The First English Coffee-Houses, c. 1670-1675
[Colby Introduction]:
Between 1670 and 1685 coffee-houses
multiplied in London, and attained some degree of political importance from the volume of
talk which they caused. Each sect, party, or shade of fashion, had its meeting place of
this sort, and London life grew more animated from the presence in its midst of public
centers where witty conversation could be heard. When coffee-houses were still a novelty,
they had their partisans and their opponents, who exchanged highly-spiced pamphlets in
praise or condemnation of the bean and its patron.
The Character of a Coffee-House, 1673 A.D.:
A coffee-house is a lay conventicle, good-fellowship turned puritan, ill-husbandry in
masquerade, whither people come, after toping all day, to purchase, at the expense of
their last penny, the repute of sober companions: A Rota [i.e.,club room], that,
like Noah's ark, receives animals of every sort, from the precise diminutive band, to the
hectoring cravat and cuffs in folio; a nursery for training up the smaller fry of virtuosi
in confident tattling, or a cabal of kittling [i.e.,carping] critics that have
only learned to spit and mew; a mint of intelligence, that, to make each man his
pennyworth, draws out into petty parcels, what the merchant receives in bullion: he, that
comes often, saves twopence a week in Gazettes, and has his news and his coffee for the
same charge, as at a threepenny ordinary they give in broth to your chop of mutton; it is
an exchange, where haberdashers of political small-wares meet, and mutually abuse each
other, and the public, with bottomless stories, and heedless notions; the rendezvous of
idle pamphlets, and persons more idly employed to read them; a high court of justice,
where every little fellow in a camlet cloak takes upon him to transpose affairs both in
church and state, to show reasons against acts of parliament, and condemn the decrees of
general councils.
As you have a hodge-podge of drinks, such too is your company, for each man seems a
leveler, and ranks and files himself as he lists, without regard to degrees or order; so
that often you may see a silly fop and a worshipful justice, a griping rook and a grave
citizen, a worthy lawyer and an errant pickpocket, a reverend non-conformist and a canting
mountebank, all blended together to compose a medley of impertinence.
If any pragmatic, to show himself witty or eloquent, begin to talk high, presently the
further tables are abandoned, and all the rest flock round (like smaller birds, to admire
the gravity of the madge-howlet [i.e.,the barn-owl]). They listen to him awhile
with their mouths, and let their pipes go out, and coffee grow cold, for pure zeal of
attention, but on the sudden fall all a yelping at once with more noise, but not half so
much harmony, as a pack of beagles on the full cry. To still this bawling, up starts Capt.
All-man-sir, the man of mouth, with a face as blustering as that of Æolus and his four
sons, in painting, and a voice louder than the speaking trumpet, he begins you the story
of a sea-fight; and though he never were further, by water, than the Bear-garden. . . .
yet, having pirated the names of ships and captains, he persuades you himself was present,
and performed miracles; that he waded knee-deep in blood on the upper-deck, and never
thought to serenade his mistress so pleasant as the bullets whistling; how he stopped a
vice-admiral of the enemy's under full sail; till she was boarded, with his single arm,
instead of grappling-irons, and puffed out with his breath a fire-ship that fell foul on
them. All this he relates, sitting in a cloud of smoke, and belching so many common oaths
to vouch it, you can scarce guess whether the real engagement, or his romancing account of
it, be the more dreadful: however, he concludes with railing at the conduct of some
eminent officers (that, perhaps, he never saw), and protests, had they taken his advice at
the council of war, not a sail had escaped us.
He is no sooner out of breath, but another begins a lecture on the Gazette, where,
finding several prizes taken, he gravely observes, if this trade hold, we shall quickly
rout the Dutch, horse and foot, by sea: he nicknames the Polish gentlemen wherever he
meets them, and enquires whether Gayland and Taffaletta be Lutherans or Calvinists?stilo
novo he interprets a vast new stile, or turnpike, erected by his electoral highness on
the borders of Westphalia, to keep Monsieur Turenne's cavalry from falling on his
retreating troops; he takes words by the sound, without examining their sense: Morea he
believes to be the country of the Moors, and Hungary a place where famine always keeps her
court, nor is there anything more certain, than that he made a whole room full of fops, as
wise as himself, spend above two hours in searching the map for Aristocracy and Democracy,
not doubting but to have found them there, as well as Dalmatia and Croatia.
Coffee-Houses Vindicated, 1675 A.D.:
Though the happy Arabia, nature's spicery, prodigally furnishes the voluptuous world
with all kinds of aromatics, and divers other rarities; yet I scarce know whether mankind
be not still as much obliged to it for the excellent fruit of the humble coffee-shrub, as
for any other of its more specious productions: for, since there is nothing we here enjoy,
next to life, valuable beyond health, certainly those things that contribute to preserve
us in good plight andeucrasy (such a due mixture of qualities as constitutes
health), and fortify our weak bodies against the continual assaults and batteries of
disease, deserve our regards much more than those which only gratify a liquorish palate,
or otherwise prove subservient to our delights. As for this salutiferous berry, of so
general a use through all the regions of the east, it is sufficiently known, when
prepared, to be moderately hot, and of a very drying attenuating and cleansing quality;
whence reason infers, that its decoction must contain many good physical properties, and
cannot but be an incomparable remedy to dissolve crudities, comfort the brain, and dry up
ill humors in the stomach. In brief, to prevent or redress, in those that frequently drink
it, all cold drowsy rheumatic distempers whatsoever, that proceed from excess of moisture,
which are so numerous, that but to name them would tire the tongue of a mountebank.
Lastly, for diversion. It is older than Aristotle, and will be true, when Hobbes is
forgot, that man is a sociable creature, and delights in company. Now, whither shall a
person, wearied with hard study, or the laborious turmoils of a tedious day, repair to
refresh himself? Or where can young gentlemen, or shop-keepers, more innocently and
advantageously spend an hour or two in the evening, than at a coffee-house? Where they
shall be sure to meet company, and, by the custom of the house, not such as at other
places, stingy and reserved to themselves, but free and communicative; where every man may
modestly begin his story, and propose to, or answer another, as he thinks fit. Discourse
ispabulum animi, cos ingenii; the mind's best diet, and the great whetstone and
incentive of ingenuity; by that we come to know men better than by their physiognomy.Loquere,
ut te videam, speak, that I may see you, was the philosopher's adage. To read men is
acknowledged more useful than books; but where is there a better library for that study,
generally, than here, amongst such a variety of humors, all expressing themselves on
divers subjects, according to their respective abilities?
In brief, it is undeniable, that, as you have here the most civil, so it is, generally,
the most intelligent society; the frequenting whose converse, and observing their
discourses and deportment, cannot but civilize our manners, enlarge our understandings,
refine our language, teach us a generous confidence and handsome mode of address, and
brush off thatpudor rubrusticus (as, I remember, Tully somewhere calls it), that
clownish kind of modesty frequently incident to the best natures, which renders them
sheepish and ridiculous in company.
So that, upon the whole matter, spite of the idle sarcasms and paltry reproaches thrown
upon it, we may, with no less truth than plainness, give this brief character of a
well-regulated coffee-house (for our pen disdains to be an advocate for any sordid holes,
that assume that name to cloak the practice of debauchery), that it is the sanctuary of
health, the nursery of temperance, the delight of frugality, an academy of civility, and
free-school of ingenuity.
Source.
From: Charles W. Colby, ed.,Selections from the Sources of English History, B.C. 55
- A.D. 1832 (London: Longmans, Green, 1920), pp. 208-212.
