MDMD4: Those Damnable Whig Coffee-Houses

[Dave Monroe]

"'Damme, Sir,-- a Book?  Close it up immediately.'
   "''Tis the Holy Bible, Sir.'
   "'No matter, 'tis Print,-- Print causes Civil Unrest,-- Civil Unrest in 
any Ship at Sea is intolerable.  Coffee as well.  Where are newspapers 
found?  In those damnable Whig Coffee-Houses.  Eh?  A Potion stimulating 
rebellion and immoderate desires.'"  (M&D, Ch. 6, p. 48)

"freshly infus'd Coffee flows ev'ryplace, borne about thro' Rooms front and 
back" (M&D, Ch. 1, p. 6)

Note, by the way, the shift betwixt pre- and post-Revolutionary times here.  
This is not insignificant, as I might yet hint at here.  But first off, does 
Lieutenant Uncleigh's ("a rattle-head") disquisition remind you of anything? 
  Such as ...

"Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger, anger leads to 
hate, hate leads to suffering."

http://darthflurry.homestead.com/files/fearispath.wav

Also, that old Saturday Night Live sketch in which, in High School Principal 
Dan Aykroyd's opinion, everything leads to "drinking beer," but ... but a 
"rattle-head"?  Like Paul de Manerville in Honore de Blazac's The Girl with 
the Golden Eyes (1815) ...

http://uiarchive.uiuc.edu/mirrors/ftp/ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext99/gwtgi10.txt

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=1659

Or Lord de Adhemar in Luise Muhlbach's "Marie Antoinette And Her Son" (1867) 
...

http://uiarchive.uiuc.edu/mirrors/ftp/ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext02/marie10.txt

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=3451

That is, "a fool, a rattle-head, a booby."  As in, brains rattling inside 
skull, I imagine, although "rattled" is also a slang term for drunk, or 
drugged.  But to continue ...

>From Richard Steele, "The Coffee-House," The Spectator No. 49 [!], Thursday, 
26 April 1711, in Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, Selections from The 
Tatler and The Spectator (ed. Angus Ross, New York: Penguin, 1982), pp. 
286-9 ...

--Hominen pagina nostra sapit ["My page smacks of man," Martial, Epigrams 
X.iv.10]

   "It is very natural for a Man, who is not turned for Mirthful Meetings of 
Men, or Assemblies of the fair Sex, to delight in that sort of Coversation 
which we find in Coffee-houses.  Here a Man, of my
Temper, is inhis Element; for if he cannot talk, he can still be more 
agreeable to his Company, as well as pleased in himself, in being only an 
Hearer....
   "In the Place I must usually frequent, Men differ rather in the Time of 
Day in which they make a Figure, than in any real Greatness above one 
another. I, who am at the Coffee-house at Six in a Morning, know that my 
Friend Beaver [!] the Haberdasher has a Levy of more undissembled Friends 
and Admirers, than most of the Courtiers or Generals of Great-Britain. Every 
Man about him has, perhaps, a News-Paper in his Hand; but none can pretend 
to guess what Step will be taken in any one Court of Europe, till Mr. Beaver 
has thrown down his Pipe, and declares what Measures the Allies must enter 
into upon this new Posture of Affairs.  Our Coffee-house is near one of the 
Inns  of Court, and Beaver has the Audience and Admiration of his Neighbours 
from Six 'till within a Quarter of Eight, at which time he is interrupted by 
the Students of the House; some of whom are ready dress'd for Westminster, 
at Eight in a Morning, with Faces as busie as if they were retained in every 
Cause there; and others come in their Night-Gowns to saunter away their 
Time, as if they never designed to go thither....
   "When the Day grows too busie for these Gentlemen to enjoy any longer the 
Pleasures of their Deshabilé, with any manner of Confidence, they give place 
to Men who have Business or good Sense in their Faces, and come to the 
Coffee-house either to transact Affairs or enjoy Conversation. The Persons 
to whose Behaviour and Discourse I have most regard, are such as are between 
these two sorts of Men: Such as have not Spirits too Active to be happy and 
well pleased in a private Condition, nor Complexions too warm to make them 
neglect the Duties and Relations of Life. Of these sort of Men consist the 
worthier Part of Mankind; of these are all good Fathers, generous
Brothers, sincere Friends, and faithful Subjects. Their Entertainments are 
derived rather from Reason than Imagination: Which is the Cause that there 
is no Impatience or instability in their Speech or Action. You see in their 
Countenances they are at home, and in quiet Possession of the present 
Instant, as it passes, without desiring to quicken it by gratifying any 
Passion, or prosecuting any new Design. These are the Men formed for 
Society, and those little Communities which we express by the Word 
Neighborhoods....
   "The Coffee-house is the Place of Rendezvous to all that live near it, 
who are thus turned to relish calm and ordinary Life...." (pp. 286-8)

http://harvest.rutgers.edu/projects/spectator/text/april1711/no49.html

And see also Richard Steele, "The Coffee-House Again,"  The Spectator No. 
155, Tuesday, 28 August 1711, in Selections, pp. 289-91, or online at ...

http://harvest.rutgers.edu/projects/spectator/text/august1711/no155.html

But wait, there's more ...

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp