Daniel
Defoe was born as the son of Alice and James Foe. His father was a City
tradesman and member of the Butchers’ Company. James Foe's stubborn Puritanism -
the Foes were Dissenters, Protestants who did not belong to the Anglican Church
- come occasionally comes through Defoe's writing. He studied at Charles
Morton's Academy, London. Although his Nonconformist father
intended him for the ministry, Defoe plunged into politics and trade, traveling
extensively in Europe.
Unfortunately,
his business ventures failed and left him with large debts, amounting over
seventeen thousand pounds. This burden shadowed the remainder of his life, which
he once summoned:
"In
the School of Affliction I have learnt more Philosophy than at the Academy, and
more Divinity than from the Pulpit: In Prison I have learnt to know that Liberty
does not consist in open Doors, and the free Egress and Regress of Locomotion. I
have seen the rough side of the World as well as the smooth, and have in less
than half a Year tasted the difference between the Closet of a King, and the
Dungeon of Newgate."
Defoe
was involved in Monmouth rebellion in 1685 against James II. While hiding as a
fugitive in a churchyard after the rebellion was put down, he noticed the name
Robinson Crusoe carved on a stone, and later gave it to his famous hero. Defoe
became a supporter of William, joining his army in 1688, and gaining a mercenary
reputation because of his change of allegiance. From 1695 to 1699 he was an
accountant to the commissioners of the glass duty and then associated with a
brick and tile works in Tilbury. The business failed in
1703.
In
1702 Defoe wrote his famous pamphlet THE SHORTEST-WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS.
Himself a Dissenter he mimicked the bloodthirsty rhetoric of High Anglican
Tories and pretended to argue for the extermination of all Dissenters. Nobody
was amused, Defoe was arrested in May 1703, but released in return for services
as a pamphleteer and intelligence agent to Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford,
and the Tories. While in prison Defoe wrote a mock ode, HYMN TO THE PILLORY
(1703). The poem was sold in the streets, the audience drank to his health while
he stood in the pillory and read aloud his verses.
"Actions
receive their tincture from the times,
And
as they change are virtues made of crimes."
(from
'A Hymn to the Pillory')
When
the Tories fell from power, Defoe continued to carry out intelligence work for
the Whig government. In his own days Defoe was regarded as an unscrupulous,
diabolical journalist. In his own days Defoe was regarded as an unscrupulous,
diabolical journalist. Defoe used a number of pen names, including Eye Witness,
T.Taylor, and Andrew Morton, Merchant. His most unusual pen name was
'Heliostrapolis, secretary to the Emperor of the Moon,' used on his political
satire The Consolidator, or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the
World in the Moon (1705). His political writings were widely read and made
him powerful enemies. His most remarkable achievement during Queen Anne's reign
was the periodical A Review of the Affairs of France, and of All Europe (1704-1713). It was published weekly, later
three times a week and resembled a modern newspapers. From 1716 to 1720 Defoe
edited Mercurius Politicus, then the Manufacturer (1720), and the
Director (1720-21). He was contributor from 1715 to periodicals published
by Nathaniel Mist.
After
being close to the Whigs, Defoe moved back to the Tories. In the 1720s Defoe had
ceased to be politically controversial in his writings, and he produced several
historical works, a guide book A TOUR THROUGH THE WHOLE ISLAND OF GREAT BRITAIN
(1724-27, 3 vols.), THE GREAT LAW OF SUBORDINATION CONSIDERED (1724), an
examination of the treatment of servants, and THE COMPLETE ENGLISH TRADESMAN
(1726).Phenomenally industrious, Defoe produced in his last years also works
involving the supernatural, THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE DEVIL (1726) and AN
ESSAY ON THE HISTORY AND REALITY OF APPARITIONS (1727).
He
died on 26 April, 1731, at his lodgings in Ropemaker's Alley,
Moorfields.
