My, my, my! A cup of coffee in the hand and a declination of mensa, mensam, mensae? Has the world gone stark-raving mad? Not quite at all; on the contrary, some elements of society may have welcomed the idea of Latin prose and a cup of coffee many years ago in 18th century Britain. Certainly that's how Richard Hogarth came to see it. How odd but how decidedly civil to have a cup of coffee and a few lessons in Latin! The 18th century must have been wondrously illuminated to have concocted a mode of flamboyant pleasure in union with a Latin recitation. After all Latin was the language that founded an Empire that became the basis for modern Europe. Of course, there aren't too many of us today that could still recite in full breath a discourse in Oratia Oblque without too many tears. Gone are the days when a schoolboy could recite Oratio In L. Catalinam Prima albeit with closed eyes lest his master should turn round and clap him one on the head for terrible pronunciation! But actually in the 18th century, the reinvigorating spirits of Classicism was part of the life and culture of the day just about the same time as the culture of coffee drinking was becoming established.
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| The Painter and his Pug (W. Hogarth Self-portrait) 1745. |
William Hogarth, the famous English painter, engraver and social caricaturist, b. 1697 d.1764 was highly regarded as a man of poignant wit and sarcasm, who grew up under the great influence of his father's early Latin-coffee experiment and the overall coffee drinking culture of the Golden Age of 18th century Britain. The London coffee house culture was now well established in Great Britain for rich and poor alike. Houses of social gatherings and a cafe were now the rage in all the four corners of London. In contrast to the rowdy and bawdy taverns that descended into disrepute, men of intellect, aspiration and genteel breeding, often flocked to these coffee-drinking establishments for an elevated conversation on the issues of the day. Particularly in London, under the new guise of a constitutional monarchy and an atmosphere of political liberalism, the 18th century became the Golden Age as men of culture and learning sought to engage and share and debate ideas over cups of coffee. London was fast becoming the center of the cultural world of Europe to compete with Paris. Foreign travelers arriving became amazed at the booming excitement of the coffee house culture. From gentry habituating establishments in Mayfair to St. James, to cobblers and blacksmiths and all sorts of tradesmen from Covent Garden, political issues of the day were discussed with great enthusiasm. Indeed a visiting Swiss gentleman, César de Saussure, in 1726 described the London coffee scene among the working classes where a, “…workmen habitually begin the day by going to coffee-rooms to read the latest news.”
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| An 18th Century London Coffee House |
As the story goes, young William was born to a certain Richard Hogarth and one Anne Givens, and perhaps out of wedlock too, where the father would not make his mark upon the world with anything more exciting than the role of a Latin tutor, and indeed, Latin tutors of the age did not earn anything more interesting than a threadbare wage at that. Life was hard for the Hogarth's. Not entirely daunted and bereft of spirit, the father Richard did make one valiant attempt at establishing a coffee house in Clerkenwell in London. The reign of King William and Mary has often been described in terms of the gateway to Modern Britain; for during this reign of political liberalism the coffee houses thrived and all manners of discourse became tolerable. Richard Hogarth was an outsider. The tutor could not afford to live in the more affluent parts of town. However, he was able to fortify his spirit and tackle with the sordid squalor and the bars of London around the Smithfield's area. Thus did Richard Hogarth come up with the bright idea of yet another coffee house; albeit with a different flavor.
In 1703 Richard Hogarth took out an advertisement in a specialized newsletter called the Post-Man which had it's circulation all round the London coffee houses. It read as follows:
`At Hogarth's Coffee House in St John's Gate, the mid-way between Smithfield Bars and Clerkenwel, there will meet daily some learned gentlemen, who speak Latin readily, where any Gentleman that is either skilled in that Language, or desirous to perfect himself in speaking thereof will be welcome. The Master of the House, in the absence of others, being always ready to entertain Gentlemen in the Latin Tongue."
Latin prose was the core of education for a gentleman in the 18th century. With the regeneration of Neoclassical ideas in literature and art and architecture a new Golden Age of Britain was to be seen with it's mercantile expansion around the globe. As with the works of famed architect Inigo Jones, a new order could only be built by grasping the old with a thorough grounding of the principles of a former empire and the universal tongue. Latin and looking to the past was surely a prerequisite for success and looking ahead for the aspiring gentleman in the modern world.
Noble in vision; impractical at it's best; the idea floundered. That one should hope cobblers and tinkers and chimney sweeps of the East End of London should come to terms with some Latin verse would have required a vast stretch of imagination. Rather the Clerkenwell scene descended into a ridiculous misnomer. As one Ned Ward' described: 'Some going, some coming, some scribbling, some talking, some drinking, others jangling, and the whole room stinking of tobacco like a Dutch barge or a boatswain's cabin'.
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| Beer Street and Gin Lane - William Hogarth 1751 |
The plan did not go well indeed. Of course coffee houses were the rage of the day nevertheless Richard Hogarth's venture was not a success at all. Drinking coffee and enjoying a good conversation does wonders for the spirit needless to say. But try enjoy a cup of coffee at a poetry club entirely dedicated to the recitation of Latin literature when the most frequent customers are drunken sailors, cobblers and butchers, then one may put into perspective the reasons why the Hogarth venture did not quite go down very well. Consumers of the day around the Clerkenwell area preferred a more animated and topical conversation! Talk about prostitutes or fist fights and wrestling and all kinds of bawdy topics but do not talk about the poetry of Ovid please.
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| The Four Times of Day - William Hogarth 1736 |
With a penchant for all things Latin one may see through the concept and marvel at the bravado and creativity of the true entrepreneur in Richard Hogarth. But it was a story of the right idea in the wrong setting: location, location, location! Latin prose has a remarkable architectural quality to be admired. Yet, the old adage that a 'customer is king' rings true today as it did yesterday. Quite simply put; customers brought up on the rigors of a classical education did not need to be reminded of the tedium of their schoolboy days. The marketing concept was flawed. Moreover; the venture perished no sooner it was conceived!
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| Cicero |
"0 fortunatam natam me consule Romam" once wrote the Consul Marcus Tullius Cicero in what has often been described as the worst line ever written in Latin poetry on top of a very poor choice in siding with the republicans that assassinated Julius Caesar; and a line that may well have been quoted with relish in the lessons of Richard Hogarth in the vain attempts to educate the masses to a more cultured side of coffee drinking.
In reality; society did not care. Why on earth would one try to teach Latin to someone born for a vocational trade? William Hogarth, the son and great caricaturist, thus summed up the perfect indifference of the coffee drinking gentry to the working classes and thus effecting the great social divide even among the habits of consuming the most popular beverage.
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| The Bench - William Hogarth 1758 |
And so ...
Reflections on the world of coffee by Pieter Bergli, a confessed cafe enthusiast!
For those of my readers that have a penchant for art babble then kindly grab a cup of coffee and turn to:
Thank you.
