t well might, a
powerful impression, and Steele, who was always ready to inculcate
morality on other people, wrote four comedies with a moral purpose. _The
Funeral; or Grief a-la-Mode_ was acted with success at Drury Lane in
1701, and when published passed through several editions. _The Lying
Lover_ followed two years later, and was, in the comfortable judgment of
the author, 'damned for its piety.' This was followed, in 1705, by _The
Tender Husband_, a play suggested by the _Sicilien_ of Moliere, as _The
Lying Lover_ had been founded on the _Menteur_ of Corneille. Many years
later Steele's last play, _The Conscious Lovers_ (1722), completed his
performances as a dramatist. It was dedicated to the King, who is said
to have sent the author L500. The modern reader will find little worthy
of attention in the dramas of Steele. His sense of humour enlivens some
of the scenes, and is, perhaps, chiefly visible in _The Funeral_; but
for the most part dulness is in the ascendant, and the sentiment is
frequently mawkish. _The Conscious Lovers_, said Parson Adams, contains
'some things almost solemn enough for a sermon.' This may be true, but
we do not desire a sermon in a play, and Steele, who is always a lively
essayist, loses his liveliness in writing for the stage. It has been
observed by Mr. Ward that, taking a hint from Colley Cibber, he 'became
the real founder of that sentimental comedy which exercised so
pernicious an influence upon the progress of our dramatic literature.'
'It would be unjust,' he adds, 'to hold him responsible for the
feebleness of successors who were altogether deficient in the comic
power which he undoubtedly even as a dramatist exhibits; but in so far
as their aberrations were the result of his example, he must be held to
have contributed, though with the best of motives, to the decline of the
English drama.'[38] One of the prominent offenders who followed in
Steele's wake was George Lillo (1693-1739), whose highly moral
tragedies, written for the edification of playgoers, have the kind of
tragic interest which is called forth by any commonplace tale of crime
and misery. In Lillo's two most important dramas, _George Barnwell_
(1731), a play founded on the old ballad, and _The Fatal Curiosity_
(1736), there is a total absence of the elevation in character and
language which gives dignity to tragedy. His plays are like tales of
guilt arranged and amplified from the Newgate Calendar. The author wrote
wit