Show sm SIR IDE COVERLEY COVERLET BY CHARLES CHARLESI F PH D Addison and Steele greater than they knew It t was certainly im impossible impossible impossible possible for those thoe two essayists from their point of view fully tully to understand the latent forces centered in that that new project about to be Issued in the col columns columns columns of the Spectator For our point of view we can explain why the Spec Spectator Spectator Spectator was given to 1 the world In March 1711 We can understand why the half halt century preceding the reign of Queen Anne resulted in the great political struggle between two radically opposed parties I one desiring government govern nt by byS S S John rolin Dryden constitutional methods m the other gov government government by an absolute o monarch and why the periodical under such condi condl conditions conditions Hons became a powerful weapon In the i hands of party leaders We can also I unravel the social fabric and study the Influence of r the political struggles on 01 the social s life of the times We know that party spirit yea hatred d ran high Society was actually at war Tories at attacked attacked attacked tacked whigs the established church the dissenter the moderate tories the and the Catholics were hated by all parties Such religious and political al animosities caused social di divisions divIsions visions and it was MiS necessary for some something something something thing to step In and reason with and ridicule such an state of so society society clety This was t thc This Thia a f r w ft the Sir Roger de Covey served the age of Queen Ann n capacity they served fl n ii much higher degree They the germs kIndly germs of the novel of the eighteenth eighteenth eighteenth The Spectator was smarted as ae a dis distinctively distinctively periodical peri eal and it adopted adopt d a distinctly personal tone Around Mr Spectator the imaginary I members formed nto a club and it was their daily dany reflections reflection and actions that were to be in a tete ift 1 Ji f This personal intimacy is lathe the keynote of the fl literary tone of the journal journ This note ia it with the very first article on OIl The Spectators rs Account of ot HI Hims and it Is 3 sounded sound In the second cond contri contribution t b where Steele St eI describes Sir SirI I Roger and the The Sir Roger de do Coverley papers In number do not nat form a novel noyel according to the accepted deli definition mUon of the word but they do contain many that afterward In the 1 work of if Richardson in 1740 became the definite characteristics of or the full fledged novel This series serien of essays essaya while possessing all aU the traits of the i essay gradually unfolds the life hab its ita and environments of Sir Roger a personage fictitious yet incorporating the easily recognized characteristics of ofa a country knight Associated A with this s familiar figure are other lesser figures delicately yet definitely traced such as Will Wimble and Will Honeycomb Moreover this character sketch is not I without a plan It is devoid of plot as tle the word Is ia employed in defining the novel The plan Is Simple dimple enough It Itis Itis Itis is as unnecessary to the characterization tion aa an the tracery of ot scaffolding is to Michael Angelos conception of the bib biblical biblical biblical lical scenes Sir Rogers presence in inthe Inthe Inthe the club lub his hIe household his ancestors ance tors neighbors country life Ute etc ire ure so many separate parate canvasses on ara are depicted depleted the manners of the man and his rural ruml surroundings Sir Roger in London furthermore presents the man manners manners manners ners of ot the man roan against the perspective of city life and find the writer has the op opportunity opportunity of contrasting country with city life Sir Roger in London means a series of views of show showplaces showplaces places in the last century West Westminster Westminster Westminster minster Abbey the theatre Vauxhall etc And this thia plan contained cont ned one fur further further further ther episode that pained many a 8 reader r ader besides beside Dr Johnson Addison had to kill knI Sir Roger that nobody else elge might murder him In this simple exposition i of a noble character was hidden the I seed from which should spring the mightiest product that literature has ever known the novel It was the im jim immediate mediate begetter of Richardson and Fiel the ancestor of Dickens Thackeray aCkeray and George Eliot r I University of Minnesota |