The Commentator (1720) [9] 1851967435, 9781851967438

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RELIGIOUS A N D DIDACTIC W R I T I N G S OF DANIEL DEFOE

General Editors: W R. Owens and E N. Furbank Volume 9: THE COMMENTATOR (1720) Edited by E N. Furbank

LONDON

PICKERING & CHATTO 2007

Published by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited 21 Bloomsbury Way, London, WCIA 2TH Old Post Road, Brookfield, Vermont 05036, USA www.pickeringchatto.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher. Copyright © Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited 2007

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Defoe, Daniel, 1661P-1731 Religious and didactic writings of Daniel Defoe Vols. 6—10. — (The works of Daniel Defoe) (The Pickering masters) 1. Family — Early works to 1800 2. Family — Religious life — Early works to 1800 3. Didactic literature, English History and criticism 4. Religious literature, English History and criticism 5. England — Social life and customs — 18th century I . Title II. Owens, W. R. III. Furbank, Philip Nicholas 828.5'08 ISBN-10: 1851967435 ISBN-13: 978-1-85196-743-8

This publication is printed on acid-free paper that conforms to the American National Standard for the Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials

Typeset by P&C Printed in Great Britain at the University Press,

CONTENTS

Introduction The Commentator (1720)

1 17

Explanatory notes

313

Textual notes

339

INTRODUCTION

On the first day of the year 1720 Defoe launched a new periodical, entitled The Commentator, which would appear twice weekly until the 16th of the following September. Perhaps the first thing one notices is that it seems to be a kind of imitation of Addison's and Steele's Spectator. There is even what sounds like a direct allusion to this. 'It is far from being a commendable Part in any one who calls himself a British Subject', says the opening issue, 'to be an Idle Spectator at this Time of Day' Like The Spectator and The Tatler, again, it employs in almost every issue the literary device, a quintessentially 'Augustan' one, of an epigraph from the classics.1 As with Defoe's models, the supposed author — the Tatler, the Spectator or the Commentator — is provided, playfully, with a fictitious persona. The Commentator, according to his own account, is a youngish man, inexperienced in the ways of the world and a beginner in the literary profession. He is a warm admirer of the present Whig government, led by General Stanhope, James Craggs and the Earl of Sunderland, and, judging from an incident mentioned later, he would appear to be a Church of England man — though one tolerant enough to stroll into a meeting-house.2 This personage, as one or two further traits will make even plainer, is not to be confused with Daniel Defoe. It is a delicate question, however, whether unlike Steele and Addison — Defoe actually wants to disguise his authorship. When we first meet the Commentator, he has taken it into his head to launch a new journal. A friend tells him it is the quickest way to starve, for the market for journals is already over-stocked, and if he cannot find some other honest calling he had better frankly take to the road (i.e. 1 I attempt to explicate certain of these epigraphs in the Explanatory notes. 2 See the issue for 9 May 1720, below, pp. 161-3. Further references to The Commentator are to the present edition, and page references are given in parentheses in the text.

Defoe: Religious and Didactic Writings, Volume 9

become a highwayman). But the Commentator has 'too much the Spirit of an Author' to listen (p. 17). The thought enters his mind, however, that the manner of a new author's entering the world has a certain likeness to an 'Old Malefactor's' way of going out of it. The felon on the scaffold sees it as the occasion for a dying address, in which he declares himself in charity with all mankind; and it might be graceful for the editor of a new periodical to do likewise. Accordingly, in the earlier numbers of his journal, he makes a point of referring to Abel Boyer, the author of The Political State, as his 'Brother' and Ridpath, the author of the Flying Post, as his 'Friend'. There may be reason to criticise his fellow-journalists, he admits, for they often print the most absurdly false 'news'. But 'For God's Sake let us at least treat one another like Gentlemen, and as becomes Men of Letters' (p. 21). (We note that Boyer and Ridpath were known to be virulent enemies of Defoe.) In his opening number (1 January) the Commentator deliberately, though light-heartedly, flouts one or two of the conventions expected on such an occasion. It is usual for a journal-editor to claim to be above 'party', but the Commentator stoutly affirms that his is a party-paper. (When a man strives to persuade you he is of no party, he says, you can be pretty sure there is disaffection at the bottom of it.) He will claim to be impartial, but not neutral: 'So long as a just Government has unjust Enemies', the Commentator writes, 'there can be no such Thing as standing Neuter' (p. 18). In the present state of things, what is necessary is not idle 'spectatorship' but zeal. In fact he confesses that he would like everybody to have the same opinions as himself: he nurses a secret ambition 'to convert the whole Race of Britons to the True Faith of Government'. But at least, if he can 'confirm one Doubting Member of the Commonwealth', he will consider it sufficient reward — so long, be it remembered, as 'the small article of Copy-Money be annex'd to it' (p. 19). This reminder about money breaks another taboo. How often, we reflect, has Defoe himself solemnly declared his indifference to money. The Commentator, who has a high opinion of himself, goes a round of the coffee-houses, trying to discover what people think of his paper. First he tries Garraway's, in Exchange Alley (a bad choice), and sits close to two Turkey-merchants, who are looking at the papers. 'What have we here , exclaims one of them in disgust, at the sight of the new journal. 'I'm quite sick of these Half Sheet Politicians.' 'Here, Boy', he tells the waiter, 'take your Papers, and bring me some fresh Green Tea . 'Pray, Sir, the Commentator plucks up the courage to ask, 'have you read the Paper?' 'No, Sir, nor never will' (p. 29). A group of clergy at Child's Coffee-House think the new author would better concern himself not with politics, but with the peril from

Introduction

sceptics and atheists. But perhaps, the Commentator timidly suggests, 'this Writer may be a Layman, and would not presume to invade a Province that does not properly belong to him?' 'Sir , says the cleric crushingly, "Tis every Man's Province, whether of the Clergy or Laity, to do as much as in him lies to vindicate the Christian Religion in general, and the Church of England in particular . But replies the Commentator — could not a journal-editor, by defending the government from the 'Loads of Dirt and Infamy daily thrown at it, do for the Government what Jeremy Collier has done so magnificently for the stage? His question is received in silence. 'I found I had pushed this Matter too far, and that they began to suspect me as a Friend of the Author's' (p. 30). Elsewhere he hears himself called 'a busy upstart Fellow who meddled with Things that did not concern me' (p. 31) or blamed for making the same bad use of the Liberty of the Press that he condemned in others. But all this is compensated for by his warm reception in another coffee-house. There, gratifyingly, they guess that his paper may be by Richard Steele, or perhaps the poet Ambrose Philips, and they make him blush with all the handsome things they say. Part of what we are to be offered by this new journal, evidently, will be a fresh look, as by a neophyte, at the workings of the journalistic industry. He will have harsh enough things to say about it, in the same spirit as that teasing passage in Defoe's The Manufacturer, in which the 'Pen and Ink MANUFACTURE' is extolled as a potential rival of the wool-trade. 3 'It is incredible', writes the Commentator on 8 January, 'what Quantities of Goods have been drawn off in a few Years from This great Magazine of Intelligence, which yet remains inexhaustible. W h a t heaps of Nonsense and Forgeryl W h a t Reams of Declarations, Manifesto's, Hymns, Ballads, and other merry Conceits! And what Loads of Weekly Journals! These are, literally speaking, Loads of Scandal and Sedition, which have been pack'd up, like Bales of Cloth, and sent by the Carriers and Waggoners into all Parts of the King's Dominions, to be duly distributed by the Agents of the Party in the several respective Counties' (p. 25). Defoe, in his teasing way, loved to denigrate the very trade — political journalism — he was for so long engaged in 3 'Really it is Inconceivable, what a Number of Poor, we that are Masters and Undertakers in the Pen and Ink MANUFACTURE, do daily employ: For Example, poor Authors, poor Publishers,/>