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Eustace Budgell
Previous page: Shooting the Bridge
In 1737, Eustace Budgell, a soi-disant cousin of Addison, who wrote in the Spectator and Guardian, when broken down in character and reduced to poverty, took a boat at Somerset Stairs; and ordering the waterman to row down the river, Budgell threw himself into the water as they shot London Bridge.
He too had filled his pockets with stones, and sunk: he had left a slip of paper, on which was written a broken distich: "What Cato did, and Addison approved, cannot be wrong." This is something of a sophism since there is little similarity between the cases of Budgell and Cato as there is reason for considering Addison's "Cato" written in defence of suicide.
Next page: Edward Osborne
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