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| Biography: Joseph Addison |
The English essayist and politician Joseph Addison (1672-1719) founded the "Spectator" periodical with Sir Richard Steele.
Joseph Addison was born on May 1, 1672, the son of the rector of Milston, Wiltshire. He was educated at the Charterhouse, an important boarding school, and then at Oxford, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1691.
Addison used poetry to further his political ambitions; his earliest poems include flattering references to influential men. In 1699 Addison was rewarded with a grant of money which allowed him to make the grand tour, a series of visits to the main European capitals, which was a standard part of the education of the 18th-century gentleman. One record of his travels is his long poem Letter from Italy.
In 1703 Addison returned to England to find that the Whigs, the party with which he had allied himself, were out of power. But his poem on the Battle of Blenheim won him an appointment as commissioner of appeal in excise. Addison continued to combine literary with political success. He was elected to parliament in 1707, and in 1709 he went to Dublin as secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland. In 1710 he founded the Whig Examiner to counter the Tory views of the Examiner, a periodical managed by Jonathan Swift.
In 1709 Addison had begun to write for the Tatler, a magazine edited by his friend Sir Richard Steele; Addison contributed in all 42 essays. The last issue of this periodical was published in January 1711. Two months later, under the joint editorship of Addison and Steele, the first number of the Spectator appeared. Published every day, it ran for 555 numbers (the last issue appeared on Dec. 6, 1712). Although its circulation was small by modern standards, it was read by many important people and exercised a wide influence. Addison and Steele wrote 90 percent of the essays. Their purpose was, in their words, to bring "Philosophy out of Closets and Libraries, Schools and Colleges, to dwell in Clubs and Assemblies, at Tea-Tables, and in Coffee-Houses." Some of the essays are concerned with literary and philosophical questions; others comment on good manners and bad, life in the country and in the town. Addison and Steele invented characters who represent different types, notably the old-fashioned country gentleman, Sir Roger de Coverley.
In 1713 Addison wrote Cato: A Tragedy, a play in which he undertook to imitate and to improve upon classical Greek tragedy. The play was a success, probably because some of the audience took it to be a political allegory. Alexander Pope wrote the prologue, and Samuel Johnson later praised the play as Addison's noblest work.
In 1714 Queen Anne died, and Addison shared in the Whigs' rise to power. He was known as a temperate, conciliatory politician. In 1717 he was appointed secretary of state; he retired the next year with a generous pension. Addison died on June 17, 1719.
Further Reading
The best biography of Addison is Peter Smithers, The Life of Joseph Addison (1954; 2d ed. 1968). Addison was much admired by the Victorians, and there is a long biographical essay in Thomas Babington Macaulay, Essays: Critical and Miscellaneous (1843). For a more recent view see Bonamy Dobrée, Essays in Biography, 1680-1726 (1925). An invaluable guide to Addison's intellectual milieu is Alexandre Beljame, Men of Letters and the English Public in the Eighteenth Century: 1660-1744 (1881; 2d ed. 1897; trans. 1948).
Additional Sources
Addison and Steele, the critical heritage, London; Boston:Routledge & K. Paul, 1980.
Otten, Robert M., Joseph Addison, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.
| British History: Joseph Addison |
Addison, Joseph (1672-1719). English writer and politician. Educated at Charterhouse, Queen's College, and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he became a fellow, Addison found favour with the Whigs on account of The Campaign (1705), a poem celebrating Marlborough's victory at Blenheim. Appointed under-secretary of state in 1706, he was elected MP for Lostwithiel in 1708, accompanying the lord-lieutenant, Lord Wharton, to Ireland in 1709. Addison's close friendship with Richard Steele and Jonathan Swift led to his involvement in the Tatler (1709-10), but he is best known for his contributions to the Spectator, which included most of the ‘Sir Roger de Coverley’ papers. Returning to office on the accession of George I in 1714, Addison became secretary of state, marrying the countess of Warwick in 1716.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Joseph Addison |
Bibliography
See biography by P. H. B. O. Smithers (1954, repr. 1968).
| History 1450-1789: Joseph Addison |
Addison, Joseph (1672–1719), English poet, essayist, and critic. Addison helped to elevate the literary status of English prose while holding important political offices for the Whig party. He was born in 1672 at Milston, Wiltshire. His father, the Reverend Launcelot Addison, was the dean of Lichfield, Staffordshire, and Addison attended Lichfield Grammar School and then, in 1686, Charterhouse School in London, where he met Richard Steele. Addison's study of classical poetry and his Latin poems at Queen's College, Oxford, won him a demy (scholarship) in the 1690s to Magdalen College, where he took his M.A. and was a fellow from 1697 to 1711. His classical scholarly knowledge, especially on the Roman idea of citizenship, informs the moral beliefs in his writing.
Addison's passionate interest in and deep knowledge of Roman poetry and history are evident in his early prose works evaluating the best Roman poets, his translations of such poets as Virgil and Ovid (1694 and 1717), and his own highly praised imitations of Latin poets such as Horace. He modeled his own prose style after the formal elegance and familiar diction of Latin poetry, which he praised. After writing a celebratory poem on John Dryden—"To Mr. Dryden"—he wrote an introductory essay on Virgil for Dryden's translation of the Georgics in 1697. Addison's own translations provided English readers with an accessible text through adding explanatory commentaries and replacing obscure allusions with familiar ones. Eight of Addison's Latin poems were included in an anthology he edited at Oxford in 1699, Musarum Anglicarum Analecta (An assembly of English muses).
One poem, "Pax Gulielmi Auspiciis Europae Reddita" (Peace returned to Europe under William's auspices), compliments William III's ability as a monarch and celebrates the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick, which ended the War of the Grand Alliance. A partisan of Protestantism and the Whigs, Addison in his earliest poetry supported the Protestant succession of William of Orange and Mary. "Poem to his Majesty" was dedicated to John Somers, an important Whig, and "William's Peace" was dedicated to Charles Montagu, Lord Halifax, the Whig treasurer. Montagu became Addison's patron and secured him a pension of £200 to undertake a grand tour on the Continent between 1699 and 1704. Addison toured several countries and studied French neoclassical literary theorists; his itinerary, particularly to places of classical literary interest, is recorded in Remarks upon Several Parts of Italy, published in 1705.
Addison's eulogy on John Churchill, duke of Marlborough's victory over the French at Blenheim in his poem "The Campaign" in 1704 secured him a position as excise commissioner of appeals and brought him increasing popularity. His involvement with the Kit-Kat Club, a political and literary society for Whig writers and politicians, renewed his friendship with Steele, and he contributed to Steele's play The Tender Husband (1705). Commissioned to write an English opera to counter the trend for Italian opera, he produced the unsuccessful Rosamond in 1707. Meanwhile, the status of his politically administrative appointments increased because of his anti-Jacobite pamphlets such as "The Present State of the War." He became a prominent spokesman for the Whigs, progressing from undersecretary of state to Charles Spencer, earl of Sunderland, in 1706 to chief secretary to the earl of Wharton, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in 1709.
Assisting Steele in his editorship of the London Gazette in 1708, Addison then wrote forty-nine issues of The Tatler, the successful periodical established by Steele, moving between England and Ireland in 1709 and 1710. His essays focus on the classics, character types, and natural religion and oscillate between a witty, humorous tone and a moral seriousness, making reference to classical antecedents. His support of Whig policies continued with his writing five issues of the Whig Examiner during the elections of 1710, and becoming member of Parliament for Malmesbury, Wiltshire. Addison's essays in The Spectator, which appeared six days a week from March 1711 to December 1712, established his reputation for popularizing literary theory and new philosophies in a carefully poised, accessible, and sustained format. He wrote a series of essays on English tragedy, on the opera, on John Milton's poem Paradise Lost, and on the imagination, all designed to enlighten and improve the common reader. Addison later revived The Spectator briefly to support George I.
In 1713, his tragedy Cato ran for thirty nights at Drury Lane Theatre. A story of the struggle of a Roman republican, the play's political overtones ensured its success. It was praised by Voltaire as the first English "rational tragedy" and translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin. Awaiting the accession of Prince George of Hanover, Addison was appointed secretary of the Regency in 1714. He published the periodical The Freeholder, or Political Essays (1715–1716) supporting George I during the Jacobite rebellion. His most prestigious political appointment was secretary of state in 1717. His last play, the comedy The Drummer, in 1716, was a failure. The same year he married the Countess of Warwick and lived in Holland House in London. Along with his increasing ill health, Addison quarreled with former friends such as Alexander Pope, over a rival translation of the Iliad, and Richard Steele, over the restriction of hereditary peers in the peerage bill. Addison died, estranged from Steele, on 17 June 1719.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Addison, Joseph. Cato. Edited by William Alan Landes. London, 1996.
——. The Commerce of Everyday Life: Selections from "The Tatler" and "The Spectator." Edited by Erin Mackie. London, 1997.
——. The Freeholder. Edited by James Lehemy. Oxford, 1980.
——. The Spectator. Edited by Donald F. Bond. 5 vols. Oxford, 1965.
Secondary Sources
Bloom, Edward A., and Lillian D. Bloom. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele: The Critical Heritage. New York, 1995. A useful survey of the history of criticism and influence of Addison and Steele on English prose writers.
Maurer, Shawn Lisa. Proposing Men: Dialectics of Gender and Class in the Eighteenth Century English Periodical. Stanford, 1998. Examines the role of periodical publications like The Spectator, The Tatler, and others in constructing the domestic realm as an arena of masculine control.
Otten, Robert M. Joseph Addison. Boston, 1982. A useful introduction.
Smithers, Peter. The Life of Joseph Addison. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1968. The only complete biography of Addison to date.
—MAX FINCHER
| Quotes By: Joseph Addison |
Quotes:
"I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair."
"He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young."
"There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress."
"Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most severe reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding-places in a voluminous writer."
"Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm."
"What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to an human soul."
See more famous quotes by
Joseph Addison
| Wikipedia: Joseph Addison |
Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine.
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Addison was born in Milston, Wiltshire, but soon after his birth his father, Lancelot Addison, was appointed Dean of Lichfield and the Addison family moved into the Cathedral Close. He was educated at Lambertown University and Charterhouse School, where he first met Richard Steele, and at The Queen's College, Oxford. He excelled in classics, being specially noted for his Latin verse, and became a Fellow of Magdalen College. In 1693, he addressed a poem to John Dryden, and his first major work, a book about the lives of English poets, was published in 1694. His translation of Virgil's Georgics was published the same year. Dryden, Lord Somers and Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax took an interest in Addison's work and obtained for him a pension of £300 to enable him travel to Europe with a view to diplomatic employment, all the time writing and studying politics. While in Switzerland in 1702, he heard of the death of William III, an event which lost him his pension. (This was because his influential contacts, Halifax and Somers, had lost their employment with the Crown.)
He returned to England at the end of 1703. For a short time his circumstances were somewhat straitened, but the Battle of Blenheim in 1704 gave him a fresh opportunity of distinguishing himself. The government commissioned Addison to write a commemorative poem, and he produced The Campaign, which gave such satisfaction that he was forthwith appointed a Commissioner of Appeals in Halifax's government. His next literary venture was an account of his travels in Italy, which was followed by an opera libretto titled Rosamund. In 1705, with the Whigs in political power, Addison was made Under-Secretary of State and accompanied Halifax on a mission to Hanover. From 1708 to 1709 he was MP for the rotten borough of Lostwithiel. Addison was shortly afterwards appointed secretary to the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Wharton, and Keeper of the Records of that country. Under the influence of Wharton, he was Member of Parliament (MP) in the Irish House of Commons for Cavan Borough from 1709 until 1713. From 1710, he represented Malmesbury, in his home county of Wiltshire, holding the seat until his death.
He encountered Jonathan Swift in Ireland, and remained there for a year. Subsequently, he helped found the Kitcat Club, and renewed his association with Richard Steele. In 1709 Steele began to bring out Tatler, to which Addison became almost immediately a contributor: thereafter he (with Steele) started The Spectator, the first number of which appeared on 1 March 1711. This paper, which at first appeared daily, was kept up (with a break of about a year and a half when the Guardian took its place) until 20 December 1714. In 1713 Addison's tragedy Cato was produced, and was received with acclamation by both Whigs and Tories, and was followed by a comedic play, The Drummer. His last undertaking was The Freeholder, a party paper (1715-16).
The later events in the life of Addison did not contribute to his happiness. In 1716, he married the Dowager Countess of Warwick to whose son he had been tutor, and his political career continued to flourish, as he served Secretary of State for the Southern Department from 1717 to 1718. However, his political newspaper, The Freeholder, was much criticised, and Alexander Pope was among those who made him an object of derision, christening him "Atticus". His wife appears to have been arrogant and imperious; his stepson the Earl was a rake and unfriendly to him; while in his public capacity his invincible shyness made him of little use in Parliament. He eventually fell out with Wilson over the Peerage Bill of 1719. In 1718, Addison was forced to resign as secretary of state because of his poor health, but remained an MP until his death at Holland House on 17 June 1719, in his 48th year, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Besides the works above mentioned, he wrote a Dialogue on Medals, and left unfinished a work on the Evidences of Christianity.
In 1712, Addison wrote his most famous work of fiction, a play entitled Cato, a Tragedy. Based on the last days of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, it deals with, inter alia, such themes as individual liberty versus government tyranny, Republicanism versus Monarchism, logic versus emotion and Cato's personal struggle to cleave to his beliefs in the face of death. It has a prologue written by Alexander Pope and an epilogue by Dr. Garth.
The play was a success throughout England and her possessions in the New World, as well as Ireland. It continued to grow in popularity, especially in the American colonies, for several generations. Indeed, it was almost certainly a literary inspiration for the American Revolution, being well known to many of the Founding Fathers. In fact, George Washington had it performed for the Continental Army while they were encamped at Valley Forge.
Some scholars[who?] believe that the source of several famous quotations from the American Revolution came from, or were inspired by, Cato. These include:
Not long after the American Revolution, Edmund Burke quotes the play as well in his Letter to Charles-Jean-Francois Depont (1789) in Further Reflections on the Revolution in France: "The French may be yet to go through more transmigrations. They may pass, as one of our poets says, 'through many varieties of untried being,' before their state obtains its final form." The poet in reference is of course Addison and the passage Burke quoted is from Cato (V.i. II): "Through what variety of untried being,/Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!"
Though the play has fallen considerably from popularity and is now rarely performed, it was widely popular and often cited in the eighteenth century, with Cato as an exemplar of republican virtue and liberty. For example, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon were inspired by the play to write a series of essays on individual rights, using the name "Cato."
The action of the play involves the forces of Cato at Utica, awaiting the arrival of Caesar just after Caesar's victory at Thapsus (46 B.C.). The noble sons of Cato, Portius and Marcus, are both in love with Lucia, the daughter of Lucius, a senatorial ally of Cato. Juba, prince of Numidia, another fighting on Cato's side, loves Cato's daughter Marcia. Meanwhile, Sempronius, another senator, and Syphax, general of the Numidians, are conspiring secretly against Cato, hoping to draw off the Numidian army from supporting him. In the final act, Cato commits suicide, leaving his supporters to make their peace with the approaching Caesar--an easier task after Cato's death, since he has been Caesar's most implacable foe.
Joseph Addison begin his literary career by writing poems which were quite popular during his age. Then he started writing political pamphlets but they were not impressive. Additionally, he wrote plays. His plays, however, have no lasting quality about them. It is only as an essayist that Addison is chiefly remembered today. Addison began writing essays quite casually. In April 1709, his childhood friend, Richard Steele, started The Tatler. Addison inspired him to write this essay. Addision contributed 42 essays while Steele wrote 188. Of Addison's help, Steele remarked, "When I had once called him in I could not subsist without dependence on him". On January 2, 1711, The Tatler was discontinued. On March 1, 1712, The Spectator was published, and it continued until December 6, 1712. The Spectator which was issued daily and achieved great popularity. It exercised a great deal of influence over the reading public of the time. In The Spectator, Addison soon became the leading partner. He contributed 274 essays out a total of 555; Steele wrote 236 for this periodical. Addison also assisted Steele with the Guardian which Steele began in 1713.
In 2005 an Austrian banker and collector named Albin Schram died and, in his laundry room, a collection of around 1000 letters from great historical figures was found.
One was written by Joseph Addison, reporting on the debate in the House of Commons over the grant to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and his heirs, following the Battle of Ramillies. The letter was written on the day of the debate, probably to George Stepney.
Addison explains that the motion was opposed by Mr Annesley, Ward, Caesar and Sir William Vevian, 'One said that this was showing no honour to His Grace but to a posterity that he was not concern'd in. Casar ... hoped ye Duke tho he had ben Victorious over the Enemy would not think of being so over a House of Commons: wch was said in pursuance to a Motion made by some of the Craftier sort that would not oppose the proposition directly but turn it off by a Side-Wind pretending that it being a money affaire it should be refer'd to a Committee of the whole House wch in all probability would have defeated the whole affaire...'.
Following the Duke of Marlborough's highly successful campaigns of 1706, he and George Stepney became the first English regents of the Anglo-Dutch condominium for governing the southern Netherlands. It was Stepney who formally took possession of the principality of Mindelheim in Marlborough's name on 26 May, following the Battle of Ramillies. On Marlborough's return to London in November, Parliament granted his request that his grant of £5,000 'out of ye Post-Office' be made in perpetuity for his heirs. [1]
A second letter to his friend Sir Richard Steele was also found, concerning the Tatler and other matters.
'I very much liked your last paper upon the Courtship that is usually paid to the fair sex. I wish you had reserved the Letter in this days paper concerning Indecencies at Church for an entire piece. It wd have made as good a one as any you have published. Your Reflections upon Almanza are very good.' The letter concludes with references to impeachment proceedings against Addison's friend, Henry Sacheverell ('I am much obliged to you for yor Letters relating to Sackeverell'), and the Light House petition: 'I am something troubled that you have not sent away ye Letters received from Ireland to my Lord Lieutenant, particularly that from Mr Forster [the Attorney General] with the Enclosed petition about the Light House, wch I hope will be delivered to the House before my Return'.
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| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by George Dodington |
Chief Secretary for Ireland 1708–1710 |
Succeeded by Edward Southwell |
| Preceded by Sir John Stanley |
Chief Secretary for Ireland 1714–1715 |
Succeeded by Martin Bladen Charles Delafaye |
| Preceded by Paul Methuen |
Secretary of State for the Southern Department 1717–1718 |
Succeeded by James Craggs the Younger |
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
| Preceded by Russell Robartes James Kendall |
Member of Parliament for Lostwithiel with James Kendall 1708 – 1709 |
Succeeded by Francis Robartes Russell Robartes |
| Preceded by Thomas Farrington Henry Mordaunt |
Member of Parliament for Malmesbury with Thomas Farrington 1710–1713 Sir John Rushout, Bt 1713–1719 1710 – 1719 |
Succeeded by Sir John Rushout, Bt Fleetwood Dormer |
| Parliament of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by Thomas Ashe Robert Saunders |
Member of Parliament for Cavan Borough with Thomas Ashe 1709 – 1713 |
Succeeded by Charles Lambart Theophilus Clements |
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 | English Literature and Language |
| Jacobitism |
| Alexander Pope |
 | Summary of the esssay sir roger at church by joseph addison? |
| Sir Roger at the theatre Joseph Addison? |
| Joseph Addison as a critic of contemporary society? |
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| History 1450-1789. Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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