Compare and contrast Addison and Steele as periodical essayists.

Ans.

1. Steele’s self-depreciation is a factor in his assessment

To The Spectator Addison’s contributions are slightly more numerous than Steele’s, and they are thought to be of much higher merit. This may be questioned. Probably opinion has been influenced in some degree by Steele’s depreciation of himself in comparison with his friend, Addison. Referring to the assistance he got from Addison in The Tatler, Steele spoke of himself as faring like a distressed prince who calls in to his aid a powerful neighbour.’ This has been generally accepted as an accurate account of the relative merits of the two writers.

2.Steele superior in tone, inferior in style

No doubt, Addison is on the whole superior. He is a more finished writer, more correct, more scholarly, more subtly humorous. Steele’s style is like his life, “full of faults and careless blunders.” But it is also redeemed by his sweet and compassionate nature. Thackeray pointed out to the great service done by Steele in his reverence for the pieties of the home, his respect for women and his love of children. here he is a better moralist than Addison. On the whole, we can say, Steele is as much superior to Addison in tone as he is inferior in style.

3. Steele is autobiographical in tone

Apart from their other moral qualities, there is in Steele’s essays an open frankness which makes them very attractive. He is habitually autobiographical. He is all the more sincere be cause generally his self-revelations are unconscious. He does not often tell the factors of his own life, but he constantly reveals the feeling of his heart.

4. Comparison and contrast

Joseph Addison has carried away more than his share of renown of the periodical essay. That he was, both as man and as writer, for less faulty than Steele is clear. But the question can be raised whether it is equally clear that he had higher merits. The answer would not be easy.

Of course there was much in the character of Addison that appealed to the English sense of respectability. But the truth is that Addison, the just man of the two, was also the Jess generous. While he was safe from the lapses of Steele, he could never soar to the heights which his friend occasionally reached. In Addison the head is more in evidence, in Steele the heart. Hence the former is far more typical of his age than the latter.

5. Addison style is more successful: a perfect medium for his aim Yet it must be recognized that Addison’s service to English prose was great. It may even be said of him that he perfected English prose style. In spite of their force and eloquence Milton and Sir Thomas Browne failed to make English prose an effective medium for everyday use. This is what Addison, more than any of his contemporaries, did. The form which Steele had developed was adapted to Addison. It brought out all that was best in him. Addison was a moralist, more preoccupied with minor morals than with major ones. The want of force in his style is therefore not a demerit. On the contrary, it may have been an advantage. Addison is on whole the best writer of his class.