The fact is that Addison from his thirtieth to his fortieth year was little better than a denizen of Grub Street.  Fortunately he was a bachelor, with no one but himself to support, else actual hardship might have entered.  Several flattering offers to act as tutor or companion to rich men’s sons came his way, and were declined in polite and gracious language; and once a suggestion that he wed a woman of wealth was tabled in a manner not quite so gracious.  In passing, it is well to state that all of Addison’s relations with women seem to have occupied a lofty plane of chivalry.  His respect for the good name of woman was profound, and whether any woman ever broke through that fine reserve and exquisite formality is a question.  He was intensely admired by women, of course, but it was from the other side of the drawing-room.  He kept gush at bay, and never tempted to indiscretion.

Addison’s youth was past; he was creeping well into the thirties, and still with no prospects.  He was out of money, with no profession, and no special reputation as a writer.  The popular poets of the time were Sedley, Rochester, Buckingham and Dorset—­and you have never heard of them?  Well, it only shows how a literary reputation is a shadow that fades in a night.

Addison had written his “Cato” several years before, but no one had seen it.  He carried the manuscript about with him, as Goethe did his “Faust,” for years, and added to it, or erased, all according to the moods that came to him.  And we have reason to believe that the sublime soliloquy in “Cato” was written by Addison when the blankness of his prospects and the blackness of the future had forced the question of self-destruction upon him.

Cato made a great mistake in committing suicide—­he did the deed right on the eve of success—­he should have waited.  Addison waited.

At this time Lord Godolphin, who had the happiness to have a great racehorse named after him, occupied the chief place in the Ministry.  Marlborough had just fought the battle of Blenheim, and it was Godolphin’s wish to have the victory sung in adequate verse, for history’s sake and for the sake of the political party.  But he could not think of a poet who was equal to the task; so in his dilemma he called in Lord Halifax, who had a reputation for knowing good things in a literary way.

Lord Halifax was unfortunate in having his portrait transmitted by two poets who hated him thoroughly, each for the amply sufficient reason that he failed to confer the favors that were much desired.  Swift calls Halifax “a would-be Maecenas”; and Pope refers to him as “penurious, mean and chicken-hearted,” satirizing him in the well-known character of Bufo.

Do not take the poets too seriously:  all good men have had mud-balls thrown at them—­sometimes bricks—­and Halifax was not a bad man by any means.  Let the poets make copy of their thwarted hopes.

In reply to Lord Godolphin’s inquiries, Halifax said he did indeed know the man who could celebrate the victory in verse, and in fact there was only one man in England who could do the task justice.  He, however, refused to divulge his man’s identity until a suitable reward for the poet was fixed upon.