Selections from the Observator (1681-1687) — John Shaqi
Selections from the Observator (1681-1687)L'Estrange, Roger, Sir
History
Selections from the Observator (1681-1687)
L'Estrange, Roger, Sir
Character sketches -- Early works to 1800; Dialogues, English; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1660-1688
Imitators did not wait long. Nine days after the first _Observator_,
L'Estrange's arch-enemy, Harry Care, changed to dialogue the _Popish
Courant_ section of his _Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome_,
relinquishing the expository format which he had followed since 1678.
Later, after the Glorious Revolution, the popularity of L'Estrange's
paper is evident in the spate of imitative "Observators" that ensued:
_The English Spy: Or, the Critical Observator_ (1693); _The Poetical
Observator_ (1702); Tutchin's _Observator_ (1702--a Whig organ) and
Leslie's _Observator_ (1704--a Tory organ); _The Comicall Observator_
(1704); _The Observator Reviv'd_ (1707), and more. As late as 1716 there
was created a _Weekly Observator_. By the turn of the century, the very
term "Observator" had come to signify a controversy _in dialogue_.[6]
Interestingly enough, even the typography of L'Estrange's _Observator_
may have left its mark on succeeding journals. A brief comparison of
Interregnum newspapers (such as _Newes Out of Ireland_ in 1642, _The
Scotch Mercury_ in 1643, _The Commonwealth Mercury_ in 1658) with John
Dunton's _The Athenian Mercury_ (1693) and Charles Leslie's _Observator_
(1704) reveals a marked difference in typography. In the earlier papers
the typography is generally uniform, with italics used for proper names
and quotations, whereas L'Estrange's and Leslie's papers exhibit the
whole range of typeface available to the seventeenth-century printer.
Dissenter Dunton's _Athenian Mercury_, on the other hand, shows much
less eccentricity in its typography, limiting itself to generous use of
italics only, while Defoe's _Review_ goes back to the earlier restraint
and presents a neat, uniform page. Whether these typographical
differences are attributable to particular political views or merely to
"schools" of printing is difficult to say.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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