677 



STEELE, SIR RICHARD. 



STEEVENS, GEORGE. 



678 



said to have returned to England with treasure amounting to 600,00<M. 

 sterling. In 1657 he Bailed with the fleet under Blake for the purpose 

 of intercepting the Spanish West India flotilla, which had taken shelter 

 in the Bay of Santa Cruz. The Spanish ships were well arranged, and 

 strongly supported by batteries on shore. Blake, though he saw tbat 

 he could not bring out the ships, resolved to attempt their destruc- 

 tion ; and on the 20th of April, Stayner was sent in to begin the 

 attack. He was followed by Blake, with the rest of the fleet. In a 

 few hours the Spaniards had fled to the shore, the batteries were 

 silenced, and the whole of the ships burnt. A more detailed account 

 of this gallant enterprise is given in the article BLAKE. For his con- 

 duct in this affair Stayner was knighted by Cromwell. Sir Richard 

 Stayner held a command in the fleet under Montague, afterwards Earl 

 of Sandwich, when he went to receive Charles II. His knighthood 

 was confirmed by Charles, and he was constituted rear-admiral of the 

 fleet. He had no further opportunity of distinguishing himself, but 

 he continued to serve, and died at sea on board his ship the Mary, in 

 October 1C62 : his body was brought home, and Pepys has a note 

 under November 28, 1662, that he went "by 10 o'clock to Iron- 

 mongers' Hall, to the funeral of Sir R. Stayner." 



STEELE, SIR RICHARD, was born at Dublin in 1671. His 

 father, who was private secretary to James, first duke of Ormond, 

 sent his son to be educated at the Charterhouse in London ; thence 

 Steele was removed to Merton College, Oxford, and admitted a post- 

 master on that foundation in 1691. He afterwards was an ensign in 

 the Guards, and in 1702 attracted the notice of the public as an author 

 by the publication of ' The Funeral, or Grief a-la-Mode,' a comedy, 

 successfully acted in that year. Two more comedies, ' The Tender 

 Husband,' acted in 1703, and 'The Lying Lover,' 1704, followed this 

 first attempt. In 1709 he commenced ' The Tatler,' the first, in our 

 literature, of a series of periodical works in the form of short essays. 

 He was soon after made one of the commissioners of the Stamp-office. 

 In 1711 he began, in conjunction with Addison, ' The Spectator,' and 

 in 1713 'The Guardian.' In this year he was dismissed from his 

 situation in the Stamp-office, and was elected member for Stockbridge 

 in Hampshire. In March of this year he was expelled the House for 

 writing two pamphlets, 'The Englishman' and 'The Crisis,' on the 

 succession to the crown of England, alleged to contain treasonable 

 matter relative to the reigning family: he was supported on this 

 occasion by Addison, and other distinguished members of parliament ; 

 and when called upon to take his place at the bar, he had Stanhope 

 on one side of him and Walpole on the other. He spoke, thus sup- 

 ported, with great eloquence and spirit for nearly three hours, but on 

 a vote bting taken, his ' Crisis ' was declared a scandalous libel by 

 245 votes against 152 "a most fierce and unwarrantable stretch," 

 Lord Mahon very truly calls it, " of party violence." 



After the accession of George I., in 1715, Steele was made surveyor 

 of the royal stables at Hampton Court, and was knighted on the pre- 

 sentation of an address. The same year he was chosen member for 

 Boroughbridge in Yorkshire, and appointed one of the commissioners 

 of forfeited estates in Scotland. He continued to write articles relative 

 to the political events of the time, and in the latter years of his life 

 appears to have suffered much from poverty, caused partly by impro- 

 vidence, partly by a habit of speculating in new projects. He sustained 

 a considerable loss nearly 10,000^. by his own account (see his letter 

 to the Duke of Newcastle, ' Epis. Corr.,' 469) by the revocation, in 

 1719, of the patent by which he was constituted governor of the royal 

 company of comedians. In 1722 his comedy of ' The Conscious 

 Lovers ' was acted. Some time before his death he retired into 

 Wales, to his seat at Llangunnor, near Caermarthen, where he died 

 September 1, 1729. He had been twice married, first, to a lady of 

 Barbadoes, secondly, to Elizabeth, the daughter of Jonathan Scurlock 

 of Llangunnor, Esq., by whom he had a daughter, married in 1732 to 

 the Hon. John Trevor, afterwards Baron Trevor of Bromham. 



Steele has the merit of having originated a kind of periodical litera- 

 ture not before known in this country. Of the value of the series of 

 works commencing with ' The Tatler,' of which, in conjunction with 

 Addison, he was the author, it is needless here to speak. They' are 

 remarkable for a style combining with the ease of familiar conversation 

 grammatical correctness and purity of language, for the invention and 

 judgment shown iu the choice, and the versatility of the treatment, of 

 the subject, and, above all, for the refined and Horatian satire which, 

 expressing itself in a tone of playful irony, and by means of allegory 

 and representation of character never directly personal, formed the 

 taste and reformed the manners of the generation by whom the 

 perusal of these writings was regarded as a passing amusement. Of 

 the papers in ' The Tatler ' by far the greater number are by Steele ; 

 200 out of the 271, of which it consists, being wholly or chiefly by 

 him. Of the ' Spectator,' his contributions are almost equal in 

 number to those of Addison, but certainly by no means equal in merit. 

 In both the 'Guardian' and 'Englishman' Steele had the principal 

 share. Though wanting in the higher qualities which distinguish the 

 essays of Addison, those by Steele are marked by a warm-hearted 

 geniality, a constant liveliness, and a freshness which render them 

 extremely pleasing. Steele's plays were published in 12mo by Tonson, 

 111 1 1 yO. 



STEEN, JAN, one of the most celebrated painters of the Dutch 

 school, was born at Leyden, in 1636. His father was a brewer, who, 



complying with his son's desire to be a painter, put him apprentice to 

 Nicholas Knupfer, a German artist of considerable note, at that time 

 residing at Utrecht. He afterwards studied under Van Goyen, who 

 was so pleased with his agreeable manners, and his talents as a painter, 

 that he gave him his daughter Margaret in marriage. Though Steeix 

 soon acquired great reputation, he did not gain sufficient to live with 

 comfort, because he speut much time on his pictures, which he finished 

 with extraordinary care. His father therefore advised him to set up 

 a brewery at Delft, in which he had every prospect of success, but his 

 propensity to an idle and dissolute course of life made him neglect 

 his business, and having incurred debts, he was driven by necessity to 

 his pencil. With the assistance of his relations he set up a public- 

 house, which was much frequented, but only gave him more oppor- 

 tunity and temptation to indulge in his intemperate way of life. The 

 scenes which he saw here he transferred, often in a state of intoxica- 

 tion, with unrivalled skill to the canvas. None of his contemporaries 

 surpassed him in the naivete 1 of his compositions, in the expression 

 and character of his figures, and the skilful distribution of light and 

 shade. "In spirit, humour, and invention," says Dr. Waagen, " Steen 

 excels all other Dutch painters in the same line ; to this is added a 

 free, light, easy touch, a great freshness and clearness of colouring, 

 and sometimes a delicacy of execution approaching if not equal to 

 Metzen." He sometimes attempted historical subjects, such as Moses 

 striking the Rock, but it is in scenes of domestic life, of the higher as 

 well as the lower classes, that he is without an equal. 



After the death of his wife, by whom he had six children, he 

 married a widow with two children. His business failed, and he was 

 scarcely able to procure sufficient for his subsistence, by the sale and 

 pawning of his pictures, which in his latter years were slightly painted. 

 He died in 1689, leaving his family in great distress. His works, 

 which Lad not fetched great prices during his life, rose rapidly in 

 value after his death, and are now greatly coveted, and sold at high 

 prices. Several of his finest pictures are in England, in the Royal 

 collection, and the collections of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Ash- 

 burton, Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Hope, &c. At Lord Spencer's seat at 

 Althorp there is a fine portrait of Sir Kenelm Digby ascribed to him. 

 His drawings are excessively scarce. He likewise executed a few very 

 spirited etchings, which are also very scarce. 



STEEN WYK, HENRY, the Elder, a celebrated painter, of the 

 Flemish school, was born at Steenwyk in 1550. He studied under his 

 father, who was well versed in painting, architecture, and perspective ; 

 and also under John Fredemann, called De Vries. Like his master, 

 he painted architectural subjects; but excelled him and all his con- 

 temporaries in truth, delicacy, transparence, and neatness. His 

 favourite subjects were the interiors of Gothic churches and convents, 

 and most frequently views by night, when they were illuminated by 

 flambeaux or tapers. He was a consummate master of chiaroscuro, 

 and his lights and shadows are distributed with the greatest judgment. 

 The reflections of his lights are beautiful, and every column, and all 

 the details of the Gothic architecture, are represented with perfect truth 

 and precision. His pictures are usually enriched with figures by 

 Breughel, Van Tulden, and other distinguished artists. His genuine 

 works are extremely rare, and very highly prized all over Europe. To 

 avoid the troubles of war, he retired to Frankfurt, where he died 

 about 1603. 



STEENWYK, HENRY, the Younger, the son of the preceding, 

 was born in 1585. He followed the style of his father, by whom he 

 was very carefully instructed, and very good judges have thought that 

 he often equalled him. His friend Vandyck, for whom he frequently 

 painted the architectural and perspective backgrounds of his pictures, 

 induced him to visit England, and introduced him to the court of 

 Charles I., where he met with the encouragement due to his talents, 

 and found employment in this country for several years. He died at 

 London, when still young, but in what year is uncertain. His widow, 

 who had been instructed by her husband, retired to Amsterdam after 

 his death, and practised painting there: her works were greatly 

 esteemed and readily purchased at high prices. The celebrated Peter 

 Neefs, father and son, were among the disciples of the elder Steen- 

 wyk. The portrait of the son by Vandyck is engraved in the collec- 

 tion of the portraits of the chief artists of his time. 



STEEVENS, GEORGE, was born at Stepney, in 1736. His father 

 was connected with mercantile pursuits in London, being a director 

 of the East India Company. Gtorge Steevers was placed on the 

 foundation at Eton, and became a scholar of King's College, Cambridge, 

 in 1754. His first publication, and a most useful one, was the reprint, 

 in four volumes, octavo, of 'Twenty of the Plays of Shakespeare, 

 being the whole number printed in quarto during his Lifetime,' &c. 

 These plays profess to be literal copies of these rare editions ; 

 and in several instances the various readings of other quarto editions 

 are given in the foot-notes. This was an acceptable service to all 

 students of our great >oet; and a comparison of many of these plays 

 with the originals enables us to say that the reprints are remarkably 

 faithful. This reprint appeared in 1766. The reputation which 

 Steevens thus acquired led, no doubt, to his association with Johnson 

 in the edition of Shakspere which appeared in 1773 with their joint 

 names. In this edition his assistance was of essential service ; for ho 

 brought to the task of editing Shakspere qualities in which Johnson 

 was deficient a more accurate knowledge of early English literature, 



