Wk. 4 The Character of a Coffee-House, with the Symptomes of a Town-Wit (1673)

Question 1

The Character of a Coffee-House, with the Symptomes of a Town-Wit (1673)

Answer 1

The Character of a Coffee-House, with the Symptomes of a Town-Wit (1673) – This anonymous pamphlet was published in support of King Charles II’s attempt to ban coffeehouses in England. Charles ultimately withdrew his ban in the face of widespread opposition, including opposition from many of his political supporters.

How did the author describe coffeehouses?

• Places for idiots to gather and be heard. Heavily berates the attendees at coffee houses as treasonous, drunk, easily influenced, etc. “where haberdashers of political small wares meet and mutually abuse each other and the public, with bottomless stories and headless notions, the rendezvous of idle pamphlets and persons more idly employed to read them” “The room stinks of tobacco worse than Hell of brimstone, and is as full of smoke as their heads that frequent it, whose humors are as various as those of Bedlam, and their discourse oft times as heathenish and dull as their liquor. That liquor, which by its looks and taste, you may reasonably guess to be Pluto’s diet drink that witches tipple out of dead men’s skulls when they ratify to Beelzebub their sacramental vows.”

Why were they a danger to the government and why might a ruler like Charles try to ban them?

• This was a place where people openly spoke out against the nobility and in favor of things like equal rights. “a High Court of Justice where every little fellow in a camlet cloak11 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.”

What types of social change does the author appear to have been worried about?

• The concept that all persons are created equal. This is why King Charles II is so afraid. This is the time of the enlightenment, when revolutionaries sought to rid the aristocracy of power and redistribut that power to the people.“…for each man seems a Leveler (one who argued all men ought to be on the same level, i.e. equal both politically and economically), and ranks and files himself as he likes, without regard to degrees or order.”

NOTE: Esentially, the entire Primary source is an ideological political rant that these days would be a dime a dozen on the internet and overlooked by nearly everyone.