wood, a suppressed article by whom had been published in it, states, in a letter to the Bishop of Salisbury, that the daily sale amounted to 14,000. At all events the average total circulation previous to the existence of the tax, must, on the most moderate estimate, have been thereabout, as Steele states in the paper above referred to, that the circulation when collected into volumes, at a guinea each, amounted to 9000. It is certainly remarkable that the circulation of the collected edition, and at such an advance in price, should have exceeded the current one. That was the first circulation, but numerous other editions followed subsequently. Such is the result of all that can be arrived at respecting the original publication of this celebrated work—the first attempt at a popular literature in England-which may be regarded as the precursor not merely of the literary periodical press, but (what may be considered perhaps by some a more questionable merit) of the modern novel-in which respect Miss Aikin* thinks Steele may be taken as the representative of Richardson, and Addison of Fielding, so far at least as the possession of their respective characteristic qualities of the pathetic and the humorous. Life of Addison, vol. ii. p. 10. CHAPTER VIII. Correspondence during publication of Spectator-Reference to his mother's family-Poetical correspondence with Hughes and PopeAnecdote of the Censorium, or private theatre of Steele-Criticism on Pope's Messiah-Addison disclaims Popes' satire on Dennis-Pope's Dying Christian-Newcomb's encomium on Steele. April 2, 1711. SIR,-The bearer hereof, Mr John Bateman, is the nearest of blood to my uncle, Gascoigne, to whose bounty I owe a liberal education. He has a demand upon my Lord Longford, as administrator to my said uncle, together with some other debts which lie out in Ireland. I earnestly recommend his affairs to your favour and patronage, and desire you would stand by him, and appear for him, in order to his obtaining speedy justice. He is of himself an helpless, and your goodness herein will be the highest obligation to, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, RICH. STEELE. LETTER CLXVIII. To Mrs Steele. June 14, 1711. DEAR PRUE,-I inclose you a guinea, and desire you to go before to Mrs Simpson's, if I am not ready to go with you, and call at your mother's at eight o'clock, for Mr Craggs and others do not come to us till late in the evening. Therefore pray be tractable to your enamoured husband and humble servant, RICH. STEELE. LETTER CLXIX. To Mrs Steele. [1711.] PRUE,-Addison's money* you will have to-morrow noon. I have but "This was the loan which afterwards so unfortunately interrupted a long and early friendship. 'At the school of the Chartreux,' Dr Johnson observes, 'Mr Addison contracted that intimacy with Sir Richard Steele which their joint 188., but have very many reasons to be in good humour, except you are angry with me. If you can pay the woman for coals, you [may] have it from Ruth in the morning. Your obedient husband, lover, servant, &c. LETTER CLXX. To Mrs Steele. RICH. STEELE. June 2, 1711. DEAR PRUE,-I cannot come home to dinner. I dine with Tonson, at an ordinary near the Temple, with Mr Addison and another gentleman. A gentleman met me to-day, and acquainted me that John had been with him to be hired, so that you will be rid of him, and I will pay him when I come home. I would have you go out and divert yourself, and believe I love you better than life.—Yours, RICH. STEELE. I write from Mr Edward Lawrence's, whose sister would be glad of your company. LETTER CLXXI. To Mrs Steele. June 14, 1711. DEAR PRUE, I am obliged to go with Mr Glanville to Sir Harry Furnasse's,† and cannot be home till nine at night. be done. Your most obedient husband, I will come to Berry Street at nine. Thank God, all will now labours have so effectually recorded. Of this memorable friendship, the greater praise must be given to Steele. . . Addison, who knew his own dignity, could not always forbear to show it, by playing a little upon his admirer; but he was in no danger of retort-his jests were endured without resistance or resentment. But the sneer of jocularity was not the worst. Steele, whose imprudence of generosity or vanity of profusion kept him always incurably necessitous, upon some pressing emergency, in an evil hour, borrowed L.100 from his friend; but Addison, who seems to have had other notions of L.100, grew impatient of delay, and reclaimed his loan by an execution. Steele felt with great sensibility the obduracy of his creditor, but with emotions of sorrow rather than of any anger.' This fact,' Sir John Hawkins adds, was communicated to Johnson, in my hearing, by a person of unquestionable veracity, but whose name I am not at liberty to mention. He had it, as he told us, from Lady Primrose, to whom Steele related it with tears in his eyes. The late Dr Stinton confirmed it to me, by saying that he had heard it from Mr Hooke, author of the "Roman History," and he from Mr Pope.'"-See Bee. "This was Sir Harry Furnese, the rich alderman," of whom Swift says in the LETTER CLXXII. To Mrs Steele. June 21, 1711. DEAR PRUE,—I am going about your commands, and will send word, or come home to dinner.-Yours ever, RICH. STEELE. LETTER CLXXIII. To Mrs Steele, last door Bromley Street,* June 22, 1711. DEAR PRUE,-Pray, on receipt of this, go to Nine Elms, and I will follow you within an hour.-Yours, RICH. STEELE. LETTER CLXXIV. To Mr Keally. July 26, 1711. SIR,-Happening to be now at Mr Addison's lodgings, and talking of you, (which we often do with affection), I recollected that I had not yet thanked you for your great kindness to Mr Batemen. The poor man acknowledges he should have made nothing of his journey without your assistance, for which you will ever have the blessings of his numerous family. You have laid an infinite obligation upon me in it. My most humble service to Mr Thomas Vesey, who, I am sorry to hear, mistakes me.-I am, Sir, yours, &c. RICH. STEELE. LETTER CLXXV. To Mr Pope. July 26, 1711. SIR,-I wrote to you the other day, and hope you have received my letter. This is for the same end, to know whether you are at leisure to help Mr Clayton, that is, me, to some words for music against winter. Your answer to me at Will's will be a great favour to, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, RICHARD STEELE. Examiner, No. 40, "I know a citizen who adds or alters a letter in his name with every plumb he acquires; he now wants only the change of a vowel to be allied to a sovereign prince in Italy; and that, perhaps, he may contrive to be done by a slip of the graver on his tomb-stone." He died November 30, 1712.Nichols. * "The lodgings of her mother, Mrs Scurlock." "In the Spectator, No. 258, December 26, 1711, is a letter, signed 'Thomas Clayton, Nicolino Haym, and Charles Dieupart,' announcing the plan of their intended concerts in York Buildings, and the terms of the subscription." From this and the following letter to Mr Hughes, containing a musical criticism, it would seem as if Steele had a personal interest in these concerts: LETTER CLXXVI. To Mr Hughes. April [1711.] DEAR SIR, Mr Clayton and I desire you as soon as you can conveniently to alter this poem* for music, preserving as many of Dryden's words and verses as you can. It is to be performed by a voice well skilled in recitative, but you understand all these matters much better than your affectionate humble servant, RICHARD STEELE, LETTER CLXXVII. Mr Hughes to Steele. April [1711.] DEAR SIR,-Since you have asked my opinion about the music, I take it for granted you would have me give it you, and therefore I will shew you how faithfully I intend always to obey you, in doing it with a freedom which I would be loth to use to one for whom I had less friendship, and in whose candour and integrity I did not think myself safe. I shall, therefore, without taking any hints from others, just give you some few observations which have occurred to me, as well as I could judge upon the first hearing. That which seems to me to strike most are the prelude bases, some of which are very well fancied, but I am afraid they are in themselves too long, especially when repeated; for prelude-bases are only to begin the subject of the air, and do not shew any composition, (which consists in the union of parts), so that if they are not artfully worked afterwards with the voice part, they are no proof of skill, but only of invention. The symphonies, in many places, seem to me perplexed, and not made to pursue any subject or point. The last air of Sappho begins too cheerfully for the sense of the words. As well as I can guess, without seeing the score, it is in D sharp, from which it varies (in another movement of time) into B flat, 3d, and so ends, without returning to the same key, either flat or sharp. This being one continued air, (though in two movements of time), let some master be asked whether it is allowable (I am sure it is not usual) to begin an air in "Dryden's 'Alexander's Feast,' which Mr Hughes first adapted to music. It was afterwards set by Handel in 1736." |