NOTES. The numbers in heavy-faced type refer to pages; those in light-faced type to lines. 1 The Account of the Greatest English Poets first appeared in the Annual Miscellany for the year 1694, being the Fourth part of Miscellany Poems. Printed by R. E. for Jacob Tonson, MDCXCIV. H. S. Henry Sacheverel (1674?—1724) He was a demy at Magdalen College and Addison's room-mate. In 1720, for his violent sermons against low churchmen and non-conformists, he was impeached by the Whigs, and thus became a hero with the Tory party. Pope, Spence's Anecdotes, 1820, p. 49, after making the misstatement that this poem was not published until after Addison's death, says that Addison himself “used to speak of it as a poor thing. He wrote it when he was very young; and as such gave the characters of some of our best poets in it, only by hearsay. Thus his character of Chaucer is diametrically opposite to the truth; he blames him for want of humour. The character he gives of Spenser is false too; and I have heard him say, that he never read Spenser till fifteen years after he wrote it." 1:13, But age has rusted. Chaucer, at this period, was considered hopelessly obsolete. Cf. Dryden's Preface to the Fables (1700) "I find some people are offended that I have turned these tales into modern English; because they think them unworthy of my pains, and look on Chaucer as a dry, old-fashioned wit, not worth reviving." 1:17, Old Spenser. For the attitude of the age towards Spenser, see Phelps's The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, chapter V. 1:32, Great Cowley. Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) published in 1656 Pindarique Odes. These poems, written in "lax and lawless versification,” to quote Dr. Johnson, were widely imitated. They are not at all Pindaric in structure, and do not deserve their name, as Congreve pointed out in his Discourse on the Pindaric Ode, 1706. See Alden's English Verse, chapter V. 2:52, Blest man. Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, the friend and literary executor of Cowley. As a poet, Sprat followed "the incomparable Dr. Cowley's way." His panegyric Upon the Poems of the English Ovid, Anacreon, Pindar, and Virgil, Abraham Cowley, in imitation of his own Pindaric Odes is one of the curiosities of poetic eulogy. 2:80, Oh had the Poet. Cf. Winstanley's Lives of the Most Famous English Poets, 1687, p. 195. "But his fame has gone out like a Candle in a Snuff, and his memory will always stink, which might have ever lived in honourable Repute, had not he been a notorious traytor, and most impiously and villanously bely'd that blessed Martyr, King Charles the First." 3: 89, Waller's Praise. Edmund Waller (1606-1687) was considered at this period a great poet, principally because his verses were "smooth." The Sacharissa of his poems was Lady Dorothy Sidney, eldest daughter of Robert, second Earl of Leicester. 4:94. Thy verse can show. See Waller's Panegyric to my Lord Protector, and Upon the late storm, and of the death of his Highness ensuing the same. Compliment has here the meaning of to address in a formal manner. 4:99, Nassau. William III. 4: 103, Boyne's wide current. The Boyne flows into the Irish sea near Drogheda. William III., defeated James II., on its banks, July 1, 1690. In this battle two thousand men were lost. 4: 108, Roscommon. Wentworth Dillon (1638-1685) Earl of Roscommon. A mediocre poet, he is remembered chiefly for his translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, and his own Essay on Translated Verse. 4: 112, Denham. Sir John Denham (1615-1668) was highly esteemed by Dryden and the Queen Anne writers after him, as one of the first to write in polished heroic couplets. Cooper's Hill, on the Thames near Runnymeade, is the subject of his best poem. See Pope's Windsor Forest (1713) 11. 264-271. 5: 127, Harmonious Congreve. William Congreve (16701729) had produced at this time the Old Bachelor (Jan. 1693), the Double Dealer, (Nov. 1693), and had aided Dryden in his translation of Juvenal (1692). For lines 130-1 compare Dryden's Epistle To My dear Friend Mr. Congreve, on his Comedy called the Double Dealer, 11. 70-75. But you, whom every Muse and Grace adorn, But shade those laurels which descend to you. 5:134, The noble Montagu. Charles Montagu (1661–1715) Earl of Halifax, the great Whig leader and patron of poets. As originator of the national debt and founder of the Bank of England, he has been called "the most eminent financier in English history." Pope satirised him as Bufo in the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 11, 230-50. Montagu's Epistle to Charles Earl of Dorset occasioned by his Majesty's Victory in Ireland, 1690, is written, to quote from it, "in easy numbers,” "in this familiar way." In 1692 he was appointed a lord of the Treasury (11. 148-9). 5: 136, To Dorset. Charles Sackville (1638-1706) sixth Earl of Dorset, a patron of men of letters, especially of Dryden and Prior. He wrote but little. His To all ye Ladies now on land shows at its best his graceful style. 5: 154, Of greater truths. At this time, Addison was preparing to enter the ranks of the clergy. A LETTER FROM ITALY. 6: The Letter from Italy was composed in 1701, while Addison was crossing the Alps to Geneva. See Addison's letter to Wortley Montagu, Dec. 9th, 1701. The poem first appeared in the Fifth Part of Dryden's Miscellanies, 1704. In 1701 Montagu had been impeached by the House of Commons, practically on the charge of mismanagement of public funds. His rapid rise to fortune and his inordinate vanity had made him many enemies. In 1704 his case was still before the public and it is natural that the Letter, dedicated to him, should be the first poem in this volume. It is preceded by a separate title-page reading: A-Letter-fromItaly-to the Right Honourable-Charles Lord Halifax-by Mr. Joseph Addison-MDCCI-London-Printed in the year 1703. In the London Daily Courant for Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1703, is the following advertisement: "This day is published, Poetical Miscellanies, The fifth part, containing a collection of Original Poems, with several new Translations by the most eminent Hands. Printed for Jacob Tonson within Grays-Inn-Gate next Grays-Inn Lane. Where you may have the four former parts published by Mr. Dryden.” This advertisement, with the added words London, 1704," formed the title-page of the volume, preceding the title page to Addison's poem as given above. The two dates, 1703 and 1704, have caused some confusion, but this was no uncommon practice with publishers of this period. The Sixth Volume of the Miscellanies is dated 1709 and appeared on May 2nd of that year, yet the separate title-page to Philips's Pastorals, first published in this volume, reads "Printed in 1708." Addison evidently wrote this poem with extreme care for no lines were changed in the 1721 edition. Critics considered it his best piece of verse. See Tickell, Preface to Addison's Works, page x; Pope, Spence's Anecdotes p. 316; John son, Life of Addison, says "The Letter from Italy has been always praised, but never has been praised beyond its merit.” Charles Lord Halifax. See note 5: 134. Motto, etc. Hail Saturian land, great mother of harvests and of men! I enter upon subjects of ancient glory and art, daring to disclose the sacred springs. 6:1-4, Lord Halifax had been driven from office by the opposition. 6: 10, Gay gilded scenes, etc. This line is an excellent example of the vagueness and conventionality of the descriptive poems of the period. 6:19, Nar. The modern Nera, a tributary of the Tiber. "The channel of this last river (i. e. Nera) is white with rocks, and the surface of it, for a long space, covered with froth and bubbles; for it runs all along upon the fret, and is still breaking against the stones that oppose its passage" Addison, Remarks on Italy. 6:20, Clitumnus. A river of Umbria, emptying into the Tinia, a tributary of the Tiber. 6:22, Mincio. This river flows through the Lago di Garda and empties into the Po near Mantua. 6:23, Albula. "In our way to Tivoli I saw the rivulet of Salforata, formerly called Albula, and smelt the stench that arises from its waters some time before I saw them." Addison, Remarks, Towns near Rome. 7:26, Eridanus. The Po. 7: 40, Thrifty urns. The tributary streams of the Tiber are small ones. The Queen Anne poets personified rivers as gods with urns from which the stream flowed. See Pope, Windsor Forest, 329-338. 7: 46, Boyne. See note 4: 103. 8:63, Baia. A famous Roman watering-place on a small bay west of Naples. 9:119, Oh Liberty. It is interesting to compare these lines with Goldsmith's Traveller, 11. 332 ff. 10: 162, I bridle, etc. Johnson (Life of Addison), vigourously objects to this mixed metaphor. |