Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/139

 its prologue, and added ‘many applauded [though now undistinguishable] strokes’ to the piece itself (Spectator, No. 555). In May, when the play was printed, it was dedicated to Addison ‘as no improper memorial of an inviolable friendship.’

Soon after the production of the ‘Tender Husband,’ which, for several years, closed Steele's career as a playwright, he married. His wife (for particulars respecting whom we are indebted to the researches of Mr. Aitken) was a widow named Margaret Stretch, née Ford, the possessor of more or less extensive estates in Barbados, which she had inherited from a brother then recently dead. It has been also hinted that she was elderly, and that her fortune was the main attraction to her suitor, whose indefinite means had about this time been impaired by futile researches for the philosopher's stone (New Atalantis and Town Talk, No. 4). The marriage must have taken place not long after March 1705, when Mrs. Stretch took out letters of administration to her West Indian property, which is said to have been worth 850l. per annum. It was, however, encumbered with a debt of 3,000l., besides legacies, &c. In December 1706 Mrs. Steele died, and Steele, in his turn, administered to her estate in January 1707. During the brief period of his married life—in August 1706—he had become a gentleman waiter to Prince George of Denmark (salary 100l. yearly, ‘not subject to taxes’), and in April or May 1707, on the recommendation of Arthur Mainwaring [q. v.], he was appointed by Harley gazetteer, at a further annual salary of 300l., which was, however, liable to a tax of 45l. ‘The writer of the “Gazette” now,’ says Hearne in May 1707, ‘is Captain Steel, who is the author of several romantic things, and is accounted an ingenious man.’ Steele seems to have honestly endeavoured to comply with ‘the rule observed by all ministries, to keep the paper very innocent and very insipid’ (Apology, p. 81); but the rule was by no means an easy one to abide by. His inclinations still leaned towards the stage. Already, in March 1703, he had received from Rich of Drury Lane part payment for an unfinished comedy called ‘The Election of Goatham’ (, i. 112), a subject also essayed by Gay and Mrs. Centlivre; and in January 1707 he was evidently meditating the completion of this or some other piece when his wife's death interrupted his work (Muses Mercury, January 1707). But his only definite literary production between May 1705 and 1707 was a ‘Prologue’ to the university of Oxford, published in July 1706.

Before he had held the post of gazetteer many months he married again. The lady, whose acquaintance he had made at his first wife's funeral, was a Miss, or Mistress, Mary Scurlock, the daughter and heiress of Jonathan Scurlock, deceased, of Llangunnor in Carmarthen, and, according to Mrs. Manley (New Atalantis, 6th ed. vol. iv.), ‘a cry'd up beauty.’ For reasons now obscure, the marriage was kept a secret, but it is supposed to have taken place on 9 Sept. 1707, soon after which time Steele set up house in Bury Street, or (as his letters give it) ‘third door, right hand, turning out of Jermyn Street.’ This was a locality described by contemporary advertisements as in convenient proximity ‘to St. James's Church, Chapel, Park, Palace, Coffee and Chocolate Houses,’ and was obviously within easy distance of the court and Steele's office, the Cockpit at Whitehall. Both before and after marriage Steele kept up an active correspondence with his ‘Charmer’ and ‘Inspirer,’ names which, later on, are exchanged, not inappropriately, for ‘Ruler’ and ‘Absolute Governess.’ Mrs. Steele preserved all her husband's letters, over four hundred of which John Nichols the antiquary presented in 1787 to the British Museum (Add. MSS. 5145, A, B, and C), where they afford a curious and an instructive study to the inquirer. The lady, though genuinely attached to her husband, was imperious and exacting; the gentleman ardent and devoted, but incurably erratic and impulsive. His correspondence reflects these characteristics in all their variations, and, if it often does credit to his heart and understanding, it as often suggests that his easy geniality and irregular good nature must have made him ‘gey ill to live with.’ It was a part of his sanguine temperament to overestimate his means (, passim). Hence he is perpetually in debt and difficulties (he borrowed 1,000l. of Addison, which he repaid; letter of 20 Aug. 1708); hence always (like Gay) on the alert for advancement. In October 1708 the death of Prince George deprived him of his post as gentleman waiter, and, though he had previously been seeking an appointment as usher of the privy chamber, and almost immediately afterwards tried for the under-secretaryship rendered vacant by Addison's departure for Ireland as secretary of state to Lord Wharton, the lord-lieutenant, he was successful in neither attempt. All these things were but unpromising accompaniments to a chariot and pair for his ‘dear Prue,’ with a country box (in the shadow of the palace) at Hampton Wick; and it seems certain that towards