which, says
Gay, "is quite exhausted and grown so very contemptible, that though
he has provoked all his brothers of the quill round, none of them will
enter into a controversy with him."

The periodical publications of the day are passed under review: the
_Observer_, founded in 1702 by John Tutchin, and after his death five
years later, conducted by George Ridpath, editor of the _Flying Post_,
until 1712, when it had almost entirely ceased to please, and was
finally extinguished by the Stamp Tax; the weekly _Examiner_, set up
in August, 1710, in opposition to the Whig _Taller_, numbering among
its contributors Dr. King, St. John, Prior, Atterbury, and Freind, and
managed by Swift from No. 14 (October 26th, 1710); the _Whig
Examiner_, the first issue of which appeared on September 14th, 1710,
its five numbers being written by Addison; the _Medley_, another Whig
paper, which ran from August, 1710, to August, 1711, and was edited by
Arthur Mainwaring, with the assistance of Steele, Oldmixon, and
Anthony Henley (a wit and a man of fortune, to whom Garth dedicated
"The Dispensary," and who distinguished himself by describing Swift as
"a beast for ever after the order of Melchisedec"). The _Tatter_,
which appeared three times a week from April 12th, 1709, to January
2nd, 1711, was of course mentioned, and well-deserved tributes were
paid to Steele and Addison. Of Addison he wrote with appreciation, but
briefly: "This is that excellent friend to whom Mr. Steele owes so
much, and who refuses to have his pen set before those pieces which
the greatest pens in England would be proud to own. Indeed, they could
hardly add to this gentleman's reputation, whose works in Latin and
English poetry long since convinced the world that he was the greatest
master in Europe of those two languages." Of Steele, Gay wrote at
greater length: "To give you my own thoughts of this gentleman's
writings, I shall, in the first place, observe that there is a noble
difference between him and all the rest of our polite and gallant
authors. The latter have endeavoured to please the age by falling in
with them, and encourage them in their fashionable views and false
notion of things. It would have been a jest, some time since, for a
man to have asserted that anything witty could be said in praise of a
married state, or that devotion and virtue were any way necessary to
the character of a fine gentleman. Bickerstaff ventured to tell the
town that they wer