lf-sister to Isaac Bickerstaff.' The _Tell Tale_ appears to be
a facetious title for the _Female Tatler_, the first number of which
appeared on July 8th, 1709, and was continued for a hundred and eleven
numbers, under the editorship of Thomas Baker, till March 3rd, 1710. The
allusion in the postscript to the _British Apollo_ is to a paper entitled
_The British Apollo: or Curious Amusements for the Ingenious_, the first
number of which appeared on Friday, March 13th, 1708, the paper regularly
continuing on Wednesdays and Fridays till March 16th, 1711. Selections
from this curious miscellany were afterwards printed in three volumes,
and ran into three editions. Gay does not appear to be aware that this
periodical had ceased. The reference in 'the two statesmen of the last
reign whose characters are well expressed in their mottoes' are to Lord
Somers and the Earl of Halifax, as what follows refers respectively to
Addison and Steele. The tract closes with a reference to the _Spectator_,
the first number of which had appeared on the first of the preceding March.

Gay's brochure attracted the attention of Swift, who thus refers to it in
his _Journal to Stella_, May 14th, 1711: 'Dr. Freind was with me and
pulled out a two-penny pamphlet just published called _The State of Wit_.
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 he praises the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_.'

The two tracts which follow consist of the Life of Addison, which forms
the preface to Addison's collected works, published by Tickell in 1721,
and of the Dedicatory Epistle prefixed by Steele to an edition of
Addison's _Drummer_ in 1722. To the student of the literary history of
those times they are of great interest and importance. Of all Addison's
friends, Steele had long been the most intimate of the younger men whom
he had taken under his patronage. Tickell was the most loyal and the most
attached. While still at Oxford he had expressed his admiration of Addison
in extravagant terms: on arriving in London he made his acquaintance.
Tickell was an accomplished poet and man of letters, and though not a
profound a graceful scholar. Addison was pleased with a homage which was
worth accepting. As he rose, his _protege_ rose with him. On his
appointment as Chief Secretary in Ireland he took Tickell with him. When
he was appointed Secretary of State he chose him a