! Steele's promise, our author published a letter to the Spectator, full of resentment, and which strongly marks the irritability of his disposition. Conceiving that he had been very ill used, no sooner did Cato make its appearance from the press, than he attacked it with the utmost virulence. His review was first published in a 4to pamphlet, (in 1713,) and is amusing from its excessive malignity. No doubt it is in some parts as witty and ingenious as it is bitter. Johnson gives large extracts from it, more, it is thought, than the occasion warrants. A few lines from the preface (not hitherto quoted) will serve to show its animus: "I have maturely considered both the general and the violent applause with which that tragedy (Cato) has been received; that it was acted twenty days together; that ten thousand of 'em have been sold since the time it was printed; that even authors have published their approbation of it who never before liked anything but themselves; that Squire Ironside, that grave offspring of ludicrous ancestors, has appeared at the head of them; and that things have been carried that amazing height either by French extravagance or English industry, that a Frenchman is now actually translating this play into French, which is a thing beyond example. That as for Squire Ironside, he comes of a race that has been most unfortunate in their talents for criticism; that his grandfather, Squire Bickerstaff, who was sometimes entertaining in other things, was never in the right when he pretended to judge of poetry; that his father, Mr. Spectator, had been so merrily in the wrong as to take pains to reconcile us to the old doggrel of Chevy-Chase and the Three Children, and to put Impotence and Imbecility upon us for Simplicity; that he had published a certain Criticism upon Milton, in which the reverse of almost everything that he has affirmed is true; that he has had the assurance to say in it, that the Paradise Lost of Milton has an unity of action." Pope is supposed to allude to Dennis in the following couplet in his Essay on Criticism: "Some have at first for wits then poets past, T'urned critics next, and proved plain fools at last." Dennis coming to these lines one day when reading the book in Lintot's shop, he threw it down in a terrible fury, exclaiming, By G-d, he means me. IT was currently reported in the neighbourhood of Tadworth (not far from Amesbury) that the house of Mr. Mompessim of that town was infested with a demon. Upon this story, related to him in early life, it is said Mr. Addison imbibed the first idea of writing his play of "The Drummer, or the Haunted House." ADDISON'S DIFFIDENCE IN PARLIAMENT. FROM Mr. Addison's excessive bashfulness, he was never able to speak in parliament; a very important inconvenience this, especially during the period that he held the high office of Secretary of State, as he was thereby incapable of explaining to friends, or vindicating to opponents, the measures he supported. [This statement is given in Sir R. Phillips's "Addisoniana," and appears to be on some foundation, as Addison's cousin, Eustace Budgell, in his Life of the Earl of Orrery, says, "What qualities must we conceive requisite to form a public speaker, when we see such men as the late Earl of Orrery, the late Earl of Shaftesbury, the late Mr. Addison, Mr. Prior, and Mr. Maynwaring, sit silent; while- -andand -and- hold forth upon every subject that falls under debate?"] ADDISON'S DIFFIDENCE EXEMPLIFIED. At the time of debating the Union Act, in the House of Commons, (1706,) he rose up, and, addressing himself to the Speaker, said-" Mr. Speaker, I conceive"-he could go no further; then rising again he said-" Mr. Speaker, I conceive" --still unable to proceed, he sat down again. A third time he arose, and was still unable to say anything more than"Mr. Speaker, I conceive"-when a certain young member, possessed of more effrontery and volubility, arose and said, "Mr. Speaker, I am sorry to find that the honourable gentleman over the way has conceived three times, and brought forth nothing."1 Although not cited by our English biographers of Addison, this joke is given in the Biographie Universelle with the following variation and comment. "Monsieur, les trois avortements dont nous venons d'être temoins, [We give this standing joke as we find it in "Joe Miller." But Mr. Macaulay doubts this extreme timidity, and says that a little later, when Addison was member for the Irish borough of Cavan, his name frequently occurs in the Journals of two sessions. No actual speeches, however, are there recorded, but merely minutes. Mr. Addison was returned for the borough of Cavan, May 13, 1709. In the Irish Journals we find only eight entries respecting him after he took his seat, four of which are short notices of adjournment, viz. June 29th, July 28th, Aug. 10th, 1709, and June 24th, 1701. The other four have, perhaps, just enough interest to deserve a place here.] MINUTES OF ADDISON'S PARLIAMENTARY SPEECHES IN IRELAND. Mercurii, 10 die August, 1709.] Mr. Secretary Addison informed the House, that His Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant had received from her Majesty an Answer to the Address of this House, that the outlawries of persons guilty of the rebellions in one thousand six hundred and forty-one, and one thousand six hundred and eighty, may so remain of force; which he delivered at the Table. Lunæ, 22 die Maii, 1710.] Mr. Addison reported from the Committee appointed to prepare an Address to her Majesty, to congratulate her Majesty upon the early successes of her Majesty's arms this present campaign, and the prospect which they give us of a lasting and honourable Peace, that they had prepared an Address accordingly; which he read in his place, and after delivered at the Table, where the same was again read, and afterwards read paragraph by paragraph, and agreed to by the House, nemine contradicente, without any Amendment; which Address is as followeth : TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. The humble Address of the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses in Parliament assembled. May it please Your Majesty, We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects the Commons of Ireland in Parliament assembled, cannot meet without acknowledging Your Majesty's great favour and goodness which calls us together, and humbly begging leave to assure Your Majesty, that de la part d'un Auteur connu par sa fécondité, prouvent évidemment la faiblesse de la cause qu'il voulait défendre." La figure des avortements excita dans la Chambre un grand éclat de rire, qui contribua, sans doute, à dégoûter tout-à-fait Addison de l'ambition de se montrer comme orateur. we shall, with all becoming cheerfulness and gratitude, endeavour to answer the ends of this our meeting. We do, at the same time, in the most dutiful and humble manner, congratulate Your Majesty upon the great and early successes of Your Majesty's arms in the present campaign, under the conduct of your renowned and victorious General, the Duke of Marlborough, which open to us a prospect of further victories, or of such a lasting and honourable Peace, as we may justly promise ourselves from those already gained. As the glory of Your Majesty's arms abroad, and the wisdom and justice of your administration at home, make us regard Your Majesty as the greatest and best of Princes; so we are resolved to embrace all opportunities of showing ourselves the most dutiful and loyal of subjects. And to the end that, as much as in us lies, we may convey unto our posterity those inestimable blessings restored to us by the late happy Revolution, continued and improved under Your Majesty's most auspicious reign, we shall be ready to hazard all that is dear and valuable to us, in the defence and support of Your Majesty's most sacred person and government, of our present happy Constitution, and the Church as by law established, and of the succession in the Protestant line, as the same stands settled by Acts of Parliament lately made in England. Resolved, nemine contradicente, that the said Address do stand the Address of this House to Her Majesty. Lunæ, 3 die Junii, 1710.] Mr. Secretary Addison informed the House, that he was commanded by His Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant so acquaint the House, that Her Majesty had been pleased to return a most gracious Answer to the Address of this House which he read in his place, and after delivered at the Table, and the same was again read by Mr. Speaker, and is as followeth : Anne R. ; Her Majesty thanks the House of Commons for their loyal and dutiful Address, so full of expressions of zeal for her person and government, the Established Church and the Protestant Succession as settled by law, and assures them of her constant concern for the welfare of the Kingdom. Ordered, That Her Majesty's most gracious Answer to the Address of this House be entered in the Journal of this House. Sabbati, 28 die Julii, 1711.] That it appears to your Sub-committee,' that since the thirty-first day of March, 1709, at which time the establishment of the Civil and Military Lists bears date, that the said Civil List is advanced in the following particulars, 1 Appointed to examine the Public Accompts. viz.-By a grant to Mr. Addison, as Keeper of the Records of the Birmingham Tower, of four hundred pounds per annum, which exceeds the former salary three and ninety pounds.' FASTIDIOUSNESS OF ADDISON. 390-0-0. FREE and elegant as was the accustomed style of Addison, it is well known that, on many occasions, he could not satisfy the fastidiousness of his taste in his own compositions. Pope used to say of Addison, in his style of accustomed severity, that he could not issue an order from his office without losing his time in quest of fine expressions. It was his official business to write to Hanover that Queen Anne was dead: he found it so difficult to express himself suitably to his own notions of the importance of the event, that the lords of the regency were obliged to employ a Mr. Southwell, one of the clerks. Southwell stated the fact, as he was ordered, in the ordinary perspicuity of business; and then boasted of his superiority to Addison, in having readily done that which Addison attempting to do had failed." FURTHER TESTIMONY TO ADDISON'S CONVERSATIONAL POWERS. ALTHOUGH Addison was timid and shy in public companies, yet no man was a more interesting companion in private. Of his private colloquial powers both his friends and enemies have borne sufficient testimony. "He was," says Steele, "above all men in that talent called humour, and enjoyed it in such perfection, that I have often reflected, after a night spent with him apart from all the world, that I had had the pleasure of conversing with an intimate acquaint It will be perceived that the last item (with all allowance for the difference of Irish money, if so paid,) makes his Irish appointment considerably more than is recorded by his biographers. In our note at page 427, the salary is stated, on accepted authority, at £300 per annum. Since then the official grants have turned up, and show that the salary was at first four, then five hundred per annum, independent of the fees referred to in the anecdote at page 68. 2 The present volumes afford no confirmation of this oft-repeated assertion. On the contrary, there is evidence of great facility in letterwriting. Pope was always ready to propagate any report prejudicial to the reputation of a rival. Macaulay very properly treats it as an idle tradition. It is very possible Addison might not have known the office form in which this mechanical business was to be performed. |