They had early attached themselves to the same political party and to the same patrons.While Anne's Whig Ministry was in power, the visits of Swift to London and the official residence of Addison in Ireland had given them opportunities of knowing each other.They were the two shrewdest observers of their age.But their observations on each other had led them to favourable conclusions.Swift did full justice to the rare powers of conversation which were latent under the bashful deportment of Addison.Addison, on the other hand, discerned much good-nature under the severe look and manner of Swift; and, indeed, the Swift of 1708 and the Swift of 1738 were two very different men.
But the paths of the two friends diverged widely.The Whig statesmen loaded Addison with solid benefits.They praised Swift, asked him to dinner, and did nothing more for him.His profession laid them under a difficulty.In the State they could not promote him; and they had reason to fear that, by bestowing preferment in the Church on the author of the Tale of a Tub, they might give scandal to the public, which had no high opinion of their orthodoxy.He did not make fair allowance for the difficulties which prevented Halifax and Somers from serving him, thought himself an ill-used man, sacrificed honour and consistency to revenge, joined the Tories, and became their most formidable champion.He soon found, however, that his old friends were less to blame than he had supposed.The dislike with which the Queen and the heads of the Church regarded him was insurmountable; and it was with the greatest difficulty that he obtained an ecclesiastical dignity of no great value, on condition of fixing his residence in a country which he detested.
Difference of political opinion had produced, not indeed a quarrel, but a coolness between Swift and Addison.They at length ceased altogether to see each other.Yet there was between them a tacit compact like that between the hereditary guests in the Iliad:
"'Egkhea d' allelon aleometha kai di' dmilon.
Polloi men gar emoi Troes kleitoi t' epikouroi Kteinein on ke theos ge pori kai possi kikheio Polloi d' au soi Akhaioi enairmen, on ke duneai."It is not strange that Addison, who calumniated and insulted nobody, should not have calumniated or insulted Swift.But it is remarkable that Swift, to whom neither genius nor virtue was sacred, and who generally seemed to find, like most other renegades, a peculiar pleasure in attacking old friends, should have shown so much respect and tenderness to Addison.
Fortune had now changed.The accession of the House of Hanover had secured in England the liberties of the people, and in Ireland the dominion of the Protestant caste.To that caste Swift was more odious than any other man.He was hooted and even pelted in the streets of Dublin; and could not venture to ride along the strand for his health without the attendance of armed servants.
Many whom he had formerly served now libelled and insulted him.
At this time Addison arrived.He had been advised not to show the smallest civility to the Dean of St.Patrick's.He had answered, with admirable spirit, that it might be necessary for men whose fidelity to their party was suspected, to hold no intercourse with political opponents; but that one who had been a steady Whig in the worst times might venture, when the good cause was triumphant, to shake hands with an old friend who was one of the vanquished Tories.His kindness was soothing to the proud and cruelly wounded spirit of Swift; and the two great satirists resumed their habits of friendly intercourse.
Those associates of Addison whose political opinions agreed with his shared his good fortune.He took Tickell with him to Ireland.
He procured for Budgell a lucrative place in the same kingdom.
Ambrose Phillips was provided for in England, Steele had injured himself so much by his eccentricity and perverseness, that he obtained but a very small part of what he thought his due.He was, however, knighted; he had a place in the household; and he subsequently received other marks of favour from the Court.
Addison did not remain long in Ireland.In 1715 he quitted his secretaryship for a seat at the Board of Trade.In the same year his comedy of the Drummer was brought on the stage.The name of the author was not announced; the piece was coldly received; and some critics had expressed a doubt whether it were really Addison's.To us the evidence, both external and internal, seems decisive.It is not in Addison's best manner; but it contains numerous passages which no other writer known to us could have produced.It was again performed after Addison's death, and, being known to be his, was loudly applauded.