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JOURNALISM AND THE ESSAY (18th Century)
The
essay (meaning, according to Montaigne, 'an attempt') originated as a
repository of casual ideas on men and matters. To Montaigne it was more a means
of thinking aloud, than a literary type. In England it was cultivated by Bacon
and the humanists. But as literature became more formalized and academic in the
latter half of the 17th century, its practice gradually passed
out of fashion. Later, a combination of circumstances peculiar to England gave
a group of humanists the "opportunity of creating it anew. Their work
appeared in a detached, fragmentary form like the essays of Montaigne, Bacon or
Cowley. But in method and scope it was an achievement of marked originality,
and exercised a profound influence of the prose style, and indeed on the
civilization of their epoch. In origin, the 18th century Addisonian
essay had little in common with the Renaissance essay, but belongs to the
history of the daily press. Since the beginning of the Civil War, England had
been the home of diurnals and news-sheets. But, thanks to the Licensing Act of
1662, the 17th century produced no serious attempts at journalism. From
the time of William's accession, news-sheets and Mercuries began to multiply.
In 1690 John Dunton hit on the ingenious idea of publishing the Athenian
Gazette,afterwards changed to the Athenian Mercury, a
periodical to answer questions; in 1702 the Daily Courant began
its long Career till 1735; and in 1704, Daniel Defoe started the publication
of The Review.
DANIEL DEFOE
As a pamphleteer Defoe showed great grasp of
details and an intuitive foreknowledge of events that characterize great
journalists and social writers. Towards the end of the 17th century he
published An Essay Upon Projects, proposing various social and
economic improvements in England, as well as displaying an insight into the
manners and morals of his contemporaries-one of the chief qualifications of an
essayist. In his writings Defoe kept harking upon politics and public
controversy. Though Defoe's prose is vigorous, fluent and homely, he had not
cultivated the subtle persuasiveness of style without which the public does not
care to read about its own manners and mannerisms. The same is true of
his Review. This remarkable venture into journalism is an
admirable attempt to estimate the forces of international politics and to weigh
the merits of commercial and ecclesiastical questions at home. But when he
turned to the culture and conduct of his age, he created nothing great.
The Review is by no means Defoe's only contribution to the
progress of social journalism. Some ten years later he was to return to the
investigation of city morals and manners, and was then to find highly developed
organs of expression and a large appreciative public of readers.
RICHARD STEELE
Richard Steele was a playwright, tractarian and
cavalry officer who plunged into journalism and produced a new literary type
out of the Mercuries, reviews and gazettes. He was the first venturer to
perceive that up till now political essays had been addressed to the wrong
public. It was a time when the English monarchy had lost its hold on the
nation. At the same time the growth of cdmmerce was giving importance to the
middle class. It was an age of domesticity, and literature ceased to draw
inspiration from the court. Such tendencies had created for themselves a
publicity in the coffee-houses. Thanks to the Londoner's passion for club life,
this new type of tavern had multiplied enormously since the Civil War. Every
house had its distinctive members who respected each other's opinions and
tolerated each other's eccentricities.
The man who opened the eyes of his fellow townsmen
to the humours of middle class life was Richard Steele. Steele had the ordinary
equipment of an educated man of the period, but contact with life on all its sides
had developed in him an unfailing insight into artificiality and a generous
admiration of worth. He could appreciate the trivial and serious sides of life
in their correct proportion. It was not in his ideas that his genius displayed
itself, it was in the way he expressed them. When the Tatter first
appeared (April 12, 1709) it was conceived on much the same lines as any
previous periodical. A section was devoted to society news and theatrical
criticism, another to poetry, another to literature and yet another to
politics, each under the article of a coffee-house.
Ever since Tudor times London had been growing
fast, and the constant migration to the capital had created a new need - the
need of a standard of city manners of urbanity. Steele used the periodical to
supply this want, and gradually evolved a new mouthpiece of public opinion. For
a long time he confined himself to destructive criticism. He protested against
the impertinences of the newly constructed middle-class society and satirized
swindlers, bores, chatterboxes and coxcombs.
Gradually, Steele's satire began to
penetrate more deeply. He was the first English author to discover how far
virtue and happiness depend on the intimate relationships of family life. His
interest in domesticity led him inevitably to the problems of married life.
Steele was one of the first English authors who wrote for women; he was also
one of the first who put into prose the new ideal of feminine perfection. There
are moments when he looked beyond the accomplishments of social life and caught
glimpses of the morbid tendencies which the restraints of civilization
sometimes aggravate. One can remember in this regard his studies of
'inferiority complex', megalomania and envy. As was to be expected of a
humanist, Tatler discovered some of the purest gems of human nature hidden in obscure
lives.
JOSEPH ADDISON
Joseph Addison was the presiding genius
of the Spectator (March 1, 1711 to Dec 6, 1712). Steele had
succeeded in discovering the range and scope of the periodical essay, but
Addison realized its artistic possibilities. He knew that it should become a
stylized type of literature, and he set himself to a single theme and to deal
with familiar things. At the same time the essay must have the charm of
novelty. Addison was fully aware of these problems. In the Spectator he
excluded politics, religious controversy and pedantry, but he embraced every
topic of literary, social or moral interest. He adapted and applied universal
wisdom to shed light on questions of current interest, and he peopled his pages
with types and characters to illustrate his pronouncements. Unlike the Tatler, he
dwelt more insistently on the moral purpose of his paper; and each issue of
the Spectator contained a single thought, every creation
distinct from its neighbour, though all bearing a strong family likeness. But
it is in the tone and attitude of theSpectator that its originality
and merit will be found. If it staged the familiar scenes of city life, it
showed them the scenes from the viewpoint of a humanist. The new periodical
shut its eyes to all distinctions accept that of vice and virtue, and employed
no criterion but that of common sense.
The Spectator purported to be conducted by a small club,
including Sir Roger de Coverley, who represents the country gentry, Sir Andrew
Freeport, Captain Sentry, and Will Honeycomb, representing respectively
commerce, the army and the town. Mr. Spectator himself, who writes the papers,
is a man of travel and learning, who frequents London as an observer, but keeps
clear of political strife. The obpct of the papers was 'to enliven morality
with wit, and to temper wit with morality'.
Addison taught his age restraint, good
manners, good sense, forbearance and mutual esteem. He pointed out that drama
was decaying under the influence of French scenery and stage effects. He
recalled literary men to the spirit and simplicity of old ballads, and social
thinkers to the rising importance of commerce. He encouraged self-culture by
contending that English readers could find in Paradise Lost as
high a standard of excellence as was consecrated by the Iliad and the Aeneid.
Addison's
Satire
Unlike Dryden, Pope and the Tatler in
its earlier numbers, Addison never satirized persons, but ridiculed customs and
prejudices. His method was to collect as many examples as possible of some
prevailing absurdity, gravely crowd them all into one illustration and then
leave the reader to laugh at the incongruous result. In this way he ridiculed
the staging of the opera, headdresses which make the wearers hideous, men who
fill their letters with French military terms, and a number of other issues.
Never has more wit and accurate knowledge with less venom been employed on the
censure of folly.
Addison and Steele: a comparison
Steele did not have Addison's gift of drawing a
moral, or his scholarly knowledge of current topics, or] his polished style.
But Steele had the playwright's eye for situations and for the interplay of
characters. He had by nature a surer gift of reading the human heart, and by
experience a keener insight into city life. Steele went deeper when he
discussed education and insisted that the true place where young people are
made or marred is home. He gave the middle class their standard of good manners
and warned them of the darker vices of city life.
OTHER PERIODICALS
Both Tatler and Spectator provoked
many rivals and enemies. Some of them wereFemale Tatler, The Inquisitor,
Free Thinker, Plain Dealer, Medley and Rambler (the
last by Dr.Johnson).
JONATHAN SWIFT
Of the papers that were most influenced by the new
journalism, the most important was The Examiner. Swift found
that he had much in common with both Addison and Steele, and with something of
their spirit but with more power he attacked imposters in the person of John
Partridge. His immortal pamphlet Predictions for the year 1708,made
famous the name of Issac Bickerstaff, which Steele was glad to adopt in theTatler, as
a symbol of good sense and sincerity. Swift made several suggestions for theTatler, and
contributed at least 5 papers; but soon his mood became too saturnine (gloomy)
and savage for the witty and humane creation of his two friends. Swift's almost
inhuman indictment of life could find expression only in books and pamphlets
which compromise nobody but the author. 20th century criticism has
stressed Swift's sanity, vigour and satirical inventiveness rather than his
alleged misanthropy.
THE GUARDIAN
After the Spectator ceased
publication, both Addison and Steele busied themselves with the stage, but
neither could throw off the habit of social journalism. In 1713 Steele brought
out The Guardian to deal with society, and detail the
privacies of life and character. Later Addison joined in. The Chief interest of
the Guardian will be found in the renewed interest it created in the art of
essay writing. But very few contributors survived the tide of time for the
reason that they were put off by the apparent informality of the work. An art
which sets the writer off into self-revelation requires from him a certain
temperament. Because it enters so many houses and coffee-houses so frequently,
it must have something common to all its readers. It must be tolerant,
universal, reactionary, free from anything sectarian, polemic, controversial.
Hence some of the talents which produced brilliant pamphlets spelt sheer
disqualification for essay-writing. Pope, for instance, contributed to the
Guardian-his subtle wit and graceful colloquial style is undeniable, but his
thoughts were charged with too much venom. Of the other contributors, George
Berkeley is perhaps most significant.
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