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Prose

Notes • Steele’s fame rests on his founding of The Tatler (1709–1711) and The Spectator (1711–1712),
forerunners of modern journalism, which he wrote anonymously with Joseph Addison with
the object of targeting the intellectual and political melting pots of London’s coffeehouses
and bookshops. The Tatler, a series of thrice-weekly papers in which Steele planned to educate
“Politick Persons,” was addressed predominantly to fashionable society, whereas The Spectator
appealed to a wider audience.
• In 1715, he was knighted by George I, and made a surveyor of the royal stables. Steele
argued publicly with Addison in 1718 over the peerage bill, an incident that led to the
revocation of the Drury Lane patent. He then began a biweekly paper called The Theater and
later issued pamphlets about the South Sea Bubble. His last play, The Conscious Lovers (1722),
was based on Terence’s Andria; in it Steele portrayed ideals of male and female manners and
began the tradition of the sentimental comedy. The play’s success enabled him to settle his
debts. Steele retired in ill health to his estate in Wales and died in Carmarthenshire in 1729.

13.3 Key-Words

1. Influential : Having great influence on someone or something, powerful.
2. Didactic : Intended to teach particularly in having moral instrustion as an ulterior motive.

13.4 Review Questions

1. Write an Introduction to Steele’s life and works.
2. Critically examine Steele’s On the Death of Friend.

13.5 Further Readings

1. Steele, Richard, On the Death of Friends. 1710, Ouotidiana. Ed. Patrick Madden.
26 Set., 2007.

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