This writer was born August 19, 1686, being the son of Gilbert Budgell, D.D., of St. Thomas, Exeter, by his first wife Mary, only daughter of Bishop Gulston of Bristol. The latter’s sister was the wife of Lancelot, and thereby mother of Joseph Addison, thus making the two essayists cousins in the second degree. Eustace Budgell entered Trinity College, Oxford, March 31, 1705. Afterward he entered the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar. His intimacy with Addison rather drew him to literature. Thirty-seven papers in “The Spectator” are, by Drake, ascribed to him. By many he is called an imitator of Addison. He undertook some independent literary ventures. In 1771 the death of his father brought to him a considerable fortune. On the accession of George I., he became under secretary to Addison. In 1717 Addison secured for him the place of accountant general. He lost his fortune in the South Sea speculations. Misfortune followed mishap, along with actions savoring of dishonesty, as in the alleged forging of a will, till he at last, in 1737, May 4, committed suicide by drowning. His life was an active if not a successful one. He did much in the way of pamphlet writing, and had to do with “The Bee” as well as “The Spectator.” He was also known as one of the Grub Street writers.
| Let Budgel charge low Grubstreet on his quill, | |
| And write whate’er he please except my Will. |
We talked of a man’s drowning himself. Johnson: “I should never think it time to make away with myself.” I put the case of Eustace Budgell, who was accused of forging a will, and sunk himself in the Thames, before the trial of its authenticity came on. “Suppose sir,” said I, “that a man is absolutely sure, that, if he lives a few days longer, he shall be detected in a fraud, the consequence of which will be utter disgrace and expulsion from society.” Johnson: “Then, Sir, let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known: Don’t let him go to the devil, where he is known.”
From the fate of this misguided man a useful lesson may be drawn; though possessed of considerable abilities, of a competent fortune, of great and powerful connections, and admired and respected in the early period of his life, the pride of self-opinion, and the fury of ungoverned resentment, blasted all his hopes and views, and gradually led him into the commission of errors and extravagances, which at length terminated in gaming, forgery, infidelity, and suicide.
A man of extreme vanity and vindictive feeling.
General
As an author where he does not speak of himself, and does not give a loose to his vanity, he is a very agreeable and deserving writer; not argumentative or deep; but very ingenious and entertaining; and his stile is peculiarly elegant, so as to deserve being ranked in that respect with Addison’s, and is superior to most of the other English writers.
He told us that “Addison wrote Budgell’s papers in ‘The Spectator;’ at least mended them so much, that he made them almost his own; and that Draper, Tonson’s partner, assured Mrs. Johnson, that the much admired Epilogue to ‘The Distressed Mother,’ which came out in Budgell’s name, was in reality written by Addison.”
Budgell was a man of lively talents, a good taste, and a well informed mind. In vigour of intellect he was inferior to Steele, but superior to him in elegant learning.
However erroneous or vicious we may esteem the conduct of Budgell, it is with pleasure that we can mention his contributions to the Spectator and Guardian, as displaying both the cheerfulness and gaiety of an innocent mind, and the best and soundest precepts of morality and religion. At the time of their composition, indeed, he was more directly under the influence and direction of his accomplished relation than at any subsequent period of his life, and he then possessed the laudable ambition of doing all that might render him worthy of his affection and support.
Budgell was a rough, vigorous, dissipated barrister, who preferred making a figure in the coffee-houses and in literature to the practice of his profession. His humour is comparatively obstreperous, of the Defoe and Macaulay type, which the French seem to consider peculiarly English. It is genial rather from the author’s hearty enjoyment of the fun he is making than from any sympathy with the objects of his derision.
Thirty-seven numbers of the “Spectator” are ascribed to Budgell; and though Dr. Johnson says that these were either written by Addison, or so much improved by him that they were made in a manner his own, there seems to be no sufficient authority for the assertion. It is true that the style and humour resemble those of Addison; but as the two writers were much together, a successful attempt on Budgell’s part to imitate the productions of his friend, was probable enough.
He shared Addison’s lodgings during the last years of Queen Anne, and took a considerable part in the “Spectator.” Thirty-seven papers are ascribed to him. They are palpable imitations of Addison’s manner. One of them (No. 116) is an account of Sir Roger de Coverley in the hunting-field. Johnson mentions a report that Addison had “mended them so much that they were almost his own.” It was also said that Addison was also the real author of an epilogue to Ambrose Philip’s “Distressed Mother,” the “most successful ever spoken in an English theatre;” and had Budgell’s name substituted for his own at the last moment, to strengthen his young cousin’s claims to a place.
