Joseph Addison (1) (1672–1719)

My copy was printed in 1784. France was a kingdom, America a colony and Australia an outline on a map. Not the kind of thing I normally read, but when someone offers you a copy for £1.99 you barrel the Blue Rinse Brigade out of the way in your haste to the till.

What we have here is literary fellatio. In the case of The Campaign Addison has been asked to drop to his knees, but looking at the addressees of the other poems - Dryden, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, the King - it’s quite obvious that he has, without a by-your-leave, popped their cocks out and given suck.

The poems are technically pretty good and largely inoffensive, but the contents totally inconsequential. Addison’s interests are power, fame and Britannia. If he weren’t a man of such stature for other reasons they would never have been reprinted.

The best things in here are some translations out of Ovid and Vergil. I have no idea if they would be considered good translations, but Metamorphoses in particular is good fun. Highly imaginative with good CGI and funny at times. I think it’s interesting what he chooses to translate, so we have Vergil’s Fourth Georgic addressed to Maecenas, itself a patronage poem.

There’s also an introduction which is good even by modern standards.

On the whole I enjoyed the book but largely because it was nice to read something so old.… (más)