ADDISON, JOSEPH, a poet and unsex] lanCOUS writer, was born on the 1st of May, 1672, and Men of asthma, combined with dropsy, on the 17th of June, A. D. 1719. Being a weakly child, and thought not likely to live, lie was baptized the very day on which he was born. Ile received the fi NI part of his education under the tuition of his father, from \Omni he imbibed those principles of piety, which characterized him through life. lie was then put under the care of Nash of Ambrosbury ; and afterwards under that of Mr Taylor at Salisbury. His father being created dean of Litchfield, and carry ing his children with him to that place, Addison became, for some time, the pupil of Mr Shaw ; but no account of his early acquirements or tendencies has been given by any of his biographers, though Johnson relates that one of his masters, probably Shaw, was barred out of his school on the approach of the holidays, principally by the mischievous contrivance of Addison. From Litch field he was sent to the Charterhouse, where he con tracted the intimacy with Sir Richard Steele, winch their joint labours in the Tatler, the Spectator, and the Guardian, have so effectually commemorated. Their friendship, however, was not on equal terns : for Addison knew that Steele was his inferior, and treated him as such ; and Steele acknowledged his inferiority, by a de ference sufficiently submissive. A man who endures the sarcasms of another, without resistance or reply, has parted with the honourable character of a friend, for that of a flatterer or a slave.
At the age of fifteen, Addison was entered at Queen's College, Oxford ; and some Latin verses which he had written °az th• Inauguration of King William and QUeell Mary, being accidentally seen by Dr Lancaster, after wards Provost of Queen's College, he was, by his recom mendation, elected into Magdalen College, on the foun der's benefaction. He made an early and surprising progress in literature. His Latin poems, the principal of which are the I trar beiween the Pigmies and the Cranes, the Descrilition of the Barometer, and the are to be found in the second volume of the Musx An glicanx, which was collected by himself. He presented
the collection to Boileau, the French satirist, who from that time, says Tickell, " conceived an opinion of the English genius for poetry." Boileau is known to have had an utter dislike to all modern compositions in Latin ; and it is probable that his profession of regard in this instance was the effect of his politeness, rather than his approbation. In the year 1690, Addison contributed a ropy of Latin verses to the Oxford Congratulations on the return of King William from Ireland after the battle of the Boyne : and having taken the degree of Master of Arts, he published, in 1693, some verses inscribed to Dryden. This was the first of his attempts in English. It was followed by a translation of the fourth Georgic of Virgil, (omitting the story of Aristccus) by an .-/ccount Of the Greatest English Poets, dedicated to II. S., gener ally supposed to be Henry Sacheverel, and by other pieces in prose and verse. In the year 1695, lie wrote a poem to King William, on one of his campaigns; and, by addressing it to Lord Somers, the keeper of the great seal, be procured the patronage of that nobleman. Ha ,ving declined entrance into holy orders on account of his natural diffidence, and some needless scruples about the clerical office, he obtained a pension Or 5001. per by the influence of his Somers and Montague, to the last of whom he was by Congre% e. By this means he was enabled to execute his favourite pur pose of travelling into Italy. Accordingly, in 1699, he made a tour into that country, which he :ifi•veyed with the rapture of a poet, and the judgment of a ? ride ; coin paring the appearances of the mountains, w odds, and rivers, with the descriptions given by Virgil and Ho race ; and in 1701, he wrote a poetical fit/slit' limn Italy to Montague, (now become Lord Halifax,) which lias been very generally admired.