The Norton editors write, "these essays promote morality by praising and enacting sociability and set standards of good taste and polite behavior with a light but firm and unwavering grace" (p. 2640). In #2, what "standards of good taste and polite behavior" do we see enacted? (The word "enacted" means that the authors — Addison and Steele — exhibit good taste and polite behavior in the way they write about other people.) The Norton editors continue: "They thereby sought to establish a new social-literary ethos transcending the narrowness of Puritan morality and the exorbitance of the fashionable court culture of the last century." (Note: "the last century" is the Restoration (1660-1700) and "the fashionable court culture" is the culture of Charles II.) Can you see how the portraits of the members of the Spectators' club illustrate this middle-way ethos?
The Spectator, No. 10:
Addison particularly address himself to three groups of people: "The fraternity of spectators who live in the world without having anything to do in it"; "the blanks of society"; and "the female world." What good does he think the reading of The Spectator will do the members of each group?
What is the appeal of The Spectator? Do you read similar material now? For example?
What is Addison's idea of the good life?
The Spectator, Nos. 69 & 519: What do these two essays have in common, and what do they tell us about Addison's values?
