One reason which induced the Earl of Warwick to play the ignominious part of talebearer on this occasion, may have been his dislike of the marriage which was about to take place between his mother and Addison.The Countess Dowager, a daughter of the old and honourable family of the Middletons of Chirk, a family which, in any country but ours, would be called noble, resided at Holland House.Addison had, during some years, occupied at Chelsea a small dwelling, once the abode of Nell Gwynn.Chelsea is now a district of London, and Holland House may be called a town residence.But, in the days of Anne and George the First, milkmaids and sportsmen wandered between green hedges and over fields bright with daisies, from Kensington almost to the shore of the Thames.Addison and Lady Warwick were country neighbours, and became intimate friends.The great wit and scholar tried to allure the young Lord from the fashionable amusements of beating watchmen, breaking windows, and rolling women in hogsheads down Holborn Hill, to the study of letters, and the practice of virtue.These well-meant exertions did little good, however, either to the disciple or to the master.Lord Warwick grew up a rake; and Addison fell in love.The mature beauty of the Countess has been celebrated by poets in language which, after a very large allowance has been made for flattery, would lead us to believe that she was a fine woman; and her rank doubtless heightened her attractions.The courtship was long.The hopes of the lover appear to have risen and fallen with the fortunes of his party.His attachment was at length a matter of such notoriety that, when he visited Ireland for the last time, Rowe addressed some consolatory verses to the Chloe of Holland House.
It strikes us as a little strange that, in these verses, Addison should be called Lycidas, a name of singularly evil omen for a swain just about to cross St.George's Channel.
At length Chloe capitulated.Addison was indeed able to treat with her on equal terms.He had reason to expect preferment even higher than that which he had attained.He had inherited the fortune of a brother who died Governor of Madras.He had purchased an estate in Warwickshire, and had been welcomed to his domain in very tolerable verse by one of the neighbouring squires, the poetical fox-hunter, William Somerville.In August 1716, the newspapers announced that Joseph Addison, Esquire, famous for many excellent works both in verse and prose, had espoused the Countess Dowager of Warwick.
He now fixed his abode at Holland House, a house which can boast of a greater number of inmates distinguished in political and literary history than any other private dwelling in England.His portrait still hangs there.The features are pleasing; the complexion is remarkably fair; but, in the expression, we trace rather the gentleness of his disposition than the force and keenness of his intellect.
Not long after his marriage he reached the height of civil greatness.The Whig Government had, during some time, been torn by internal dissensions.Lord Townshend led one section of the Cabinet, Lord Sunderland the other.At length, in the spring of 1717, Sunderland triumphed.Townshend retired from office, and was accompanied by Walpole and Cowper.Sunderland proceeded to reconstruct the Ministry; and Addison was appointed Secretary of State.It is certain that the Seals were pressed upon him, and were at first declined by him.Men equally versed in official business might easily have been found; and his colleagues knew that they could not expect assistance from him in debate.He owed his elevation to his popularity, to his stainless probity, and to his literary fame.
But scarcely had Addison entered the Cabinet when his health began to fail.From one serious attack he recovered in the autumn; and his recovery was celebrated in Latin verses, worthy of his own pen, by Vincent Bourne, who was then at Trinity College, Cambridge.A relapse soon took place; and, in the following spring, Addison was prevented by a severe asthma from discharging the duties of his post.He resigned it, and was succeeded by his friend Craggs, a young man whose natural parts, though little improved by cultivation, were quick and showy, whose graceful person and winning manners had made him generally acceptable in society, and who, if he had lived, would probably have been the most formidable of all the rivals of Walpole.
As yet there was no Joseph Hume.The Ministers, therefore, were able to bestow on Addison a retiring pension of fifteen hundredpounds a year.In what form this pension was given we are not told by the biographers, and have not time to inquire, But it is certain that Addison did not vacate his seat in the House of Commons.
Rest of mind and body seem to have re-established his health; and he thanked God, with cheerful piety, for having set him free both from his office and from his asthma.Many years seemed to be before him, and he meditated many works, a tragedy on the death of Socrates, a translation of the Psalms, a treatise on the evidences of Christianity.Of this last performance, a part, which we could well spare, has come down to us.
