Lives of the Poets Part 55

[Footnote 154: Mr. Tyers says, he was actually laid out for dead, as soon as he was born. Addisoniana, ii. 218.

A writer, who signs himself T.J. informed Dr. Birch, (Gen. Dict. i. 62.) that Mr. Addison's mother was Jane Gulstone, a circ.u.mstance that should not have been omitted. Dr. Launcelot Addison had by his wife six children: 1. Jane, born April 23,1671. 2. Joseph, 1st May, 1672. 3.

Gulstone, in April, 1673. 4. Dorothy, in May, 1674. 5. Anne, in April, 1676; and 6. Launcelot, in 1680. Both Gulstone and Launcelot, who was a fellow of Magdalen college, Oxford, were reputed to be very well skilled in the cla.s.sicks, and in polite literature. Dr. Addison's living at Milston was 120_l_. per annum; and after his death his son Joseph was sued for dilapidations by the next inc.u.mbent. The writer abovementioned informed Dr. Birch, that "there was a tradition at Milston, that when at school in the country, (probably at Ambrosebury,) having committed some slight fault, he was so afraid of being corrected for it, that he ran away from his father's house, and fled into the fields, where he lived upon fruits, and took up his lodging in a hollow tree, till, upon the publication of a reward to whoever should find him, he was discovered and restored to his parents." M.]

[Footnote 155: "At the Charter-house (says Oldmixon, who was personally acquainted with Addison, and as a zealous whig, probably encouraged by him) he made acquaintance with two persons, for whom he had ever after an entire friendship, Stephen Clay, esq. of the Inner Temple, author of the epistle in verse, from the elector of Bavaria to the French king after the battle of Ramilies; and sir Richard Steele, whom he served both with his pen and purse." Hist. of England, xi. 632. M.]

[Footnote 156: Spence.]

[Footnote 157: This fact was communicated to Johnson, in my hearing, by a person of unquestionable veracity, but whose name I am not at liberty to mention. He had it, as he told us, from lady Primrose, to whom Steele related it with tears in his eyes. The late Dr. Stinton confirmed it to me, by saying, that he had heard it from Mr. Hooke, author of the Roman History; and he, from Mr. Pope. H.

See in Steele's Epistolary Correspondence, 1809, vol. i. pp. 208, 356, this transaction somewhat differently related. N.

The compiler of Addisoniana is of opinion, that Addison's conduct on this occasion was dictated by the kindest motives; and that the step apparently so severe, was designed to awaken him, if possible, to a sense of the impropriety of his mode and habits of life. ED.]

[Footnote 158: He took the degree of M.A. Feb. 14, 1693. N.]

[Footnote 159: A letter which I found among Dr. Johnson's papers, dated in January, 1784, from a lady in Wiltshire, contains a discovery of some importance in literary history, viz. that by the initials H.S. prefixed to the poem, we are not to understand the famous Dr. Henry Sacheverell, whose trial is the most remarkable incident in his life. The information thus communicated is, that the verses in question were not an address to the famous Dr. Sacheverell, but to a very ingenious gentleman of the same name, who died young, supposed to be a Manksman, for that he wrote the history of the Isle of Man. That this person left his papers to Mr.

Addison, and had formed a plan of a tragedy upon the death of Socrates, The lady says, she had this information from a Mr. Stephens, who was a fellow of Merton college, a contemporary and intimate with Mr. Addison in Oxford, who died near fifty years ago, a prebendary of Winchester. H.]

[Footnote 160: Spence.]

[Footnote 161: A writer already mentioned, J.P. (Gen. Dict, _ut supra_,) a.s.serts that his acquaintance with Montague commenced at Oxford: but for this there is no foundation. Mr. Montague was bred at Trinity college, Cambridge.]

[Footnote 162: Lord Somers, on this poem being presented to him, according to Tickell, sent to Addison to desire his acquaintance.

According to Oldmixon, he was introduced to him by Tonson. M.]

[Footnote 163: Spence.]

[Footnote 164: See Swift's libel on Dr. Delany. Addison's distress for money commenced with the death of king William, which happened in March, 1702. In June, 1703, he was at Rotterdam, and seems then to have done with his _squire_: for in that month the duke of Somerset wrote a letter to old Jacob Tonson, (of which I have a copy,) proposing that Addison should be tutor to his son, (who was then going abroad.) "Neither lodging, diet, or travelling," says the duke, "shall cost him sixpence: and over and above that, my son shall present him, at the year's end, with a hundred guineas, as long as he is pleased to continue in that service." Mr. Addison declined this _magnificent_ offer in these words, as appears from another letter of the duke's to Tonson: "As for the recompence that is proposed to me, I must confess I can by no means see my account in it." M.]

[Footnote 165: In this letter he uses the phrase _cla.s.sick ground_, which has since become so common, but never had been employed before: it was ridiculed by some of his contemporary writers (I forget which) as very quaint and affected. M.]

[Footnote 166: It is incorrect that Addison's stay in foreign countries was but short. He went to travel in 1700, and did not return till the latter end of 1703; so that he was abroad near four years. M.]

[Footnote 167: Addison's father, who was then dean of Lichfield, died in April, 1703; a circ.u.mstance which should have been mentioned on his tomb at Lichfield: he is said to have been seventy-one.]

[Footnote 168: Rosamond was first exhibited, March 4th, 1707, and, after three representations, was laid aside. M.]

[Footnote 169: Thomas _earl_ of Wharton was const.i.tuted lord lieutenant of Ireland Dec. 4, 1708, and went there in April, 1709. He was not made a _marquis_ till Dec. 1714. M.]

[Footnote 170: The first number of the Tatler was published April 12, 1709. The last (271) Jan. 2, 1710-11. The first number of the Spectator appeared March 1, 1710-11, and N. 555, which is the last of the seventh volume, was published Dec. 6, 1712. The paper was then discontinued, and was recommenced, June 18, 1714, when N. 556 appeared. From thence, to N. 635 inclusive, forms the eighth volume. M.]

[Footnote 171: This particular number of the Spectator, it is said, was not published till twelve o'clock, that it might come out precisely at the hour of her majesty's breakfast, and that no time might be left for deliberating about serving it up with that meal, as usual. See the edition of the Tatler with notes, vol. vi. No. 271, note; p. 462, Sec. N.]

[Footnote 172: Newspapers appear to have had an earlier date than here a.s.signed. Cleiveland, in his Character of a London Diurnal, says, "the original sinner of this kind was Dutch; Gallo-belgicus the Protoplast, and the Modern Mercuries but Hans en kelders." Some intelligence given by Mercurius Gallo-belgicus is mentioned in Carew's Survey of Cornwall, p.

126, originally published in 1602. These vehicles of information are often mentioned in the plays of James and Charles the first. R.

See Idler, N. 7, and note; and Idler, N. 40, and note. Ed.]

[Footnote 173: The errors in this account are explained at considerable length in the preface to the Spectator, prefixed to the edition in the British Essayists. The original delineation of sir Roger undoubtedly belongs to Steele.

See, however, Addisoniana, vol. i.]

[Footnote 174: That this calculation is not exaggerated, that it is even much below the real number, see the notes on the Taller, edit. 1786, vol.

vi. 452. N--See likewise prefatory notice to the Rambler, vol. ii. p.

viii. of the present edition. ED.]

[Footnote 175: Tickell says, "he took up a design of writing a play upon this subject when he was at the university, and even attempted something in it then, though not a line as it now stands. The work was performed by him in his travels, and retouched in England, without any formed design of bringing it on the stage." Cibber (Apol. 377.) says, that in 1704 he had the pleasure of reading the first four acts of Cato (which were all that were then written) privately with sir Richard Steele; and Steele told him they were written in Italy. M.]

[Footnote 176: The story about Hughes was first told by Oldmixon, in his Art of Criticism, 1728. M.]

[Footnote 177: Spence.]

[Footnote 178: Alluding to the duke of Marlborough, at that time suspected of an ambitious aim to obtain the post of general in chief for life. ED.]

[Footnote 179: Spence.]

[Footnote 180: The Guardian was published in the interval between the Spectator's being laid down and taken up again. The first number was published March 12, 1713; and the last appeared October 1st, 1713. M.]

[Footnote 181: From a tory song in vogue at the time, the burden whereof is,

And he, that will this health deny, Down among the dead men let him lie.

H.]

[Footnote 182: Addison wrote twenty-three papers out of forty-five, viz.

Numbs. 556, 557, 558, 559, 561, 562. 565. 567, 568, 569. 571. 574, 575.

579, 580. 582,583, 584, 585. 590. 592. 598. 600; so that he produced more than one half.]

[Footnote 183: When lord Sunderland was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, in 1714, Addison was appointed his secretary. Johnson has omitted another step in his promotions. He was, in 1715, made a lord of trade. M.]

[Footnote 184: August 2.]

[Footnote 185: Spence.]

[Footnote 186: It has been said, that Addison first discovered his addresses to the countess of Warwick would not be unacceptable, from the manner of her receiving such an article in the newspapers, of his own inserting, at which, when he read it to her, he affected to be much astonished. Many anecdotes are on record of Addison's tavern resorts when Holland-house was rendered disagreeable by the haughty caprices of his aristocratic bride. When he had suffered any vexation from her, he would propose to withdraw the club from b.u.t.ton's, who had been a servant in the countess's family. ED.]

[Footnote 187: Spence.]

[Footnote 188: Spence.]

[Footnote 189: This is inaccurately stated. Pope does not mention the conjecture of Tonson at all. Spence himself has mentioned it from Tonson's own information; for he has subscribed the name of Tonson to the paragraph in question, according to his constant practice of stating the name of his informer. M.]

[Footnote 190: Spence.]

[Footnote 191: This account of Addison's death is from Dr. Young, who calls lord Warwick a youth finely accomplished; and does not give the least ground for the representation in the text, that he was of irregular life, and that this was a last effort of Addison's to reclaim him.

M.--Dr. Young was far too much of a courtier to see the vices of a peer, but even his guarded statement does give ground for Dr. Johnson's conclusion. His words are, "finely accomplished, but not above being the better for good impressions from a dying friend." ED.]

[Footnote 192: Who died at Bilton, in Warwickshire, at a very advanced age, in 1797. See Gent. Mag. vol. lxvii. p. 256. 385. N.]