All About Coffee Part 8

In 1858 there appeared in France a leaflet-periodical, ent.i.tled _The Cafe, Literary, Artistic, and Commercial_. Ch. Woinez, the editor, said in announcing it: "The Salon stood for privilege, the Cafe stands for equality." Its publication was of short duration.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER VI

THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO ENGLAND

_The first printed reference to coffee in English--Early mention of coffee by noted English travelers and writers--The Lacedaemonian "black broth" controversy--How Conopios introduced coffee drinking at Oxford--The first English coffee house in Oxford--Two English botanists on coffee_

English travelers and writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were quite as enterprising as their Continental contemporaries in telling about the coffee bean and the coffee drink. The first printed reference to coffee in English, however, appears as _chaoua_ in a note by a Dutchman, Paluda.n.u.s, in _Linschoten's Travels_, the t.i.tle of an English translation from the Latin of a work first published in Holland in 1595 or 1596, the English edition appearing in London in 1598. A reproduction made from a photograph of the original work, with the quaint black-letter German text and the Paluda.n.u.s notation in roman, is shown herewith.

Hans Hugo (or John Huygen) Van Linschooten (1563-1611) was one of the most intrepid of Dutch travelers. In his description of j.a.panese manners and customs we find one of the earliest tea references. He says:

Their manner of eating and drinking is: everie man hath a table alone, without table-clothes or napkins, and eateth with two pieces of wood like the men of Chino: they drinke wine of Rice, wherewith they drink themselves drunke, and after their meat they use a certain drinke, which is a pot with hote water, which they drinke as hote as ever they may indure, whether it be Winter or Summer.

Just here Bernard Ten Broeke Paluda.n.u.s (1550-1633), Dutch savant and author, professor of philosophy at the University of Leyden, himself a traveler over the four quarters of the globe, inserts his note containing the coffee reference. He says:

The Turks holde almost the same manner of drinking of their _Chaona_[46], which they make of certaine fruit, which is like unto the Bakelaer[47], and by the Egyptians called _Bon_ or _Ban_[48]: they take of this fruite one pound and a half, and roast them a little in the fire and then sieth them in twenty pounds of water, till the half be consumed away: this drinke they take every morning fasting in their chambers, out of an earthen pot, being verie hote, as we doe here drinke _aquacomposita_[49] in the morning: and they say that it strengtheneth and maketh them warme, breaketh wind, and openeth any stopping.

Van Linschooten then completes his tea reference by saying:

The manner of dressing their meat is altogether contrarie unto other nations: the aforesaid warme water is made with the powder of a certaine hearbe called _Chaa_, which is much esteemed, and is well accounted among them.

The _chaa_ is, of course, tea, dialect _t'eh_.

In 1599, "Sir" Antony (or Anthony) Sherley (1565-1630), a picturesque gentleman-adventurer, the first Englishman to mention coffee drinking in the Orient, sailed from Venice on a kind of self-appointed, informal Persian mission, to invite the shah to ally himself with the Christian princes against the Turks, and incidentally, to promote English trade interests in the East. The English government knew nothing of the arrangement, disavowed him, and forbade his return to England. However, the expedition got to Persia; and the account of the voyage thither was written by William Parry, one of the Sherley party, and was published in London in 1601. It is interesting because it contains the first printed reference to coffee in English employing the more modern form of the word. The original reference was photographed for this work in the Worth Library of the British Museum, and is reproduced herewith on page 39.

The pa.s.sage is part of an account of the manners and customs of the Turks (who, Parry says, are "d.a.m.ned infidells") in Aleppo. It reads:

They sit at their meat (which is served to them upon the ground) as Tailers sit upon their stalls, crosse-legd; for the most part, pa.s.sing the day in banqueting and carowsing, untill they surfet, drinking a certaine liquor, which they do call _Coffe_, which is made of seede much like mustard seede, which will soone intoxicate the braine like our Metheglin.[50]

Another early English reference to coffee, wherein the word is spelled "coffa", is in Captain John Smith's book of _Travels and Adventure_, published in 1603. He says of the Turks: "Their best drink is _coffa_ of a graine they call _coava_."

This is the same Captain John Smith who in 1607 became the founder of the Colony of Virginia and brought with him to America probably the earliest knowledge of the beverage given to the new Western world.

Samuel Purchas (1527-1626), an early English collector of travels, in _Purchas His Pilgrimes_, under the head of "Observations of William Finch, merchant, at Socotra" (Sokotra--an island in the Indian Ocean) in 1607, says of the Arab inhabitants:

Their best entertainment is a china dish of _Coho_, a blacke bitterish drinke, made of a berry like a bayberry, brought from Mecca, supped off hot, good for the head and stomache.[51]

Still other early and favorite English references to coffee are those to be found in the _Travels_ of William Biddulph. This work was published in 1609. It is ent.i.tled _The Travels of Certayne Englishmen in Africa, Asia, etc.... Begunne in 1600 and by some of them finished--this yeere 1608_. These references are also reproduced herewith from the black-letter originals in the British Museum (see page 40).

Biddulph's description of the drink, and of the coffee-house customs of the Turks, was the first detailed account to be written by an Englishman. It also appears in _Purchas His Pilgrimes_ (1625). But, to quote:

Their most common drinke is _Coffa_, which is a blacke kinde of drinke, made of a kind of Pulse like Pease, called _Coaua_; which being grownd in the Mill, and boiled in water, they drinke it as hot as they can suffer it; which they finde to agree very well with them against their crudities, and feeding on hearbs and rawe meates. Other compounded drinkes they have, called _Sherbet_, made of Water and Sugar, or Hony, with Snow therein to make it coole; for although the Countrey bee hot, yet they keepe Snow all the yeere long to coole their drinke. It is accounted a great curtesie amongst them to give unto their frends when they come to visit them, a Fin-ion or Scudella of _Coffa_, which is more holesome than toothsome, for it causeth good concoction, and driveth away drowsinesse.

Some of them will also drinke Bersh or Opium, which maketh them forget themselves, and talk idely of Castles in the Ayre, as though they saw Visions, and heard Revelations. Their _Coffa_ houses are more common than Ale-houses in England; but they use not so much to sit in the houses, as on benches on both sides the streets, neere unto a Coffa house, every man with his Fin-ionful; which being smoking hot, they use to put it to their Noses & Eares, and then sup it off by leasure, being full of idle and Ale-house talke whiles they are amongst themselves drinking it; if there be any news, it is talked of there.

Among other early English references to coffee we find an interesting one by Sir George Sandys (1577-1644), the poet, who gave a start to cla.s.sical scholars.h.i.+p in America by translating Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ during his pioneer days in Virginia. In 1610 he spent a year in Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine, and records of the Turks:[52]

Although they be dest.i.tute of Taverns, yet have they their Coffa-houses, which something resemble them. There sit they chatting most of the day; and sippe of a drinke called Coffa (of the berry that it is made of) in little _China_ dishes as hot as they can suffer it: blacke as soote, and tasting not much unlike it (why not that blacke broth which was in use amongst the _Lacedemonians_?) which helpeth, as they say, digestion, and procureth alacrity: many of the Coffa-men keeping beautifull boyes, who serve as stales to procure them customers.

Edward Terry (1590-1660), an English traveler, writes, under date of 1616, that many of the best people in India who are strict in their religion and drink no wine at all, "use a liquor more wholesome than pleasant, they call coffee; made by a black Seed boyld in water, which turnes it almost into the same colour, but doth very little alter the taste of the water [!], notwithstanding it is very good to help Digestion, to quicken the Spirits and to cleanse the Blood."

[Ill.u.s.tration#: FIRST PRINTED REFERENCE TO COFFEE IN ENGLISH, 1598

It appears as _Chaona_ (_chaoua_) in the second line of the roman text notation by Paluda.n.u.s]

In 1623, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), in his _Historia Vitae et Mortis_ says: "The Turkes use a kind of herb which they call _caphe_"; and, in 1624, in his _Sylva Sylvarum_[53] (published in 1627, after his death), he writes:

They have in Turkey a drink called _coffa_ made of a berry of the same name, as black as soot, and of a strong scent, but not aromatical; which they take, beaten into powder, in water, as hot as they can drink it: and they take it, and sit at it in their coffa-houses, which are like our taverns. This drink comforteth the brain and heart, and helpeth digestion. Certainly this berry coffa, the root and leaf betel, the leaf tobacco, and the tear of poppy (opium) of which the Turks are great takers (supposing it expelleth all fear), do all condense the spirits, and make them strong and aleger. But it seemeth they were taken after several manners; for coffa and opium are taken down, tobacco but in smoke, and betel is but champed in the mouth with a little lime.

Robert Burton (1577-1640), English philosopher and humorist, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_[54] writes in 1632:

The Turkes have a drinke called coffa (for they use no wine), so named of a berry as blacke as soot and as bitter (like that blacke drinke which was in use amongst the Lacedemonians and perhaps the same), which they sip still of, and sup as warme as they can suffer; they spend much time in those coffa-houses, which are somewhat like our Ale-houses or Taverns, and there they sit, chatting and drinking, to drive away the time, and to be merry together, because they find, by experience, that kinde of drinke so used, helpeth digestion and procureth alacrity.

Later English scholars, however, found sufficient evidence in the works of Arabian authors to a.s.sure their readers that coffee sometimes breeds melancholy, causes headache, and "maketh lean much." One of these, Dr.

Poc.o.ke, (1659: see chapter III) stated that, "he that would drink it for livelinesse sake, and to discusse slothfulnesse ... let him use much sweet meates with it, and oyle of pistaccioes, and b.u.t.ter. Some drink it with milk, but it is an error, and such as may bring in danger of the leprosy." Another writer observed that any ill effects caused by coffee, unlike those of tea, etc., ceased when its use was discontinued. In this connection it is interesting to note that in 1785 Dr. Benjamin Mosely, physician to the Chelsea Hospital, member of the College of Physicians, etc., probably having in mind the popular idea that the Arabic original of the word coffee meant force, or vigor, once expressed the hope that the coffee drink might return to popular favor in England as "a cheap subst.i.tute for those enervating teas and beverages which produce the pernicious habit of dram-drinking."

About 1628, Sir Thomas Herbert (1606-1681), English traveler and writer, records among his observations on the Persians that:

"They drink above all the rest _Coho_ or _Copha_: by Turk and Arab called _Caphe_ and _Cahua_: a drink imitating that in the Stigian lake, black, thick, and bitter: destrain'd from _Bunchy_, _Bunnu_, or Bay berries; wholesome, they say, if hot, for it expels melancholy ... but not so much regarded for those good properties, as from a Romance that it was invented and brew'd by Gabriel ... to restore the decayed radical Moysture of kind hearted Mahomet."[55]

In 1634, Sir Henry Blount (1602-82), sometimes referred to as "the father of the English coffee house," made a journey on a Venetian galley into the Levant. He was invited to drink _cauphe_ in the presence of Amurath IV; and later, in Egypt, he tells of being served the beverage again "in a porcelaine dish". This is how he describes the drink in Turkey:[56]

They have another drink not good at meat, called _Cauphe_, made of a _Berry_ as big as a small _Bean_, dried in a Furnace, and beat to Pouder, of a Soot-colour, in taste a little bitterish, that they seeth and drink as hot as may be endured: It is good all hours of the day, but especially morning and evening, when to that purpose, they entertain themselves two or three hours in _Cauphe-houses_, which in all Turkey abound more than _Inns_ and _Ale-houses_ with us; it is thought to be the old black broth used so much by the _Lacedemonians_, and dryeth ill Humours in the stomach, comforteth the Brain, never causeth Drunkenness or any other Surfeit, and is a harmless entertainment of good Fellows.h.i.+p; for there upon Scaffolds half a yard high, and covered with Mats, they sit Cross-leg'd after the _Turkish_ manner, many times two or three hundred together, talking, and likely with some poor musick pa.s.sing up and down.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIRST PRINTED REFERENCE TO "COFFEE" IN ENGLISH, IN ITS MODERN FORM, 1601

Photographed from the black-letter original of W. Parry's book in the Worth Library of the British Museum]

This reference to the Lacedaemonian black broth, first by Sandys, then by Burton, again by Blount, and concurred in by James Howell (1595-1666), the first historiographer royal, gave rise to considerable controversy among Englishmen of letters in later years. It is, of course, a gratuitous speculation. The black broth of the Lacedaemonians was "pork, cooked in blood and seasoned with salt and vinegar.[57]"

[Ill.u.s.tration: REFERENCES TO COFFEE AS FOUND IN BIDDULPH'S TRAVELS 1609

From the black-letter original in the British Museum]

William Harvey (1578-1657), the famous English physician who discovered the circulation of the blood, and his brother are reputed to have used coffee before coffee houses came into vogue in London--this must have been previous to 1652. "I remember", says Aubrey[58], "he was wont to drinke coffee; which his brother Eliab did, before coffee houses were the fas.h.i.+on in London." Houghton, in 1701, speaks of "the famous inventor of the circulation of the blood, Dr. Harvey, who some say did frequently use it."

Although it seems likely that coffee must have been introduced into England sometime during the first quarter of the seventeenth century, with so many writers and travelers describing it, and with so much trading going on between the merchants of the British Isles and the Orient, yet the first reliable record we have of its advent is to be found in the _Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S._[59], under "Notes of 1637", where he says:

There came in my time to the college (Baliol, Oxford) one Nathaniel Conopios, out of Greece, from Cyrill, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who, returning many years after was made (as I understand) Bishop of Smyrna. He was the first I ever saw drink coffee; which custom came not into England till thirty years thereafter.

Evelyn should have said thirteen years after; for then it was that the first coffee house was opened (1650).