=2. His Drama.= Steele wrote some prose comedies, the best of which are _The Funeral_ (1701), _The Lying Lover_ (1703), _The Tender Husband_ (1705), and _The Conscious Lovers_ (1722). They follow in general scheme the Restoration comedies, but are without the grossness and impudence of their models. They have, indeed, been criticized as being too moral; yet in places they are lively, and reflect much of Steele’s amiability of temper. =3. His Essays.= It is as a miscellaneous essayist that Steele finds his place in literature. He was a man fertile in ideas, but he lacked the application that is always so necessary to carry those ideas to fruition. Thus he often sowed in order that other men might reap. He started _The Tatler_ in 1709, _The Spectator_ in 1711, and several other short-lived periodicals, such as _The Guardian_ (1713), _The Reader_ (1714), _The Englishman_ (1715), and _The Plebeian_ (1718). After the rupture with Addison the loss of the latter’s steadying influence was acutely felt, and nothing that Steele attempted had any stability. Steele’s working alliance with Addison was so close and so constant that the comparison between them is almost inevitable. Of the two writers, some critics assert that Steele is the worthier. In versatility and in originality he is at least Addison’s equal. His humor has none of Addison’s simpering prudishness; it is broader and less restrained, with a naïve, pathetic touch about it that is reminiscent of Goldsmith. His pathos is more attractive and more humane. But Steele’s very virtues are only his weaknesses sublimed; they are emotional, not intellectual; of the heart, and not of the head. He is incapable of irony; he lacks penetration and power; and much of his moralizing is cheap and obvious. He lacks Addison’s care and suave ironic insight; he is reckless in style and inconsequent in method. And so, in the final estimate, as the greater artist he fails. The passage given illustrates Steele’s easy style, the unconstrained sentences, the fresh and almost colloquial vocabulary, and the genial humor. (_Mr Bickerstaff, the Mr Spectator of “The Tatler,” visits an old friend._)