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talent was so much sought after and rewarded by statesmen. Addison had already been waited on in " his humble lodgings in the Haymarket," and advanced to See also:

OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")

office, when his friend the successful dramatist was appointed to the office of gazetteer. This was in See also:

APRIL

April or May 1707. It was See also:

Steele's first connexion with journalism. The periodical was at that time taking the See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place of the pamphlet as an See also:

INSTRUMENT (Lat. instrumentum, from insincere, to build up, furnish, arrange, prepare)

instrument for working on public See also:

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

opinion. The .See also:

GAZETTE

Gazette gave little opening for the See also:

PLAY

play of Steele's lively See also:

PEN (Lat. penna, a feather, pen)

pen, his See also:

main See also:

DUTY (from " due," that which is owing, O. Fr. deu, dil, past participle of devoir; Lat. debere, debitum; cf. " debt ")

duty, as he says, having been to " keep the See also:

paper very See also:

innocent and very insipid "; but the position made him See also:

FAMILIAR (through the Fr. familier, from Lat. familiaris, of or belonging to the familia, family)

familiar with the new See also:

field of enterprise in which his inventive mind soon discerned materials for a project of his own. The Taller made its first See also:

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

appearance on the 12th of April 1709. It was partly a newspaper, a See also:

journal of politics and society, published three times a See also:

WEEK (from A.S. wicu, Germanic *wikon, probably=change, turn)

week.

Steele's position as gazetteer furnished him with See also:

SPECIAL

special advantages for See also:

POLITICAL

political See also:

NEWS

news, and as a popular frequenter of See also:

COFFEE (Fr: cafe, Ger. Kaffee)

coffee-houses he was at no loss for social See also:

GOSSIP (from the O.E. godsibb, i.e. God, and sib, akin, standing in relation to)

gossip. But Steele not only retailed and commented on social news, a See also:

FUNCTION

function in which he had been anticipated by See also:

DEFOE, DANIEL (c. 1.659—1731)

Defoe and others; he also gradually introduced into the Taller as a special feature essays on See also:

general questions of See also:

MANNERS, CHARLES (1857– )

manners and morality. It is not strictly true that Steele was the inventor of the See also:

ENGLISH

English " See also:

ESSAY, ESSAYIST (Fr. essai, Late Lat. exagium, a weighing or balance; exigere, to examine; the term in general meaning any trial or effort)

essay "—there were essayists before the 18th See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century, notably See also:

Cowley and See also:

Temple; but he was the first to use the essay for periodical purposes, and he and Addison together See also:

DEVELOPED

developed a distinct See also:

SPECIES

species, to which they gave a permanent See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character, and, in which 'they had many imitators. As a humbler See also:

MOTIVE (from Lat. movere, to move)

motive for this fortunate venture Steele had the pinch of impecuniosity, due rather to excess of See also:

EXPENDITURE

expenditure than to smallness of. income: He had ,300 a See also:

YEAR

year from his gazetteership (paying a tax of £45), See also:

ioo as See also:

GENTLEMAN (from Lat. gentilis, " belonging to a race or gens," and " man "; Fr. gentilhomme, Span. gentil hombre, Ital. gentil huomo, in its original and strict signification, a term denoting a man of good family, the Lat. generosus (its invariable transl

gentleman waiter to See also:

Prince See also:

George, £85o from the Barbadoes estates of his first wife, a widow named. See also:

Margaret Stretch, and some fortune by his second wife—Mrs See also:

Mary Scurlock, the " dear Prue " of his charming letters., But Steele lived in considerable See also:

state after his second See also:

MARRIAGE

marriage, and before he started the Taller was reduced to the See also:

NECESSITY (Lat. necessitas)

necessity of borrowing. The assumed name of the editor was See also:

ISAAC (Hebrew for " he laughs," on explanatory references to the name, see ABRAHAM)

Isaac Bickerstaff, but Addison discovered the real author in the See also:

SIXTH

sixth number, and began to contribute in the eighteenth. It is only See also:

FAIR

fair to Steele to state that the success of the Taller was established before Addison joined him, and that Addison contributed to only See also:

FORTY

forty-two of the two See also:

HUNDRED

hundred and seventy-one See also:

numbers that had appeared when the paper was stopped, obscurely, in See also:

JANUARY

January 1711. Some papers satirizing Harley appeared in the Taller, and Steele lost or resigned the See also:

POST

post of gazetteer. It is possible that this political recklessness may have had something to do with the sudden end of the venture. Only two months elapsed between the stoppage of the Taller and the appearance of the Spectator, which was the See also:

ORGAN

organ of the two See also:

friends from the 1st of See also:

March 1711,611 the 6th of December 1712. Addison was the See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief contributor to the new venture, and the See also:

HISTORY

history of it belongs more to his See also:

LIFE

life. Nevertheless, it is to be remarked as characteristic of the two writers that in this as in the Taller Addison generally follows Steele's See also:

lead in the choice of subjects.

The first See also:

SUGGESTION

suggestion of See also:

Sir See also:

Roger de Coverley was Steele's although it was Addison that filled in the outline of a See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good-natured See also:

COUNTRY (from the Mid. Eng. contre or contrie, and O. Fr. cuntree; Late Lat. contrata, showing the derivation from contra, opposite, over against, thus the tract of land which fronts the sight, cf. Ger. Gegend, neighbourhood)

country gentleman with the numerous little whimsicalities that convert Sir Roger into an amiable and exquisitely ridiculous provincial oddity. Steele had neither the fineness of See also:

TOUCH (derived through Fr. toucher from a common Teutonic and Indo-Germanic root, cf. " tug," " tuck," O. H. Ger. zucchen, to twitch or draw)

touch nor the humorous malice that gives life and distinction to Addison's picture; the Sir Roger of his See also:

ORIGINAL

original hasty See also:

SKETCH (directly adapted from Dutch schets, which was taken from Ital. schizzo, a rough draft, Lat. schedium, something hastily made, Gr. oxE&os, sudden, off-hand, axeb6v, near by; Ger. Skizze and Fr. esquisse are from the same source)

sketch has good sense as well as good nature, and the treatment is comparatively See also:

COMMONPLACE

commonplace from a literary point of view, though unfortunately not commonplace in its charity. Steele's suggestivevivacity gave many another hint for the elaborating skill of his friend. The Spectator was followed by the See also:

GUARDIAN

Guardian, the first number of which appeared on the 12th of March 1713.. It had a much shorter career, extending to only a hundred and seventy-six numbers, of which Steele wrote eighty-two. This was the last of his numerous See also:

PERIODICALS

periodicals in which he had the material assistance of Addison. But he continued for several years to project See also:

JOURNALS

journals, under various titles, some of them political, some social in their See also:

OBJECTS

objects, most of them very See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short-lived. Steele was a warm See also:

PARTISAN, or PARTIZAN

partisan of the principles of the Revolution, as See also:

EARNEST (probably a corruption of the obsolete arles or erles, adapted from Lat. equivalent arrha, due to a confusion with the adjective " earnest," serious, O. Eng. eornust, cognate with Ger. ernst)

earnest in his political as in his other convictions. The English-See also:

man was started in See also:

OCTOBER

October 1733, immediately after the stoppage of the Guardian, to assail the policy of the Tory See also:

MINISTRY

ministry. The See also:

LOVER, SAMUEL (1797-1868)

Lover, started in See also:

FEBRUARY

February 1714, was more general in its aims; but it gave place in a See also:

month or two to the Reader, a See also:

DIRECT

direct counterblast to the Tory Examiner. The Englishman was resuscitated for another See also:

VOLUME

volume in 1715; and he subsequently projected in rapid See also:

SUCCESSION (Lat. successio, from succedere, to follow after)

succession three unsuccessful ventures—Town Talk, the See also:

TEA (Chinese cha, Amoy dialect t€)

Tea Table and Chit Chat. Three years later he started his most famous political paper the Plebeian, rendered memorable, by the fact that it embroiled him with his old ally Addison.

The subject of controversy between the two lifelong friends was See also:

Sunderland's See also:

Peerage See also:

BILL

Bill. Steele's last venture in journalism was the See also:

THEATRE (BEarpov, " a place for seeing," from OeacOae)

Theatre, 1720, the immediate occasion of which was the revocation of his patent for See also:

DRURY, SIR WILLIAM (1527-1579)

Drury See also:

Lane. Besides these journals he wrote also several See also:

PAMPHLETS

pamphlets on passing questions—on the disgrace of See also:

Marlborough in 1711, on the fortifications of• See also:

Dunkirk in 1713, on. the " crisis " in 1714, An See also:

APOLOGY (from Gr. &aoXoyia, defence)

Apology for Himself and his Writings (important biographically) in the same year, and on the See also:

South See also:

Sea See also:

MANIA

mania in 1720. The fortunes of Steele as a zealous Whig varied with the fortunes of his party. Over the Dunkirk question he waxed so hot that he threw up a See also:

PENSION (Lat. pensio, a payment, from pendere, to weigh, to pay)

pension and a commissionership of stamps, and went into See also:

PARLIAMENT (Anglo-Lat. parliamentum, Fr. parlement, from parler, to speak)

parliament as member for See also:

STOCKBRIDGE

Stockbridge to attack the ministry with See also:

VOICE (Fr. voix, from Lat. vox)

voice and See also:

VOTE

vote as well as with pen. But he had not sat many See also:

WEEKS, EDWIN LORD (1849-1903)

weeks when he was expelled from the See also:

house for the See also:

LANGUAGE (adapted from the Fr. langage, from langue, tongue, Lat. lingua)

language of his pamphlet on the Crisis, which was stigmatized as seditious. The Apology already mentioned was his vindication of himself on this occasion. With the See also:

ACCESSION (from Lat. accedere, to go to, to approach)

accession of the House of See also:

Hanover his fortunes changed: Honours and substantial rewards were showered upon him. He was made a See also:

JUSTICE (Lat. justitia)

justice of the See also:

peace, See also:

DEPUTY (through the Fr. from a Late Lat. use of deputare, to cut off, allot; putare having the original sense of to trim, prune)

deputy-See also:

LIEUTENANT

lieutenant of See also:

Middlesex, surveyor of the royal stables, See also:

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

governor of the royal See also:

COMPANY

company of comedians —the 'last,a lucrative post—and was also knighted (1715). After the suppression of the Jacobite See also:

REBELLION

rebellion he was appointed one of the commissioners of forfeited estates, and spent some two years, in See also:

Scotland in that capacity. In 1718 he obtained a patent for a, See also:

plan for bringing See also:

salmon alive from See also:

Ireland. Differing from his friends in See also:

POWER [WILLIAM GRATTAN] TYRONE (1797-1841)

power on the question of the Peerage Bill he was deprived of some of his offices, but when See also:

Walpole became See also:

CHANCELLOR (M. Eng. and Anglo-Fr. canceler, chanceler, Fr. chancelier, Lat. cancellarius)

chancellor of the See also:

EXCHEQUER

exchequer in 1721 he was reinstated.

With all. his emoluments however the imprudent, impulsive, ostentatious and generous Steele could never get clear of See also:

FINANCIAL

financial difficulties, and he was obliged to retire from See also:

LONDON

London 111 1724 and live in the. country. He spent his last years on his wife's See also:

ESTATE (through O. Fr. estat, mod. flat, from Lat. status, state, condition, position, stare, to stand)

estate of Llangunnor in See also:

WALES (Cymru, Gwalia, Cambria)

Wales, and, his See also:

HEALTH

health broken down by a paralytic seizure, died at See also:

CARMARTHEN (Caerfyrddin)

Carmarthen on the 1st of See also:

SEPTEMBER (Lat. septem, seven)

September 1728. A selection from Steele's essays, with a prefatory memoir, has been edited by Mr See also:

Austin See also:

Dobson (1885 ; revised 1896). Mr Dobson contributed a See also:

fuller See also:

BIOGRAPHY (from the Gr. (3ios, life, and yp&4 , writing)

biography to Mr See also:

Andrew See also:

Lang's See also:

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

series of English Worthies, in 1886. In 1889 another and more exhaustive life was published by Mr G. A. Aitken, who has also edited Steele's plays (1898) and the Taller (1898). (W. M.; A.

End of Article: EZV

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