Richard Steele | The Tatler | The Spectator

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Richard Steele was an Irish-English politician, playwright, and writer who was born in 1672 and died in 1729. He wrote a few comedy playwrights (The Funeral & The Lying Lover) and established the Kitkat Club along with Joseph Addison. His first work was The Christian Hero which was published in 1701. It was a pamphlet that described what actual manhood is and what people think it is. It was a moralistic pamphlet offering moral instruction and promoting a chaste and controlled way of living. However, the work was hugely ridiculed because of its inherent hypocrisy. Steele was known for heavy drinking, occasional gambling, and debauchery; thus, when he wrote this pamphlet with moral preaching, it was criticized.

Richard Steele is known for establishing the first English weekly journal titled The Tatler which was first published in 1709 and continued in publication for more than two years. Richard Steele used the pseudonym Issac Bickerstaff Esquire to publish his essays in The Tattler. The Tatller first came out on 12 April 1709, and appeared thrice a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Initially, Richard Steele alone wrote all the essays for the journal but eventually, he engaged his friends Joseph Addison and Jonathan Swift for their contributions. However, all three continued using the same pseudonym Issac Bickerstaff Esq. Jonathan Swift already used the same pseudonym as part of a hoax to predict the death of the then famous Almanac–maker, and astrologer John Partridge. This bolstered the popularity of Steele’s periodical. Steele continued the publication of The Tatler for two years but then merged it with a new daily journal titled The Spectator that he published in collaboration with Joseph Addison.

The Tatler:

The Tatler was a literary and societal journal in which Steele published news and gossip heard in various coffeehouses in London. Generally, the articles of The Tatler were a mix of real gossip and invented stories by Steele. Steele declared in the opening paragraph of each publication that the journal isn’t about political news, rather it is a presentation of Whiggish views on various political and social manners. The purpose of the journal was thus providing entertainment and correct middle-class manners, while instructing "these Gentlemen, for the most part being Persons of strong Zeal, and weak Intellects...what to think."

While Richard Steele alone worked for most of the publications, he pretended to have four reporters employed and assigned by him in each of the four most popular coffeehouses in London. Richard Steele declared the purpose of his periodical journal The Tatler as, “The general purpose of this paper is to expose the false arts of life, to pull the disguise of cunning, vanity and affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our behavior.”

The first issue of The Tatler was published on April 12, 1709. At the time, Steele alone worked on the periodical but soon he engaged his close friend Joseph Addison whose contribution appeared on May 26, 1709. A total of 271 issues of The Tatler were published in two years. Of the 271 numbers, 188 were written by Steele and 42 by Addison; 36 of them were written by both jointly.

The Spectator:

The last issue of The Tatler was published on January 2, 1711, and then Richard Steele stopped publishing the periodic journal abruptly without any intimation to the readers. However, Steele came back within 2 months with the first issue of The Spectator which was published on March 1, 1711. One of the reasons for the abrupt ending of The Tatler was the unexpected return of Tories to power as they defeated the Whigs in 1710. Steele and Addison both belonged to the Whigs' coterie. They came back with The Spectator which was somewhat politically neutral and presented representatives from diverse walks of life. The Spectator drew a large female readership as many of the papers were for and about women. Though both Addison and Steele were Whigs, yet in The Spectator they kept up a fairly neutral political poise and, in fact, did their best to expose the error of the political fanaticism of both the Tories and Whigs. In addition, The Spectator offered more attention to trends in the trading market, and thus people from the trading community too became ardent readers of The Spectator which was published daily for around two years. The Spectator was more than a gossip tabloid. It offered more attention to the interests of England's emerging middle class—merchants and traders large and small. A total of 555 issues of The Spectator were published from March 1, 1711, to December 6, 1712, and then it was halted. On 18^th June 1714, Joseph Addison began republishing The Spectator but Richard Steele didn’t continue with him. The last issue of The Spectator was published on 20^th December 1714.

While The Tatler was published under the pseudonym of Issac Bickerstaff, Steele, and Addison created different fake personas to present the essays and articles in The Spectator. Among those, was Sir Roger de Coverley who became hugely famous and whom Steele envisaged as a Tory baron. One of the strong points of The Spectator was its humor. Steele announced the purpose of The Spectator as "to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality". Steele and Addison tried to get the involvement of middle-class people in the issues of philosophy and politics Steele mentioned in the 10th section of The Spectator that he hopes the periodical has "brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools, and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffee–houses".

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!