THE LAST YEARS OF HIS LIFE.
The representation of _Cato_ on the stage was a turning point in the
political fortunes of the Whigs. In the same month the Queen announced, on
the meeting of Parliament, the signature of the Treaty of Utrecht.
Whatever were the merits or demerits of the policy embodied in this
instrument, it offered many points of attack to a compact and vigorous
Opposition. The most salient of these was, perhaps, the alleged sacrifice
of British commercial interests through the incompetence or corruption of
the negotiators, and on this question the Whigs accordingly raised
vehement and reiterated debates. Addison aided his political friends with
an ingenious pamphlet on the subject, called _The late Trial and
Conviction of Count Tariff_, containing a narrative of the lawsuit between
the Count and Goodman Fact, which is written with much spirit and
pleasantry. It is said that he also took the field in answer to the
Address to the Queen from the magistrates of Dunkirk, wherein Her Majesty
was requested to waive the execution of the article in the Treaty
providing for the demolition of the harbour and fortifications of that
town; but if he wrote on the subject the pamphlet has not been preserved
by Tickell. His old friend Steele was meanwhile involving himself in
difficulties through the heat and impetuosity of his party passions.
After the painful abstinence from partizanship imposed on him by the
scheme of the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ he had founded the _Guardian_ on
similar lines, and had carried it on in a nonpolitical spirit up to the
128th number, when his Whig feelings could restrain themselves no longer,
and he inserted a letter signed by "An English Tory," demanding the
immediate demolition of Dunkirk. Soon afterwards he published a pamphlet
called _The Crisis_, to excite the apprehensions of the nation with regard
to the Protestant succession, and, dropping the _Guardian_, started the
_Englishman_, a political paper of extreme Whig views. He further
irritated the Tory majority in Parliament by supporting the proposal of
Sir Thomas Hanmer, as Speaker of the House of Commons, in a speech
violently reflecting on the rejected Bill for a Treaty of Commerce with
France. A complaint was brought before the House against the _Crisis_, and
two numbers of the _Englishman_, and Steele was ordered to attend and
answer for his conduct. After the charge had been preferred against him,
he asked for time to arrange his defence; and this being granted him,
after a warm debate, he reappeared in his place a few days later, and made
a long and able speech, which is said to have been prepared for him by
Addison, acting under the instructions of the Kit-Kat Club. It did not,
however, save him from being expelled from the House.
Addison himself stood aloof, as far as was possible, from the heated
atmosphere of party, occupying his time chiefly with the execution of
literary designs. In 1713 he began a work on the Evidences of
Christianity, which he never finished, and in the last half of the year
1714 he completed the eighth volume of the _Spectator_. So moderate was
his political attitude that Bolingbroke was not without hopes of bringing
him over to the Tory side; an interview, however, convinced him that it
was useless to dream of converting Addison's steady constitutional
principle to his own ambitious schemes.
The condition of the Tory party was indeed rapidly becoming desperate. Its
leaders were at open variance with each other. Oxford, a veteran
intriguer, was desirous of combining with the Whigs; the more daring and
brilliant Bolingbroke aimed at the restoration of the exiled Stuarts. His
influence, joined to natural family affection, prevailed with the Queen,
who was persuaded to deprive Oxford of the Treasurer's staff. But her
health was undermined, and a furious and indecent dispute between the two
Tory leaders in her own presence completely prostrated her. She was
carried from the Council, and sinking into a state of unconsciousness from
which she never recovered, died on the 1st of August, 1714.
Meantime the Whigs were united and prepared. On the meeting of the
Council, George I. was proclaimed King without opposition: Lord-Justices
were authorised to administer affairs provisionally, and Addison was
appointed their Secretary. It is said, though on no good authority, that
having, in discharge of his office, to announce to George I. the death of
the Queen, Addison was embarrassed in his choice of phrases for the
occasion, and that the duty to which the best writer in the _Spectator_
proved unequal was performed by a common clerk. Had Addison been quite
unfamiliar with public life this story would have been more credible, but
his experience in Ireland must have made him acquainted with the
peculiarities of official English; and some surviving specimens of his
public correspondence prove him to have been a sufficient master in the
art of saying nothing in a magnificent way.
On the arrival of the King in England, the Earl of Sunderland was
appointed to succeed the Duke of Shrewsbury as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,
and he once more offered Addison the post of Chief Secretary. In that
office the latter continued till the Earl's resignation of the
Lord-Lieutenancy in August, 1715. It would appear to have been less
lucrative to him than when he previously held it, and, indeed, than he
himself had expected; the cause of this deficiency being, as he states,
"his Lordship's absence from that kingdom, and his not being qualified to
give out military commissions."[65] He is said, nevertheless, to have
shown the strictest probity and honour in his official dealings, and some
of his extant correspondence (the authenticity of which, however, is
guaranteed only by the unsatisfactory testimony of Curll) shows him to
have declined, in a very high-minded manner, a present of money, evidently
intended to secure his interest on behalf of an applicant. He seems to
have been in London almost as much as in Dublin during his tenure of
office, and he found time in the midst of his public business to compose
another play for the stage.
There appears to be no good reason for doubting that _The Drummer_ was the
work of Addison. It is true that it was not included by Tickell in his
edition of his friend's writings; and Steele, in the letter to Congreve
which he prefixed to the second edition of the play, only says that
Addison sent for him when he was a patentee of Drury Lane Theatre, and
told him "that a gentleman then in the room had written a play which he
was sure I should like, but it was to be a secret; and he knew I would
take as much pains, since he recommended it, as I would for him." But
Steele could, under such circumstances, hardly have been deceived as to
the real authorship of the play, and if confirmatory evidence is required,
it is furnished by Theobald, who tells us that Addison informed him that
he had taken the character of Vellum, the steward, from Fletcher's
_Scornful Lady_. Addison was probably not anxious himself to assert his
right of paternity to the play. It was acted at Drury Lane, and, the name
of the author being unknown, was coldly received; a second performance of
it after Addison's death, when the authorship was proclaimed, was
naturally more successful; but, in fact, the piece is, like _Cato_, a
standing proof of Addison's deficiency in dramatic genius. The plot is
poor and trivial; nor does the dialogue, though it shows in many passages
traces of its author's peculiar vein of humour, make amends by its
brilliancy for the tameness of the dramatic situation.
He was soon, however, called upon to employ his pen on a task better
suited to his powers. In September, 1715, there was a rising in Scotland
and in the North of England on behalf of the Pretender. The rebellion was
put down with little difficulty, but the position of the House of
Brunswick was far more precarious than on the surface it seemed to be. It
could count, no doubt, on the loyalty of a House of Commons elected when
the Tories were momentarily stunned by the death of Queen Anne, on the
faith of the army, and on the support of the moneyed interest. On the
other hand, the two most important classes in the kingdom--the landed
proprietors and the clergy--were generally hostile to the new _régime_,
and the influence exercised by the latter was of course exceedingly great
in days when the pulpit was still the chief instrument in the formation of
public opinion. The weight of some powerful writer was urgently needed on
the Whig side, and Addison--who in the preceding August had been obliged
to vacate his office of Secretary in consequence of the resignation of the
Lord-Lieutenant--was by common consent indicated as the man best qualified
for the task. There were indeed hot political partizans who questioned his
capacity. Steele said that "the Government had made choice of a lute when
they ought to have taken a trumpet." But if by the "trumpet" he was
modestly alluding to himself, it may very well be doubted if the objects
of the Government would have been attained by employing the services of
the author of the _Englishman_. What was wanted was not party invective,
but the calm persuasiveness of reason; a pen that could _prove_ to all
Tory country gentlemen and thoroughgoing High Churchmen that the
Protestant succession was indispensable to the safety of the principles
which each respectively considered to be of vital importance. This was the
task which lay before Addison, and which he accomplished with consummate
skill in the _Freeholder_.
The name of the new paper was selected by him in order to suggest that
property was the basis of liberty; and his main argument, which he
introduces under constantly varying forms, is that there could be no
safety for property under a line of monarchs who claimed the dispensing
power, and no security for the liberties of the Church under kings of an
alien religion. In order to secure variety of treatment, the exact social
position of the _Freeholder_ is not defined:
"At the same time that I declare I am a freeholder I do not exclude
myself from any other title. A freeholder may be either a voter or a
knight of the shire, a wit or a fox-hunter, a scholar or a soldier, an
alderman or a courtier, a patriot or a stock-jobber. But I choose to
be distinguished by this denomination, as the freeholder is the basis
of all other titles. Dignities may be grafted upon it, but this is the
substantial stock that conveys to them their life, taste, and beauty,
and without which they are blossoms that would fall away with every
shake of wind."[66]
By this means he was able to impart liveliness to his theme, which he
diversifies by philosophical disquisition; by good-natured satire on the
prejudices of the country gentlemen; by frequent papers on his favourite
subject, "the fair sex;" and by occasional glances at literature. Though
his avowed object was to prove the superiority of the Whig over the Tory
theory of the Constitution, his "native moderation" never deserts him, and
he often lets his disgust at the stupidity of faction, and his preference
for social over political writing, appear in the midst of his argument.
The best papers in the series are undoubtedly the "Memoirs of a Preston
Rebel" and the "Tory Foxhunter," both of which are full of the exquisite
humour that distinguishes the sketches of Sir Roger de Coverley. The
_Freeholder_ was only continued for six months (December 23, 1715, to June
9, 1716), being published every Friday and Monday, and being completed in
fifty-five numbers. In the last number the essayist described the nature
of his work, and gave his reasons for discontinuing it:
"It would not be difficult to continue a paper of this kind if one
were disposed to resume the same subjects and weary out the reader
with the same thoughts in a different phrase, or to ramble through the
cause of Whig and Tory without any certain aim or method in every
particular discourse. Such a practice in political writers is like
that of some preachers taken notice of by Dr. South, who, being
prepared only upon two or three points of doctrine, run the same round
with their audience from one end of the year to the other, and are
always forced to tell them, by way of preface, 'These are particulars
of so great importance that they cannot be sufficiently inculcated.'
To avoid this method of tautology, I have endeavoured to make every
paper a distinct essay upon some particular subject, without deviating
into points foreign to the tenor of each discourse. They are, indeed,
most of them essays upon Government, but with a view to the present
situation of affairs in Great Britain, so that, if they have the good
fortune to live longer than works of this nature generally do, future
readers may see in them the complexion of the times in which they were
written. However, as there is no employment so irksome as that of
transcribing out of one's self next to that of transcribing out of
others, I shall let drop the work, since there do not occur to me any
material points arising from our present situation which I have not
already touched upon."
It was probably in reward for his services in publishing the _Freeholder_
that he was made one of the Commissioners for Trade and Colonies. Soon
after his appointment to this office he married Charlotte, Countess of
Warwick, daughter of Sir Thomas Myddleton, of Chirk Castle, Denbighshire.
His attachment to the Countess is said to have begun years before; and
this seems not unlikely, for, though the story of his having been tutor to
the young Earl is obviously groundless, two charming letters of his to the
latter are in existence which show that as early as 1708 he took a strong
interest in the family. These letters, which are written entirely on the
subject of birds, may, of course, have been inspired merely by an
affection for the boy himself; but it is not unreasonable to suppose that
the writer felt a yet stronger interest in the mother, though her
indifference, or his natural diffidence, led him to disguise his feelings;
perhaps, indeed, the episode of Sir Roger de Coverley's love passage with
the cruel widow may be founded on personal experience. We have seen him in
1711 reporting to a friend that the loss of his place had involved that of
his mistress. Possibly the same hard-hearted mistress condescended to
relent when she saw her former lover once more on the road to high State
preferment.
Report says that the marriage was not a happy one. The tradition, however,
like so many others about the same person, seems to have been derived from
Pope, who, in his _Epistle to Arbuthnot_, congratulates himself--with an
evident glance at Addison--on "not marrying discord with a noble wife." An
innuendo of this kind, and coming from such a quarter, ought not to be
accepted as evidence without some corroboration; and the only
corroboration which is forthcoming is a letter of Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu, who writes from Constantinople in 1717: "I received the news of
Mr. Addison's being declared Secretary of State with the less surprise in
that I know the post was offered to him before. At that time he declined
it; and I really believe he would have done well to decline 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 glad to resign them both." Lady Mary, however, does not
hint that Addison was _then_ living unhappily with his wife; her
expressions seem to be inspired rather by her own sharp wit and a personal
dislike of the Countess than by any knowledge of discord in the household.
On the other hand, Addison speaks of his wife in a way which is scarcely
consistent with what Johnson calls "uncontradicted report." On March 20th,
1718, he writes to Swift: "Whenever you see England your company will be
the most acceptable in the world at Holland House, where you are highly
esteemed by Lady Warwick and the young Lord." A henpecked husband would
hardly have invited the Dean of St. Patrick's to be the witness of his
domestic discomfort. Nor do the terms of his will, dated only a month
before his death, indicate that he regarded his wife with feelings other
than those of affection and respect: "I do make and ordain my said dear
wife executrix of this my last will; and I do appoint her to be guardian
of my dear child, Charlotte Addison, until she shall attain her age of
one-and-twenty, being well assured that she will take due care of her
education, and provide for her in case she live to be married." On the
whole, it seems reasonable to put positive evidence of this kind against
those vague rumours of domestic unhappiness which, however unsubstantial,
are so easily propagated and so readily believed.
In April, 1717, the dissensions between the two sections of the Whig
Cabinet, led respectively by Townshend and Sunderland, reached a climax,
and Townshend being worsted, Sunderland became Prime Minister. He at once
appointed his old subordinate one of the Secretaries of State, and Addison
filled the office for eleven months. "It is universally confessed," says
Johnson, "that he was unequal to the duties of his place." Here again the
"universal confession" dwindles on examination to something very
different. As far as his conduct in administration required to be defended
in Parliament, his inaptitude for the place was no doubt conspicuous. He
had been elected member of Parliament for Lostwithiel in 1708, and when
that election was set aside he was chosen for Malmesbury, a seat which he
retained for the rest of his life. He made, however, but one effort to
address the House, when, being confused with the cheers which greeted him,
he was unable to complete his sentence, and, resuming his seat, never
again opened his lips.
But in other respects the evidence of his official incapacity seems to
proceed solely from his enemies. "Mr. Addison," said Pope to Spence,
"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."[67] Copies of official letters and despatches written by
Addison are, however, in existence, and prove him to have been a
sufficient master of a business style, so that, though his lack of ability
as a speaker may well have impaired his efficiency as a member of the
Government, Johnson has little warrant for saying that "_finding by
experience his own inability_, he was forced to solicit his dismission
with a pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year." As a matter of fact,
Addison's own petition to the King and his private correspondence prove
with sufficient clearness that his resignation was caused entirely by his
failing health; while the congratulatory Latin verses addressed to him by
Vincent Bourne, on his recovery from one of his seizures of asthma, show
that his illness was of the most serious nature.
He resigned his post, however, in March, 1718, with cheerful alacrity, and
appears to have looked forward to an active period of literary work, for
we are told that he meditated a tragedy on the death of Socrates, as well
as the completion of his book on the Evidences of Christianity. But this
was not to be; the exigencies of the Ministry in the following year
demanded the services of his pen. A Peerage Bill, introduced by
Sunderland, the effect of which was to cause the sovereign to divest
himself of his prerogative of creating fresh peers, had been vehemently
attacked by Steele in a pamphlet called the _Plebeian_, published March
14, 1719, which Addison undertook to answer in the _Old Whig_ (March 19).
The _Plebeian_ returned to the attack with spirit and with some acrimony
in two numbers published March 29th and 30th, and the _Old Whig_ made a
somewhat contemptuous reply on April 2nd. "Every reader," says Johnson,
"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."
The rupture seems the more painful when we find Steele, in his third and
last _Plebeian_, published April 6th, taunting his opponent with his
tardiness in taking the field, at the very moment when his former friend
and school-fellow--unknown to him of course--was dying. Asthma, the old
enemy that had driven Addison from office, had returned; dropsy
supervened, and he died, 17th June, 1719, at Holland House, at the early
age of forty-seven. We may imagine the grief, contrition, and remorse that
must have torn the affectionate heart of Steele when he had found he had
been vexing the last hours of one whom, in spite of all their differences,
he loved so well. He had always regarded Addison with almost religious
reverence, which did not yield even to acts of severity on his friend's
part that would have estranged the feelings of men of a disposition less
simple and impulsive. Addison had once lent him £1000 to build a house at
Hampton Court, instructing his lawyer to recover the amount when due. On
Steele's failure to repay the money, his friend ordered the house and
furniture to be sold and the balance to be paid to Steele, writing to him
at the same time that he had taken the step to arouse him from his
lethargy. B. Victor, the actor, a friend of Steele, who is the authority
for the story, says that Steele accepted the reproof with "philosophical
composure," and that the incident caused no diminution in their
friendship. Political differences at last produced a coldness between
them, and in 1717 Steele writes to his wife, "I ask no favour of Mr.
Secretary Addison." Great must have been the revulsion of feeling in a man
of his nature when he learned that death had now rendered impossible the
renewal of the old associations. All the love, admiration, and enthusiasm
for Addison, which his heart and memory still preserved, broke out in the
letter to Congreve which he prefixed to _The Drummer_.
Of the closing scene of Addison's life we know little except on rumour. A
report was current in Johnson's time, and reached the antiquary John
Nichols at the close of the last century, that his life was shortened by
over-drinking. But as usual the scandal, when traced to its source, seems
to originate with Pope, who told Spence that he himself was once one of
the circle at Button's, and left it because he found that their prolonged
sittings were injuring his health. It is highly probable that Addison's
phlegmatic temperament required to be aroused by wine into conversational
activity, and that he was able to drink more than most of his companions
without being affected by it; but to suppose that he indulged a sensual
appetite to excess is contrary alike to all that we know of his character
and to the direct evidence of Bishop Berkeley, who, writing of the first
performance of _Cato_, says: "I was present with Mr. Addison and a few
more friends in a side box, where we had a table and two or three flasks
of Burgundy and champagne, with which the author (who is a very sober man)
thought it necessary to support his spirits."
Another story, told on the same questionable authority, represents him as
having sent on his death-bed for Gay, and asked his forgiveness for some
injury which he said he had done him, but which he did not specify. From
the more trustworthy report of Young we learn that he asked to see the
Earl of Warwick, and said to him, "See in what peace a Christian can die:"
words which are supposed to explain the allusion of the lines in Tickell's
elegy--
"He taught us how to live and (oh! too high
The price of knowledge) taught us how to die."
His body, after lying in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, was buried by
night in Westminster Abbey. The service was performed by Atterbury, and
the scene is described by Tickell in a fine passage, probably inspired by
a still finer one written by his own rival and his friend's satirist:
"Can I forget the dismal night that gave
My soul's best part for ever to the grave?
How silent did his old companions tread,
By midnight lamps, the mansions of the dead,
Through breathing statues, then unheeded things,
Through rows of warriors, and through walks of kings!
What awe did the slow solemn march inspire,
The pealing organ, and the pausing choir;
The duties by the lawn-robed prelate paid,
And the last words that dust to dust conveyed!
While speechless o'er the closing grave we bend,
Accept these tears, thou dear departed friend!
Oh gone for ever; take this last adieu,
And sleep in peace next thy loved Montague."[68]
He left by the Countess of Warwick one daughter, who lived in his old
house at Bilton, and died unmarried in 1797.