( 119 ) ADDISON. 1672-1719. Born at Milston, in Wiltshire Educated at the Charter-house and State Marries the Countess of Warwick Origin of JOSEPH ADDISON was born on the 1st of May, 1672, at Milston, of which his father, Lancelot Addison, was then rector, near Ambrosebury in Wiltshire, and appearing weak and unlikely to live, he was christened the same day. After the usual domestic education, which, from the character of his father, may be reasonably supposed to have given him strong impressions of piety, he was committed to the care of Mr. Naish at Ambrosebury, and afterwards of Mr. Taylor at Salisbury. Not to name the school or the masters of men illustrious for literature, is a kind of historical fraud, by which honest fame is injuriously diminished: I would therefore trace him through the whole process of his education. In 1683, in the beginning of his twelfth year, his father, being made Dean of Lichfield, naturally carried his family to his new residence, and, I believe, placed him for some time, probably not long, under Mr. Shaw, then master of the school at Lichfield, father of the late Dr. Peter Shaw. Of this interval his biographers have given no account, and I know it only from a story of a barring-out, told me, when I was a boy, by Andrew Corbet of Shropshire,' who had heard it from Mr. Pigot, his uncle. The practice of barring-out was a savage licence, practised in many schools to the end of the last century, by which the boys, when the periodical vacation drew near, growing petulant at the approach of liberty, some days before the time of regular recess, took possession of the school, of which they barred the doors, and bade their master defiance from the windows. It is not easy to suppose that on such occasions the master would do more than laugh; yet, if tradition may be credited, he often struggled hard to force or surprise the garrison. The master, when Pigot was a school-boy, was barred-out at Lichfield; and the whole operation, as he said, was planned and conducted by Addison.2 To judge better of the probability of this story, I have inquired when he was sent to the Chartreux; but, as he was not one of those who enjoyed the founder's benefaction, there is no account preserved of his admission. At the school of the Chartreux, to which he was removed either from that of Salisbury or Lichfield, he pursued his juvenile studies under the care of Dr. Ellis, and contracted that intimacy with Sir Richard Steele which their joint labours have so effectually recorded. Of this memorable friendship the greater praise must be given to Steele. It is not hard to love those from whom nothing can be feared, and Addison never considered Steele as a rival; but Steele lived, as he confesses, under an habitual subjection to the predominating genius of Addison, whom he always mentioned with reverence, and treated with obsequiousness. 3 Addison, who knew his own dignity, could not always forbear to show it, by playing a little upon his admirer; but he was in no danger of retort: his jests were endured without resistance or resentment. Andrew Corbet was at school with Johnson, and was his fellow-student at Pembroke College, Oxford.-Boswell by Croker, p. 12. 2 If these stories be true, it would be curious to know by what moral discipline so mutinous and enterprising a lad was transformed into the gentlest and most modest of men.-MACAULAY: Essay on Addison. Essays, 1 vol. ed., p. 683. 9 Spence.-JOHNSON. Spence by Singer, p. 197. 1672-1719. STEELE AND ADDISON. 121 But the sneer of jocularity was not the worst. Steele, whose imprudence of generosity, or vanity of profusion, kept him always incurably necessitous, upon some pressing exigence, in an evil hour, borrowed a hundred pounds of his friend, probably without much purpose of repayment; but Addison, who seems to have had other notions of a hundred pounds, grew impatient of delay, and reclaimed his loan by an execution. Steele felt with great sensibility the obduracy of his creditor, but with emotions of sorrow rather than of anger.* In 1687 he was entered into Queen's College in Oxford, where, in 1689, the accidental perusal of some Latin verses gained him the patronage of Dr. Lancaster, afterwards provost of Queen's College; by whose recommendation he was elected into Magdalen College as a Demy, a term by which that society denominates those which are elsewhere called Scholars; young men who partake of the founder's benefaction, and succeed in their order to vacant fellowships." March 15th, 1781.-Many persons having doubts concerning this fact, I applied to Dr. Johnson to learn on what authority he asserted it. He told me he had it from Savage, who lived in intimacy with Steele, and who mentioned that Steele told him the story with tears in his eyes. Ben Victor, Johnson said, likewise informed him of this remarkable transaction, from the relation of Mr. Wilks the comedian, who was also an intimate of Steele's. Some, in defence of Addison, here said, that "the act was done with the good-natured view of rousing Steele and correcting that profusion which always made him necessitous." "If that were the case," said Johnson, "and that he only wanted to alarm Steele, he would afterwards have returned the money to his friend, which it is not pretended he did."-MALONE. Boswell by Croker, p. 671. I told him, that in a company where I had lately been (15th April, 1781), a desire was expressed to know his authority for the shocking story of Addison's sending an execution into Steele's house. "Sir," said he, "it is generally known; it is known to all who are acquainted with the literary history of that period: it is as well known as that he wrote 'Cato."--Boswell by Croker, p. 684. Dr. Harrison, in Fielding's 'Amelia,' is represented as the most benevolent of human beings; yet he takes in execution, not only the goods, but the person of his friend Booth. Dr. Harrison resorts to this strong measure because he has been informed that Booth, while pleading poverty as an excuse for not paying just debts, has been buying fine jewellery and setting up a coach. No person who is well acquainted with Steele's life and correspondence can doubt that he behaved quite as ill to Addison as Booth was accused of behaving to Harrison.-MACAULAY's Essays, 1 vol. ed., p. 702. He took the degree of M.A. February 14, 1693. Here he continued to cultivate poetry and criticism, and grew first eminent by his Latin compositions, which are indeed entitled to particular praise. He has not confined himself to the imitation of any ancient author, but has formed his style from the general language, such as a diligent perusal of the productions of different ages happened to supply. His Latin compositions seem to have had much of his fondness, for he collected a second volume of the Musæ Anglicanæ,' perhaps for a convenient receptacle, in which all his Latin pieces are inserted, and where his poem on the Peace has the first place. He afterwards presented the collection to Boileau, who, from that time, "conceived," says Tickell," "an opinion of the English genius for poetry." Nothing is 6 Preface to Addison's Works, 4 vols. 4to. 1721, first ed. ד 7 When I was at Paris I visited ye Pêre Malbranche, who has a particular esteem for yo English Nation, where I believe he has more admirers than in his own. The French dont care for following him through his Deep Researches, and generally look upon all ye new Philosophy as Visionary or Irreligious. Malbranche himself told me that he was five and twenty years old before he had so much as heard of y name of Des Cartes. His book is now reprinted with many Additions, among which he show'd me a very pretty hypothesis of Colours wh is different from that of Cartesius or Mr. Newton, tho they may all three be True. He very much prais'd Mr. Newton's Mathematics, shook his head at y° name of Hobbes, and told me he thought him a pauvre esprit. He was very solicitous about ye English translation of his work, and was afraid it had bin taken from an Ill Edition of it. Among other Learned men I had ye honour to be introduc'd to Mr. Boileau, who is now retouching his works and putting 'em out in a new Impression. He is old and a little Deaf, but talks incomparably well in his own calling. He heartily hates an Ill poet, and throws himself into a passion when he talks of any one that has not a high respect for Homer and Virgil. I don't know whether there is more of old Age or Truth in his Censures on ye French writers, but he wonderfully decrys y present and extols very much his former cotemporarys, especially his two intimate friends Arnaud and Racine. I askt him whether he thought Telemaque was not a good modern piece: he spoke of it with a great deal of esteem, and said that it gave us a better notion of Homer's way of writing y" any translation of his works could do, but that it falls however infinitely short of yo Odyssee, for Mentor, says he, is eternally Preaching, but Ulysses shows us evry thing in his character and behaviour yt yo other is still pressing on us by his precepts and Instructions. He said yo punishment of bad Kings was very well invented, and might compare with any thing of that nature in ye 6th Eneid, and that y deceit put on Telemaque's Pilot to make him misguide his master is more artful and poetical than ye Death of PaliI mention his discourse on this Author because it is at present ye Book y is every where talked of, and has a great many partizans for and nurus. |