Sir roger in westminster abbey by joseph addison summary. Full text of of Joseph 2019-01-14
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Reflections in Westminster Abbey, by Joseph Addison
Upon my going into the church, I entertained myself with the digging of a grave; and saw in every shovelful of it that was thrown up, the fragment of a bone or skull intermixt with a kind of fresh mouldering earth, that some time or other had a place in the composition of a human body. Steele has the merit of having been the first to feel the new intellectual cravings of his day and to furnish what proved to be the means of meeting them. To this end we are assured, that many of them on both sides exercise before their glasses every morning ; that they have already cashiered several of their followers as mutineers, who have contradicted them in some political conversations ; and that the Whig ladies in particular design very soon to have a general review of their forces at a play bespoken by one of their leaders. It was thus that Addison became the typical repre- sentative of the revolution which passed in his day over English literature. The Campaign, addressed to , was published on December 14 though dated 1705. He observes very well, that musical instruments took their first rise from the notes of birds, and other melodious animals ; and what, says he, was more natural than for the first ages of mankind to imitate the voice of a cat that lived under the same roof with them? Think well on this, and remember thy neighbor in the mountains.
English Department SSMV: Joseph Addison as an Essayist
. I know that entertainments of this nature are apt to raise dark and dismal thoughts in timorous minds and gloomy imaginations; but for my own part, though I am always serious, I do not know what it is to be melancholy; and can therefore take a view of nature in her deep and solemn scenes, with the same pleasure as in her most gay and delightful ones. The first that came out was a very venerable matron, with a nose and chin that were within a very little of touching one another. It is in this new relation of writers to the world of women that we find the key to the Essayists. Through distinction in Latin verse he won election as Demy scholar to Magdalen College in 1689 and took the degree of M. Such as had fine necks and bosoms, were wonderfully curious to look over the heads of the multitude, and observe the most distant parts of the assemibly. In the mean time, what may we not hope, from a cause which is recommended by all the allurement of beauty and the force of truth! To this series Addison gave 53 papers, being a very frequent writer during the latter half of its progress.
Sir Roger de Coverley and the Spectator at Westminster Abbey (1880)
Upon this, I began to consider with myself what innumerable multitudes of people lay confused together under the pavement of that ancient cathedral; how men and women, friends and enemies, priests and soldiers, monks and prebendaries, were crumbled amongst one another, and blended together in the same common mass; how beauty, strength, and youth, with old age, weakness and deformity, lay undistinguished in the same promiscuous heap of matter. There was something more than human in her countenance : her eyes was so full of light, that they seemed to beautify everything they looked upon. The great heaps of gold, on either side the throne, now appeared to be only heaps of paper, or little piles of notched sticks, bound up together in bundles, like Bath faggots. The eye of the mistress was wont to make her pewter shine, and to inspect every part of her household furniture as much as her looking-glass. These hidden pit-falls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner broke through the cloud, but many of them fell into them. As I was sitting in my chamber, and thinking on a subject for my next Spectator, I heard two or three irregular bounces at my landlady's door, and upon the opening of it, a loud cheerful voice inquiring whether the philosopher was at home.
After having thus surveyed this great magazine of mortality, as it were, in the lump; I examined it more particularly by the accounts which I found on several of the monuments which are raised in every quarter of that ancient fabric. Eyre Crowe will probably contribute to the Royal Academy Exhibition … Sir R. According to a rather nebulous story, for which Johnson is the popular authority, Addison, or Addison's lawyer, put an execution for £100 in Steele's house by way of reading his friend a lesson on his extravagance. I need not set forth the ill usage which the fair ones meet with, in those despotic governments that lie nearer us. After a short survey of them, I found they were patched differently ; the faces, on one hand, being spotted on the right side of the fore- head, and those upon the other on the left : I quickly perceived that they cast hostile glances upon one another ; and that their patches were placed in those different situations, as party-signals to distinguish friends from foes. I yesterday passed a whole afternoon in the churchyard, the cloisters, and the church, amusing myself with the tombstones and inscriptions that I met with in those several regions of the dead. We were no sooner come to the Temple-stairs, but we were surrounded with a crowd of watermen, offer- ing their respective services.
Read No. 329 [Sir Roger At Westminster Abbey — from The Spectator] by Joseph Addison
He thinks he gives you an account of an author, when he tells the subject he treats of, the name of the editor, and the year in which it was printed. The other that rides with him is Tom Touchy, a fellow famous for taking the law of everybody. Nobility of which include St. I had very soon an opportunity of observing these quick turns and changes in her constitution. Besides furnishing a prologue to 's comedy of The Tender Husband 1705 , he admittedly gave him some assistance in its composition; he defended the government in an anonymous pamphlet on The Present State of the War 1707 ; he united compliments to the all-powerful Marlborough with indifferent attempts at lyrical poetry in his opera of Rosamond; and during the last few months of his tenure of office he contributed largely to the Tatler. She had not been long among her own people in the valleys, when she received new overtures, and at the same time a most splendid visit, from Mishpach, who was a mighty man of old, and had built a great city, which he called after his own name.
The next who appeared, was a hale old fellow of sixty. Honeycomb calls them the Ramage de la Ville, and prefers them to the sounds of larks and nightin- gales, with all the music of the fields and woods. As books had been written by men, so — it was assumed— they would be read by men ; and not only was this true of the philosophical and theological works of the time, but even its more popular literature, the novelettes — for instance — of Greene and his fellow-Elizabethans, bear on the face of them that they were written to amuse not women but men. The pineal gland, which many of our modern phi- losophers suppose to be the seat of the soul, smelt very strong of essence and orange-flower water, and was encompassed with a kind of horny substance, cut into a thousand little faces or mirrors, which were imper- ceptible to the naked eye ; insomuch, that the soul, if there had been any here, must have been always taken up in contemplating her own beauties, We observed a large antrum or cavity in the sinci- put, that was filled with ribbons, lace, and embroidery, wrought together in a most curious piece of network, the parts of which were likewise imperceptible to the naked eye. As a man never pleads better than where his own personal interest is concerned, he exhibited to the court with great elo- quence, That this new corporation of druggists had inflamed the bills of mortality, and puzzled the college of physicians with diseases, for which they neither knew a name or cure. But there is no reason for believing that he was more careless than other public servants in his time; and the charge of incompetency as a man of business, which has been brought so positively against him, cannot easily be true as to this first period of his official career.
Reflections In Westminster Abbey: by Joseph Addison (1711)
I must not conclude this account without taking notice of the association-ribbon, by which these beauti- ful confederates have agi-eed to distinguish themselves. He also wrote a successful tragic play entitled Cato which was first produced in 1713. I no sooner fell into them, but I dreamed a dream, or saw a vision, for I knew not which to call it, that seemed to rise out of my evening meditation, and had something in it so solemn and serious, that I cannot forbear communicating it ; though I must confess, the wildness of imagination which in a dream is always loose and irregular discovers itself too much in several parts of it. Further, he was Addison's undersecretary and confidential friend; and Addison, cautious though he was, does appear to have said quite truly that Tickell's translation was more faithful than the other. But, as compared with his later pieces, these are only what the painter's loose studies and sketches are to the landscapes which he afterwards constructs out of them. As we were riding away, Sir Roger told me, that he knew several sensible people who believed these gipsies now and then foretold very strange things ; and for half an hour together appeared more jocund than ordinary. I wish the pope may not be at the bottom of it.
The Vision of Mirza and Westminster Abbey, by Joseph Addison
The play enjoyed an unusual run of 20 performances in April and May 1713 and continued to be performed throughout the century. We have gathered all information on famous pieces of literature. If after this we look on the people of mode in the country, we find in them the manners of the last age. In the former, the main theme seems to be that of death and Addison deliberates freely upon his ideas and reflections regarding the same. The blaze of papers, the melting of seals, and crackling of parch- ments, made a very odd scene. And, again, if we pass from his political to his literary speculations, the amusement vanishes, while I fear the boredom remains.
Reflections In Westminster Abbey: by Joseph Addison (1711)
The egocentricity and naivety of the speaker really reveals itself starting in the fourth stanza. If I had seen you this morning, I would have told you in your ear another secret. Thinking about ambitious people in this modern world chasing wealth and status, everyone will just described by some no special dates. The last progress that I made with this intention was about three months ago, when we had a current report of the king of France's death. Such positive evidence as exists tends rather to the contrary.
As it is of a dramatic nature, and peculiarly appro- priated to the stage, I can by no means approve the thought of that angiy lover, who, after an unsuccessful pui'suit of some years, took leave of his mistress in a serenade of cat-calls. Those who have examined this list, compute that there may be three regiments raised out of it, in which there shall not be one man under six foot high. A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart ; his next, to escape the censures of the world : if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected ; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public : a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him. The next that mounted the table was a Malecontent in those days, and a great master of the whole art of grinning, but particularly excelled in the angry grin. I do not, however, disapprove the project which is now on foot for a ' Female Associa- tion;' and since I hear the fair confederates cannot agree among themselves upon a form, shall presume to lay before them the following rough draft, to be corrected or improved, as they in their wisdom shall think fit.
