so obliging a manner, that he readily entered
upon the task [3]. The lord treasurer saw the Poem before it was
finished, when the author had written no farther than the celebrated
simile of the Angel, and was so much pleased with it, that he
immediately made him commissioner of appeals, in the room of Mr. Locke,
who was promoted to be one of the lords commissioners for trade, &c.

His Poem, entitled the Campaign, was received with loud and general
applause: It is addressed to the duke of Marlborough, and contains a
short view of the military transactions in the year 1704, and a very
particular description of the two great actions at Schellemberg and
Blenheim.

In 1705 Mr. Addison attended the lord Hallifax to Hanover; and in the
succeeding year he was made choice of for under-secretary to Sir Charles
Hedges, then appointed secretary of state. In the month of December, in
the same year, the earl of Sunderland, who succeeded Sir Charles in that
office, continued Mr. Addison in the post of under secretary.

Operas being now much in fashion, many people of distinction and true
taste, importuned him to make a trial, whether sense and sound were
really so incompatible, as some admirers of the Italian pieces would
represent them. He was at last prevailed upon to comply with their
request, and composed his Rosamond: This piece was inscribed to the
duchess of Marlborough, and met with but indifferent success on the
stage. Many looked upon it as not properly an Opera; for considering
what numbers of miserable productions had born that title, they were
scarce satisfied that so superior a piece should appear under the same
denomination About this time our author assisted Sir Richard Steel, in a
play called the Tender Husband; to which he wrote a humorous Prologue.
Sir Richard, whose gratitude was as warm and ready as his wit, surprized
him with a dedication, which may be considered as one of the few
monuments of praise, not unworthy the great person to whose honour it
was raised.

In 1709 he went over to Ireland, as secretary to the marquis of Wharton,
appointed lord lieutenant of that kingdom. Her majesty also, was
pleased, as a mark of her peculiar favour, to augment the salary annexed
to the keeper of the records in that nation, and bestow it upon him.
While he was in Ireland, his friend Sir Richard Steel published the
Tatler, which appeared for the first time, on the 12th of April 1709:
Mr. Addison (says Tickell) discovered