Spectator. Volume VI.

Printed: 1739

Publisher: J & R Tonson. London

Dimensions 11 × 17 × 2.5 cm
Language

Language: English

Size (cminches): 11 x 17 x 2.5

£85.00
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Description

Brown leather binding with red title plates, raised banding, gilt decoration and lettering on the spine.

F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

This is a very rare book which consists of daily reprinted editions of the daily publication The Spectator

The Spectator was a daily publication founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England, lasting from 1711 to 1712. Each “paper”, or “number”, was approximately 2,500 words long, and the original run consisted of 555 numbers, beginning on 1 March 1711. These were collected into seven volumes. The paper was revived without the involvement of Steele in 1714, appearing thrice weekly for six months, and these papers when collected formed the eighth volume. Eustace Budgell, a cousin of Addison’s, and the poet John Hughes also contributed to the publication.

In Number 10, Mr. Spectator states that The Spectator will aim “to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality”. The journal reached an audience of thousands of people every day, because “the Spectators was something that every middle-class household with aspirations to looking like its members took literature seriously would want to have.” He hopes it will be said he has “brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools, and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffee–houses”. Women specifically were also a target audience for The Spectator, because one of the aims of the periodical was to increase the number of women who were “of a more elevated life and conversation.” Steele states in The Spectator, No. 10, “But there are none to whom this paper will be more useful than to the female world.” He recommends that readers of the paper consider it “as a part of the tea-equipage” and set aside time to read it each morning. The Spectator sought to provide readers with topics for well-reasoned discussion, and to equip them to carry on conversations and engage in social interactions in a polite manner. In keeping with the values of Enlightenment philosophies of their time, the authors of The Spectator promoted family, marriage, and courtesy.

Despite a modest daily circulation of approximately 3,000 copies, The Spectator was widely read; Joseph Addison estimated that each number was read by thousands of Londoners, about a tenth of the capital’s population at the time. Contemporary historians and literary scholars, meanwhile, do not consider this to be an unreasonable claim; most readers were not themselves subscribers but patrons of one of the subscribing coffeehouses. These readers came from many stations in society, but the paper catered principally to the interests of England’s emerging middle class—merchants and traders large and small.

The Spectator also had many readers in the American colonies. In particular, James Madison read the paper avidly as a teenager. It is said to have had a big influence on his world view, lasting throughout his long life. Benjamin Franklin was also a reader, and the Spectator influenced his style in his “Silence Dogood” letters.

Jürgen Habermas sees The Spectator as instrumental in the formation of the public sphere in 18th century England.  Although The Spectator declares itself to be politically neutral, it was widely recognised as promoting Whig values and interests.

The Spectator continued to be popular and widely read in the late 18th and 19th centuries. It was sold in eight-volume editions. Its prose style, and its marriage of morality and advice with entertainment, were considered exemplary. The decline in its popularity has been discussed by Brian McCrea and C. S. Lewis.

In The Spectator, No.11, Steele created a frame narrative that would come to be a very well-known story in the eighteenth century, the story of Inkle and Yarico. Although the periodical essay was published on 13 March 1711, the story is based on Richard Ligon’s publication in 1647. Ligon’s publication, A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes, reports on how the cruelties of the transatlantic slave trade contribute to slave-produced goods such as tobacco and sugarcane. Mr. Spectator goes to speak with an older woman, Arietta, whom many people visit to discuss various topics. When Mr. Spectator enters the room, there is already another man present speaking with Arietta. They are discussing “constancy in love,” and the man uses the tale of The Ephesian Matron to support his point. Arietta is insulted and angered by the man’s hypocrisy and sexism. She counters his tale with one of her own, the story of Inkle and Yarico. Thomas Inkle, a twenty-year-old man from London, sailed to the West Indies to increase his wealth through trade. While on an island, he encounters a group of Indians, who battle and kill many of his shipmates. After fleeing, Inkle hides in a cave where he discovers Yarico, an Indian maiden. They become enamoured with one another’s clothing and physical appearances, and Yarico for the next several months hides her lover from her people and provides him with food and fresh water. Eventually, a ship passes, headed for Barbadoes, and Inkle and Yarico use this opportunity to leave the island. After reaching the English colony, Inkle sells Yarico to a merchant, even after she tells him that she is pregnant. Arietta closes the tale stating that Inkle simply uses Yarico’s declaration to argue for a higher price when selling her. Mr. Spectator is so moved by the legend that he takes his leave. Steele’s text was so well known and influential that seven decades after his publication, George Colman modified the short story into a comic opera, showcasing three relationships between characters of varying social statuses to reach multiple audiences.

Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine. His simple prose style marked the end of the mannerisms and conventional classical images of the 17th century.

Addison was born in Milston, Wiltshire, but soon after his birth his father, Lancelot Addison, was appointed Dean of Lichfield and the family moved into the cathedral close. His father was a scholarly English clergyman. Joseph was educated at Charterhouse School, London, where he first met Richard Steele, and at The Queen’s College, Oxford. He excelled in classics, being specially noted for his Latin verse, and became a fellow of Magdalen College. In 1693, he addressed a poem to John Dryden, and his first major work, a book of the lives of English poets, was published in 1694. His translation of Virgil’s Georgics was published in the same year. Dryden, Lord Somers and Charles Montague, 1st Earl of Halifax, took an interest in Addison’s work and obtained for him a pension of £300 a year to enable him to travel to Europe with a view to diplomatic employment, all the time writing and studying politics. While in Switzerland in 1702, he heard of the death of William III, an event which lost him his pension, as his influential contacts, Halifax and Somers, had lost their employment with the Crown.

Addison returned to England at the end of 1703. For more than a year he remained unemployed, but the Battle of Blenheim in 1704 gave him a fresh opportunity to distinguish himself. The government, specifically Lord Treasurer Godolphin, commissioned Addison to write a commemorative poem about the battle, and he produced The Campaign, which was received with such satisfaction that he was appointed Commissioner of Appeals in Halifax’s government. His next literary venture was an account of his travels in Italy, Remarks on several parts of Italy, &c., in the years 1701, 1702, 1703, published in 1705 by Jacob Tonson. In 1705, with the Whigs in power, Addison was made Under-Secretary of State and accompanied Lord Halifax on a diplomatic mission to Hanover, Germany. A biography of Addison states: “In the field of his foreign responsibilities Addison’s views were those of a good Whig. He had always believed that England’s power depended upon her wealth, her wealth upon her commerce, and her commerce upon the freedom of the seas and the checking of the power of France and Spain.”

In 1708 and 1709, Addison was a Member of Parliament for the borough of Lostwithiel. He was soon appointed secretary to the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Wharton. Under the direction of Wharton, he was an MP in the Irish House of Commons for Cavan Borough from 1709 until 1713. In 1710, he represented Malmesbury, in his home county of Wiltshire, holding the seat until his death in 1719.

He met Jonathan Swift in Ireland and remained there for a year. Later, he helped form the Kitcat Club and renewed his friendship with Richard Steele. In 1709, Steele began to publish the Tatler, and Addison became a regular contributor. In 1711 they began The Spectator; its first issue appeared on 1 March 1711. This paper, which was originally a daily, was published until 20 December 1714, interrupted for a year by the publication of The Guardian in 1713. His last publication was The Freeholder, a political paper, in 1715–16.

It is as an essayist that Addison is remembered today. He began writing essays quite casually. In April 1709, his childhood friend Richard Steele started the Tatler. Addison contributed 42 essays to the Tatler, while Steele wrote 188. Regarding Addison’s help, Steele remarked, “when I had once called him in, I could not subsist without dependence on him”. The Tatler was discontinued on 2 January 1711. The Spectator began publication on 1 March of that year, and it continued – being issued daily, and achieving great popularity – until 6 December 1712. It exercised an influence over the reading public of the time, and Addison soon became the leading partner in it, contributing 274 essays out of a total of 635; Steele wrote 236. Addison also assisted Steele with The Guardian, which began in 1713. Addison is the originator of the quote, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body”. The quote can be found in Issue 147 of the Tatler.

The breezy, conversational style of the essays later prompted Bishop Richard Hurd to reprove Addison for what he called an “Addisonian Termination”, or preposition stranding, a grammatical construction that ends a sentence with a preposition. Alexander Pope in his 1735 Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot made Addison an object of derision, naming him “Atticus”, and comparing him to an adder, “willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike”

He wrote an essay entitled Dialogues on Medals which was translated into French by eighteenth-century priest and journalist Simon-Jérôme Bourlet de Vauxcelles (1733–1802). His essay “Adventures of a Shilling” (1710) is a brief, early example of an it-narrative or object narrative, a genre that would become more common later in the century. He also left an incomplete work, Of the Christian Religion.

Sir Richard Steele (bap. 12 March 1672 – 1 September 1729) was an Anglo-Irish writer, playwright, and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine The Spectator.

Steele was born in Dublin, Ireland, in March 1672 to Richard Steele, a wealthy attorney, and Elinor Symes (née Sheyles); his sister Katherine was born the previous year. He was the grandson of Sir William Steele, Lord Chancellor of Ireland and his first wife Elizabeth Godfrey. His father lived at Mountown House, Monkstown, County Dublin. His mother, of whose family background little is known, was described as a woman of “great beauty and noble spirit”.

His father died when he was four, and his mother a year later. Steele was largely raised by his uncle and aunt, Henry Gascoigne (secretary to James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde), and Lady Katherine Mildmay. A member of the Protestant gentry, he was educated at Charterhouse School, where he first met Addison. After starting at Christ Church, Oxford, he went on to Merton College, Oxford, then joined the Life Guards of the Household Cavalry in order to support King William’s wars against France. He was commissioned in 1697 and rose to the rank of captain within two years. Steele left the army in 1705, perhaps due to the death of the 34th Foot’s commanding officer, Lord Lucas, which limited his opportunities of promotion.

In 1706 Steele was appointed to a position in the household of Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne, Queen of Great Britain. He also gained the favour of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford.

Steele’s first published work, The Christian Hero (1701), attempted to point out the differences between perceived and actual masculinity. Written while Steele served in the army, it expressed his idea of a pamphlet of moral instruction. The Christian Hero was ultimately ridiculed for what some thought was hypocrisy because Steele did not necessarily follow his own preaching. He was criticized for publishing a booklet about morals when he himself enjoyed drinking, occasional duelling, and debauchery around town.

Steele wrote a comedy that same year titled The Funeral. This play met with wide success and was performed at Drury Lane, bringing him to the attention of the King and the Whig party. Next, Steele wrote The Lying Lover, one of the first sentimental comedies, but a failure on stage. In 1705, Steele wrote The Tender Husband with contributions from Addison’s, and later that year wrote the prologue to The Mistake, by John Vanbrugh, also an important member of the Whig Kit-Kat Club with Addison and Steele. In 1709, he wrote Isaac Bickerstaff, Physician and Astrologer. He wrote a preface to Addison’s 1716 comedy play The Drummer.

The Tatler, Steele’s first journal, first came out on 12 April 1709, and appeared three times a week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Steele wrote this periodical under the pseudonym Isaac Bickerstaff and gave Bickerstaff an entire, fully developed personality.

Steele described his motive in writing The Tatler as “to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our behaviour”. Steele founded the magazine, and although he and Addison collaborated, Steele wrote the majority of the essays; Steele wrote roughly 188 of the 271 total and Addison 42, with 36 representing the pair’s collaborative works. While Addison contributed to The Tatler, it is widely regarded as Steele’s work.

The Tatler was closed to avoid the complications of running a Whig publication that had come under Tory attack. Addison and Steele then founded The Spectator in 1711 and also The Guardian in 1713.

The Guardian was a short-lived newspaper published in London from 12 March to 1 October 1713.

It was founded by Richard Steele and featured contributions from Joseph Addison, Thomas Tickell, Alexander Pope and Ambrose Philips. Steele and Addison had previously collaborated on the Tatler and The Spectator (after which the present-day Spectator and Tatler are named).

The lion’s head letterbox at Button’s Coffee House, used for submissions to The Guardian

Button’s Coffee House in Russell Street, Covent Garden, acted as an ad hoc office for the newspaper. Contributors submitted written material in a marble lion’s head letterbox, said to have been designed by the artist William Hogarth, for possible publication in The Guardian.

The Gentleman’s Magazine followed on the heels of The Guardian, being touted by Richard Steele as a sequel of it.

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