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ORIGINAL DEDICATIONS.

VOLUME THE FIRST.

TO MR. MAYNWARING.*

SIR,-The state of conversation and business | of the town, that these Lucubrations were writ

in this town having been long perplexed with Pretenders in both kinds; in order to open men's eyes against such abuses, it appeared no unprofitable undertaking to publish a Paper, which should observe upon the manners of the pleasurable, as well as the busy part of mankind. To make this generally read, it seemed the most proper method to form it by way of a letter of intelligence, consisting of such parts as might gratify the curiosity of persons of all conditions, and of each sex. But a work of this nature requiring time to grow into the notice of the world, it happened very luckily, that, a little before I had resolved upon this design, a gentleman had written predictions, and two or three other pieces in my name, which rendered it famous through all parts of Europe; and, by an inimitable spirit and humour, raised it to as high a pitch of reputation as it could possibly arrive at..

By this good fortune, the name of Isaac Bickerstaff gained an audience of all who had any taste of wit; and the addition of the ordinary occurrences of common Journals of News brought in a multitude of other readers. I could not, I confess, long keep up the opinion • Arthur Maynwaring, Esq.

ten by the same hand with the first works which were published under my name; but, before I lost the participation of that author's fame, I had already found the advantage of his authori ty, to which I owe the sudden acceptance which my labours met with in the world.

The general purpose of this Paper is to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our behaviour. No man has a better judgment for the discovery, or a nobler spirit for the contempt of all imposture, than yourself; which qualities render you the most proper patron for the author of these Essays. In the general, the design, however executed, has met with so great success, that there is hardly a name now eminent among us for power, wit, beauty, valour, or wisdom, which is not subscribed for the encouragement of these volumes. This is, indeed, an honour, for which it is impossible to express a suitable gratitude; and there is nothing could be an addition to the pleasure I take in it but the reflection, that it gives me the most conspicuous occasion I can ever have, of subscribing myself, Sir, Your most obliged, most obedient, and most humble servant, ISAAC BICKERSTAFF,

VOLUME THE SECOND.

TO EDWARD WORTLEY MONTAGUE, ESQ*.

SIR,-When I send you this volume, I am | many of their excellences, which I had not obrather to make you a request than a Dedication. served until you pointed them to me. I am I must desire, that if you think fit to throw very proud that there are some things in these away any moments on it, you would not do it after reading those excellent pieces with which you are usually conversant. The images which you will meet with here, will be very faint, after the perusal of the Greeks and Romans, who are your ordinary companions. I must confess I am obliged to you for the taste of

papers which I know you pardon; and it is
no small pleasure to have one's labours suffer-
ed by the judgment of a man, who so well
understands the true charms of eloquence and
But I direct this address to you; not
poesy.
that I think I can entertain you with my writ
ings, but to thank you for the new delight I

*This seems to amount to a declaration that E. Wort

Second son of the Hon. lady Wortley Montague, and grandson of Edward Montague, the first Earl of ley Montague, Esq. was himself a writer in these paSandwich.

pers.

7

have, from your conversation, in those of other

men.

May you enjoy a long continuance of the true relish of the happiness heaven has bestowed upon you! I know not how to say a more affectionate thing to you, than to wish that you may

be always what you are; and that you may ever
think, as I know you now do, that you have a
much larger fortune than you want. I am,
Sir, your most obedient, and most humble ser-
vant,
ISAAC BICKERSTAFF.

VOLUME THE THIRD. ·

TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM LORD COWPER, BARON OF WINGHAM.

MY LORD,-After having long celebrated the | superior graces and excellences, among men, in an imaginary character, I do myself the honour to show my veneration for transcendent merit under my own name, in this address to your lordship. The just application of those high accomplishments of which you are master, has been an advantage to all your fellow-subjects; and it is from the common obligation you have laid upon all the world, that I, though a private man, can pretend to be affected with, or take the liberty to acknowledge, your great talents and public virtues..

you, but I shall behold you, as lately, defending the brave and the unfortunate.*

When we attend to your lordship engaged in a discourse, we cannot but reflect upon the many requisites which the vain-glorious speakers of antiquity have demanded in a man who is to excel in oratory; I say, my lord, when we reflect upon the precepts by viewing the example, though there is no excellence proposed by those rhetoricians wanting, the whole art seems to be resolved into that one motive of speaking, sincerity in the intention. The graceful manner, the apt gesture, and the assumed concern, are impotent helps to persuasion, in comparison of the honest countenance of him who utters what he really means. From whence it is, that all the beauties which others attain with labour, are in your lordship but the natural effects of the heart that dictates. It is this noble simplicity, which makes you surpass mankind in the faculties wherein mankind are distinguished from other creatures, reason and speech.

It gives a pleasing prospect to your friends, that is to say, to the friends of your country, that you have passed through the highest offices, at an age when others usually do but form to themselves the hopes of them. They may expect to see you in the house of lords as many years as you were ascending to it. It is our common good, that your admirable eloquence can now no longer be employed, but in the expression of your own sentiments and judgment. If these gifts were communicated to all men The skilful pleader is now for ever changed in proportion to the truth and ardour of their into the just judge; which latter character your hearts, I should speak of you with the same lordship exerts with so prevailing an impar- force as you express yourself on any other subtiality, that you win the approbation even ofject. But I resist my present impulse, as agreethose who dissent from you, and you always obtain favour, because you are never moved by it.

This gives you a certain dignity peculiar to your present situation, and makes the equity, even of a lord high chancellor, appear but a degree towards the magnanimity of a peer of Great Britain.

Forgive me, my lord, when I cannot conceal from you, that I shall never hereafter behold

able as it is to me; though, indeed, had I any
pretensions to a fame of this kind, I should,
above all other themes, attempt a panegyric
upon my lord Cowper; for the only sure way to
a reputation for eloquence, in an age wherein
that perfect orator lives, is to choose an argu-
ment, upon which he himself must of neces-
sity be silent. I am, my lord, your lordship's
most devoted, most obedient, and most humble
servant,
RICHARD STEELE.

*The duke of Marlborough.

VOLUME THE FOURTH.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, LORD HALIFAX.

From the Hovel at Hamptonwick,
April 7, 1711.
MY LORD,-When I first resolved upon do-
ing myself this honour, I could not but indulge

a certain vanity, in dating from this little covert, where I have frequently had the honour of your lordship's company, and received from you very many obligations. The elegant solitude of this

STEELE'S PREFACE TO THE TATLER.

9

greater integrity in the despatch of business.
Your own studies have been diverted from being
the highest ornament, to the highest use to man-
dered you the greatest poet of your age, have,
to the advantage of Great Britain, been em-
ployed in pursuits which have made you tho
most able and unbiassed patriot. A vigorous
imagination, an extensive apprehension, and a
ready judgment, have distinguished you in all
the illustrious parts of administration, in a
reign attended with such difficulties, that the
same talents, without the same quickness in
the possession of them, would have been in-
capable of conquering. The natural success
of such abilities, has advanced you to a seat
in that illustrious house, where you were re-
ceived by a crowd of your relations. Great
as you are in your honours, and personal quali
ties, I know you will forgive an humble neigh.
bour the vanity of pretending to a place in
your friendship, and subscribing himself, my
lord, your lordship's most obliged, and most
devoted servant,
RICHARD STEELE.

place, and the greatest pleasures of it, I owe to its being so near those beautiful manors wherein you sometimes reside. It is not retiring from the world, but enjoying its most valuable bless-kind; and the capacities which would have renings, when a man is permitted to share in your lordship's conversations in the country. All the bright images which the wits of past ages have left behind them in their writings, the noble plans which the greatest statesmen have laid down for administration of affairs, are equally the familiar objects of your knowledge. But what is peculiar to your lordship above all the illustrious personages that have appeared in any age, is, that wit and learning have from your example fallen into a new æra. Your patronage has produced those arts, which before shunned the commerce of the world, into the service of life; and it is to you we owe, that the man of wit has turned himself to be a man of business. The false delicacy of men of genius, and the objections which others were apt to insinuate against their abilities for entering into affairs have equally vanished. And experience has shown, that men of letters are not only qualified with a greater capacity, but also a

PREFACE TO THE OCTAVO EDITION, 1710.

In the last Tatler I promised some explana- ceived by the public. But I have only one gention of passages and persons mentioned in this tleman, who will be nameless, to thank for any work, as well as some account of the assistances frequent assistance to me, which indeed it would I have had in the performance. I shall do this have been barbarous in him to have denied to in very few words; for when a man has no de- one with whom he has lived in an intimacy from sign but to speak plain truth, he may say a great childhood, considering the great ease with which deal in a very narrow compass. I have, in the he is able to despatch the most entertaining dedication of the first volume, made my acknow- pieces of this nature. This good office he perledgments to Dr. Swift, whose pleasant writings, formed with such force of genius, humour, wit, in the name of Bickerstaff, created an inclina- and learning, that I fared like a distressed tion in the town towards any thing that could prince, who calls in a powerful neighbour to his appear in the same disguise. I must acknow-aid; I was undone by my auxiliary; when I had ledge also, that, at my first entering upon this work, a certain uncommon way of thinking, and a turn in conversation peculiar to that agreeable gentleman, rendered his company very advantageous to one whose imagination was to be continually employed upon obvious and common subjects, though, at the same time, obliged to treat of them in a new and unbeaten method. His verses on the 'Shower in Town,' and the Description of the Morning,' are instances of the happiness of that genius, which could raise such pleasing ideas upon occasions so barren to an ordinary invention.

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once called him in, I could not subsist without dependence on him.

The same hand writ the distinguishing cha racters of men and women under the names of Musical Instruments,' 'The Distress of the News-writers,' 'The Inventory of the Playhouse,' and 'The description of the Thermometer,' which I cannot but look upon as the greatest embellishments of this work.

Thus far I thought necessary to say relating to the great hands which have been concerned in these volumes, with relation to the spirit and genius of the work; and am far from pretendWhen I am upon the house of Bickerstaff, I ing to modesty in making this acknowledgment. mast not forget that genealogy of the family What a man obtains from the good opinion and sent to me by the post, and written, as I since friendship of worthy men, is a much greater understand, by Mr. Twisden, who died at the honour than he can possibly reap from any acbattle of Mons, and has a monument in West-complishments of his own. But all the credit minster abbey, suitable to the respect which is of wit which was given me by the gentlemen due to his wit and his valour. There are through above-mentioned, with whom I have now acthe course of the work, very many incidents counted, has not been able to atone for the exwhich were written by unknown correspond- ceptions made against me for some raillery in ents. Of this kind is the tale in the second behalf of that learned advocate for the episcoTatler, and the epistle from Mr. Downes the pacy of the church, and the liberty of the peoprompter, with others which were very well re-ple, Mr. Hoadly. I mentioned this only to de

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STEELE'S PREFACE TO THE TATLER.

was calm before, I am apt to fly out again, when the thing that first disturbed me is presented to my imagination. I shall therefore leave off when I am well, and fight with windmills no more; only shall be so arrogant as to say of myself, that, in spite of all the force of fashion and prejudice, in the face of all the world, I alone bewailed the condition of an English gentleman, whose fortune and life are at this day precarious; while his estate is liable to the demands of gamesters, through a false sense of justice; and to the demands of duellists, through a false sense of honour. As to the first of these orders of men, I have not one word more to

rend myself against the imputation of being | indeed, like one of those knights too, though I moved rather by party than opinion; and I think it is apparent. I have, with the utmost frankness, allowed merit wherever I found it, though joined in interests different from those for which I have declared myself. When my Favonius is acknowledged to be Dr. Smallridge, and the amiable character of the Dean in the sixty-sixth Tatler, drawn for Dr. Atterbury, I hope I need say no more as to my impartiality. I really have acted in these cases with honesty, and am concerned it should be thought otherwise; for wit, if a man had it, unless it be directed to some useful end, is but a wanton frivolous quality; all that one should value himself upon in this kind is, that he had some hon-say of them; as to the latter, I shall conclude all ourable intention in it.

As for this point, never hero in romance was carried away with a more furious ambition to conquer giants and tyrants, than I have been in extirpating gamesters and duellists. And

I have more to offer against them, with respect to their being prompted by the fear of shame, by applying to the duellist what I think Dr. South says some where of the liar, 'He is a coward to man, and a bravo to God.'

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'Whate'er men do, or say, or think, or dream, Our motley paper seizes for its theme.'

P.

THOUGH the other papers, which are published for the use of the good people of England, have certainly very wholesome effects, and are laudable in their particular kinds, they do not seem to come up to the main design of such narrations; which, I humbly presume, should be principally intended for the use of political persons, who are so public-spirited as to neglect

title of Grecian;t foreign and domestic news you will have from Saint James's Coffee-house; and what else I have to offer on any other subject shall be dated from my own apartment.

"I once more desire my reader to consider, that as I cannot keep an ingenious man to go daily to Will's under twopence each day, merely for his charges; to White's under sixpence; nor to the Grecian, without allowing him some plain Spanish, to be as able as others at the learned table; and that a good observer cannot speak with even Kidney at Saint James's without clean linen; I say, these considerations will, I hope, make all persons willing to comply with their own affairs to look into transactions of my humble request (when my gratis stock is state. Now these gentlemen, for the most part, exhausted) of a penny a-piece; especially since being persons of strong zeal and weak intellects, they are sure of some proper amusement, and it is both a charitable and necessary work to that it is impossible for me to want means to offer something whereby such worthy and well-entertain them; having, besides the force of my affected members of the commonwealth may be instructed, after their reading, what to think; which shall be the end and purpose of this my paper, wherein I shall from time to time report and consider all matters, of what kind soever, that shall occur to me, and publish such my advices and reflections every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday in the week, for the convénience of the post. I resolve to have something which may be of entertainment to the fair-sex, in honour of whom I have invented the title of this

paper. I therefore earnestly desire all persons, without distinction, to take it in for the present, gratis, and hereafter, at the price of one penny, forbidding all hawkers to take more for it at their peril. And I desire all persons to consider, that I am at a very great charge for proper materials for this work, as well as that, before I resolved upon it, I had settled a correspondence in all parts of the known and knowing world. And forasmuch as this globe is not trodden upon by mere drudges of business only, but that men of spirit and genius are justly to be esteemed as considerable agents in it, we shall not, upon a dearth of news, present you with musty foreign edicts, or dull proclamations, but shall divide our relation of the passages which occur in action or discourse throughout this town, as well as elsewhere, under such dates of places as may prepare you for the matter you are to expect, in the following manner.

"All accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, shall be under the article of White's Chocolate-house; poetry, under that of Will's Coffee-house;† learning, under the

White's Chocolate-house was then on the west side of St. James's-street.

"Will's Coffee-house was on the north side of Russel-street, Covent garden, where the wits of that time

own parts, the power of divination, and that I can, by casting a figure, tell you all that will happen before it comes to pass.

"But this last faculty I shall use very sparingly, and speak but of few things until they are passed, for fear of divulging matters which may offend our superiors."

year,

White's Chocolate-house, April 7.

The deplorable condition of a very pretty gentleman, who walks here at the hours when men of quality first appear, is what is very much lamented. His history is, that on the ninth of September, 1705, being in his one-and-twentieth he was washing his teeth at a tavern window in Pall-Mall, when a fine equipage passed by, and in it a young lady who looked up at him; away goes the coach, and the young gentleman pulled off his night cap, and instead of rubbing his gums, as he ought to do, out of the window until about four of the clock, sits him down and spoke not a word until twelve at night; after which, he began to inquire if any body knew the lady?-The company asked what lady? but he said no more, until they broke up at six in the morning. All the ensuing winter he went from church to church every Sunday, and from play-house to play-house

used to assemble, and where Dryden had, when he lived, been accustomed to preside."-Johnson's "Lives," &c vol. iv. p. 15. 8vo. edit. 1781.

1 The Grecian was, and still is, in Devereux-court in the Strand; probably the most ancient coffee-house in In 1652, an English Turkey-meror about London. chant brought home with him a Greek servant, who first opened a house for making and selling coffee. Kidney was one of the waiters at St. James's Coffee. house. The same introduction was prefixed to No. 2, and 11

No. 3.

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