Vol. 1—
"Bachelor's scheme to govern a wife."
"Knaves prove fools."
Vol. 2—
"Actors censured for adding words of their own in their parts."
"Dead men, who."
"Dead persons heard, judged and censured.
—— Allegations laid against them, their pleas."
"Love letters before and after marriage, found in a grave."
"Mathematical sieve to sift impertinences in writing and discourse."
"News, Old People die in France."
Vol. 3—
"Flattery of women, its ill consequences."
"Maids of Honour, their allowance
of Beef for their Breakfast in Queen Elizabeth's time."
"Silence, significant on many occasions.
—— Instances of it."
Vol. 4—
"Blockheads apt to admire one another."
"Female Library proposed for the Improvement of the Sex."
"Night, longer formerly in this Island than at present."
In 1757 A General Index to the Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardians was published, and in 1760 the same work was re-issued with a new title-page. Certain supposed blots in the original indexes were here corrected and the following explanation made in the preface: "Notwithstanding the learning and care of the compilers of the first Indexes to these volumes, some slight inaccuracies have passed, and where observed they are altered. Few readers who desire to know Mr. Bickerstaff's Opinion of the Comedy called the Country Wife, or the character of Mrs. Bickerstaff as an actress, would consult the Index under the word Acts." This seems to refer to an entry in the index to the first volume of the Tatler:
"Acts the Country-Wife: (Mrs. Bignel)."
The index to the original edition of the Spectator is equally good with that of the Tatler, but the entries are longer and more elaborate than those in the latter. The references are not made to the pages, as is the case with the Tatler, but to the numbers of the papers. The following entries are worthy of quotation:
Vol. 2—
"Gentry of England generally speaking in debt."
"Great men not truly known till some years after their deaths."
"Women, the English excel all other nations in beauty.
—— Signs of their improvement under the Spectator's hands.
—— Their pains in all ages to adorn the outside of their heads."
A precursor of the Tatler and Spectator was the curious Athenian Oracle, of the eccentric John Dunton, each volume of which contained "An Alphabetical Table for the speedy finding of any questions, by a member of the Athenian Society," from which the following amusing entries are taken:
"Ark, what became of it after the Flood?"
"Bees, a swarm lit upon the Crown and Scepter in Cheapside, what do they portend?"
"Hawthorn-tree at Glassenbury, what think you of it?"
"Noah's flood, whither went the waters?"
"Pied Piper, was he a man or dæmon?"
"Triumphant Arch erected in Cheapside 1691, described."