Volume Ii Part 5 (1/2)
After Dryden's death in 1701, Will's continued for about ten years to be still the Wits' Coffee-house, as we see by Ned Ward's account, and by that in the _Journey through England_ in 1722.
Pope entered with keen relish into society, and courted the correspondence of the town wits and coffee-house critics. Among his early friends was Mr. Henry Cromwell, one of the _cousinry_ of the Protector's family: he was a bachelor, and spent most of his time in London; he had some pretensions to scholars.h.i.+p and literature, having translated several of Ovid's Elegies, for Tonson's Miscellany. With Wycherley, Gay, Dennis, the popular actors and actresses of the day, and with all the frequenters of Will's, Cromwell was familiar. He had done more than take a pinch out of Dryden's snuff-box, which was a point of high ambition and honour at Will's; he had quarrelled with him about a frail poetess, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, whom Dryden had christened Corinna, and who was also known as Sappho. Gay characterized this literary and eccentric beau as
”Honest, hatless Cromwell, with red breeches;”
it being his custom to carry his hat in his hand when walking with ladies. What with ladies and literature, rehearsals and reviews, and critical attention to the quality of his coffee and Brazil snuff, Henry Cromwell's time was fully occupied in town. Cromwell was a dangerous acquaintance for Pope at the age of sixteen or seventeen, but he was a very agreeable one. Most of Pope's letters to his friend are addressed to him at the Blue Ball, in Great Wild-street, near Drury-lane; and others to ”Widow Hambledon's Coffee-house at the end of Princes-street, near Drury-lane, London.” Cromwell made one visit to Binfield; on his return to London, Pope wrote to him, ”referring to the ladies in particular,” and to his favourite coffee:
”As long as Mocha's happy tree shall grow, While berries crackle, or while mills shall go; While smoking streams from silver spouts shall glide Or China's earth receive the sable tide, While Coffee shall to British nymphs be dear, While fragrant steams the bended head shall cheer, Or grateful bitters shall delight the taste, So long her honours, name, and praise shall last.”
Even at this early period Pope seems to have relied for relief from headache to the steam of coffee, which he inhaled for this purpose throughout the whole of his life.[16]
The Taverns and Coffee-houses supplied the place of the Clubs we have since seen established. Although no exclusive subscription belonged to any of these, we find by the account which Colley Cibber gives of his first visit to Will's, in Covent Garden, that it required an introduction to this Society not to be considered as an impertinent intruder. There the veteran Dryden had long presided over all the acknowledged wits and poets of the day, and those who had the pretension to be reckoned among them. The politicians a.s.sembled at the St. James's Coffee-house, from whence all the articles of political news in the first _Tatlers_ are dated. The learned frequented the Grecian Coffee-house in Devereux-court. Locket's, in Gerard-street, Soho, and Pontac's, were the fas.h.i.+onable taverns where the young and gay met to dine: and White's and other chocolate houses seem to have been the resort of the same company in the morning. Three o'clock, or at latest four, was the dining-hour of the most fas.h.i.+onable persons in London, for in the country no such late hours had been adopted. In London, therefore, soon after six, the men began to a.s.semble at the coffee-house they frequented if they were not setting in for hard drinking, which seems to have been much less indulged in private houses than in taverns. The ladies made visits to one another, which it must be owned was a much less waste of time when considered as an amus.e.m.e.nt for the evening, than now, as being a morning occupation.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Will's Coffee-house first had the t.i.tle of the Red Cow, then of the Rose, and, we believe, is the same house alluded to in the pleasant story in the second number of the _Tatler_:--
”Supper and friends expect we at the Rose.”
The Rose, however, was a common sign for houses of public entertainment.
[15] _The Spectator_, No. 398.
[16] Carruthers: Life of Pope.
b.u.t.tON'S COFFEE-HOUSE.
Will's was the great resort for the wits of Dryden's time, after whose death it was transferred to b.u.t.ton's. Pope describes the houses as ”opposite each other, in Russell-street, Covent Garden,” where Addison established Daniel b.u.t.ton, in a new house, about 1712; and his fame, after the production of _Cato_, drew many of the Whigs thither. b.u.t.ton had been servant to the Countess of Warwick. The house is more correctly described as ”over against Tom's, near the middle of the south side of the street.”
Addison was the great patron of b.u.t.ton's; but it is said that when he suffered any vexation from his Countess, he withdrew the company from b.u.t.ton's house. His chief companions, before he married Lady Warwick, were Steele, Budgell, Philips, Carey, Davenant, and Colonel Brett. He used to breakfast with one or other of them in St. James's-place, dine at taverns with them, then to b.u.t.ton's, and then to some tavern again, for supper in the evening; and this was the usual round of his life, as Pope tells us, in Spence's _Anecdotes_; where Pope also says: ”Addison usually studied all the morning, then met his party at b.u.t.ton's, dined there, and stayed five or six hours; and sometimes far into the night. I was of the company for about a year, but found it too much for me: it hurt my health, and so I quitted it.” Again: ”There had been a coldness between me and Mr. Addison for some time, and we had not been in company together for a good while anywhere but at b.u.t.ton's Coffee-house, where I used to see him almost every day.”
Here Pope is reported to have said of Patrick, the lexicographer, that ”a dictionary-maker might know the meaning of one word, but not of two put together.”
b.u.t.ton's was the receiving-house for contributions to _The Guardian_, for which purpose was put up a lion's head letter-box, in imitation of the celebrated lion at Venice, as humorously announced. Thus:--
”N.B.--Mr. Ironside has, within five weeks last past, muzzled three lions, gorged five, and killed one. On Monday next the skin of the dead one will be hung up, _in terrorem_, at b.u.t.ton's Coffee-house, over against Tom's in Covent Garden.”[17]
”b.u.t.ton's Coffee-house,--
”Mr. Ironside, I have observed that this day you make mention of Will's Coffee-house, as a place where people are too polite to hold a man in discourse by the b.u.t.ton. Everybody knows your honour frequents this house, therefore they will take an advantage against me, and say if my company was as civil as that at Will's. You would say so.
Therefore pray your honour do not be afraid of doing me justice, because people would think it may be a conceit below you on this occasion to name the name of your humble servant, Daniel b.u.t.ton.--The young poets are in the back room, and take their places as you directed.”[18]
”I intend to publish once every week the roarings of the Lion, and hope to make him roar so loud as to be heard over all the British nation.
”I have, I know not how, been drawn into tattle of myself, _more majorum_, almost the length of a whole _Guardian_. I shall therefore fill up the remaining part of it with what still relates to my own person, and my correspondents. Now I would have them all know that on the 20th instant it is my intention to erect a Lion's Head, in imitation of those I have described in Venice, through which all the private commonwealth is said to pa.s.s. This head is to open a most wide and voracious mouth, which shall take in such letters and papers as are conveyed to me by my correspondents, it being my resolution to have a particular regard to all such matters as come to my hands through the mouth of the Lion. There will be under it a box, of which the key will be in my own custody, to receive such papers as are dropped into it. Whatever the Lion swallows I shall digest for the use of the publick. This head requires some time to finish, the workmen being resolved to give it several masterly touches, and to represent it as ravenous as possible. It will be set up in b.u.t.ton's Coffee-house, in Covent Garden, who is directed to shew the way to the Lion's Head, and to instruct any young author how to convey his works into the mouth of it with safety and secrecy.”[19]
”I think myself obliged to acquaint the publick, that the Lion's Head, of which I advertised them about a fortnight ago, is now erected at b.u.t.ton's Coffee-house, in Russell-street, Covent Garden, where it opens its mouth at all hours for the reception of such intelligence as shall be thrown into it. It is reckoned an excellent piece of workmans.h.i.+p, and was designed by a great hand in imitation of the antique Egyptian lion, the face of it being compounded out of that of a lion and a wizard. The features are strong and well furrowed. The whiskers are admired by all that have seen them. It is planted on the western side of the Coffee-house, holding its paws under the chin, upon a box, which contains everything that he swallows. He is, indeed, a proper emblem of knowledge and action, being all head and paws.”[20]
”Being obliged, at present, to attend a particular affair of my own, I do empower my printer to look into the arcana of the lion, and select out of them such as may be of publick utility; and Mr. b.u.t.ton is hereby authorized and commanded to give my said printer free ingress and egress to the lion, without any hindrance, lest, or molestation whatsoever, until such time as he shall receive orders to the contrary. And, for so doing, this shall be his warrant.”[21]
”My Lion, whose jaws are at all times open to intelligence, informs me that there are a few enormous weapons still in being; but that they are to be met with only in gaming-houses and some of the obscure retreats of lovers, in and about Drury-lane and Covent Garden.”[22]
This memorable Lion's Head was tolerably well carved: through the mouth the letters were dropped into a till at b.u.t.ton's; and beneath were inscribed these two lines from Martial:--