The Spectator

Voorkant
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009 - 280 pagina's
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Na 326. Friday March 14, 1712 [STEELE. Inclusam Danaen turris aenea Rolustceque fores, et vigilum canum Tristes exculnez, munierant satis Nocturnis ab adulteris; Si lion ?Hor., 3 Od. xvi. i. ' Mr. Spectator, OUR correspondent's letter relating to for- tune-hunters, and your subsequent discourse upon it,1 have given me encouragement to send you a state of my case; by which you will see that the matter complained of is a common grievance both to city and country. ' I am a country gentleman of between five and six thousand a year. It is my misfortune to have a very fine park and an only daughter; upon which account I have been so plagued with deer-stealers and fops, that for these four years past I have scarce enjoyed a moment's rest. I look upon myself to be in a state of war; and am forced to keep as constant watch in my seat as a governor would do that commanded a town on the frontier of an enemy's country. I have indeed pretty well secured my park, having for this purpose provided myself of four keepers, who are left-handed and handle a quarterstaff beyond any other fellows in the country. And for the guard of my house, besides a band of pensioner-matrons and an old maiden relation, whom I keep on constant duty, I have blunderbusses always charged, and fox-gins planted in private places aboutmy garden, of which I have given frequent notice in the neighbourhood; yet so it is, that in spite of all my care, I shall every now and then have a saucy rascal ride by reconnoitring (as I think you call it) under my windows, as sprucely dressed as if he were going to a ball. I am aware of this way of attacking a mistress on horseback, having heard that it is a common practice in Spain; and have therefore taken care to remove my daughter from the road side of the house...

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Over de auteur (2009)

Addison, son of the Dean of Litchfield, took high honors at Oxford University and then joined the British army. He first came to literary fame by writing a poem, "The Campaign" (1704), to celebrate the Battle of Blenheim. When Richard Steele, whom he had known in his public school Charterhouse, started The Tatler in 1709, Addison became a regular contributor. But his contributions to a later venture The Spectator (generally considered the zenith of the periodical essay), were fundamental. While Steele can be credited with the editorial direction of the journal, Addison's essays, ranging from gently satiric to genuinely funny, secured the journal's success. In The Spectator, No. 10, Addison declared that the journal aimed "to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality." His brilliant character of Sir Roger de Coverley (followed from rake to reformation) distinguishes the most popular essays. Addison died in 1719. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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