Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729), soldier, courtier and dramatist, is best remembered for his founding of two literary and political periodicals, the Tatler and the Spectator (the latter jointly with his friend Joseph Addison). These two volumes of his letters to friends and family were compiled by the publisher John Nichols and published in 1809. Nichols claims in his preface that these letters, 'some of them evidently scribbled when their amiable Author was probably not in the very best condition for penmanship', are nonetheless of great interest, 'as they contain the private and undisguised…mehr
Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729), soldier, courtier and dramatist, is best remembered for his founding of two literary and political periodicals, the Tatler and the Spectator (the latter jointly with his friend Joseph Addison). These two volumes of his letters to friends and family were compiled by the publisher John Nichols and published in 1809. Nichols claims in his preface that these letters, 'some of them evidently scribbled when their amiable Author was probably not in the very best condition for penmanship', are nonetheless of great interest, 'as they contain the private and undisguised opinions of the man who took upon himself to be the Censor of the age'. In Volume 1, many of the letters are addressed to his second wife (both before and after their marriage), others to Addison, Swift, and the duke of Marlborough. Fragments of two unfinished plays by Steele, and one by Addison, are also included.
Sir Richard Steele was an Anglo-Irish writer, actor, and politician who was born in 1671 and died on September 1, 1729. He is best known for starting the magazine The Spectator with his friend Joseph Addison. Steele was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1671. His parents were Richard Steele, a rich lawyer, and Elinor Symes (née Sheyles). The year before, his sister Katherine was born. His grandparents were Sir William Steele, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Elizabeth Godfrey, who was his first wife. Mountain House in Monkstown, County Dublin, was where his dad dwelt. A woman of "great beauty and noble spirit" was said to be his mother, but not much is known about her family. His mother died a year after his father when he was four years old. The people who raised Steele were mostly his uncle Henry Gascoigne (who was the clerk to James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde) and his aunt Lady Katherine Mildmay. He was raised as a Protestant family member and went to Charterhouse School, where he met Addison for the first time. He began his education at Christ Church, Oxford, and then moved on to Merton College, Oxford. He then joined the Life Guards of the Household Cavalry to fight in King William's wars against France.
Inhaltsangabe
Preface The School of Action, a comedy Fragment of a play The first act of a tragedy Epistolary correspondence, letters 1-328.
