the rank of historical fiction into that of fictitious biography. Although Steele always wished to be considered an Englishman, he was born in Dublin and died in Wales. His father died when he was about five years old, and one of the most pathetic passages which Steele ever wrote is a description of his own remembrance of the sad event.1 It is not quite certain how long his mother lived, but she must have died soon after her husband. Left thus early an orphan, Steele was cared for by an uncle, who provided the means of a good education. When he was about twelve years old he was admitted to the Charterhouse "upon the foundation," and there prepared for Oxford. In 1686 Joseph Addison entered the same school, and a friendship sprung up between these two congenial boys, destined to last almost uninterrupted until they were separated by death, and to remain a fragrant memory with the survivor-Steele. But although Steele went first to the fitting school, he went last to the university, and chose a different college, Christ's Church. His life at college seems to have been a happy one, and he gave some evidence of literary tastes; but he left Oxford in 1694, enlisting as a private in the Horse Guards. This step was probably due to his natural bent towards an active life. In later life he thus describes it, speaking of himself in the third person: 66 When he mounted a war-horse, with a great sword in his hand, and planted himself behind King William the Third against Lewis the Fourteenth, he lost the succession to a very good estate in Ireland, from the same humor which he has pursued ever since, of preferring the state of his mind to that of his fortune." Steele's pen proved mightier than his sword. With this he won his first promotion, for he wrote a poem upon the death of the queen and dedicated it, although anony 1 Tatler No. 181. mously, to Lord Cutts, a gallant soldier and an ardent Whig of literary tastes. Steele alluded to his lordship's ability as a poet, and signed himself his "most passionate admirer and most devoted humble servant." In consequence, Lord Cutts made his passionate admirer a member of his military household, and got him an ensign's commission in the Coldstream Guards, which he himself commanded. From this date there is little to record of Steele until 1700. By that time he had become a captain, and in that year we find him warmly defending Addison against some epigrams of Sir Richard Blackmore (see page 17, note 3), and fighting, against his will, a duel, in which he seriously wounded his antagonist-a circumstance which perhaps accounts for his frequent condemnations of duelling in the Tatler and the Spectator. While in the army, Steele had dissolute associates and found himself yielding to the temptations of an irregular life. He consequently wrote a little work called the "Christian Hero," which he designed as a private monitor to keep himself in the paths of virtue. As he still found it hard to reconcile his deeds and his duties, he resolved to publish his book, "in hopes," he says, "that a standing testimony against himself might curb his desires and make him ashamed of understanding and seeming to feel what was virtuous, and living so quite contrary a life." Years later, however, he remarked that his book "had no other good effect, but that from being thought no undelightful companion, he was soon reckoned a disagreeable fellow." But whatever his real faults, Steele had an honest desire to make the world better. The English stage was then notoriously immoral, and writers of reputation lent their influence to keep it so. Steele took a noble stand and wrote several comedies far above the level of his age. They were not great works: the style is often unnatural and prosy, but they deserve remembrance as the first serious effort of a playwright to reverse the current of public taste. The revulsion came in time, and Steele's comedies, supplemented in the Tatler and Spectator by his more graceful prose, had no small effect in creating a love of virtue and a contempt for vice. In 1702 Steele was appointed a Captain of Foot in Lord Lucas's regiment, where he remained, always on duty in or near London, till after the death of his colonel in 1705. In the spring of that year he married Margaret Stretch, a widow, who had an estate of some value in the Barbadoes. About this time Steele sold his commission, and, according to a malicious rumor, squandered his available means in a fruitless search for the philosopher's stone. Steele's first wife lived less than two years; and less than a year later he married Mary Scurlock, a Welsh "beauty. Before the death of his first wife he had been appointed gentleman-waiter to Prince George (husband of Queen Anne) at £100 a year, and shortly after her death he was made Gazetteer, with a salary of £300. He says of himself in this new office, that "his next appearance as a writer was in the quality of the lowest Minister of State—to wit, in the office of Gazetteer; where he worked faithfully according to order, without ever erring against the rule observed by all Ministries, to keep that paper very innocent and very insipid." Notwithstanding a considerable income, Steele throughout the rest of his life perpetually harassed by debt. This has been attributed to dissipation, but it was probably due more to mismanagement. His second marriage seems to have been a very happy one, and many of his letters to "Dear Prue "" have been preserved, which are often an amusing medley of conjugal affection and financial distress. In 1708 Prince George died, but the salary of the gentleman-waiter was continued in the form of a pension. Meantime Steele's debts accumulated. Matters were in a confused state when some good genius, perhaps Swift, whispered into Steele's ear the idea of the Tatler. The story of its rise has been already told and need not be repeated. It made for Steele a high place in English literature, and was no small help financially, although he did not escape arrest for debt. In 1710 he was made a Commissioner of Stamps with £300 a year, but this was offset in the same year by the loss of his Gazetteership, for political reasons, and shortly after he brought his periodical to a close. It will be remembered that about two months after the close of the Tatler, the Spectator began; and it will be seen by a reference to Chapter II. that Steele first sketched the character of Sir Roger de Coverley: but Addison was principally concerned afterwards in filling in the sketch. That he gave the most masterly strokes to Sir Roger's portrait, few will dispute; yet Steele must be given credit for much that is fine in it. But finally Addison "killed Sir Roger that no one else might murder him," and shortly after that the Spectator, so far as Steele had anything to do with it, came to a close with its five hundred and fifty-fifth number. On March 12, 1713, Steele became identified with the publication of a new periodical, the Guardian; but this was inferior to both the Tatler and the Spectator in literary interest, though it marks the beginning of a political career, in which he proved himself a sturdy defender of Whig principles. Meanwhile, in the preceding summer, Steele sent in his resignation as Commissioner of Stamps, gave up his pension as gentleman-waiter, and stood for Parliament, to which he was elected in August. Immediately after discontinuing the Guardian, he began another publication-The Englishman-professedly political, in which, as well as in a pamphlet called "The Crisis," he made a powerful attack on the Tory government. For these utterances he was tried by Parliament and expelled from the House. But the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I. gave the victory to the Whigs, and turned the tide of Steele's fortune. He was given several valuable offices, including the control of Drury Lane Theatre, was knighted by the king, and again returned to Parliament. In 1714 he published two short-lived periodicals, the Lover and the Reader, and in 1715 a short second volume of the Englishman. In 1718 Steele's wife died, and in 1719 he became engaged in a political controversy with Addison. This quarrel, the only one of their lives, was suddenly brought to a close-not by a reconciliation, but by the death of Addison. We may imagine with what grief Steele's tender heart was penetrated in consequence. There is little to be said of Steele after the death of Addison. He took part against the South Sea Bubble, was for some time engaged in theatrical affairs, and wrote his fourth comedy; but he was continually involved in pecuniary embarrassments, and withdrew to a small estate in Wales which he inherited from his second wife, where he died in 1729. think lightly of the For this, Macaulay, It was formerly the custom to character of " poor Dick Steele."1 Thackeray, and Steele himself are largely responsible. Macaulay, with his innate love of antithesis, having raised one mortal to the skies, felt impelled to reverse the process when he considered Steele; and instead of drawing him. down, he dragged him. Thus he says: "Steele had left college without taking a degree, had been disinherited by a rich relation, had led a vagrant life, had served in the army, had tried to find the philosopher's stone, and had written a religious treatise and several come Much wrong was done to Steele's memory by the personal attacks of his political antagonists, perhaps the bitterest of which was made by Swift in the cruel lines: "Thus Steele, who owned what others writ, From perils of a hundred jails, Withdrew to starve and die in Wales.' |