SOME DRAFTS BY RICHARD STEELE FOR THE TATLER, THE SPECTATOR, AND THE GUARDIAN ALEXANDER LINDSAY WITH the transfer of the Blenheim Papers to the British Library in 1978, a large body of Sir Richard Steele's letters and literary manuscripts became more easily available for examination by scholars. They are now bound as Add. MSS. 61686-61688, most of the literary material being gathered in the last of these three volumes. The staff of the Department of Manuscripts took evident pains to relate Steele's drafts and memoranda to published works when preparing the Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts: The Blenheim Papers, 3 vols. (London, 1985), and several useful identifications were made. Nevertheless a large proportion of the drafts have remained unidentified. The present paper will discuss seven fragments in Steele's autograph, all from Add. MS. 61688, which can be shown to relate to the three most important periodicals with which he was involved. The Tatler, The Spectator, and The Guardian. Two can be claimed with reasonable certainty to be drafts of particular papers, two possibly so; it is suggested that another is an unpublished essay intended for The Tatler; and two fragments shed light on that old but still interesting question, the nature and extent of Steele's collaboration with Addison. The first manuscript which can be easily related to a published periodical is a draft of an essay on drunkenness (fig. i). The text is written on the right-hand side of the page, the left-hand being used for revisions and additions. This is Steele's frequent practice, as it is of several other authors of the period. His deletions are shown in angled brackets. Narrativo et prisce Catonis Drunkenesse Saepe Mero caluisse Virtus a suspension of all the faculties Corpus onustum a man cannot under it be Hesternis vitiis animum quoq- a Freind &c which is great Coming to a Young Gen: losse in so short a Being tleman's Chamber who wan- A Drunkard to a Chast ted a Drachm Woman what the Apostle 163 Fig. I. Autograph draft by Steele for The Tatler, No. 241, 24 October 1710. Add. MS. 61688, f- 63 ^ 164 Remember to [}] the blame calls makes a Good Man Joi- ned to a Whore. Enough to raise Good hum- The Morning Draftsmen: mour allowable used as honnesty Bragging of this Vice and Power in it Detes- table Aspasia Married to a Drun- kard. Faultering lips &c. stagge- ring &c. <More commendable) Lesse excusa- ble than Whoring: That I can take bread & Water with pleasure Bite and sup— When an- I shall test their Es- old fellow of thirty six tates for the use of Her is forced to (^?y take- Majesty, Brandy. their Heirs shall not succeed they (are as much) who kill themselves this way as Guilty but have all the Brands of Suicide as they who- of Infamy take a Quicker Poison. f-63 This is recognizably a rough draft of Tatler, No. 241, 24 October 1710. The motto from Horace, Odes, III. xxi. 11-12, was not used in the published paper but saved for No. 252, a later essay on the same subject. It is the phrases 'A Drunkard to a Chast Woman...' and 'Aspasia Married to a Drunkard' which conclusively point the resemblance: He that is the Husband of a Woman of Honour, and comes Home overloaded with Wine, is still more contemptible in Proportion to the Regard we have to the unhappy Consort of his Bestiality. The Imagination cannot shape it self any Thing more monstrous and unnatural than the Familiarities between Drunkenness and Chastity. The wretched Astraa^ who is the Perfection of Beauty and Innocence, has long been thus condemned for Life.^ Tact has no doubt obliged Steele to substitute 'Astrcea' for the manuscript's 'Aspasia', the name which he had already used in the admiring character of Lady Elizabeth Hastings in Tatler, No. 42. Another draft in the volume (fig. 2) can safely be identified as a rough sketch for the second hdf of Guardian, No. 68, 29 May 1713. The manuscript reads: '/;g^. 2. Autograph draft by Steele for TAf Guardian, No. 68, 29 May 1713. Add. MS. 61688, f 80 166 His Answer setting forth that the severall parts of His letter (regard) show Him touched in His Fancy. He sees the fears, whether his thoughts are con- ducted with respect to the Minister's Daughter: That a Criminall Commerce with a Woman of <Wit> Merit is the Greatest folly in the World for which reason He has ever avoided Any but such— Pray S*^. Harry, take care what you have to do- and do not {sacrifice what you) <Kno) lay upon Your Conscience what You Know You cannot reflect upon without the utmost anxiety.— some make tasteless marriages Generall reflections upon the sex^others wear out passion before they come into y* state to tell the Examiner. He will as He pleases speak to Him on all these subject[s]. He [?] w^ People of favour. Do you yousf and see how they will look— f8o Nestor Ironside, conductor of The Guardian, is replying to a letter from his young ward Sir Harry Lizard affecting a light-hearted indifference to matrimony. The passages from the published text which relate to the draft are as follows: YOUR Letter I have read over two or three times, and must be so free with you as to tell you, it has in it something which betrays you have lost that Simplicity of Heart with relation to Love, which I promised my self would crown your Days with Happiness and Honour... Without naming Names, I have long suspected your Designs upon a young Gentlewoman in your Neighbourhood, but give me leave to tell you with all the Earnestness of a faithful Friend, that to enter into a criminal Commerce with a Woman of Merit, whom you find innocent, is, of all the Follies in this Life, the most fruitful of Sorrow; you must make your Approaches to her with the Benevolence and Language of a good Angel, in order to bring upon her Pollution and Shame, which is the Work of a Demon: The Fashion of the World, the Warmth of Youth, and the Affluence of Fortune, may, perhaps, make you look upon me in this Talk like a poor well- meaning old Man, who is past those Ardencies in which you at present triumph; but believe me. Sir, if you succeed in what I fear you design, you'll find the Sacrifice of Beauty and Innocence so strong an Obligation upon you, that your whole Life will pass away in the worst Condition imaginable, that of Doubt and Irresolution; you will ever be designing to leave her, and never do it; or leave her for another, with a constant Longing after her. He is a very unhappy Man who does not reserve the most pure and kind Affections of his Heart for his Marriage-Bed, he will otherwise be reduced to this melancholy Circumstance, that he gave his Mistress that kind of 167 Affection which was proper for his Wife, and has not for his Wife either that, or the usual Inclmation which Men bestow upon their Mistresses.^ The last few lines of Steele's manuscript, however, evidently refer to the Whig Guardian's party warfare against the Tory Examiner. In two cases the identification of a draft with a published paper can only be offered tentatively. One of these is a short 'memorandum', to use Steele's own term for a series of injunctions to himself: 'Adversaria' Expose the insensibility of Wealth yt takes care only to have a great deal of food and Necessaries of Life enter in great order the Pomp and Skill of Devouring and not caring tho half their Species are starving the mean while &c. f66 Although this is perhaps too brief to establish a definite connection, it does suggest passages from Spectator, No. 294, 6 February 1712, best known for its praise of the charity schools, but much of it taken up with a denunciation of those who lack benevolence, that virtue so much admired by eighteenth-century moralists. There are at least some common turns of phrase between the draft and this Spectator paper: But when Wealth is used only as it is the Support of Pomp and Luxury, to be rich is very far from being a Recommendation to Honour and Respect. It is indeed the greatest Insolence imaginable, in a Creature who would feel the Extremes of Thirst and Hunger if he did not prevent his Appetites before they call upon him, to be so forgetful of the common Necessity of humane Nature as never to cast an Eye upon the Poor and Needy. ...When a Man looks about him, and with regard to Riches and Poverty beholds some drawn in Pomp and Equipage, and they and their very Servants with an Air of Scorn and Triumph overlooking the Multitude that pass by them: and in the same Street a Creature of the same Make crying out in the Name of all that is good and sacred to behold his Misery, and give him some Supply against Hunger and Nakedness, who would believe these two Beings were of the same Species?^ A different reason prevents one from positing a firm connection between the draft essay on f. 57 and Tatler, No. 251, 16 November 1710. Both are headed by the same motto from Horace, Satires, IL vii. 85-6, and in both Steele is developing the argument that one's own conscience and self-approbation are surer guides for one's virtue than the esteem of others.