Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III) - Samuel Johnson (classic books to read txt) 📗

in the Spectator By One Of The Letters

In The Name Of Clio, And In the Guardian By A Hand; Whether It Was, As

Tickell Pretends To Think, That He Was Unwilling to Usurp The Praise Of

Others, Or, As Steele, With Far Greater Likelihood, Insinuates, That He

Could Not, Without Discontent, Impart To Others Any Of His Own. I Have

Heard That His Avidity Did Not Satisfy Itself With The Air Of Renown, But

That With Great Eagerness He Laid Hold On His Proportion Of The Profits.

 

 

 

Many Of These Papers Were Written With Powers Truly Comick, With Nice

Discrimination Of Characters, And Accurate Observation Of Natural Or

Accidental Deviations From Propriety; But It Was Not Supposed that He Had

Tried a Comedy On The Stage, Till Steele, After His Death, Declared him

The Author Of The Drummer. This, However, Steele Did Not Know To Be True

By Any Direct Testimony; For, When Addison Put The Play Into His Hands,

He Only Told Him, It Was The Work Of A "Gentleman In the Company;" And

When It Was Received, As Is Confessed, With Cold Disapprobation, He Was

Probably Less Willing to Claim It. Tickell Omitted it In his Collection;

But The Testimony Of Steele, And The Total Silence Of Any Other Claimant,

Has Determined the Publick To Assign It To Addison, And It Is Now Printed

With His Other Poetry. Steele Carried the Drummer To The Playhouse, And

Afterwards To The Press, And Sold The Copy For Fifty Guineas.

 

 

 

To The Opinion Of Steele May Be Added the Proof Supplied by The

Play Itself, Of Which The Characters Are Such As Addison Would Have

Delineated, And The Tendency Such As Addison Would Have Promoted. That It

Should Have Been Ill Received would Raise Wonder, Did We Not Daily See

The Capricious Distribution Of Theatrical Praise.

 

 

 

He Was Not All This Time An Indifferent Spectator Of Publick Affairs. He

Wrote, As Different Exigencies Required, In 1707, The Present State Of

The War, And The Necessity Of An Augmentation; Which, However Judicious,

Being written On Temporary Topicks, And Exhibiting no Peculiar Powers,

Laid Hold On No Attention, And Has Naturally Sunk By Its Own Weight

Into Neglect. This Cannot Be Said Of The Few Papers Entitled the Whig

Examiner, In which Is Employed all The Force Of Gay Malevolence And

Humorous Satire. Of This Paper, Which Just Appeared and Expired, Swift

Remarks, With Exultation, That "It Is Now Down Among The Dead Men[181]."

He Might Well Rejoice At The Death Of That Which He Could Not Have

Killed. Every Reader Of Every Party, Since Personal Malice Is Past, And

The Papers Which Once Inflamed the Nation Are Read Only As Effusions Of

Wit, Must Wish For More Of The Whig Examiners; For On No Occasion Was

The Genius Of Addison More Vigorously Exerted, And On None Did The

Superiority Of His Powers More Evidently Appear. His Trial Of Count

Tariff, Written To Expose The Treaty Of Commerce With France, Lived no

Longer Than The Question That Produced it.

 

 

 

Not Long Afterwards, An Attempt Was Made To Revive The Spectator, At A

Time, Indeed, By No Means Favourable To Literature, When The Succession

Of A New Family To The Throne Filled the Nation With Anxiety, Discord,

And Confusion; And Either The Turbulence Of The Times, Or The Satiety Of

The Readers, Put A Stop To The Publication, After An Experiment Of Eighty

Numbers, Which Were Afterwards Collected into An Eighth Volume, Perhaps

More Valuable Than Any Of Those That Went Before It. Addison Produced

More Than A Fourth Part[182]; And The Other Contributors Are, By No

Means, Unworthy Of Appearing as His Associates. The Time That Had Passed

During the Suspension Of The Spectator, Though It Had Not Lessened his

Power Of Humour, Seems To Have Increased his Disposition To Seriousness:

The Proportion Of His Religious, To His Comick Papers, Is Greater Than In

The Former Series.

 

 

 

The Spectator, From Its Recommencement, Was Published only Three Times A

Week; And No Discriminative Marks Were Added to The Papers. To Addison

Tickell Has Ascribed twenty-Three.

 

 

 

The Spectator Had Many Contributors; And Steele, Whose Negligence Kept

Him Always In a Hurry, When It Was His Turn To Furnish A Paper, Called

Loudly For The Letters, Of Which Addison, Whose Materials Were More, Made

Little Use; Having recourse To Sketches And Hints, The Product Of His

Former Studies, Which He Now Reviewed and Completed: Among These Are

Named by Tickell, The Essays On Wit, Those On The Pleasures Of The

Imagination, And The Criticism On Milton.

 

 

 

When The House Of Hanover Took Possession Of The Throne, It Was

Reasonable To Expect That The Zeal Of Addison Would Be Suitably Rewarded.

Before The Arrival Of King george, He Was Made Secretary To The Regency,

And Was Required, By His Office, To Send Notice To Hanover That The Queen

Was Dead, And That The Throne Was Vacant. To Do This Would Not Have

Been Difficult To Any Man But Addison, Who Was So Overwhelmed with The

Greatness Of The Event, And So Distracted by Choice Of Expression, That

The Lords, Who Could Not Wait For The Niceties Of Criticism, Called mr.

Southwell, A Clerk In the House, And Ordered him To Despatch The Message.

Southwell Readily Told What Was Necessary In the Common Style Of

Business, And Valued himself Upon Having done What Was Too Hard For

Addison[183].

 

 

 

He Was Better Qualified for The Freeholder, A Paper Which He Published

Twice A Week, From Dec. 23, 1715, To The Middle Of The Next Year. This

Was Undertaken In defence Of The Established government, Sometimes With

Argument, And Sometimes With Mirth. In argument He Had Many Equals; But

His Humour Was Singular And Matchless. Bigotry Itself Must Be Delighted

With The Tory Fox-Hunter.

 

 

 

There Are, However, Some Strokes Less Elegant, And Less Decent; Such As

The Pretender'S Journal, In which One Topick Of Ridicule Is His Poverty.

This Mode Of Abuse Had Been Employed by Milton Against King charles The

Second.

 

 

 

  _Jacobaei_

  Centum, Exulantis Viscera Marsupii Regis.

 

 

 

And Oldmixon Delights To Tell Of Some Alderman Of London, That He Had

More Money Than The Exiled princes; But That Which Might Be Expected from

Milton'S Savageness, Or Oldmixon'S Meanness, Was Not Suitable To The

Delicacy Of Addison.

 

 

 

Steele Thought The Humour Of The Freeholder Too Nice And Gentle For Such

Noisy Times; And Is Reported to Have Said, That The Ministry Made Use Of

A Lute, When They Should Have Called for A Trumpet.

 

 

 

This Year, 1716[184], He Married the Countess Dowager Of Warwick, Whom

He Had Solicited by A Very Long And Anxious Courtship, Perhaps With

Behaviour Not Very Unlike That Of Sir Roger To His Disdainful Widow; And

Who, I Am Afraid, Diverted herself Often By Playing with His Passion. He

Is Said To Have First Known Her By Becoming tutor To Her Son [185]. "He

Formed," Said Tonson, "The Design Of Getting that Lady From The Time When

He Was First Recommended into The Family." In what Part Of His Life He

Obtained the Recommendation, Or How Long And In what Manner He Lived

In The Family, I Know Not. His Advances, At First, Were Certainly

Timorous[186], But Grew Bolder As His Reputation And Influence Increased;

Till, At Last, The Lady Was 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. Howe'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.

 

 

 

The Year After, 1717, He Rose To His Highest Elevation, Being made

Secretary Of State. For This Employment He Might Justly Be 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,[187] 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.

 

 

 

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[188] To A Selfish Motive, Upon The

Credit, As He Owns, Of Tonson[189], 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 Bishoprick; "For," Said He, "I

Always Thought Him A Priest In his Heart."

 

 

 

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 Bishoprick Than By

Defending religion, Or Translating the Psalms.

 

 

 

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 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

Could 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,

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 Despotick 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

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