He preached, and he suffered drier men to preach, while in his jest he now and then wrote what he seems to have been unwilling to acknowledge.  His eighth volume contains excellent matter, but the subjects are not always well chosen or varied judiciously, and one understands why the ‘Spectator’ took a firmer hold upon society when the two friends in the full strength of their life, aged about forty, worked together and embraced between them a wide range of human thought and feeling.  It should be remembered also that Queen Anne died while Addison’s eighth volume was appearing, and the change in the Whig position brought him other occupation of his time.

In April, 1713, in the interval between the completion of the true ‘Spectator’ and the appearance of the supplementary volume, Addison’s tragedy of ‘Cato’, planned at College; begun during his foreign travels, retouched in England, and at last completed, was produced at Drury Lane.  Addison had not considered it a stage play, but when it was urged that the time was proper for animating the public with the sentiments of Cato, he assented to its production.  Apart from its real merit the play had the advantage of being applauded by the Whigs, who saw in it a Whig political ideal, and by the Tories, who desired to show that they were as warm friends of liberty as any Whig could be.

Upon the death of Queen Anne Addison acted for a short time as secretary to the Regency, and when George I. appointed Addison’s patron, the Earl of Sunderland, to the Lord-lieutenancy of Ireland, Sunderland took Addison with him as chief secretary.  Sunderland resigned in ten months, and thus Addison’s secretaryship came to an end in August, 1716.  Addison was also employed to meet the Rebellion of 1715 by writing the ‘Freeholder’.  He wrote under this title fifty-five papers, which were published twice a week between December, 1715, and June, 1716; and he was rewarded with the post of Commissioner for Trade and Colonies.  In August, 1716, he married the Countess Dowager of Warwick, mother to the young Earl of Warwick, of whose education he seems to have had some charge in 1708.  Addison settled upon the Countess L4000 in lieu of an estate which she gave up for his sake.  Henceforth he lived chiefly at Holland House.  In April, 1717, Lord Sunderland became Secretary of State, and still mindful of Marlborough’s illustrious supporter, he made Addison his colleague.  Eleven months later, ill health obliged Addison to resign the seals; and his death followed, June 17, 1719, at the age of 47.

Steele’s political difficulties ended at the death of Queen Anne.  The return of the Whigs to power on the accession of George I. brought him the office of Surveyor of the Royal Stables at Hampton Court; he was also first in the Commission of the peace for Middlesex, and was made one of the deputy lieutenants of the county.  At the request of the managers Steele’s name was included in the new patent required at Drury Lane by the royal company