_The original numbers of the _Tatler_ were reissued in two forms in
1710-11; one edition, in octavo, being published by subscription, while
the other, in duodecimo, was for the general public. The present edition
has been printed from a copy of the latter issue, which, as recorded on
the title-page, was "revised and corrected by the Author"; but I have
had by my side, for constant reference, a complete set of the folio
sheets, containing the "Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff" in the form
in which they were first presented to the world. Scrupulous accuracy in
the text has been aimed at, but the eccentricities of spelling--which
were the printer's, not the author's--have not been preserved, and the
punctuation has occasionally been corrected.
The first and the most valuable of the annotated editions of the
_Tatler_ was published by John Nichols and others in 1786, with notes by
Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, Dr. John Calder, and Dr. Pearce, Bishop
of Rochester; and though these notes are often irrelevant and out of
date, they contain an immense amount of information, and have been
freely made use of by subsequent editors. I have endeavoured to preserve
what is of value in the older editions, and to supplement it, as
concisely as possible, by such further information as appeared
desirable. The eighteenth-century diaries and letters published of late
years have in many cases enabled me to throw light on passages which
have hitherto been obscure, and sometimes useful illustrations have been
found in the contemporary newspapers and periodicals.
The portraits of Steele, Addison, and Swift, the writers most associated
with the _Tatler_, have been taken from contemporary engravings in the
British Museum; and the imaginary portrait of Isaac Bickerstaff in the
last volume is from a rare picture drawn by Lens in 1710 as a
frontispiece to collections of the original folio numbers._