that post was almost offered to him before. At that time he declined it, and I really believe that he would have done well to have declined 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 heartily glad to resign them both." It is probable that the marriage did not prove a happy one, but if so Addison did not have to suffer long. His health failed him soon after he was made Secretary, and in 1719 he died. Throughout his life, Addison was a sincere Christian, and on his dying bed he sent for his step-son, a dissipated young nobleman, "to see in what peace a Christian could die." His personality was an amiable one, and he was greatly beloved by most of his associates. Tickell wrote an elegy upon him which, as Macaulay says, "would do honor to the greatest name in our literature.” With Swift, his relations were for the most part cordial, though Swift was a bitter Tory and Addison a zealous Whig. Steele loved and admired him, though, as we have seen, there was an unhappy estrangement between them at the time of Addison's death. But the old affection returned. In the preface to "The Drummer," published soon after, Steele refers feelingly to the fact that he (Steele) had ever rejoiced in being excelled," and was gladly "subservient to the superior qualities of his friend whom he loved.” Pope was at first his friend, and with good reason; for Addison helped by means of the Spectator to make Pope's reputation. But when the Wasp of Twickenham became angry, he forgot all debts of gratitude. His celebrated satire upon Addison contains point as well as poison, for it outlines some undoubted frailties of "Atticus," commingled with passing mention of certain of his talents and accomplishments, so as to give a crafty semblance of realism to the whole. It has been most aptly termed 66 POPE'S VENOMED SHAFT. "Peace to all such! but were there one whose fires RICHARD STEELE. For many years the date of Steele's birth was in dispute. It was believed that he was younger than Addison, and indeed Thackeray, drawing upon his exuberant imagination, says that Steele fagged for Addison at school, ran of his errands, and blacked his boots. But recent investigations have proved that he was born on the 12th of March, 1672; thus he was about six weeks older than Addison. Add to this the fact that Steele went to the famous Charterhouse school about two years before Addison was sent thither, and Thackeray's picturesque account of the “head boy," which he relates with such telling effect, falls below the rank of historical fiction into that of fictitious biography. Although Steele always wished to be considered an Englishman, he was born in Dublin and died in Wales. His father died when he was about five years old, and one of the most pathetic passages which Steele ever wrote is a description of his own remembrance of the sad event.1 It is not quite certain how long his mother lived, but she must have died soon after her husband. Left thus early an orphan, Steele was cared for by an uncle, who provided the means of a good education. When he was about twelve years old he was admitted to the Charterhouse "upon the foundation," and there prepared for Oxford. In 1686 Joseph Addison entered the same school, and a friendship sprung up between these two congenial boys, destined to last almost uninterrupted until they were separated by death, and to remain a fragrant memory with the survivor-Steele. But although Steele went first to the fitting school, he went last to the university, and chose a different college, Christ's Church. His life at college seems to have been a happy one, and he gave some evidence of literary tastes; but he left Oxford in 1694, enlisting as a private in the Horse Guards. This step was probably due to his natural bent towards an active life. In later life he thus describes it, speaking of himself in the third person: "When he mounted a war-horse, with a great sword in his hand, and planted himself behind King William the Third against Lewis the Fourteenth, he lost the succession to a very good estate in Ireland, from the same humor which he has pursued ever since, of preferring the state of his mind to that of his fortune." Steele's pen proved mightier than his sword. With this he won his first promotion, for he wrote a poem upon the death of the queen and dedicated it, although anony 1 Tatler No. 181. mously, to Lord Cutts, a gallant soldier and an ardent Whig of literary tastes. Steele alluded to his lordship's ability as a poet, and signed himself his "most passionate admirer and most devoted humble servant.' In consequence, Lord Cutts made his passionate admirer a member of his military household, and got him an ensign's commission in the Coldstream Guards, which he himself commanded. From this date there is little to record of Steele until 1700. By that time he had become a captain, and in that year we find him warmly defending Addison against some epigrams of Sir Richard Blackmore (see page 17, note 3), and fighting, against his will, a duel, in which he seriously wounded his antagonist-a circumstance which perhaps ( accounts for his frequent condemnations of duelling in the Tatler and the Spectator. While in the army, Steele had dissolute associates and found himself yielding to the temptations of an irregular life. He consequently wrote a little work called the "Christian Hero," which he designed as a private monitor to keep himself in the paths of virtue. As he still found it hard to reconcile his deeds and his duties, he resolved to publish his book, "in hopes," he says, "that a standing testimony against himself might curb his desires and make him ashamed of understanding and seeming to feel what was virtuous, and living so quite contrary a life." Years later, however, he remarked that his book "had no other good effect, but that from being thought no undelightful companion, he was soon reckoned a disagreeable fellow." But whatever his real faults, Steele had an honest desire to make the world better. The English stage was then notoriously immoral, and writers of reputation lent their influence to keep it so. Steele took a noble stand and wrote several comedies far above the level of his age. They were not great works: the style is often unnatural and prosy, but they deserve remembrance as the first serious effort of a playwright to reverse the current of public taste. The revulsion came in time, and Steele's comedies, supplemented in the Tatler and Spectator by his more graceful prose, had no small effect in creating a love of virtue and a contempt for vice. In 1702 Steele was appointed a Captain of Foot in Lord Lucas's regiment, where he remained, always on duty in or near London, till after the death of his colonel in 1705. In the spring of that year he married Margaret Stretch, a widow, who had an estate of some value in the Barbadoes. About this time Steele sold his commission, and, according to a malicious rumor, squandered his available means in a fruitless search for the philosopher's stone. Steele's first wife lived less than two years; and less than a year later he married Mary Scurlock, a Welsh “beauty." Before the death of his first wife he had been appointed gentleman-waiter to Prince George (husband of Queen Anne) at £100 a year, and shortly after her death he was made Gazetteer, with a salary of £300. He says of himself in this new office, that "his next appearance as a writer was in the quality of the lowest Minister of State-to wit, in the office of Gazetteer; where he worked faithfully according to order, without ever erring against the rule observed by all Ministries, to keep that paper very innocent and very insipid." Notwithstanding a considerable income, Steele was throughout the rest of his life perpetually harassed by debt. This has been attributed to dissipation, but it was probably due more to mismanagement. His second marriage seems to have been a very happy one, and many of his letters to "Dear Prue" have been preserved, which are often an amusing medley of conjugal affection and financial distress. In 1708 Prince George died, but the salary of the gentleman-waiter was continued in the form of a pension. Meantime Steele's debts accumulated. Matters were in a confused state when some good genius, perhaps Swift, whispered into Steele's ear the idea of the Tatler. The |