SIR
 
 ^ SS' 
 
 jrfM 

 
 '
 
 JOSEPH ADDISON 
 
 From an old print
 
 THE 
 
 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 
 PAPERS 
 
 FROM "THE SPECTATOR" 
 
 EDITED 
 WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
 
 MARY E. LITCHFIELD 
 
 GINN & COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1899 
 BY MARY E. LITCHFIELD 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 66.10 
 
 atJjtnjeutn
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY is not a hero of romance ; he is, 
 to all intents and purposes, an actual country gentleman who 
 lived in England in the days of Queen Anne ; and the Intro- 
 duction and Notes in this volume are intended to help the 
 reader go back in imagination to the early years of the 
 eighteenth century. The Spectator has been considered in 
 its relation to contemporary movements in literature and 
 politics, since it is in a peculiar sense the product of the age 
 in which it was written. It is hoped that the student may 
 find in the English of the essays, with its few old forms, an 
 easy and pleasant introduction to the more difficult language 
 of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 
 The text as revised by the authors has been followed, 
 except in the matter of spelling and punctuation. Everything 
 relating to Sir Roger that might properly be included has 
 been given, even to brief notices in articles dealing with 
 outside matters. These chance allusions help to make the 
 hero a living character. Henry Morley's edition of the 
 Spectator and the two recent editions by George A. Aitken 
 and by G. Gregory Smith have been frequently consulted. 
 Many of the other books used are referred to in the Notes 
 and the Suggestions. The fi*ft*CJJi3O6ary information
 
 iv PREFACE. 
 
 in regard to persons, events, and customs. Occasionally old 
 or peculiar forms in language are commented on, but in 
 general a note is inserted only in cases where the meaning 
 is not clear. The translations of the mottoes have been 
 furnished in most instances by Miss Mary H. Buckingham, 
 and valuable help in the way of criticism has been given 
 by others. 
 
 BOSTON, December, 1898.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION: PAGE 
 
 I. POLITICAL CONDITIONS ix 
 
 II. SOCIAL CONDITIONS RESULTING FROM POLIT- 
 ICAL EVENTS ........ xi 
 
 III. THE WRITERS OF THE SIR ROGER DE COVER- 
 
 LET PAPERS: 
 
 ADDISON xii 
 
 STEELE . xvi 
 
 BUDGELL xir 
 
 IV. JOURNALISM AND PARTY LITERATURE . . xx 
 V. THE TATLER AND SPECTATOR AND THEIR PREDE- 
 CESSORS xxi 
 
 VI. THE PUBLIC TO WHICH THE SPECTATOR AP- 
 PEALED xxiii 
 
 VII. ADDISON AND STEELE AS WRITERS OF THE 
 
 SPECTATOR xxv 
 
 VIII. CHARACTERISTICS OF QUEEN ANNE LITERA- 
 TURE xxv 
 
 IX. LITERARY QUALITIES OF THE SIR ROGER DE 
 
 COVERLEY PAPERS xxvi 
 
 X. THE SPECTATOR IN ITS RELATION TO ENGLISH 
 
 LIFE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE xxvii
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xxviii 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS xxxv 
 
 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS: 
 J 
 
 I. THE SPECTATOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. Addi- 
 
 son ......... i 
 
 "* II. SIR ROGER AND THE CLUB. Steele ... 5 
 
 III. SIR ROGER MORALIZES. Steele . . . .11 
 
 A IV. A CLUB DEBATE. Addison 16 
 
 V. SIR ROGER'S CLIENT. Addison .... 20 
 
 ~^VI. THE SPECTATOR AT COVERLEY HALL. Addison 24 
 
 VII. THE COVERLEY HOUSEHOLD. Steele ~ . .28 
 
 VIII. WILL WIMBLE. Addison 32 
 
 ^ IX. SIR ROGER'S ANCESTORS. Steele . ... 36 
 
 X. COVERLEY GHOSTS. Addison .... 40 
 
 XI. A COUNTRY SUNDAY. Addison .... 44 
 
 ^ XII. SIR ROGER IN LOVE. Steele . - . . . 48 
 
 XIII. THE SHAME OF POVERTY AND THE DREAD OF 
 
 \T. Steele 53 
 
 XIV. LABOR AND EXERCISE. Addison. ... 57 
 XV. SIR ROGER GOES A-HUNTING. Budgell . . 61 
 
 ^XVI. A VILLAGE WITCH. Addison .... 67 
 
 -^XVII. SIR ROGER'S REFLECTIONS ON THE WIDOW. 
 
 Steele 71 
 
 XVIII. RURAL MANNERS. Addison 75 
 
 XIX. SIR ROGER AT THE ASSIZES. Addison . . 79 
 
 XX. THE EDUCATION OF AN HEIR. Addison . . 83 
 
 XXI. MISCHIEFS OF PARTY SPIRIT. Addison . . 89
 
 CONTENTS. vii 
 
 PACK 
 
 XXII. MISCHIEFS OF PARTY SPIRIT (Continued). 
 
 Addison 93 
 
 XXIII. GYPSIES AT COVERLEY. Addison ... 97 
 
 XXIV. THE SPECTATOR LOOKS TOWARD LONDON. 
 
 Addison 101 
 
 XXV. To LONDON BY STAGE-COACH. Suele . . 104 
 
 XXVI. SIR ANDREW ARGUES WITH SIR ROGER. Steele 108 
 
 XXVII. SIR ROGER IN LONDON. Addison . . . 113 
 
 XXVIII. SIR ROGER IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Addison 119 
 
 ^ XXIX. SIR ROGER AT THE PLAY. Addison . . .123 
 
 OXXX. WILL HONEYCOMB DISCOURSES. Budgell . . 127 
 
 "XXXI. SIR ROGER AT VAUXHALL. Addison . . -131 
 
 XXXII. DEATH OF SIR ROGER. Addison . . .134 
 
 XXXIII. A NEW MASTER AT COVERLEY HALL. Steele . 138 
 
 NOTES 143
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 INTERESTING as they are in themselves, the Sir Roger de 
 Coverley Papers must as a literary production be regarded as 
 a part of the Spectator, the periodical in which they first 
 appeared ; so that in trying to form a just estimate of these 
 essays, we must ask what the Spectator was, who were its 
 authors, and under what conditions, political and social, it 
 was produced. 
 
 I. POLITICAL CONDITIONS. 
 
 The first number of the Spectator was given to the world 
 in March, 1711; but before considering the period in which 
 this date occurs the reign of Queen Anne it may be 
 well to review hastily the chief political events of the fifty 
 years preceding. These events, whatever their special char- 
 acter, serve but to mark the stages in one great movement 
 the struggle between the two political systems, govern- 
 ment by constitutional methods, and government by an 
 absolute monarch. 
 
 Fifty years takes us back to the Restoration in England, 
 and to the early portion of the reign of Louis XIV. in France. 
 For the next quarter of a century and more, the English peo- 
 ple were jealously guarding their liberties against the en- 
 croachments of their sovereign. Charles II. attempted to 
 govern according to his own will, without the interference
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of Parliament ; and after his death in 1685, his brother, 
 James II., pursued a policy still more despotic. 
 
 Meanwhile, on the Continent, the prospect was dark for 
 the cause of constitutional government. France under her 
 able ruler was becoming so powerful that she seemed likely 
 to make herself mistress of a large part of Europe. Her 
 aggressions finally aroused the neighboring states : alliances 
 were formed against her, and a champion was found in the 
 person of William Henry of Nassau, Prince of Orange. As 
 leader of the allied powers the prince waged a long and 
 on the whole a successful struggle against Louis XIV., the 
 representative of absolute monarchy. 
 
 Before James II. succeeded to the throne of England, 
 William of Orange had married his daughter Mary ; and 
 after James had been reigning for three years, his subjects, 
 goaded beyond endurance by his acts of tyranny, asked 
 William to come over from Holland with an army and defend 
 their liberties. 
 
 The people as a whole realized the necessity of this step , 
 they knew that the measure had been resorted to only be- 
 cause all other expedients had failed; and yet, the senti- 
 ment of loyalty to the legitimate sovereign was so deeply 
 rooted in their hearts, that comparatively few of them were 
 genuinely glad when the prince and his wife were crowned 
 as William III. and Mary. As time went on, they wearied 
 of the long wars which their sovereign waged against Louis, 
 and felt that he was wasting the substance of England for 
 the benefit of foreign powers. Consequently the average 
 Englishman, especially if he were a Tory, breathed a sigh 
 of relief when in 1702 William died, and Anne, an English 
 princess and a firm upholder of the national church, ascended 
 the throne. 
 
 With the accession of Anne came the supremacy of Marl- 
 borough, and the continuation under his leadership of the
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 struggle against France ; but before the Spectator had finished 
 its first year, the great general and the able but unscrupulous 
 statesman was deprived of all his offices, and the control of 
 English affairs passed into other hands. 
 
 II. SOCIAL CONDITIONS RESULTING FROM POLITICAL 
 EVENTS. 
 
 It was not strange that persons living in the latter part of 
 the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury failed to detect in these movements going on about 
 them the forces that were making for freedom and civiliza- 
 tion. The Revolution of 1688 was the result of currents and 
 counter currents of popular feeling. A great system of con- 
 stitutional government was being worked out under William 
 and Mary, and their successor, Anne ; but in general the 
 process took the form of a scramble for power on the part 
 of politicians, few of whom seemed actuated by noble and 
 disinterested motives. 
 
 Strife, animosity, bitter party feeling, these character- 
 ized the period in which the Spectator saw the light. 
 Repressive legislation no longer checked free discussion, 
 and free discussion meant active intellectual life, the exer- 
 cise of the critical faculties, and in many instances, slander 
 and scurrilous abuse. The Tories attacked the Whigs ; the 
 adherents of the Established Church, the Dissenters ; the 
 moderate Tories, the Nonjurors ; and all united against 
 the Catholics. 
 
 The Tories believed in the divine right of kings and in 
 the supremacy of the Established Church ; the Whigs stood 
 in the main for the rights of the people, and advocated tol- 
 eration toward Dissenters. The country gentry were, almost 
 to a man, Tories ; the city men, merchants, tradesmen, 
 and professional men, were Whigs; the great nobles were
 
 Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 divided between the two parties. The clergy of the Estab- 
 lished Church belonged as a matter of course to the Tory 
 party, which was often called the Church party, while the 
 Dissenters and their ministers were Whigs. The Church of 
 England man had not yet forgotten the hateful years of Puri- 
 tan supremacy, and the Dissenter recalled with bitterness 
 the acts of retaliation and the return to license that charac- 
 terized the reigns of the later Stuarts. Nothing but the 
 sense of a common peril could overcome these long-cher- 
 ished animosities; and as Anne's reign was drawing to a 
 close, all who believed in government by constitutional 
 methods saw danger in the fact that a Stuart might again 
 rule over England for the legitimate heir to the throne 
 was James Stuart, the son of James II. 
 
 Religious and political divisions meant, of course, social 
 divisions ; and it is necessary to lay particular stress upon 
 this state of affairs, because the important work accomplished 
 by the writers of the Spectator was owing in great part to 
 these peculiar conditions. 
 
 III. THE WRITERS OF THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 
 PAPERS. 
 
 Nothing better illustrates the life of the literary men of 
 Queen Anne's reign than a brief sketch of the writers of 
 the Sir Roger de Coverley Papers: Joseph Addison, Richard 
 Steele, and Eustace Budgell. 1 
 
 ADDISON. 
 
 Few English writers have been so fortunate in their nat- 
 ural gifts and in the circumstances and events of their lives 
 as Joseph Addison. He was born in his father's rectory at 
 
 1 Tickell has not been included, since his paper relating to Sir Roger 
 (No. 410) has been necessarily omitted.
 
 INTRODUCTION. xiii 
 
 Milston, near Amesbury, Wilts, on the first day of May, 
 1672. Steele, who as a schoolmate of Addison's was a wel- 
 come guest in the quiet home, says of the rector (then Dean 
 of Lichfield) : " His method was to make it the only preten- 
 sion in his children to his favor, to be kind to each other. 
 It was an unspeakable pleasure to visit or sit at a meal in 
 that family." The two boys first met at the Charterhouse 
 School in London, and there began the friendship that was 
 to lead in later years to such important results. 
 
 At the age of fifteen Addison entered Oxford, where, 
 beside his degree, he gained a probationary fellowship, and 
 afterwards a fellowship. His Latin poems and his knowl- 
 edge of Latin literature gave him a reputation for classical 
 learning that extended to the literary circles of London, and 
 brought him into connection with Dryden, an old man, but 
 still the acknowledged leader of the literary set. 
 
 While connected with the university he attracted the atten- 
 tion of certain political leaders. A poetical address entitled 
 A Poem to His Majesty, composed in 1695, and a Latin poem 
 on the Peace of Ryswick, written two years later, gave evi- 
 dence that the author might be useful to the party then in 
 power the Whigs. In order that he might fit himself for 
 diplomatic employments by foreign travel, Charles Montague 
 afterwards Earl of Halifax obtained for him, through 
 Somers, the Lord-keeper, a pension of 300 a year ; and 
 in 1699 he left England, not to return until 1703. Steele 
 affirms that his friend, when a young man, had some idea of 
 entering the Church, and that his change of purpose was due 
 to the influence of Montague. 
 
 Addison, on account of his keen powers of observation and 
 his genuine interest in human nature, was well fitted to bene- 
 fit by foreign travel. During his stay on the continent he 
 visited most of the countries of Western Europe, an intel- 
 ligent observer of social and political institutions and a
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 devoted student of literature. His intellect was quickened 
 by intercourse with able and cultivated men, among whom 
 may probably be included the famous French writers, Male- 
 branche and Boileau. 
 
 Unfortunately the Whigs were out of office when he re- 
 turned to England, and for a year he was given no position. 
 However, his personal charm and his literary abilities were 
 constantly gaining him new friends, and it was at this time 
 that he became a member of the famous Kit-Cat Club, to 
 which all the great Whigs belonged. Steele was also a mem- 
 ber of the club, and his intimacy with his former compan- 
 ion was now renewed. 
 
 Addison's active political life began in 1706, when, as a 
 reward for his poem, The Campaign, written to celebrate the 
 battle of Blenheim, he was made an undersecretary of state. 
 When he entered upon his new duties he was thirty-four years 
 old, and from this time until a few weeks before his death, 
 he was an influence for good in the affairs of the nation. 
 
 On losing his first position he was appointed, in 1708, 
 secretary to Wharton, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and 
 was also made keeper of the records in Birmingham Tower, 
 Dublin. In the meantime he had accompanied Halifax on 
 a complimentary mission, to invest the Elector of Hanover 
 with the order of the Garter. At the age of thirty-six he 
 entered Parliament, and remained a member during the rest 
 of his life, though on account of diffidence he made no 
 speeches. Swift remarked, when speaking of his reelection 
 in 1710, "If he had a mind to be chosen king, he would 
 hardly be refused." 
 
 With the fall of the Whigs in 1710, Addison lost his sec- 
 retaryship. In a letter to a friend, written in 1711, he said 
 that within twelve months he had lost a place of ^2000 a 
 year and an estate in the Indies of ^"14,000. The accession 
 of George I., which restored the Whigs to power, brought
 
 INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 him again into political life. Several positions of trust were 
 given him-, and finally, in 1717, a year after his marriage 
 with the Countess of Warwick, he was made one of the 
 secretaries of state. In eleven months he retired on account 
 of ill health, with a pension of 1500 a year. 
 
 Although hampered by physical weakness he still kept up 
 his interest in political affairs, and in 1719 he entered actively 
 into the controversy over the Peerage Bill. His strong feel- 
 ing in regard to the bill resulted in a circumstance that must 
 always cause pain to the readers of the Spectator, namely, 
 his estrangement from his old friend Steele. The latter 
 from conscientious motives voted, in opposition to his party, 
 against a bill which, historians now believe, would have been 
 most pernicious in its effects. Addison died so soon after 
 the controversy that there was no opportunity for a recon- 
 ciliation. 
 
 As we look through the volumes containing the works of 
 Addison, we realize that his interest did not lie wholly in 
 state matters. Two years after his return from the conti- 
 nent, he published his Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, 
 and the following year, in 1705, his opera, Rosamond, was 
 brought out. This, by the way, was an unsuccessful venture. 
 When Steele began his Tatler, in 1709, Addison became a 
 frequent contributor, and his work in the Spectator, which 
 followed in 1711, was of still greater importance. His fame 
 as a writer rests chiefly upon the essays in these two period- 
 icals. He contributed articles to the Guardian, the successor 
 of the Spectator, and in June, 1714, he began without Steele 
 a new series of the Spectator, which was published three 
 times a week until December. His three periodicals the 
 Whig Examiner, the Freeholder, and the Old Whig were 
 political papers. 
 
 Great contemporary fame came to Addison from his play 
 of Cato, acted at Drury Lane in April, 1713. This drama,
 
 XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 which was written according to French canons, contained 
 such fine phrases about liberty that it was claimed by 
 both Whigs and Tories. Pope wrote an eloquent prologue, 
 and Swift, after a long period of estrangement, attended a 
 rehearsal. A comedy, The Drummer, acted in 17 15, was un- 
 successful. This work marks the close of Addison's purely 
 literary activity, his later writings being political in character. 
 After his retirement from office in 1718, his health con- 
 tinued to fail, and he died on the i7th of June, 1719. The 
 same spirit that had made him so attractive while he was in 
 the full enjoyment of his powers characterized him to the 
 very end. Even when he was on his deathbed, his chief 
 concern was for others rather than for himself. Believing 
 that he had once, in connection with some almost forgotten 
 matter, injured Gay, he sent for him and begged his forgive- 
 ness ; and calling for his stepson Warwick just before his 
 end, he said, " See in what peace a Christian can die." 
 
 STEELE. 
 
 Richard Steele properly Sir Richard Steele has been 
 better loved and oftener misrepresented than almost any 
 other English writer. The temptation to paint him as the 
 exact opposite of Addison, has in most cases proved too 
 strong to enable his biographers to deal fairly with his char- 
 acter. Thackeray's fascinating account in his English Hu- 
 mourists, the most popular sketch of Steele, while correct in 
 certain details, is on the whole misleading. One who desires 
 to form a just estimate of this interesting man should read 
 Mr. Aitken's careful biography or the short but sympathetic 
 "life " by Mr. Austin Dobson. 
 
 Steele was born in Dublin in March, 1672. He was, 
 consequently, something less than two months older than 
 Addison. Of his family little is known. Unfortunately
 
 INTRODUCTION. xviv 
 
 he lost both parents at an early age : his father, who was 
 a solicitor, died when he was about five years old, and his 
 mother not long after. In later years he speaks of his 
 mother as "a very beautiful woman, of a noble spirit." 
 In his uncle, Henry Gascoigne, secretary to the Duke of 
 Ormond, the boy found a kind guardian. At the age of 
 twelve he was sent to the Charterhouse School in London ; 
 and two years later, on Addison's arrival, the friendship 
 between the two boys began. 
 
 Steele entered Oxford when seventeen, but did not finish 
 his course there. Mr. Aitken remarks : " Steele left Oxford 
 without taking a degree, which was not at all unusual at the 
 time, but we are told that he took with him the love of the 
 whole society." 
 
 Having a desire to try the life of a soldier, he enlisted 
 in 1694 as a private in the Duke of Ormond's regiment of 
 Guards, and remained in the army for twelve years. In 
 1700 he became Captain Steele. 
 
 His military duties do not seem to have interfered with 
 his development as a writer ; for his first promotion was due 
 to a patriotic poem, The Procession, composed just after the 
 death of Queen Mary, in 1695, and dedicated to Lord Cutts. 
 He was rewarded by an ensign's commission in that lord's 
 regiment, and soon after became his secretary. His Christian 
 Hero, a little book published in 1701, was designed, he after- 
 wards informs his readers, to " fix upon his own mind a strong 
 impression of virtue and religion in opposition to a stronger 
 propensity towards unwarrantable pleasures." Mr. Aitken 
 justly remarks : " We must remember that the standard of 
 morality was low even among those who considered them- 
 selves on a higher moral level than Steele, and that his ideal 
 was far above that of most of his contemporaries." Find- 
 ing that his friends failed to understand his attitude in the 
 Christian Hero, and that they were inclined to accuse him of
 
 xvill INTRODUCTION. 
 
 posing as a moralist, he produced not long after a comedy, 
 The Funeral, which was intended to "enliven his character." 
 His third play, The Tender Husband, acted after Addison's 
 return from the continent, was dedicated to his friend, who, 
 besides writing the prologue, contributed " many applauded 
 strokes." The author says : " My purpose in this application 
 is only to show the esteem I have for you, and that I look 
 upon my intimacy with you as one of the most valuable 
 enjoyments of my life." 
 
 Immediately after the production of his play Steele mar- 
 ried, but his wife died in a little over a year. In 1707 he 
 married as a second wife a Welsh lady, Mary Scurlock, the 
 " Dear Prue " to whom he wrote so many interesting notes 
 and letters. Before his second marriage he left the army, 
 and the following year, in 1707, he was made Gazetteer, at 
 a salary of ^300 a year (less a tax of ^45). As the Gazette 
 was the official organ of the government, the position 
 which he held for several years must have required tact 
 and judgment. 
 
 The fact that Steele was a sincere patriot rather than 
 a successful politician is illustrated by his experience as a 
 member of Parliament. He gave up several lucrative posi- 
 tions in order to become a member, but was expelled from 
 the House of Commons a Tory house before the end of 
 his first year. The publication of his Crisis, and a bitter 
 attack by Swift, were the causes that led to this result. When 
 the Whigs came into power on the accession of George I., he 
 again entered Parliament, and the following year he was 
 knighted. His manly stand in the controversy over the 
 Peerage Bill in 1719 resulted in the loss of the patent which 
 constituted him manager of Drury Lane Theatre. This cir- 
 cumstance marks the close of his political career. 
 
 It is chiefly because of the Tatler and the Spectator that 
 Steele occupies an important place in English literature.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 After the Spectator was discontinued he published the Guard- 
 ian, which was followed by the Englishman, a political paper. 
 Later still came two short-lived periodicals, the Lover and 
 the Reader, and a compilation entitled The Ladies Library. 
 The best of his political pamphlets was his Apology for 
 Himself and His Writings. The Conscious Lovers, his most 
 successful play, was produced in 1722; this was his latest 
 literary effort. 
 
 Steele had always found it difficult to meet his expenses, 
 and his closing years, which were spent in Carmarthenshire, 
 Wales, were troubled by money difficulties and ill health. 
 Before the end, however, his debts had all been paid. 
 
 His biographer says : "The last glimpse we have of him 
 comes from the actor Benjamin Victor, who had sought from 
 him an introduction to Walpole : ' I was told he retained 
 his cheerful sweetness of temper to the last, and would 
 often be carried out on a summer's evening, when the coun- 
 try lads and lasses were assembled at their rural sports, and 
 with his pencil, give an order on his agent, the mercer, for 
 a new gown to the best dancer.' " He died in September, 
 1729. 
 
 BUDGELL. 
 
 Of Eustace Budgell little need be said, since his work is 
 of small importance. Through the influence of Addison, 
 who was his cousin, he obtained several positions of trust; 
 but in later years his character deteriorated, and finally, in 
 1737, he drowned himself in the Thames. As a writer he 
 was an imitator of Addison, and besides other. works, he 
 wrote a number of papers for the Spectator.
 
 INTRO D UCTION. 
 
 IV. JOURNALISM AND PARTY LITERATURE. 
 
 The facts just stated make us realize that the life of the 
 literary man of the so-called " Augustan Age " in England 
 was a life of political and social importance. Almost every 
 writer of note for Pope must be excepted was at some 
 time during his career the mouthpiece of a party. Swift, 
 the most truly original genius of them all, was always a 
 stanch defender of the national church and, except during 
 the first few years of his public life, a zealous Tory. Defoe, 
 now known chiefly as the author of Robinson Crusoe, was an 
 indefatigable pamphleteer and journalist, on the side of the 
 Liberals. The age of Queen Anne was preeminently an age 
 of party literature : besides party pamphlets and newspapers 
 there were party poems, party sermons, party plays; and in 
 the case of Addison's Cafe, a play claimed by both Whigs 
 and Tories at once. 
 
 This literary activity could not have existed had it not 
 been for the recently acquired liberty of the press. In 1695 
 Parliament failed to appoint the usual licenser, without whose 
 leave no book or newspaper might be published. Before 
 this, the discussion of public matters had been left for the 
 most part to those who were sufficiently daring or sufficiently 
 unprincipled to disregard the law. Since the press was no 
 longer fettered, the best intellects were free to express them- 
 selves on all matters of general interest, and party leaders 
 eagerly sought the services of writers who could gain the ear 
 of the people. The writer on political subjects had at that 
 time an unusual advantage over the orator, when it came to 
 influencing public opinion, because speeches made in Parlia- 
 ment were not, as now, printed and circulated.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 V. THE TATLER AND SPECTATOR AND THEIR 
 PREDECESSORS. 
 
 There were so many newspapers and pamphlets published 
 during the early years of Queen Anne's reign, that one might 
 suppose the literary needs of the community to have been 
 sufficiently provided for. These, however, were in almost 
 every instance written for a special class of persons, and 
 owed their success to the fact that they appealed to the reli- 
 gious or political prejudices of their subscribers. The Tatler 
 and the Spectator, on the other hand, were distinctively liter- 
 ary periodicals ; the Tatler rarely discussed political ques- 
 tions, the Spectator ignored them completely. Before these 
 productions appeared, there were a few publications that 
 provided matters of social and literary interest, and these 
 may be regarded as in a certain sense their predecessors. 
 One of these was John Dunton's Athenian Mercury, begun in 
 1690, which contained questions to the editor on a great 
 variety of subjects, and furnished appropriate answers ; but 
 if any paper might be called the true predecessor of Steele's 
 Tatler, it was Defoe's Weekly Rariew of the Affairs of France, 
 the first number of which was given to the public in Feb- 
 ruary, 1704. This paper had a department called, at one 
 time, Advice from the Scandalous Club. Speaking of this 
 department, Defoe remarked, in 1710: "When first this 
 paper appeared in the world, I erected a court of justice for 
 the censuring and exposing of vice ; . . . but tired with the 
 mass of filth, the stench of which was hardly to be endured, 
 I laid aside the Herculean labors for a while, and am glad 
 to see the society honored by the succession in those just 
 endeavors of the venerable Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq." 
 
 When Defoe made these remarks, the Tatler, which was 
 published three times a week, had been running nearly a
 
 xxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 year. The name, Isaac Bickerstaff, which Steele assumed 
 when he began his periodical, had been already made famous 
 by Swift, who used it in a pamphlet in which he made a 
 humorous attack upon John Partridge, the compiler of an 
 astrological almanac. According to Steele, his paper was 
 intended to " gratify the curiosity of persons of all conditions 
 and of each sex " ; and the general purpose of the writers 
 was " to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the dis- 
 guises of cunning, vanity, and affectation, and to recom- 
 mend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and 
 our behavior." The Tatler reached 271 numbers. Of these 
 Steele wrote about 188, Addison 42, and 36 were the result 
 of their joint labors. It was probably discontinued because 
 certain articles dealing with political questions had given 
 offence to persons of influence. 
 
 The last number of the Tatler was published January 2, 
 1711, and the first number of the Spectator came out on the 
 first day of March, in the same. year. This paper, which 
 was given to the public every day except Sunday, consisted 
 of a single sheet, and contained one essay and a number of 
 advertisements. If the essay were unusually brief, letters 
 from real or supposed correspondents, or answers to such 
 communications, were inserted. The original series ended 
 with No. 555, published December 6, 1712. The continua- 
 tion by Addison, which was published in 1714, is included 
 in complete editions of the Spectator, Of the 555 numbers 
 of the original periodical, Addison wrote 274, Steele 236, 
 and the remaining 45 were contributed by different persons, 
 Budgell being one. In the tenth number Addison remarked 
 that the sale had reached 3000 copies a day ; and doubtless 
 the sale increased until August, 1712, when a tax of a half- 
 penny reduced the number to something over 1600 copies a 
 day. Addison estimated that, on an average, each copy 
 was read by twenty persons. These facts are important
 
 INTRODUCTION. xxiii 
 
 because they help us to understand why it was that this pub- 
 lication had such an important influence in moulding public 
 opinion. 
 
 VI. THE PUBLIC TO WHICH THE SPECTATOR 
 APPEALED. 
 
 The success of the Spectator, and of the Tatler as well, 
 was due in large measure to the fact that its projectors sus- 
 pected the existence of a hitherto undiscovered public ; in 
 fact, it may be said that they created their own public. In 
 an age of bitter social prejudices they had the wisdom to 
 discern the fact that in every class there were moderate, fair- 
 minded persons, who would be interested in social and liter- 
 ary questions, and who would welcome any well-directed 
 effort toward improving the morals of the community. They 
 realized, too, that in every class there were those who needed 
 entertainment, and who could be entertained only by what 
 was morally pure. Above all, they conceived the idea of a 
 public composed largely of women. 
 
 It is interesting to picture the different readers of the 
 Spectator. We see the paper in the hands of men of fashion 
 as they stroll about the narrow, dirty streets of London, in 
 their powdered wigs and their velvet knee breeches ; we find 
 it in the coffee-houses, where knots of eager politicians discuss 
 the newest move of the party in power ; fine ladies Queen 
 Anne at their head order it brought with their tea at break- 
 fast; the merchant reads it after the hours of business; and 
 even the country squire, who hunts often and reads seldom, 
 welcomes the little sheet. 
 
 As the fashionable man reads he finds that men who are 
 familiar with life in its various aspects, men who have plenty 
 of worldly wisdom, condemn his vicious habits ; and for the 
 first time, very likely, he listens respectfully while his beset-
 
 xxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ting sins gaming, brutal pastimes, immorality of all kinds 
 are severely censured. He listens because the moralist is 
 both witty and wise ; and after a while he begins to suspect 
 that a man may lead a pure life without being a stiff-necked 
 Puritan ; that he may be a gentleman and still control his 
 appetites. 
 
 The Dissenter, as he reads, sees that men who insist upon 
 the highest moral standards at the same time favor innocent 
 amusements. His own narrow views are lightly but kindly 
 ridiculed, and persons that he has always condemned as friv- 
 olous and sinful are painted in such a way that he is forced 
 to admire them. Indeed, it may safely be asserted that many 
 a rigid Dissenter sincerely mourned when he read of the 
 death of Sir Roger de Coverley. 
 
 It is difficult for us who live in these days of railways 
 and telegraphs to picture to ourselves the isolated life of the 
 women of the eighteenth century. Those living even a short 
 distance out of London found it impossible to get about ex- 
 cept when the roads which were always bad were in their 
 best condition ; and when they did venture out, they must, if 
 they were women of position, be accompanied by a train of 
 servants. The wives and daughters of country gentlemen 
 had not learned to find enjoyment in reading, for there were 
 few books that a refined woman could read with pleasure. 
 She must choose between coarse novels or plays and pon- 
 derous works on moral and religious subjects. 
 
 We can picture a group of these country ladies, listening 
 as they sew, while one of their number reads aloud from the 
 Spectator. For the first time they are brought into contact 
 with the busy life and the intellectual activity of the metrop- 
 olis. It is because of these little groups of women, John 
 Richard Green affirms, that " we find ourselves in presence 
 of a new literature, of a literature more really popular than 
 England had ever seen, a literature not only of the street,
 
 INTRODUCTION. xxv 
 
 the pulpit, the tavern, and the stage, but which had pene- 
 trated within the very precincts of the home." 
 
 AND STEELE AS WRItERS OF THE 
 SPECTATOR. 
 
 ITER! 
 
 Addison's work in the De Coverley Papers is, for the most 
 part, so much better than Steele's that in reading these 
 essays we are likely to underestimate the importance of 
 Steele as a writer. Indeed, Addison's strokes are so fine 
 that we almost regret the coarser touch of the other artists. 
 Nevertheless, it should always be remembered that Steele was 
 the originator of both the Tatler and the Spectator, and that 
 h.ul it not been for his enterprising spirit and his generous 
 nature, we might not have had a Sir Roger de Coverley. 
 
 In the preface to the collected edition of the Tatler, speak- 
 ing of Addison and himself, Steele says : "I fared like a dis- 
 tressed prince, who calls in a powerful neighbor to his aid ; 
 I was undone by my auxiliary ; when I had called him in I 
 could not subsist without dependence on him." In No. 532 
 of the Spectator he remarks : " I claim to myself the merit 
 of having extorted excellent production from a person of the 
 greatest abilities, who would not have let them appear by any 
 other means." Whatever else may be said of the two ver- 
 satile writers, Addison and Steele, it is undoubtedly true that, 
 as essayists, their success was owing in great part to the fact 
 that they worked together, and that each supplemented the 
 other. 
 
 VIII. CHARACTERISTICS OF QUEEN ANNE 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 The age of Queen Anne has often been called an age of 
 prose. Tired of the vagaries indulged in by the successors 
 of the Elizabethans, the public demanded works character-
 
 XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ized by common sense and practical utility, and delighted in 
 a literary form that combined clearness and elegance. The 
 higher efforts of imaginative genius were lost upon them : 
 they could not feel the beauties of Shakespeare and Milton. 
 Keen satire, delicate fancy, delightful humor, skill in narra- 
 tion, these we find in the best writers of the age ; but it 
 is safe to say that not one of them Swift, Pope, Defoe, 
 Berkeley, Addison, or Steele has left a line that is inspired 
 by a highly poetic imagination. This was a period when men 
 looked about them and wrote of life as it appeared on the 
 surface of political life, of club life, of the life of men 
 and women in society. A Lear, an Othello, would have 
 been out of place in this era of common sense ; instead of 
 great characters moved by strong passions, we have Robinson 
 Crusoe, Gulliver, Sir Roger de Coverley persons that live 
 in an everyday world and meet us on our own level. Human 
 nature had not changed, life had not become superficial and 
 prosaic, but the taste of the age demanded that passion and 
 romance should be ignored. 
 
 IX. LITERARY QUALITIES OF THE SIR ROGER DE 
 COVERLEY PAPERS. 
 
 We find in the Sir Roger de Coverley Papers many of the 
 best characteristics of the literature of this "Augustan 
 Age": wit, wisdom, satire, humor, and always especially 
 in Addison's papers careful attention to form. Indeed, 
 the style, though it is now a little antiquated, is so good that 
 we hardly think of it. The form suits the thought; it is 
 never obtrusive ; the language is the language of conversa- 
 tion raised to the level of art. This is why Dr. Johnson said 
 that he who would form a good style should give his days 
 and his nights to the study of Addison. What delights us 
 most of all in these papers, however, is the kindly humor that
 
 INTRODUCTION. xxvil 
 
 plays over every page ; a humor so subtle, so all-pervasive, 
 that some may fail to detect it. It is this that makes us 
 care for the old knight ; that arouses our sympathy for Will 
 Wimble, even while we laugh at him : it is this, above all, 
 that attracts us to the writers of these papers ; for it makes 
 us realize that while they felt keenly the moral evils of their 
 time, they could still love and pity their fellow men. 
 
 X. THE SPECTATOR IN ITS RELATION TO ENGLISH 
 LIFE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 As we review the conditions under which the Spectator 
 was produced and become aware of the influence that it 
 exerted, we see that it should not be judged as a purely lit- 
 erary work ; and what is true of the periodical as a whole, 
 is true, though in a less degree, of the papers relating to Sir 
 Roger de Coverley. The writers of these essays had a 
 practical end in view. Their aim is well expressed by Addi- 
 son, when he says : " It was said of Socrates that he brought 
 philosophy down from heaven to inhabit among men ; and 
 I shall be ambitious to have it said of me that I have brought 
 philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, 
 to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea tables and in coffee- 
 houses." While accomplishing this object, the writers of 
 the Spectator introduced a style of literature that has been 
 widely imitated, in other countries as well as in their own, 
 and that has not yet lost popular favor. They first taught 
 the English public to look upon reading as a daily enjoy- 
 ment, not as a rare exercise ; and although their treatment 
 of many subjects was necessarily superficial, they enlarged 
 the horizon and stimulated the curiosity of thousands of 
 persons living in all parts of England, and thus softened 
 the prejudices and raised the moral and intellectual stand- 
 ards of the community as a whole.
 
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