Glossary
TatlerThe Tatler was a periodical run by Richard Steele between 12 April 1709 and 2 January 1711. Swift seems to have had a certain proprietorial feeling towards this very successful journal, because it was written in the character of his own Bickerstaff. His contributions to it include 'Description of a Shower' and No. 230, on language reform. The Tatler was at first an entirely polite and frivolous publication, but it became increasingly moralistic and socially engaged through the influence of Joseph Addison, who wrote several numbers. The thrice-weekly Tatler gave way to the daily Spectator, which ran from 1 March 1711 to 6 December 1712 (in the first instance), and to which Addison made the principal contribution. Swift tried to set up the poet William Harrison as continuator of the journal in 1710/11, and ended up writing or furnishing hints for several of the numbers himself, including nos. 1, 2, 8 and 28.
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