Richard Steele Edited, with an Introduction and Notes by G. A. Aitken — A Closer Reading

Wit and Self-Consciousness in <em>The Tender Husband</em>

The excerpt from The Tender Husband (1705) reveals a dialogue between Clerimont and the Niece (Bridget) that oscillates between pastoral idealization and ironic deflation. Clerimont opens with a conventional lover's complaint about his wounded arm, but the Niece immediately shifts the register: she praises the park with phrases like "flowery lawns" and "embroidered valleys," only to undercut the romance by asking about "flights of vultures" before battle. This blend of high-flown language and grim humor—"they have eaten up half my acquaintance"—typifies Steele's comic technique. The characters are acutely aware of literary conventions: the Niece adopts the name Parthenissa from romance, while Clerimont calls her "pretty coxcomb" in an aside. Their banter about names—Bridget versus Parthenissa, Tipkin versus Clerimont—turns courtship into a game of linguistic self-fashioning, where identity is as malleable as a syllable.

Steele's Theatrical Milieu and Editorial Context

Aitken's introduction provides a factual framework for understanding Steele's career. He notes Steele's enlistment as a private in the Duke of Ormond's regiment in 1694, his anonymous poem The Procession dedicated to Lord Cutts, and his subsequent commission as ensign. By 1700 Steele was known as "Captain Steele" and moved among Sedley, Vanbrugh, Garth, and Congreve. Aitken also records that Steele fought a duel with Captain Kelly, an event that made a "serious impression" and influenced his later writings against dueling. The editor emphasizes Steele's role in the periodical essay tradition but insists his comedies are not merely appendages to that work. The volume itself is part of the Mermaid Series, a late-Victorian collection of "the best plays of the old dramatists," which shapes how these plays are presented—as literary artifacts rather than performance texts.

Patterns of Contrast and Repetition

Across the excerpt, Steele builds comedy through repeated structural contrasts. The Niece's inflated diction—"art and nature are in a rivalry"—collides with Clerimont's blunt asides. The dialogue moves in paired exchanges: each compliment is met with a deflating reply. The Niece's question about the sunrise at Blenheim is answered with a joke about missing limbs. This pattern extends to the characters' self-awareness: both play roles (the romantic hero, the naive ingénue) while signaling their awareness of the game. The fragmentary nature of the excerpt prevents full assessment of plot or character development, but the verbal texture is consistent. Steele's dialogue relies on antithesis and repetition—"Clerimont? Bridget?"—to generate humor from the gap between expectation and reality. The editor's notes, though not included here, likely gloss the literary allusions (Urganda, Musidorus, Parthenissa) that anchor the comedy in contemporary reading practices.

Readers approaching Steele's plays through this edition will find a useful companion in Aitken's biographical and textual notes. The introduction supplies essential context without overinterpreting the works, leaving the comedies to speak for themselves. Pay attention to the asides and stage directions, which reveal Steele's skill at balancing sentiment with satire. The fragments, though incomplete, offer glimpses of experiments that did not reach full production.

There’s something about the way these old plays hold people mid-gesture—Steele’s Clerimont teasing Bridget, caught between wit and warmth. That same tender awkwardness lingered in my mind reading the frontier scenes of She Would Be a Soldier; Or, The Plains of Chippewa — Context and Discussion, where courage keeps tripping over the heart. It felt less like history, more like someone remembering how it felt to be young and unsure.