Headnote

Tatler no. 230, and nos. 5 and 20 of the continuation by William Harrison, are included in the body of the present volume as being definitely by Swift; and the poems that Swift contributed to Tatler no. 9 and Tatler no. 238 will be included in the appropriate volume of CWJS. Today's readers, unlike previous generations, also have the advantage of setting speculation about Swift's role in these periodicals in the fuller context provided by the editions of the Tatler and Spectator annotated and indexed by Donald F. Bond.

Early editors added enthusiastically to the tally of Swift's possible contributions, and Davis, in a valuable review of the tradition, concluded that, at least at the beginning of Steele's project, ‘there can be little doubt that these early papers contain many hints and suggestions given by Swift to Steele, or directly worked up from Swift's conversation’. The list that follows summarises some of the suggestions most frequently encountered; but an authorfocused approach seems, in any case, less than helpful in estimating Swift's contribution to such an obviously collaborative and conversationally inspired project as the Tatler, particularly at its inception, when his fertility of invention and his generosity in throwing out hints and ideas for others to develop (notably the character of Bickerstaff himself) were obviously much in evidence. As time went on, however, Swift came to feel that his efforts to obtain a measure of protection from the new ministry for Steele and Addison were unappreciated, and he became progressively alienated from them, particularly from Steele.

For Harrison's continuation, however, the case is rather different, since in this case Swift (along with Bolingbroke) was more patron than companion; and he made no secret to Johnson and Dingley of his fear that his prot´eg´e was unfitted for the task (see Headnote to Harrison's Tatler no. 5). Swift in effect acknowledged his ghost-writing of nos. 5 and 20 by allowing them to appear in his Works in 1735 (but see below for texts of further numbers for which he probably furnished hints).

The following list draws principally on Swift's testimony in JSt, on the claims of the 1735 headnote to Tatler no. 230, on suggestionsmade by Ball, on Elliott's ‘Swift's “Little” Harrison’, on Davis's review of traditional attributions and his Appendix C, on the account given by R. P. Bond, and on Donald F. Bond's editions of the Tatler and Spectator: