old knight's rusticity, his old-fashioned, patriarchal notions of society, his ignorance of the town, his obsolete but kindly prejudices. The truth is that in Addison's portrait there is always a trace of covert satire upon the narrow conservatism of the Tory country gentleman of his day. Addison's Sir Roger is amiable and humorous; but he does not represent the party of intelligence and progress—he is not a Whig.
Yet there are no real inconsistencies in the character of Sir Roger. His whimsical humor, his sentiment, his credulity, his benevolence, his amiable though obstinate temper, are all combined in a personality so convincing that we must always think of him as an actual contemporary of the men who created him. He is the typical conservative English country gentleman of the Queen Anne time, not taking kindly to new ideas, but sturdy, honest, order-loving, of large heart and simple manners. To such men as he England owes the permanence of much that is best in her institutions and her national life. As one walks through Westminster Abbey to-day, listening to the same chattering verger that conducted Sir Roger—he has been going his rounds ever since—one almost expects to see again the knight sitting down in the coronation chair, or leaning on Edward Third's sword while he tells the discomfited guide the whole story of the Black Prince out of Baker's Chronicle. If, indeed, we try in any way to bring back to imagination the life of that bygone age, Sir Roger is sure to come to mind at once, at the assizes, at Vauxhall, or, best of all, at home in the country. He is part of that life; as real to our thought as Swift or Marlborough, or as Steele or Addison themselves.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
No attempt is here made to give an exhaustive bibliography. The following paragraphs contain only such a selection from the literature of the subject as may be most accessible and of most service both to the student and the teacher.
TEXTS
Steele and The Tatler
There is no complete and uniform edition of the writings of Steele. The best edition of The Tatler is that of Chalmers, 4 volumes, 1822 (reissued 1855-1856). A new edition, however, in 4 volumes, edited by George A. Aitken, is now in preparation. Two well-chosen and well-edited volumes of selections from Steele's work are, Selections from Steele, edited by G. R. Carpenter (Athenæum Press Series, 1897), and Selections from Steele's Contributions to the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, edited by Austin Dobson, 1897. Steele's Plays, edited by George A. Aitken (1896), make one volume of The Mermaid Series. For the letters of Steele, see The Epistolary Correspondence of Richard Steele, edited by John Nichols, 2 volumes, 1789 (reissued 1809).
Addison and The Spectator
The best editions of The Spectator are: Henry Morley's, 3 volumes, 1883, or 1 volume, 1888; G. Gregory Smith's, with Introductory Essay by Austin Dobson, 8 volumes, 1897-1898; and George A. Aitken's, 8 volumes, 1898. The Complete Works of Addison were edited by G. W. Greene, in 1854; a new issue of this edition appeared in 1891. The best volume of selections from Addison is that edited by John Richard Green, Essays of Joseph Addison, 1882.
BIOGRAPHY
Steele
The Life of Richard Steele, by George A. Aitken, 1899. This is the latest and fullest life.
Richard Steele, by Austin Dobson, in the English Worthies Series, 1886; a brief but appreciative study.
Biographical Essays, by John Forster, 1860, Steele. This paper, originally published in the Quarterly Review for March, 1855, gave, for the first time, that more favourable estimate of the character and genius of Steele which is now generally accepted.
Lectures on the English Humorists, Steele, by W. M. Thackeray. Thackeray's lecture, delivered first in 1851, is a most charming and suggestive paper, but hardly just to Steele.
Addison
Addison, by W. J. Courthope, in the English Men of Letters Series, 1884. The best life; it has superseded, for the general reader, the older Life of Joseph Addison, by Lucy Aiken, 1846.
The Life and Writings of Addison, by T. B. Macaulay. Macaulay's familiar essay, which first appeared in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1843, is still the best brief estimate, though it rather exaggerates the merits both of Addison's genius and his writings.
The Lives of the Poets, Addison, by Samuel Johnson, 1781. Judicious and sensible; of permanent value.
Lectures on the English Humourists, Addison, by W. M. Thackeray.
Le Public et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre au XVIIIe Siècle, par A. Beljame, 1881. This admirable work—which unfortunately is not translated—contains a full account of Addison's career, as well as an estimate of his work. The bibliography in the Appendix is valuable.
HISTORY
Political
The Age of Anne, by E. E. Morris, in the Epochs of Modern History Series, 1877. A brief, but clear and interesting outline of the history.
A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, by W. E. H. Lecky, 1878, Volume I. Perhaps the best account for the general reader.
A History of the Reign of Queen Anne, by J. H. Burton, 3 volumes, 1880.
The Reign of Queen Anne, by Justin McCarthy, two volumes, 1902. Contains, also, much valuable information upon literary and social matters; written in the manner of the journalist, but entertaining and generally trustworthy.
History of the English People, by John Richard Green, Volume III.
Social
The History of England, by T. B. Macaulay (1849-1851), Chapter III. This famous chapter is still one of the best accounts of social conditions in England at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries.
Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, by John Ashton, 1882. This is the best account of dress, manners, amusements, travel, trade, and all the details of social life; it is frequently referred to in the notes of this volume.
Good Queen Anne, by W. H. D. Adams, 1886.
England and the English in the Eighteenth Century, by W. C. Sydney, 1891.
Social England, by H. D. Traill, Volume IV., 1895.
London in the Eighteenth Century, by Walter Besant, 1903. A storehouse of curious and valuable information, with many especially interesting illustrations from contemporary prints, drawings, and portraits.
The Popular History of England, by Charles Knight (1859), Volume V., Chapters XXVI-XXX.
Thackeray's Henry Esmond—perhaps the most remarkable historical novel in the language—represents with wonderful fidelity the very atmosphere of the Queen Anne time.
But, above all, the student who wishes to gain a sympathetic acquaintance with the life of this most interesting period, and to enter into its spirit, should read more of its literature—especially the Tatler and Spectator, Swift's Journal to Stella, Pope's Satires and Epistles, Gay's Trivia, and the Letters of Steele, Swift, Pope, and Bolingbroke.
Literary
A History of Eighteenth Century Literature (1889), and From Shakespeare to Pope (1885), by Edmund Gosse.
English Literature in the Eighteenth Century, by T. S. Perry (1883).
An Illustrated History of English Literature, by Richard Garnett and Edmund Gosse, Volume III., From Milton to Johnson, by Edmund Gosse (1903), Chapter III. A popular survey of English literary history, most profusely illustrated with portraits and facsimiles.
A Few Words about the Eighteenth Century, by Frederic Harrison. (The Choice of Books, 1886.)
Le Public et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre au XVIIIe Siècle, by A. Beljame, 1881.
Lectures on the Comic Writers and Periodical Essayists, by William Hazlitt.