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STA for private circulation, a rather egotistical work, "Memoirs of the chief incidents in the public life of Sir George Thomas Staunton," and died at London in August, 1859.—F. E.  STAVELY,, a learned antiquary, was called to the bar in 1654, and died in 1683. He is author of "The Romish Horseleech" and the "History of Churches in England," the latter a very interesting and valuable work.  STEBBING,, D.D., a polemical writer, whose celebrity is due to the part he played in the Bangorian controversy, and to his attacks on Bishop Hoadley, and on Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses. In the preface to his second edition, Warburton alludes to Stebbing as one of the "men in authority appointed, if you will believe them, inspectors-general over clerical faith." Stebbing's sermons were published in 3 vols. 8vo, 1788-90, with some account of the author prefixed. See also Nichols' Anecdotes.—R. H.  STEELE,, the founder of the periodical essay in England, was born in Dublin in 1671, of a family English on the father's side, while his mother was Irish. His father was secretary to the first duke of Ormond, and that nobleman happening to be a governor of the Charter-house, he was placed there after his father's death. At the Charter-house began his friendship with Addison, three years his senior, and whom he followed to Oxford in 1692, at the head of that year's "postmasters" for Merton. He remained at Oxford three years—writing a comedy, which he burned, and becoming so keen a politician, that he determined to go into the army and fight for King William. A relative of his mother (probably a Roman catholic), who was to have made him heir to an estate in Wexford, disinherited him in consequence of this resolution. Unable to procure a commission, he entered the army as a private in the guards, soon obtaining a cornetcy, and acting as secretary to his colonel, who procured him a company in Lord Lucas' fusileers. It was in 1701 that he published "The Christian Hero," which first disclosed to him his own literary powers. In the following year Captain Steele produced "The Funeral, or grief à la mode," a sprightly piece, which is said to have pleased King William, in whose last "table-book," according to Steele's own account, the author's name was inscribed as that of a person "to be provided for." The "Tender Husband" followed in 1703, and "The Lying Lover" in 1704; the former piece being dedicated to Addison, who wrote the prologue to it. He was now made gazetteer, or as we would say, editor of the London Gazette, and gentleman-usher in the household of Prince George. It was on Tuesday the 12th of April, 1709, that he launched No. I. of the Tatler, which was published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, until the 2nd of January, 1711. The design of the work seems to have been entirely Steele's own; and Addison, who on its first appearance was absent in Ireland, did not contribute to it until eighteen numbers or so had been published. Swift also was among the contributors; but by far the largest number of Tatlers were written by Steele himself, who added to the charming essays and sketches of which they mainly consisted, little items of news, deriving credit from his position as gazetteer. The Taller was published at a penny, and its success was very great. Much greater, however, was that of the Spectator, the first number of which appeared on the 1st of March, 1711, and which was continued daily until the 6th of December, 1712. To an eighth volume of the Spectator, published in 1714, Steele contributed nothing, and his share in the first seven volumes is much less considerable than that of Addison; but of such portraits as those of Sir Roger de Coverley and Will Honeycomb, filled in by Addison, the original sketches are due to Steele. He had been made a commissioner of the stamp office during the publication of the Tatler. Dismissed from his post of gazetteer on the accession of the tories to power after the Sacheverell trial, he resigned his commissionership in 1713, and entered the house of commons as member for Stockbridge in Hampshire. Between March and October in the same year, he brought out the Guardian, to which Addison contributed. In June, 1714, he was expelled from the house of commons for having insinuated in the Englishman, and his pamphlet, "The Crisis," that the protestant succession in the house of Hanover was in danger from the then ministry. He spoke for three hours in his own defence, Walpole and Stanhope standing on each side of him at the bar, and Addison prompting him. His expulsion, however, was decided on by a vote of two hundred and forty-five to one hundred and fifty-two. On the accession of George I., Steele received a place in the household, the surveyorship of the royal stables, was made a justice of the peace for Middlesex, and going up with an address in 1715, was knighted. He was also appointed "governor of the royal company of comedians," of which he was deprived in 1720; but the patent, according to Mr. Forster, was restored to him when Walpole became supreme. In George's first parliament, he sat as member for Boroughbridge in Yorkshire; and when Addison was made secretary of state, he was appointed one of the commissioners for forfeited estates in Scotland, an office the duties of which took him much from London. His second wife, the "Prue" of his "Epistolary Correspondence," died in 1718. In 1722 his comedy, "The Conscious Lovers," was performed with great success. Gay, genial, thriftless, a man who, as Johnson said of him, "practised the lighter vices," a sanguine but unsuccessful projector to boot, Steele was constantly in difficulties. Retiring to Wales to retrench, it is said, for the benefit of his creditors, he died in 1729, after a residence of some three years in the principality. His "Epistolary Correspondence" was first published in 1787 by Nichols, who in 1789-91 brought out careful editions of the Tatler, Guardian, &c. There is a pleasant sketch of Sir Richard Steele in Mr. Thackeray's Lectures on the English Humorists, and an elaborate one vindicating him from Lord Macaulay's rather harsh criticism on him (Essay on Addison), in the article "Steele" in the Quarterly Review for March, 1855; reprinted, with additions, in the Historical and Biographical Essays (London, 1858) of its writer, Mr. John Forster.—F. E.  STEEN,, one of the most distinguished of the Dutch painters of scenes of convivial life, was born at Leyden about 1626. He was a pupil of Nicholas Knupfer, and afterwards of Jan van Goyen, whose daughter he married. He was the son of a brewer, and at his father's suggestion, it is said, set up a public-house, where he studied the drinking scenes he painted with such wonderful skill, but at the same time gave way to the intemperate habits to which he had been always prone. Tradition has been uniform on this subject: but a recent biographer, T. van Westerheene, has laboured hard to prove that Jan Steen was really a sober man; and it is difficult to understand how a man who painted with so true and firm a pencil, finished his works so elaborately, and of whose pictures some three hundred are known, could have been the drunkard he is commonly represented. It is more likely that his poverty, and he is known to have left his family in distressed circumstances, arose from the time he spent in finishing his works so scrupulously, and the small prices he received for them; for it was not till some years after his death that his pictures began to be in request by collectors, and it was only by slow degrees they reached the prices they now command. His subjects are, however, mostly scenes of convivial life, and by no other Dutch painter have these been treated with such congenial humour; it is not unlikely therefore that he enjoyed in reality what he painted with so much relish. Besides his in-door tavern and out door festival scenes, he also painted children frolicking; some quiet domestic interiors, in the manner of Metzu; and a few scriptural subjects: but these, it is hardly necessary to say, are wholly unworthy of their themes. Several of his best pictures are in the great private collections of this country, but the National Gallery does not possess one. He died in 1679.—J. T—e.  STEENWYCK,, the elder, a Flemish painter, born at Steenwyck in 1550, and died in 1603 or 1604. He painted chiefly architectural subjects, and his interiors of Gothic churches and convents, illuminated by torch-light, have never been surpassed. Steenwyck was a perfect master of chiaroscuro, being particularly successful in the distribution of his lights and shadows.  STEENWYCK,, the younger, son of the preceding, born at Antwerp in 1589, and died at London a young man, but in what year is uncertain. Steenwyck, who followed his father's style, was a friend of Vandyck's, who recommended him to the notice of Charles I., by whom he was invited to England. His widow retired to Amsterdam, and painted pictures which made her famous, and brought very high prices.  STEEVENS,, the editor of Shakspeare, called by William Gifford "the Puck of Commentators," was born at Stepney on the 1st of May, 1736. His father, from being a captain in the mercantile service of the East India Company, became a member of the court of directors. Steevens was an only son, and inheriting a fortune from his father, never followed any profession. He received his later education at King's college, <section end="318Zcontin" />