Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/125

Rh Mr. Steele ſtill continued to write plays. In the year 1703 his Comedy, entitled the Tender Huſband, or the Accompliſhed Fools, was acted at the Theatre in Drury-Lane; as his Comedy of the Lying-Lovers, or the Ladies Friendſhip, was likewiſe the year following, both with ſucceſs; ſo that his reputation was now fully eſtabliſhed.

In the year 1709 he began the Tatler, the firſt of which was publiſhed on Tueſday April the 12th, and the laſt on Tueſday January the 2d, 1710–11. This paper greatly increaſing his fame, he was preferred to be one of the commiſſioners of the ſtamp office. Upon laying down the Tatler, he ſet up, in concert with Mr. Addiſon, the Spectator, which was continued from March the 1ſt, 1710–11, to December the 6th 1712; and reſumed June 18th 1714, and continued till December the 20th, the ſame year.

The Guardian was likewiſe publiſhed by them, in 1713, and in the October of the ſame year, Mr. Steele began a political paper, entitled the Engliſhman.

In the Spectator, Mr. Steele’s papers are marked with the letter T. and in them are contained the moſt pictureſque deſcriptions of low life, of which he was perfect maſter. Humour was his talent, though not ſo much confined to that caſt of writing to be incapable of painting very tender ſcenes; witneſs his Conſcious Lovers, which never fails to draw tears; and in ſome of his Spectators he has written in ſo feeling a manner, that none can read them without emotion.

He had a ſtrong inclination to find out the humours of low life, and to make himſelf maſter of them. When he was at Edinburgh, as one of the commiſſioners on the forfeited eſtates, he one day made a very ſplendid feaſt, and while his ſervants were ſurprized at the great ,