Write the introduction to Joseph Addison.

Ans.

Joseph Addison was born in 1672 in a Wiltshire Rectory. His father was a clergyman. He was educated at Charterhouse and Oxford. There he earned fame. He was known at first as a poet. In 1699 he obtained a pension of £ 300 a year on which he travelled abroad and fit himself for diplomatic work. On returning to England he gradually rose to the high office. In 1705, he became Commissioner of Excise. Later on he was elected to the Parliament He died in 1719.

Joseph Addison was famous in his days as a poet and a dramatist, but to the readers of the succeeding generations he has appealed as an essayist rather than as a poet or a dramatist. During his own times Addison won an unrivalled position as a poet by ‘The Campaign’ (1704) in which he eulogised Marlborough and pictured him on a scale of epic grandeur. The most famous passage of the work is that in which he compares the General to the angel that rides the storm. For this work Addison got the valuable appointment of Commissioner of Appeals. Similarly Addison’s ‘Cato’ produced in 1713, won for him a place among the dramatists of the age. But to the readers of the present generation ‘Cato’ has little merit, and shows that Addison, whatever his other qualities may be, is no dramatist. The tragedy of Cato is written in laborious blank verse in which wooden characters indulge in dull speeches. Addison also attempted an opera Rosamond” (1707). which was a failure.

His Works

(1) The Campaign (1704). It is a poem on the Battle of Blenheim.

(2) The Spectator (1711-14). It is a periodical. In it Addison printed his best work. In the pages of the Spectator, with Steele and others he contributed a lot to the essays. As a periodical essayist Addison wanted to place a picture of society. He also intended to indulge in some social reforms through the essays published in The Spectator.

(3) Cato: A Tragedy (1713). It is a dull and pompous play.

(4) Tatler (1709). Addison was the founder of Tatler. Both the Tatler and “Spectator’ had a very short life of only two years.