Augustan Age saw the rise of Journalism and periodical literature. Following the periodicals ‘The Review’ of Daniel Defoe and ‘The Examiner’ of Jonathan Swift, in 1709, Richard Steele brought out his Whig paper ‘The Tatler’. Having decided to keep the Politics away Joseph Addison and Richard Steele started ‘The Spectator’ in 1711. The Periodical had two objects, that is reforming of the contemporary society and presenting the true picture of the Age very faithfully. Out of 555 essays, Addison wrote 274 essays. 'The coverly Papers' were part of 'The spectator' and they were 35 in number. The principal instrument employed by Addison and Steele was gentle satire. They ridiculed at the eccentricities and idiosyncrasies and never abused. Their ridicule was gentle and ironical and their humour was tolerant and gentle.
Sir.. Roger De Coverly was one among five members
of the spectator club. He was an English
Squire of Queen Anne's reign. He was once
a town gallant but then a country-gentleman. He was portrayed as lovable but
somewhat ridiculous, making his Tory Politics that was seemingly harmless but
silly. He was also said to be the grandson of the man who invented the English
country dance. In the coverly essay, ‘Sir. Roger at Church’, Sir. Roger has been characterized vividly. As he is a good church man, he has beautified
the inside of his church with several text of his own choosing. He has also given a handsome pulpit-cloth and
raised the communion-table at his own expense to attract the people to the
church. Apart from supplying his parishioners
Common prayer books, he employed an itinerant singing master to instruct them
rightly in the tunes of the Psalms.
As, Sir. Roger was the land lord of the whole
congregation he had authoritative power. So, he kept the people in good order
and never allowed anybody to sleep in the church. If he happened to see anyone nodding at the
church he either woke them up himself or would send his servants to them. He not only encouraged people to come to
church, he even appointed the clergy man for the church on his own accord and
suggested them to follow the instructions of different professors for
sermons. He loved not only the servants
of his house but also the people who lived around them. He had the habit of asking about the
condition of the people who were absent in the church. Apart from showing his concern of the
absentees, it was also to be understood as a secret reprimand to those who were
absent.
There was a fair understanding between Sir. Roger
and his chaplain. But the very next
village was famous for the differences that rose between the Parson and the
Squire, who actually lived in a perpetual state of war. So, the Squire never came to church and
thereby he made all his tenants atheists.
But in the case of Roger he was a true lover of Religion. He used to do a lot of jobs for
religion. Although he was gentle natured
he had some eccentricities and oddities.
Sometimes he used to stand up in the middle of the congregation and
start counting the number of people to understand whether any of his tenants
missing. He also had the habit of saying
Amen three or four times because of his more concerning of his tenants. Through the nature of Sir. Roger and his
tenants and through the incidents happened there, Addison gives us a clear
picture of the eighteenth century churches and tells us how one should and how especially
one should not behave in public places like churches.
-----Thulasidharan V
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