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DANIEL DEFOE (c. 1.659—1731)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 931 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DANIEL See also:DEFOE (c. 1.659—1731)  , See also:English author, was See also:born in the See also:parish of St See also:Giles, Cripplegate, See also:London, in the latter See also:part of 1659 or See also:early in 166o, of a See also:nonconformist See also:family . His See also:grand-See also:father, See also:Daniel Foe, lived at Etton, See also:Northamptonshire, apparently in comfortable circumstances, for he is said to have kept a See also:pack of hounds . As to the variation of name, See also:Defoe or Foe, its owner signed either indifferently till See also:late in See also:life, and where his See also:initials occur they are sometimes D . F. and sometimes D . D . F . Three autograph letters of his are extant, all addressed in 1705 to the same See also:person, and signed respectively D . Foe, de Foe and Daniel Defoe . His father, See also:James Foe, was. a See also:butcher and a See also:citizen of London . Daniel was well educated at a famous dissenting See also:academy, Mr See also:Charles See also:Morton's of Stoke Newington, where many of the best-known nonconformists of the See also:time were his schoolfellows . With few exceptions all the known events of Defoe's life are connected with authorship . In the older catalogues of his See also:works two See also:pamphlets, See also:Speculum Crapegownorum, a See also:satire on the See also:clergy, and A See also:Treatise against the See also:Turks, are attributed to him before the See also:accession of James II., but there seems to be no publication of his which is certainly genuine before The See also:Character of Dr Annesley (1697) .

He had, however, before this, taken up arms in See also:

Monmouth's expedition, and is supposed to have owed his lucky See also:escape from the clutches of the See also:king's troops and the See also:law, to his being a Londoner, and therefore a stranger in the See also:west See also:country . On the 26th of See also:January 1688 he was admitted a liveryman of the See also:city of London, having claimed his freedom by See also:birth . Before his western escapade he had taken up the business of See also:hosiery See also:factor . At the entry of See also:William and See also:Mary into London he is said to have served as a volunteer trooper " gallantly mounted and richly accoutred." In these days he lived at Tooting, and was instrumental in forming a dissenting See also:congregation there . His business operations at this See also:period appear to have been extensive and various . He seems to have been a sort of See also:commission See also:merchant, especially in See also:Spanish and Portuguese goods, and at some time to have visited See also:Spain on business . In 1692 he failed for £17,000 . His misfortunes made him write both feelingly and forcibly on the See also:bankruptcy See also:laws; and although his creditors accepted a See also:composition, he afterwards honourably paid them in full, a fact attested by See also:independent and not very friendly witnesses . Subsequently, he undertook first the secretaryship and then the management and See also:chief ownership of some See also:tile-works at Tilbury, but here also he was unfortunate, and his imprisonment in 1703 brought the works to a standstill, and he lost £3000 . From this time forward we hear of no settled business in which he engaged . The course of Defoe's life was determined about the See also:middle of the reign of William III. by his introduction to that monarch and other influential persons . He frequently boasts of his See also:personal intimacy with the " glorious and immortal " king, and927 in 1695 he was appointed accountant to the commissioners of the See also:glass See also:duty, an See also:office which he held for four years .

During this time he produced his See also:

Essay on Projects (1698), containing suggestions on See also:banks, road-management, friendly and See also:insurance See also:societies of various kinds, idiot asylums, bankruptcy, See also:academies, military colleges, high See also:schools for See also:women, &c . It displays Defoe's lively and lucid See also:style in full vigour, and abounds with ingenious thoughts and See also:apt illustrations, though it illustrates also the unsystematic character of his mind . In the same See also:year Defoe wrote the first of a See also:long See also:series of pamphlets on the then burning question of occasional conformity . In this, for the first time, he showed the unlucky See also:independence which, in so many other instances, See also:united all parties against him . While he pointed out to the dissenters the scandalous inconsistency of their playing fast and loose with sacred things, yet he'denounced the impropriety of requiring tests at all . In support of the See also:government he published, in 1698, An See also:Argument for a See also:Standing See also:Army, followed in 1700 by a See also:defence of William's See also:war policy called The Two See also:Great Questions considered, and a set of pamphlets on the See also:Partition Treaty . Thus in See also:political matters he had the same See also:fate as in ecclesiastical; for the Whigs were no more prepared than the Tories to support William through thick and thin . He also dealt with the questions of stock-jobbing and of electioneering corruption . But his most remarkable publication at this time was The True-Born Englishman (1701), a satire in rough but extremely vigorous See also:verse on the See also:national objection to William as a foreigner, and on the claim of purity of See also:blood for a nation which Defoe chooses to represent as crossed'and dashed with all the strains and races in See also:Europe . He also took a prominent part in the proceedings which followed the Kentish See also:petition, and was the author, some say the presenter, of the See also:Legion Memorial, which asserted in the strongest terms the supremacy of the See also:electors over the elected, and of which even an irate See also:House of See also:Commons did not dare to take much See also:notice . The theory of the indefeasible supremacy of the freeholders of See also:England, whose delegates merely, according to this theory, the Commons were, was one of Defoe's favourite political tenets, and he returned to it in a powerfully written See also:tract entitled The See also:Original See also:Power of the Collective See also:Body of the See also:People of England examined and asserted (1701) . At the same time he was occupied in a controversy on the conformity question with See also:John How (or See also:Howe) on the practice of " occasional conformity." Defoe maintained that the dissenters who attended the services of the English See also:Church on particular occasions to qualify themselves for office were guilty of inconsistency .

At the same time he did not argue for the See also:

complete abolition of the tests, but desired that they should be so framed as to make it possible for most Protestants conscientiously to subscribe to them . Here again his moderation pleased neither party . The See also:death of William was a great misfortune to Defoe, and he soon See also:felt the power of his adversaries . After See also:publishing The See also:Mock Mourners, intended to satirize and rebuke the outbreak of Jacobite joy at the king's death, he turned his See also:attention once more to ecclesiastical subjects, and, in an evil See also:hour for himself, wrote the See also:anonymous Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702), a statement in the most forcible terms of the extreme " high-flying " position, which some high churchmen were unwary enough to endorse, without any suspicion of the writer's ironical intention . The author was soon discovered; and, as he absconded, an See also:advertisement was issued offering a See also:reward for his See also:apprehension, and giving the only personal description we possess of him, as " a middle-sized spare See also:man about See also:forty years old, of a See also:brown complexion and dark brown-coloured See also:hair, but wears a See also:wig; a hooked See also:nose, a See also:sharp See also:chin, See also:grey eyes, and a large See also:mole near his mouth." In this conjuncture Defoe had really no See also:friends, for the dissenters were as much alarmed at his See also:book as the high-flyers were irritated . He surrendered, and his defence appears to have been injudiciously conducted; at any See also:rate he was fined 200 marks, and condemned to be pilloried three times, to be imprisoned indefinitely, and to find sureties for his See also:good behaviour during seven years . It was in reference to this incident that See also:Pope, whose See also:Catholic rearing made him detest the See also:abettor of the Revolution and the See also:champion of William of See also:Orange, wrote in the Dunciad "Earless on high stands unabash'd Defoe" —though he knew that the See also:sentence to the See also:pillory had long ceased to See also:entail the loss of ears . Defoe's exposure in the pillory (See also:July 29, 30, 31) was, however, rather a See also:triumph than a See also:punishment, for the populace took his See also:side; and his Hymn to the Pillory, which he soon after published, is one of the best of his poetical works . Unluckily for him his condemnation had the indirect effect of destroying his business at Tilbury . He remained in See also:prison until See also:August 1704, and then owed his See also:release to the intercession of See also:Robert Harley, who represented his See also:case to the See also:queen, and obtained for him not only See also:liberty but pecuniary See also:relief and employment, which, of one See also:kind or another, lasted until the termination of See also:Anne's reign . Defoe was uniformly grateful to the See also:minister, and his See also:language respecting him is in curious variance with that generally used . There is no doubt that Harley, who understood the See also:influence wielded by Defoe, made some conditions .

Defoe says he received no See also:

pension, but his subsequent fidelity was at all events indirectly rewarded; moreover, Harley's moderation in a time of the extremest party-See also:insanity was no little recommendation to Defoe . During his imprisonment he was by no means idle . A See also:spurious edition of his works having been issued, he himself produced a collection of twenty-two See also:treatises, to which some time afterwards he added a second See also:group of eighteen more . He also wrote in prison many See also:short pamphlets, chiefly controversial, published a curious See also:work on the famous See also:storm of the 26th of See also:November 1703, and started in See also:February 1704 perhaps the most remarkable of all his projects, The See also:Review . This was a See also:paper which was issued during the greater part of its life three times a See also:week . It was entirely written by Defoe, and extends to eight complete volumes and some few See also:score See also:numbers of a second issue . He did not confine himself to See also:news, but wrote something very like finished essays on questions of policy, See also:trade and domestic concerns; he also introduced a " See also:Scandal See also:Club," in which See also:minor questions of See also:manners and morals were treated in a way which undoubtedly suggested the Tatlers and Spectators which followed . Only one complete copy of the work is known to exist, and that is in the See also:British Museum . It is probable that if bulk, rapidity of See also:production, variety of See also:matter, originality of See also:design, and excellence of style be taken together, hardly any author can show a work of equal magnitude . After his release Defoe went to See also:Bury St See also:Edmunds, though he did not interrupt either his Review or his occasional pamphlets . One of these, Giving See also:Alms no Charity, and Employing the Poor a Grievance to the Nation (1704), is extraordinarily far-sighted . It denounces both indiscriminate alms-giving and the national work-shops proposed by See also:Sir See also:Humphrey Mackworth .

In 1705 appeared The Consolidator, or See also:

Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the See also:World in the See also:Moon, a political satire which is supposed to have given some hints for See also:Swift's Gulliver's Travels; and at the end of the year Defoe performed a See also:secret See also:mission, the first of several of the kind, for Harley . In 1706 appeared the True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs Veal, long supposed to have been written for a bookseller to help off an unsaleable See also:translation of Drelincourt,•On Death, but considerable doubt has been See also:cast upon this by William See also:Lee . Defoe's next work was Jure diving, a long poetical argument in (See also:bad) verse; and soon afterwards (1706) he began to be much employed in promoting the See also:union with See also:Scotland . Not only did he write pamphlets as usual on the project, and vigorously recommend it in The Review, but in See also:October 1706 he was sent on a political mission to Scotland by See also:Sidney See also:Godolphin, to whom Harley had recommended him . He resided in See also:Edinburgh for nearly sixteen months, and his services to the government were repaid by a See also:regular See also:salary . He seems to have devoted himself to commercial and See also:literary as well as to political matters, and prepared at this time his elaborate See also:History of the Union, which appeared in 1709 . In this year See also:Henry See also:Sacheverell delivered his famous sermons, and Defoe wrote several tracts about them and attacked the preacher in his Review . In 1710 Harley returned to power, and Defoe was placed in a somewhat awkward position . To Harley himself he was See also:bound by gratitude and by a substantial agreement in principle, but with the See also:rest of the Tory See also:ministry he had no sympathy . He seems, in fact, to have agreed with the See also:foreign policy of the Tories and with the See also:home policy of the Whigs, and naturally incurred the reproach of time-serving and the hearty abuse of both parties . At the end of 1710 he again visited Scotland . In the negotiations concerning the See also:Peace of See also:Utrecht, Defoe strongly supported the ministerial side, to the intense wrath of the Whigs, displayed in an attempted See also:prosecution against some pamphlets of his on the all-important question of the See also:succession .

Again the influence of Harley saved him . He continued, however, to take the side of the dissenters in the questions affecting religious liberty, which played such a prominent part towards the See also:

close of Anne's reign . He naturally shared Harley's downfall; and, though the loss of his salary might seem a poor reward for his See also:constant support oL the Hanoverian claim, it was little more than his ambiguous, not to say trimming, position must have led him to expect . Defoe declared that See also:Lord Annesley was preparing the army in . See also:Ireland to join a Jacobite See also:rebellion, and was indicted for See also:libel; and See also:prior to his trial (1715) he published an apologia entitled An See also:Appeal to See also:Honour and See also:Justice, in which he defended his political conduct . Having been convicted of the libel he was liberated later in the year under circumstances that only became clear in 1864, when six letters were discovered in the See also:Record Office from Defoe to a Government See also:official, Charles Delafaye, which, according to William Lee, established the fact that in 1718 at least Defoe was doing not only political work, but that it was of a somewhat equivocal kind—that he was, in fact, sub-editing the Jacobite Mist's See also:Journal, under a secret agreement with the government that he should See also:tone down the sentiments and omit objectionable items . He had, in fact, been released on See also:condition of becoming a government See also:agent . He seems to have performed the same not very See also:honourable office in the case of two other See also:journals—See also:Dormer's See also:Letter and the Mercurius Politicus; and to have written in these and other papers until nearly the end of his life . Before these letters were discovered it was supposed that Defoe's political work had ended in 1715 . Up to that time Defoe had written nothing but occasional literature, and, except the History of the Union and Jure Divino, nothing of any great length . In 1715 appeared the first See also:volume of The Family Instructor, which was very popular during the 18th See also:century . The first volume of his most famous work, the immortal See also:story—partly See also:adventure, partly moralizing—of The Life and See also:Strange Surprising Adventures of See also:Robinson Crusoe, was published on the 25th of See also:April 1719 .

It ran through four See also:

editions in as many months, and then in August appeared the second volume . Twelve months afterwards the sequel Serious Reflections, now hardly ever reprinted, appeared . Its connexion with the two former parts is little more than nominal, Crusoe being simply made the mouth-piece of Defoe's sentiments on various points of morals and See also:religion . Meanwhile the first two parts were reprinted as a See also:feuilleton in See also:Heathcote's Intelligencer, perhaps the earliest instance of the See also:appearance of such a work in such a See also:form . The story was founded on Dempier's Voyage See also:round the World (1697), and still more on See also:Alexander See also:Selkirk's adventures, as communicated by Selkirk himself at a See also:meeting with Defoe at the house of Mrs Damaris Daniel at See also:Bristol . Selkirk afterwards told Mrs Daniel that he had handed over his papers to Defoe . Robinson Crusoe was immediately popular, and a See also:wild story was set afloat of its having been written by Lord See also:Oxford in the See also:Tower . A curious See also:idea, at one time revived by Henry See also:Kingsley, is that the adventures of Robinson are allegorical and relate to Defoe's own life . , This idea was certainly entertained to some extent at the time, and derives some See also:colour of See also:justification from words of Defoe's, but there seems to be no serious See also:foundation for it . Robinson Crusoe (especially the story part, with the philosophical and religious moralizings largely cut out) is one of the world's See also:classics in fiction . Crusoe's shipwreck and adventures, his finding the footprint in the See also:sand, his man " See also:Friday,"—the whole See also:atmosphere of See also:romance which surrounds the position of the civilized man fending for himself on a See also:desert See also:island—these have made Defoe's great work an imperishable part of English literature . Contemporaneously appeared The Dumb Philosopher; or Dickory Cronke, who gains the power of speech at the end of his life and uses it to predict the course of See also:European affairs .

In 1720 came The Life and Adventures of Mr See also:

Duncan See also:Campbell . This was not entirely a work of See also:imagination, its See also:hero, the See also:fortune-See also:teller, being a real person . There are amusing passages in the story, but it is too desultory to See also:rank with Defoe's best . In the same year appeared two wholly or partially fictitious histories, each of which might have made a reputation for any man . The first was the Memoirs of a See also:Cavalier, which Lord See also:Chatham believed to be true history, and which William Lee considers the embodiment at least of See also:authentic private memoirs . The Cavalier was declared at the time to be See also:Andrew See also:Newport, made Lord Newport in 1642 . His See also:elder See also:brother was born in 162o and the Cavalier gives 16o8 as the date of his birth, so that the facts do not See also:fit the See also:dates . It is probable that Defoe, with his extensive acquaintance with English history, and his astonishing power of working up details, was fully equal to the task of inventing it . As a See also:model of See also:historical work of a certain kind it is hardly surpassable, and many See also:separate passages—accounts of battles and skirmishes—have See also:lever been equalled except by See also:Carlyle . See also:Captain Singleton, the last work of the year, has been unjustly depreciated by most of the commentators . The record of the See also:journey across See also:Africa, with its surprising anticipations of subsequent discoveries, yields in See also:interest to no work of the kind known to us; and the semi-piratical Quaker who accompanies Singleton in his buccaneering expeditions is a most life-like character . There is also a Quaker who plays a very creditable part in See also:Roxana (1724), and Defoe seems to have been well affected to the Friends .

In estimating this wonderful productiveness on the part of a man sixty years old, it should be remembered that it was a See also:

habit of Defoe's to keep his work in See also:manuscript sometimes for long periods . In 1721 nothing of importance was produced, but in the next twelvemonth three See also:capital works appeared . These were The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll See also:Flanders, The Journal of the See also:Plague Year, and The History of See also: