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in 1733 the Dean ig said to have sent him a " letter full of bitter sarcasm aud re- proach, to which the Bishop returned au answer that marks a superior command of temper ; but it appears . . that his lordship deserved much of what Swift imputed to him" *^ Stearne died 6th June 1745. He left an estate for charitable purposes, which now produces £2,000 a year, and is administered by a body of trustees. Lawrence Sterne, the author, is said by some to have been descended from him, ■•^ "^ ^^s
Steele, Sir Richard, essayist and dramatist, the son of a lawyer who was private secretary to the Duke of Ormond, was born in Dublin early in 167 1. He lost his father when still a child, and at twelve years of age, through the influence of the Duke, was admitted into the Charter- house School, London. There he formed an intimacy with Addison, who was one year his junior. In 1689 he matricu- lated at Oxford ; but left without taking his degree. He had a paasion for mili- tary life, and greatly to the dismay of his friends, entered the army as a private. As he afterwards expressed it, he thereby " lost the succession to a very good estate in the County of Wexford, in Ireland, from the same humour, which he has preserved ever since, of preferring the state of his mind to that of his fortune." His talents and social qualities were not long in pro- curing him a commission — first as ensign, then as captain. He was also appointed secretary to Lord Cutts, his commanding officer. In 1701 he astonished his gay companions by the publication of a little book, The Christian Hero, designed to prove that " no principles but those of religion are sufficient to make a gi-eat man." The contrast between its pre- cepts and the author's free-and-easy life was too great to escape general notice, and he was subjected to much raillery by his companions. In the following year he published his first comedy, The Funeral, and soon afterwards The Tender Husband. It has been remarked that " they were the first that were written expressly with a view, not to imitate the manners, but to reform the morals of the age. . Nothing can be better meant or more in- efficient. It is almost a misnomer to call them comedies ; they are rather homilies in dialogue." On the advent to power of his friends, the Whigs, in Queen Anne's reign, he was appointed (May 1 707), chiefly through Addison's influence, editor of the Gazette, and one of the gentlemen ushers of the Prince Consort. Scarcely anything is known concerning his first wife, who
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died a few months after their marriage. His profusion and generosity dissipated her fortune, and his income of Xsoo a year as Gazetteer was soon heavily forestalled. On the 7th September 1707 he married his second wife. Miss Scurlock, of Llangunnor, in Caermarthenshire, a lady of great per- sonal attractions, and possessed of an estate of about £400 a year. Steele continued de- votedly attached to her through life. The most characteristic portions of his memoirs are the hundreds of short notes she re- ceived from him, which generally com- mence " Dear Prue," and abound with tender expressions on the most trivial oc- casions. He wrote constantly of their chil- dren. Mr. Forster says : " He writes to her on the way to the Kit-Kat, in waiting on my Lord Wharton or the Duke of Newcastle. He coaxes her to dress well for the dinner to which he has invited the Mayor of Stockbridge, Lord Halifax, and Mr. Addison. He writes to her in the brief momentous interval [to be afterwards referred to] when, having made his defence in the House of Commons, he was waiting for the final judgment which Addison was to convey to him. He writes to her when he has the honour of being received at dinner by Lord Somers ; and he writes to her from among the ' dancing, singing, hooping, hallooing, and drinking ' of one of his elections for Boroughbridge. He sends a special despatch to her for no other purpose than to tell her she has nothing to do but be a darling. He sends her as many as a dozen letters in the course of his journey to Edin- burgh ; and when, on his return, illness keeps theria apart, one in Loudon, the other at Hampton Court, her happen- ing to call him 'Good Dick,' puts him in so much rapture, that he tells her he could almost forget his miserable gout and lame- ness, and walk down to her." Mrs. Steele was often sorely tried by his in-egularities, extravagance, and convivial habits ; and although considered by some of his friends stift' and prudish, she was acknowledged by all to be good-hearted, forbearing, and true. She even took to her home and heart Steele's illegitimate daughter, of whose existence, prior to her marriage, she had been ignorant. The Steeles commenced life in much style, with a town and country house, a chariot and pair, riding-horses, and a large establishment of servants. These expenses necessitated a loanof£i,ooG from Addison, the non-payment of which eventually led to a breach between the friends. On 12th April 1709, Steele com- menced the publication of the Tatler, the first of that series of periodicals with 489
