1710.  It was continued weekly till October 12th, five numbers appearing, all of which were, with one exception, perhaps, written by Addison, so that Gay’s conjecture—­if Bickerstaff may be extended to include Addison—­was correct.  The Medley, to which Gay next passes, was another Whig organ.  The first number appeared on August 5th, 1710, and it was continued weekly till August 6th, 1711.  It was conducted by Arthur Mainwaring, a man of family and fortune, and an ardent Whig, with the assistance of Steele, Anthony Henley, and Oldmixon.

With the reference to the Tatler, we pass from obscurity into daylight.  Since April 12th, 1709, that delightful periodical had regularly appeared three times a week.  With the two hundredth and seventy-first number on January 2nd, 1711, it suddenly ceased.  Of the great surprise and disappointment caused by its cessation, of the causes assigned for it, and of the high appreciation of all it had effected for moral and intellectual improvement and pleasure, Gay gives a vivid picture.  What he says conjecturally about the reasons for its discontinuance is so near the truth that we may suspect he had had some light on the subject from Steele himself.  It was, of course, from the preface to the edition of the first three volumes of the collected Tatlers, published in 1710, that Gay derived what he says about the contributions of Addison (though Steele had not mentioned him by name, in accordance, no doubt, with Addison’s request) and about the verses of Swift.  In all probability this was the first public association of Addison’s name with the Tatler.  The Mr. Henley referred to was Anthony Henley, a man of family and fortune, and one of the most distinguished of the wits of that age, to whom Garth dedicated The Dispensary.  In politics he was a rabid Whig, and it was he who described Swift as ’a beast for ever after the order of Melchisedec.’  Gay had not been misinformed, for Henley was the author of the first letter in No. 26 and of the letter in No. 193, under the character of Downes.

The cessation of the Tatler had been the signal for the appearance of several spurious papers purporting to be new numbers.  One entitling itself No. 272 was published by one John Baker; another, purporting to be No. 273, was by ‘Isaac Bickerstaff, Junior.’  Then, on January 6th, appeared what purported to be Nos. 272 and 273 of the original issue, with a letter from Charles Lillie, one of the publishers of the original Tatler.  Later in January, William Harrison, a protege of Swift, a young man whose name will be familiar to all who are acquainted with Swift’s Journal to Stella, was encouraged by Swift to start a new Tatler, Swift liberally assisting him with notes, and not only contributing himself but inducing Congreve also to contribute a paper.  And this new Tatler actually ran to fifty-two numbers, appearing twice a week between January 13th