Queen to chafe in her bonds, all the more rankling from the triumph obtained over her by those from whose sway she had been seeking to break loose. Nor can it be considered an unfitting termination of a scene of double duplicity, ingratitude, and disloyalty (to their patrons) in the agents she had employed. Such is an outline bringing the events of public interest up to the period at which we have arrived. To return to Steele: Since the relinquishment of his dramatic pursuits he had not attempted anything further than a little trifling dalliance with the Muses.* But though his then trivial appointments perhaps occupied him sufficiently to fritter away his time, he had too active a mind and too strong a motive for the exercise of his talents to continue so permanently. He was now, in fact, concerting a fresh literary campaign, destined to be more memorable than any of the preceding. The supper to which he alludes as given by Addison in honour of his new appointment, at which he was to assist in doing the honours, was not a farewell one, as he remained in London for some months after, and it was but two days preceding the appearance of the first result of his new literary labours that "In the Muses' Mercury for January 1706-7 are some humorous lines by Steele to a young lady who had married an old man; and in that for February is the following lively song by him :" "Me Cupid made a willing slave, 664 A merry wretched man; I slight the nymphs I cannot have, This constant maxim still I hold, The absent ugly are and old, The present young and fair.'" I his friend started for the scene of his new official ones. That he did not communicate his design to Addison we may believe was not from any want of friendship, but doubtless that he might test the success of his experiment previously, and give him an agreeable surprise. CHAPTER V. THE PERIODICAL ESSAYIST AND DELINEATOR OF CHARACTER1709-1710. Steele projects the Tatler, forming a new literary era-State of society at the period-A glance at preceding kindred writings-Origin of the assumed name of Isaac Bickerstaff-Adopted from a recent pamphlet in which Swift had foretold the death of Partridge, an almanac. maker and pretender in physic and astrology-The jeu d'esprit, which had been joined in by the other wits of the time, taken up by Steele in the Tatler-Partridge publishes a disclaimer-Extraordinary success of the Tatler-Swift one of its earliest contributors-Notice of the other contributors, Addison, Congreve, &c.-Dedications of the different volumes, and the subjects of them-Its close-General regret caused by its discontinuance-The good it accomplished. SHORTLY after the date of the last of the foregoing letters, namely, on the 12th of April (o.s.) following, Steele commenced the first of that celebrated series of periodical papers of which the delineation of character, life, and manners, combined with literature and criticism, was the leading characteristic. For this task his previous experience as a dramatic writer rendered him peculiarly well qualified, and on these works his literary fame for the most part rests. They formed a new era, and added an additional department to the national literature, which has commonly been designated by the title of the British Classics, or Essayists. They produced such important effects for good in their own age, have had such a beneficial influence in giving a tone to the tastes and manners of successive generations since, have afforded mingled delight and instruction to such multitudes of readers before we had come to be a nation of merely superficial novel-readers, are still so delightful when recurred to, and have left such an impress upon our language and literature,* that it is difficult to speak justly of their various claims without appearing to exaggerate. Though they long enjoyed a monopoly (which has ceased in consequence of the great multiplicity of new books) of being deemed the most indispensable portion of every family library, and the most delightful and instructive guides to initiate the youthful mind in the charms of elegant letters,―a neglect which they unfortunately share with most of the standard literature, just as on the stage the regular drama has been superseded by trifling ad-captandum pieces of the most frivolous description,-yet they can never cease to claim the attention of all readers of taste and discrimination. The writer may here quote what he has elsewhere said respecting the state of society at the period, previous to entering on an account of these papers : "For half a century preceding the appearance of the Tatlers, these kingdoms had been the scene of civil strife, the most cruel and distressing of the forms of war, with little intermission. The bright streaks that had appeared upon the horizon, and seemed to herald a halcyon time of repose and prosperity, on the setting of that bright occidental star,' Queen It is easy to trace this influence on the most finished writers of subsequent times down to Washington Irving. Among those who owed the elegant simplicity of their style to a careful and sedulous attention to these models, was Benjamin Franklin, to whom Lord Brougham pays a just compliment ("Sketches of Statesmen") in speaking of the elegant simplicity of his style in comparison with the cumbrous and pedantic manner of Bacon. And critics have also professed to trace in the pages of the Tatler the origin of the splendid antithesis of Burke. Elizabeth, in the settlement of the question of succession, by the union of the two kingdoms, and the consequent elevation of a heartless royal pedant to the throne, proved but a deceitful lull, a flattering and fickle gleam of sunshine, the precursor of a long day of storm and gloom. With much of versatile talent, an evil fatality seemed to cling to that Stuart race, which, like the judgment denounced against some of the old Hebrew kings, pursued them relentlessly till it had left them neither root nor branch. "That doomed house had only reached its next in descent when an indignant nation, in an age, doubtless, cast in too stern and uncompromising a mould, rose and flung a perfidious and would-be-arbitrary ruler from his seat, and ultimately exacted a retribution of terrible vindictiveness on the scaffold. The royal adherents, on the contrary, prided themselves in a laxity directly the reverse of the stern mannerism of their opponents, (so that the term cavalier, by which they were distinguished, has become synonymous with what is free and easy ;) and when, after the Restoration, the followers of the exiled court returned, they brought back with them this disposition, aggravated with the frivolities of French manners and the licentiousness of French morals, which impregnated the atmosphere with a moral miasma. Again, with the last of that ill-fated race, following his family traditions with a blind fatuity that seemed to challenge his fate, and was equally reprobated by friends and enemies, another deadly struggle for liberty and right ensued, which, though glorious and successful, was productive of serious, though unavoidable temporary disadvantages. "Amid this furious strife of parties, the tottering of thrones, and the rise and fall of dynasties, those arts of peace were necessarily retarded, the cultivation of which contributes equally to individual happiness and the prosperity and embellishment of society. The little glimmer of science which appeared under the auspices of the famous Boyle, after a few feeble flickerings, expired, though subsequently revived under the title of the Royal Society. A general ignorance and licentiousness, both in principle and practice, prevailed. The streams of public amusement were polluted at their source, for the writers of the drama pandered shamelessly to the popular taste; and it was customary for ladies who had a regard to reputation to frequent the theatres in masks, and to attend the first performance of any new piece before they could be supposed to be aware of the prurient jest or indecent allusion. All decorum was a jest; the most sacred social institutions considered a subject of polite raillery. Gambling and duelling were the pursuits of those styling themselves men of honour. Amusements of the most brutal and savage description-prize-fighting, bull-baiting, and bear-baiting-were prevalent among the populace, and participated in by many among those of the highest rank. Conversation was at the lowest ebb as regarded rationality, literature was deemed synonymous with pedantry, and religion was a scoff. Life was spent |