Chief Secretary to the Earl of Sunderland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.| Contemporary Literature | History | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1708. | Swift's Argument against Abolishing Christianity. Sentiments of a Church of England Man, Predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff. | 1708. | Whigs supreme; forced resignation of Harley and St. John.Battle of Oudenarde. |
| 1709. | Pope's Pastorals. Prior's Poems. | 1709. | French defeated at Malplaquet. |
| Growing weariness of the war. | |||
| Sacheverell's sermon (November 9). | |||
| 1710. | Berkeley's Principles of Human Knowledge. | 1710. | Trial of Sacheverell (February). |
| Swift's Examiner; Journal to Stella begun. | Parliament dissolved; elections (November) bring in Tory majorities; Harley (now Earl of Oxford) and St. John (now Viscount Bolingbroke) at the head of the ministry. | ||
| 1711. | Pope's Essay on Criticism. | 1711. | Marlborough relieved of command of the army. |
| Swift's Conduct of the >Allies. | Creation of twelve new Tory peers; Tories in complete control of government. | ||
| 1712. | Pope's Rape of the Lock (First version). | 1712. | Negotiations for peace. |
| Arbuthnot's History of John Bull. | |||
| 1713. | Berkeley's Three Dialogues. | 1713. | Peace of Utrecht. |
| Pope's Windsor Forest. | Growing difference between Oxford and Bolingbroke. | ||
| Swift's Cadenus and Vanessa. | |||
| 1714. | Gay's Shepherd's Week. | 1714. | Death of Queen Anne; accession of George I. |
| Pope's Rape of the Lock (Second version). | Downfall of the Tory party. | ||
| Swift's Public Spirit of the Whigs. | |||
| 1715. | Gay's Trivia. Pope's Translation of the Iliad, Vol. I. (Finished in 1720.) | 1715. | Jacobite rebellion. |
| Steele | Addison | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1717. | April. Named Secretary of State. | ||
| 1718. | December 26. Lady Steele dies. | 1718. | March. Resigned this position, and granted a pension of £1500. |
| 1719. | Publishes The Plebeian. | 1719. | Replies to Steele's Plebeian in The Old Whig. |
| June 17. Dies in London. | |||
| 1722. | March. Elected to Parliament from Wendover. | ||
| December. Publishes The Conscious Lovers. | |||
| 1725. | Living at Hereford. | ||
| 1726. | Retires to Wales. | ||
| 1729. | September 1. Dies at Carmarthen, Wales. |
| Contemporary Literature | History | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1720. | South Sea Bubble. | ||
| 1722. | Defoe's Journal of the Plague. | ||
| 1723. | Pope's Translation of the Odyssey, Volumes I, II. (Completed in 1725.) | ||
| 1724. | Swift's Drapier's Letters. | ||
| 1726. | Swift's Gulliver's Travels. | ||
| Thomson's Winter. | |||
| 1727. | Thomson's Summer. | 1727. | George I. dies; accession of George II. |
| 1728. | Gay's Beggars' Opera. | ||
| Pope's Dunciad. | |||
| Thomson's Spring. | |||
| 1729. | Swift's Modest Proposal. |
THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS
I. THE SPECTATOR
[No. 1. Thursday, March 1, 1711. Addison.]
Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem
Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat.
Hor.
I have observed that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure till he knows whether the writer of it be a black[3] or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars of the like nature that conduce very much to the right understanding {5} of an author. To gratify this curiosity, which is so natural to a reader, I design this paper and my next as prefatory discourses to my following writings, and shall give some account in them of the several persons that are engaged in this work. As the chief trouble of compiling, digesting, {10} and correcting will fall to my share, I must do myself the justice to open the work with my own history. I was born to a small hereditary estate, which, according to the tradition of the village where it lies, was bounded by the same hedges and ditches in William the Conqueror's time that it is at present, and has been delivered down from father to son whole and entire, without the loss or acquisition {5} of a single field or meadow, during the space of six hundred years. There runs a story in the family, that my mother ... dreamt that she was brought to bed of a judge: whether this might proceed from a lawsuit which was then depending[4] in the family, or my father's being a {10} justice of the peace, I cannot determine; for I am not so vain as to think it presaged any dignity that I should arrive at in my future life, though that was the interpretation which the neighbourhood put upon it. The gravity of my behaviour at my very first appearance in the world, {15} and all the time that I sucked, seemed to favour my mother's dream; for, as she had often told me, I threw away my rattle before I was two months old, and would not make use of my coral[5] till they had taken away the bells from it. {20}
As for the rest of my infancy, there being nothing in it remarkable, I shall pass it over in silence. I find that, during my nonage,[6] I had the reputation of a very sullen youth, but was always a favourite of my schoolmaster, who used to say that my parts were solid and would wear well. {25} I had not been long at the university before I distinguished myself by a most profound silence; for during the space of eight years, excepting in the public exercises of the college, I scarce uttered the quantity of an hundred words; and indeed do not remember that I ever {5} spoke three sentences together in my whole life. Whilst I was in this learned body, I applied myself with so much diligence to my studies that there are very few celebrated books, either in the learned or the modern tongues, which I am not acquainted with. {10}
Upon the death of my father, I was resolved to travel into foreign countries, and therefore left the university with the character of an odd, unaccountable fellow, that had a great deal of learning, if I would but show it. An insatiable thirst after knowledge carried me into all the {15} countries of Europe in which there was anything new or strange to be seen; nay, to such a degree was my curiosity raised, that having read the controversies of some great men concerning the antiquities of Egypt, I made a voyage to Grand Cairo on purpose to take the measure {20} of a pyramid; and as soon as I had set myself right in that particular, returned to my native country with great satisfaction.
I have passed my latter years in this city, where I am frequently seen in most public places, though there are {25} not above half a dozen of my select friends that know me; of whom my next paper shall give a more particular account. There is no place of general resort wherein I do not often make my appearance; sometimes I am seen thrusting my head into a round of politicians at Will's, and listening with great attention to the narratives that are made in those little circular audiences. Sometimes I smoke a pipe at Child's, and whilst I seem attentive to nothing but the Postman, overhear the conversation of {5} every table in the room. I appear on Sunday nights at St. James's Coffee-house, and sometimes join the little committee of politics in the inner room, as one who comes there to hear and improve.
