29 Facts About Joseph Addison

1.

Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician.

2.

Joseph Addison's name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine.

3.

Joseph Addison was educated at Charterhouse School, London, where he first met Richard Steele, and at The Queen's College, Oxford.

4.

Joseph Addison excelled in classics, being specially noted for his Neo-Latin verse, and became a fellow of Magdalen College.

5.

The government, specifically Lord Treasurer Godolphin, commissioned Joseph Addison to write a commemorative poem about the battle, and he produced The Campaign, which was received with such satisfaction that he was appointed Commissioner of Appeals in Halifax's government.

6.

In 1705, with the Whigs in power, Joseph Addison was made Under-Secretary of State and accompanied Lord Halifax on a diplomatic mission to Hanover, Germany.

7.

Joseph Addison had always believed that England's power depended upon her wealth, her wealth upon her commerce, and her commerce upon the freedom of the seas and the checking of the power of France and Spain.

8.

In 1708 and 1709, Joseph Addison was a Member of Parliament for the borough of Lostwithiel.

9.

Joseph Addison was appointed secretary to the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Wharton.

10.

Joseph Addison met Jonathan Swift in Ireland and remained there for a year.

11.

In 1709, Steele began to publish the Tatler, and Joseph Addison became a regular contributor.

12.

Joseph Addison wrote the libretto for Thomas Clayton's opera Rosamond, which had a disastrous premiere in London in 1707.

13.

Joseph Addison followed this effort with a comedic play, The Drummer.

14.

In 1712, Joseph Addison wrote his most famous work, Cato, a Tragedy.

15.

Joseph Addison wrote the popular church hymn "The Spacious Firmament on High", publishing it in The Spectator in 1712.

16.

The later part of Joseph Addison's life was not without its troubles.

17.

Joseph Addison's wife was arrogant and imperious; his stepson, Edward Rich, was an unfriendly rake.

18.

Joseph Addison eventually fell out with Steele over the Peerage Bill.

19.

Joseph Addison assisted Steele with The Guardian, which began in 1713.

20.

Joseph Addison is the originator of the quote, "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body".

21.

Joseph Addison wrote an essay entitled Dialogues on Medals which was translated into French by eighteenth-century priest and journalist Simon-Jerome Bourlet de Vauxcelles.

22.

Joseph Addison's essay "Adventures of a Shilling" is a brief, early example of an it-narrative or object narrative, a genre that would become more common later in the century.

23.

Joseph Addison left an incomplete work, Of the Christian Religion.

24.

Joseph Addison explains that the motion was opposed by Misters Annesley, Ward, Casar, and Sir William Vevian.

25.

Joseph Addison's character has been described as kind and magnanimous, albeit somewhat cool and unimpassioned, with a tendency for convivial excess.

26.

Joseph Addison's appealing manners and conversation contributed to his general popularity.

27.

Joseph Addison often put his friends under obligations for substantial favours, but he showed great forbearance toward his few enemies.

28.

Joseph Addison's essays are noted for their clarity and elegant style, as well as their cheerful and respectful humour.

29.

Lord Macaulay wrote this generous tribute to Joseph Addison, which was published in 1866, seven years after Macaulay's death in 1859:.