Write the life and works of Richard Steele.

Ans.

LIFE AND WORKS

1. His Early life and work- Richard Steele was an Irishman born in Dublin in 1672. In 1684 he entered Charter house, where he first met Addison. In 1689 he went to Oxford where again he found Addison as a fellow student. But Steele left the university without taking his degree. Next he entered the army as a volunteer. He wrote a poem there on the funeral of Mary (1695) which brought him the favour of a well-known colonel. his next attempt was a prose treatise The Christian Hero (1704). He also wrote for the stage. Three of his comedies. The funeral (1701), The Lying Lover (1703), and The Tender Husband (1705). appeared in his life-time. But the best of his comedies, The Conscious lovers, did not appear till after his death.

2. “The Tatler”- Steele’s career, however, was destined to take a different course, in 1707 he was appointed to the office of gazetteer. His experience as editor of the Gazette resulted, in 1709, in the birth of his famous periodical The Tatler. His managed the paper almost single handed. His purpose in bringing out this periodical was to tone up the morals and to attack the fashionable vices of the middle-class society. His papers in The Tatler proved to be highly effective in bringing about a general improvement of the moral atmosphere of the English society.

3. His Association with “The Spectator”- The Tatler came to anent on January 2, 1711. On March 1, 1711 the most famous periodical of the 18th century was brought out by the joint effort of Addison and Steele. Addison was to be the editor of this new periodical. The number of Addison’s papers was slightly higher than that of Steele’s papers. But the conception and the general plan of The spectator was the result of their close co-operation and perfect understanding. Hugh Walker, in his book The English Essay and essayists, gives due consideration to the merits of the two great essayists of the 18th century. He says:

“No doubt Addison is on the whole superior. He is a far more finished writer, more correct, more scholarly, more subtype humorous. Steele’s style is like his life, as Thackeray said, full of faults and careless blunders, and re deemed, like that, by his sweet and compassionate nature.” It was Thackeray too who pointed out the great service done by Steele in his reverence for the pieties of the home, his respect for women and his love of children. He is certainly a better moralist than Addison.”

4. Other Periodicals brought Out by Steele- Besides The Tatler and The Spectator, Steele has a number of other periodicals to his credit. In 1713 he started The Guardian. But the tone of the other two periodicals was absent from his new paper and some influence of party spirit is clearly in it. The papers started after The Guardian were all principally devoted to party politics of the time. Other periodicals edited by Steele are: The Englishman. The Lover, The Reader. Town Talk. The Tea-Table, Chit-Chat, The Plebeian and The Theatre.

5. An Appreciation of His Work- Steele, the writer, is humble but resolute in his aims. His purpose was obviously moralistic. But there is also in his papers an open frankness which makes them extremely attractive. Steele is habitually autobiographical, without professing to be so. He is all the more sincere because his self-revelations are generally unconscious. He does not often tell the facts of his life, but he constantly reveals the feelings of his heart. Thus Steele was properly equipped to be a genuine essayist.