<論説>スペクテーターの世界

Abstract

イギリス十八世紀初頭の著名な定期刊行物「スペクテーター」は、当時ジャーナリズムの政治誌中心という風潮に抗し、非政治的な文芸誌を志し、その結果、読老大衆形成の指標とも目される見事な成功を得た。 その成果をめぐり、我々は先ず、名誉革命体制定着こそが同誌の前提であったことを確認し、更に同誌所収の論説の分析を通じて、同誌が、上記体制を地主階級と共に享受しつつあった上層市民階級のイデオロギーを非政治的な形で巧みに表現していたことを論証する。かかる作業によって「スペクテーター」の社会史的意義を把握すると共に、従来、等閑視されていた市民革命後のイギリス社会の知的雰囲気の保守的な動向を示唆する、以上が本稿において意図された問題である。

The object of this article is to make The Spectator's position clear in the society of the Augustan Age. The success of The Spectator as a literary periodical depended on the stability of the Revolution Settlement which was the basis of the modern English constitution. Some papers of The Spectator, indeed, seemed in favor of the old patriarchal agricultural society, but others more in number preferred the rational and industrious trading society. While it seemed to lament the decline of the old regime it expected, in fact, the new one's growth more heartily. The Spectator's social and moral teachings were most fitted for the way of life and the taste of the growing upper middle class, the new governing class, which quarrelled and was reconciled with the landed class, the traditional governing class. The Spectator offered a variety of topics with philosophical embellishment to the people of the new class and delighted and cultivated them. The Spectator is the amiable symbol of the conservative modernization of England, and foreshadows the succeeding stagnation in the intellectual climate.