This play took birth from principles of truth,
To make amends for errors past, of youth.
A bard that's now no more, in riper days,
Conscious review'd the licence of his plays:
And tho' applause his wanton muse had fir'd,
Himself condemn'd what sensual minds admir'd.
At length he own'd that plays should let you see
Not only what you are, but ought to be:
Though vice was natural, 'twas never meant,
The stage should shew it, but for punishment!
Warm with that thought his muse once more took flame,
Resolv'd to bring licentious life to shame.
Such was the piece, his latest pen design'd',
But left no traces of his plan behind.
Luxurious scenes, unprun'd, or half contriv'd;
Yet, through the mass, his native fire surviv'd:
Rough as rich oar, in mines the treasure lay,
Yet still 'twas rich, and forms at length a play.
In which the bold compiler boasts no merit,
But that his pains have sav'd you scenes of spirit.
Not scenes that would a noisy joy impart,
But such as hush the mind, and warm the heart.
From praise of hands, no sure account he draws,
But fix'd attention is, sincere applause.
If then (for hard you'll own the task) his art
Can to those Embrion scenes new life impart;
The living proudly would exclude his lays,
And to the buried bard resign the praise.
Sir John indeed appears to have been often sensible of the immorality
of his scenes; for in the year 1725 when the company of comedians was
called upon, in a manner that could not be resisted, to revive the
Provok'd Wife, the author, who was conscious how justly it was exposed
to censure, thought proper to substitute a new scene in the fourth
act, in place of another, in which, in the wantonness of his wit
and humour, he had made a Rake talk like a Rake, in the habit of a
Clergyman. To avoid which offence, he put the same Debauchee into the
Undress of a Woman of Quality; for the character of a fine lady, it
seems, is not reckoned so indelibly sacred, as that of a Churchman.
Whatever follies he exposed in the petticoat kept him at least clear
of his former imputed prophaneness, and appeared now to the audience
innocently ridiculous.
This ingenious dramatist died of a quinsey at his house in Whitehall,
on the 26th of March 1726. He was a man of a lively imagination, of
a facetious, and engaging humour, and as he lived esteemed by all his
acquaintance, so he died without leaving ons enemy to reproach his
memory; a felicity which few men of public employments, or possessed
of so distinguished a genius, ever enjoyed. He has left behind
him monuments of fame, which can never perish but with taste and
politeness.
[Footnote A: The two first were never printed from Sir John's
manuscript.]
* * * * *
Sir RICHARD STEELE, Knt.
This celebrated genius was born in Ireland. His father being a
counsellor at law, and private secretary to James duke of Ormond, he
went over with his grace to that kingdom, when he was raised to the
dignity of lord lieutenant[A]. Our author when but very young, came
over into England; and was educated at the Charter-House school
in London, where Mr. Addison was his school-fellow, and where they
contracted a friendship which continued firm till the death of that
great man.
His inclination leading him to the army, he rode for some time
privately in the guards; in which station, as he himself tells us, in
his Apology for his Writings, he first became an author, a way of
life in which the irregularities of youth are considered as a kind of
recommendation.
Mr. Steele was born with the most violent propension to pleasure, and
at the same time was master of so much good sense, as to be able
to discern the extreme folly of licentious courses, their moral
unfitness, and the many calamities they naturally produce. He
maintained a perpetual struggle between reason and appetite. He
frequently fell into indulgencies, which cost him many a pang of
remorse, and under the conviction of the danger of a vicious life,
he wrote his Christian Hero, with a design to fix upon his own mind a
strong impression of virtue and religion. But this secret admonition
to his conscience he judged too weak, and therefore in the year 1701
printed the book with his name prefixed, in hopes that a standing
evidence against himself in the eyes of the world, might the more
forcibly induce him to lay a restraint upon his desires, and make him
ashamed of vice, so contrary to his own sense and conviction.
This piece was the first of any note, and is esteem'd by some as one
of the best of Mr. Steele's works; he gained great reputation by it,
and recommended himself to the regard of all pious and good men. But
while he grew in the esteem of the religious and worthy, he sunk in
the opinion of his old companions in gaiety: He was reckoned by them
to have degenerated from the gay, sprightly companion, to the dull
disagreeable pedant, and they measured the least levity of his words
and actions with the character of a Christian Hero. Thus he found
himself slighted, instead of being encouraged for his declarations
as to religion; but happily those who held him in contempt for his
defence of piety and goodness were characters, with whom to be at
variance is virtue. But Mr. Steele, who could not be content with the
suffrage of the Good only, without the concurrence of the Gay, set
about recovering the favour of the latter by innocent means: He
introduced a Comedy on the stage, called Grief A-la-Mode, in which,
tho' full of incidents that move laughter, and inspire chearfulness,
virtue and vice appear just as they ought to do. This play was acted
at the Theatre in Drury Lane 1702, and as nothing can make the town
so fond of a man, as a successful play; so this, with some other
particulars enlarged on to his advantage, recommended him to king
William, and his name to be provided for was in the last table-book
worn by his majesty. He had before this time procured a captain's
commission in the lord Lucas's regiment, by the interest of lord
Cutts, to whom he dedicated his Christian Hero, and who likewise
appointed him his secretary: His next appearance as a writer, was in
the office of Gazetteer, in which he observes in the same apology for
himself, he worked faithfully, according to order, without ever erring
against the rule observed by all ministers, to keep that paper very
innocent, and insipid. The reproaches he heard every Gazette-day
against the writer of it, inspired him with a fortitude of being
remarkably negligent of what people said, which he did not deserve. In
endeavouring to acquire this negligence, he certainly acted a prudent
part, and gained the most important and leading advantage, with which,
every author should set out.
Whoever writes for the public, is sure to draw down envy on himself
from some quarter or other, and they who are resolved never to be
pleased, consider him as too assuming, and discover their resentment
by contempt. How miserable is the state of an author! It is his
misfortune in common with the fair sex,
To please too little, or to please too much.
If he happens to be a successful writer, his friends who become then
proud of his acquaintance, flatter him, and by soothing his vanity
teach him to overrate his importance, and while he grasps at universal
fame, he loses by too vigorous an effort, what he had acquired by
diligence and application: If he pleases too little, that is, if his
works are not read, he is in a fair way of being a great loser by his
attempt to please. Mr. Steele still continued to write plays. In the
year 1703 his Comedy, entitled the Tender Husband, or the Accomplished
Fools, was acted at the Theatre in Drury-Lane; as his Comedy of
the Lying-Lovers, or the Ladies Friendship, was likewise the year
following, both with success; so that his reputation was now fully
established.
In the year 1709 he began the Taller, the first of which was published
on Tuesday April the 12th, and the last on Tuesday January the 2d,
1710-11. This paper greatly increasing his fame, he was preferred to
be one of the commissioners of the stamp office. Upon laying down the
Tatler, he set up, in concert with Mr. Addison, the Spectator, which
was continued from March the 1st, 1710-11, to December the 6th 1712;
and resumed June 18th 1714. and continued till December the 20th, the
same year.
The Guardian was likewise published by them, in 1713, and in the
October of the same year, Mr. Steele began a political paper, entitled
the Englishman.
In the Spectator, Mr. Steele's papers are marked with the letter T.
and in them are contained the most picturesque descriptions of low
life, of which he was perfect matter. Humour was his talent, though
not so much confined to that cast of writing to be incapable of
painting very tender scenes; witness his Conscious Lovers, which never
fails to draw tears; and in some of his Spectators he has written in
so feeling a manner, that none can read them without emotion.
He had a strong inclination to find out the humours of low life, and
to make himself master of them. When he was at Edinburgh, as one of
the commissioners on the forfeited estates, he one day made a very
splendid feast, and while his servants were surprized at the great
preparations, and were expecting every moment to carry out his
invitations to the company for whom they imagined it was prepared, he
commanded them to go out to the street, and pick up whatever beggars,
and poor people they saw, and invite them to his house: The servants
obeyed, and Sir Richard soon saw himself at the head of 40 or 50
beggars, together with some poor decay'd tradesmen. After dinner he
plied them with punch and wine, and when the frolic was ended, he
declared, that besides the pleasure of feeding so many hungry persons,
he had learned from them humour enough for a good comedy.
Our author was a man of the highest benevolence; he celebrates a
generous action with a warmth that is only peculiar to a good heart;
and however he may be blamed for want of oeconomy, &c. yet was he
the most agreeable, and if we may be allowed the expression, the most
innocent rake, that ever trod the rounds of indulgence.
He wrote several poetical pieces, particularly the Englishman's thanks
to the duke of Marlborough, printed in 1711; a letter to Sir Miles
Wharton, concerning Occasional Peers, dated March 5th, 1713. The
Guardian of August the 7th, 1713; and the importance of Dunkirk
considered, in defence of that Guardian, in a letter to the bailiff
of Stockbridge: The French Faith represented in the present state of
Dunkirk: The Crisis, a Letter to a Member of Parliament, concerning
the bill to prevent the present Growth of Schism, dated May 28, 1714;
and his Apology for himself and his Writings.
These pieces shew how much he was displeased with the last measures
of Queen Anne, and were written to combat the Tory ministry; to oppose
which he set about procuring a seat in Parliament; for which purpose
he resigned his place of commissioner of the stamp-office, in June
1713, in a letter to the earl of Oxford, lord high treasurer, and was
chosen member of the House of Commons, for the Borough of Stockbridge.
But he did not long enjoy his seat in that house before he was
expelled, on the 18th of March 1713, for writing the Englishman, being
the close of the paper so called; and the Crisis[B].
In 1714 he published the Romish Ecclesiastical History of late years,
and a paper intitled The Lover; the first of which appeared Thursday
February 25, 1714, and another intitled the Reader, which began on
Thursday April 22, the same year. In the sixth Number of this last
paper, he gave an account of his design of writing the History of
the Duke of Marlborough, from proper materials in his custody: the
relation to commence from the date of his grace's commission, as
captain-general, and plenipotentiary; and to end with the expiration
of these commissions. But this noble design he lived not to execute,
and the materials were afterwards returned to the duchess of
Marlborough, who left them to Mr. Mallet, with a handsome gratuity for
the execution of Sir Richard's design.
Soon after the accession of king George the 1st to the throne, Mr.
Steele was appointed surveyor of the royal stables at Hampton-Court,
and governor of the royal company of Comedians, by a patent, dated
January 19, 1714-15. He was likewise put into the commission of the
peace for the county of Middlesex; and in April 1715 received the
honour of knighthood from his majesty. In the first parliament of that
king, he was chosen for Borough-brigg in Yorkshire; and after the
suppressing the Rebellion in the North, was appointed one of the
commissioners of the forfeited estates in Scotland, where he received
from several of the nobility and gentry of that part of the united
kingdom the most distinguishing marks of respect. He contracted a
friendship while in Scotland, with one Hart, a Presbyterian minister
in Edinburgh, whom he afterwards honoured with his correspondence:
This Hart he used merrily to stile the Hangman of the Gospel, for
though he was a facetious good-natur'd man, yet he had fallen into a
peculiar way of preaching what he called the Terrors of the Law, and
denounced anathemas from the pulpit without reserve.
Sir Richard held frequent conversations with Hart, and other
ministers, concerning the restoration of episcopacy, the antient
church-government of that nation, and often observed that it was pity,
when the two kingdoms were united in language, in dress, in politics,
and in all essential points, even in religion, should yet be divided
in the ecclesiastical administration, which still serves to maintain a
kind of alienation between the people. He found many of the Scots
well disposed towards prelacy; but the generality, who were taught
to contemplate the church of England, with as much horror as that of
Rome, could not soon be prevailed upon to return to it.
Sir Richard wished well to the interests of religion, and as he
imagined that Union would promote it, he had some thoughts of
proposing it at court, but the times were unfavourable. The
Presbyterians had lately appeared active against the rebels, and were
not to be disobliged; but such is now the good understanding between
the episcopal and presbyterian parties, that a few concessions on the
one side, and not many advances on the other, possibly might produce
an amicable coalition, as it is chiefly in form, rather than in
articles of religion, in which they differ.
In the year 1715 he published an account of the state of the Roman
Catholic Religion throughout the World, translated from an Italian
manuscript, with a dedication to the Pope, giving him a very
particular account of the state of religion amongst the Protestants,
and several other matters of importance, relating to Great-Britain;
but this dedication is supposed to be written by another very eminent
hand, more conversant in subjects of that nature than Sir Richard.
The same year our author published a Letter from the earl of Marr to
the king, before his majesty's arrival in England; with some remarks
on my lord's subsequent conduct; and the year following a second
volume of the Englishman, and in 1718 an account of a Fish-Pool, which
was a project of his for bringing fish to market alive, for which he
obtained a patent.
In 1719 he published a pamphlet called the Spinster, and a Letter
to the Earl of Oxford, concerning the Bill of Peerage, which bill he
opposed in the House of Commons. Some time after, he wrote against the
South-Sea-Scheme; his Crisis of posterity; and another piece intitled,
A Nation a Family; and on Saturday January the 2d, 1719-20, he began
a paper called the Theatre, during the course of which his patent of
governor of the Royal Company of Comedians, being suspended by his
majesty, he published, The State of the Case.
In the year 1722, he brought his Conscious Lovers on the stage, with
prodigious success. This is the last and most finished of all Sir
Richard's Comedies, and 'tis doubtful if there is upon the stage, any
more instructing; that tends to convey a finer moral, or is better
conducted in its design. We have already observed, that it is
impossible to witness the tender scenes of this Comedy without
emotion; that is, no man of feeling and humanity, who has experienced
the délicate solicitudes of love and affection, can do it. Sir Richard
has told us, that when one of the players told Mr. Wilks, that there
was a General weeping for Indiana; he politely observed, that he
would not fight the worse for that; and indeed what a noble school
of morality would the stage be, if all those who write for it would
observe such delicate chastity; they would then inforce an honourable
and virtuous deportment, by the most insinuating and easy means;
they would so allure the audience by the amiable form of goodness
represented in her native loveliness, that he who could resist her
charms, must be something more than wicked.
When Sir Richard finished this Comedy, the parts of Tom and Phillis
were not then in it: He read it to Mr. Cibber, who candidly told him,
that though he liked his play upon the whole, both in the cast of the
characters and execution of them; yet, that it was rather too grave
for an English audience, who want generally to laugh at a Comedy, and
without which in their opinion, the end is not answered. Mr. Cibber
then proposed the addition of some comic characters, with which Sir
Richard agreed, and saw the propriety and force of the observation.
This comedy (at Sir Richard's request) received many additions from,
and were greatly improved by Mr. Cibber.--Our author dedicated this
work to the king, who made him a present of 500 l.
Some years before his death, he grew paralytic, and retired to his
seat at Langunner, near Caermarthen in Wales, where he died September
the 1st, 1729; and was privately interred according to his own desire,
in the church of Caermarthen.
Besides his writings above-mentionened, he began on Saturday the 17th
of December, a weekly paper in quarto, called the Town-Talk, in a
letter to a lady in the country; and another, intitled the Tea-Table:
He had likewise planned a comedy which he intended to call The School
of Action.--As Sir Richard was beloved when living, so his loss was
sincerely regretted at his death. He was a man of undissembled, and
extensive benevolence; a friend to the friendless, and as far as his
circumstances would permit, the father of every orphan: His works
are chaste, and manly, he himself admired virtue, and he drew her as
lovely as she is: of his works it may be said, as Sir George Lyttleton
in his prologue to Coriolanus observes of Thomson, that there are not
in them
One corrupted, one immoral thought,
A line which dying he could wish to blot.
He was a stranger to the most distant appearance of envy or
malevolence, never jealous of any man's growing reputation, and so far
from arrogating any praise to himself, from his conjunction with Mr.
Addison, that he was the first who desired him to distinguish his
papers in the Spectator, and after the death of that great man was a
faithful executor of his fame, notwithstanding an aspersion which Mr.
Tickell was so unjust to throw upon him. Sir Richard's greatest error
was want of oeconomy, as appears from the two following instances
related by the elegant writer of Mr. Savage's Life, to whom that
gentleman communicated them.
'Savage was once desired by Sir Richard, with an air of the utmost
importance, to come very early to his house the next morning. Mr.
Savage came as he had promised, found the chariot at the door, and
Sir Richard waiting for him ready to go out. What was intended, and
whither they were to go, Savage could not conjecture, and was not
willing to inquire, but immediately seated himself with Sir Richard:
The coachman was ordered to drive, and they hurried with the utmost
expedition to Hyde-Park Corner, where they stopped at a petty tavern,
and retired to a private room. Sir Richard then informed him, that
he intended to publish a pamphlet, and that he desired him to come
thither, that he might write for him. They soon sat down to the work,
Sir Richard dictated, and Savage wrote, till the dinner which had been
ordered, was put upon the table. Savage was surprised at the meanness
of the entertainment, and after some hesitation, ventured to ask for
wine, which Sir Richard, not without reluctance ordered to be brought.
They then finished their dinner, and proceeded in their pamphlet,
which they concluded in the afternoon. Mr. Savage then imagined his
task over, and expected that Sir Richard would call for the reckoning
and return home; but his expectations deceived him, for Sir Richard
told him he was without money and that the pamphlet must be sold
before the dinner could be paid for; and Savage was therefore obliged
to go and offer their new production to sale for two guineas, which
with some difficulty he obtained. Sir Richard then returned home,
having retired that day only to avoid his creditors, and composed the
pamphlet only to discharge his reckoning.' As Savage has said nothing
to the contrary, it is reasonable to conjecture that he had Sir
Richard's permission to use his name to the Bookseller, to whom he
made an offer of it for two guineas, otherwise it is very improbable
that the pamphlet should be sold at all in so short a time.
The other instance is equally uncommon with the former: Sir Richard
having incited to his house a great number of persons of the
first quality, they were surprized at the number of liveries which
surrounded the table; and after dinner, when wine and mirth had
set them free from the observation of rigid ceremony, one of them
enquired of Sir Richard, how such an expensive train of domestics
could be consistent with his fortune? Sir Richard frankly confessed,
that they were fellows of whom he would very willingly be rid. And
being then asked why he did not discharge them; he declared that they
were Bailiffs who had introduced themselves with an execution, and
whom, since he could not send them away, he had thought it convenient
to imbellish with liveries, that they might do him credit whilst they
staid.
His friends were diverted with the expedient, and by paying the debt,
discharged the attendance, having obliged Sir Richard to promise that
they should never find him again graced with a retinue of the same
kind.
He married to his first wife a gentlewoman of Barbadoes, with whom he
had a valuable Plantation there on the death of her brother, who was
taken by the French at Sea as he was coming to England, and died in
France. This wife dying without issue, he married Mary, the daughter
of Jonathan Scurlock of Langunnoc in Carmarthanshire, esq; by whom he
had one son, Eugene, who died young: of his two daughters, one only is
living; which lady became sole heiress to a handsome estate in Wales.
She was married, when young, to the hon. John Trevor, esq; one of the
judges of the principality of Wales; who since, by the death of his
brother, has taken his seat in the House of Lords, as Baron Trevor,
&c.
[Footnote A: General Dictionary, vol. ix, p. 395.]
[Footnote B: His expulsion was owing to the spleen of the then
prevailing party; what they design'd as a disgrace, prov'd an honour
to him.]
* * * * *