329.* Sir Roger visits Westminster Abbey 335.* Sir Roger at the Theatre . 343. Transmigration of Souls: a Letter from Pug the 411. The Pleasures of the Imagination 489. The Majesty of the Sea: "How are thy servants 517.* The Death of Sir Roger de Coverley 542. Certain Objections to the Spectator answered. No. 22. Character of a Tory Fox-Hunter. 44. The Tory Fox-Hunter visits London Asterisks indicate the Spectator papers in which Sir Roger de Coverley appears or is INTRODUCTION Joseph Addison was born on May 1, 1672, at Milston, near Amesbury, in Wiltshire. His father, the Reverend Lancelot Addison,1 was at that time rector of Milston. Earlier he had been, during the Commonwealth, a sort of secret chaplain to country families who adhered to the Church of England; and after the Restoration he had been chaplain to the garrisons first of Dunkirk and then of Tangier. He wrote several books, of which the most notable deal with Moorish affairs. He died Dean of Lichfield in 1703. Of Addison's mother, Jane Gulston, little is known beyond the fact that one of her brothers became Bishop of Bristol. In 1686, after several years of country schooling, Addison went for a year to the Charterhouse, where Richard Steele was his fellow-student. In 1687 he went to Oxford, where in various capacities he remained for about twelve years, in 1698 becoming a Fellow of Magdalen College. Meanwhile he had 1 There are biographical notices of Lancelot Addison (1632-1703) in the Dict. Nat. Biog., I, 131-132; Athena Oxonienses, ed. Bliss, IV, 517-519; Biographia Britannica, I, 43-44. His chief works are: West Barbary, or, A Short Narrative of the Revolutions of the Kingdoms of Fez and Morocco, 1671; The Present State of the Jews, 1675; The First State of Mahumedism, 1679; The Life and Death of Mahumed, 1679; The Moors Baffled, being a Discourse concerning Tangier, especially when it was under the Earl of Teviot, 1681. For further bibliographical details, see Watt, Bibliotheca Brit., I, 7 l-n. Lancelot Addison is supposed to be the "learned person" of the Spectator, 600. He is also spoken of in the Tatler, 235 and in Steele's letter prefatory to the second edition of Addison's Drummer. distinguished himself as a writer of Latin verse,' and had published a certain amount of verse in English, mostly laudatory of those in power. In return for this, which was held to prove him a promising candidate for public service, he was granted by the Crown, in 1699, a pension of £300, on which he might travel, to supplement his learned attainments by experience of the world. He remained abroad for some four years, chiefly in France and Italy. The death of William III in 1702 brought to a temporary end the fortunes of the Whig politicians who were Addison's patrons. For the following year he seems to have remained on the Continent in straitened circumstances. While his pension lasted, he had generally travelled like a gentleman, and lived in very good company. The change in his fortunes, while seriously limiting his means, seems to have affected neither his habits nor his temper. In 1704 he returned to England. He was immediately elected to the celebrated Kit Cat Club,2 a select little body of clever Whigs, where men of all ranks met on equal terms. On August 2, 1704, Marlborough won the battle of Blenheim. The government wished a poem in celebration of this victory. At the suggestion of Lord Halifax, who was a constant friend of Addison, the Chancellor of the Exchequer personally called on the poet in his very plain lodgings, with a request that he undertake the literary work in question. The result of this invitation was The Campaign, which made Addison's political fortune. From that time forth, when the Whigs were in power, he had pretty much what places he wanted; and when they were out he seems to have been provided with money enough to live, on the whole, as he pleased. He was an Under-Secretary of State for a time; he was in Parliament; he was Chief Secretary to the Marquis of Wharton, 1 For Addison's verse before 1698, Latin and English, see Bibliog raphy, pp. xlv-xlvii. 2 See Notes, p. 116, 1. 6. "'! 1 |