Outlines of English and American Literature Joseph Addison byLong, William J.
In Addison we have a pleasant reflection of the new social life of England.
Select almost any feature of that life, and you shall find some account of
it in the papers of Addison: its party politics in his Whig
Examiner; its "grand tour," as part of a gentleman's education, in his
Remarks on Italy; its adventure on foreign soil in such poems as
"The Campaign"; its new drama of decency in his Cato; its classic
delusions in his Account of the Greatest English Poets; its frills,
fashions and similar matters in his Spectator essays. He tried
almost every type of literature, from hymns to librettos, and in each he
succeeded well enough to be loudly applauded. In his own day he was
accounted a master poet, but now he is remembered as a writer of prose
essays.
Life
Addison's career offers an interesting contrast to that of
Swift, who lived in the same age. He was the son of an English
clergyman, settled in the deanery of Lichfield, and his early
training left upon him the stamp of good taste and good breeding.
In school he was always the model boy; in Oxford he wrote Latin
verses on safe subjects, in the approved fashion; in politics he
was content to "oil the machine" as he found it; in society he was
shy and silent (though naturally a brilliant talker) because he
feared to make some slip which might mar his prospects or the
dignity of his position.
A very discreet man was Addison, and the only failure he made of
discretion was when he married the Dowager Countess of Warwick,
went to live in her elegant Holland House, and lived unhappily ever
afterwards. The last is a mere formal expression. Addison had not
depth enough to be really unhappy. From the cold comfort of the
Dowager's palace he would slip off to his club or to Will's Coffee
house. There, with a pipe and a bottle, he would loosen his
eloquent tongue and proceed to "make discreetly merry with a few
old friends."
His characteristic quality appears in the literary work which
followed his Latin verses. He began with a flattering "Address to
Dryden," which pleased the old poet and brought Addison to the
attention of literary celebrities. His next effort was "The Peace
of Ryswick," which flattered King William's statesmen and brought
the author a chance to serve the Whig party. Also it brought a
pension, with a suggestion that Addison should travel abroad and
learn French and diplomacy, which he did, to his great content, for
the space of three years.
The death of the king brought Addison back to England. His pension
stopped, and for a time he lived poorly "in a garret," as one may
read in Thackeray's Henry Esmond. Then came news of an
English victory on the Continent (Marlborough's victory at
Blenheim), and the Whigs wanted to make political capital out of
the event. Addison was hunted up and engaged to write a poem. He
responded with "The Campaign," which made him famous. Patriots and
politicians ascribed to the poem undying glory, and their judgment
was accepted by fashionable folk of London. To read it now is to
meet a formal, uninspired production, containing a few stock
quotations and, incidentally, a sad commentary on the union of
Whiggery and poetry.
His Path of Roses
From that moment Addison's success was assured. He was given
various offices of increasing importance; he entered Parliament; he
wrote a classic tragedy, Cato, which took London by storm
(his friend Steele had carefully "packed the house" for the first
performance); his essays in The Spectator were discussed in
every fashionable club or drawing-room; he married a rich countess;
he was appointed Secretary of State. The path of politics, which
others find so narrow and slippery, was for Addison a broad road
through pleasant gardens. Meanwhile Swift, who could not follow the
Addisonian way of kindness and courtesy, was eating bitter bread
and railing at humanity.
After a brief experience as Secretary of State, finding that he
could not make the speeches expected of him, Addison retired on a
pension. His unwavering allegiance to good form in all matters
appears even in his last remark, "See how a Christian can die."
That was in 1719. He had sought the easiest, pleasantest way
through life, and had found it. Thackeray, who was in sympathy with
such a career, summed it up in a glowing panegyric:
"A life prosperous and beautiful, a calm death; an immense
fame and affection afterwards for his happy and spotless
name."
Works of Addison
Addison's great reputation was won chiefly by his poetry;
but with the exception of a few hymns, simple and devout, his poetical
works no longer appeal to us. He was not a poet but a verse-maker. His
classic tragedy Cato, for example (which met with such amazing
success in London that it was taken over to the Continent, where it was
acclaimed "a masterpiece of regularity and elegance"), has some good
passages, but one who reads the context is apt to find the elegant lines
running together somewhat drowsily. Nor need that reflect on our taste or
intelligence. Even the cultured Greeks, as if in anticipation of classic
poems, built two adjoining temples, one dedicated to the Muses and the
other to Sleep.
The Essays
The Essays of Addison give us the full measure of his literary
talent. In his verse, as in his political works, he seems to be speaking to
strangers; he is on guard over his dignity as a poet, as Secretary of
State, as husband of a countess; but in his Essays we meet the man
at his ease, fluent, witty, light-hearted but not frivolous,--just as he
talked to his friends in Will's Coffeehouse. The conversational quality of
these Essays has influenced all subsequent works of the same
type,--a type hard to define, but which leaves the impression of pleasant
talk about a subject, as distinct from any learned discussion.
The Essays cover a wide range: fashions, dress, manners, character
sketches, letters of travel, ghost stories, satires on common vices,
week-end sermons on moral subjects. They are never profound, but they are
always pleasant, and their graceful style made such a lasting impression
that, half a century later, Dr. Johnson summed up a general judgment when
he said:
"Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not
coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and
nights to the volumes of Addison."
Addison and Steele
Of these two associates Richard Steele (1672-1729) had
the more original mind, and his writings reveal a warm, human sympathy that
is lacking in the work of his more famous contemporary. But while Addison
cultivated his one talent of writing, Steele was like Defoe in that he
always had some new project in his head, and some old debt urging him to
put the project into immediate execution. He was in turn poet, political
pamphleteer, soldier, dramatist, member of Parliament, publisher, manager
of a theater, following each occupation eagerly for a brief season, then
abandoning it cheerfully for another,--much like a boy picking blueberries
in a good place, who moves on and on to find a better bush, eats his
berries on the way, and comes home at last with an empty pail.
The Tatler and the Spectator
While holding the political office of "gazetteer" (one who had a monopoly
of official news) the idea came to Steele of publishing a literary
magazine. The inventive Defoe had already issued The Review (1704),
but that had a political origin. With the first number of The Tatler
(1709) the modern magazine made its bow to the public. This little sheet,
published thrice a week and sold at a penny a copy, contained more or less
politics, to be sure, but the fact that it reflected the gossip of
coffeehouses made it instantly popular. After less than two years of
triumph Steele lost his official position, and The Tatler was
discontinued. The idea remained, however, and a few months later appeared
The Spectator (1711), a daily magazine which eschewed politics and
devoted itself to essays, reviews, letters, criticisms,--in short, to
"polite" literature. Addison, who had been a contributor to The
Tatler entered heartily into the new venture, which had a brief but
glorious career. He became known as "Mr. Spectator," and the famous
Spectator Essays are still commonly attributed to him, though in truth
Steele furnished a large part of them. [Footnote: Of the Tatler
essays Addison contributed 42, Steele about 180, and some 36 were the work
of the two authors in collaboration. Of the Spectator essays Addison
furnished 274, Steele 236, and about 45 were the work of other writers. In
some of the best essays ("Sir Roger de Coverley," for example) the two men
worked together. Steele is supposed to have furnished the original ideas,
the humor and overflowing kindness of such essays, while the work of
polishing and perfecting the style fell to the more skillful Addison.]
Addisonian Style
Because of their cultivated prose style, Steele and Addison were long
regarded as models, and we are still influenced by them in the direction of
clearness and grace of expression. How wide their influence extended may be
seen in American literature. Hardly had The Spectator appeared when
it crossed the Atlantic and began to dominate our English style on both
sides of the ocean. Franklin, in Boston, studied it by night in order to
imitate it in the essay which he slipped under the printing-house door next
morning; and Boyd, in Virginia, reflects its influence in his charming
Journal of exploration. Half a century later, the Hartford Wits were
writing clever sketches that seemed like the work of a new "Spectator";
another half century, and Irving, the greatest master of English prose in
his day, was still writing in the Addisonian manner, and regretting as he
wrote that the leisurely style showed signs, in a bustling age, "of
becoming a little old-fashioned."
