The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland/Volume 4/Sir Richard Steele
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.[1] 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 Handing 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 Tatler, 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 maſter. 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 œconomy, &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.[2]
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 Iſt 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 Boroughbrigg 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 mod 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-natured 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 ration, 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 delicate 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 œconomy, 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 invited to his houſe a great number of perſons of the firſt quality, they were ſurprized at the number or 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.