezvous_ for the
learned Templars. At starting, the design announced in the first number
was adhered to with tolerable fidelity. The paper dated from St. James'
Coffee-House was always devoted to the recital of foreign news; that from
Will's either criticised the current dramas, or contained a copy of
verses from some author of repute, or a piece of general literary
criticism; the latest gossip at White's was reproduced in a fictitious
form and with added colour. Advertisements were also inserted; and half a
sheet of the paper was left blank, in order that at the last moment the
most recent intelligence might be added in manuscript, after the manner of
the contemporary news-letters. In all these respects the character of the
newspaper was preserved; but in the method of treating news adopted by the
editor there was a constant tendency to subordinate matter of fact to the
elements of humour, fiction, and sentiment. In his survey of the manners
of the time, Isaac, as an astrologer, was assisted by a familiar spirit,
named Pacolet, who revealed to him the motives and secrets of men; his
sister, Mrs. Jenny Distaff, was occasionally deputed to produce the paper
from the wizard's "own apartment;" and Kidney, the waiter at St. James'
Coffee-House, was humorously represented as the chief authority in all
matters of foreign intelligence.
The mottoes assumed by the _Tatler_ at different periods of its existence
mark the stages of its development. On its first appearance, when Steele
seems to have intended it to be little more than a lively record of news,
the motto placed at the head of each paper was
"Quidquid agunt homines,
nostri est farrago libelli."
It soon became evident, however, that its true function was not merely to
report the actions of men, but to discuss the propriety of their actions;
and by the time that sufficient material had accumulated to constitute a
volume, the essayists felt themselves justified in appropriating the words
used by Pliny in the preface to his _Natural History_:
"Nemo apud nos qui idem tentaverit: equidem sentio peculiarem in
studiis causam corum esse, qui difficultatibus victis, utilitatem
juvandi, protulerunt gratiæ placendi. Res ardua vetustis novitatem
dare, novis auctoritatem, obsoletis nitorem, fastidiis gratiam, dubiis
fidem, omnibus vero naturam, et naturæ suæ omnia. Itaque NON ASSECUTIS
_voluisse_, abunde pulchrum atque magnificum est."
The disguise of the mock astrologer proved very useful to Steele in his
character of moralist. It enabled him to give free utterance to his better
feelings, without the risk of incurring the charge of inconsistency or
hypocrisy, and nothing can be more honourable to him than the open manner
in which he acknowledges his own unfitness for the position of a moralist:
"I shall not carry my humility so far," says he, "as to call myself a
vicious man, but at the same time must confess my life is at best but
pardonable. With no greater character than this, a man would make but an
indifferent progress in attacking prevailing and fashionable vices, which
Mr. Bickerstaff has done with a freedom of spirit that would have lost
both its beauty and efficacy had it been pretended to by Mr. Steele."[32]
As Steele cannot claim the sole merit of having invented the form of the
_Tatler_, so, too, it must be remembered that he could never have
addressed society in the high moral tone assumed by Bickerstaff if the
road had not been prepared for him by others. One name among his
predecessors stands out with a special title to honourable record. Since
the Restoration the chief school of manners had been the stage, and the
flagrant example of immorality set by the Court had been bettered by the
invention of the comic dramatists of the period. Indecency was the
fashion; religion and sobriety were identified by the polite world with
Puritanism and hypocrisy. Even the Church had not yet ventured to say a
word in behalf of virtue against the prevailing taste, and when at last a
clergyman raised his voice on behalf of the principles which he professed,
the blow which he dealt to his antagonists was the more damaging because
it was entirely unexpected. Jeremy Collier was not only a Tory but a
Jacobite, not only a High Churchman but a Nonjuror, who had been outlawed
for his fidelity to the principles of Legitimism; and that such a man
should have published the _Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of
the English Stage_, reflecting, as the book did, in the strongest manner
on the manners of the fallen dynasty, was as astounding as thunder from a
clear sky. Collier, however, was a man of sincere piety, whose mind was
for the moment occupied only by the overwhelming danger of the evil which
he proposed to attack. It is true that his method of attack was cumbrous,
and that his conclusions were far too sweeping and often unjust;
nevertheless, the general truth of his criticisms was felt to be
irresistible. Congreve and Vanbrugh each attempted an apology for their
profession; both, however, showed their perception of the weakness of
their position by correcting or recasting scenes in their comedies to
which Collier had objected. Dryden accepted the reproof in a nobler
spirit. Even while he had pandered to the tastes of the times, he had been
conscious of his treachery to the cause of true art, and had broken out in
a fine passage in his _Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Killigrew_:
"O gracious God! how far have we
Profaned thy heavenly gift of poesy!
Made prostitute and profligate the Muse,
Debased to each obscene and impious use!
* * * * *
"O wretched we! why were we hurried down
This lubrique and adulterous age
(Nay, added fat pollutions of our own)
To increase the streaming ordure of the stage?"
When Collier attacked him he bent his head in submission. "In many
things," says he, "he has taxed me justly, and I have pleaded guilty to
all thought and expressions of mine which can be truly argued of
obscenity, profaneness, or immorality, and retract them. If he be my
enemy, let him triumph; if he be my friend, as I have given him no
personal occasion to be otherwise, he will be glad of my repentance."[33]
The first blow against fashionable immorality having been boldly struck,
was followed up systematically. In 1690 was founded "The Society for the
Reformation of Manners," which published every year an account of the
progress made in suppressing profaneness and debauchery by its means. It
continued its operations till 1738, and during its existence prosecuted,
according to its own calculations, 101,683 persons. William III. showed
himself prompt to encourage the movement which his subjects had begun. The
_London Gazette_ of 27th February, 1698-99, contains a report of the
following remarkable order:
"His Majesty being informed, That, notwithstanding an order made the
4th of June, 1697, by the Earl of Sunderland, then Lord Chamberlain of
His Majesty's Household, to prevent the Prophaneness and Immorality of
the Stage, several Plays have been lately acted containing expressions
contrary to Religion and Good Manners: and whereas the Master of the
Revels has represented, That, in contempt of the said order, the
actors do often neglect to leave out such Prophane and Indecent
expressions as he has thought proper to be omitted. These are
therefore to signifie his Majesty's pleasure, that you do not
hereafter presume to act anything in any play contrary to Religion and
Good Manners as you shall answer it at your utmost peril. Given under
my Hand this 18th of February, 1698. In the eleventh year of his
Majesty's reign."
It is difficult to realise, in reading the terms of this order, that only
thirteen years had elapsed since the death of Charles II., and undoubtedly
a very large share of the credit due for such a revolution in the public
taste is to be assigned to Collier. Collier, however, did nothing in a
literary or artistic sense to improve the character of English literature.
His severity, uncompromising as that of the Puritans, inspired Vice with
terror, but could not plead with persuasion on behalf of Virtue; his
sweeping conclusions struck at the roots of Art as well as of Immorality.
He sought to destroy the drama and kindred pleasures of the Imagination,
not to reform them. What the age needed was a writer to satisfy its
natural desires for healthy and rational amusement, and Steele, with his
strongly-developed twofold character, was the man of all others to bridge
over the chasm between irreligious licentiousness and Puritanical
rigidity. Driven headlong on one side of his nature towards all the tastes
and pleasures which absorbed the Court of Charles II., his heart in the
midst of his dissipation never ceased to approve of whatever was great,
noble, and generous. He has described himself with much feeling in his
disquisition on the _Rake_, a character which he says many men are
desirous of assuming without any natural qualifications for supporting it:
"A Rake," says he, "is a man always to be pitied; and if he lives one
day is certainly reclaimed; for his faults proceed not from choice or
inclination, but from strong passions and appetites, which are in
youth too violent for the curb of reason, good sense, good manners,
and good nature; all which he must have by nature and education
before he can be allowed to be or to have been of this order.... His
desires run away with him through the strength and force of a lively
imagination, which hurries him on to unlawful pleasures before reason
has power to come in to his rescue."
That impulsiveness of feeling which is here described, and which was the
cause of so many of Steele's failings in real life, made him the most
powerful and persuasive advocate of Virtue in fiction. Of all the
imaginative English essayists he is the most truly natural. His large
heart seems to rush out in sympathy with any tale of sorrow or exhibition
of magnanimity; and even in criticism, his true natural instinct, joined
to his constitutional enthusiasm, often raises his judgments to a level
with those of Addison himself, as in his excellent essay in the
_Spectator_ on Raphael's cartoons. Examples of these characteristics in
his style are to be found in the _Story of Unnion and Valentine_,[34] and
in the fine paper describing two tragedies of real life;[35] in the series
of papers on duelling, occasioned by a duel into which he was himself
forced against his own inclination;[36] and in the sound advice which
Isaac gives to his half-sister Jenny on the morrow of her marriage.[37]
Perhaps, however, the chivalry and generosity of feeling which make
Steele's writings so attractive are most apparent in the delightful paper
containing the letter of Serjeant Hall from the camp before Mons. After
pointing out to his readers the admirable features in the serjeant's
simple letter, Steele concludes as follows:
"If we consider the heap of an army, utterly out of all prospect of
rising and preferment, as they certainly are, and such great things
executed by them, it is hard to account for the motive of their
gallantry. But to me, who was a cadet at the battle of Coldstream, in
Scotland, when Monk charged at the head of the regiment now called
Coldstream, from the victory of that day--I remember it as well as if
it were yesterday; I stood on the left of old West, who I believe is
now at Chelsea--I say to me, who know very well this part of mankind,
I take the gallantry of private soldiers to proceed from the same, if
not from a nobler, impulse than that of gentlemen and officers. They
have the same taste of being acceptable to their friends, and go
through the difficulties of that profession by the same irresistible
charm of fellowship and the communication of joys and sorrows which
quickens the relish of pleasure and abates the anguish of pain. Add to
this that they have the same regard to fame, though they do not expect
so great a share as men above them hope for; but I will engage
Serjeant Hall would die ten thousand deaths rather than that a word
should be spoken at the Red Lettice, or any part of the Butcher Row,
in prejudice to his courage or honesty. If you will have my opinion,
then, of the Serjeant's letter, I pronounce the style to be mixed, but
truly epistolary; the sentiment relating to his own wound in the
sublime; the postscript of Pegg Hartwell in the gay; and the whole the
picture of the bravest sort of men, that is to say, a man of great
courage and small hopes."[38]
With such excellences of style and sentiment it is no wonder that the
_Tatler_ rapidly established itself in public favour. It was a novel
experience for the general reader to be provided three times a week with
entertainment that pleased his imagination without offending his sense of
decency or his religious instincts. But a new hand shortly appeared in the
_Tatler_, which was destined to carry the art of periodical essay-writing
to a perfection beside which even the humour of Steele appears rude and
unpolished. Addison and Steele had been friends since boyhood. They had
been contemporaries at the Charter House, and, as we have seen, Steele had
sometimes spent his holidays in the parsonage of Addison's father. He was
a postmaster at Merton about the same time that his friend was a Fellow of
Magdalen. The admiration which he conceived for the hero of his boyhood
lasted, as so often happens, through life; he exhibited his veneration for
him in all places, and even when Addison indulged his humour at his
expense he showed no resentment. Addison, on his side, seems to have
treated Steele with a kind of gracious condescension. The latter was one
of the few intimate friends to whom he unbent in conversation; and while
he was Under-Secretary of State he aided him in the production of _The
Tender Husband_, which was dedicated to him by the author. Of this play
Steele afterwards declared with characteristic impulse that many of the
most admired passages were the work of his friend, and that he "thought
very meanly of himself that he had never publicly avowed it."
The authorship of the _Tatler_ was at first kept secret to all the world.
It is said that the hand of Steele discovered itself to Addison on reading
in the fifth number a remark which he remembered to have himself made to
Steele on the judgment of Virgil, as shown in the appellation of "Dux
Trojanus," which the Latin poet assigns to Æneas, when describing his
adventure with Dido in the cave, in the place of the usual epithet of
"pius" or "pater." Thereupon he offered his services as a contributor, and
these were of course gladly accepted. The first paper sent by Addison to
the _Tatler_ was No. 18, wherein is displayed that inimitable art which
makes a man appear infinitely ridiculous by the ironical commendation of
his offences against right, reason, and good taste. The subject is the
approaching peace with France, and it is noticeable that the article of
foreign news, which had been treated in previous _Tatlers_ with complete
seriousness, is here for the first time invested with an air of
pleasantry. The distress of the news-writers at the prospect of peace is
thus described:
"There is another sort of gentlemen whom I am much more concerned for,
and that is the ingenious fraternity of which I have the honour to be
an unworthy member; I mean the news-writers of Great Britain, whether
Post-men or Post-boys, or by what other name or title soever dignified
or distinguished. The case of these gentlemen is, I think, more hard
than that of the soldiers, considering that they have taken more towns
and fought more battles. They have been upon parties and skirmishes
when our armies have lain still, and given the general assault to many
a place when the besiegers were quiet in their trenches. They have
made us masters of several strong towns many weeks before our generals
could do it, and completed victories when our greatest captains have
been glad to come off with a drawn battle. Where Prince Eugene has
slain his thousands Boyer has slain his ten thousands. This gentleman
can indeed be never enough commended for his courage and intrepidity
during this whole war: he has laid about him with an inexpressible
fury, and, like offended Marius of ancient Rome, made such havoc among
his countrymen as must be the work of two or three ages to repair....
It is impossible for this ingenious sort of men to subsist after a
peace: every one remembers the shifts they were driven to in the reign
of King Charles the Second, when they could not furnish out a single
paper of news without lighting up a comet in Germany or a fire in
Moscow. There scarce appeared a letter without a paragraph on an
earthquake. Prodigies were grown so familiar that they had lost their
name, as a great poet of that age has it. I remember Mr. Dyer, who is
justly looked upon by all the foxhunters in the nation as the greatest
statesman our country has produced, was particularly famous for
dealing in whales, in so much that in five months' time (for I had the
curiosity to examine his letters on that occasion) he brought three
into the mouth of the river Thames, besides two porpusses and a
sturgeon."
The appearance of Addison as a regular contributor to the _Tatler_
gradually brought about a revolution in the character of the paper. For
some time longer, indeed, articles continued to be dated from the
different coffee-houses, but only slight efforts were made to distinguish
the materials furnished from White's, Will's, or Isaac's own apartment.
When the hundredth number was reached a fresh address is given at Shere
Lane, where the astrologer lived, and henceforward the papers from White's
and Will's grow extremely rare; those from the Grecian may be said to
disappear; and the foreign intelligence, dated from St. James', whenever
it is inserted, which is seldom, is as often as not made the text of a
literary disquisition. Allegories become frequent, and the letters sent,
or supposed to be sent, to Isaac at his home address furnish the material
for many numbers. The Essay, in fact, or that part of the newspaper which
goes to form public opinion, preponderates greatly over that portion which
is devoted to the report of news. Spence quotes from a Mr. Chute: "I have
heard Sir Richard Steele say that, though he had a greater share in the
_Tatlers_ than in the _Spectators_, he thought the news article in the
first of these was what contributed much to their success."[39] Chute,
however, seems to speak with a certain grudge against Addison, and the
statement ascribed by him to Steele is intrinsically improbable. It is not
very likely that, as the proprietor of the _Tatler_, he would have
dispensed with any element in it that contributed to its popularity, yet
after No. 100 the news articles are seldom found. The truth is that Steele
recognised the superiority of Addison's style, and with his usual
quickness accommodated the form of his journal to the genius of the new
contributor.
"I have only one gentleman," says he, in the preface to the _Tatler_,
"who will be nameless, to thank for any frequent assistance to me,
which indeed it would have been barbarous in him to have denied to one
with whom he has lived in intimacy from childhood, considering the
great ease with which he is able to despatch the most entertaining
pieces of this nature. This good office he performed with such force
of genius, humour, wit, and learning that I fared like a distressed
prince who calls in a powerful neighbour to his aid; I was undone by
my own auxiliary; when I had once called him in I could not subsist
without dependence on him."
With his usual enthusiastic generosity, Steele, in this passage, unduly
depreciates his own merits to exalt the genius of his friend. A comparison
of the amount of material furnished to the _Tatler_ by Addison and Steele
respectively shows that out of 271 numbers the latter contributed 188 and
the former only 42. Nor is the disparity in quantity entirely balanced by
the superior quality of Addison's papers. Though it was, doubtless, his
fine workmanship and admirable method which carried to perfection the
style of writing initiated in the _Tatler_, yet there is scarcely a
department of essay-writing developed in the _Spectator_ which does not
trace its origin to Steele. It is Steele who first ventures to raise his
voice against the prevailing dramatic taste of the age on behalf of the
superior morality and art of Shakespeare's plays.
"Of all men living," says he, in the eighth _Tatler_, "I pity players
(who must be men of good understanding to be capable of being such)
that they are obliged to repeat and assume proper gestures for
representing things of which their reason must be ashamed, and which
they must disdain their audience for approving. The amendment of these
low gratifications is only to be made by people of condition, by
encouraging the noble representation of the noble characters drawn by
Shakespeare and others, from whence it is impossible to return without
strong impressions of honour and humanity. On these occasions distress
is laid before us with all its causes and consequences, and our
resentment placed according to the merit of the person afflicted.
Were dramas of this nature more acceptable to the taste of the town,
men who have genius would bend their studies to excel in them."
Steele, too, it was who attacked, with all the vigour of which he was
capable, the fashionable vice of gambling. So severe were his comments on
this subject in the _Tatler_ that he raised against himself the fierce
resentment of the whole community of sharpers, though he was fortunate
enough at the same time to enlist the sympathies of the better part of
society. "Lord Forbes," says Mr. Nichols, the antiquary, in his notes to
the _Tatler_, "happened to be in company with the two military gentlemen
just mentioned" (Major-General Davenport and Brigadier Bisset) "in St.
James' Coffee-House when two or three well-dressed men, all unknown to his
lordship or his company, came into the room, and in a public, outrageous
manner abused Captain Steele as the author of the _Tatler_. One of them,
with great audacity and vehemence, swore that he would cut Steele's throat
or teach him better manners. 'In this country,' said Lord Forbes, 'you
will find it easier to cut a purse than to cut a throat.' His brother
officers instantly joined with his lordship and turned the cut-throats out
of the coffee-house with every mark of disgrace."[40]
The practice of duelling, also, which had hitherto passed unreproved, was
censured by Steele in a series of papers in the _Tatler_, which seemed to
have been written on an occasion when, having been forced to fight much
against his will, he had the misfortune dangerously to wound his
antagonist.[41] The sketches of character studied from life, and the
letters from fictitious correspondents, both of which form so noticeable
a feature in the _Spectator_, appear roughly, but yet distinctly, drafted
in the _Tatler_. Even the papers of literary criticism, afterwards so
fully elaborated by Addison, are anticipated by his friend, who may fairly
claim the honour to have been the first to speak with adequate respect of
the genius of Milton.[42] In a word, whatever was perfected by Addison was
begun by Steele; if the one has for ever associated his name with the
_Spectator_, the other may justly appropriate the credit of the _Tatler_,
a work which bears to its successor the same kind of relation that the
frescoes of Masaccio bear, in point of dramatic feeling and style, to
those of Raphael; the later productions deserving honour for finish of
execution, the earlier for priority of invention.
The _Tatler_ was published till the 2d of January, 1710-11, and was
discontinued, according to Steele's own account, because the public had
penetrated his disguise, and he was therefore no longer able to preach
with effect in the person of Bickerstaff. It may be doubted whether this
was his real motive for abandoning the paper. He had been long known as
its conductor; and that his readers had shown no disinclination to listen
to him is proved, not only by the large circulation of each number of the
_Tatler_, but by the extensive sale of the successive volumes of the
collected papers at the high price of a guinea apiece. He was, in all
probability, led to drop the publication by finding that the political
element that the paper contained was a source of embarrassment to him. His
sympathies were vehemently Whig; the _Tatler_ from the beginning had
celebrated the virtues of Marlborough and his friends, both directly and
under cover of fiction; and he had been rewarded for his services with a
commissionership of the Stamp-office. When the Whig Ministry fell in
1710, Harley, setting a just value on the abilities of Steele, left him in
the enjoyment of his office and expressed his desire to serve him in any
other way. Under these circumstances, Steele no doubt felt it incumbent on
him to discontinue a paper which, both from its design and its traditions,
would have tempted him into the expression of his political partialities.
For two months, therefore, "the censorship of Great Britain," as he
himself expressed it, "remained in commission," until Addison and he once
more returned to discharge the duties of the office in the _Spectator_,
the first number of which was published on the 1st of March, 1710-11. The
_Tatler_ had only been issued three times a week, but the conductors of
the new paper were now so confident in their own resources and in the
favour of the public that they undertook to bring out one number daily.
The new paper at once exhibited the impress of Addison's genius, which had
gradually transformed the character of the _Tatler_ itself. The latter was
originally, in every sense of the word, a newspaper, but the Spectator
from the first indulged his humour at the expense of the clubs of
Quidnuncs.
"There is," says he, "another set of men that I must likewise lay a
claim to as being altogether unfurnished with ideas till the business
and conversation of the day has supplied them. I have often considered
these poor souls with an eye of great commiseration when I have heard
them asking the first man they have met with whether there was any
news stirring, and by that means gathering together materials for
thinking. These needy persons do not know what to talk of till about
twelve o'clock in the morning; for by that time they are pretty good
judges of the weather, know which way the wind sets, and whether the
Dutch mail be come in. As they lie at the mercy of the first man they
meet, and are grave or impertinent all the day long, according to the
notions which they have imbibed in the morning, I would earnestly
entreat them not to stir out of their chambers till they have read
this paper; and do promise them that I will daily instil into them
such sound and wholesome sentiments as shall have a good effect on
their conversation for the ensuing twelve hours."[43]
For these, and other men of leisure, a kind of paper differing from the
_Tatler_, which proposed only to retail the various species of gossip in
the coffee-houses, was required, and the new entertainment was provided by
the original design of an imaginary club, consisting of several ideal
types of character grouped round the central figure of the Spectator. They
represent considerable classes or sections of the community, and are, as a
rule, men of strongly marked opinions, prejudices, and foibles, which
furnish inexhaustible matter of comment to the Spectator himself, who
delivers the judgments of reason and common-sense. Sir Roger de Coverley,
with his simplicity, his high sense of honour, and his old-world
reminiscences, reflects the country gentleman of the best kind; Sir Andrew
Freeport expresses the opinions of the enterprising, hard-headed, and
rather hard-hearted moneyed interest; Captain Sentry speaks for the army;
the Templar for the world of taste and learning; the clergyman for
theology and philosophy; while Will Honeycomb, the elderly man of fashion,
gives the Spectator many opportunities for criticizing the traditions of
morality and breeding surviving from the days of the Restoration. Thus,
instead of the division of places which determined the arrangement of the
_Tatler_, the different subjects treated in the _Spectator_ are
distributed among a variety of persons: the Templar is substituted for the
Grecian Coffee-House and Will's; Will Honeycomb takes the place of
White's; and Captain Sentry, whose appearances are rare, stands for the
more voluminous article on foreign intelligence published in the old
periodical, under the head of St. James's. The Spectator himself finds a
natural prototype in Isaac Bickerstaff, but his character is drawn with a
far greater finish and delicacy, and is much more essential to the design
of the paper which he conducts, than was that of the old astrologer.
The aim of the Spectator was to establish a rational standard of conduct
in morals, manners, art, and literature.
"Since," says he in one of his early numbers, "I have raised to myself
so great an audience, I shall spare no pains to make their instruction
agreeable and their diversion useful. For which reason I shall
endeavour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with
morality, that my readers may, if possible, both ways find their
account in the speculation of the day. And to the end that their
virtue and discretion may not be short, transient, intermitting starts
of thought, I have resolved to refresh their memories from day to day
till I have recovered them out of that desperate state of vice and
folly into which the age has fallen. The mind that lies fallow but a
single day sprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by a
constant and assiduous culture. It was said of Socrates that he
brought Philosophy down from heaven to inhabit among men; and I shall
be ambitious to have it said of me that I have brought Philosophy out
of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and
assemblies, at tea-tables and in coffee-houses."[44]
Johnson, in his _Life of Addison_, says that the task undertaken in the
_Spectator_ was "first attempted by Casa in his book of _Manners_, and
Castiglione in his _Courtier_; two books yet celebrated in Italy for
purity and elegance, and which, if they are now less read, are neglected
only because they have effected that reformation which their authors
intended, and their precepts now are no longer wanted." He afterwards
praises the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ by saying that they "adjusted, like
Casa, the unsettled practice of daily intercourse by propriety and
politeness, and, like La Bruyère, exhibited the characters and manners of
the age." This commendation scarcely does justice to the work of Addison
and Steele. Casa, a man equally distinguished for profligacy and
politeness, merely codified in his _Galateo_ the laws of good manners
which prevailed in his age. He is the Lord Chesterfield of Italy.
Castiglione gives instructions to the young courtier how to behave in such
a manner as to make himself agreeable to his prince. La Bruyère's
characters are no doubt the literary models of those which appear in the
_Spectator_. But La Bruyère merely described what he saw, with admirable
wit, urbanity, and scholarship, but without any of the earnestness of a
moral reformer. He could never have conceived the character of Sir Roger
de Coverley; and, though he was ready enough to satirise the follies of
society as an observer from the outside, to bring "philosophy out of
closets and libraries, to dwell in clubs and assemblies," was far from
being his ambition. He would probably have thought the publication of a
newspaper scarcely consistent with his position as a gentleman.
A very large portion of the _Spectator_ is devoted to reflections on the
manners of women. Addison saw clearly how important a part the female sex
was destined to play in the formation of English taste and manners.
Removed from the pedestal of enthusiastic devotion on which they had been
placed during the feudal ages, women were treated under the Restoration as
mere playthings and luxuries. As manners became more decent they found
themselves secured in their emancipated position but destitute of serious
and rational employment. It was Addison's object, therefore, to enlist the
aid of female genius in softening, refining, and moderating the gross and
conflicting tastes of a half-civilised society.
"There are none," he says, "to whom this paper will be more useful
than to the female world. I have often thought there has not been
sufficient pains taken in finding out proper employments and
diversions for the fair ones. Their amusements seem contrived for
them, rather as they are women than as they are reasonable creatures,
and are more adapted to the sex than to the species. The toilet is
their great scene of business, and the right adjustment of their hair
the principal employment of their lives. The sorting of a suit of
ribands is reckoned a very good morning's work; and if they make an
excursion to a mercer's or a toy shop, so great a fatigue makes them
unfit for anything else all the day after. Their more serious
occupations are sewing and embroidery, and their greatest drudgery the
preparations of jellies and sweetmeats. This, I say, is the state of
ordinary women, though I know there are multitudes of those of a more
elevated life and conversation that move in an exalted sphere of
knowledge and virtue, that join all the beauties of the mind to the
ornaments of dress, and inspire a kind of awe and respect, as well as
of love, into their male beholders. I hope to increase the number of
these by publishing this daily paper, which I shall always endeavour
to make an innocent, if not an improving entertainment, and by that
means, at least, divert the minds of my female readers from greater
trifles."[45]
To some of the vigorous spirits of the age the mild and social character
of the _Spectator's_ satire did not commend itself. Swift, who had
contributed several papers to the _Tatler_ while it was in its infancy,
found it too feminine for his taste. "I will not meddle with the
_Spectator_," says he in his _Journal to Stella_, "let him _fair sex_ it
to the world's end." Personal pique, however, may have done as much as a
differing taste to depreciate the _Spectator_ in the eyes of the author
of the _Tale of a Tub_, for he elsewhere acknowledges its merits. "The
_Spectator_," he writes to Stella, "is written by Steele, with Addison's
help; it is often very pretty.... But I never see him (Steele) or
Addison." That part of the public to whom the paper was specially
addressed read it with keen relish. In the ninety-second number a
correspondent, signing herself "Leonora,"[46] writes:
"Mr. Spectator,--Your paper is a part of my tea-equipage; and my
servant knows my humour so well that, calling for my breakfast this
morning (it being past my usual hour), she answered, the _Spectator_
was not yet come in, but the tea-kettle boiled, and she expected it
every moment."
In a subsequent number "Thomas Trusty" writes:
"I constantly peruse your paper as I smoke my morning's pipe (though I
can't forbear reading the motto before I fill and light), and really
it gives a grateful relish to every whiff; each paragraph is fraught
either with useful or delightful notions, and I never fail of being
highly diverted or improved. The variety of your subjects surprises me
as much as a box of pictures did formerly, in which there was only one
face, that by pulling some pieces of isinglass over it was changed
into a grave senator or a merry-andrew, a polished lady or a nun, a
beau or a blackamoor, a prude or a coquette, a country squire or a
conjuror, with many other different representations very entertaining
(as you are), though still the same at the bottom."[47]
The _Spectator_ was read in all parts of the country.
"I must confess," says Addison, as his task was drawing to an end,
"that I am not a little gratified and obliged by that concern which
appears in this great city upon my present design of laying down this
paper. It is likewise with much satisfaction that I find some of the
most outlying parts of the kingdom alarmed upon this occasion, having
received letters to expostulate with me about it from several of my
readers of the remotest boroughs of Great Britain."[48]
With how keen an interest the public entered into the humour of the paper
is shown by the following letter, signed "Philo-Spec:"
"I was this morning in a company of your well-wishers, when we read
over, with great satisfaction, Tully's observations on action adapted
to the British theatre, though, by the way, we were very sorry to find
that you have disposed of another member of your club. Poor Sir Roger
is dead, and the worthy clergyman dying; Captain Sentry has taken
possession of a fair estate; Will Honeycomb has married a farmer's
daughter; and the Templar withdraws himself into the business of his
own profession."[49]
It is no wonder that readers anticipated with regret the dissolution of a
society that had provided them with so much delicate entertainment.
Admirably as the club was designed for maintaining that variety of
treatment on which Mr. Trusty comments in the letter quoted above, the
execution of the design is deserving of even greater admiration. The skill
with which the grave speculations of the _Spectator_ are contrasted with
the lively observations of Will Honeycomb on the fashions of the age, and
these again are diversified with papers descriptive of character or
adorned with fiction, while the letters from the public outside form a
running commentary on the conduct of the paper, cannot be justly
appreciated without a certain effort of thought. But it may safely be said
that, to have provided society day after day, for more than two years,
with a species of entertainment which, nearly two centuries later, retains
all its old power to interest and delight, is an achievement unique in the
history of literature. Even apart from the exquisite art displayed in
their grouping, the matter of many of the essays in the _Spectator_ is
still valuable. The vivid descriptions of contemporary manners, the
inimitable series of sketches of Sir Roger de Coverley, the criticisms in
the papers on _True and False Wit_ and Milton's _Paradise Lost_, have
scarcely less significance for ourselves than for the society for which
they were immediately written.
Addison's own papers were 274 in number, as against 236 contributed by
Steele. They were, as a rule, signed with one of the four letters C. L.
I. O., either because, as Tickell seems to hint in his _Elegy_, they
composed the name of one of the Muses, or, as later scholars have
conjectured, because they were respectively written from four different
localities--viz., Chelsea, London, Islington, and the Office.
The sale of the _Spectator_ was doubtless very large relatively to the
number of readers in Queen Anne's reign. Johnson, indeed, computes the
number sold daily to have been only sixteen hundred and eighty, but he
seems to have overlooked what Addison himself says on the subject very
shortly after the paper had been started: "My publisher tells me that
there are already three thousand of them distributed every day."[50] This
number must have gone on increasing with the growing reputation of the
_Spectator_. When the Preface of the _Four Sermons_ of Dr. Fleetwood,
Bishop of Llandaff, was suppressed by order of the House of Commons, the
_Spectator_ printed it in its 384th number, thus conveying, as the Bishop
said in a letter to Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, "fourteen thousand copies
of the condemned preface into people's hands that would otherwise have
never seen or heard of it." Making allowance for the extraordinary
character of the number, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the usual
daily issue of the _Spectator_ to readers in all parts of the kingdom
would, towards the close of its career, have reached ten thousand copies.
The separate papers were afterwards collected into octavo volumes, which
were sold, like the volumes of the _Tatler_, for a guinea apiece. Steele
tells us that more than nine thousand copies of each volume were sold
off.[51]
Nothing could have been better timed than the appearance of the
_Spectator_; it may indeed be doubted whether it could have been produced
with success at any other period. Had it been projected earlier, while
Addison was still in office, his thoughts would have been diverted to
other subjects, and he would have been unlikely to survey the world with
quite impartial eyes; had the publication been delayed it would have come
before the public when the balance of all minds was disturbed by the
dangers of the political situation. The difficulty of preserving
neutrality under such circumstances was soon shown by the fate of the
_Guardian_. Shortly after the _Spectator_ was discontinued this new paper
was designed by the fertile invention of Steele, with every intention of
keeping it, like its predecessor, free from the entanglements of party.
But it had not proceeded beyond the forty-first number when the vehement
partizanship of Steele was excited by the Tory _Examiner_; in the 128th
number appeared a letter, signed "An English Tory," calling for the
demolition of Dunkirk, while soon afterwards, finding that his political
feelings were hampered by the design on which the _Guardian_ was
conducted, he dropped it and replaced it with a paper called the
_Englishman_. Addison himself, who had been a frequent contributor to the
_Guardian_, did not aid in the _Englishman_, of the violent party tone of
which he strongly disapproved. A few years afterwards the old friends and
coadjutors in the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ found themselves maintaining an
angry controversy in the opposing pages of the _Old Whig_ and the
_Plebeian_.