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JOSEPH ADDISON IN HIS MATURITY
from a portrait signed and dated by Kneller in 1716
In the possession of Captain E. G. Spencer-Churchill at Nor/hmck Park
THE LIFE OF
Joseph Addison
BY
PETER SMITHERS
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1954
Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C. 4
GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON
BOBCAT CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI CAPE TOWN IBADAN
Geoffrey Cnmberlege, Publisher to the University
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
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$24'
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PREFACE
his book is the first full-length biography of Joseph
Addison. Thomas Tickell wrote an authoritative bio
graphical preface to the first edition of Addison’s
Works, published immediately after his death. A Life of
Addison containing much detailed information was pub
lished by T. Birch in volume i of the General Dictionary,
1733, and upon this most later writing was founded. John
son wrote a forceful account of Addison’s life and work for
the Lives of the Poets, published in 1781. Miss Lucy Aiken
published a short ‘life’ in 1843, in which she printed some
of Addison’s letters. Her work was criticized in July of the
same year by Macaulay in the 'Edinburgh Review, in an ‘essay’
which is one of his most famous and brilliant compositions.
Many other men and women have written about Addison;
but in spite of the importance which his personality had
acquired in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, no
attempt was made to supply the need for a full biography.
This was because of the difficulty of the subject. Addison
abhorred irrelevant self-revelation by authors,1 and was
meticulous in his own avoidance thereof. Partly for this
reason and partly because of his reticence in human rela
tionships, a scholar who studied his work only eighty years
after his death was forced to admit that:
Of the manners and habits of the man who filled so large a space
in the public eye and who contributed so much to the improve
ment of our literature and morals, it is to be lamented that little
satisfactory can now be told.2
In 1941 Professor Walter Graham published a substantial
edition of Addison’s letters. Before that date the only avail
able text of the correspondence was that of Henry Bohn
which appeared in 1854-6. The surviving letters though
considerable in number are lacking in material of direct
biographical interest. Not a single letter exchanged between
1 Spectator, No. 562.
2 N. Drake, Essays Illustrative of the Tatler, Spectator and Guardian, 1805,
i. 425.
vi PREFACE
Addison and his father, his wife, or his brothers is preserved,
and those to friends about personal matters are few. The
reticence and self-criticism which was such a remarkable
feature of his character have apparently served to conceal
from posterity all but the barest details of his daily life, both
because he did not readily permit himself to write self-
revelatory correspondence, and because he, or his widow
or daughter by his instruction, was careful to destroy his
papers. If there is any ‘black box’ containing the key to
Addison’s private life waiting for discovery, it has so far
eluded the search.
Of the Works there is no definitive edition, no readily
readable modern edition, and no reasonably complete early
edition. They were first collected and published (by Tickell)
in 1721, two years after Addison’s death, in four volumes
quarto. Baskerville produced a somewhat similar text in an
elegant format. There were many reprints and new editions.
In 1854-6 Bohn published one with the letters, containing
Addisoniana, notes, and much new and doubtful material.
This appeared in six small ugly volumes in the diminutive
light-face type of the period. Finally in 1914 A. C. Guthkelch
published two volumes of Miscellaneous Works, but did not
live to complete a larger project. There have been innumer
able reprints of single works, editions of periodicals to which
Addison was a contributor, and collections and selections
of particular material. A tentative bibliography appears in
vol. ii of the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature.
The study of Addison has suffered in the past from pre
occupation with his literary work. The circle of wits in the
coffee-house, their writings, their friendships and their
quarrels, which made up so large a part of the lives of many
of them, are of secondary significance in Addison’s career.
He was and envisaged himself as an important figure in the
administrative and political life of England, and he held
posts for which the aristocratic and wealthy competed
fiercely. So fully rounded was his view of life that literary
output became a by-product, though a very important one,
of a life well lived. The present work, therefore, in following
as closely as possible the materials available, has laid stress
upon Addison’s political and administrative career. His
PREFACE vii
literary achievement, by which he will always be remem
bered, cannot be understood except in the light of his own
purposes.
Addison was a reformer in his daily actions, and his pur
poses are expressed in minute detail in his writings. The
internal evidence which they provide, when applied to the
framework of dates and facts which can be assembled from
official and private documents, is the best material for his
biography. It may be thought that such works as the
Spectator have been given undue weight by the present
writer as evidence of Addison’s views both before and
after the time of their publication. But the striking consis
tency of his life and the steadfastness with which he adhered
to his opinions throughout his career, as well as the freedom
with which he used material long by him, justify some
latitude in this respect. The limitations of space have made
it impossible to do more than sketch in the barest historical
background, or to deal exhaustively with Addison’s admini
stration in Ireland and as Secretary of State in England. In
the last two respects drastic pruning of the manuscript has
taken place. For similar reasons all explanatory references
to persons have been omitted where they would not be
required by those acquainted with the period.
This book was begun in 1938, and since that date the
author has received help from many scholars. It would be
impossible to thank them all. But to Professor D. Nichol
Smith he is deeply grateful for criticism, encouragement, and
for innumerable corrections, offered with a kindness and
modesty equalled only by their authority. The memory of
this generous help will be a lasting source of pleasure. To
the late Professor Walter Graham, to Miss Rae Blanchard,
to Mr. Willard Connely, and to Professor A. L. Cooke, he
must also declare a special obligation. The author also offers
his thanks to the authorities of the Public Record Office,
the British Museum, the Bodleian, the Quai d’Orsay, and
other public collections mentioned in the footnotes for the
help which he has received; and he must record a special
indebtedness to the Duke of Marlborough for access to the
collection of manuscripts at Blenheim.
Looking back over fourteen years during which he has
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viii PREFACE
lived with Addison as his constant companion, it is not
perhaps irrelevant if the author records his feelings towards
his subject. They are those of deep admiration for a man I
who set himself a noble pattern of life in youth, and who, in
spite of defects of character which he mastered, lived and
died consistently therein. That such a man was possessed of
literary ability of the highest order, is the good fortune of
posterity. That so many details of his life are apparently lost
for ever, is our misfortune.
P. s.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
2 5 J11!? 1952
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CONTENTS
LIST OF PLATES X
A NOTE UPON REFERENCES TO SOURCES Xi
ABBREVIATIONS xii
I. A SON OF THE CHURCH I
II. AN OXFORD CAREER II
III. A GRAND TOUR 44
IV. THE COCKPIT 89
V. IRISH EMINENCE M3
VI. A SPECTATOR IN THE WILDERNESS 192
VII. CATO IN THE WILDERNESS 246
VIII. A YEAR OF BITTERNESS 285
IX. A FORTY SHILLING FREEHOLDER 328
X. AMBITION FULFILLED 364
XI. A RAPID DECLINE 416
XII. A LIFE AFTER DEATH 451
INDEX 457
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I LIST OF PLATES
Joseph addison in his maturity: from a portrait
signed and dated by Kneller in 1716, and in the posses
sion of Captain E. G. Spencer-Churchill at Northwick
Park. Frontispiece
Joseph addison as A young man, by W. Sonmans.
Probably painted at Oxford previous to the year 1700,
and in the possession of Viscount Devonport. Facing page 46
il a letter from addison to swift dated 29th Feb
ruary 1708. British Museum, Add. MS. 4804, f. 3. » » 193
I
charlotte myddelton of chirk, by Van der
Mijn, in the possession of Colonel R. Myddelton at Chirk
Castle. >> » 552
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A NOTE UPON REFERENCES
TO SOURCES
The number of references in the original draft of this book
proved to be intolerable. Many have been struck out and the
following further measures have been taken to disencumber
the text, inevitably at some inconvenience to those who may
use it:
1. The Tetters of Joseph Addison, ed. Walter Graham, Oxford, Clarendon
Press, 1941. Quotations from and references to this work are so
abundant and so easy to locate that no reference is given.
2. The Correspondence of Richard Steele, ed. Rae Blanchard, Oxford Uni
versity Press, 1941. The foregoing principle has also been applied
to quotations from this source.
3. Quotations from Addison’s Works. Bohn’s edition is not definitive
or satisfactory, and most scholars will prefer to work with the best
available texts of individual works until a new collected edition is
produced. It has therefore been the author’s endeavour to identify
quotations by references which could be used in conjunction with
any text. Thus, references to Cato are to the act and scene and in
the periodicals to the number of the paper.
4. Quotations stated to be from Johnson or Macaulay and given with
out reference are from Johnson’s ‘Life’ of Addison in the Lives of
the Poets and Macaulay’s ‘Life and Writings of Addison’ in the
Edinburgh Review of July 1843, published in his Miscellaneous Works.
5. Information about proceedings in Parliament given without ref
erence is from the Journals of the House of Commons or of the Irish
House of Commons, or the House of Lords, all of which are printed
chronologically with full indexes.
6. In Chapter III quotations without reference, which are not from the
Addison correspondence, are from the appropriate portion of
Addison’s Remarks upon Several Parts of Italy <&c., where they are
easily located. In Chapters VI and VII quotations without reference
from Swift are from the Journal to Stella.
