1672-1719. MADE SECRETARY OF STATE. 145 persuaded to marry him, on terms much like those on which a Turkish princess is espoused, to whom the Sultan is reported to pronounce, "Daughter, I give thee this man for thy slave." The marriage, if uncontradicted report can be credited, made no addition to his happiness; it neither found them nor made them equal. She always remembered her own rank, and thought herself entitled to treat with very little ceremony the tutor of her son. Rowe's ballad of The Despairing Shepherd' is said to have been written, either before or after marriage, upon this memorable pair; and it is certain that Addison has left behind him no encouragement for ambitious love.76 The year after (April 16, 1717) he rose to his highest elevation, being made Secretary of State. For this employment he might be justly supposed qualified by long practice of business, and by his regular ascent through other offices; but expectation is often disappointed; it is universally confessed that he was unequal to the duties of his place. In the House of Commons he could not speak, and therefore was useless to the defence of the government. In the office, says Pope," he could not issue an order without losing his time in quest of fine expressions. What he gained in rank, he lost in credit; and, finding by experience his own inability, was forced to solicit his dismission, with a pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year. His friends palliated this relinquishment, of which both friends and enemies knew the true reason, with an account of declining health, and the necessity of recess and quiet." 78 76 Nor Dryden. Pope had both these marriages in his eye when he wrote ('Epistle to Arbuthnot'): Born to no pride, inheriting no strife, 77 Spence.-JOHNSON. Mr. Addison could not give out a common order in writing, from his endeavouring always to word it too finely. He had too beautiful an imagination to make a man of business.-POPE: Spence by Singer, p. 175. 78 It may be inferred from a letter of Lady M. W. Montagu to Pope, that failing health had more to do with Addison's retreat than Johnson imagined. "I received the news of Mr. Addison's being declared Secretary of State with the less surprise, in that I knew that post was almost offered to him before. At that time he declined it, and I really believe that he would have done well VOL. II. L He now returned to his vocation, and began to plan literary occupations for his future life. He purposed a tragedy on the death of Socrates; a story of which, as Tickell remarks, the basis is narrow, and to which I know not how love could have been appended. There would, however, have been no want either of virtue in the sentiments, or elegance in the language. He engaged in a nobler work, a defence of the 'Christian Religion,' of which part was published after his death; and he designed to have made a new poetical version of the Psalms. These pious compositions Pope imputed 79 to a selfish motive, upon the credit, as he owns, of Tonson, who having quarrelled with Addison, and not loving him, said, that when he laid down the Secretary's office, he intended to take orders, and obtain a bishopric; "for," said he, "I always thought him a priest in his heart." so That Pope should have thought this conjecture of Tonson worth remembrance, is a proof, but indeed, so far as I have found, the only proof, that he retained some malignity from their ancient rivalry. Tonson pretended but to guess it; no other mortal ever suspected it; and Pope might have reflected, that a man who had been Secretary of State in the ministry of Sunderland, knew a nearer way to a bishopric than by defending religion, or translating the Psalins. It is related that he had once a design to make an English Dictionary, and that he considered Dr. Tillotson as the writer of highest authority. There was formerly sent to me by Mr. Locker, clerk of the Leathersellers' Company, who was eminent for curiosity and literature, a collection of examples selected from Tillotson's works, as Locker said, by Addison. It came too late to be of use, so I inspected it but slightly, and remember it indistinctly. I thought the passages too short. Addison, however, did not conclude his life in peaceful to have declined it now. Such a post as that, and such a wife as the Countess, do not seem to be, in prudence, eligible for a man that is asthmatic; and we may see the day when he will be heartily glad to resign them both.”—Sept. 1, 1717. Roscoe's 'Pope,' vol. vii. p. 94. 79 Spence. JOHNSON. Ed. Singer, p. 192. 1672-1719. HIS ALLEGED QUARREL WITH STEELE. 147 studies; but relapsed, when he was near his end, to a political dispute. It so happened that (1718-19) a controversy was agitated with great vehemence between those friends of long continuance, Addison and Steele. It may be asked, in the language of Homer, what power or what cause should set them at variance. The subject of their dispute was of great importance. The Earl of Sunderland proposed an Act, called The Peerage Bill, by which the number of Peers should be fixed, and the King restrained from any new creation of nobility unless when an old family should be extinct. To this the Lords would naturally agree; and the King [George I.], who was yet little acquainted with his own prerogative, and, as is now well known, almost indifferent to the possessions of the crown, had been persuaded to consent. The only difficulty was found among the Commons, who were not likely to approve the perpetual exclusion of themselves and their posterity. The bill therefore was eagerly opposed, and among others by Sir Robert Walpole, whose speech was published. The Lords might think their dignity diminished by improper advancements, and particularly by the introduction of twelve new Peers at once, to produce a majority of Tories in the last reign; an act of authority violent enough, yet certainly legal, and by no means to be compared with that contempt of national right with which, some time afterwards, by the instigation of Whiggism, the Commons, chosen by the people for three years, chose themselves for seven. But, whatever might be the disposition of the Lords, the people had no wish to increase their power. The tendency of the Bill, as Steele observed in a letter to the Earl of Oxford, was to introduce an aristocracy; for a majority in the House of Lords, so limited, would have been despotic and irresistible. To prevent this subversion of the ancient establishment, Steele, whose pen readily seconded his political passions, endeavoured to alarm the nation by a pamphlet called "The Plebeian.' To this an answer was published [1719] by Addison, under the title of The Old Whig,' in which it is not discovered that Steele was then known to be the advocate for the Commons. Steele replied by a second Plebeian;' and, whether by ignorance or by courtesy, confined himself to his question, without any personal notice of his opponent. Nothing hitherto was committed against the laws of friendship, or proprieties of decency; but controvertists cannot long retain their kindness for each other. The Old Whig' answered The Plebeian,' and could not forbear some contempt of "Little Dicky, whose trade it was to write pamphlets." Dicky, however, did not lose his settled veneration for his friend; but contented himself with quoting some lines of 'Cato,'81 which were at once detection and reproof. The Bill was laid aside during that session; and Addison died before the next, in which its commitment was rejected by two hundred and sixty-nine to one hundred and seventy-seven. Every reader surely must regret that these two illustrious friends, after so many years passed in confidence and endearment, in unity of interest, conformity of opinion, and fellowship of study, should finally part in acrimonious opposition. Such a controversy was "Bellum plusquam civile," as Lucan expresses it. Why could not faction find other advocates? But among the uncertainties of the human state, we are doomed to number the instability of friendship. Of this dispute I have little knowledge but from the ‘Biographia Britannica.' The Old Whig' is not inserted in Addison's works, nor is it mentioned by Tickell in his Life; 81 Remember, O! my friends, &c. Mr. Macaulay is of opinion ('Essays,' p. 722) that Steele is not Little Dicky. "If we apply the words 'Little Dicky' to Steele, we deprive a very lively and ingenious passage not only of all its wit, but of all its meaning. Little Dicky was the nickname of Henry Norris, an actor of remarkably small stature, but of great humour, who played the usurer Gomez, then a most popular part in Dryden's 'Spanish Friar.'" To this I may add, that no such words as "Little Dicky, whose trade it was to write pamphlets," are to be found in 'The Old Whig, No. 2, and that Addison, in The Freeholder,' No. 34, ' on Party Plays,' says, alluding to Norris, "I have seen Little Dicky place himself with great approbation at the head of the Tories for five acts together, and Pinky espouse the interest of the Whigs with no less success.” The Old Whig' was con fined to two numbers. 1672-1719. THE GREAT IMPEDIMENT OF BIOGRAPHY. 149 why it was omitted, the biographers doubtless give the true reason; the fact was too recent, and those who had been heated in the contention were not yet cool. The necessity of complying with times, and of sparing persons, is the great impediment of biography. History may be formed from permanent monuments and records; but Lives can only be written from personal knowledge, which is growing every day less, and in a short time is lost for ever. What is known can seldom be immediately told; and when it might be told, it is no longer known. The delicate features of the mind, the nice discriminations of character, and the minute peculiarities of conduct, are soon obliterated; and it is surely better that caprice, obstinacy, frolic, and folly, however they might delight in the description, should be silently forgotten, than that, by wanton merriment and unseasonable detection, a pang should be given to a widow, a daughter, a brother, or a friend. As the process of these narratives is now bringing me among my contemporaries, I begin to feel myself "walking upon ashes under which the fire is not extinguished," and coming to the time of which it will be proper rather to say "nothing that is false, than all that is true." The end of this useful life was now approaching.-Addison had for some time been oppressed by shortness of breath, which was now aggravated by a dropsy; and finding his danger pressing, he prepared to die conformably to his own precepts and professions. 82 During this lingering decay, he sent, as Pope relates,' a message by the Earl of Warwick to Mr. Gay, desiring to see him. Gay, who had not visited him for some time before, obeyed the summons, and found himself received with great kindness. The purpose for which the interview had been solicited was then discovered. Addison told him that he had injured him; but that, if he recovered, he would recompense him. What the injury was he did not explain, nor did Gay ever know; but supposed that some preferment designed for him had, by Addison's intervention, been withheld. 2 Spence.-JOHNSON. Ed. Singer, p. 150. |
