All the _Coverley_ papers are included except that one by Tickell of which Addison himself disapproved. I have thought it best, however, to print only entire papers; and have not, therefore, culled the few paragraphs in which incidental mention is made of Sir Roger in the course of essays devoted chiefly to other subjects. In accordance with the plan of this Series, the occasional brief notes needed to explain a word or to call attention to some peculiar idiom or structure are set at the foot of the page; longer, illustrative notes follow the text at the end of the volume. The best method of approach to the work of any author is usually through a study of his life and surroundings; this is certainly true of a literature so full of personal interest as the literature of the age of Queen Anne. I have, therefore, in the Introduction attempted to give some notion of the personality of Steele and Addison, and then some account of the social conditions that explain the remarkable success of _The Tatler_ and _The Spectator_. Two or three books, like Thackeray's _English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century_ and Ashton's _Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne_, will help the student in his endeavour to frame in his imagination a picture of the men and their time; but for comment on _The Spectator_, nothing, after all, is worth so much as _The Spectator_ itself. The student should be encouraged to read more of these charming papers, and to make himself, if possible, a little at home in that most urbane and hospitable period of English literature. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION: I. Steele and Addison 11 II. The Tatler and The Spectator 22 III. The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers 29 BIBLIOGRAPHY 33 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 38 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS: I. The Spectator 45 II. The Club 51 III. Sir Roger's Criticisms on Polite Society 59 IV. The Club and The Spectator 64 V. A Lady's Library 69 VI. Coverley Hall 75 VII. The Coverley Household 80 VIII. Will Wimble 85 IX. The Coverley Ancestry 89 X. The Coverley Ghost 95 XI. Sunday with Sir Roger 100 XII. Sir Roger in Love 104 XIII. How to Bear Poverty 111 XIV. Labour and Exercise 116 XV. Sir Roger goes A-Hunting 121 XVI. The Coverley Witch 129 XVII. Sir Roger talks of the Widow 133