Of The Club
Richard Steele
Friday 2,March ,1710
The present paper has been contributed by Richard Steele in which the six friends of the spectator are introduced to the readers. They are the members of the Club known as ‘The Spectator’s Club’.
(1)
The first among those six friends are Sir Roger De Coverly, who is a country gentleman and a decent person. He is a rich landlord having two houses, one in the city and the other in the country. He keeps both the houses in the proper order. His great grandfather was an investor of a dance which has been named after Sir Roger, is a man of singular character and personality.
In his youth Sir Roger had loved one a beautiful widow but she was perverse in her personality with some mental disorder and as a result the idea of marriage was not materialized. It had given a set-back to Sir Roger to recover from which it had taken almost one and half years. After this incident he decided to live a singular life and he has been a bachelor.
Sir Roger is a man with mirthful nature and he is loved by all known to all even women have their concern for him. He is tenants are happy with him and they have grown rich. His servants are satisfied with him. He takes so much care of every individual that he remembers the names of all tenants, servants and addresses of them by calling their names. He is a justice of the country Quoram.
(2)
The second member of the club is a lawyer and he is also a member of on lawyers club and so he is introduced to the reader as a member of the inner temple by profession he is lawyer because of that he is very good at making arguments. He can speak on Aristotle and longinus better than any other scholar these two philosophers. He is fully familiar with ancient customs, manner, actions and writing and because of that he compares the past with the present day situation calling it improper. He knows the laws related to land, trade, and crime. The spectator informs that he has read many books but he has approved very few of them.
(3)
The third member of the spectator’s club is Andrew Freeport, his very named suggests that he is a businessman. He is a rich merchant of London and he calls the sea of England, ‘The British Common’. The meaning is the sea of England is a common property of all Britishers and whoever wants to prosper can use that sea for business.
Andrew Freeport is himself industrious and wants the youth of his time to be equally industrious. His fond of using idioms and maxims like “Sloth has rained more nation than the sword” and the is “a penny saved is a penny got”. The third idiom reflects that he believes in polite attitude to achieve success in life. The second idiom reflects that he is not an idle man ,he is industrious and wants other to be the same . The third idiom reflects that he is not a miser person but he does believe in the virtue of economy. He is not an extravagant person in spending money. He gives his example that he became rich even while doing business with honesty and other Englishman can also become rich by following the same honesty in business.
(4)
The fourth member of the spectator’s club is captain Sentry- a man of the military who has participated in many battles and adventures, now he has left that job and joined the Spectator’s club. He happens to be the nearest to relatives of Sir Roger and likely inherit the land , estate and property of Sir Roger. It is to train himself how to manage that property that he left the job of military and became a member of this club.
He is strong, well-built with good high and pleasing personality. He is against the draw backs of civil – cowardice and military fear. Sometimes civilians have to arrest themselves to be approved and if they do not arrest it is a civil cowardice. If the soldier, when given an order to march on, are afraid of attacking it is military-fear. Captain Sentry is of the opinion that both civil cowardice and military fear are dangerous to any civilization.
(5)
Will Honeycomb is the fifth member of the spectator’s club and his name indicates that he is given to romantic temperament and a matters of love. Generally he keeps himself quiet in the club when a serious discussion is going on in the club. But whenever there is any discussion given to fashion, love and romance he would never allow others to speak on it and he himself will speak with a tone of authority. Will Honeycomb can tell easily which fashion among the ladies of London has come from a specific Queen of the French king. His fond of all those discourses with which a man tries to please a woman. His quiet aged but years have not made an impression of wrinkles on his forehead and traces in his mind. He considers himself young and energetic because of his romantic spirit. He doesn’t hesitate to give a smile to anybody and all his conversation and knowledge are related to the world of woman.
(6)
The Sixth and last member of the spectators club is philosophic clergyman. He is quiet, an aged man with mastery in the field of religion, Christianity and spirituality. His only misfortune is that he is weak physically and he has not taken so much care of his body as he has taken to maintain the purity of his mind and soul. His role among all other priests is the same as that of the chamber counselor among lawyers. He can speak on religion with authority. He considers himself irrelevant and misfit for the prevailing situation of his time. He lives a simple life and honorable by all other members of the club.