Richard Steele: Edited, with an Introduction and Notes by G. A. AitkenSteele, Richard, Sir
General
Richard Steele: Edited, with an Introduction and Notes by G. A. Aitken
Steele, Richard, Sir
English drama (Comedy); Steele, Richard, Sir, 1672-1729
Swift was now quite estranged from Addison and Steele, though of
course they were civil when they met. In June, 1711, Steele appears
to have become acquainted with Pope, and Addison wrote a flattering
notice of the young poet's _Art of Criticism_ in the _Spectator_.
Party pamphleteering was now being carried to a hitherto unprecedented
extent, and Swift wrote constantly himself, and supplied hints to
others. Marlborough was dismissed, and the object of the Government
was to bring the war to an end by persuading the people to agree to
a treaty whose terms were less satisfactory than might have been
expected. At the same time some of the party were secretly plotting
for the restoration of the Stuarts, and among these appears to to have
been Harley, now Earl of Oxford. Steele wrote a pamphlet in praise of
Marlborough, for whom he always showed great admiration.
A son, Eugene, was born in March, 1712; Steele was then living in
Brownlow Street, Holborn. In June he had a cottage on Haverstock Hill,
and there the members of the Kitcat Club called for him on their
way to the Upper Flask at Hampstead, where they met in the summer.
In July he had taken a house in Bloomsbury Square, and next month he
felt relieved by the renewal of his employments, and lived "in the
handsomest manner." But all the time actions for debt were hanging over
him, and he had hastily to withdraw a scheme which was found to be
illegal, for "getting money" by means of a "Multiplication Table," to
be worked in connection with the State Lottery.
The _Spectator_ was brought to a close in December, 1712, and in the
following month George Berkeley, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, but then
a young man just arrived in London, wrote that Steele, who had been
among the first to welcome him, was ill with gout, but was, "as I am
informed, writing a play, since he gave over the _Spectators_." Steele
was very hospitable to the young philosopher, and Berkeley remarks that
there appeared "in his natural temper something very generous, and a
great benevolence to mankind." By the death of Mrs. Scurlock, Steele
had come into £500 a year, which made it more justifiable for him to
maintain his "handsome and neatly furnished house," where the table,
servants, coach, &c., were "very genteel."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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