DEAR SIR, ADDISON TO MR. TONSON. [Oxford,] May 28th, [? 1695-6.] I have been so very full of business since the receipt of your papers, that I could not possibly find time to translate them so soon as I desired. I have now almost finished them, and will send them up to you as soon as I have looked them over and got them transcribed; which I will do the sooner if you have present occasion for them. Mr. Clay tells me that he let you know the misfortune Polymnia1 met with on the road, which I assure you happened by the negligence of the carrier, who inns at the Swan in Holborn. Your discourse with me about translating Ovid made such an impression on me at my first coming down from London, that I ventured on the second Book,2 which I turned at my leisure hours, and will give you a sight of if you will put yourself to the trouble of reading it. He has so many silly stories with his good ones, that he is more tedious to translate than a better poet would be. But though I despair of serving you this way, I hope I may find out some other to show you how much I am Your very humble servant, ADDISON TO CHARLES MONTAGU, ESQ., CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY, ON E OF HIS MAJESTY'S PRIVY COUNCIL, &c.1 [Oxford,] 1697.5 You whose ears are bedinned by such a mob of vile poets, will hardly complain that anything unusual has happened to ' This (the seventh book of Herodotus) appears to have been lost on the road. 2 This is included among Addison's Poems. See our vol. i. page 87. The preceding three letters, which are without the year, but presumed to be about 1695-96, relate to an intended "joint stock" translation (between Boyle, Blackmore, Adams, Dr. Hannes, Dr. Gibbons, and Addison) of Herodotus, of which Addison was to be the manager and Tonson the publisher. The originals are in the possession of W. R. Baker, Esq., the lineal descendant of Tonson, and have been obligingly communicated for the purposes of the present edition. Afterwards Earl of Halifax, one of Addison's earliest patrons. See p. 377. 5 The original of this letter is given in our vol. i. page 232. That and the Tentamen de Poetis elegiacis, (at the end of the present volume,) are you, when find you my strains likewise maltreating a noble theme. How much the Britons excel in martial prowess is proved by the glory of our recent deeds, but that we do not shine in the more polished studies of peace, is evidenced by the verses which we have lately produced. Were it not that your friend Congreve has treated the subject with his usual poetic fire, we should have had little cause to rejoice in a peace so wretchedly sung by such worthless poets. But whilst I blame others, I seem to be forgetting myself; I who am perhaps causing you more annoyance by my Latin verses than they by their vernacular; excepting that the difference of the torture may afford some alleviation to your sufferings. Never indeed could I be induced to submit a poem written in native language to the my eyes of one like you, who deter all others from such attempts by your writing no less than you excite them by your favour. MY LORD, The devoted admirer of your accomplishments, ADDISON TO LORD SOMERS.1 Paris, Sept. 1699. I have now for some time lived on the effect of your Lordship's patronage, without presuming to return you my most humble thanks for it. But I find it no less difficult to suppress the sense I have of your Lordship's favour than I do to represent it as I ought. Gratitude for a kindness received is generally as troublesome to the benefactor as the importunity in soliciting it; and I hope your Lordship will pardon me if I offend in one of these respects, who had never any occasion or pretence to do it on the other. The only return I can make your Lordship will be to apply myself said to be the only specimens of Addison's Latin prose compositions extant. The Gents. Mag. however brings to light another, which we annex at the end of the volume, leaving the question of authenticity to the reader's own judgment. In the Memoirs of Lord Somers, published in 1716, during the lifetime of Addison, the editor introduces the following note. "I believe the learned, ingenious, and polite Mr. Addison will not take it amiss to have it told, that his Lordship took him into his protection and favour, when he came first to Town; that he obtained a handsome pension for him, before he went to travel, and afterwards recommended him so powerfully to the Lord Halifax, that he passed through several profitable and honourable employments, till he was made as happy in his fortune as in his fame." Memoirs of Lord Somers, anno 1716, p. 110. entirely to my business, and to take such a care of my conversation that your favours may not seem misplaced on, My Lord, To my Lord Chancellor.1 Your Lordship's, &c. 2 ADDISON TO MR. SANSOM. Paris, Sept. 1699. Analysis. Addison thanks Mr. Sansom (of whom nothing further is known) for a letter of introduction to Mr. Breton, "whose conversation at Dover made his stay there very pleasant, and whose interest with the officers made his departure easy." ADDISON TO CHARLES MONTAGU, Esq.3 HONOURED SIR, Paris, Oct. 14, 1699. I am at present in a place where nothing is more usual than for mean people to press into the presence and conversation of great men, and where modesty is so very scarce, that I think I have not seen a blush since my first landing at Calais, which I hope may in some measure excuse me for presuming to trouble you with a letter. But if I may not be allowed [to improve] a little [in the] confidence of the country, I am sure I receive in it so many effects of your favour in the civilities my Lord Ambassador has been pleased to show me, that I cannot but think it my duty to make you acquainted with them, and return my most humble thanks. I am sorry my travels have not yet fur This is the earliest letter on record to his patron, Lord Somers, now best known to literature by the valuable collection of Tracts which bears his name. Addison had become acquainted with him by what Dr. Johnson designated a kind of rhyming introduction." See vol. i. p. 3. A few early letters of comparatively little interest, and which have already been published by Miss Aikin, will be presented in the form of analysis. They could not well have been entirely omitted, as the facts and dates are a necessary link in tracing Addison's career. 3 The original autograph letter, from which the above is printed, (and which is in the British Museum,) differs in the several passages printed in Italics from that given by Miss Aikin from a draft in the possession of Edward Tickell, Esq. The words between brackets are not in the original. Miss Aikin appears to have mistaken the date, which is written 8br, meaning October, not August. nished me with anything else worth your knowledge. As for the present state of learning, there is nothing published here which has not [something] in it [of] an air of devotion. Dacier has been forced to prove his Plato a very good Christian, before he ventures to translate him, and has so far complied with the taste of the age, that his whole book is overrun with texts of Scripture, and the notion of pre-existence supposed to be stolen from two verses out of the Prophets. Nay, the humour is grown so universal, that it is got among the poets, who are every day publishing Legends and Lives of Saints in rhyme. My imperfect acquaintance with the French language makes me incapable of learning any more particular news of this kind, so that I must end my letter, as I begun it, with my most humble acknowledgments for all your favours. I am, honoured sir, Your most obliged And most obedient humble servant, ADDISON TO COLONEL FROWDE.1 J. ADDISON. Paris, November, 1699. Analysis. Expresses his pleasure at receiving a letter with the name of Colonel Frowde at the bottom; especially because written in English, a language that had not been spoken to him for six weeks." I was sorry, however, to hear that you had bid farewell to poetry by the instigating contrivance of my brother Garr, the friend to strong drink, and enemy to the muses." "As for myself, I am so embarrassed with nouns and verbs, that I have no time to think of verse, but am forced to decline and conjugate words instead of putting them into rhyme." 'This gentleman, who was an Oxford friend, is supposed by Miss Aikin, from a note to this letter found in Nicholls' and Scott's editions of Swift, to have been at the time Comptroller of the Foreign department, at the Post-office. But this appears to have been his father, who held that office from 1678 to 1688. Addison's friend was no doubt his eldest son, Philip Frowde, Magd. Coll. superioris ordinis commensalis, who was besides Addison's pupil and one of the contributors to the Mus. Angl. in 1699. Chalmers says he was distinguished by Addison, who took him under his protection. He wrote two tragedies, Philotas," and "The Fall of Jerusalem," and died 1738. Swift's "stupid old Frowde" is he who sold Pepper-harrow, as he had threatened, March, 1712-13, to Lord Midleton, and died in 1736. 66 DEAR SIR, ADDISON TO MR. ADAMS.1 Blois, December, 1699. I have been lately very much indisposed with a fever, or I would have answered your letter sooner, but am at present very well recovered, notwithstanding I made use of one of the physicians of this place, who are as cheap as our English farriers, and generally as ignorant. I hope the news you sent me of Sir Edward Seymour's act will prove true, for here are a couple of English gentlemen that have turned off a fencing master on the strength of it. I have here sent you a scrip of Dr. Davenant's new book2 as it came to me in a letter. It is levelled against the ministry, and makes a great noise in its own country, &c. To pass from statesmen to the cloth-hat you left with me: you must know that it has travelled many miles, and run through a great variety of adventures, since you saw it last. It was left at Orleans for above a week, and since that fell into the hands of a hackneycoachman that took a particular liking to our English manufacture, and would by no means part with it; but by many fair words and a few menaces I have at last recovered it out of his hands, though not without the entire loss of the hatband. I hear there is at present a very great ferment in Maudlin College, which is worked up to a great height by Newnam ale and frequent canvassings. I suppose both parties, before they engage, will send into France for their foreign succours.— .-I am, &c. J. ADDISON. 1 Probably the Adams mentioned at p. 318, or Dr. Samuel Adams, of Alvescot, Oxford, who was at Magd. Coll. 1693, and wrote a Sermon on Rebellion, published 1716. 2 Alluding perhaps to his "Essay on the probable method of making the people gainers in the balance of trade," London, 1699; or to his more popular work, published early in 1700, "A Discourse on Grants and Resumptions, showing how our ancestors proceeded with such ministers as had procured themselves grants of the crown revenue, &c., 8vo, Lond. 1700, and several times reprinted. Macky (in his Memoirs of his Secret Services, published 1733) describes these works of Dr. Charles Davenant as 66 so many libels on the ministry. Swift adds in MS., "Davenant was ill used by most ministries. He ruined his own estate, which put him under the necessity of complying with the times." |