‘the succession to a very good estate in the county of Wexford in Ireland.’ What this estate was his biographers have failed to discover, although it has been conjectured that, if it existed at all, it belonged to a relative of his mother.
On 28 Dec. 1694 Queen Mary died, and among the mourning bards who, in black-framed folio, celebrated her funeral was Steele, whose verses, described as ‘by a Gentleman of the Army,’ and entitled ‘The Procession,’ were, doubtless from motives of policy, dedicated to John, lord Cutts [q. v.], who had just become colonel of the 2nd or Coldstream regiment of foot-guards. Lord Cutts took Steele into his household, and in 1696–7 employed him as his confidential agent or secretary (cf. Carleton, Memoirs, 1728, ch. iii.). Ultimately he gave him a standard in his own regiment. By 1700 Steele is referred to as ‘Captain,’ and there is also evidence that he was in friendly relations with Sedley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, Garth, and other contemporary wits. In the same year (16 June), ‘one or two of his acquaintance’ having ‘thought fit to misuse him and try their valour upon him’ (Apology for himself and his Writings, 1714, p. 80), he fought a duel in Hyde Park with a Captain Kelly, whom he wounded dangerously, but not mortally (Luttrell, Diary, iv. 657). This occurrence made a serious impression upon him, and laid the foundation of that dislike of duelling which he ever afterwards exhibited. In all probability it is connected with his next literary effort, the treatise called ‘The Christian Hero: an Argument proving that no Principles but those of Religion are sufficient to make a great Man.’ This (which was also dedicated to Lord Cutts) was published by Tonson in April 1701, a second and enlarged edition following on 19 July. Steele's own account of this work in his ‘Apology,’ p. 80, is that, finding the military life ‘exposed to much irregularity,’ he wrote it ‘to fix upon his own mind a strong impression of virtue and religion, in opposition to a stronger propensity towards unwarrantable pleasures,’ which admission has probably been construed too literally (cf. Biogr. Brit. 1763, vol. vi. pt. i. p. 3823). The ‘Christian Hero’ was at first designed solely for his private use, but finding ‘that this secret admonition was too weak,’ he ultimately ‘printed the book with his name,’ as a ‘standing testimony against himself.’ It differs considerably both in style and teaching from the ordinary devotional manual, and without much straining may be said to exhibit definite indications of that faculty for essay-writing which was to be so signally developed in the ‘Spectator,’ in which indeed certain portions of it were afterwards embodied. Upon his colleagues at the Tower Guard (whence its Preface is dated) its effect was what might have been anticipated. ‘From being thought no undelightful companion, he was soon reckoned a disagreeable fellow. … Thus he found himself slighted, instead of being encouraged, for his declarations as to Religion, and it was now incumbent upon him to enliven his character, for which reason he writ the comedy called “The Funeral,” in which (tho' full of incidents that move laughter) virtue and vice appear as they ought to do’ (Apology, p. 80).
‘The Funeral; or, Grief a-la-Mode,’ was acted at Drury Lane late in 1701, and was published in book form in December of that year, with a dedication to the Countess of Albemarle. The principal parts were taken by Cibber, Wilks, and Mrs. Verbruggen, and the championship of the author's military friends helped to secure its success. ‘With some particulars enlarged upon to his advantage’ (by which must probably be understood certain politic references to William III in the ‘Christian Hero’), it also obtained for him the notice of the king. ‘His [Steele's] name, to be provided for, was in the last table-book ever worn by the glorious and immortal William the Third’ (ib. p. 81). His majesty, however, died on 8 March 1702, and Steele's fortunes were yet to make. In the preceding month he had become a captain in Lord Lucas's newly formed regiment of foot (Aitken, Life, i. 79); and in December 1703 he produced at Drury Lane a second comedy, ‘The Lying Lover; or, the Ladies Friendship,’ which was published on 26 Jan. 1704. This piece was based upon the ‘Menteur’ of Corneille, and differed from its predecessor, ‘The Funeral,’ in that it was a more deliberate attempt to carry out upon the stage those precepts which, a few years earlier, Jeremy Collier [q. v.] had advocated in his ‘Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage.’ Among other things it contained an indictment of duelling. Upon its first appearance it ran but six nights. Its author described it years afterwards as ‘damned for its piety’ (Apology, p. 48), but it was also inferior to its predecessor. Steele nevertheless set to work upon a third effort, ‘The Tender Husband; or, the Accomplished Fools.’ This, a frank imitation of Molière's ‘Sicilien,’ was brought out at Drury Lane in April 1705. It was better than the ‘Lying Lover,’ but scarcely more successful, though Addison (now back from Italy) wrote
