The Spectator (1711)

provide readers with topics for well-reasoned discussion,

and to equip them to carry on conversations and engage in
social interactions in a polite manner.[3] In keeping with
the values of Enlightenment philosophies of their time,
the authors of The Spectator promoted family, marriage,
and courtesy.

2 Readership

The Spectator from 7 June 1711

The Spectator was a daily publication founded by Joseph

Addison and Richard Steele in England, lasting from
1711 to 1712. Each paper, or number, was approximately 2,500 words long, and the original run consisted
of 555 numbers, beginning on 1 March 1711.[1] These
were collected into seven volumes. The paper was revived without the involvement of Steele in 1714, appearing thrice weekly for six months, and these papers when
collected formed the eighth volume. Eustace Budgell, a
cousin of Addisons, also contributed to the publication.

Title pages of the c. 1788 edition of the rst volume of the collected edition of Addison and Steeles The Spectator.

Despite a modest daily circulation of approximately

3,000 copies, The Spectator was widely read; Joseph Addison estimated that each number was read by 60,000
Londoners, about a tenth of the capitals population at
the time. Contemporary historians and literary scholars,
meanwhile, do not consider this to be an unreasonable
claim; most readers were not themselves subscribers but
patrons of one of the subscribing coeehouses. These
readers came from many stations in society, but the paper
catered principally to the interests of Englands emerging
middle classmerchants and traders large and small.

Aims

The Spectator also had many readers in the American

colonies. In particular, James Madison read the paper
avidly as a teenager. It is said to have had a big inuence
on his world view, lasting throughout his long life. [4]

In Number 10, Mr. Spectator states that The Spectator

will aim to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit
with morality. He hopes it will be said he has brought
philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools, and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and
coeehouses. He recommends that readers of the paper consider it as a part of the tea-equipage and set aside
time to read it each morning.[2] The Spectator sought to

Jrgen Habermas sees The Spectator as instrumental

in the formation of the public sphere in 18th century
England.[5] Although The Spectator declares itself to be
politically neutral, it was widely recognised as promoting
1

EXTERNAL LINKS

Whig values and interests.

can be found in The Norton Anthology of English LiteraThe Spectator continued to be popular and widely read ture.
in the late 18th and 19th centuries. It was sold in eight Ross, Angus (ed.) Selections from The Tatler and
volume editions. Its prose style, and its marriage of
The Spectator (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982)
morality and advice with entertainment, were considered
[ISBN 0-14-043-130-6]. Edited with an introducexemplary. The decline in its popularity has been distion and notes. Out of print.
cussed by Brian McCrea and C. S. Lewis.

See also
Bully Dawson mentioned in The Spectator as being
kicked by Sir Roger de Coverley in a public coee
house.
The Spectator a current weekly British conservative
magazine.

6.2 Further reading

Henry W. Kent (1903). "Spectator". Bibliographical Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English
Literature. NY: Grolier Club.

7 External links

Notes

[1] Information Britain

[2] Addison, Joseph (1837). The Works of Joseph Addison,
Vol. I, p.31. Harper & Brothers.
[3] Bowers, Terence. Universalizing Sociability: The Spectator, Civic Enfranchisement, and the Rule(s) of the Public Sphere. In Newman, Donald J., ed. (2005). The Spectator: Emerging Discourses, pp. 155-56. University of
Delaware Press.
[4] James Madison, A Biography, Ralph Ketcham, 1971,
pp. 39-48,
[5] Habermas, Jrgen (1989). The Structural Transformation
of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

References
The Spectator Nos. 1, 2, 10 [Addison], 171011.
Brian McCrea, Addison and Steele are Dead: The
English Department, Its Canon, and the Professionalization of Literary Criticism
C. S. Lewis, Addison in Eighteenth Century English Literature: Modern Essays in Criticism ed.
James Cliord.

6
6.1

Bibliography
Editions

The standard edition of The Spectator is Donald F. Bonds

edition in ve volumes, published in 1965.[1] Selections

The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3: With Translations and Index for the Series at Project Gutenberg
(transcription of 1891 republication)
Dear Mr Spectator, series 2 (BBC series by Elizabeth Kuti, adapted from and inspired by Joseph Addison and Richard Steeles 18th century Spectator
essays)
Hathi Trust
The Spectator; Addison, Joseph, 16721719; Internet Archive
[1] Greenblatt, Stephen (ed.). The Norton Anthology of English Literature (8th ed.). p. A49. ISBN 0393925315.

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

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Images

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http://meta.montclair.edu/spectator/ Original artist: Joseph Addison
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