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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
Addison, Joseph. A celebrated English essayist and poet; born at Milston, Wiltshire, May 1, 1672; died in London, June 17, 1719. He was educated at Oxford. He was Under-secretary of State in 1706, and in 1709 secretary to Wharton, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, where he formed a friendship with Swift. In 1716 he married the Countess of Warwick; in 1717 was appointed Secretary of State, but resigned in 1718. He wrote 41 original papers in the Tatler, and 34 with Steele; 274 in the Spectator; 51 essays in the Guardian, which succeeded the Spectator; 24 to a revived Spectator, and 2 to Steele’s ‘Lover.’ His tragedy ‘Cato’ was acted at Drury Lane in 1713; although it is weak and incongruous, it was greatly admired, partly on account of its political bearings, and variously translated. Besides Latin poems, occasional addresses, and political essays, the following works deserve mention: ‘Letter from Italy,’ a poem (1703); ‘The Campaign’ (1704). (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).