The essay (meaning, according to
Montaigne, 'an attempt') originated as a repository of casual ideas on men and
matters. To Montaigne it was more a means of thinking aloud, than a literary
type. In England it was cultivated by Bacon and the humanists. But as
literature became more formalized and academic in the latter half of the 17th century, its practice gradually passed
out of fashion. Later, a combination of circumstances peculiar to England gave
a group of humanists the "opportunity of creating it anew. Their work
appeared in a detached, fragmentary form like the essays of Montaigne, Bacon or
Cowley. But in method and scope it was an achievement of marked originality,
and exercised a profound influence of the prose style, and indeed on the
civilization of their epoch. In origin, the
18th century Addisonian essay had little in common
with the Renaissance essay, but belongs to the history of the daily press.
Since the beginning of the Civil War, England had been the home of diurnals and
news-sheets. But, thanks to the Licensing Act of 1662, the 17th century produced no serious attempts at
journalism. From the time of William's accession, news-sheets and Mercuries
began to multiply. In 1690 John Dunton hit on the ingenious idea of publishing
the Athenian Gazette, afterwards changed to the Athenian Mercury, a
periodical to answer questions; in 1702 the Daily Courant began its long
Career till 1735; and in 1704, Daniel Defoe started the publication of The
Review.
DANIEL
DEFOE
As a pamphleteer Defoe showed
great grasp of details and an intuitive foreknowledge of events that
characterize great journalists and social writers. Towards the end of the 17th century he published An Essay Upon
Projects, proposing various social and economic improvements in England, as
well as displaying an insight into the manners and morals of his
contemporaries-one of the chief qualifications of an essayist. In his writings
Defoe kept harking upon politics and public controversy. Though Defoe's prose
is vigorous, fluent and homely, he had not cultivated the subtle persuasiveness
of style without which the public does not care to read about its own manners
and mannerisms. The same is true of his Review. This remarkable venture
into journalism is an admirable attempt to estimate the forces of international
politics and to weigh the merits of commercial and ecclesiastical questions at
home. But when he turned to the culture and conduct of his age, he created
nothing great. The Review is by no means Defoe's only contribution to
the progress of social journalism. Some ten years later he was to return to the
investigation of city morals and manners, and was then to find highly developed
organs of expression and a large appreciative public of readers.
RICHARD
STEELE
Richard Steele
was a playwright, tractarian and cavalry officer who plunged into journalism
and produced a new literary type out of the Mercuries, reviews and gazettes. He
was the first venturer to perceive that up till now political essays had been
addressed to the wrong public. It was a time when the English monarchy had lost
its hold on the nation. At the same time the growth of cdmmerce was giving
importance to the middle class. It was an age of domesticity, and literature
ceased to draw inspiration from the court. Such tendencies had created for
themselves a publicity in the coffee-houses. Thanks to the Londoner's passion
for club life, this new type of tavern had multiplied enormously since the
Civil War. Every house had its distinctive members who respected each other's
opinions and tolerated each other's eccentricities.
The man who
opened the eyes of his fellow townsmen to the humours of middle class life was
Richard Steele. Steele had the ordinary equipment of an educated man of the
period, but contact with life on all its sides had developed in him an
unfailing insight into artificiality and a generous admiration of worth. He
could appreciate the trivial and serious sides of life in their correct
proportion. It was not in his ideas that his genius displayed itself, it was in
the way he expressed them. When the Tatter first appeared (April 12,
1709) it was conceived on much the same lines as any previous periodical. A section was devoted to society news and theatrical
criticism, another to poetry, another to literature and yet another to
politics, each under the article of a coffee-house.
Ever
since Tudor times London had been growing fast, and the constant migration to
the capital had created a new need - the need of a standard of city manners of urbanity.
Steele used the periodical to supply this want, and gradually evolved a new
mouthpiece of public opinion. For a long time he confined himself to
destructive criticism. He protested against the impertinences of the newly
constructed middle-class society and satirized swindlers, bores, chatterboxes
and coxcombs.
Gradually, Steele's satire began to
penetrate more deeply. He was the first English author to discover how far
virtue and happiness depend on the intimate relationships of family life. His interest
in domesticity led him inevitably to the problems of married life. Steele was
one of the first English authors who wrote for women; he was also one of the
first who put into prose the new ideal of feminine perfection. There are
moments when he looked beyond the accomplishments of social life and caught
glimpses of the morbid tendencies which the restraints of civilization
sometimes aggravate. One can remember in this regard his studies of
'inferiority complex', megalomania and envy. As was to be expected of a
humanist, Tatler discovered some of the purest gems of human nature hidden in
obscure lives.
JOSEPH ADDISON
Joseph Addison was the presiding
genius of the Spectator (March 1, 1711 to Dec 6, 1712). Steele had
succeeded in discovering the range and scope of the periodical essay, but
Addison realized its artistic possibilities. He knew that it should become a
stylized type of literature, and he set himself to a single theme and to deal
with familiar things. At the same time the essay must have the charm of
novelty. Addison was fully aware of these problems. In the Spectator he
excluded politics, religious controversy and pedantry, but he embraced every
topic of literary, social or moral interest. He adapted and applied universal
wisdom to shed light on questions of current interest, and he peopled his pages
with types and characters to illustrate his pronouncements. Unlike the Tatler,
he dwelt more insistently on the moral purpose of his paper; and each issue
of the Spectator contained a single thought, every creation distinct
from its neighbour, though all bearing a strong family likeness. But it is in
the tone and attitude of the Spectator that its originality and merit will
be found. If it staged the familiar scenes of city life, it showed them the
scenes from the viewpoint of a humanist. The new periodical shut its eyes to
all distinctions accept that of vice and virtue, and employed no criterion but
that of common sense.
The Spectator purported to be
conducted by a small club, including Sir Roger de Coverley, who represents the
country gentry, Sir Andrew Freeport, Captain Sentry, and Will Honeycomb,
representing respectively commerce, the army and the town. Mr. Spectator
himself, who writes the papers, is a man of travel and learning, who frequents
London as an observer, but keeps clear of political strife. The obpct of the
papers was 'to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality'.
Addison taught his age restraint,
good manners, good sense, forbearance and mutual esteem. He pointed out that
drama was decaying under the influence of French scenery and stage effects. He
recalled literary men to the spirit and simplicity of old ballads, and social
thinkers to the rising importance of commerce. He encouraged self-culture by
contending that English readers could find in Paradise Lost as high a
standard of excellence as was consecrated by the Iliad and the Aeneid.
Addison's Satire
Unlike Dryden, Pope and the Tatler
in its earlier numbers, Addison never satirized persons, but ridiculed
customs and prejudices. His method was to collect as many examples as possible
of some prevailing absurdity, gravely crowd them all into one illustration and
then leave the reader to laugh at the incongruous result. In this way he
ridiculed the staging of the opera, headdresses which make the wearers hideous,
men who fill their letters with French military terms, and a number of other
issues. Never has more wit and accurate knowledge with less venom been employed
on the censure of folly.
Addison and
Steele: a comparison
Steele did not
have Addison's gift of drawing a moral, or his scholarly knowledge of current
topics, or] his polished style. But Steele had the playwright's eye for
situations and for the interplay of characters. He had by nature a surer gift
of reading the human heart, and by experience a keener insight into city life.
Steele went deeper when he discussed education and insisted that the true place
where young people are made or marred is home. He gave the middle class their
standard of good manners and warned them of the darker vices of city life.
OTHER
PERIODICALS
Both
Tatler and Spectator provoked many rivals and enemies. Some of
them were Female Tatler, The Inquisitor, Free Thinker, Plain Dealer, Medley and
Rambler (the last by Dr.Johnson).
JONATHAN SWIFT
Of the papers
that were most influenced by the new journalism, the most important was The
Examiner. Swift found that he had much in common with both Addison and Steele,
and with something of their spirit but with more power he attacked imposters in
the person of John Partridge. His immortal pamphlet Predictions for the year
1708, made famous the name of Issac Bickerstaff, which Steele was glad to
adopt in the Tatler, as a symbol of good sense and sincerity. Swift made
several suggestions for the Tatler, and contributed at least 5 papers;
but soon his mood became too saturnine (gloomy) and savage for the witty and
humane creation of his two friends. Swift's almost inhuman indictment of life
could find expression only in books and pamphlets which compromise nobody but
the author. 20th century criticism has stressed Swift's sanity,
vigour and satirical inventiveness rather than his alleged misanthropy.
THE GUARDIAN
After the Spectator
ceased publication, both Addison and Steele busied themselves with the
stage, but neither could throw off the habit of social journalism. In 1713
Steele brought out The Guardian to deal with society, and detail the
privacies of life and character. Later Addison joined in. The Chief interest of
the Guardian will be found in the renewed interest it created in the art of
essay writing. But very few contributors survived the tide of time for the
reason that they were put off by the apparent informality of the work. An art
which sets the writer off into self-revelation requires from him a certain
temperament. Because it enters so many houses and coffee-houses so frequently,
it must have something common to all its readers. It must be tolerant,
universal, reactionary, free from anything sectarian, polemic, controversial.
Hence some of the talents which produced brilliant pamphlets spelt sheer
disqualification for essay-writing. Pope, for instance, contributed to the
Guardian-his subtle wit and graceful colloquial style is undeniable, but his
thoughts were charged with too much venom. Of the other contributors, George
Berkeley is perhaps most significant.
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