Joseph Addison (1) (1672–1719)

My copy was printed in 1784. France was a kingdom, America a colony and Australia an outline on a map. Not the kind of thing I normally read, but when someone offers you a copy for £1.99 you barrel the Blue Rinse Brigade out of the way in your haste to the till.

What we have here is literary fellatio. In the case of The Campaign Addison has been asked to drop to his knees, but looking at the addressees of the other poems - Dryden, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, the King - it’s quite show more obvious that he has, without a by-your-leave, popped their cocks out and given suck.

The poems are technically pretty good and largely inoffensive, but the contents totally inconsequential. Addison’s interests are power, fame and Britannia. If he weren’t a man of such stature for other reasons they would never have been reprinted.

The best things in here are some translations out of Ovid and Vergil. I have no idea if they would be considered good translations, but Metamorphoses in particular is good fun. Highly imaginative with good CGI and funny at times. I think it’s interesting what he chooses to translate, so we have Vergil’s Fourth Georgic addressed to Maecenas, itself a patronage poem.

There’s also an introduction which is good even by modern standards.

On the whole I enjoyed the book but largely because it was nice to read something so old. show less

I love to stand in front of and admire the Vanity Fair "Spy" prints at The Grand Hotel when I visit. I love the droll humor and suppose the packed frames on a green wall is a Carlton Varney. Somehow, I thought this compendium of writing from a century before that would strike me the same way. Maybe with illustrations, it would! Addison and Steele could easily have been the Colbert and Jon Stewart of their time, but I mostly found the musings of Isaac Bickerstaff, William Honeycomb, etc. to show more ring fairly flat these days, IMO. Still, the chronological selections from The Tatler and The Spectator and an important part of journalistic history, and I respect that. The work includes footnotes to explain references and translate the Latin epigraphs which along with content on literature and stage (and a very interesting one doubting the reality of witchcraft) suggest writing for a more educated and sophisticated audience than popular mags of today aim for (People, etc.) making this seem like a cross between The Arts section from the NYT and Mad Magazine. show less

Cato: A Tragedy by Joseph Addison is a play from the early eighteenth century that bridges the gap between the era of classical drama and the coming era of Romanticism. Featuring an archetypal ideal hero in Cato (the younger) who is faced with the responsibility of leading the opposition to Julius Caesar. Caesar had been methodically defeating his foes; those who blocked his path to sole leadership of the Roman Republic. Trapped at Utica in Northern Africa near Carthage, Cato with the help show more of his sons and a very few friends must decide what to do. The drama is not suspenseful for anyone who knows his Roman History is aware of how it ends, but it does provide a platform for delineating the character of Cato and in doing so shed light on the culture of Rome.
The defining characteristic of Cato's character is virtue. That is virtue in the classical sense, true goodness and beauty and courage, that can be found in the works of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. It is the sort of virtue that leads his friend, Juba, to comment in the second act:
"I'll hence, and try to find
Some blest occasion that may set me right
In Cato's thoughts. I'd rather have that man
Approve my deeds, than worlds for my admirers."

While in the final act Cato's son, Marcus, says:
"He is all goodness, Lucia, always mild,
Compassionate, and gentle to his friends."

As he nears his death Cato turns to the Phaedo of Plato, meditating on the death of Socrates and the possibility of the immortality of the soul. Addison's play is as inspirational today as it was in eighteenth century America when the leaders of the Revolutionary War read it and shared the ideal of virtue embodied in this drama. show less

Many of the selected essays seem so contemporary that it's interesting to reflect that they were written over 300 years ago. e.g. the shame of poverty vs. the fear of poverty.