Inglese: Birth of Journalism

letteratura inglese

Inglese: Birth of Journalism

"La penna è nella vita moderna ciò che la lancia fu nei tempi eroici: protegge, uccide, conquista. Chi non si addestra per tempo a maneggiar quest'arme, mal per lui! Il suo posto sarà tra i vassalli o i servi"

(E. De Marchi, "L'età preziosa")

During the second half of 18^th century, the interest of middle-class people in literature, art, social problems and political life, as well a 414i86e s their eagerness to be informed and to discuss events or personages of the day, gave much impulse to a new literary form called journalism. Its development was also supported by the rise of coffee-houses¹ and of a new postal system.

Two men, in particular, contributed to its rise, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, with the periodicals "The Tatler" and "The Spectator".

But at the beginning of this century, beyond "The Spectator" in England there were other important journals: "The Review", "The Examiner", "The Gentlemen's Magazine" and "The Champion".

"The Review" by Daniel Defoe was published twice or thrice a week from February 1704 to June 1713. It was an organ of moderation, religious and political, and of broad commercial interest. The Defoe of "The Review" is liberal and consistent in his politics and far-sighted in commercial and economic matters. The final few numbers continued to offer the same scathing and amusing essays as the early numbers had done, and with the same verve and imagination. It was ultimately government intervention that brought this newspaper to a close in 1713.

"The Examiner" had been started by St. John, and Swift wrote for it regularly until 1711. It was a Tory rag; when Swift gave up his connection with "The Examiner", he composed two pamphlets in favour of peace, because the Whigs, opposed to a peace between England and France, formed an alliance with Nottingham, previously an extreme Tory town.

"The Gentlemen's Magazine" was founded in London by Edward Cave, a printer editor and publisher. He created the first general-interest "magazine" in the modern sense. It provided political news and miscellaneous fare ranging from cooking recipes to riddles; there were practical information about domestic life and Cave combined moral improvement with entertainment. He conceived the idea of a periodical that would cover every topic the educated public was interested in, from commerce to poetry.

"The Champion", an opposition journal, was edited for three years by Henry Fielding; he wrote satirical articles for it and, at the same time, for other newspapers.

Joseph Addison

Addison was born in Wiltshire and he attended Charterhouse School in London, where he met Steele, and then Oxford, where he took a degree. He started his literary career as a poet: he dedicated a poem to John Dryden and translated Virgilio's "Georgiche". In 1706 he began to work as a civil servant an held public posts under the Whig government. In 1708 he became a member of parliament.

Addison died in 1719 and he was buried in Westminster Abbey. 

Richard Steele (1672-1729)

Steele was born in Dublin. He went to school first in London, then in Oxford but left before taking a degree to enter the Army. Some years later, he began to write poems, dramas and articles. A Whig in politics, Steele's aim was to make society better in the light of Christian principles, and more refined and understanding in human relationships.

"The Tatler"

In 1709, Steele started editing "The Tatler": the title comes from "tattle", that is the gossip or unimportant things a group of people talk about. Although the title of this periodical was meant to attract women, the amount of news and entertaining articles gradually diminished and it came more and more to be a periodical essay, which dealt whit subjects of general interest, such as fashion, literature, manners and history.

It came out three times a week, from 1709 to 1711, and its articles were written in a casual and conversational style under the name of different coffee-houses: funny articles came from "White's Chocolate House", poetry from "Will's" and so on.

"The Spectator"

Addison joined Steele at "The Tatler" and they later founded "The Spectator". It was published daily except for Sunday, from March 1711 to December 1712, with a total of 555 issues. This newspaper was an extremely innovative publication, it was enormously influential, not only in the content of its speculations on aesthetics, literary style and urban life, but also as a medium. It inaugurated the tradition of the daily periodical whose subject was not news, but literature and manners, and they adapted the gentlemanly culture of polite letters to a wide print audience.

Mr. Spectator, who stood for the author themselves, belonged to an imaginary club and commented upon all the customs and morals, the vices and virtues of the society of the time. His fellow members represented the different social classes. The favourite ones were: Sir Roger de Coverley, an old-fashioned country gentleman, Sir Andrew Freeport, a new city merchant, Captain Sentry, a famous soldier, and Will Honeycomb, a man of the world.

The style was simple, clear and lively and was meant for the middle-classes, which had recently gained social importance.

The aim of the journal was to contribute to pleasure and education and to banish vice and English ignorance. The authors wanted to entertain their readers familiarly, talking about daily life, important events and, at the same time, literary works and imaginary facts. Because of these connotations, women were very interested in reading it.

This periodical was not admired and imitated only in England throughout 18^th  century: "L'Osservatore Veneto" by Gaspare Gozzi and the more famous "Il Caffè" by Alessandro and Pietro Verri were modelled on Addison's paper and were meant to serve the same purposes.