Lives of the Poets | Page 4

Blois, probably to learn the
French language and then proceeded in his journey to Italy, which he
surveyed with the eyes of a poet. While he was travelling at leisure, he
was far from being idle: for he not only collected his observations on
the country, but found time to write his "Dialogues on Medals," and
four acts of Cato. Such, at least, is the relation of Tickell. Perhaps he
only collected his materials and formed his plan. Whatever were his
other employments in Italy, he there wrote the letter to Lord Halifax
which is justly considered as the most elegant, if not the most sublime,
of his poetical productions. But in about two years he found it
necessary to hasten home; being, as Swift informs us, distressed by
indigence, and compelled to become the tutor of a travelling squire,
because his pension was not remitted.
At his return he published his Travels, with a dedication to Lord
Somers. As his stay in foreign countries was short, his
observations
are such as might be supplied by a hasty view, and consist chiefly in
comparisons of the present face of the country with the descriptions left
us by the Roman poets, from whom he made preparatory collections,
though he might have spared the trouble had he known that such
collections had been made twice before by Italian authors.
The most amusing passage of his book is his account of the minute
republic of San Marino; of many parts it is not a very severe censure to
say that they might have been written at home. His elegance of
language, and variegation of prose and verse, however, gain upon the
reader; and the book, though awhile neglected, became in time so much
the favourite of the public that before it was reprinted it rose to five
times its price.
When he returned to England (in 1702), with a meanness of appearance
which gave testimony of the difficulties to which he had been reduced,
he found his old patrons out of power, and was therefore, for a time, at

full leisure for the cultivation of his mind; and a mind so cultivated
gives reason to believe that little time was lost. But he remained not
long neglected or useless. The victory at Blenheim (1704) spread
triumph and confidence over the nation; and Lord Godolphin,
lamenting to Lord Halifax that it had not been celebrated in a manner
equal to the subject, desired him to propose it to some better poet.
Halifax told him that there was no encouragement for genius; that
worthless men were unprofitably enriched with public money, without
any care to find or employ those whose appearance might do honour to
their country. To this Godolphin replied that such abuses should in time
be rectified; and that, if a man could be found capable of the task then
proposed, he should not want an ample recompense. Halifax then
named Addison, but required that the Treasurer should apply to him in
his own person. Godolphin sent the message by Mr. Boyle, afterwards
Lord Carlton; and Addison, having undertaken the work,
communicated it to the Treasury while it was yet advanced no further
than the simile of the angel, and was immediately rewarded by
succeeding Mr. Locke in the place of Commissioner of Appeals.
In the following year he was at Hanover with Lord Halifax: and the
year after he was made Under Secretary of State, first to Sir Charles
Hedges, and in a few months more to the Earl of Sunderland. About
this time the prevalent taste for Italian operas inclined him to try what
would be the effect of a musical drama in our own language. He
therefore wrote the opera of Rosamond, which, when exhibited on the
stage, was either hissed or neglected; but, trusting that the readers
would do him more justice, he published it with an inscription to the
Duchess of Marlborough--a woman without skill, or pretensions to skill,
in poetry or literature. His dedication was therefore an instance of
servile absurdity, to be exceeded only by Joshua Barnes's dedication of
a Greek Anacreon to the Duke. His reputation had been somewhat
advanced by The Tender Husband, a comedy which Steele dedicated to
him, with a confession that he owed to him several of the most
successful scenes. To this play Addison supplied a prologue.
When the Marquis of Wharton was appointed Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, Addison attended him as his secretary; and was made Keeper

of the Records, in Birmingham's Tower, with a salary of three hundred
pounds a year. The office was little more than nominal, and the salary
was augmented for his accommodation. Interest and faction allow little
to the operation of particular dispositions or private opinions. Two men
of personal characters more opposite than those of Wharton