for him the friendship and interest of Dryden, and of Lord Somers, by
whose means he received, in 1699, a pension of £300 to enable him to
travel on the continent with a view to diplomatic employment. He visited
Italy, whence he addressed his _Epistle_ to his friend Halifax. Hearing
of the death of William III., an event which lost him his pension, he
returned to England in the end of 1703. For a short time his
circumstances were somewhat straitened, but the battle of Blenheim in
1704 gave him a fresh opportunity of distinguishing himself. The
government wished the event commemorated by a poem; A. was commissioned
to write this, and produced _The Campaign_, which gave such satisfaction
that he was forthwith appointed a Commissioner of Appeals. His next
literary venture was an account of his travels in Italy, which was
followed by the opera of _Rosamund_. In 1705, the Whigs having obtained
the ascendency, A. was made Under-Secretary of State and accompanied
Halifax on a mission to Hanover, and in 1708 was appointed Chief
Secretary for Ireland and Keeper of the Records of that country. It was
at this period that A. found his true vocation and laid the foundations
of his real fame. In 1709 Steele began to bring out the _Tatler_, to
which A. became almost immediately a contributor: thereafter he (with
Steele) started the _Spectator_, the first number of which appeared on
March 1, 1711. This paper, which at first appeared daily, was kept up
(with a break of about a year and a half when the _Guardian_ took its
place) until Dec. 20, 1714. In 1713 the drama of _Cato_ appeared, and was
received with acclamation by both Whigs and Tories, and was followed by
the comedy of the _Drummer_. His last undertaking was _The Freeholder_, a
party paper (1715-16). The later events in the life of A., viz., his
marriage in 1716 to the Dowager Countess of Warwick, to whose son he had
been tutor and his promotion to be Secretary of State did not contribute
to his happiness. His wife appears to have been arrogant and imperious;
his step-son the Earl was a rake and unfriendly to him; while in his