THE LIFE OF SIR RICHARD STEELE

AUSTIN DOBSON

[From the Dictionary of National Biography.]

STEELE, SIR RICHARD (1672-1729), essayist, dramatist, and politician, was born in Dublin in March 1672 (N.S.), and was baptised at St. Bridget's Church on the 12th of that month. He was consequently some weeks older than Joseph Addison, who was born on 1 May following. Steele's father, also Richard Steele, was a well-to-do Dublin attorney, who had a country house at Mountain (Monkstown), and was at one time subsheriff at Tipperary. He married, in 1670, an Irish widow named Elinor Symes (or Sims), born Sheyles. When his son was 'not quite five years of age' (Tatler, No. 181), the elder Steele died, and of Mrs. Steele we know nothing but what the same authority tells us, namely, that she was 'a very beautiful woman, of a noble spirit.' She cannot have long survived her husband, since Steele seems to have passed early into the care of an uncle, Henry Gascoigne, private secretary to James Butler, first duke of Ormonde, by whose influence the boy in November 1684 obtained a nomination to the Charterhouse, of which the duke was a governor. Two years later Addison entered the same school, and a lifelong friendship began between the pair.

In November 1689 Steele was elected to the university' of Oxford, whither Addison had already preceded him. On 13 March 1690 he matriculated at Christ Church, and on 27 Aug. 1691 he became a postmaster of Merton, his college tutor being Dr. Welbore Ellis, afterwards mentioned in the 'Christian Hero.' He continued his friendship with Addison, then a demy at Magdalen, and appears to have visited him in his home at Lichfield (Preface to the Drummer, 1722, and Tatler, No. 235). While at college he enjoyed some reputation as a scholar. He dabbled also in letters, composing a comedy which, by the advice of a friend, Mr. Parker of Merton, he burned. Then suddenly, in 1694, much to the regret of 'the whole Society,' he left Merton without taking a degree, and entered the army as a cadet or gentle

man-volunteer in the second troop of life-guards, at that time under the command of the second duke of Ormonde, thereby losing, as he tells us in 'The Theatre,' No. 11, 'the succession to a very good estate in the county of Wexford in Ireland.' What this estate was his biographers have failed to discover, although it has been conjectured that, if it existed at all, it belonged to a relative of his mother.

On 28 Dec. 1694 Queen Mary died, and among the mourning bards who, in black-framed folio, celebrated her funeral was Steele, whose verses, described as 'by a Gentleman of the Army,' and entitled 'The Procession,' were, doubtless from motives of policy, dedicated to John, Lord Cutts, who had just become colonel of the 2nd or Coldstream regiment of foot-guards. Lord Cutts took Steele into his household, and in 1696–7 employed him as his confidential agent or secretary (cf. CARLETON, Memoirs, 1728, ch. iii.). Ultimately he gave him a standard in his own regiment. By 1700 Steele is referred to as 'Captain,' and there is also evidence that he was in friendly relations with Sedley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, Garth, and other contemporary wits. In the same year (16 June), 'one or two of his acquaintance' having thought fit to misuse him and try their valour upon him' (Apology for himself and his Writings, 1714, p. 80), he fought a duel in Hyde Park with a Captain Kelly, whom he wounded dangerously, but not mortally (LUTTRELL, Diary, iv. 657). This occurrence made a serious impression upon him, and laid the foundation of that dislike of duelling which he ever afterwards exhibited. In all probability it is connected with his next literary effort, the treatise called 'The Christian Hero: an Argument proving that no Principles but those of Religion are sufficient to make a great Man.' This (which was also dedicated to Lord Cutts) was published by Tonson in April 1701, a second and enlarged edition following on 19 July. Steele's own account of this work in his 'Apology,' p. 8o, is that, finding the military life 'exposed to much irregularity,' he wrote it 'to fix upon his own mind a strong impression of virtue and religion, in opposition to a stronger propensity towards unwarrantable pleasures,' which admission has probably been construed too literally (cf. Biogr. Brit. 1763, vol. vi. pt. i. p. 3823). 'The Christian Hero'

was at first designed solely for his private use, but finding ‘that this secret admonition was too weak,' he ultimately printed the book with his name,' as a 'standing testimony against himself." It differs considerably both in style and teaching from the ordinary devotional manual, and without much straining may be said to exhibit definite indications of that faculty for essay-writing which was to be so signally developed in the 'Spectator,' in which indeed certain portions of it were afterwards embodied. Upon his colleagues at the Tower Guard (whence its Preface is dated) its effect was what might have been anticipated. 'From being thought no undelightful companion, he was soon reckoned a disagreeable fellow. . . . Thus he found himself slighted, instead of being encouraged, for his declarations as to Religion, and it was now incumbent upon him to enliven his character, for which reason he writ the comedy called “The Funeral," in which (tho' full of incidents that move laughter) virtue and vice appear as they ought to do' (Apology, p. 80).

'The Funeral; or, Grief-à-la-Mode,' was acted at Drury Lane late in 1701, and was published in book form in December of that year, with a dedication to the Countess of Albemarle. The principal parts were taken by Cibber, Wilks, and Mrs. Verbruggen, and the championship of the author's military friends helped to secure its success. 'With some particulars enlarged upon to his advantage' (by which must probably be understood certain politic references to William III in the 'Christian Hero'), it also obtained for him the notice of the king. 'His [Steele's] name, to be provided for, was in the last table-book ever worn by the glorious and immortal William the Third' (ib. p. 81). His majesty, however, died on 8 March 1702, and Steele's fortunes were yet to make. In the preceding month he had become a captain in Lord Lucas's newly formed regiment of foot (AITKEN, Life, i. 79); and in December 1703 he produced at Drury Lane a second comedy, 'The Lying Lover; or, the Ladies Friendship,' which was published on 26 Jan. 1704. This piece was based upon the 'Menteur' of Corneille, and differed from its predecessor, 'The Funeral,' in that it was a more deliberate attempt to carry out upon the stage those precepts which, a few years earlier, Jeremy Collier had advocated in his 'Short View of the Profaneness and Im

morality of the English Stage.' Among other things it contained an indictment of duelling. Upon its first appearance it ran but six nights. Its author described it years afterwards as 'damned for its piety' (Apology, p. 48), but it was also inferior to its predecessor. Steele nevertheless set to work upon a third effort, 'The Tender Husband; or, the Accomplished Fools.' This, a frank imitation of Molière's 'Sicilien,' was brought out at Drury Lane in April 1705. It was better than the 'Lying Lover,' but scarcely more successful, though Addison (now back from Italy) wrote its prologue, and added 'many applauded [though now undistinguishable] strokes' to the piece itself (Spectator, No. 555). In May, when the play was printed, it was dedicated to Addison ' as no improper memorial of an inviolable friendship.'

Soon after the production of 'The Tender Husband,' which, for several years, closed Steele's career as a playwright, he married. His wife (for particulars respecting whom we are indebted to the researches of Mr. Aitken) was a widow named Margaret Stretch, née Ford, the possessor of more or less extensive estates in Barbados, which she had inherited from a brother then recently dead. It has been also hinted that she was elderly, and that her fortune was the main attraction to her suitor, whose indefinite means had about this time been impaired by futile researches for the philosopher's stone (New Atalantis and Town Talk, No. 4). The marriage must have taken place not long after March 1705, when Mrs. Stretch took out letters of administration to her West Indian property, which is said to have been worth 850l. per annum. It was, however, encumbered with a debt of 3,000l., besides legacies, &c. In December 1706 Mrs. Steele died, and Steele, in his turn, administered to her estate in January 1707. During the brief period of his married life in August 1706 — he had become a gentleman waiter to Prince George of Denmark (salary 100l. yearly, 'not subject to taxes'), and in April or May 1707, on the recommendation of Arthur Mainwaring, he was appointed by Harley gazetteer, at a further annual salary of 300l., which was, however, liable to a tax of 451. 'The writer of the "Gazette " now,' says Hearne in May 1707, 'is Captain Steel, who is the author of several romantic things, and is accounted an ingenious man.' Steele seems to have honestly endeavoured to comply

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with 'the rule observed by all ministries, to keep the paper very innocent and very insipid' (Apology, p. 81); but the rule was by no means an easy one to abide by. His inclinations still leaned towards the stage. Already, in March 1703, he had received from Rich of Drury Lane part payment for an unfinished comedy called 'The Election of Goatham' (AITKEN, i. 112), a subject also essayed by Gay and Mrs. Centlivre; and in January 1707 he was evidently meditating the completion of this or some other piece when his wife's death interrupted his work (Muses Mercury, January 1707). But his only definite literary production between May 1705 and 1707 was a 'Prologue' to the university of Oxford, published in July 1706.

Before he had held the post of gazetteer many months he married again. The lady, whose acquaintance he had made at his first wife's funeral, was a Miss, or Mistress, Mary Scurlock, the daughter and heiress of Jonathan Scurlock, deceased, of Llangunnor in Carmarthen, and, according to Mrs. Manley (New Atalantis, 6th ed. vol. iv.), 'a cry'd up beauty.' For reasons now obscure, the marriage was kept a secret, but it is supposed to have taken place on 9 Sept. 1707, soon after which time Steele set up house in Bury Street, or (as his letters give it) 'third door, right hand, turning out of Jermyn Street.' This was a locality described by contemporary advertisements as in convenient proximity 'to St. James's Church, Chapel, Park, Palace, Coffee and Chocolate Houses,' and was obviously within easy distance of the court and Steele's office, the Cockpit at Whitehall. Both before and after marriage Steele kept up an active correspondence with his Charmer' and 'Inspirer,' names which, later on, are exchanged, not inappropriately, for 'Ruler' and 'Absolute Governess.' Mrs. Steele preserved all her husband's letters, over four hundred of which John Nichols the antiquary presented in 1787 to the British Museum (Add. MSS. 5145, A, B, and C), where they afford a curious and an instructive study to the inquirer. The lady, though genuinely attached to her husband, was imperious and exacting; the gentleman ardent and devoted, but incurably erratic and impulsive. His correspondence reflects these characteristics in all their variations, and, if it often does credit to his heart and understanding, it as often suggests that