Joseph Addison
born May 1, 1672, Milston,
Wiltshire, England
died June 17, 1719, London
English essayist, poet, and dramatist, who, with
Richard Steele, was a leading contributor to and
guiding spirit of the periodicals The Tatler and
The Spectator. His writing skill led to his
holding important posts in government while the
Whigs were in power.
Early life
Addison was the eldest son of the Reverend
Lancelot Addison, later archdeacon of Coventry
and dean of Lichfield. After schooling in
Amesbury and Salisbury and at Lichfield Grammar
School, he was enrolled at age 14 in the
Charterhouse in London. Here began his lifelong
friendship with Richard Steele, who later became
his literary collaborator. Both went on to the
University of Oxford, where Addison matriculated
at Queen’s College in May 1687. Through
distinction in Latin verse he won election as
Demy (scholar) to Magdalen College in 1689 and
took the degree of M.A. in 1693. He was a fellow
from 1697 to 1711. At Magdalen he spent 10 years
as tutor in preparation for a career as a
scholar and man of letters. In 1695 A Poem to
his Majesty (William III), with a dedication to
Lord Keeper Somers, the influential Whig
statesman, brought favourable notice not only
from Somers but also Charles Montague (later
earl of Halifax), who saw in Addison a writer
whose services were of potential use to the
crown. A treasury grant offered him opportunity
for travel and preparation for government
service. He also attained distinction by
contributing the preface to Virgil’s Georgics,
in John Dryden’s great translation of 1697.
The European tour (1699–1704) enabled Addison
not only to become acquainted with English
diplomats abroad but also to meet contemporary
European men of letters. After time in France,
he spent the year 1701 in leisurely travel in
Italy, during which he wrote the prose Remarks
on Several Parts of Italy (1705; rev. ed. 1718)
and the poetic epistle A Letter from Italy
(1704). From Italy Addison crossed into
Switzerland, where, in Geneva, he learned in
March 1702 of the death of William III and the
consequent loss of power of his two chief
patrons, Somers and Halifax. He then toured
through Austria, the German states, and the
Netherlands before returning to England in 1704.
Government service
In London Addison renewed his friendship
with Somers and Halifax and other members of the
Kit-Cat Club, which was an association of
prominent Whig leaders and literary figures of
the day—among them Steele, William Congreve, and
Sir John Vanbrugh. In August 1704 London was
electrified by the news of the duke of
Marlborough’s sweeping victory over the French
at Blenheim, and Addison was approached by
government leaders to write a poem worthy of the
great occasion. Addison was meanwhile appointed
commissioner of appeals in excise, a sinecure
left vacant by the death of John Locke. The
Campaign, addressed to Marlborough, was
published on December 14 (though dated 1705). By
its rejection of conventional classical imagery
and its effective portrayal of Marlborough’s
military genius, it was an immediate success
that perfectly expressed the nation’s great hour
of victory.
The Whig success in the election of May 1705,
which saw the return of Somers and Halifax to
the Privy Council, brought Addison increased
financial security in an appointment as
undersecretary to the secretary of state, a busy
and lucrative post. Addison’s retention in a
new, more powerful Whig administration in the
autumn of 1706 reflected his further rise in
government service. At this time he began to see
much of Steele, helping him write the play The
Tender Husband (1705). In practical ways Addison
also assisted Steele with substantial loans and
the appointment as editor of the official London
Gazette. In 1708 Addison was elected to
Parliament for Lostwithiel in Cornwall, and
later in the same year he was made secretary to
the earl of Wharton, the new lord lieutenant of
Ireland. Addison’s post was in effect that of
secretary of state for Irish affairs, with a
revenue of some £2,000 a year. He served as
Irish secretary until August 1710.
The Tatler and The Spectator
It was during Addison’s term in Ireland that
his friend Steele began publishing The Tatler,
which appeared three times a week under the
pseudonym of Isaac Bickerstaff. Though at first
issued as a newspaper presenting accounts of
London’s political, social, and cultural news,
this periodical soon began investigating English
manners and society, establishing principles of
ideal behaviour and genteel conduct, and
proposing standards of good taste for the
general public. The first number of The Tatler
appeared on April 12, 1709, while Addison was
still in England; but while still in Ireland he
began contributing to the new periodical. Back
in London in September 1709, he supplied most of
the essays during the winter of 1709–10 before
returning to Ireland in May.
The year 1710 was marked by the overturn of
the Whigs from power and a substantial Tory
victory at the polls. Although Addison easily
retained his seat in the Commons, his old and
powerful patrons were again out of favour, and,
for the first time since his appointment as
undersecretary in 1705, Addison found himself
without employment. He was thus able to devote
even more time to literary activity and to
cultivation of personal friendships not only
with Steele and other Kit-Cats but, for a short
period, with Jonathan Swift—until Swift’s shift
of allegiance to the rising Tory leaders
resulted in estrangement. Addison continued
contributing to the final numbers of The Tatler,
which Steele finally brought to a close on
January 2, 1711. Addison had written more than
40 of The Tatler’s total of 271 numbers and had
collaborated with Steele on another 36 of them.
Thanks to Addison’s help The Tatler was an
undoubted success. By the end of 1710 Steele had
enough material for a collected edition of The
Tatler. Thereupon, he and Addison decided to
make a fresh start with a new periodical. The
Spectator, which appeared six days a week, from
March 1, 1711, to December 6, 1712, offered a
wide range of material to its readers, from
discussion of the latest fashions to serious
disquisitions on criticism and morality,
including Addison’s weekly papers on John
Milton’s Paradise Lost and the series on the
“pleasures of the imagination.” From the start,
Addison was the leading spirit in The
Spectator’s publication, contributing 274
numbers in all. In bringing learning “out of
closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to
dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables,
and in coffee-houses,” The Spectator was
eminently successful. One feature of The
Spectator that deserves particular mention is
its critical essays, in which Addison sought to
elevate public taste. He devoted a considerable
proportion of his essays to literary criticism,
which was to prove influential in the subsequent
development of the English novel. His own gift
for drawing realistic human characters found
brilliant literary expression in the members of
the Spectator Club, in which such figures as
Roger de Coverley, Captain Sentry, Sir Andrew
Freeport, and the Spectator himself represent
important sections of contemporary society. More
than 3,000 copies of The Spectator were
published daily, and the 555 numbers were then
collected into seven volumes. Two years later
(from June 18 to December 20, 1714), Addison
published 80 additional numbers, with the help
of two assistants, and these were later
reprinted as volume eight.
Addison’s other notable literary production
during this period was his tragedy Cato.
Performed at Drury Lane on April 14, 1713, the
play was a resounding success—largely, no doubt,
because of the political overtones that both
parties read into the play. To the Whigs Cato
seemed the resolute defender of liberty against
French tyranny, while the Tories were able to
interpret the domineering Caesar as a kind of
Roman Marlborough whose military victories were
a threat to English liberties. The play enjoyed
an unusual run of 20 performances in April and
May 1713 and continued to be performed
throughout the century.
Later years
With the death of Queen Anne on August 1,
1714, and the accession of George I, Addison’s
political fortunes rose. He was appointed
secretary to the regents (who governed until the
arrival of the new monarch from Hanover) and in
April 1717 was made secretary of state. Ill
health, however, forced him to resign the
following year. Meanwhile, he had married the
dowager countess of Warwick and spent the
remaining years of his life in comparative
affluence at Holland House in Kensington. A
series of political essays, The Free-Holder, or
Political Essays, was published from December
23, 1715, to June 29, 1716, and his comedy The
Drummer was produced at Drury Lane on March 10,
1716.
Meanwhile, Addison had a quarrel with the
most gifted satirist of the age, Alexander Pope,
who after Addison’s death would make him the
subject of one of the most celebrated satiric
“characters” in the English language. In 1715
Pope had been angered by Addison’s support of a
rival translation of the Iliad by Thomas
Tickell, and in 1735 Pope published “An Epistle
to Dr. Arbuthnot,” in which there appears a
notable portrait of Addison as a narcissistic
and envious man of letters. A second quarrel
further embittered Addison; the dispute over a
bill for restricting the peerage, in which he
and Steele took opposing sides, estranged the
two friends during the last year of Addison’s
life. Addison was buried in Westminster Abbey,
near the grave of his old patron and friend Lord
Halifax.
Assessment
Addison’s poem on the Battle of Blenheim
brought him to the attention of Whig leaders and
paved the way to government employment and
literary fame. He became an influential
supporter of the Whigs (who sought to further
the constitutional principles established by the
Glorious Revolution) in a number of government
posts. As a writer, Addison produced one of the
great tragedies of the 18th century in Cato, but
his principal achievement was to bring to
perfection the periodical essay in his journal,
The Spectator. Dr. Samuel Johnson’s praise of
The Spectator as a model of prose style
established Addison as one of the most admired
and influential masters of prose in the
language.
Donald F. Bond
Ed.
