lation for their disorders. But as their chief comfort arises from having patient listeners to their complaints, I would propose their being accommodated with attendants from the academy for the deaf and dumb.

As to what the players call the property of the house, several articles would serve indiscriminately for both divisions. Snuff-boxes, tooth-picks, and mirrors, would be of equal use in both; lap-dogs might be distributed in one, pointers and spaniels in the other; the crack of fans might enliven the female, and that of whips the male ward. At battledore and shuttlecock they might meet, like the two houses of parliament in the Painted Chamber, and make a noise in conjunction. Tea would of course be furnished to the ladies, and wine to the gentlemen.

Such an institution would serve both as an hospital and a school;-both as a place of retreat for past services, and of instruction for services to come. Here, from the lower orders, great men might find cork-drawers, butts, and hearers; great ladies might procure humble companions, tea-makers, and talebearers. If from the higher ranks any one should choose a wife or a husband, they would at least have the advantage of choosing them under their real and undisguised characters, and, like dealers at open market, would know their bargain before they purchased it.

NOTES ON THE TATLER

No. I

"Quicquid agunt". . . . Juvenal, Satires, i, 86. What mankind does shall my collections fill. See The Mottoes of Tatlers, Spectators, and Guardians, translated into English, by J. Broughton, London, 1737 (2nd ed.)

2

"The convenience of the post"-the inland or provincial

post left London on these days. Other periodicals had already begun the practice of publishing on post days.

3 White's Chocolate-House-then on the west side of St. James's St. It became notorious as a fashionable gambling house (see Hogarth's Rake's Progress). It was a fitting source of entertaining matters for the Tatler.

Will's Coffee-house-so-called from William Urwin, who kept it. It was on the north side of Russell Street at the corner of Bow Street. The names of Dryden, Wycherley, Gay, Dennis, Pepys, and Pope are associated with it. Ned Ward sarcastically referred to it as the "Wit's Coffee-house." Dryden, in the last years of his life, frequented it, and made it a center for men of letters (see John Timbs, Curiosities of London, London, 1867)

The Grecian-chiefly a lawyer's resort in Devereux Court, Strand. It was also frequented by Fellows of the Royal Society. Constantine, a Greek, for whom it was named,

originally kept it.

St. James's was a fashionable Whig coffee-house, at the southwest corner of St. James Street, frequented by Swift, who had his letters left for him there. It was commonly visited by the guards from St. James's Palace near by; and was undoubtedly a natural source of news regarding foreign and domestic affairs.

Plain Spanish-a wine.

5 Kidney-one of the waiters at St. James's Coffee-house. The same introduction was prefixed to No. 2 and No. 3. "A very pretty gentleman" said to have been an allusion to Edward Lord Viscount Hinchinbroke, mentioned afterwards as Cynthio.

Thomas Betterton-one of the greatest actors of the period. He was born in 1635, came upon the stage in 1656, and died April 29, 1710, soon after this was written. See the references to his funeral in No. 167 (p. 101).

A comedy by William Congreve (1670-1729) in which Betterton had starred.

10 Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723). Among his works are The Fond Husband, The Progress of Honesty, Butler's Ghost, the New Collection of Songs and Poems, and Pills to Purge Melancholy.

11 "A great general"-the Duke of Marlborough.

12 "The death of Mr. Partridge" a well known quack. Swift, in his "Predictions for 1708" foretold that Partridge, the almanack-maker, would die on the 29th of March. The wits resolved to support this prediction, and uniformly in

Steele

sisted that Partridge actually died at that time. carried on the jest throughout several numbers of the Tatler.

No. 6

1 The motto was the same as that of the first number. 2 Dryden's State of Innocence-an operatic version of Paradise Lost (printed 1674) which was not intended for the stage.

"Even Virgil and Homer"-Addison, who was at this time in Ireland, is said to have instantly discovered Steele's authorship of the Tatler, when he read this curious remark upon Virgil-a remark which he had earlier made to Steele.

* The_Rehearsal-first produced at the Theatre Royal in 1671. The authorship is credited to the Duke of Buckingham, Thomas Sprat, Martin Clifford, and the poets, Waller and Cowley. Samuel Butler may have assisted. It is important as a general satire on contemporary theatrical extravagances, especially those of the heroic drama. It also attacked certain personal enemies of the Duke of Buckingham.

No. II

1 The motto was the same as that of the first number. 2 "Like Phaeton"-Ovid, Metamorphoses, ii, 1.

"Honest Ned"-for the story, see Correspondence of Swift, xviii, p. 15.

"The late spirit of enthusiasm❞—that is, religious fervor or frenzy.

5 "The Whitestaffs"'-a playful allusion to the staff carried by the first lord of the treasury.

6

• “Venter"—a legal term here meaning "mother," since Pikestaff's father was married twice.

The Staff family was the first of a long series of similar fictitious groups that enabled other periodical essayists in the eighteenth century to criticize the home life of the English people, and led inevitably to the development of the novel. (See other Staffs in Tatlers 14, 21, 45, 71, 118, 143, 169, and an account of the Greenhats in 59, 63, 71, and 73) The Guardian (1712-13) contained the affairs of the Lizards; the Grumbler (1715) recounts the troubles of the Gizzards; Steele's Theatre (1720) deals with Sir John Edgar and his household; Fielding's Champion (1739-1742) was concerned with the family of Hercules Vinegar; the Prater (1756) de

rived much humor from the doings of the Babble family; the World (1753-1757) contained the Pumpkin family; the Connoisseur (1754-1756) concerned the Humkins; the Mirror (1779-1780), Mr. Umphraville and his relatives; as well as the Flint family; the Lounger (1785-1786) dealt with affairs at Loiterhall in Lingerdale, the home of the Loungers, and the interesting vicissitudes of the Mushrooms; the Yorkshire Freeholder (1780) contains an account of the Lackrents.

No. 39

1 The motto was the same as that of the first number 2 "Shog"-archaic word, i.e., "shock."

3 The humor of this paper is not peculiarly restricted to the Oxford almanac for the year 1709. It is equally applicable to all the Oxford almanacs before or since that period, being founded on the difference between the University terms and the Law terms, just as obvious now as it was then, as may be seen by comparing the Oxford with the London almanac (note in Macaulay's edition of the Tatler, N. Y. 1852, p. 91).

4

Mr. Cowper-Spencer Cowper, a celebrated counsellor, and afterwards chief justice of the common pleas.

No. 42

1 Motto-To celebrate domestic deeds.

2 "Divine Aspasia"-the lady described was Lady Elizabeth Hastings (see Memorials and Characters, London, 1741, p. 780).

Drury Lane Theatre was closed about this time by an order from the Lord Chamberlain (see Colley Cibber's Apology, i, 296).

"By Mr. D- -is' directions"-John Dennis had just then invented a new method of making thunder.

5 The Courant, the Postboy, the Postman-the_London Courant was begun in 1688; the Postboy and the Postman first appeared in 1695. All were newspapers circulated in London.

No. 93

1 The Devil Tavern was one of the oldest and most famous hostelries in London. In Elizabethan times it was well

known, and Ben Jonson's Apollo Club met there. It was later the haunt of Swift, Pepys, Garth, Addison, Steele, Hogarth, and many others known to fame. Its sign of St. Dunstan pulling the devil by the nose stood between the Temple Bar and the Middle Temple Gate. See Dodssley's London and its Environs, 1761; Clubs and Club Life of London by John Timbs, 1872, 9-13, 405-411; and an exhaustive article in the Beaufoy Catalogue.

1

No. 98

"My ancient friend"-possibly Dr. Thomas Walker, head school-master at Charterhouse when Steele and Addison were students, or Dr. Ellis, then Master of Charterhouse.

24

"Masque writ by Milton"-Comus, acted 1634 at Ludlow Castle, residence of the Earl of Bridgewater, Lord President of Wales, on September 29, Michaelmas night, the occasion of the inauguration (see Hanford, A Milton Handbook, N. Y., 1926, pp. 124-131).

No. 116

1 The young lady is the least part of herself.

2 The petticoat described in this paper was fashionable in the day of the Tatler and Spectator, but went out of style early in the reign of George III, (G. W. Rhead, Chats on Costume, N. Y., 1917, or Lester, Historic Costume, Peoria, Ill., 1925).

3

"Crock"-here means a low stool. See New English Dic

tionary.

Sir William Petty (1623-1687)-a political economist. and statistician, mentioned frequently in Pepys's Diary. He had no connection with the naming of the petticoat, of course, but Addison undoubtedly used his name here because of its suggestiveness.

No. 124

1 Fortune can, for her pleasure, fools advance,

And toss them on the wheels of chance. Dryden.

2 The earliest lotteries were conducted by the government, and the profits of these went toward the repair of public utilities, such as harbors. The penny lottery mentioned later in the paper seems to have been a private undertaking, not warranted by an act of parliament, nor intended to raise any part of the public revenue.