and as Lord High Treasurer and practically Prime Minister managed affairs at home and raised the funds for the military operations of Marlborough on the Continent. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (1650(?)–1722), was one of the great captains of the world. Under his leadership the splendid armies and experienced generals of the French were again and again defeated, their country devastated, and the empire of the proud old Louis brought to the verge of dismemberment. Marlborough's character was, however, stained by avarice and treachery. He was greatly assisted by his wife, who possessed unbounded influence over Anne. 31 13. Funded debt. The national debt began under King William. It was a Whig measure, and was bitterly opposed by the Tories, since it gave the Whig capitalists a chance for a good investment, while the country had to meet the interest charge. 32 2. This comparison for the sake of clearness has become ineffective with the lapse of time; it is now necessary to explain the explanation. In 1826 important measures of reform were before the country. The Tory party was in power, but on the question of the need of reform Tory opinion was hopelessly divided. Canning and Lord Eldon, both members of the cabinet, represent the opposing wings, the first a moderate reformer, the second an intense anti-reformer. The Whigs stood ready to assist Canning, and after he became Prime Minister in the following year some of them entered his cabinet. 32 17. Blenheim, in Bavaria, the scene of one of Marlborough's greatest victories, won in 1704. He had marched 400 miles from his base of operations in Holland, to crush a French army which was moving against the Austrians. The battle changed the entire European situation, and threw France on the defensive. 32 22. The Imperial throne, occupied by Leopold, Archduke of Austria. 32 23. The Act of Settlement. This act of Parliament decreed that on the death of Anne without issue the crown should pass to the House of Hanover. This was, of course, an exclusion of the Stuarts, whom Louis had recognized as the heirs (see note on 17 12), and whom the French, if victorious, would probably attempt to restore. 32 32. Newmarket, the great English race-course. 33 16 ff. This anecdote is on the authority of Budgell, in his Life of Lord Orrery, and is, as Leslie Stephen remarks, "reported with suspicious fullness." 34 16. The similitude of the angel. This is the best passage in the poem, and the one oftenest quoted. It is as follows: So when an angel by divine command 34 17. Commissionership. He was made Commissioner of Appeals in the Excise, succeeding the philosopher Locke in the office. 35 28. Lifeguardsman. The Lifeguards are the two senior regiments of the sovereign's mounted bodyguard, and are all at least six feet tall. 35 31. Mamelukes, originally slaves purchased by the Sultan of Egypt and made into an army. They soon discovered their power, and in 1254 made one of their number Sultan. They were masters of Egypt until its conquest by the Turks in 1517, and remained a powerful military aristocracy until their perfidious massacre in the citadel of Cairo in 1811. At the time of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1797 the Mamelukes attacked him in the battle of the Pyramids, under the leadership of Mourad Bey, and were severely beaten. 36 24. The Boyne, the river in Ireland which gave its name to the decisive victory gained upon its banks by William III. in 1690, when he defeated James II. and the French and Irish troops supporting him, and secured his own claim to the English throne. 36 25. John Philips (1676-1709), one of the minor poets of the time. His poem on Blenheim was written after Addison's, and was produced by request of some of the Tory leaders as a kind of counterblast to the Campaign. Notice his use of blank verse and imitation of Milton's style. 66 37 18. Johnson, in his Life of Addison, had contended that the comparison was not a true simile at all, and that it was too obvious to deserve much praise. 'Marlborough is so like the angel in the poem that the action of both is almost the same, and performed by both in the same manner. Marlborough 'teaches the battle to rage'; the angel 'directs the storm': Marlborough is 'unmoved in peaceful thought'; the angel is 'calm and serene': Marlborough stands 'unmoved amidst the shock of hosts'; the angel rides 'calm in the whirlwind.' The lines on Marlborough are just and noble; but the simile gives almost the same images a second time." Though Macaulay would not "dispute the general justice of Johnson's remarks," Mr. Courthope has not hesitated to do so. He defends Addison as follows: "It was Addison's intention to raise in the mind of the reader the noblest possible idea of composure and design in the midst of confusion; to do this he selected an angel as the minister of the divine purpose, and a storm as the symbol of fury and devestation. . . . Johnson has noticed the close similarity between the persons of Marlborough and the angel; but he has exaggerated the resemblance between the actions in which they are severally engaged." (Courthope's Addison in English Men of Letters.) 38 14. note. Victor Amadeus, the Duke of Savoy mentioned on 28 22, and 38 20. Empress Faustina (d. A.D. 175), wife of the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Her life was scandalously immoral. 39 12. Santa Croce, the church at Florence in which are buried, among other famous Florentines, Dante, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Galileo. 39 14. An allusion to the celebrated passage in Dante's Inferno, Canto V. The affecting story of the lovers, Paolo and Francesca, is also the theme of Leigh Hunt's poem, Rimini. 39 19. This is exaggerated praise. Filicaja's poetry is unequal, and is often vitiated by an artificial style. He lived 1642-1707. 40 2. Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718), one of the not inconsiderable number of English Poet Laureates whose laurel has withered sadly with time. His best work was as a dramatic writer. 40 18. of state. Great Seal. See note on 30 7. The Great Seal is the seal well as to treaties and similar documents. 40 19. 40 24. See 30 8, and note on 30 9. Somers and Halifax. 40 27. Charles, Earl of Sunderland (1675-1722). He was personally very repugnant to Queen Anne, but he was Marlborough's son-inlaw, and was forced upon her. He later became Prime Minister under George I., but was involved in the scandals connected with the South Sea Bubble, and disgraced in consequence. Tickell's edition of Addison's works was dedicated to him. 40 30. Godolphin and Marlborough were still nominally Tories; but in the following year they formally declared themselves Whigs. Their secession left the leadership of the party to Robert Harley (1661-1724), who later became Earl of Oxford, and to Henry St. John (1678-1751), subsequently raised to the peerage with the title of Viscount Bolingbroke. 41 7. Prosecution of Sacheverell. This was not until 1710. Sacheverell was a London clergyman, and a narrow and violent Tory. He accordingly preached a sermon reflecting on the government, and strongly upheld the extreme Tory doctrine that it was unlawful under âny circumstances to oppose the monarch by force — a doctrine which, of course, impeached the title of William III. and Anne. This sermon was printed, and resulted in Sacheverell's impeachment. He was convicted, but only a nominal penalty was imposed; and the excitement caused by his trial contributed materially to the defeat of the Whigs in the elections of the same year, which resulted in the fall of Godolphin and the accession to power of Harley and St. John. 41 12. Lord President of the Council. The presiding officer of the Privy Council is a member of cabinet. 42 5. The censorship of the press ceased in 1693. 42 13. Conduct of the Allies. This pamphlet, written by Swift in the interest of Harley and the Tory party, proved a most effective campaign document. Swift himself said that it furnished all the Tory orators in Parliament with their arguments. It sought to show that English interests had been entirely sacrificed to those of the continental allies in the War of the Spanish Succession, and so to win the nation to the Tory policy of an early peace. 42 14. The Freeholder was a political paper published by Addison during the first half of the year 1716. It appeared twice a week, and was written in the interest of the new King (George I.) and his ministry. See p. 87. 43 5. Grub Street, once in a respectable residence quarter of London, had been left behind by the tide of fashion, even then setting strongly westward, and abandoned to cheap lodgings, not too high-priced for the very slender purses of the impecunious hack-writers who swarmed in it and desperately fought starvation with their pens. 43 13. St. John. See note on 40 30. 43 17. Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745), was originally a Whig, but went over to the Tories on their accession to power in 1710. This was partly because as a clergyman of the Church of England he was more in sympathy with the Tories on church issues, and partly because the Tory leaders, especially Harley, made much of him and took him into their inner circle. His literary services to the party were of the first importance (see note on 42 13), and gave him great influence. He himself says that he could get office for everybody but himself. He wished a bishopric, but owing to the opposition of Anne was obliged to content himself with the Deanery of St. Patrick's in Dublin. He withdrew thither in 1714, and never afterward returned to England save once, in 1726, for a brief visit with Pope. 43 24. His cassock and his pudding customary dress of an Anglican clergyman. sleeves, an allusion to the 'Pudding,' i.e. wide-puffed. 44 11-19. This is more interesting as an illustration of Macaulay's love of paradox than convincing as an explanation of the reasons for Addison's popularity. 44 22. Mary Montagu. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1687-1762) was for many years one of the most conspicuous figures in English society. Of noble blood, and the wife of a distinguished politician, she was also something of a writer, and fond of the society of literary men. Her friendship with Pope and the subsequent bitter quarrel between them are familiar incidents in that poet's life, and occasioned some of his bitterest satire. 44 28. Stella. When Swift left college he became private secretary to Sir William Temple, and there grew very fond of Esther Johnson, the daughter of Temple's housekeeper. She afterwards crossed to Ireland to live near Swift, and they were always fast friends. Rumor had it that they were secretly married, but the evidence is by no means satisfactory. There was never, however, any suspicion of scandal in their relations. While Swift was in England he wrote his Journal to Stella a kind of pet name which he always used-keeping her informed of all the details of his life and movements. 45 1. Young, Edward (1681-1765), best known as the author of Night Thoughts, is a poet whose somber and meditative genius is less esteemed in the present than it was in the last century. 45 13. Macaulay quotes from Pope's confirmatory allusion to the same trait in his famous characterization of Addison: : 45 16. 45 17. Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer. Tatler, No. 163. Spectator, No. 568. 45 27. When the play ended. Theatrical performances ordinarily began in Addison's time at five o'clock, so that at their conclusion the evening was still young. 46 32. Boswell, James (1740–1795), was a Scotchman who was so impressed with the greatness of Johnson that he left his home and went to London to get a sight of him. In the course of time Johnson's favor and friendship exalted him to the summit of earthly felicity. He spent his days and nights in studying his hero and noting down every word that fell from his lips. As a result his Life of Johnson is a masterpiece of biography, and Boswellism a synonym of hero-worship. 46 33. Hurd, Richard, D.D. (1720-1808), Bishop of Worcester, edited the works of Bishop Warburton after the death of the latter, with a prefatory life of enthusiastic eulogy. |