Page 104 - DENG502_PROSE

Prose Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 12: Steele- On The Death of Friend: Introduction

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
12.1 Biography
12.2 Steele as a Writer
12.3 Text-On the Death of Friends
12.4 Summary
12.5 Key-Words
12.6 Review Questions
12.7 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to:
• Explain the life and works of Steele.
• Introduce ‘On the Death of Friend’

Introduction

The chief glory of the “Spectator” is, of course, the club, and it was in the essay which follows that
Steele first sketched the characters composing it. The Spectator himself was Addison’s creation,
and Addison also elaborated Sir Roger, though Steele originated him. Whatever may be the
respective claims of Addison and Steele to the credit for the success of the “Spectator,” it is to
Steele that the honor belongs of having founded its predecessor, the “Tatler,” and so of originating
the periodical essay.
Steele was a warm-hearted, impulsive man, full of sentiment, improvident, and somewhat weak
of will. These qualities are reflected in his writings, which are inferior to Addison’s in grace and
finish, but are marked by greater spontaneity and invention. Probably no piece of writing of equal
length has added so many portraits to the gallery of our literature as the first sketch of the
Spectator Club which is here printed.

12.1 Biography
English man of letters in the reign of Queen Anne, is inseparably associated in the history of
literature with his personal friend Joseph Addison. He cannot be said to have lost in reputation by
the partnership, because he was inferior to Addison in purely literary gift, and it is Addison’s
literary genius that has floated their joint work above merely journalistic celebrity; but the advantage
was not all on Steele’s side, inasmuch as his more brilliant coadjutor has usurped not a little of the
merit rightly due to him. Steele’s often-quoted generous acknowledgment of Addison’s services in
the Tatler has proved true in a somewhat different sense from that intended by the writer: “I fared
like a distressed prince who calls in a powerful neighbor to his aid; I was undone by my auxiliary;
when I had once called him in I could not subsist without dependence on him.” The truth is that
in this happy alliance the one was the complement of the other; and the balance of mutual advantage
was much more nearly even than Steele claimed or posterity has generally allowed.

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