Joseph Addison

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the British diplomat of the same name, see Joseph Addison (diplomat) (1879–1953).

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison (born May 1, 1672 in Milston , Wiltshire , † June 17, 1719 in Kensington ) was an English poet , politician and journalist in the early days of the Enlightenment .

Life

Joseph Addison was the son of Lancelot Addison , Dean of Lichfield Cathedral . After attending school in his hometown for the first time, he attended the Charterhouse School in London . There he made friends with the later writer Sir Richard Steele . Addison then studied at Oxford University . In 1699 he successfully finished his studies and in the same year he founded the Kit Cat Club with friends in London .

At the end of 1699 Addison began his Grand Tour which took him through Italy and France for four years . He did not return to England until 1703 . He settled in or near London as a writer. His membership in the Kit Kat Club, to which almost all the influential Whigs belonged, favored Addison's political career in the service of the Whig government, which earned him various high offices. His application for political office in 1706 was successful with his appointment as Undersecretary of State . Three years later he became Secretary of Lord Wharton and accompanied him to Ireland as Secretary of the Governor. Addison was appointed a member of parliament as early as 1708 and he remained so until the end of his life.

As an elegant Latinist after his training at Oxford, Addison found access to the circles of professional writers in London relatively early. His distinguished character, sociability, and widely valued conversational skills not only fostered his political career, but also made him the center of a literary circle that included his school friend Steele. There were also contacts with Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift , as long as the political views were not in conflict.

In 1707 , in response to the fashionable Italian opera texts, Addison wrote the libretto for an opera called "Rosamond", which was initially set to music by Thomas Clayton and premiered on March 15, 1707 without success. Addison did not write a libretto afterwards - although a later setting by Thomas Arne in 1733 received applause.

The beginnings of Addison's journalistic activity in The Whig examiner 1710 were politically motivated. Together with Steele, Addison founded the literary and moral weekly " Tatler " in 1709 , which is one of the first weekly magazines and helped Addison to his stature as an essayist . When this ceased publication in 1711, the two founded “ The Spectator ” that same year . The first edition appeared on March 1, 1711, the last on December 6. The authors also included the writers Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. It was mainly through Addison's contributions in Tatler that the essay took on its binding form for the 18th century, regardless of Steele 's contributions . In the Spectator , too , Addison played the more dominant role in terms of the number and importance of the contributions. The third newspaper was founded in 1713 " The Guardian " (not to be confused with the British daily newspaper " The Guardian " founded in 1821 and still in existence today ).

When Addison published his drama Cato in 1713 , he inspired Johann Christoph Gottsched , who then published his tragedy Dying Cato in 1732 . Joseph Addison died at Holland House in Kensington at the age of 47 . He found his final resting place in Westminster Abbey .

Works

• The christian poet (1728)
• Cato (1713)
• The drummer or the haunted-house (1716)
• The resurrection (1718)

translation

• The Works of Petronius Arbiter (published posthumously in 1736 )

literature

• Robert M. Otten: Joseph Addison . Twayne, Boston 1982, ISBN 0-8057-6824-6 .
• Gero von Wilpert : Goethe-Lexikon (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 407). Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-40701-9 , p. 4.

Web links

Commons : Joseph Addison  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Wikisource: Joseph Addison  - Sources and full texts (English)

Wikiquote: Joseph Addison  - Quotes

• Literature by and about Joseph Addison in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Joseph Addison  in the German Digital Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Bernhard Fabian (Ed.): The English literature. Volume 2: Authors . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 3rd edition, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 11.
2. ↑ See Bernhard Fabian (Ed.): The English literature. Volume 2: Authors . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 3rd edition, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 11.
3. ↑ See Bernhard Fabian (Ed.): The English literature. Volume 2: Authors . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 3rd edition, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 11.