Periodical essays of 17th century

1. The Beginning of Modern Essay
Evolution and Growth of Periodical
Journalism

2.  18th century England saw the spirit of
improvement and progress;
 with industrialization cities grew in size, and
London began to assume a position as a great
industrial and commercial center;
 the expiry of the Licensing Act in 1695 halted
state censorship of the press;
 politicians like Robert Harley saw the potential
importance of the pamphleteer in wooing the
support of a wavering electorate, and
numberless hack writers produced copy for the
presses;

3.  the Review (1704–13) was used as an official periodical of
the government published political essays defending
current governmental policy by many writers including
industrious Daniel Defoe;
 the Examiner (1710–11) secured contributions form
Jonathan Swift’s polemical skills;
 periodical writers like Defoe and Swift did not confine
themselves to straightforward discursive writings but
experimented deftly with satires;
 both writers made sometimes mischievous use of the
anonymity that was conventional at the time;
 anonymity was to be an important creative resource for
Defoe in his novels and for Swift in his prose satires;

4.  middle-class readership of England being largely Puritan,
showed a distinct preference for factual writing over
fiction;
 a remarkable proliferation of journalistic writing in
response to prevalent Puritan taste;
 Joseph Addison and his friend Richard Steele ushered in a
new age of journalism in the 18th century with their
papers TheTatler,The Spectator and TheGuardian;
 the news-sheets founded, sourced and circulated in the
bustling coffee houses of London where men met to share
and discuss the news and opinions of the day with ‘penny
universities’.

5.  the avalanche of political writing whetted the
contemporary appetite for reading matter fuelling the
other great new genre of the 18th century prose—
periodical journalism;
 Joseph Addison and his friend Richard Steele ushered in a
new age of journalism in the 18th century with their
papers The Tatler, The Spectator and The Guardian which
were sold several thousand copies a day – and it’s
estimated they were read by more than a tenth of all
Londoners;
 the success with which Addison and Steele established the
periodical essay as a prestigious form can be judged by the
fact that they were to have more than 300 imitators
before the end of the century.

6.  a periodical launched in London by the essayist Sir
Richard Steele in 12 April 1709, appearing three times
weekly until 2 January 1711;
 the target readership was middle class for
infotainment (information and entertainment)
including newspaper articles on fashion, taste, gossip,
duelling, and gambling as well as serious pieces on
the political issues of the day;
 rakish behaviour, and coquettishness criticized, and
virtuous action admired;
 an explicit Whig allegiance several times drew the
paper into political controversy;

7.  the author assumes the character of Isaac Bickerstaff;
 from an early stage in the history of The Tatler Steele
had the collaboration of Joseph Addison, who
contributed notes, suggestions, and a number of
complete papers;
 the English periodical essay began its first flowering in
The Tatler, reaching its full bloom in the hands of Joseph
Addison, who made first contribution in the 18th issue;
 because of political difficulties (an explicit Whig
allegiance), it seemed wiser to discontinue The Tatler
and start again with a new paper devoted only to
literature, manners, and morals ‘The Spectator’;
 among 271 published issues of The Tatler, Steele wrote
about two-thirds himself.

8.  the brilliant new periodical as the successor of The
Tatler launched by Joseph Addison and Richard
Steele two months after The Tatler ceased
publication;
 published from March 1, 1711, to Dec. 6, 1712
(appearing daily except Sundays), and revived by
Addison in 1714 (for 80 numbers);
 aimed at a middle-class reading public;
 adopted a fictional method of presentation through
a “Spectator Club” of London city;
 written in clear, simple, almost conversational
prose which could be understood by any reasonably
educated person;

9.  strongly associated with London and its new meeting
places, especially coffee houses;
 the papers were ostensibly written by Mr. Spectator,
an “observer” of the London scene;
 Addison and Steele being the principal contributors
of the paper running to 555 editions;
 aimed to “enliven morality with wit, and to temper
wit with morality”;
 though Whiggish in tone, the Spectator generally
avoided party-political controversy, and an important
aspect of its success was its notion that urbanity and
taste were values that transcended political
differences;
 Addison’s essays taken as a model for more than a
century to young people to purify their writing style

10.  launched as a successor to The Spectator In March
1713 by Richard Steele;
 early editions edited by Steele since Addison being
busy with his most famous play Cato;
 Addison took over editorial responsibility from July
1713, while Steele campaigning for his seat to
Parliament;
 as a big believer in virtue, Addison wanted to ensure
The Guardian only told the truth;
 besides two friends other contributors featured
Ambrose Philips, Alexander Pope, etc;
 Addison’s splendid innovation to generate some good
public response for the new paper encouraging readers
to drop stories, comments, columns, letter to the editor
in Lion’s Head Post Box.

11.  a twice weekly periodical published on 20 March 1750 to
14 March 1752 by Samuel Johnson in 208 numbers;
 regarded writer’s duty to make the world a better place,
and to ‘‘redeem the time,’’ Johnson crafted these essays
with elevated language in various forms: allegories,
sketches of archetypal humans, Eastern fables, literary
criticism, and lay sermons;
 despite initial protests against its ‘solemn’ tone, the
Rambler was pirated, imitated, and went through ten
numbered reprintings in Johnson’s lifetime;
 from 1758 to 1760 Johnson contributed a regular weekly
essay to the Universal Chronicle appearing under the
heading The Idler.

12.  journalism confined to newspapers were beginning to
take shape in small newssheets;
 The Daily Courant (1702) was the first daily newspaper
followed by Daniel Defoe’s The Review (1704);
 TheTatler (1709) and The Spectator (1711) by Joseph
Addison and Richard Steele developed the periodical
foreshadowing the modern newspaper and magazine
seizing upon the new social life of the clubs made it
the subject of endless pleasant essays upon types of
men and manners;
 essays having the character Sir Roger deCoverley put
together can be regarded as the beginning of modern
novel.

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