character he might indulge with impunity the desultory plan he first laid down, with a becoming imitation of the tattle and gossip of the day. His paper professed to embrace accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment,' under the head White's Chocolate-house;' 'poetry'* under that of Will's Coffee-house; and learning' under that of 'the Grecian: foreign and domestic news' from St. James's Coffee-house;' 'and other articles' 'from his own apartment,' and sometimes from Shire-lane.' This plan was preserved for a considerable time, until his pen became more accustomed to essay-writing, and the assistance of his friend ADDISON enabled him to adopt a more regular method.

The Dramatic articles are numerous, and are said to have been serviceable to the theatre. CIBBER acknowledges the force and influence of the TATLER in filling the playhouses; yet STEELE had no share in the management of the play-house in Drury-Lane for several years after this period. We have seen however that he was a dramatic writer,

* Before POPE'S MESSIAH was inserted in the Spectator, the author submitted it to the perusal of STEELE, and corrected it in compliance with his criticisms. From Pope this was no inconsiderable acknowledgment of STEELE's judgment. I may add here that Wycherley, in a letter to Pope, dated May 17, 1709, says, But hitherto your Miscellanies have safely run the gauntlet through all the coffee-houses; which are now entertained with a whimsical new newspaper called the TATLER, which I suppose you have seen.' It was at STEELE'S suggestion that POPE wrote 'The Dying Christian to his Soul.'

and was always anxious for the improvement of the stage; and that, with ADDISON and other writers, he wished to hasten the time, all hope of which seems now given up, when the morals of the age should be reformed by what they called a well regulated theatre.'

In Dr. BURNEY'S History of Music (Vol. iv. p. 225, et seqq.) are some valuable strictures on those papers in the TATLER and SPECTATOR, which STEELE and ADDISON wrote to ridicule Operas. It is the opinion of this learned and ingenious author, that some part of the SPECTATOR'S severity is to be ascribed to want of skill in the art of Music; some to peevishness; and the rest to national prejudice, and the spirit of party in favour of our domestic theatres.' 'ADDISON, though he had visited Italy, and was always ambitious of being a judge of music, discovers, whenever he mentions the subject, a total want of sensibility, as well as knowledge of the art.' This opinion, Sir JOHN HAWKINS, who will not allow ADDISON merit of any kind, had before ventured to express. From Dr. BURNEY, it is decisive.

The articles of public news were of more importance to the TATLER. They were all written by STEELE, who was then Gazetteer, and therefore had the advantage of other newspapers in accuracy and perhaps in priority of intelligence. This increased the circulation of the paper, and rendered it important as a vehicle for advertisements, many

of which are curious, and illustrative of the. manners of the times*. The foreign intelligence has been preserved in all editions of the work, though it is not easy to know why. It incumbers the volumes with information which is now of no importance, and delivered in a manner from which the writer can derive no honour.

The CHARACTER of the author was assumed with sufficient consequence for the purpose of an imaginary Censorship. The family name, BICKERSTAFF, was not altogether fictitious. In N° 3, mention is made of Mr. John Bickerstaff, a player, and it is said there was another of that name then resident in London. But neither of these had the honour of suggesting this family designation. It was the use which SWIFT had made of it that inclined STEELE to give a preference to what had already acquired some popularity, and might be easier repeated and remembered than a newer fiction. This circumstance has led the author of his life in the Biographia Britannica to assert that he commenced the TATLER in concert with SWIFT.' For this there is no foundation, unless a polite acknowledgment of greater services than STEELE received from that writer. And still less ground has this Biographer for accusing STEELE of ingratitude in preferring ADDISON to SWIFT †.

Specimens have been judiciously selected by the Annotators on the TATLER, in the Edit. Oct. 1806.

+ See STEELE's Original Preface, 1710, prefixed to the first volume of this edition.

STEELE appears to have begun the paper without any concert, or hope of other assistance than what might come spontaneously. His chief dependence was on his intelligence, which gave him a superiority over his contemporaries, who were merely news-writers, and had never discovered that a periodical paper might furnish instruction of a better and more lasting kind. In the other parts of the TATLER, he was at first less careful; his style had a familiar vulgarity not unlike that of the journalists of the age, which he adopted either in compliance with the prevailing manner, or by way of disguise. In one paper he acknowledges incorrectness of style,' and writing in an air of common speech.' All this however became a Tatler, and for some time he aimed at no higher character*. But when associated with ADDISON, he assumed a tone more natural to a polished and elegant mind, and dispersed his coarser familiarity among his characteristic correspondents. If he did not introduce, he was the first who successfully employed the harmless fiction of writing letters to himself, and

* STEELE in reply to TICKELL's assertion that ADDISON advanced the Tatler, says, very candidly, 'It was advanced indeed, for it was raised to a greater thing than I intended it'; for the elegance, purity and correctness, which appeared in his writings, were not so much to my purpose, as in any intelligible manner I could, to rally all those singularities of human life, through the different professions and characters in it, which obstruct any thing that was truly good and great.' Dedication to the Comedy of the Drummer.

by that gave a variety of amusement and information to his paper, which would have been impracticable bad he always appeared in his own character. All succeeding Essayists have endeavoured to avail themselves of a privilege so essential to this species of composition, but it requires a mimickry of style and sentiment which few have been able to combine.

ADDISON is said to have first discovered STEELE to be the author of the TATLER by a criticism of his own introduced in N° 6. The criticism is not of great importance unless to those commentators who make a favourite author the source of all excellence, and are determined to find a beauty in every particle. ADDISON was at this time in Ireland, secretary to Lord WHARTON, Lord Lieutenant, and gave STEELE an early proof of his regard by sending contributions to his work. No 18, the Distress of News-writers' is certainly his, and the first part of the paper, on sign-posts, has very much of his manner. No 20, is likewise assigned to him, although the first article has more of SwIFT's indelicacy of manner. His other papers are assigned on indubitable authority.

In

Such an assistant was of incalculable value to STEELE, who began to sacrifice his original plan by degrees, and as his views became enlarged, and public attention more generally drawn to the paper, soon rose to the dignity of a teacher of wisdom and morals. His