Profit,' a treatise on prayer based on Heb. iv. 16. 51. 'Christ a Compleat Saviour,' a discourse on the intercession of Christ, on Heb. vii. 25. 52. 'The Saint's Knowledge of Christ's Love,' an exposition of St. Paul's prayer, Ephes. iii. 18-19. 53. 'The House of the Forest of Lebanon,' a discourse on 1 Kings vii. 2, in which by a fanciful and baseless analogy he makes this palace a type of the church under persecution. 54. 'Antichrist and her Ruin, and the Slaying of the Witnesses,' a work which singularly enough breathes the most profound loyalty to the sovereign, though that sovereign was then doing all in his power to establish popery. To these ten posthumous works must be added: 55. ‘The Heavenly Footman,' a discourse on 1 Cor. ix. 24, bought of Bunyan's eldest son, John, in 1691 by Charles Doe, and published by him in 1698. 56. The 'Relation of his Imprisonment,' which was not given to the world till 1765, a hundred years after it was written in Bedford gaol. Neither 57. 'The Christian Dialogue,' nor 58. The Pocket Concordance,' enumerated by Charles Doe, 'though diligently sought,' has been discovered. 59. The 'Scriptural Poems,' in which a far from unsuccessful attempt has been made to versify the histories of Joseph, Samson, Ruth, the Sermon on the Mount, and the Epistle of St. James, are regarded as spurious by Mr. Brown on the ground that they were unknown to Charles Doe and were not published till twelve years after Bunyan's death, and then by one Blare, who issued other certainly spurious works in Bunyan's name. The internal evidence he also regards as unfavourable to their genuineness: 'There is but little to remind us of Bunyan's special verse.' Mr. Froude's verdict on this point is altogether different: "The "Book of Ruth" and the "History of Joseph" done into blank verse are really beautiful idylls, which if we found in the collected works of a poet laureate we should consider that a difficult task had been accomplished successfully, and the original grace completely preserved.'

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

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

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. 12), 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

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