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THE RISE OF JOURNALISM, PHILOSOPHICAL AND HISTORICAL PROSE WRITING,…
THE RISE OF JOURNALISM
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RICHARD STEELE
Born in Dublin but received education at Oxford. In 1694 he entered the British Army and rose to the rank of captain by 1700 although he disliked military life. In 1705 he had begun a career as a dramatist, he married a widow who died soon afterwards. In 1707 he married again to Mary Scurlock to whom he wrote thousands of letters. In 1708-09 he published The Tatler. His partnership with Addison continued with the publication of The Spectator 1711-1712 and to a lesser extent of The Guardian 1713. Steele continued to found journals but most of them were short-lived. In 1720 he also founded his first theatrical paper *The Theatre . He spent his last years in Wales where he died in 1729
The Tatler
the periodical came out three times a week and dealt with a variety of subjects such as politics, fashion, and gossip heard in London coffee-houses. When Addison joined politics was progressively excluded. The Tatler became more committed to the denunciation of such problems as gambling or duelling and to questions of morals.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
life
- born at Lickfield in 1709 son of a small bookseller
- in 1728 he entered Oxford University but forced to leave without graduating due to poverty and ill health
- after marrying a woman 20 years his senior and working as a schoolmaster in 1737 he moved to London
- during early years in London he struggled against poverty but managed to build up a career as a poet, critic, lexicographer and essayist
- in 1750 he published a series of essays on morals, manners and literature in 2 periodicals that he founded: The Rambler and The Idler. Moreover he published Dictionary of the English Language which greatly advanced his fame
- he became one of the greatest men of letters of 18th century and from 1762 he was awarded an annual pension by George III
- 1764 he founded The Club with Joshua Reynolds which included literary men such as Goldsmith, Sheridan, Gibbon, Burke and James Boswell, his later biographer
- 1770 he visited Scotland and the Hebrides with Boswell,
- he received his degree from University of Oxford and continued writing prose works
- he died in 1784
works
His literary production can be divided into 3 periods:1) First period includes:
- his contributions to the Birmingham Journal and Edward Cave's Gentleman's Magazine
- 2 poems in imitation of Juvenal: London a farewell to the corruptions of the town and The vanity of human wishes a satire on earthly ambition
- Irene a neoclassical tragedy produced by his former pupil and actor David Garrick in 1749
2) middle period includes two greatest achievements
- A Dictionary of the English Language completed after 9 years in 1755, an important work of lexicography containing the definition of more than 40.000 words illustrated with 114.000 quotations taken from every field of learning. He selected a 'golden age' from which he would work, from Sir Philip Sidney onwards.
- The Plays of William Shakespeare a new edition of Shakespeare's works rich in critical notes and preceded by a preface in which Johnson offers an analysis of Shakespeare's greatness
- also his essays he wrote for The Rambler
- Rasselas, a didactic tale about the protagonist's impossible pursuit of happiness
3) third period includes
- essays he wrote for The Idler
- A journey to the Western Island of Scotland he had embarked the tour also to investigate the authenticity of Macpherson's Ossian poems
- Lives of the most eminent English poets greatest work of literary criticism, including short biographies and critical evaluations of 52 poets, from Cowley to Thomas Gray. It incorporates Johnson's biography of his friend and poet published in 1744 An account of the life of Mr Richard Savage. It shows Johnson's partiality and prejudices as he excluded some poets or failed to appreciate the value of some others because he did not share their ideas.
Journalism began to flourish thanks to the middle class increasing interest in social, political, and artistic issues, and the abolition of censorship in 1694 which had given impulse to the issue of many newspapers.
- in 1704 Defoe founded The Review in which he wrote articles on home and foreign policy but also on the lives of famous people
- in 1710 Swift was recruited as editor of The Examiner, when the Tories came to power to support their cause against the Whig party
- Henry Fielding contributed a number of Tory periodicals spreading his liberal and anti-Jacobite views in satirical articles
- The Rambler and The Idler contributed later Samuel Johnson
- Rise of the journalism also possible thanks to the 2 most important periodicals, The Tatler and The Spectator published by Richard Steele and Joseph Addison
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