STEELE, Sir RICHARD, was born in Dublin in the year 1671. His father, who held the )ffice of secretary to the duke of Ormond, was of an English family, but his mother was Yrish; and the son appears to have inherited from her the impulsive ardor, tenderness, bright fancy, and reckless profusion immemorially ascribed to the Irish national charac ter. 'He was educated at the Charter-house school, along with his illustrious friend Addison, and from thence was removed to Merton college, Oxford. Leaving college without taking a degree, he enlisted in the horse guards, for which imprudence he was disinherited by a rich relation of his mother, who had named him as heir to an estate in Wexford. In the tinny, lie rose to the rank of capt., but was gay, thoughtless, and dissipated—always sinning and repenting, as he himself confesses. To impose a check on his irregularities, he wrote a religious treatise, Ike Christian hero, published in 1710, the design of which was to show that no principles but those of religion are sufficient to make a great man. This public profession of seriousness had little effect on the volatile captain, and he next took to writing comedies. In 1702, he produced The Funeral, or Giirf d in Mode; in 1703, The Tender Husband; and in 1704, The Lying last a decided failure. About the same time, he obtained some fortune by marrying a West Indian lady, who survived the marriage only a few months; and in 1706, he got the appointment of gazetteer, with a salary of £300 per annum, and also the post of gentle man usher to prince George which added another £100 to his income. In the following year (Sept. 9, 1707), he married a Welsh lady, Mary Scurlock, who figures conspicuously in his correspondence as the "Dearest being on earth," "Dear Prue, and "Dear to whom he addressed some 400 letters—admiring, apologetic, and passionate. A course of extravagance—town and country houses. horses and chariots—soon involved the pair in difficulties. Mrs. Steele had a fortune of £400 a Year, mid was thrifty; but the lady's mother had a life-interest in the estate, and was hard and uncongenial. Addison gave a loan of £1000, which was repaid within a twelvemonth; but lie made other advances, secured by a bond on house and furniture. Be put the bond in execution, sold the house and furniture, and remitted the surplus to his imprudent friend. For this seeming harshness Addison has been blamed; but it rests on good authority that the sufferer himself entertained no such feeling, he regarded the incident as a warning meant to do him service, and lie met his friend again with his wonted composure and gaiety. In 1709, Steele commenced The fattler, a periodical published thrice a' week, containing short essays on life and manners, town gossip or 'tattle, and articles of foreign and domeatic news, for which Steele's appointment of gazetteer furnished him with peculiar facilities. Addison joined cordially in this. publication, and still more effectively in its successor, The Spectator, a daily literary journal of a higher tone and character, which was continued with unexampled success through 635 numbers. A third miscellany of
the same kind, The Guardian, was extended to 175 numbers. Steele afterward attempted other periodicals, as The Lover,, The Reader, etc., but these were short-lived. His fame rests on his essNvs in the Taller, Spectator, and Guardian, to which he contributed respectively 188, :140; and 82 papers. In the keen political strife of that venal age, Steele fought courageously and honestly for the Hanover succession and Whig principles. He lost his office of gazetteer, and was expelled the house of commons, for writing a pamphlet called The Crisi.e, iu which lie warned the nation that the Protestant cause was in danger. But when queen Anne died, and the whip were again triumphant, Steele participated in the royal favor. Ile obtained an appointment in the king's household, was elected M.P. for Boroughbridge, mid received the honor of knighthood. In 1717, Stpele wits nominated one of the commissioners for the forfeited estates in Scotland, and he 'seems to have made four annual visits to Edinburgh on the business of this commis Sion. Ile was led into a controversy with Addison, a few weeks before the death of the latter, on the once famous peerage proposal by ministers for restraining the kinc from any new creation of peers, except upon the extinction of an old family. On this question Steele took the side of the crown, and fairly beat his opponent in argument and in temper, besides enjoying the triumph of seeing the bill thrown out. The friends, alas! met no more. The survivor struggled on among the coniraversies, embarrass malts, and lawsuits; he was patentee of Drury Lane theater; and iu 1722, he produced his admirable and successful comedy of The Conscious Lovers. His health now rapidly failed. His wife had died in 1718, but he had children to solace his decline. The laat three years of his life were spent in retirement in Wales, and there his checkered exis tence came to a close: he died at Llangunnor, near Carmarthen, on Sept. 21, 1729.
The essays of Steele eclipsed his dramas. His BkIcerstaff, the Spectator Chub. alle gories, and short tales have the true, ever-living, dramatic spirit. In taste and delicate humor, he was greatly inferior to Addison; but in invention and insight into human character and motives, he was fully his equal. He knew the world better, and he sym• pathized with almost every phase of life and character except meanness and cruelty. He seems to have considered it to be his special mission to reform the minor vices and absurdities of English society. If his satire had been more keen and trenchant, or his moral lessons more formal and didactic, he could not have succeeded as he did; his essays were just adapted to the times—they insinuated morality and_, benevolence, and supplied innocent enjoyment mingled with instruction. The lively, natural writer and companion is never lost in the teacher, nor the gay captain of horse wholly absorbed in the author.