Note 284 — No. 271. [Steele.[284] From Saturday, Dec. 30, 1710, to Tuesday, Jan. 2, 1710-1.

"Steele's last Tatler came out to-day. You will see it before this comes to you, and how he takes leave of the world. He never told so much as Addison of it, who was surprised as much as I; but, to say the truth, it was time, for he grew cruel dull and dry. To my knowledge he had several good hints to go upon; but he was so lazy, and weary of the work, that he would not improve them" (Swift's "Journal," Jan. 2, 1711). A curious pamphlet, called "The Friendly Courier: By way of Letters from Persons in Town to their Acquaintance in the Country, containing whatever is Curious or Remarkable at Home or Abroad. Numb. I. To be continued" (London, 1711), opens with an account of the discontinuance of the Tatler: "What should this great matter be, but that the old man, the philosopher, the humourist, the astrologer, the censor, the undertaker, the constellation-monger, the Tatler, should be no longer Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.; that he should have neither maid, dog, cat, pipes, or tobacco-box, in Sheer Lane; but one Richard Steele: from whence arises many fatal mischiefs," &c.