XI

PERIODICALS, REVIEWS, AND ENCYCLOPÆDIAS.

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"HAT the highly-finished models of periodical composition which had been given to the world by Steele and Addison should excite a spirit of emulation and give birth to a number of competitors, was an event equally to be wished for and expected." So writes the industrious Dr. Nathan Drake at the beginning of his instructive, if rather long-winded essays on the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler. At the conclusion of the same work

he gives a chronological table, from which it appears that between the Tatler and Rambler, a period of forty-one years, one hundred and six periodical papers of a similar kind were issued, and between the Rambler and the year 1809, one hundred and thirteen, making altogether, with the two mentioned added, a grand total of two hundred and twenty-one -a surprising number truly. Of these, a vast proportion, as may be supposed, were quite worthless, and have been deservedly consigned to oblivion; others of more merit, indeed, but still of not sufficient excellence to stand the test of time, have shared the same fate; others, written with a political intent, are of value only to the historian. A very few, however, are still of interest, either because of the value of their contents or on account of the fame of those connected with them. Of these we shall give some brief account.

Of the many periodicals, political and social, started during

the lifetime of Addison and Steele, and up till the beginning of Johnson's Rambler (1750), all or nearly all of any merit have been already mentioned in the account given of the literature of the reign of Queen Anne. The others form a very motley assemblage. "Fortunate," says Dr. Drake, "would it have been for the interests of general literature had the swarm of imitators strictly confined themselves to the plan of the Spectator, to a laudable attempt at reforming the morals and the manners of the age. The facility, however, with which this mode of writing might be rendered a vehicle for slander, for rancorous politics, and virulent satire, soon tempted many to deviate from the salutary example of the authors of the Tatler and Spectator; and the former of these papers had not run half its course before it was assailed by a multitude of writers who were actuated by no other motives than those of envy and ill-nature." One of them, the Female Tatler, begun in 1809, obtained such notoriety. for its personalities that it was presented as a nuisance by the grand jury at the Old Bailey. Of the rest, the most notable are the Lay Monastery (1713 1), of which the principal writer was the poetical knight Sir Richard Blackmore, who was a constant butt of the wits of his time; the Censor (1715), conducted by Theobald, the original hero of the "Dunciad;" the Craftsman (1826), which proved a very powerful organ of the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole; and three papers of which the great novelist Henry Fielding was the presiding spirit, the Champion (1739), and the True Patriot, begun in 1745, and succeeded by the Jacobite Journal. Of these, the first, besides containing essays on the follies, vices, amusements, and literature of the age, had a political intent, being directed against the administration of Walpole; while the first and second were designed to throw ridicule upon the Jacobite party, and to aid the cause of the House of Hanover, of which Fielding was a very strenuous supporter. Some years later, in January 1752, Fielding started another

When only one date is given, it refers to the beginning of the periodical.

The Adventurer.

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periodical, the Covent Garden Journal, which was published twice a week for a twelvemonth. Most of the contents were of a humorous and sarcastic kind, and it had a considerable flavouring of personal satire.

The Covent Garden Journal properly belongs to the second division of our subject-the papers published after the Rambler. Some of these are of considerable importance, especially the Adventurer, which had a very considerable sale both during its publication and afterwards when collected into volumes. It was begun in November 1752, and continued till March 1754. It appeared twice a week, and the price of each number was twopence, the same as that of the Rambler. Of the hundred and forty numbers to which the periodical extended, Dr. John Hawkesworth, its editor, was the author of seventy. Hawkesworth (1715-1773) was one of the many imitators of Johnson, whose style, as Burke with great felicity of phrase observed to Boswell, on the latter remarking that the pompous "Life of Young," which Sir Herbert Croft contributed to the "Lives of the Poets," was very much in Johnson's manner, "has all the nodosities of the oak without its strength; all the contortions of the Sybil without the inspiration." A considerable proportion of Hawkesworth's contributions consist of those Oriental and allegorical tales of which the Spectator presents examples, and which may now be reckoned an extinct department of literature, though they were so popular during the last century. That they have ceased to be written is not matter for regret, for nothing can be imagined more jejune and wearisome than most of them were. Hawkesworth's principal assistants in the Adventurer, besides Dr. Johnson, who contributed a good many papers, were Richard Bathurst (whose name will live as long as that of the individual whom Johnson praised as "a man to my very heart's content; he hated a fool, and he hated a rogue, and he hated a Whig: he was a very good hater "); Dr. Joseph Warton; and Hester Chapone, one of the "literary ladies" of Johnson's time, whom it was his habit, when in a genial mood, to overpraise ridiculously. Joseph Warton, a brother of Thomas

Warton, the author of the "History of English Poetry," was a man of considerable note in his day, much beloved by a large circle of friends. His most important work is an "Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope," much of which he afterwards incorporated in an edition of that poet's works. It may be mentioned that it appears from a letter of Johnson's to Warton that the pay of the contributors to the Adventurer was two guineas a number. There is a good deal of loose talking about the wretched remuneration writers received dur ing the eighteenth century. Vast sums such as Scott, Dickens, and Macaulay got for their works would, of course, have appeared almost fabulous even to the most successful author of that time, when the reading public was so small compared to what it is now. But it may be doubted if literary "journeywork" was not paid just as well as at present.

The World, begun in January 1753, and carried on weekly for four years, is of interest as being the periodical in which appeared Lord Chesterfield's articles on Johnson's "Dictionary," which called forth the "great lexicographer's" celebrated letter. The proprietor of the World and its principal contributor was Edward Moore, whose tragedy, the "Gamester," is still occasionally acted. Horace Walpole, Lord Hailes, and Soame Jenyns, whose book on the "Origin of Evil" formed the subject of one of Johnson's most caustic criticisms, also occasionally wrote in it. Chesterfield's two papers in recommendation of Johnson's "Dictionary" appeared in November 28 and December 5, 1754. Johnson seems to have thought over his rejoinder for a considerable time, his letter bearing date February 7, 1755

In the Connoisseur, a periodical begun in January 1754, and continued weekly for three years, appeared in 1756 the first publications of William Cowper. His first paper was on "Keeping a Secret,"containing sketches of faithless confidantes; the second an account of the present state of country churches, their clergy, and their congregations; and the third an essay on conversation and its abuses. Two other papers have, on uncertain evidence, been attributed to him. The chief writers

ture.

in the Connoisseur were George Colman, a lively play-writer, and Bonnel Thornton, who was well known in his day as a clever writer of satirical verses and essays. The character of this periodical is thus given by Dr. Drake: "The Connoisseur labours under the same defect which has been attributed to the World-it is too uniformly a tissue of ridicule and caricaIn this line, however, several of its papers are superior to those of the same species in the World, and it displays likewise more classical literature that its rival. It is, on the whole, more entertaining than the World, but, if we except a few papers, inferior in point of composition. To the juvenility of the two chief writers in it, and to their strong attachment to satire and burlesque, we are to attribute its occasional incorrectness of style and its poverty of matter."

With the Mirror and the Lounger, two periodicals published at Edinburgh, and conducted by Northern literati, the list of classical papers of the Spectator class closed, for though a few followed the two mentioned, none of them attained any celebrity. The Mirror was published pretty constantly every Tuesday and Saturday from January 23, 1779, to May 27, 1780. Its editor and principal contributor was Henry Mackenzie, the author of the "Man of Feeling," who gives the following account of its origin :-"The idea of publishing a periodical paper in Edinburgh took its rise in a company of gentlemen whom particular circumstances of connection brought frequently together. Their discourse often turned upon subjects of manners, of taste, and of literature. By one of those accidental resolutions of which the origin cannot easily be traced, it was determined to put their thoughts into writing, and to read them for the entertainment of each. The essays assumed the form, and soon after some one gave them the name, of a periodical publication; the writers of it were naturally associated, and their meetings increased the importance as well as the number of their productions." By and by the idea of publication suggested itself; and as number after number of the Mirror appeared, it came to be regarded by all Scotchmen with just pride. Of the hundred and ten numbers of which