Meditations in Westminster Abbey by Joseph Addison (Questions & Answers)

Meditations in Westminster Abbey

by Joseph Addison

(Questions & Answers)

 

Answer the following questions:

1.               What was the great source of entertainment for Addison when he was in a serious mood?

-    In his serious humour, Addison preferred walking all alone in the Westminster Abbey, a gloomy place known for its solemnity and melancholic atmosphere.

 

2.               What does the essay Meditations in Westminster Abbey discuss about?

-    The essay deals with Addison’s views on human mistakes created at a point where it is almost stupidity and immoral. He talks about artificial notions, set in the mind of the people of high and lower classes. Addison through his essays rebukes man to create any kind of distinctions because he believes that “Death Levels All”.

 

3.               What are the circumstances that Addison finds common to all mankind?

-    Those two circumstances were, the inscriptions that mentioned the date of the dead man in two ways: the dates that he was born one day, and died upon another day.

 

4.               What did Addison find when he dug the grave?

-    He saw in every shovelful of it that was thrown up, the leftovers of bones or skull intermixed, which was once upon a time a human body. At this he began to think that how men and women, friends and enemies, priests and soldiers, monks and prebendaries, were intermixed in the mud. It is now considered a heap of matter without any consideration for beauty, weakness, strength, old age or young age, meaning that Death levels all.

 

5.               Why does the writer criticize the modern epitaphs?

-    The modern epitaphs were written with great elegance of expression and justness of thought and therefore do honour to the living as well as to the dead.

 

6.               What is the common idea that the essayist wants to convey?

-    He wishes to convey that we should not distinguish one another for silly man-made differences. Death levels all and it does not consider any kind of richness or poverty.

 

7.               Write a paragraph on the identity of Addison as a great essayist?

-    Addison may be said to have almost created and wholly perfected English prose as an instrument for the expression of social thought. He took features of his style from almost all his predecessors. He assumed the character of an essayist moralist, philosopher and critic, and he blended them altogether in his new capacity of a journalist. His essay represents the delightful plasticity, the delightful nuances of mood and fancy. Addison took great care in selecting words from a rich stock and was careful not to tire his readers by repetitions. He laboriously polished his phrases. Addison aimed deliberately at the beauty of execution and employed the pedestrian form. His essay ‘Meditations in the Westminster Abbey’ is more natural and ornated.

 

8.               Summarise the essay, ‘Meditations in the Westminster Abbey’.

-    Addison visited the Westminster Abbey in a serious humour. In this essay, which is one of his well-known essays, he describes the thoughts that came to his mind in the Abbey. The main thoughts of the essay may be stated thus:

Death levels all distinctions. Inscriptions which record nothing else except births and deaths are a sort of satire upon the departed soul. Epitaphs should represent the dead faithfully. Mr. W.E. Williams makes the following comment about Addison’s style, “It is miraculous and elaborate. His paragraphing is a model of precision, the balance and antithesis of sentences are as carefully contrive as a stone mason’s or a carpenter’s. His diction again is as formal as the costume of his day; never replacing into a full-blooded colloquialism never robust in its humour.”

 

9.               Write a note on Addison’s views about the inscriptions on the tomb-stones in the Westminster Abbey.

-    Addison once visited the Westminster Abbey. He read the inscriptions on the tombstones in the Abbey. He did not like most of them. He found that most of the inscriptions said nothing else about the dead person except the dates of their birth and death. Addison regards this as useless. The two events are common to all mankind. He said that such inscriptions were a satire upon the departed souls. They showed as if they did nothing worth remembering in the world except that they were born on a particular day and died on another.

Upon certain tombs he found extravagant epitaphs. Addison thought that they were so extravagant that even the persons concerned would blush to read them if they were to come to life. Some epitaphs were excessively modest and inadequate. Many of them were written in Greek or Hebrew which none could read. Thus, the epitaphs were rendered useless.

He found many monuments and tombs which did not contain the remains of the dead. They had died elsewhere. It had not been possible to bring their remains here. So, these monuments were just memorials. There were some graves which had no tomb-stones on them. Some inscriptions misrepresented the dead. It was so in the case of Sir Cloudsley Shovel. Sir Cloudsley Shovel was a great English Admiral. In his life he had been rough, brave and simple. He was a great patriot. The inscription did not show these qualities of Sir Shovel. Instead, he was represented as a beau with a long periwig and reposing upon a velvet cushion under a canopy. The inscription did not mention the manner of his death. Nothing in the inscription did honour to Sir Shovel. Addison says that the inscriptions should represent the true character of the dead persons.

Addison saw some modern inscriptions. These were written with great elegance of expression and justness of thought. These did honour to the dead. Addison says that a foreigner is likely to form an opinion about the character of the people of the country by reading these inscriptions. He suggests that all inscriptions should be subjected to the perusal of men of learning before they are carved on the tomb-stones. He appreciates the Dutch for writing good inscriptions on the tomb-stones.

 

10.        “The life of these men is finely described in the Holy writ by the path of an arrow which is immediately closed up and lost”. Explain.

-    Addison says that the lives of many of the so-called great men are untraceable after their death. They leave nothing in the world worth remembering. The path traversed by an arrow is untraceable immediately after it leaves. No track is left after it passes through the air. In the same way some men leave no trace of their life after death. It appears that they were born and they immediately died. We do not remember them for they do nothing worth remembering.

 

11.        Describe the thoughts that comes to Addison’s mind when he visits the Westminster Abbey?

-    The essay ‘Mediations in Westminster Abbey’ describes Addison’s impressions and thoughts. One day Addison was in a thoughtful mood. He was quite serious. In such a mood he visited the Westminster Abbey. He examined the various tombs there. He did not like the inscriptions on most of them. He found that most of the memorials only mentioned the year of birth and death. He says, that from this one he is made to think that the man did nothing in his life worth remembering.

Some tombs had extravagant epitaphs. Some epitaphs were very inadequate. Some were written in Greek and Hebrew. So very few persons could read and understand them. There were some monuments and tombs which were just memorials. The persons had died elsewhere. Some tombs had no memorials. Some monuments did not suitably represent the dead person. For example, Addison did not like the Sir Cloudsley Shovel’s monument. Shovel was a great English Admiral. He was a brave, simple man who scarified his life for an ideal. But he is represented as a fashionable young man. Addison praises the Dutch for showing better taste in their monuments.

Addison praises some modern inscriptions. They describe the persons correctly. They do honour to the persons concerned and the writer. Addison says that foreigners form an opinion about us by reading these inscriptions. So, these should be carefully checked and Men of learning should be consulted in this matter.

Addison’s visit to the Westminster Abbey was very rewarding. He realized the transitoriness of life when he saw tombs of the great. He realized that we should not be envious of the so-called great men. We should not be proud of our wealth power and beauty. All persons great or small, poor or rich must die one day. We should not quarrel over petty things. Friends and enemies, priests and soldiers all are blended together in the common mass, in the end.

 

12.        Write five sentences about Joseph Addison. Also mention the dates of his age?

-    Joseph Addison was born on May1, 1672. He studied at Queen’s College, Oxford. He was also associated with Magdalen College. Very soon, he acquired an immense scholastic reputation. Johnson praised him for his Latin Poem. He was married to the Countess of Warwick, but it was not a happy marriage. In 1718 his health began to fall. He died in 1719 at the early age of forty-seven. Addison is famous for the sweetness of his style. “Never, had the English language been written with such sweetness, grace and felicity as by Addison”. Whatever he wrote, appealed to the common reader. His essays are not scholarly, they are familiar, easy and simple.

 

13.        What is a Satire?

-    Satire is literary device of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking towards it attitudes of amusement, contempt, indignation or scorn.

 

14.        Write some memorable quotations from the essay, ‘Meditations in Westminster Abbey’.

-    Most of them recorded nothing else of the buried person but that he was born one day and died upon another.

 

-    The life of these men is finely described in Holy Writ by the path of an arrow, which is immediately closed up and lost.

 

-    In the poetical quarter, I found there were poets who had no monuments and monuments which had no poets.

 

-    When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me.

 

-    When I read the several dates of the tombs – of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together