The Spectator Club: Introduction, Text and Analysis
B.A First Semester
Also Read Prose and its Types
The Spectator Club
Richard Steele
Also Read Professions for Women: Introduction, Text & Analysis
Early Life
Richard Steele was born in March 1672 at
Dublin, Ireland in a middle class family. His father was an Attorney and his mother came from a
respectable Anglo-Irish family. His father died when Steele was very young, and
he was brought up mainly by relatives. He attended Charterhouse School in
London, where he met Joseph Addison, who became his lifelong friend and
collaborator. Later he entered Christ Church, Oxford, and then Merton College,
Oxford, but he did not complete his degree. Steele left university in 1692 to enlist
in the army, driven by a desire for an active and adventurous life. Though he
abandoned formal education, Steele’s exposure to classical learning, English
literature, and friendship with Addison shaped his literary tastes. His early
army life provided him with discipline, practical experience, and insight into
human behavior, which later colored his writings.
Political Leanings
Steele was
also deeply involved in politics. He was a committed Whig, supporting
constitutional monarchy, parliamentary supremacy, religious tolerance
(especially for Protestant dissenters), and opposition to absolute monarchy.
Around 1707, Steele was appointed to minor official posts, including gazetteer
(writer for the London Gazette), which gave him political visibility.
His Whig leanings often influenced his writings, blending politics with
literature. In 1713, Steele was elected as MP for Stockbridge. His tenure was
turbulent because his writings often criticized Tory policies. He was expelled
from Parliament in 1714 for writing politically motivated pamphlets such as The
Crisis, which defended the Hanoverian succession. However, with the Hanoverian
succession (George I’s accession in 1714), Steele’s fortunes revived. He was
knighted in 1715 and returned to Parliament as MP for Boroughbridge. He also
held the office of Commissioner of Stamps and became Governor of Drury Lane
Theatre (1715), where he tried to use theatre for moral and political
instruction. Despite his loyalty to the Whigs, Steele’s outspoken nature and
quarrels (even with fellow Whigs) weakened his political influence. He
eventually withdrew from active politics after the mid-1720s, spending his
later years in relative obscurity in Wales until his death in 1729.
His Contributions
The periodical essay was a new form of prose writing that flourished in the early 18th century. It appeared in journals or periodicals, published regularly for the educated middle class. Richard Steele first introduced it in The Tatler (1709), followed by The Spectator (1711) with his friend Joseph Addison.
The periodical essay is short, informal, and conversational in style. It deals with topics like manners, morality, literature, politics, and social life, aiming both to instruct and entertain. It addressed common readers in a simple and witty way. The form became highly popular because it depicted everyday life, shaped public opinion, and refined social taste.
Addison and Steele are regarded
as the true masters of the periodical essay in English literature. Steele, along with Joseph Addison, is considered a
pioneering figure in the growth and development of periodical essay. He,
along with his friend Addison, founded the periodical journal The Tatler
in 1709. The Tatler is regarded
as one of the earliest and most influential English periodical journals. The
word ‘tatler’ is derived from the verb "to tattle" (to
gossip), reflecting its focus on news, manners, and society. It was initially issued three times a week.
The objective of the journal was to discussed manners, literature, politics,
and morality, but often in a witty, conversational style. Its target group were
the urban, educated readers, especially the coffeehouse crowd of London. It combined
news, essays, satire, and social commentary.
About the Essay
‘The Spectator Club’ was originally published in
1711. The essay displays the morals and manners of upper classes of
contemporary English society. It revolves around six members of the ‘Spectator
Club’. The six members of club are Sir Roger De Coverley, a nameless lawyer,
Sir Andrew Freeport, Captain Sentry, Will Honeycomb and a nameless clergyman.
Sir Roger De Coverly is most important person of the club. He is an eccentric
person but does not interfere in other people’s life. The members of the club represented different parts
of the English society, providing diverse viewpoints for the writer to comment
on and satirize English society and politics.
Summary
Steele
begins the essay by introducing the club members. The first member to be
introduced is Sir Roger de Coverley. He is from Worcestershire and is a baronet
(A type of hereditary British honorary title). Sir Roger is liked by everyone.
He once loved a widow but was rejected. This changed him and made him dress
simply. Sir Roger is friendly and fair to his tenants and servants. He is a
justice and is respected by all.
The second member of club is a lawyer who is not
given any name by Steele. He is depicted as a bachelor who is studying
law. Though he does not have much
interest in law, he is pursuing a career in law because of his father’s choice.
When his father asks questions related with law, he take the help of his lawyer
friends to answer his father’s questions.
We are told that he is highly educated and has read everything about
Aristotle and Greet literature. Except his friend, no one considers him an
idiot.
The third character mentioned is Sir Andrew
Freeport. He is a hardworking and successful businessman of London. His mind is
very sharp as far a money making is concerned. All the people of the town
respect him because of his wealth. Sir Andrew has great knowledge about his
business and he believes that money is made through business and not war. He is of the opinion
that one should be a friend of successful businessman instead of educated
person as one can learn more from businessman than an educated man. Sir Andrew
has made every single penny of his wealth by himself. He keeps on giving advice
to England to become rich.
The fourth character of club is Captain Sentry. He
is courageous, passionate and well matured person. But unfortunately, Captain
Sentry is the type of person who doesn’t know how to use his talent. Captain
Sentry worked as a Ship Captain but still he is not clever enough to represent
himself. He is a capable man, but doesn’t get the suitable position which he
deserves. Though life has not done full justice to him, he does not have any
complain against life. He never blames his luck or world no matter how hard
life gets for him.
The fifth character of club is Will Honeycomb. He
is a person who is growing old but he is very concerned about his appearance.
Honeycomb has achieved a lot in life. He is always interested in impressing
women. He wears such type of dresses which matches his style. He is great
seducer and knows the history of every type of fashion. His whole life is
filled with female interest.
The last character of club is a nameless Clergyman.
We don’t get to meet him frequently, but whenever he meets, he is very
enthusiastic. He is a good natured man but is physically weak. Whenever he
meets people, he would talk about religion. He speaks on religious subject in
such a way like he has no interest in other things of the world. These are the
six members of Spectator club. You should remember their names, about their
nature and what they do. Keep in mind that two members of Spectator Club are
nameless.
The Narrator and the Purpose of the Club: The narrator, Mr. Spectator, watches and listens to all of them. Each member is different. Together, they show the many sides of English society. The club is a place for sharing ideas and learning from each other. The essay ends by saying these men are the writer’s main friends and companions.
The Spectator Club
Text
THE FIRST of our society is a gentleman of Worcestershire, of an ancient
descent, a baronet, his name Sir Roger de Coverley. His great-grandfather was
inventor of that famous country-dance which is called after him. All who know
that shire are very well acquainted with the parts and merits of Sir Roger. He
is a gentleman that is very singular in his behavior, but his singularities
proceed from his good sense, and are contradictions to the manners of the
world, only as he thinks the world is in the wrong. However, this humor creates
him no enemies, for he does nothing with sourness or obstinacy; and his being
unconfined to modes and forms makes him but the readier and more capable to
please and oblige all who know him. When he is in town he lives in Soho Square.
It is said he keeps himself a bachelor by reason he was crossed in love by a
perverse beautiful widow of the next county to him. Before this disappointment,
Sir Roger was what you call a fine gentleman, had often supped with my Lord
Rochester and Sir George Etherege, fought a duel upon his first coming to town,
and kicked bully Dawson in a public coffee-house for calling him youngster. But
being ill-used by the above-mentioned widow, he was very serious for a year and
a half; and though, his temper being naturally jovial, he at last got over it,
he grew careless of himself and never dressed afterwards. He continues to wear
a coat and doublet of the same cut that were in fashion at the time of his
repulse, which, in his merry humors, he tells us, has been in and out twelve
times since he first wore it. It is said Sir Roger grew humble in his desires
after he had forgot his cruel beauty, insomuch that it is reported he has
frequently offended with beggars and gypsies; but this is looked upon, by his
friends, rather as matter of raillery than truth. He is now in his fifty-sixth
year, cheerful, gay, and hearty; keeps a good house both in town and country; a
great lover of mankind; but there is such a mirthful cast in his behavior, that
he is rather beloved than esteemed. His tenants grow rich, his servants look
satisfied, all the young women profess love to him, and the young men are glad
of his company. When he comes into a house, he calls the servants by their
names, and talks all the way upstairs to a visit. I must not omit that Sir
Roger is a justice of the quorum; that he fills the chair at a quarter-session
with great abilities, and three months ago gained universal applause, by
explaining a passage in the Game Act.
The gentleman next in esteem and authority among us is
another bachelor, who is a member of the Inner Temple, a man of great probity,
wit, and understanding; but he has chosen his place of residence rather to obey
the direction of an old humorsome father than in pursuit of his own
inclinations. He was placed there to study the laws of the land, and is the
most learned of any of the house in those of the stage. Aristotle and Longinus
are much better understood by him than Littleton or Coke. The father sends up
every post questions relating to marriage-articles, leases, and tenures, in the
neighborhood; all which questions he agrees with an attorney to answer and take
care of in the lump. He is studying the passions themselves, when he should be
inquiring into the debates among men which arise from them. He knows the
argument of each of the orations of Demosthenes and Tully, but not one case in
the reports of our own courts. No one ever took him for a fool; but none,
except his intimate friends, know he has a great deal of wit. This turn makes
him at once both disinterested and agreeable. As few of his thoughts are drawn
from business, they are most of them fit for conversation. His taste for books
is a little too just for the age he lives in; he has read all, but approves of
very few. His familiarity with the customs, manners, actions, and writings of
the ancients, makes him a very delicate observer of what occurs to him in the
present world. He is an excellent critic, and the time of the play is his hour
of business; exactly at five he passes through New-inn, crosses through
Russell-court, and takes a turn at Will’s till the play begins; he has his
shoes rubbed and his periwig powdered at the barber’s as you go into the Rose.
It is for the good of the audience when he is at the play, for the actors have
an ambition to please him.
The person of next consideration is Sir Andrew Freeport,
a merchant of great eminence in the city of London; a person of indefatigable industry,
strong reason, and great experience. His notions of trade are noble and
generous, and (as every rich man has usually some sly way of jesting, which
would make no great figure were he not a rich man) he calls the sea the British
Common. He is acquainted with commerce in all its parts, and will tell you that
it is a stupid and barbarous way to extend dominion by arms; for true power is
to be got by arts and industry. He will often argue that, if this part of our
trade were well cultivated, we should gain from one nation; and if another,
from another. I have heard him prove that diligence makes more lasting
acquisitions than valor, and that sloth has ruined more nations than the sword.
He abounds in several frugal maxims, amongst which the greatest favorite is, “A
penny saved is a penny got.” A general trader of good sense is pleasanter
company than a general scholar; and Sir Andrew having a natural unaffected
eloquence, the perspicuity of his discourse gives the same pleasure that wit
would in another man. He has made his fortune himself; and says that England
may be richer than other kingdoms by as plain methods as he himself is richer
than other men; though at the same time I can say this of him, that there is
not a point in the compass but blows home a ship in which he is an owner.
Next to Sir Andrew in the clubroom sits Captain Sentry, a
gentleman of great courage, good understanding, but invincible modesty. He is
one of those that deserve very well, but are very awkward at putting their
talents within the observation of such as should take notice of them. He was
some years a captain, and behaved himself with great gallantry in several
engagements and at several sieges; but having a small estate of his own, and
being next heir to Sir Roger, he has quitted a way of life in which no man can
rise suitably to his merit, who is not something of a courtier as well as a
soldier. I have heard him often lament that, in a profession where merit is
placed in so conspicuous a view, impudence should get the better of modesty.
When he has talked to this purpose, I never heard him make a sour expression,
but frankly confess that he left the world because he was not fit for it. A
strict honesty and an even regular behavior are in themselves obstacles to him
that must press through crowds, who endeavor at the same end with himself, the
favor of a commander. He will, however, in his way of talk excuse generals for
not disposing according to men’s dessert, or inquiring into it; for, says he,
that great man who has a mind to help me has as many to break through to come
to me as I have to come at him: therefore he will conclude that the man who
would make a figure, especially in a military way, must get over all false
modesty, and assist his patron against the importunity of other pretenders, by
a proper assurance in his own vindication. He says it is a civil cowardice to
be backward in asserting what you ought to expect, as it is a military fear to
be slow in attacking when it is your duty. With this candor does the gentleman
speak of himself and others. The same frankness runs through all his
conversation. The military part of his life has furnished him with many
adventures, in the relation of which he is very agreeable to the company; for
he is never overbearing, though accustomed to command men in the utmost degree
below him; nor ever too obsequious, from an habit of obeying men highly above
him.
But that our society may not appear a set of humorists, unacquainted with the gallantries and pleasures of the age, we have amongst us the gallant Will Honeycomb, a gentleman who, according to his years, should be in the decline of his life; but having ever been very careful of his person, and always had a very easy fortune, time has made but a very little impression either by wrinkles on his forehead, or traces on his brain. His person is well turned, and of a good height. He is very ready at that sort of discourse with which men usually entertain women. He has all his life dressed very well, and remembers habits as others do men. He can smile when one speaks to him, and laughs easily. He knows the history of every mode, and can inform you from which of the French king’s wenches our wives and daughters had this manner of curling their hair, that way of placing their hoods; whose frailty was covered by such a sort of a petticoat, and whose vanity to show her foot made that part of the dress so short in such a year. In a word, all his conversation and knowledge have been in the female world. As other men of his age will take notice to you what such a minister said upon such and such an occasion, he will tell you when the Duke of Monmouth danced at court, such a woman was then smitten, another was taken with him at the head of his troop in the park. In all these important relations, he has ever about the same time received a kind glance, or a blow of a fan from some celebrated beauty, mother of the present Lord
Such-a-one. If you speak of a young commoner that said a
lively thing in the House, he starts up, “He has good blood in his veins; Tom
Mirable begot him; the rogue cheated me in that affair; that young fellow’s
mother used me more like a dog than any woman I ever made advances to.” This
way of talking of his very much enlivens the conversation among us of a more
sedate turn, and I find there is not one of the company, but myself, who rarely
speak at all, but speaks of him as of that sort of a man who is usually called
a well-bred fine gentleman. To conclude his character, where women are not
concerned, he is an honest worthy man.
I cannot tell whether I am to account him, whom I am next
to speak of, as one of our company; for he visits us but seldom, but when he
does, it adds to every man else a new enjoyment of himself. He is a clergyman,
a very philosophic man, of general learning, great sanctity of life, and the
most exact good breeding. He has the misfortune to be of a very weak
constitution, and consequently cannot accept of such cares and business as
preferments in his function would oblige him to; he is therefore among divines
what a chamber-counsellor is among lawyers. The probity of his mind, and the
integrity of his life, create him followers, as being eloquent or loud advances
others. He seldom introduces the subject he speaks upon; but we are so far gone
in years that he observes, when he is among us, an earnestness to have him fall
on some divine topic, which he always treats with much authority, as one who
has no interest in this world, as one who is hastening to the object of all his
wishes, and conceives hope from his decays and infirmities. These are my
ordinary companions.
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