Front Page Authors (by Period) Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison

1672 - 1719

About the Author

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) was educated at Oxford, served as a member of Parliament, and became widely known as an essayist, playwright, poet, and statesman. His play about Cato was very popular in the American colonies before the Revolution.

In The Library:

• author: Cato. A Tragedy (1713 ed.) (1713)
• author: Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays (1710)

Quotations:

• In Joseph Addison’s play Cato Cato is asked what it would take for him to be Caesar’s “friend” - his answer is that Caesar would have to first “disband his legions” and then “restore the commonwealth to liberty” (1713) (28 February, 2005)
• Cato denounces generals like Julius Caesar who use success on the battlefield as a stepping stone to political power (1710) (19 May, 2010)