I PR 3581 112 11901 Copy 1 ^ : 4 i jBl W r>()em of Paradise Regained. It is, in brief, a counterpart to the former poem. Adam had listened to the Tempter and lost Paradise ; Jesus, the second representative of man- kind, repulsed Satan and regained the blissful seat. The poem is an expanded narrative of the story of the temp- tation of (Jhrist as recorded in the Gospels. It has little of the })ower of Paradise Lost ; there is practically no action in it, and little delineation of character. But the old charm of Milton's grand style still remains, and some of the speeches are in his finest manner. Samson Agonistes is a drama in the classical style. It represents the last day of the life of Samson and his victorious death, when, like a wrestler (Agonistes), he pulled down the pillars of the Philistine temple, and brought destruction alike iipon himself and his enemies. Macaulay has pointed out correctly enough its chief fault as a play, but he has entirely overlooked its great and peculiar charm, the identification of the poet with the hero of the drama. Like Samson, Milton had once led the .chosen people in warfare against God's enemies. Like Samson he had XXXVl INTRODUCTION failed, and now, old and blind, was the sport and laughter of his enemies. He had something of the old heroic strain in his blood, and would gladly have gone to death could he have pulled the tyranny of the Restoration crashing about the heads of Charles and James. And it is this revelation of the poet's mind, far more than " the severe dignity of the style or the wild melody of the choral passages," which makes Samson Ayonistes, to him who reads it understand- ingly, one of the most solemn and pathetic things in English literature. Here, as nowhere else, we seem to see the noblest of our poets opening his heart to us. Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistcs were published together in 1670. Milton lived four years longer, but his Avork was done. Not that he rested from study and composition; his studious habit had taken too firm hold upon him to be cast aside. In these last years he completed and revised his Treatise on Christian Doctrine, and worked away on various compilations, a text-book of Logic, a Latin Dictionary, and so on. ]>ut these were mere tasks to pass the time ; there is nothing in them to add to his fame ; it stands secure iipon the poems of his youth, the Sonnets and one or two of the pam])lilets of his middle age, and the two great epics and the drama of his last years. We have some pleasant pictures of Milton in the last years of his life. His daughters indeed showed themselves anything but dutiful. We hear that they cheated him in the marketing, sold his books without his knowledge, and had at last to be sent away to learn a trade. But his wife cared for him, and young friends gathered round him eager to read to him and catch something of his knowledge. He rose very early, at four in sumnu^r, at live in winter, listened to a chapter of the Hebrew Bible — one wonders what friends were devoted enough to come to him at such hours — and passed the morning with an amanuensis, reading and writing. He took a little exercise, walking in the A SKETCH OF MILTON'S LIFE AND CHARACTER xxxvii garden and swinging in a macliino, and ke})t u[) his mnsic, playing on the bass-viol and the organ. In the evening friends came in for a talk, and after a frngal supper of olives or " some light thing " he smoked a pipe and went to bed at nine. The little record of the pipe before bedtime is a very human touch. One is too often inclined to think of Milton as something remote and unearthly in his purity and stateliness. But the pipe seems to bring him nearer to us. What a life of hopes and struggles and defeats and victories the old blind poet had to think over as he sat and smoked before the fire in the long dark evenings of later years. He died at last of gout, inherited, no doubt, from some hard- drinking ancestor, for he himself had always been most temperate. Milton's character has been variously judged by his biographers. Perhaps none of them has spoken so highly of him as Macaulay, yet it would be hard to say that Macaulay's praise is unwarranted. But there are certain features in the poet's character that Macaulay, in the role of eulogist, passes over unnoticed. One of these, and perhaps the most striking, is his immense self-confidence ; self-conceit we cannot call it, that is the quality of a smaller man, nor can we call it pride, except in some special meaning of that word. But Milton was one of the men who are ahvays supremely sure that they are in the right, and in that confidence go on their way unfaltering. This character- istic shows itself in Milton's work as well as in his life. The fierce wrath which he pours out on his adversaries, the scorn and contempt with which he regards their action and their argument, is not because they are the adversaries of him, John Milton, but because they are the enemies of the Right of which he is the divinely appointed champion. This quality accounts, too, for his lack of sympathy with the common weaknesses of men. Milton was no Shake- speare or Chaucer. He could never have dwelt lovingly XXXVlll TNTROBUCTTON on the figure of fat Jack Palstaff, and he wouki have administered l*ride's rurge to the Canterbury Pilgrims. And the hick of humor, so noticeable in all his work, springs from this want of human sympathy. Life was too serious a matter for Milton to joke about; in his works the only people who joke are the devils. This quality tended to make, and in the end did make, Milton a lonely man. Except in early youth he seems never to have had an intimate friend. Foreigners indeed came to visit the illustrious scholar, and young men gathered round him to read and listen to him. And in such circles he is said to have been the life of the company. But one cannot imagine JNIilton on terms of intimacy with anything lower than an archangel. In Wordsworth's splendid phrase, "his soul was like a star, and dwelt a})art." It is foolish to wish the great men of the past other than they were. If they have their defects they have their corresponding virtues, and the two are usually too closely allied to be separated by a human hand. If Milton was narrower than Shakespeare or ('liaTicer he was also loftier, and it is hardly too much to say that it was the very narrow- ness that made him lofty. To the serene self-confidence which robbed him of sympathy and humor are due both the spotless purity of his youth and the heroic fortitude of his old age. Milton was from first to last a lover of freedom and a lover of truth. To him the one seemed to spring directl}' from the other — "Ye shall know tlie truth, and the truth shall make you free," — and perhaps the noblest passages in his prose are his rapturous outbursts in praise of Truth and her attendant Liberty. Milton belonged i)roperly to no })arty of his time. One l)y one in his search for truth he l)ass('d by them all, until he stood alone. Yet he was essen- tially a Turitan. Macaulay denies this, and declares that his nature selected and drew to itself whatever was great A SKETCH OF MILTON'S LIFE AND CHARACTER XXXIX and good in any party. But men's natures do not compose themselves in this fashion. Milton undoubtedly was free from some of the most unpleasant characteristics of advanced Puritans, — a freedom easily explained by his early education and environment — but these characteristics ai*e superficial. At heart Milton was always a Puritan, and enough has been said of his character to show that he had some, at least, of their faults as well as their virtues. Milton was not only a Puritan, he was the poet of Puritan- ism, and his work sums up a mighty movement that extends over a century of English history. Puritanism took its rise under Queen Elizabeth, when England was fighting for her life against a foreign foe ; it came to an end about the trine that the Revolution of 1688 freed her definitely from domes- tic tyranny. This period is the heroic age of England in literature as in history, and Milton closes up that age. Hi.s quick sense of beauty, his lyric charm, his daring imagina- tion, alike connect him with the great poets of Elizabeth's day, and distinguish him from the school of common-sense in rhyme that was to follow. And no figure could more fitly close the heroic age than that of the blind poet who, amid the ruin of his fortunes and the wreck of all his hopes, sat down unmoved to write the epic of the lost cause, and justify the ways of God to man. xl INTRODUCTION IXTRODUCTIOX TO THE EsSAY ON AdDISON This cliarniing essay, like all of Macaulay's, was written for the Edinburgh Review, and appeared in July, 1843, the last but one of his contributions to that magazine. It was called forth by the publication of The Life of Joseph Addison by Miss Aikin, a well-known woman of letters of that day. She seems to have done the preliminary work for this book in a very careless fashion, for Macaulay discovered in his perusal of the advance sheets a number of most dis- creditable errors, which his advice enabled her to correct. Even with this aid the book was very faulty, and Macaulay found not less than forty " gross errors as to matters of fact " in the first volume. These he corrected in a series of foot- notes to the essay, reserving the body of the work for his own presentation of the life and times of Addison. This separation of the. temporary from the permanent was due, no doubt, to the higher opinion of his essays which Macaulay was beginning to entertain. He had at first regarded them as merely ephemeral productions, but the large sale of col- lected editions in America and the steady flow of these into England had forced him, in the early part of this year, to make his own collection and revision for the English public. This task gave him an opportunity to compare his earliest with the latest essays, and to estimate his progress in the art. He seems, on the whole, to have been well satisfied. " The most hostile critic must admit, I think," he writes to the editor of the Edinburgh Revieio, " that I have improved greatly as a writer. The third volume seems to nie worth two of the second, and the second worth ten of the first.'' Of the Essay on Addison, which came out soon after the publication of his collected essays, he writes to the same friend, " I shall not be surprised if both you and the public think it a failure, but I own that I am partial to it," INTRODUCTION TO THE ESSAY ON ADDISON xli Macaiilay had good reason for this partiality. Of all his biographies, " after the manner of Pkitarch," the Essay on Addison is perhaps the most successful. It lacks, indeed, the youthful enthusiasm which flames through the JEssay on Milton, but it is, on the other hand, free from much of the exuberance of style and love of paradox which mars that early Avork. The subject was one on which he had read and thought since his earliest childhood. The great writers of the Augustan age. Swift, Pope, and Addison, Avere to Macaulay what Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron are to us ; and even more, for we may well doubt whether the greatest lover of the Romantic poets to-day has steeped his mind in the life, social and political, and in the literature, good, bad, and indifferent, of their day, as Macaulay had done in the life and letters of Queen Anne's time. Moreover, the sub- ject did not demand the possession of great critical ability. Maca\ilay was not of the first order of literary critics — a fact which he himself fully recognized. " I am not success- ful," he once said, ''in analyzing the effect of works of genius. I have never written a page of criticism on poetry which I would not burn if I had the power." But the merits of Addison lie so plainly on the surface, that there was no such need of this critical aualysis as in the case, let lis say, of Byron, or the dramatists of the Restoration. A frank, straightforward eulogy of Addison's charm of style, kindly humor, and pure morality, is all that Macaulay gives, and really all that the theme demands. But on the other hand, Macaulay's peculiar faculty of his- toric imagination found here hxW scope for its display. As we read this essay, we are carried back, as by magic, into the stirring life of a past age : Marlborough is campaigning on the Rhine and Danube ; Whigs and Tories are plotting and counter-plotting at home ; the coffee houses are crowded with the gay, bustling, talkative society of the day, smoking, drinking, passing about the freshest bit of news or scandal. xlii INTRODUCTION laughing impartially over Addison's happiest flash of humor or Pope's bitterest lampoon. The Kit-Cat Club is toasting the lovely Countess of Manchester, and the Squires of the October are drinking confusion to all foreigners in floods of home-brewed ale ; while in the dark streets a party of jMohawks, with AVarwick at their head, are beating the watch and rolling women in hogsheads down Holborn Hill. This dead past Avas very much alive to Macaulay, and far more real than the world about him — except, perhaps, the world of politics. Unfortunately Macaulay's keen interest in contemporary politics combined with his historic imagination to give a partisan color to his presentation of the past. He transfers his bitter prejudice against the Conservatives of his own day to the Tories of Queen Anne's reign. He can see nothing good in them, as he can see nothing to blame in the conduct of the Whigs. His imagination re-echoes in our ears the roar of obloquy that followed a AYhig ministry out of office in 1710 ; his party spirit suppresses the fact that for five years this nainistry had poured out English blood in torrents to gratify the ambition of their great leader and feed fat the ancient grudge they bore the kiygof France. The same party spirit influences even Macaulay's concejation of private persons: Swift went over from the Whigs to the Tories, therefore Swift is described as a renegade who sacrificed honor to revenge ; Pope was the most brilliant of the band of wits who formed the opposition to Addison's little senate of Whig scribblers, and had even dared to attack the blame- less Addison himself, therefore Pope is pelted with every epithet at Macaulay's command. It would take too long to point out here the weighty reasons which led Swift to his change of sides, or to attempt an analysis, if not a defence, of the character of Pope, the strangest compound of sensi- tiveness and selfishness, bitterness and generosity, duplicity and genius, that our race has produced ; but so much at INTRODUCTION TO THE ESSAY ON ADDISON xliil least may he said, Macaulay's estimate of neither of these men is for a moment to be taken as a final jndgment. Some other cause than party prejudice, however, must be sought for to explain Macaulay's onslaught upon Richard Steele, — a good Whig, and, but for a trifling difference at the last, a life-long friend of Addison. The reason is prob- ably to be found in two characteristic qualities of Macaulay as a writer, his inability to comprehend mixed and varied characters, and his overfondness for strong colors and sharp contrasts. The first of these sprang from his own simplicity of character, and consistency of action. Apparently he never sinned nor repented in his life ; and his moral judg- ments on less fortunate men have always in them something of the Puritan, and occasionally something of the Pharisee. That a man could be imprudent, reckless, and irregular, yet at bottom a man of high ideals and generous instincts, was a fact so repugnant to his conception of life that he preferred to reject it altogether, and, while exaggerating the misdeeds of his victim, ignore or explain away the good qualities that lay Avithin. And his love of color and contrast led him, unconsciously, no doubt, to paint Steele's morals as black as possible, to serve as a foil to the snowy purity of Addison's character, and to raidv Steele's talents as low as possible, to heighten the greater genius of his chosen hero. For a fidl vindication of Steele's character and capabilities the stiulent is referred to the essay b}^ Forster, written in direct contradiction of Macaulay's view, or to the charm- ing life of Steele by Austin Dobson. It will be sufiicient here to deny peremptorily some of the most sweeping of Macaulay's charges, and then leave to the student the not unpleasant task of examining the evidence. Steele never lived a " vagrant life " ; he had nothing either of the rake or the swindler in his composition. There is not a shadow of proof for the assertion that he ever " diced himself into a spunging house, or drank himself into a fever''; nor is xliv INTT^ODUCTION there any slightest evidence that Addison regarded him with scorn — though this scorn was, in INlacaulay's phrase, not unmingled with kindness. As a matter of fact, the scorn is Macaulay's own feeling toward Steele, and he unconsciously transfers it to Addison. Addison's sole attempt to keep Steele out of scrapes consisted, so far as we know, in advis- ing him to hold his peace, when Steele thought that his duty to his country bade him cry aloud and spare not. Addison did not introduce Steele to " the great," nor procure a good place for him; on the contrary, Steele was a prominent figure in the social and political world when Addison was compara- tively unknown. If Addison lent him money, Steele repaid it ; for the only direct evidence of a loan is Steele's letter to his wife saying that he has paid Mr. Addison his whole £1000. As for the story that Addison was once forced to repay himself by selling Steele out, it rests solely on the authority of the scoundrel. Savage, who had his own reasons for hating Steele; and, even if it be true, it does not, one would think, exactly reflect credit on Addison. The vivid little picture of "poor Dick" begging a loan on the i)lea that he has not bite nor sup in the house, and then squan- dering Addison's hard-earned money on cham]»agne and sweetmeats, is as purely fictitious as any scene in Thackeray or Dickens. In the world of letters, too, Macaulay's attempt to exalt Addison by l)elittling Steele is quite out of aecoril with the facts of the case. Steele was by far the more original of the two ; he founded the Tatler, determined its character, and made a success of it before Addison began his contribu- tions. The character of Sir Roger de C'overley was invented by Steele, and he contributed more than one touch to its development. AVe may well admit the claim of Addison to rank as the more finished artist, without denying Steele's happy boast that it was to him the world owed its Addison. And there are some few papers by the lesser of the partners INTRODUCTION TO THE ESSAY ON ADDISON xlv in literary fame that for sweet and simple hnmor, for honest and sturdy morality, for a iine sense of the })athos of human life, may rank with the best of his more famous friend's. Enough, and perhaps too much, has been said on this sub- ject. But it is only fair to the young reader, who, in all probability, makes his entrance through this essay into the fascinating circle of the " wits " of Queen Anne's day, to warn hiiu against so great an injustice as is done here to one of the gentlest, kindest, and most lovable of their number. The Essa^i on ^kldison is, as has been said, essentially a brief biography. The facts of Addison's life are so well and so fully told here, that it seems quite unnecessary to add to this introduction any biographical notice. On the other hand, the essay abounds in references to the history, jjoli- tics, and statesmen of the time, which demand for their com- })reheusion a fuller knowledge of English history than can be presumed in the average American schoolboy. A brief sketch of English history, from the accession of James II. to that of George I., is therefore appended, which should be carefully read by the student before entering upon the essay itself, and referred to thereafter during his study of the work. xlvi INTRODUCTION Ax Outline of Ex(;lish History from 1685 to 1715 A\'hex James II. came to the throne, in 1685, lie foiiiid the royal authority stronger in England than it had been since the first years of his father's reign, more than half a century before. He spent the three years of his reign in attempting to make this authority absolute, and only suc- ceeded in provoking a revolution, which drove him from the throne and rendered absolute nu)narcliy henceforward an impossibility in England. He did this by such a series of attacks on the law, the i)roperty, and the religion of his subjects as to leave them no choice but tliat between slavery and rebellion. Since the days of Cromwell Englishmen detested the very name of rebellion ; but they had no mind to sacrifice all their hard-earned rights to the king's pleasure, and at last rebellion broke out, in consequence of an event which James had looked forward to as destined to perpetu- ate the royal power. This was the birth, in 1688, of his son and heir. James had already two daughters by his first wife : JMary, married to her cousin, AVilliam of (Grange, and Anne, married to Prince George of Dennuirk. They were both very popular in England, women of good character, and stanch Protestants. So long, therefore, as it was believed that one of them would soon inherit the throne, j)eople were content to endure the tyranny of James in the hope that his death — he was over fifty Avhen he became king — would terminate the evil time, lint in the birth of this prince, Avho would doubtless be bred up in his fatlici''s religion and arbitrary ideas, the nation foresaw an indefinite prolongation of the tyranny. A story was spread al)out that the child was not the son of James at all, but an impostor, smuggled into the palace in a warming-pan to be palmed off on the nation as the true heir. There was not the slightest fouiulation for this story; but it was very gener- QUEEN ANNE. After the painting by Godfrey Kneller. AN OUTLINE OF ENGLISH HISTORY, 1(385 TO 1715 xlvii ally believed at the time, and the most influential men in England invited William of Orange to come over and deliver the nation. He did so, and the royal tyranny fell to pieces at once. James fled to France, and a representative convention declared the throne vacant and offered the crown to William and Mary in joint sovereignty, passing at the same time the famous Declaration of Right.^ William reigned in conjunction with his wife till 1694, when she died, and then alone till 1702. He was by no means popular in England. He was cold, haughty, and reserved in manner, and as a foreigner was intensely disliked by the majority of his subjects. All his interests Avere cen- tred in continental politics, especially in checking the enor- mous power of France, at that time the champion of absolute monarchy and religious intolerance. To Avithstand France it was necessary for William to secure the support of Eng- land in men and money, and to gain this he submitted to both injuries and insults from the English Parliament. The nation Avas at this time divided into the parties of Whigs and Tories, the former on the whole supporting AYilliam, the latter opposing him at every turn, and constantly intriguing with the exiled James. William's reign was almost entirely taken up Avith Avar against Louis XIV. In spite of several defeats he finally- forced that monarch to make peace and by the treaty of Ryswick in 1697 to disoAvn James, Avhom he had been sup- porting, and to acknoAvledge AYilliam as the laAvful king of England. Shortly after this treaty Parliament passed the Act of Settlement, determining the succession to the throne. It Avas to go on AVilliam's death to the Princess Anne, and after her, as the last of her children had already died, to Sophia, the Avife of the Elector of Hanover, or to her son. This lady Avas the grand-daughter of James I., and her son, 1 See note on 1. 1135 of the Essay on Milton. xlviii INTRODUCTION who subsequently became George I. of England, was thus the second cousin of the son of James II., variously known as the Old Pretender and as the Chevalier de St. George. Even setting this prince aside, there were other descendants of James I. who had by hereditary right a better title to the crown of England than Sophia, but they were all Roman Catholics, and the nation had suffered too much from James II. to allow another Roman Catholic sovereign on the throne. In 1698 and 1700 William and Louis negotiated the two Partition Treaties for the division of the Spanish monarchy. They were very unpopular in England, and those ministers of William who were suspected of having a hand in the negotiations, among them Addison's generous patron, Hali- fax, were threatened with impeachment by the House of Commons. The House was at this time strongly Tory, and its refusal to support William compelled him to stand in- active while Louis broke the Partition Treaty and accepted the throne of Spain for his grandson.^ But Louis's next act roused a flame of indignation in England, and precipi- tated the War of the Spanish Succession ; he visited the bedside of the dying James, and promised him to recognize his son as the legitimate king of Great Britain. This open violation of the treaty of Ryswick, the insolence with which Louis disregarded the Act of Succession, and the implied threat that he would some day assist the Pretender to regain the throne by force, were quite enough to cause a rapid revulsion of feeling in England. In a month the country was as hot for war as it had been cold before. William then formed the Grand Alliance of England, Austria, Hol- land, and some minor German states, and planned to open the war in the spring of 1702. But in March he was thrown from his horse and died shortly afterward. Anne's accession to the throne did not materially alter 1 See note on 1. 721 of the Essai/ on A(hUson. AN OUTLINE OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 1085 TO 1715 xlix the situation. She chose, it is true, Tories for her ministers, but their great leader, Marlborough, was as eager for the war as William had been. His chief ally in this policy was Godolphin, the Lord Treasurer, who for the next eight years directed the home affairs, as Marlborough did the foreign relations of England. Macaulay has pointed out in the essay on Addison, how these statesmen drifted away little by little from their own party and sought the support of the Whigs, who were heart and soul for the war, whereas the Tories were opposed on principle to foreign alliances, and would gladly have made peace on a promise from Louis to disown the Pretender. After Marlborough's first great victories at Blenheim and Eamillies, a definite alliance was formed between his followers among the Tories, and the Whigs under Halifax and Somers. These statesmen were recalled to office ; Marlborough's son-in-law, Sunderland, one of the most violent of the Whigs, was made Secretary of State, and it was resolved to push the war till Louis was brought to his knees. Not long after this Harley and Boling- broke, two leaders of the Tories, were driven out of office, and the Ministry became altogether Whig. But a great reaction against the war was taking place in the mind of the queen, and in the nation at large. With the queen it was wholly a personal matter. Anne was by this time heartily sick of her old favorite, the Duchess of Marlborough, and her dislike extended to the duke and the war party in general. The nation, too, was growing weary of the war, and was quite ready to listen to the proposals for peace which Louis was now offering. He was willing to grant everything the allies asked, except to join them in driving his grandson by arms from the throne of Spain. But Marlborough, who was earning great glory, and making much money in the war, insisted on this point, and so the fighting went on. In 1709, Marlborough won his last great victory at Malplaquet, but with such a fearful loss of life 1 INTRODUCTION as to slux'k all England into sol)riety. From this time events moved rai)idly toward the downfall of Marlborough and the Whigs. Toward the close of 1709, Sacheverell, a popular preacher in London, made a violent onslaught on the Minis- try, denouncing the AVhig principles, and declaring that the Church was in danger at their hands. Godolphin, whom he had personally attacked, insisted on prosecuting him before the House of Lords. This step was represented as a perse- cution of the Church ; the mob of London took sides with their favorite preacher, and after the trial, which resulted in a mere nominal sentence, Sacheverell travelled through England, inflaming the passions of the country gentlemen against the Whigs. The queen was emboldened by the dis- play of popular sentiment to take action against her min- isters. She refused Marlborough's request to be made Commander-in-Chief for life, and turned the duchess out of all her offices at court. She dismissed Sunderland and Godolphin from office, and recalled Harley and Bolingbroke. A general election in 1710 returned a strong Tory majority to the House of f'ommons, which at once took steps to bring the war to a close. Marlborough Avas removed from his place as Commander-in-Chief, the English troops ceased to take active part in the fighting, and in the spring of 1713 the Peace of Utrecht closed the "War of the Spanish Suc- cession. Louis obtained far more favorable terms than he had offered a few years before ; but the treaty was none the less popular in England, for the nation felt that the power of France had been so broken by Marlborough's victories that it was no longer dangerous, and, moreover, Louis swore to acknowledge the Protestant succession and to disown the Pretender. The period between the signing of the treaty and the death of Queen Anne, in 1714, was occupied with the question of the succession to the throne. This had been already decided by the Act of Settlement ; but the Tories, AN OUTLINE OF ENGLISH HISTORY, 1685 TO 1715 li and Anne herself, hated the idea of a German prince on the throne of England, and would have been glad to call the Pretender back on certain conditions. The chief of these was that he would become a Protestant ; but this he flatly refused to do. His refusal left the Tories in an awkward position, and they ruined their cause by quarrelling among themselves. Polingbroke, the most impetuoiis of them, drove his slower colleague, Harley, now Earl of Oxford, from power, and was, apparently, making ready to proclaim the Pretender. But his plans were not matured when the queen suddenly died, and the Whigs, who were united and knew exactly what they wanted, seized the power and pro- claimed George king. The Tory party collapsed at once ; and shortly after the arrival of George, Bolingbroke fled to France, where he entered into the service of the Pretender. An attempt in the following year, 1715, to raise Scotland for the Stuarts broke down completely, and from that day the House of Hanover has sat firmly upon the English throne. The Whigs, who had placed them there, proved the steady guardians of constitutional monarchy, and for nearly fifty years the Tories were kept out of power. The quarrel between two sections of the Whig party, led respectively by Sunderland and Towushend, which Macaulay mentions in the EsfKOj on Addison, was of little importance ; and the struggle over the Peerage Bill, which w^as meant to secure the Whig majority in the House of Lords against all con- tingencies, would have been forgotten long ago, but for the unfortunate fact that it set Addison and Steele at odds. With the failure of the Scottish uprising, in 1715, the long struggle between absolute and constitutional monarchy came to an end, and a new period, that of the supremacy of the gentry, began in the history of England. lii INTRODUCTION A List of the Whig and Toky Politiciaxs Mex- TIOXED IX THE Es.SAY OX AdDISOX Whigs Montague. Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax, made his mark in the reign of Charles II. as the leader of the ''Trimmers," a party which attempted to hold a middle course between the radical Wliigs and the royalist Tories. He was a trusted minister of William III. and a member of the Whig "Junto," under Queen Anne. Somers. John, Baron Somers, first distinguished himself by his able defence of the seven Bishops (see note on Essay on Addison, 1. 164.) He became the most trusted adviser of William III., who made him Lord Chancellor, and he was a leader of the Whigs till their fall in 1710. Shrewsbury. Charles Talbot, twelfth Earl of Shrewsbury, may best be ranked as a Whig, though at one time he was engaged in trea- sonable correspondence with the exiled James. He took a leading part in placing William on the English throne, and his return to office ^ in 1714 did much to secure the peaceable accession of George I. Manchester. Charles Montagu, the fourth Earl of Manchester. He headed a rising in the North in support of William's invasion. In William's reign and that of Anne he was frequently employed as an ambassador. Sunderland. Charles, Earl of Sunderland, Marlborough's son-in- law, a member of the Whig "Junto" in Queen Anne's reign and Prime Minister under George I. Cowper. A great Whig lawyer, Lord Chancellor under Queen A nne. Macaulay calls him perhaps the best Whig speaker of that reign. Wharton. Thomas, Earl of Wharton, a leading Whig politician under William III. and Anne, talented, versatile, and cynically im- moral. He was a patron of Addison, who served under him in Ireland and dedicated the fifth volume of the Spectator to him. Townshend. Charles, Viscount Townshend, Secretary of State under George I. from 1714 to 1717, when he was displaced by the intrigues of Sunderland. Craggs. James Craggs, Jr., a young Whig politician of great talent. He was the warm friend of Pope and of Addison, who dedi- cated his collected works to him. LIST OF WHIG AND TORY POLITICIANS liii Tories Somerset. Charles, sixth Duke of Somerset, "the proud Duke," may perhaps be ranked as a Tory, although he took up arms to support the invasion of William in 1088, and acted with the Whigs in proclaim- ing George I. in 1715. lie was a great favorite with Queen Anne. Godolphin. Sidney Godolphin entered political life under Charles II., who spoke of him as a man never in the way and never out of the way. He adhered to James II. till the very last, but became a minister of state under William III. His only son married Marl- borough's daughter, and he and Marlborough became close allies. His fall from office in 1710 opened the way for the High Tory minis- try of Harley and Bolingbroke. Marlborough. John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, one of the greatest of English generals, may also be considered as a Tory, though in his long career he deserted every party in turn. He was implicitly trusted by James II., who sent him out at the head of his army to oppose the invasion of William. Churchill's sudden desertion of the King, involving as it did the flight of the Princess Anne from her father, was chiefly responsible for the collapse of the Stuart cause in England. In spite of the honors and rewards which William heaped upon him he soon began a treaclierous correspondence with James, going so far as to inform him of the movements of the English army against France. On William's death he became, through his own and his wife's influence over Queen Anne, the most powerful man in England. He was made Captain -General of the army, and on the breaking out of the War of the Spanish Succession became Com- mander-in-Chief of the allied forces in Flanders. In this war he displayed the most amazing military genius, and in the four great victories of Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, he completely broke the power of France. In reward for his services he was created a duke, and the splendid palace of Blenheim, the pres- ent seat of the Dukes of Marlborough, was built for him at the public expense. After his fall in 1711 he remained abroad till the death of Anne. He returned immediately after this and resumed his military offices, but took little or no part thereafter in public life. He died in 1722 at the age of 72. Nottingham. Daniel Finch, Earl of Nottingham, was one of the leading Tory peers in the reigns of William III. and Anne. He was Secretary of State under Godolphin, but retired in 1704 when that statesman and Marlborough began to move toward tlie Whigs. liv INTRODUCTION Jersey. Edvv;ircl Villiers, first Earl of Jersey, Lord Chamberlain under Queen Anne. He shared Nottingham's dislike of Marlbor- ough's foreign policy and was dismissed from office in 1704. Harley. Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford, came into promi- nence in William's reign as a master of parliamentary politics. He was Speaker of the Hou.se of Commons in Anne's first parlia- ment, succeeded Nottingham as Secretary of State in 1704, and gradually undermined the ministry of Marlborough and Godolphin. They forced him out of ofiice, but he continued to influence the queen through his cousin, Mrs. Masham, and in 1710 returned to power as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He brought about the close of the War of the Spanish Succession by the Peace of Utrecht. He was driven from power by his old ally Bolingbroke in 1714, and never returned to office. He was a great patron of letters, and the intimate friend of Swift and Pope. St. John. Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, the most brill- iant politician of Queen Anne's reign, first distinguished himself as the mouthpiece of Tory attacks on the foreign policy of William III. He was introduced into office by Marlborough at the same time as Harley. He joined Harley in his intrigue against Marlboi'ough, went out of office with him in 1708, and returned to it on the fall of the Whigs in 1710. He helped to negotiate the Peace of Utrecht, man- aged to oust Harley from the government, and seems to have been plotting to secure the return of the Stuarts, when Anne's sudden death disconcerted his plans. He fled to France and entered the service of the Pretender. He returned in 172:^ and made a vain attempt to re- enter public life. He was a dis.solute man and a sceptical philosopher. He showed marked literary ability, and was the friend and patron of Swift and Pope. EXAMINATION QUESTIONS Iv Examination Questions The following, composed iu part of questions actually occurring in papers set in the year 1900, may be regarded as typical examination questions. Probably not more than one or tAVO of such questions will occur in any paper, but the student should be prepared to answer any of them. I. Macaulay 1. Give a brief outline of Macaulay 's life. 2. What are Macaulay's most important works ? What are his chief merits as a poet, essayist, and historian ? 3. Discuss some of the qualities of Macaulay's style. 4. What was Macaulay's character in private life ? Name some of his contemporaries, and tell what they Avere famous for in politics and literature. II. The Essay on Milton 1. Under what circumstances was the Essay on Milton written? Why does Macaulay make such a vigorous defence of Milton ? 2. What was Macaulay's opinion of the relation existing between civilization and poetry ? How does he account for this ? 3. What does Macaulay consider the most striking char- acteristic of Milton's poetry ? In which of his poems is this characteristic especially displayed ? 4. Give a brief summary of Macaulay's criticism on Comus and Samson Agonistes. 5. What comparison does Macaulay draw between JNIilton and Dante ? . Ivi INTRODUCTION 6. Give a brief account of Milton's early life, education, and travels. 7. What principal argument is advanced by Macaulay to justify the resistance of the English people to Charles I. ? 8. AYhat does Macaulay think of the execution of Charles I. ? How does he justify Milton's defence of that act ? 9. What qualities does Macaulay ascribe to the Puritans? 10. What apparent inconsistencies appear in the charac- ter of the Puritans ? 11. What qualities does Macaulay ascribe to the Royalists ? 12. Contrast the Puritans and Royalists from the social, political, and religious points of view. 13. What does Macaulay say of the personal character of Milton ? 14. How does Milton differ from the ordinary Puritans ? 15. What did you think of the Essay on Milton ? What parts interested you most ? AVhy '' AVhat are its chief merits ? III. The Essay ox Addison 1. Give a brief sketch of the early life and education of Addison. 2. Under what circumstances was the Cam,paig)t written ? 3. What is Macaulay's estimate of the Campaign ? Of Addison's poetry in general ? 4. Describe the founding of the Taller and of the Specta- tor. Why were these periodicals so siiccessful ? 5. What influence did Addison exert on English morals, through the Tatler and the Sj)ectator. 6. What comparison does Macaulay draw between Addi- son's humor and that of Swift and Voltaire ? 7. Tell all you know about Addison's play, Cato. 8. What are Addison's chief merits and defects as a writer ? EXAMINATION QUESTIONS Ivii 9. Describe Addison's relations with Steele, Swift, and Pope. 10. Sketch briefly Addison's political career. 11. Name the leading })ublic men of both parties in Addison's day. 12. What is Macaulay's estimate of Addison's personal character ? 13. What qualities made Addison a successful man ? 14. What criticism does Macaulay make of Addison's learning ? 15. Which essay do you prefer, that on Milton, or that on Addison '! Give reasons for your preference. Ivm INTRODUCTION A Brief BiBLUxiRAPiiY I. Macaulay The standard authority for I\Iacaula.y is the Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, by his nephew George Otto Trevelyan. This is one of the best biographies in English, and sliould be read by every one who wishes to know the gentler and better side of Macaulay's character. The Macaulay by J. Cotter Morison, in the English Men of Letters Series, is an interesting critical study. There are good essays on Macaulay by Walter Bagehot in his Miscellanies, vol. 1 ; John Morley in his Critical Essays, vol. 2 ; Leslie Stephen in Hours in a Library (Third Series) ; Frederic Harrison in Stridies in Early Victorian Literature; and Professor Saintsbury in Corrected Impressions. There is a charming contemporai'y esti- mate of Macaulay's character by Thackeray in Nil Nisi Bonum, one of the Boundabout Papers. II. MiJ/rox The great life of Milton is, of course. Professor Masson's encyclo- paedic work, the Life of John Milton. This, however, is for reference rather than for reading. The Life of Milton in Johnson's Lives of the Poets is well worth reading. There is a very good sketch of Milton's life and work by Pattison in the English Men of Letters Series, and another by Dr. Garnett in the Great Writers Series. There are innumerable essays on Milton ; two of these may interest the more advanced student — Lowell's in Among Mij Books (Second Series) and Arnold's, entitled "A French Critic on Milton," in his Mixed Essays. III. Addison In addition to Miss Aikin's Life of Addison, the Addison of Profes- sor Courthope, in the English Men of Letters Series, may be men- tioned. There is a very interesting life of Addison included in Dr. Johnson's Lives of the Poets, BIBLIOGRAPHY lix IV. Miscellaneous For students or teachers who wish to read more widely, the follow- ing works may be suggested : the Life of Steele by Austin Dobson, in the English Worthies Series ; Selections from Steele by Professor Car- penter, in the Athenseum Press Series ; Forster's essay on Steele, in Biogrnpliical Essays ; Pope and Swift, in the English Men of Letters Series, both by Leslie Stephen ; Thackeray's famous novel, Henry Esmond, and his lectures on Swift, Congreve and Addison, Steele, Prior, Gay, and Pope, in his English Humourists ; Ashton's Social Life in the Beign of Queen Anne. For the history of the times referred to in these essays the student may consult Green's Short History of the English People, Macaulay's History of England, Lecky's England in the Eighteenth Century, and the handbooks in the Epochs of Modern History Series on the Puritan Revolution, the Fall