Gay, who wrote The Beggar's Opera, was a contemporary of Pope, and the revival of his famous opera has served to demonstrate his Gilbertian humour. wrote his first book, The Christian Hero, while he was still an ensign, in order to correct his "propensity to unwarrantable pleasures." That was in 1701; but his friends in the Army, and the men about town, and in the end he himself, were not impressed by his moral and religious ideas in the book, and he went on to write plays. His fourth play, The Conscious Lovers, fairly took the town, and Harley, the Whig Minister, bestowed on him the post of Gazetteer and Gentleman Usher at Court. Addison's Career Meanwhile Addison's training had been more cosmopolitan, more that of a travelled scholar and man of culture, than Steele's. After ten years at Magdalen College, Oxford, where his portrait still hangs in the hall, while his favourite walk is pointed out on the banks of Cherwell, he decided against taking orders, and his literary experience began, like Montaigne's, with the writing of Latin verse. His first English verse soon followed, and he used it adroitly to gain the ear of Dryden, who asked him for a critical preface to "The Georgics" of Virgil—a high honour from a past master. Dryden spoke of him as "the most ingenious W. Addison of Oxford"; and with that recognition his future seemed assured. But politics counted for much in Addison's life, as well as in Steele's: Addison was a good Whig, and his Whig friends got for him a travelling pension of £300 a year, to enable him to go abroad, learn French and Italian, and qualify for a diplomatic This leads to his travels in France and Italy, his meeting with Boileau, his return via Germany and Holland to England in 1702. "The letter from Italy to Halifax," in rhymed couplets, and his poem "The Compaign," in the same measure, read to us now like fine literary exercises, compared with the prose of his essays. But "The Campaign" was the making of Addison. Godolphin, the Whig premier, had strong political career. reasons for making the most of Marlborough's great victory at Blenheim in August, 1704. He sought out Addison, who was then, it is said, living obscurely in a garret at the top of three flights of stairs in the Haymarket. The poem is no longer read, but its famous simile of Marlborough and the angel will always be quoted: So when an angel at divine command, With rising tempests shakes a guilty land The poem fulfilled all Godolphin's wishes, and Addison was rewarded with an Under-Secretaryship of State, the first of a number of offices of profit which he honourably if not too competently filled. He had no hand in the design or first publication of the Tatler, and, indeed, was in Ireland at the time as Secretary to the Earl of Wharton, Lord Lieutenant, but he soon recognised Steele's hand, and his proffered help as a contributor was wisely and warmly accepted. "The Tatler" The Tatler appeared on April 12, 1709. Wishing to be anonymous Steele adopted the name of Isaac Bickerstaff, borrowed from Swift, who had taken it from a shop-door in Long Acre and used it as a cloak under which to attack John Partridge, a notorious advertising astrologer and almanac-maker. Although the Tatler underwent considerable change after Addison began to write for it, Steele launched it in the right way. He linked it to the coffee-houses, of which there were no fewer than three thousand in London. They were the centres of news gossip and discussion. He announced in his first number: All accounts of gallantry, pleasures, and entertainment shall be under article of White's Chocolate house; poetry under that of Will's Coffee-house; learning under the title of the Grecian; foreign and domestic news you will have from St. James's Coffee-house; and what else I have to offer on any other subject shall be dated from my own apartment. White's Coffee-house, the parent of White's Club, and the St. James's Coffee-house were in St. James's Street; Will's, where Dryden in his winter chair by the fire or his summer seat on the balcony, had dictated the laws of criticism and taste in poetry to his worshippers, was in Russell Street; and the "Grecian," the oldest of all the coffee-houses, was in Devereux Court, Essex Street. In these places Steele collected news and topics; in places the Tatler was itself discussed. Its success was immediate. Steele made an appeal at the outset to women by declaring that his title was chosen in their honour. The paper appeared three times a week on the post days, which were Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The first four numbers were given away gratis, and then the price of one penny was charged. The motto adopted was Juvenal's "Quicquid agunt homines," etc., freely translated: Whate'er men do, or say, or think, or dream, Our motley paper seizes for its theme. Some of Addison's most delightful essays appear in the Tatler, but Steele stamped its character on the work as a censor of manners and morals, a corrector of the public taste, and exponent of everyday London topics. His aim was, as he said, "to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our behaviour." "The Spectator" All these elements in the Tatler combined to prepare the way for the more finished but not more vivid art of the Spectator, |