English society in the 18^th century

The expansion of the middle-class, which had begun in the previous century continued throughout the 18^th century and strongly influenced the social life of the Augustan Age. The wealthy merchants, who controlled the most productive trades, owned the mines and manufacturing factories, and supported Sir Robert Walpole in politics, often bought large estates to gain prestige and enable their children to marry into the aristocracy.

The artisans and craftsmen filled the gap between the upper class and the poor. They worked long hours, usually as apprentices, for a very low wage. Below them was the mass of the urban population who had no political rights and lived in terrible scurvy and typhus affected the poorest areas and it has been estimated that fifty-one per cent of the children in London died before they reached the age of five. Those who survived were hired as apprentices by the parishes from the age of seven. Many of them became chimney-sweepers. For adult people the parishes built workhouses, where they were maintained at public expense and hired out to factory owners. It is not surprising that many took to drinking gin and that organised crime grew among the unemployed.

Life in the countryside was deeply affected by the enclosure system. On the one hand, it caused the misery of a great many labourers who, dispossessed of the communal open fields, were to became the urban proletariat. On the other hand, it led to the improvement of farming methods and to the transformation of a dreary landscape into a place of fertility and prosperity.

The coffee-houses

One of the most significant traits of London's social life were the coffee-houses. Under the Commonwealth a number of coffee-houses had been opened: they were associated with news and gossip and provided entertainment. So their function was very similar to that of the theatre in the Elizabethan age. With the beginning of a postal system at the end of the 17^th century they took on a new role as circulation centres. They served as a box number for advertisers in the newspapers and as meeting places for the most important companies. In the Augustan Age, fashionable and artistic people began gathering points where people exchanged opinions. It was mainly through the coffee-houses were almost exclusively attended by men, through women were slowly showing signs of emancipation.

The rise of Journalism

The interest of middle-class people in literature, art, social problems and political life, as well as their desire to be informed and to discuss events or famous people, gave much impetus to a new literary form, journalism. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele contributed to its rise with their periodicals: The Spectator and The Tatler.

These periodicals dealt with subjects of general interest, such as fashion, literature, manners and history; their aim was to bring forward moral and other teachings while entertaining.

The Tatler came out three times a week until 1711 and its articles were written in a casual and conversational style. The Spectator was published daily except for Sunday, from march 1711 to December 1712. "Mr. Spectator" belonged to an imaginary club and commented upon all the customs and morals, the vices and virtues of the society of the time. His fellow members represented different social classes, as well as the opinions and beliefs held in the firsts decade of the 18^th century. The style was clear and simple and it was also admired and imitated outside England: L'Osservatore veneto by Gasparo Gozzi and Il Caffč by Alessandro and Pietro Verri were modelled on Addison's paper and were meant to serve the same purposes.