BIOGRAPHICAL, CRITICAL, AND HISTORICAL.

PART I.

ESSAY I.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE TASTE WHICH HAD BEEN GENERATED BY STEELE AND ADDISON

FOR PERIODICAL

COMPOSITION.

ENUMERATION OF THE PERIODICAL PAPERS WHICH WERE WRITTEN DURING THE PUBLICATION OF THE TATLER, SPECTATOR, AND GUARDIAN.

THAT the highly-finished models of Periodical Composition which had been given to the world by Steele and Addison, should excite a spirit of emulation, and give birth to a number of competitors, was an event equally to be wished for and expected. Such, however, was the literary excellence of which the Spectator had to boast, that many years elapsed before a Paper was

produced whose merits afforded any very just title to the claim of rivalship. In the interim, it properly becomes a part of our province not wholly to overlook the crowd of publications which, under the appellation of periodical, issued in succession from the press. An attention to these various works, and they are infinitely more numerous than has been generally supposed, will, if duly proportioned to their moral and literary rank, not only be singularly curious, as affording a novel view of the progress of polite literature, but will, at the same time, prove the best introduction to the classical labours of the Rambler.

The popularity which attended the periodical productions of Steele and Addison, and the admiration which they had excited throughout the kingdom, speedily established a decided taste for a species of composition alike adapted to grave or gay subjects, to the purposes of instruction and amusement; and fortunate would it have been for the interests of general literature, had the swarm of imitators strictly confined themselves to the plan of the Spectator, to a laudable attempt at reforming the morals and the manners of the age. The facility, however, with which this mode of writing might be rendered a vehicle for slander, for rancorous politics and virulent satire, soon tempted many to deviate from the salutary

example of the authors of the Tatler and Spectator; and the former of these papers had not run half its course before it was assailed by a multitude of writers, who were actuated by no other motives than those of envy and ill-nature. Of a few of these antagonists, Addison has condescended to take some notice in the Tatler, N° 229, and has probably preserved the names of several productions which had otherwise been unknown to posterity. "I was threatened," he observes," to be answered weekly tit for tat; I was undermined by the Whisperer; haunted by Tom Brown's Ghost; scolded at by a Female Tatler. I have been annotated, re-tattled, examined, and condoled."

In the catalogue of periodical works which I am about to place before the reader, I shall, as a matter of mere curiosity, enumerate, as far as my researches have enabled me to proceed, every Paper, literary or political, which, in its form or mode of publication, has adopted the plan of the Spectator and Freeholder. As the principal intention, however, of these pages is to mark the progress of elegant literature, and of moral improvement, and to ascertain how far the periodical Essayists have contributed towards their promotion, I shall dwell on those productions alone which have been written, not only in the

form, but with a portion of the spirit and purport, of their great originals, the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian.

Of the various papers that appeared during the publication of these standard works, and which adopted their structure, I shall commence with those that seem to have arisen from an eager desire to calumniate, or to share the profits of, the Tatler; and the authors of which, as Addison remarks, every day turned a penny by nibbling at the lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff.* Foremost

of the train are, 1. The RE-TATLER, and 2. The CONDOLER, of whose existence, however, no other proof now remains than what is to be found in the pages of Addison.† 3. The TIT FOR TAT, the first number of which appeared on March - 2d, 1709-10, was published under the assumed Name of John Partridge, Esq. who by a glaring misnomer has termed his papers Dilucidations; they are a compound of nonsense and obscurity, but happily reach no further than No. 5, which is dated March 11th, 1709.

4. THE FEMALE TATLER. This work was written by Mr. Thomas Baker, and commenced its circulation in 1709. It extended to many numbers, most of which are now no longer extant. Its gross personalities obtained its author a sound

Tatler, No. 229, See Tatler, No. 229, Note. Edit. 1739.

cudgelling from an offended family in the city; and in the month of October, 1709, it was presented as a nuisance by the grand jury at the Old Bailey. Mr. Baker, whose general style of writing was ironical, took every opportunity of recording the singularities of Steele, whether personal or moral. In number 72, for instance, he has ridiculed Sir Richard's absence of mind and peculiarity of attitude in walking the streets. "I saw Mr. Bickerstaff going to the corner of St. James's in the beginning of December. It was a great fog, yet the 'squire wore his hat under his left arm, and, as if that side had been lame, all the stress of his gait was laid upon the other; he stooped very much forward; and whenever his right foot came to the ground, which was always set down with a more than ordinary and affected force, his cane, with a great vibration of the arm struck the stones, whilst a violent jerk of his head kept time with the latter. I observed several besides myself that took notice of this strange singularity, which nobody could imagine to proceed from less than either madness or despair. It is not to be conceived how any wise man alive, that had been such an implacable enemy to all singularities and mimic postures, and writ so learnedly concerning the use of the cane, could make such a ridiculous figure of himself in the street, at the