7 - Coalitions, networks, and discourse communities in Augustan England: The Spectator and the early eighteenth-century essay

Summary

As, on the one Side, my Paper has not in it a single Word of News, a Reflection in Politics, nor a Stroak of Party; so on the other, there are no Fashionable Touches of Infidelity, no obscene Ideas, no Satyrs upon Priesthood, Marriage, and the like popular Topics of Ridicule; no private Scandal, nor any Thing that may tend to the Defamation of particular Persons, Families, or Societies. Spectator, No. 262. Monday 31 December 1711.

Introduction

Early eighteenth-century London saw the establishment of an energetic literary community of men (and some women), who shared political ambitions and literary interests. They pursued their ambitions and practised their interests in a number of ways, including the social-political forum of the Whig-sponsored Kit Cat Club, and through collaboration in publication ventures. The long association of publisher Jacob Tonson and poet John Dryden provided a model for collaborative work. They had given many young writers a start in literary London by encouraging contributions to Dryden's Miscellanies. By 1710 this function had been assumed by Joseph Addison, who launched the Spectator with Richard Steele. These men forged a network of interests based on their politics, their literary interests, and their search for patronage from the most powerful men in the government of the day, the Whig grandees, including Charles Montagu, the Earl of Halifax, Chancellor of the Exchequer.