Tickell says respecting Cato, “He took up a design of writing a play upon this subject, when he was very young at the university, and even attempted something in it there, though not a line as it now stands. The work was performed by him in his travels, and retouched in England, without any formal design of bringing it on the stage, till his friends of the first quality and distinction prevailed with him to put the last finishing to it, at a time when they thought the doctrine of liberty very seasonable.” Cibber says, that in 1704 he had the pleasure of reading the first four acts privately with Steele, who told him they were written in Italy. Oldmixon in his ‘Art of Criticism,’ 1728, talks about Addison’s reluctance to resume the work, and his request to Hughes to write the fifth act. According to Pope, the first packed audience was made to support the ‘Distressed Mother;’ the scheme was tried again for Cato with triumphant effect. The love-scenes are the weakest in the play, and are by some supposed to have been foisted on the original plan, to humour the false taste of the modern stage. When the tragedy was shown to Pope, he advised the author to print it, without committing it to the theatre, as thinking it better suited to the closet than representation. When Lord Sunderland was sent as lord lieutenant to Ireland in 1714, Addison was appointed his secretary. This, as well as another step in his promotion, has been omitted by Johnson. In 1715 he was made a lord of trade. In 1716 he married the Countess Dowager of Warwick, to whom he had long paid his addresses. Johnson pleasantly suggests, that his behaviour might be not very unlike that of Sir Roger to his disdainful widow, and supposes that the lady might amuse herself by playing with his passion. Spence dates his first acquaintance with her from his appointment as tutor to the young earl; but as neither the time of that appointment is known, nor the footing on which he stood with the family, the first steps in this affair are left in obscurity. The result is better known. Mr. Tyers, in an unpublished essay on ‘Addison’s Life and Writings,’ says, “Holland House is a large mansion, but could not contain Mr. Addison, the Countess of Warwick, and one guest, peace.” He became possessed of this house by his marriage, and died in it. His last and great promotion was to the dignity of Secretary of State in 1717; but he was unfit for it, and gained no new laurels by it. He carried so much of the author into the office of the statesman, that he could not issue an order of mere routine without losing his time in hunting after unnecessary niceties of language. During his last illness he sent for Gay, and with a confession of having injured him, promised him a recompense if he recovered. He did not specify the nature of the injury; nor could Gay, either then or subsequently, guess at his meaning. Dr. Young furnished the received account of his interview with Lord Warwick