erved a profound silence for three years
after his publication of "Wine," and then, on May 3rd, 1711, appeared
from his pen, "The Present State of Wit, in a Letter to a Friend in
the Country," sold at the reasonable price of three-pence. This
attracted the attention of Swift. "Dr. Freind[9] ... pulled out a
two-penny pamphlet just published, called 'The State of Wit', giving
the characters of all the papers that have come out of late," he wrote
in the "Journal to Stella," May 12: "The author seems to be a Whig,
yet he speaks very highly of a paper called the _Examiner_, and says
the supposed author of it is Dr. Swift. But, above all things, he
praises the _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_, and I believe Steele and
Addison were privy to the printing of it. Thus is one treated by the
impudent dogs." In this unambitious little sketch, as the author puts
it, he gives "the histories and characters of all our periodical
papers, whether monthly, weekly or diurnal," and it is, therefore, of
value to the student of the early days of English journalism. He
claimed to write without political bias: "I shall only promise that,
as you know, I never cared one farthing either for Whig or Tory, so I
shall consider our writers purely as they are such, without any
respect to which party they belong." In "The Present State of Wit"
most of the better-known periodical writers are introduced. Dr.
William King is mentioned, not he who was the Archbishop of Dublin,
nor he who was the Principal of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, but he of whom
it was said that he "could write verses in a tavern three hours after
he could not speak," who was the author of the "Art of Cookery" and
the "Art of Love," and who in 1709 had fluttered the scientific
dovecotes by parodying the "Philosophical Transactions" in the _Useful
Transactions in Philosophy and Other Sorts of Learning_, of which,
however, only three numbers were issued. John Ozell was pilloried as
the author of the _Monthly Amusement_, which was not, as the title
suggests, a periodical, but was merely a title invented to summarise
his frequent appearances in print. "It is generally some French novel
or play, indifferently translated, it is more or less taken notice of,
as the original piece is more or less agreeable." Defoe takes his
place in the gallery as the editor and principal contributor to the
weekly _Poor Review_, that is, the _Weekly Review_ (which was
published weekly from February 19th, 1704, until 1712)