Page 86 - DENG502_PROSE

Prose Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 10: Addison -Pleasures of Imagination: Introduction

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
10.1 Addison’s Life and Works
10.2 Analysis
10.3 Summary
10.4 Key-Words
10.5 Review Questions
10.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to:
• Know about Addison
• Discuss Pleasures of Imagination

Introduction

Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters,
eldest son of Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-
standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine.

10.1 Addison’s Life and Works

Background
Addison was born in Milston, Wiltshire, but soon after his birth his father, Lancelot Addison, was
appointed Dean of Lichfield and the Addison family moved into the cathedral close. He was
educated at Charterhouse School, where he first met Richard Steele, and at The Queen’s College,
Oxford. He excelled in classics, being specially noted for his Latin verse, and became a Fellow of
Magdalen College. In 1693, he addressed a poem to John Dryden, and his first major work, a book
of the lives of English poets, was published in 1694. His translation of Virgil’s Georgics was
published the same year. Dryden, Lord Somers and Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax took an
interest in Addison’s work and obtained for him a pension of £300 to enable him travel to Europe
with a view to diplomatic employment, all the time writing and studying politics. While in
Switzerland in 1702, he heard of the death of William III, an event which lost him his pension, as
his influential contacts, Halifax and Somers, had lost their employment with the Crown.

Political career
He returned to England at the end of 1703. For more than a year he remained without employment,
but the Battle of Blenheim in 1704 gave him a fresh opportunity of distinguishing himself. The
government, more specifically Lord Treasurer Godolphin, commissioned Addison to write a
commemorative poem, and he produced The Campaign, which gave such satisfaction that he was
forthwith appointed a Commissioner of Appeals in Halifax’s government. His next literary venture
was an account of his travels in Italy, which was followed by an opera libretto titled Rosamund. In

80 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY