The Ridpath library of universal literatureA biographical and bibliographical summary of the world's most eminent authors . hool, London, and at Queensand Magdalen Colleges, Oxford, where he distin-guished himself by his Latin verses. While quitea young man he secured the favor of Dr3den andother men of letters, and likewise of Lords Hali-fax and Somers, through whose influence he re-ceived a pension of ;^300 to enable him to travel,and especially to perfect himself in the Frenchlanguage, in order to be prepared for official em-ployment. His continental travels lasted from1699 to the close of
The Ridpath library of universal literatureA biographical and bibliographical summary of the world's most eminent authors . hool, London, and at Queensand Magdalen Colleges, Oxford, where he distin-guished himself by his Latin verses. While quitea young man he secured the favor of Dr3den andother men of letters, and likewise of Lords Hali-fax and Somers, through whose influence he re-ceived a pension of ;^300 to enable him to travel,and especially to perfect himself in the Frenchlanguage, in order to be prepared for official em-ployment. His continental travels lasted from1699 to the close of 1703, when he returned toEngland. King William HL had died in themeantime; Addisons patrons had gone out ofpower; his pension was stopped, and for sometime he was hard pressed by pecuniary difficul-ties ; but he was known to the leaders of bothparties as a man of genius. The great war of theSpanish Succession had brought the Whigs andTories of England into some sort of August 13, 1704, was fought the great bat-tle of Blenheim, and the Ministry looked about for some man who could properly celebrate the (128). JOSEPH ADDISON. JOSEPH ADDIS01^ 129 victory in verse. They sent the Chancellor ofthe Exchequer to the garret occupied by Addi-son, to engage his services, offering him a gov-ernment commissionership worth ^200 a year asan earnest of still greater favors. The result of this interview was The Campaign,a poem of some five hundred lines, inscribed tothe Duke of Marlborough, whom it poem became famous, and laid the foundationfor the fortunes of the poet. Apart from its meritsas a poem for the time, The Campaign ranks highamong the works of its class. Its special merit isthat it discards wholly all the old fashion ofascribing a great victory to the personal prowessof its hero as a man-at-arms. Addison was per-haps the first man to recognize in verse that a bat-tle is won by brains, not by brawn. He reservedhis praise for those qualities which made Marl-b
Size: 1364px × 1833px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorridpathj, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1900
