Editing Joseph Addison (section)

==Early life and education==
Addison was born in [[Milston]], [[Wiltshire]], but soon after his birth his father, [[Lancelot Addison]], was appointed [[Dean of Lichfield]] and the family moved into the [[Lichfield Cathedral|cathedral close]]. His father was a scholarly English clergyman. Joseph was educated at [[Charterhouse School]], London, where he first met Richard Steele, and at [[The Queen's College, Oxford]].<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Addison, Joseph}}</ref> He excelled in classics, being specially noted for his [[Neo-Latin]] verse, and became a [[University don|fellow]] of [[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]]. 

In 1693, he addressed a poem to [[John Dryden]], and his first major work, a book of the lives of English poets, was published in 1694. His translation of [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Georgics]]'' was published in the same year. Dryden, [[Lord Somers]] and [[Charles Montague, 1st Earl of Halifax]], took an interest in Addison's work and obtained for him a pension of £300 a year to enable him to travel to Europe with a view to diplomatic employment, all the time writing and studying politics. 

While, in Switzerland, in 1702, he heard of the death of [[William III of England|William&nbsp;III]], an event which lost him his pension, as his influential contacts, Halifax and Somers, had lost their employment with the Crown.