Steele was born in Dublin, Ireland in March 1672 to Richard Steele, an attorney, and Elinor Symes (née Sheyles); his sister Katherine was born the previous year. Steele was largely raised by his uncle and aunt, Henry Gascoigne and Lady Katherine Mildmay. A member of the Protestant gentry, he was educated at Charterhouse School, where he first met Addison.
Background
Ethnicity:
Steele plays a minor role in the novel The History of Henry Esmond by William Makepeace Thackeray. It is during his time with the Life Guards, where he is mostly referred to as Dick the Scholar and makes mention of his friend "Joe Addison." He befriends the title character when Esmond is a boy.He began his long friendship with Joseph Addison at school and attempted an army career before turning to writing.
After starting at Christ Church in Oxford, he went on to Merton College, Oxford, then with joined the Life Guards of the Household Cavalry in order to support King William's wars against France. He was commissioned in 1697, and rose up in the ranks to captain of the 34th Foot in 2 years. He disliked British Army life, and left the army in 1705, perhaps due
to the death of the 34th Foot’s commanding officer, and with him, his opportunities of promotion. It may, then, be no coincidence that Steele's first published work, The Christian Hero (1701), attempted to point out the differences between perceived and actual masculinity.
Education
He was educated at Charterhouse School, where he first met his friend Joseph Addison.
After starting at Christ Church in Oxford, he went on to Merton College, Oxford
Career
In 1706 Steele was appointed to a position in the household of Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne of Great Britain. He also gained the favour of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford.
In 1705, Steele married a widow, Margaret Stretch, who died in the following year. At her funeral he met his second wife, Mary Scurlock, whom he nicknamed "Prue" and married in 1707. In the course of their courtship and marriage, he wrote over 400 letters to her. They were a devoted couple, their correspondence still being regarded as one of the
best illustrations of a happy marriage, but their relationship was stormy. Mary died in 1718, at a time when she was considering separation. Their daughter, Elizabeth (Steele's only surviving legitimate child), married John Trevor, 3rd Baron Trevor.
Steele became a Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1713, but was soon expelled for issuing a pamphlet in favour of the Hanoverian succession. When George I of Great Britain came to the throne in the following year, Steele was knighted and given responsibility for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. While at Drury Lane, Steele wrote and directed The Conscious Lovers, which was an immediate hit. However, he fell out with Addison and with
the administration over the Peerage Bill (1719), and in 1724 he retired to his wife's homeland of Wales, where he spent the remainder of his life.
A member of the Whig Kit-Kat Club, Steele remained in Carmarthen after Mary's death, and was buried there,
at St Peter's Church. During restoration of the church in 2000, his skull was discovered in a lead casket, having previously been accidentally disinterred during the 1870s.
"The Christian Hero". In 1705, Steele wrote The Tender Husband with Addison’s contributions, and later that year wrote the prologue to The Mistake.
The Tatler, partly a newspaper and partly a journal of politics and of society events, first came out on April 12, 1709, and ran three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, The Spectator, the Guardian.
Politics
During 1713 and 1714 he became the leading political propagandist for the Whigs, campaigning particularly for the royal succession of the house of Hanover. In the last months of Anne’s reign he was expelled from Parliament for seditious libel. In the first months of George’s reign he was returned again to Parliament, made a manager of Drury Lane Theatre and knighted. Thereafter, Sir Richard continued to write political propaganda but took independent positions on important issues, at the expense of his friendship with Addison.
Views
Quotations:
"It is to be noted that when any part of this paper appears dull there is a design in it."
"I cannot think of any character below the flatterer, except he who envies him."
"The fool within himself is the object of pity, until he is flattered."
"A healthy old fellow, who is not a fool, is the happiest creature living."
"That man never grows old who keeps a child in his heart."
"Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip."