The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation

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Ophelia Field. The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation

Table of Contents

PREFACE

PROLOGUE DRYDEN'S FUNERAL, MAY 1700

I SELF-MADE MEN

II FRIENDSHIPS FORMED

III THE SCENT OF THE PIE-OVEN

IV THE TOAST OF THE TOWN: A KIT-CAT MEETING, 1697

V CULTURE WARS

VI THE EUROPEANS

VII THE WHIGS GO TO WAR

VIII KIT-CAT CONNOISSEURS

IX BY SEVERAL HANDS

X THE COMEBACK KITS

XI UNEASY UNIONS: 1707

XII BESET

XIII IRELAND: KIT-CAT COLONY

XIV THE MONOPOLY BROKEN: WHIG DOWNFALL

XV IN THEIR OWN IMAGE

XVI THE CRISIS

XVII BIG WHIGS: THE FIRST GEORGIANS

XVIII PARADISE LOST

XIX THE END OF THE CLUB

XX LATER CLUBS AND KIT-CATS

EPILOGUE LEGACIES

NOTES. PROLOGUE

I SELF-MADE MEN

II FRIENDSHIPS FORMED

III THE SCENT OF THE PIE-OVEN

IV THE TOAST OF THE TOWN: A KIT-CAT MEETING, 1697

V CULTURE WARS

VI THE EUROPEANS

VII THE WHIGS GO TO WAR

VIII KIT-CAT CONNOISSEURS

IX BY SEVERAL HANDS

X THE COMEBACK KITS

XI UNEASY UNIONS: 1707

XII BESET

XIII IRELAND: KIT-CAT COLONY

XIV THE MONOPOLY BROKEN: WHIG DOWNFALL

XV IN THEIR OWN IMAGE

XVI THE CRISIS

XVII BIG WHIGS: THE FIRST GEORGIANS

XVIII PARADISE LOST

XIX THE END OF THE CLUB

XX LATER CLUBS AND KIT-CATS

EPILOGUE: LEGACIES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF MEMBERS

INDEX

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

Отрывок из книги

OPHELIA FIELD

The Kit-Cat Club

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When Addison sent a poem flattering Dryden's talent to the poet in London, Dryden and Tonson included it in the Miscellany Poems they co-edited in 1693.36 Addison's 1694 poem, ‘An Account of the Greatest English Poets’, then summarized the history of English poetry, culminating—implausibly to modern judgement—with Charles Montagu at its pinnacle. Addison immediately found a flattered benefactor in the 33-year-old Chancellor of the Exchequer. Steele later recalled that Congreve was the instrument of Addison's ‘becoming acquainted with’ Montagu.37 How Congreve and Addison first met, however, is uncertain. Most likely it was through Dryden and/or Tonson, following Addison's inclusion in the Miscellany, or perhaps Tonson invited Addison home to the Fleet Street house the publisher then shared with Congreve. Either way, there was soon mutual respect between Addison and Congreve, whose respective specializations in Latin and Greek literature spared them direct rivalry.

By 1695, Addison was studying to take orders, though he increasingly wished neither to follow his father into the Church nor to remain a university tutor. Addison therefore sought to add a further patron to his portfolio and did so in the traditional way: by poetic tribute. His verse ‘On His Majesty, Presented to the Lord Keeper [Somers]’ was a bold move on the young academic's part, since he had never met Somers, and had no family connection to justify the presentation. Somers must not have minded, since he let Tonson and Congreve bring the poem's author to meet him. Until now, Addison had been not so much a Whig as Whig-leaning, but these two poems, courting Montagu and Somers, marked his first clear declaration of political allegiance.

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