death.

o.7. What do you understand by the term Periodical Essay?

Account for its popularity in the 18th century.
Or
What were the various social and economic factors which
led to the growth and popularity of the Periodical Essay
in the 18th century? In what different way did Addison
and Steele contribute to its popularity?
Ans. The Periodical Essay was the peculiar product of the
18th century social life and its conditions. It is called "Periodical"
because it was not published in a book form like other types of essays,
says The Essays of Bacon, but was published in journals and magazines
which appeared periodically ie., alter fixed intervals of time. It differs
100 A Short History of English Literature
trom other types of the essay in as itsaims were deliberately social
e . the improvement of the manners and morals of the people
Therefone, they are also called Social Essays.
A number of causes contributed tothe phenomenal growth of the
Periodical Essay in the early 18th century. he rise ofthe two political
parties the Whig and the Tory -resulted in a heightening of political
passions This development gave a fresh importance to men of literary
ability. r both parties tried to enlist the assistance of theBr, In previous
ages authors had to depend on their patrons, but now they acquired an
independence and an importance that turned the heads of some of them.
Hardly is a writer of the times free from some political alliance. The
SEruggle for political mastery led both parties to issuela swarm of
Examiners, Guardians, Freeholders, and similar publications. These
journals were run by a band of vigorous prose writers, who imtheir
differing degrees of exeeltence, represent almost a new type in
literature. This party-spirit eould not but exercise a healthy influence
on the rise of the
periodical essay.
Another factor which contributed to the
growth of periodical
literature was the rise of coffee houses as centres of social and
life. Politicians are necessarily
political
in politics led to a great
gregarious, and the increased activity
addition to the number of political clubs and
coffee-houses. In the firstnumber of The Tatler, Steele announced, as
a matter of course, that the
activitiesof his new journal will be based
upon the clubs. As E. Albert puts it, "These coffee houses became the
clearing houses' for literary business,and from them branched
literary associations, those haunts of the fashionable writers purely
which
figure so prominently in the writings of the period."
Thirdly, it was in the
early
years of the 18th century that a ric
middie class rose into power and
prominence. This new
hadits own tastes and its own requirements, and the class readei
of

periodical essay was largely owing to the fact that popularity

or

tastes and needs. The periodical essay was concerned it catered

to
1
mainly with tne
morals and manners of society.
Addison and Steele
lack of concern for politics and news and said proclaimed tneuld
concentrate on the reformation of the manners of that they woially
When they violated good taste. Aiong with the age, spe
the other early 18th cent
writers, like Defoe and Swift, Addison and Steele addressed themselv
not to a particular class of
society, but to all society in general. 1
 The Age of Dryden and Pope 101
The Classical Age :

due
were particularly mindful of the middle classes, and it was mainly
to this reason that their works achieved
such popularity.
The periodical essay was particularly suited to the temperament
man was sick of
of this class of readers. The average middle-class
new
still indulged in their old
the profligacy of the Caroline courtiers, who
of
licentious pastimes. He equally repelled by the rigid outlook
was

Puritan. He preferred the golden mean. The

the pleasure-hating
between these two
Periodical Essay aimed at effecting a synthesis
Addison and Steele showed through
mutually opposite views of life. were not always
""virtue and pleasure"
their periodical papers that
that pleasure was not irrational
and
incompatible with each other,
the urgent
irreligious. "Such reconciliation of opposites was
necessarily
and Addison and Steele performed this task so well
need of the hour,
the popular idol.
that the Periodical Essay became
f Addison as an essavist.