“The spectator’s Account of Himself”
– Joseph Addison
Thursday 1st March 1710
The present paper is contributed by Joseph Addison and he tries to give certain biographical details about his life in the present paper. He begins by saying that a reader hardly enjoys a literary work as long as he does not know anything about the life of the writer. It is a natural curiosity on the part of the readers to know whether the writer is black or white, married or unmarried or fell in love or not and so on, to satisfy such curiosity of the readers he has composed the present essay.
The essayist begins with his birth saying that he belongs to a common family which depended upon hereditary estate. His mother had a dream before he was born that her son would be a judge in future. The behaviour of the essayist after he was born made others feel that the dream of the mother will come true. Before he was two months old he threw away the rattle gifted to him. He was not ready to accept the coral as long as the Bell of that coral were not removed. This indicated the child would become justice of peace.
Commenting on his early childhood the spectator mentions nothing remarkable happened during early childhood. He used to be a silent sullen boy but favourite of his teachers. It was during the days of his higher education that he distinguished himself with his absolute silence. During his study for eight years in the college he did not utter more than hundred words except his participation in debate and public species competitions. So far in his life he has not spoken 3 sentences in sequence -continuation. the spectator explains when his fellow friends were wasting their time in talking, he used that time for reading books in the library. The result is that there are very few celebrated books with which he is not familiar.
The Spectator informs that after his education and death of his father, he made up his mind to travel various countries of Europe. He knew that travelling is also a good way of educating oneself, so to acquire more knowledge he visited different countries of Europe. He wanted to furnish himself with the knowledge of all new and strange things. He gives one example of his trip/travel to Cairo. He came to know about the pyramids of Egypt and to get the knowledge about pyramids he personally measured one pyramid -its length, width, height and depth. It reflects the spectator’s curiosity to know strange and new things.
Now the spectator is settled in the city of London and he has his own club known as “The Spectator’s Club”. Now he plays the role of a spectator or ‘an onlooker’ . He is seen at most of the public places – sometimes at the Will’s Club, some other times at the child’s club, sometimes he is found in the house of the Tory party or the Whig Party. Sometimes he remains present at the theatre and sometimes at St James coffee house. He observes people, their behaviour and conversation at such public places. Whatever he observes and notices furnish him with enough material and ideas for the publication of the next issue of his paper. He is seen at public places but he does not exchange words with those people. He remains aloof from them. It is only with his six friends that he speaks and shares his views with them. His friends at the Spectator’s Club are of the opinion that knowledge must not be in the possession of a silent person and so at their suggestion the spectator has started this publication.
The spectator believes that this much is enough for the readers. He is not willing to declare his name, age and address. Giving the reason for that the spectator explains that he wants to enjoy obscurity. He is not willing to be identified as the writer of the spectator otherwise people would offer all civilities and salutes which he dislikes. He does not want to be stared and discussed by the people. He considers it painful and so he will not reveal his name, age and address.
While concluding the essay / paper he informs his readers that in the next issue he will acquaint the readers with his six friends of the Spectator’s club.