The Mirror

The fifth chapter, “The Mirror”, devotes itself to the Athenian Mercury’s periodical heirs and how their understanding as well as appropriation of fictional and factual elements depart markedly from those displayed in Dunton’s paper. Focusing on the Athenian Mercury’s feud with Tom Brown’s Lacedemonian Mercury (1692) and Joseph Addison’s and Richard Steele’s The Tatler (1709–1711), this section scrutinises the not only self-deprecating but also rather transparent utilisation of a fictionality openly declaring itself as such. In contrast to the often solemn enactment of the Athenian Society’s identity in Dunton’s periodical, the Lacedemonian Mercury and the Tatler self-consciously parade their artificiality, celebrating instead of hiding the chinks in their semi-factual armour. Despite picking up several of the Athenian Mercury’s features, the Lacedemonian Mercury as well as the Tatler opted for the practice of employing overtly fictional elements in order to illustrate a fundamental, moral point, in short: they chose to lie to tell the truth.