July 26, 2025 • 18 mins
Delve into the life and legacy of Joseph Addison (1672-1719), a renowned English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. Best known for his contribution to The Spectator magazine alongside Richard Steele, Addisons remarkable life is brought to the fore in this engaging narrative. Explore the world of this gentle soul who managed to maintain his gentlemanly demeanor amidst the harsh world of political and literary rivalries. Commemorate the man who, through his persona in the Spectator, is loved by his contemporaries and continues to be respected by generations to come. This summary is brought to you by Pamela Nagami, M.D.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section nine of Life and Writings of Addison by Thomas
Babington mac caulay. This librovox recording is in the public domain.
Read by Pamela and Nagami, Part nine. In September seventeen thirteen,
the Guardian ceased to appear Steele had gone mad about politics.
(00:23):
A general election had just taken place. He had been
chosen member for Stockbridge and fully expected to play a
first part in Parliament. The immense success of the Tatler
and Spectator had turned his head. He had been the
editor of both those papers, and was not aware how
entirely they owed their influence and popularity to the genius
(00:45):
of his friend. His spirits, always violent, were now excited
by vanity, ambition, and faction, to such a pitch that
he every day committed some offense against good sense and
good taste. All the discreet and moderate members of his
own party regretted and condemned his folly. I am in
(01:06):
a Thousand Troubles. Addison wrote about poor Dick and wish
that his zeal for the public may not be ruinous
to himself. But he has sent me word that he
is determined to go on, and that any advice I
may give him in this particular, will have no weight
with him. Steele set up a political paper called The Englishman, which,
(01:30):
as it was not supported by contributions from Addison, completely failed.
By this work, and by some other writings of the
same kind, and by the heirs which he gave himself
at the first meeting of the new Parliament, he made
the Tories so angry that they determined to expel him.
The Whigs stood by him gallantly, but were unable to
(01:52):
save him. The vote of expulsion was regarded by all
this passionate men as the tyrannical exercise of the of
the majority. But Steele's violence and folly, though they by
no means justified the steps which his enemies took, had
completely disgusted his friends, nor did he ever regain the
(02:13):
place which he had held in the public estimation. Addison,
about this time conceived the design of adding an eighth
volume to The Spectator. In June seventeen fourteen, the first
number of the new series appeared, and during about six
months three papers were published weekly. Nothing can be more
(02:34):
striking than the contrast between The Englishmen and the eighth
volume of The Spectator, between Steel without Addison and Addison
without Steel, the Englishman is forgotten. The eighth volume of
The Spectator contains perhaps the finest essays, both serious and playful,
(02:55):
in the English language. Before this volume was completed, the
death of Anne produced an entire change in the administration
of public affairs. The blow fell suddenly. It found the
Tory party distracted by internal feuds and unprepared for any
great effort. Harley had just been disgraced Bolingbrooke, it was supposed,
(03:17):
would be the Chief Minister, but the Queen was on
her death bed before the White Staff had been given,
and her last public act was to deliver it with
a feeble hand to the Duke of Shrewsbury. The emergency
produced a coalition between all sections of public men who
were attached to the Protestant succession. George the First was
(03:40):
proclaimed without opposition. A council in which the leading Whigs
had seats, took the direction of affairs till the new
king should arrive. The first act of the Lord's justices
was to appoint Addison their secretary. There is an idle
tradition that he was directed to prepare a letter to
the King that he could not satisfy himself as to
(04:02):
the style of this composition, and that the Lord's justices
called in a clerk who at once did what was wanted.
It is not strange that a story so flattering to
mediocrity should be popular, and we are sorry to deprive
dunces of their consolation. But the truth must be told.
It was well observed by Sir James Macintosh, whose knowledge
(04:26):
of these times was unequaled, that Addison never, in any
official document affected wit or eloquence, and that his dispatches were,
without exception remarkable for unpretending simplicity. Everybody who knows with
what ease Addison's finest essays were produced must be convinced
(04:47):
that if well turned phrases had been wanted, he would
have had no difficulty in finding them. We are, however,
inclined to believe that the story is not absolutely without
a foundation. It may well be be that Addison did
not know till he had consulted experienced clerks who remembered
the times when William was absent on the continent in
(05:09):
what form a letter from the Council of Regency to
the King ought to be drawn. We think it very
likely that the ablest statesman of our time, Lord John Russell,
Sir Robert Peel, Lord Palmerston, for example, would in similar
circumstances be found quite as ignorant. Every office has some
(05:29):
little mysteries which the dullest man may learn with a
little attention, and which the greatest man cannot possibly know
by intuition. One paper must be signed by the chief
of the department, another by his deputy. To a third
the Royal sign Manual is necessary. One communication is to
be registered, and another is not. One sentence must be
(05:53):
in black ink, and another in red ink. If the
ablest Secretary for Ireland were moved to the India Board,
if the ablest President of the India Board were moved
to the War Office, he would require instruction on points
like these, And we do not doubt that Addison required
(06:13):
such instruction. When he became for the first time Secretary
to the Lord's Justices, George the First took possession of
his kingdom without opposition. A new ministry was formed and
a new parliament favorable to the Whigs chosen. Sunderland was
appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Addison again went to
(06:34):
Dublin as Chief Secretary at Dublin, Swift resided, and there
was much speculation about the way in which the Dean
and the Secretary would behave towards each other. The relations
which existed between these remarkable men form an interesting and
pleasing portion of literary history. They had early attached themselves
(06:55):
to the same political party and to the same patrons
while Anne's Whig ministry was in power. The visits of
Swift to London and the official residence of Addison in
Ireland had given them opportunities of knowing each other. They
were the two shrewdest observers of their age, but their
(07:16):
observations on each other had led them to favorable conclusions.
Swift did full justice to the rare powers of conversation
which were latent under the bashful deportment of Addison. Addison,
on the other hand, discerned much good nature under the
severe look and manner of Swift. And indeed, the Swift
of seventeen o eight and the Swift of seventeen thirty
(07:39):
eight were two very different men, but the paths of
the two friends diverged widely. The Whig statesmen loaded Addison
with solid benefits. They praised Swift, asked him to dinner,
and did nothing more for him. His profession laid them
under a difficulty in the state. They could not promote him,
(08:02):
and they had reason to fear that by bestowing preferment
in the Church on the author of the Tale of
a Tub, they might give scandal to the public which
had no high opinion of their orthodoxy. He did not
make fair allowance for the difficulties which prevented Halifax and
Summers from serving him. Thought himself an ill used man,
(08:24):
sacrificed honor and consistency to revenge, joined the Tories, and
became their most formidable champion. He soon found, however, that
his old friends were less to blame than he had supposed.
The dislike with which the Queen and the heads of
the Church regarded him was insurmountable, and it was with
(08:44):
great difficulty that he obtained an ecclesiastical dignity of no
great value, on condition of fixing his residence in a
country which he detested. Difference of political opinion had produced
not indeed a quarrel, but a coolness between Swift and Addison.
They at length ceased altogether to see each other. Yet
(09:06):
there was between them a tacit compact like that between
the hereditary guests in the iliad e kya Dalai lan
alaometa kai de homelu polai mengaremy treaus klaiitoi tepicuroi kataene
han k deus gay pore kai pose ke kayon poloi
(09:30):
deau a kaioe an ipenem hon k Denai. It is
not strange that Addison, who calumniated and insulted nobody, should
not have calumniated or insulted Swift. But it is remarkable
that Swift, to whom neither genius nor virtue was sacred,
and who generally seemed to find, like most other renegades,
(09:53):
a peculiar pleasure in attacking old friends, should have shown
so much respect and tenderness to Addison. Fortune had now changed,
the accession of the House of Hanover had secured in
England the liberties of the people, and in Ireland the
dominion of the Protestant caste. To that caste, Swift was
(10:13):
more odious than any other man. He was hooted and
even pelted in the streets of Dublin, and could not
venture to ride along the strand for his health without
the attendants of armed servants. Many whom he had formerly served,
now libeled and insulted him. At this time Addison arrived.
(10:34):
He had been advised not to show the smallest civility
to the Dean of Saint Patrick's, but he answered with
admirable spirit, that it might be necessary for men whose
fidelity to their party was suspected to hold no intercourse
with political opponents, but that one who had been a
steady wig in the worst times might venture, when the
(10:55):
good cause was triumphant, to shake hands with an old
friend who was one of the vansanquished tories. His kindness
was soothing to the proud and cruelly wounded spirit of Swift,
and the two great satirists resumed their habits of friendly intercourse.
Those associates of Addison whose political opinions agreed with his,
(11:16):
shared his good fortune. He took Tickle with him to Ireland.
He procured for Budgel a lucrative place in the same kingdom.
Ambrose Phillips was provided for in England. Steele had injured
himself so much by his eccentricity and perverseness that he
obtained but a very small part of what he thought
(11:36):
his due. He was, however, knighted, he had a place
in the household, and he subsequently received other marks of
favor from the court. Addison did not remain long in Ireland.
In seventeen fifteen he quitted his secretaryship for a seat
at the Board of Trade. In the same year, his
comedy of the Drummer was brought on the stage. The
(11:59):
name of the author is not announced. The piece was
coldly received, and some critics have expressed to doubt whether
it was really Addison's. To us, the evidence, both external
and internal, seems decisive. It is not in Addison's best manner,
but it contains numerous passages which no other writer known
to us could have produced. It was again performed after
(12:21):
Addison's death, and being known to be his, was loudly applauded.
Toward the close of the year seventeen fifteen, while the
rebellion was still raging in Scotland, Addison published the first
number of a paper called The Freeholder. Among his political works,
The Freeholder is entitled to the first place even in
(12:43):
the Spectator. There are few serious papers nobler than the
character of his friend, Lord Summrs, and certainly no satirical
papers superior to those in which the Tory fox Hunter
is introduced. This character is the original of Squire Western
and as drawn with all Fielding's force, and with the
delicacy of which Fielding was altogether destitute. As none of
(13:06):
Addison's works exhibit strong remarks of his genius than The Freeholder,
so none does more honor to his moral character. It
is difficult to extol too highly the candor and humanity
of a political writer whom, even the excitement of civil
war cannot hurry into unseemly violence. Oxford, it is well known,
(13:27):
was then the stronghold of Toryism. The high Street had
been repeatedly lined with bayonets in order to keep down
the disaffected gownsmen, and traitors pursued by the messengers of
the government had been concealed in the garrets of several colleges.
Yet the admonition, which even under such circumstances Addison addressed
(13:49):
to the university, is singularly gentle, respectful, and even affectionate. Indeed,
he could not find it in his heart to deal
harshly even with imaginary persons. His fox Hunter, though ignorant,
stupid and violent, is at heart a good fellow and
is at last reclaimed by the clemency of the King.
(14:11):
Steel was dissatisfied with his friend's moderation, and, though he
acknowledged that The Freeholder was excellently written, complained that the
Minister played on a lute when it was necessary to
blow the trumpet. He accordingly determined to execute a flourish
after his own fashion, and tried to rouse the public
spirit of the nation by means of a paper called
(14:31):
the Town Talk, which is now as utterly forgotten as
his Englishman, as his crisis, as his letter to the
Bailiff of Stockbridge, as his reader, in short, as everything
that he wrote without the help of Addison. In the
same year in which The Drummer was acted, and in
which the first numbers of the Freeholder appeared, the estrangement
(14:54):
of Pope and Addison became complete. Addison had from the
first scene that Pope was false and malevolent. Pope had
discovered that Addison was jealous. The discovery was made in
a strange manner. Pope had written The Rape of the
Lock and two cantos without supernatural machinery. These two cantos
(15:15):
had been loudly applauded, and by none more loudly than
by Addison. Then Pope thought of the Sylphs and gnomes, Ariel, Momentila, Crispisa,
and Umbrio, and resolved to interweave the roscution mythology with
the original fabric. He asked Addison's advice. Addison said that
(15:36):
the poem as it stood was a delicious little thing,
and entreated Pope not to run the risk of marring
what was so excellent in trying to mend it. Pope
afterwards declared that this insidious council first opened his eyes
to the baseness of him who gave it. Now there
can be no doubt that Pope's plan was most ingenious,
(15:57):
and that he afterwards executed it with great skill in
sas success. But does it necessarily follow that Addison's advice
was bad? And if Addison's advice was bad, does it
necessarily follow that it was given from bad motives. If
a friend were to ask us whether we would advise
him to risk a small competence in a lottery of
(16:20):
which the chances were ten to one against him, we
should do our best to dissuade him from running such
a risk, even if he were so lucky as to
get the thirty thousand pound prize. We should not admit
that we had counseled him ill, and we should certainly
think it the height of injustice in him to accuse
us of being actuated by malice. We think Addison's advice
(16:44):
good advice. It rested on a sound principle, the result
of long and wide experience. The general rule, undoubtedly is
that when a successful work of imagination has been produced,
it should not be recast. We cannot, at this moment
call to mind a single instance in which this rule
(17:05):
has been transgressed with happy effect, except the instance of
the Rape of the Lock. Tasso recast his Jerusalem Akenside,
recast his pleasures of the imagination in his epistle to Curio.
Pope himself, emboldened no doubt by the success with which
he had expanded and remodeled the Rape of the Lock,
(17:27):
made the same experiment on the dunciad. All these attempts failed.
Who was to foresee that Pope would once in his
life be able to do what he could not himself
do twice, and what nobody else has ever done. Addison's
advice was good, But had it been bad, why should
(17:47):
we pronounce it dishonest. Scott tells us that one of
his best friends predicted the failure of Waverley Herd. There
abjured Gerta not to take so unpromising a subject as faust.
Hume tried to dissuade Robertson from writing The History of
Charles the Fifth Nay. Pope himself was one of those
(18:07):
who prophesied that Cato would never succeed on the stage,
and advised Addison to print it without risking a representation.
But Scott, Gerta, Robertson, Addison had the good sense and
generosity to give their adviser's credit for the best intentions.
Pope's heart was not of the same kind with theirs.
(18:30):
End of Section nine
Section nine of Life and Writings of Addison by Thomas
Babington mac caulay. This librovox recording is in the public domain.
Read by Pamela and Nagami, Part nine. In September seventeen thirteen,
the Guardian ceased to appear Steele had gone mad about politics.
(00:23):
A general election had just taken place. He had been
chosen member for Stockbridge and fully expected to play a
first part in Parliament. The immense success of the Tatler
and Spectator had turned his head. He had been the
editor of both those papers, and was not aware how
entirely they owed their influence and popularity to the genius
(00:45):
of his friend. His spirits, always violent, were now excited
by vanity, ambition, and faction, to such a pitch that
he every day committed some offense against good sense and
good taste. All the discreet and moderate members of his
own party regretted and condemned his folly. I am in
(01:06):
a Thousand Troubles. Addison wrote about poor Dick and wish
that his zeal for the public may not be ruinous
to himself. But he has sent me word that he
is determined to go on, and that any advice I
may give him in this particular, will have no weight
with him. Steele set up a political paper called The Englishman, which,
(01:30):
as it was not supported by contributions from Addison, completely failed.
By this work, and by some other writings of the
same kind, and by the heirs which he gave himself
at the first meeting of the new Parliament, he made
the Tories so angry that they determined to expel him.
The Whigs stood by him gallantly, but were unable to
(01:52):
save him. The vote of expulsion was regarded by all
this passionate men as the tyrannical exercise of the of
the majority. But Steele's violence and folly, though they by
no means justified the steps which his enemies took, had
completely disgusted his friends, nor did he ever regain the
(02:13):
place which he had held in the public estimation. Addison,
about this time conceived the design of adding an eighth
volume to The Spectator. In June seventeen fourteen, the first
number of the new series appeared, and during about six
months three papers were published weekly. Nothing can be more
(02:34):
striking than the contrast between The Englishmen and the eighth
volume of The Spectator, between Steel without Addison and Addison
without Steel, the Englishman is forgotten. The eighth volume of
The Spectator contains perhaps the finest essays, both serious and playful,
(02:55):
in the English language. Before this volume was completed, the
death of Anne produced an entire change in the administration
of public affairs. The blow fell suddenly. It found the
Tory party distracted by internal feuds and unprepared for any
great effort. Harley had just been disgraced Bolingbrooke, it was supposed,
(03:17):
would be the Chief Minister, but the Queen was on
her death bed before the White Staff had been given,
and her last public act was to deliver it with
a feeble hand to the Duke of Shrewsbury. The emergency
produced a coalition between all sections of public men who
were attached to the Protestant succession. George the First was
(03:40):
proclaimed without opposition. A council in which the leading Whigs
had seats, took the direction of affairs till the new
king should arrive. The first act of the Lord's justices
was to appoint Addison their secretary. There is an idle
tradition that he was directed to prepare a letter to
the King that he could not satisfy himself as to
(04:02):
the style of this composition, and that the Lord's justices
called in a clerk who at once did what was wanted.
It is not strange that a story so flattering to
mediocrity should be popular, and we are sorry to deprive
dunces of their consolation. But the truth must be told.
It was well observed by Sir James Macintosh, whose knowledge
(04:26):
of these times was unequaled, that Addison never, in any
official document affected wit or eloquence, and that his dispatches were,
without exception remarkable for unpretending simplicity. Everybody who knows with
what ease Addison's finest essays were produced must be convinced
(04:47):
that if well turned phrases had been wanted, he would
have had no difficulty in finding them. We are, however,
inclined to believe that the story is not absolutely without
a foundation. It may well be be that Addison did
not know till he had consulted experienced clerks who remembered
the times when William was absent on the continent in
(05:09):
what form a letter from the Council of Regency to
the King ought to be drawn. We think it very
likely that the ablest statesman of our time, Lord John Russell,
Sir Robert Peel, Lord Palmerston, for example, would in similar
circumstances be found quite as ignorant. Every office has some
(05:29):
little mysteries which the dullest man may learn with a
little attention, and which the greatest man cannot possibly know
by intuition. One paper must be signed by the chief
of the department, another by his deputy. To a third
the Royal sign Manual is necessary. One communication is to
be registered, and another is not. One sentence must be
(05:53):
in black ink, and another in red ink. If the
ablest Secretary for Ireland were moved to the India Board,
if the ablest President of the India Board were moved
to the War Office, he would require instruction on points
like these, And we do not doubt that Addison required
(06:13):
such instruction. When he became for the first time Secretary
to the Lord's Justices, George the First took possession of
his kingdom without opposition. A new ministry was formed and
a new parliament favorable to the Whigs chosen. Sunderland was
appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Addison again went to
(06:34):
Dublin as Chief Secretary at Dublin, Swift resided, and there
was much speculation about the way in which the Dean
and the Secretary would behave towards each other. The relations
which existed between these remarkable men form an interesting and
pleasing portion of literary history. They had early attached themselves
(06:55):
to the same political party and to the same patrons
while Anne's Whig ministry was in power. The visits of
Swift to London and the official residence of Addison in
Ireland had given them opportunities of knowing each other. They
were the two shrewdest observers of their age, but their
(07:16):
observations on each other had led them to favorable conclusions.
Swift did full justice to the rare powers of conversation
which were latent under the bashful deportment of Addison. Addison,
on the other hand, discerned much good nature under the
severe look and manner of Swift. And indeed, the Swift
of seventeen o eight and the Swift of seventeen thirty
(07:39):
eight were two very different men, but the paths of
the two friends diverged widely. The Whig statesmen loaded Addison
with solid benefits. They praised Swift, asked him to dinner,
and did nothing more for him. His profession laid them
under a difficulty in the state. They could not promote him,
(08:02):
and they had reason to fear that by bestowing preferment
in the Church on the author of the Tale of
a Tub, they might give scandal to the public which
had no high opinion of their orthodoxy. He did not
make fair allowance for the difficulties which prevented Halifax and
Summers from serving him. Thought himself an ill used man,
(08:24):
sacrificed honor and consistency to revenge, joined the Tories, and
became their most formidable champion. He soon found, however, that
his old friends were less to blame than he had supposed.
The dislike with which the Queen and the heads of
the Church regarded him was insurmountable, and it was with
(08:44):
great difficulty that he obtained an ecclesiastical dignity of no
great value, on condition of fixing his residence in a
country which he detested. Difference of political opinion had produced
not indeed a quarrel, but a coolness between Swift and Addison.
They at length ceased altogether to see each other. Yet
(09:06):
there was between them a tacit compact like that between
the hereditary guests in the iliad e kya Dalai lan
alaometa kai de homelu polai mengaremy treaus klaiitoi tepicuroi kataene
han k deus gay pore kai pose ke kayon poloi
(09:30):
deau a kaioe an ipenem hon k Denai. It is
not strange that Addison, who calumniated and insulted nobody, should
not have calumniated or insulted Swift. But it is remarkable
that Swift, to whom neither genius nor virtue was sacred,
and who generally seemed to find, like most other renegades,
(09:53):
a peculiar pleasure in attacking old friends, should have shown
so much respect and tenderness to Addison. Fortune had now changed,
the accession of the House of Hanover had secured in
England the liberties of the people, and in Ireland the
dominion of the Protestant caste. To that caste, Swift was
(10:13):
more odious than any other man. He was hooted and
even pelted in the streets of Dublin, and could not
venture to ride along the strand for his health without
the attendants of armed servants. Many whom he had formerly served,
now libeled and insulted him. At this time Addison arrived.
(10:34):
He had been advised not to show the smallest civility
to the Dean of Saint Patrick's, but he answered with
admirable spirit, that it might be necessary for men whose
fidelity to their party was suspected to hold no intercourse
with political opponents, but that one who had been a
steady wig in the worst times might venture, when the
(10:55):
good cause was triumphant, to shake hands with an old
friend who was one of the vansanquished tories. His kindness
was soothing to the proud and cruelly wounded spirit of Swift,
and the two great satirists resumed their habits of friendly intercourse.
Those associates of Addison whose political opinions agreed with his,
(11:16):
shared his good fortune. He took Tickle with him to Ireland.
He procured for Budgel a lucrative place in the same kingdom.
Ambrose Phillips was provided for in England. Steele had injured
himself so much by his eccentricity and perverseness that he
obtained but a very small part of what he thought
(11:36):
his due. He was, however, knighted, he had a place
in the household, and he subsequently received other marks of
favor from the court. Addison did not remain long in Ireland.
In seventeen fifteen he quitted his secretaryship for a seat
at the Board of Trade. In the same year, his
comedy of the Drummer was brought on the stage. The
(11:59):
name of the author is not announced. The piece was
coldly received, and some critics have expressed to doubt whether
it was really Addison's. To us, the evidence, both external
and internal, seems decisive. It is not in Addison's best manner,
but it contains numerous passages which no other writer known
to us could have produced. It was again performed after
(12:21):
Addison's death, and being known to be his, was loudly applauded.
Toward the close of the year seventeen fifteen, while the
rebellion was still raging in Scotland, Addison published the first
number of a paper called The Freeholder. Among his political works,
The Freeholder is entitled to the first place even in
(12:43):
the Spectator. There are few serious papers nobler than the
character of his friend, Lord Summrs, and certainly no satirical
papers superior to those in which the Tory fox Hunter
is introduced. This character is the original of Squire Western
and as drawn with all Fielding's force, and with the
delicacy of which Fielding was altogether destitute. As none of
(13:06):
Addison's works exhibit strong remarks of his genius than The Freeholder,
so none does more honor to his moral character. It
is difficult to extol too highly the candor and humanity
of a political writer whom, even the excitement of civil
war cannot hurry into unseemly violence. Oxford, it is well known,
(13:27):
was then the stronghold of Toryism. The high Street had
been repeatedly lined with bayonets in order to keep down
the disaffected gownsmen, and traitors pursued by the messengers of
the government had been concealed in the garrets of several colleges.
Yet the admonition, which even under such circumstances Addison addressed
(13:49):
to the university, is singularly gentle, respectful, and even affectionate. Indeed,
he could not find it in his heart to deal
harshly even with imaginary persons. His fox Hunter, though ignorant,
stupid and violent, is at heart a good fellow and
is at last reclaimed by the clemency of the King.
(14:11):
Steel was dissatisfied with his friend's moderation, and, though he
acknowledged that The Freeholder was excellently written, complained that the
Minister played on a lute when it was necessary to
blow the trumpet. He accordingly determined to execute a flourish
after his own fashion, and tried to rouse the public
spirit of the nation by means of a paper called
(14:31):
the Town Talk, which is now as utterly forgotten as
his Englishman, as his crisis, as his letter to the
Bailiff of Stockbridge, as his reader, in short, as everything
that he wrote without the help of Addison. In the
same year in which The Drummer was acted, and in
which the first numbers of the Freeholder appeared, the estrangement
(14:54):
of Pope and Addison became complete. Addison had from the
first scene that Pope was false and malevolent. Pope had
discovered that Addison was jealous. The discovery was made in
a strange manner. Pope had written The Rape of the
Lock and two cantos without supernatural machinery. These two cantos
(15:15):
had been loudly applauded, and by none more loudly than
by Addison. Then Pope thought of the Sylphs and gnomes, Ariel, Momentila, Crispisa,
and Umbrio, and resolved to interweave the roscution mythology with
the original fabric. He asked Addison's advice. Addison said that
(15:36):
the poem as it stood was a delicious little thing,
and entreated Pope not to run the risk of marring
what was so excellent in trying to mend it. Pope
afterwards declared that this insidious council first opened his eyes
to the baseness of him who gave it. Now there
can be no doubt that Pope's plan was most ingenious,
(15:57):
and that he afterwards executed it with great skill in
sas success. But does it necessarily follow that Addison's advice
was bad? And if Addison's advice was bad, does it
necessarily follow that it was given from bad motives. If
a friend were to ask us whether we would advise
him to risk a small competence in a lottery of
(16:20):
which the chances were ten to one against him, we
should do our best to dissuade him from running such
a risk, even if he were so lucky as to
get the thirty thousand pound prize. We should not admit
that we had counseled him ill, and we should certainly
think it the height of injustice in him to accuse
us of being actuated by malice. We think Addison's advice
(16:44):
good advice. It rested on a sound principle, the result
of long and wide experience. The general rule, undoubtedly is
that when a successful work of imagination has been produced,
it should not be recast. We cannot, at this moment
call to mind a single instance in which this rule
(17:05):
has been transgressed with happy effect, except the instance of
the Rape of the Lock. Tasso recast his Jerusalem Akenside,
recast his pleasures of the imagination in his epistle to Curio.
Pope himself, emboldened no doubt by the success with which
he had expanded and remodeled the Rape of the Lock,
(17:27):
made the same experiment on the dunciad. All these attempts failed.
Who was to foresee that Pope would once in his
life be able to do what he could not himself
do twice, and what nobody else has ever done. Addison's
advice was good, But had it been bad, why should
(17:47):
we pronounce it dishonest. Scott tells us that one of
his best friends predicted the failure of Waverley Herd. There
abjured Gerta not to take so unpromising a subject as faust.
Hume tried to dissuade Robertson from writing The History of
Charles the Fifth Nay. Pope himself was one of those
(18:07):
who prophesied that Cato would never succeed on the stage,
and advised Addison to print it without risking a representation.
But Scott, Gerta, Robertson, Addison had the good sense and
generosity to give their adviser's credit for the best intentions.
Pope's heart was not of the same kind with theirs.
(18:30):
End of Section nine
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