Steele, Addison & Swift. A satirical

Trinity.

“In a Nation of Liberty, there is hardly a Person in the whole Mass of the People more absolutely necessary than

a Censor” The Tatler, Nº 144.

Manuel RivesMercedes Zapirain

18th Century English Literature University of Alicante

INDEX• Introduction: the historical scenario

• The Tatler

• The Spectator.

• Isaac Bickerstaff as a satirical figure.

• Analogies between authors.

• Bibliography

INTRODUCTION: the Age of Reason

Scientific discoveries led to the advent of a new

age.

Faith in reason, rejection of dogma: everything should have a logical cause.

Origin of a “climate of opinion”.

JOURNALISM AND COFFEE-HOUSES

London: center of the literary and intellectual life in England.

JOURNALISM

COFFEE-HOUSES:

THE TATLER (1709 - 1711)

• Editor: Steele.

• Collaborators: Addison and others.

• Swift’s

involvement.

• Great success.

THE SPECTATOR (1711 - 1712)

• Addison and Steele.

• Entirely out of politics.

• Portrait of London’s

everyday affairs.

• Also very successful.

Keys to their success• A new style relying on a direct and elegant prose and a

subtle wit.

• Vividness and immediacy.

• Anonymous writing.

• Artificial unity: narrative interest.

• Written by fictitious characters

(Isaac Bickerstaff, Mr. Spectator).

ISAAC BICKERSTAFF • A well-known hoax created by

Swift.

• Prediction of the death of the famous Almanac-maker, John Partridge.

• Steele’s borrowing: pseudonim for The Tatler.

• Swift’s cooperation.

SWIFT, ADDISON AND STEELE: SIMILARITIES

“Reform the sensibilities - aesthetic, sarterial, social and sexual - of each man and woman in the reading audience so that he or she, guided by the principles of good sense, decorum, and benevolence, would then do, say, like and buy the right thing”

p. 2. The Commerce of everyday life. Selections from The Tatler and The Spectator. Ed. Erin Mackie.

SWIFT, ADDISON AND STEELE: SIMILARITIES

“ The general Purpose of this Paper is 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”

“Dedication to Mr. Maynwaring [Steele on the Purpose of the Paper]”, The Tatler.

SWIFT, ADDISON AND STEELE: SIMILARITIES

• Gulliver’s Travels.

• A Tale of a Tub.

• Proposal for Correcting the English Tongue, Polite Conversation, etc.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Addison, Joseph. Los placeres de la imaginación y otros

ensayos de The Spectator. Madrid: La balsa de la Medusa, 1991.

Addison, Joseph, and Richard Steele. Addison and Steele: Selections from the Tatler and the Spectator. New York: Rinehart, 1957.

Lannering, Jan. Studies in the Prose Style of Joseph Addison. Upsala: Lundequist, 1951. 

Mackie, Erin Skye. The Commerce of Everyday Life: Selections from the Tatler and the Spectator. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998.