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to take purses and evil courses, and when he is taken himself the laws take as evil a course with him. He takes place of all other thieves as the most heroical, and one that comes nearest to the old Knights errant, though he is really one of the basest, that never ventures but upon surprizal, and where he is sure of the advantage. He lives like a Tartar always in motion, and the inns upon the road are his hoordes, where he reposes for a while, and spends his time and money, when he is out of action. These are his close confederates and allies, though the common interest of both will not permit it to be known. He is more destructive to a grasier than the murrain, and as terrible as the Huoncry to himself. When he despatches his business between sun and sun he invades a whole county, and like the long Parliament robs by representative. He receives orders from his superior officer the setter, that sets him on work and others to pay him for it. He calls concealing what he has taken from his comrades sinking, which they account a great want of integrity, and when he is discover'd he loses the reputation of an honest and just man with them for ever after. After he has rov'd up and down too long he is at last set himself, and convey'd to the jail, the only place of his residence, where he is provided of a hole to put his head in, and gather'd to his fathers in a faggot cart.

An Ignorant Man

HAS opinions contracted within a narrow compass, which renders them the more intense and violent. He is one half of all the vexations of mankind, which the knave and he divide equaly

AN IGNORANT MAN

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between them; and, though his ignorance be the mother of devotion (as the church of Rome very ingenuously confesses) all the rest of the kindred are the basest breed and generation in the whole world, and obstinacy is ever of the elder house and chief of the family. The extremity of his defects (as contraries do in nature) produces the same effects with other mens abundance; for he believes himself sufficiently qualified, because he does not understand his own wants. His understanding is hidebound and straitlac'd, which makes it more stiff and uneasy than those that are free and active. And as among beggars he that is most maim'd, and can shew most sores is esteem'd the ablest man in his calling so he, that is most voluble in expressing and shewing his ignorance and confidence, is esteem'd by the rest of his own latitude for the most excellent and incomparable person. The less he understands of anything, the more confident he is of it; and because he knows no better him self believes nobody else does. His dull ignorance has the same operation with the wiser part of the world as lead has in the test of metals, that being apply'd to gold carries away all the baser metals that are mixt with it, and leaves only the pure behind. He makes more noise with his emptiness, like a tub, than others do that are full; and some late philosophers, that have found out a way by knocking at a door to find how many persons are in a room, may much more easily discover by his noise how little is in him. His dull temper, like lead, is easily melted with any passion, and as quickly cold again, whereas solider metals are the more difficult to be wrought upon.

ANONYMOUS

The Coffee House or News-Mongers Hall. . . London, 1672. fol.

...

[First edition] News from the Coffe-House; ... London, ... 1667. 1667. fol. single leaf.

...

The Character of a Coffee-House, With the Symptomes of a Town-Wit. . . . London, 1673. fol. [The illustration, The Coffe Hous Mob, is the frontispiece of the Fourth Part of Vulgus Britannicus, 1710.]

Coffee was not altogether quietly introduced into this country. A good deal of humorous opposition to the novelty followed the opening of what seems to be the first London Coffee-house in 1652:

'For men and Christians to turn Turks, and think T'excuse the Crime because 'tis in their drink !'1

News from the Coffe-House is a brightly-written specimen of many contemporary accounts, generally in verse, of these new institutions. I have preferred the second edition for the sake of its title, News-Mongers Hall, which neatly satirises one of their chief functions during their prime. An example of the way these topical pieces are brought up to date is the substitution of 'our "Fleet" for 'Monck' in stanza 4.

The Character of a Coffee-House, for reasons more cogent than usual, remained anonymous. Its vigour is admirable. And it is crowded with such amusing things seen' as the whole Roomful of Fops... searching the Map for Aristocracy and Democracy, not doubting but to have found them there, as well as Dalmatia and Croatia.'

1A Cup of Coffee: or, Coffee in its Colours,' 1663, quoted by Mr. H. C. Shelley.

THE COFFEE HOUSE

The Coffee House or News-Mongers Hall
You that delight in Wit and Mirth,

And long to hear such News,
As comes from all Parts of the Earth,
Dutch, Danes, and Turks, and Jews,
I'le send yee to a Rendezvous,

Where it is smoaking new;

Go hear it at a Coffe-house,

It cannot but be true.

There Battles and Sea-Fights are Fought,
And bloody Plots display'd;

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They know more Things then ere was thought, Or ever was betray'd:

No Money in the Minting-house

Is half so Bright and New; And coming from a Coffe-house, It cannot but be true.

Before the Navyes fall to Work,

They know who shall be Winner,
They there can tell ye what the Turk
Last Sunday had to Dinner;
Who last did Cut de Ruyters Corns,
Amongst his jovial Crew;

Or who first gave the Devil Horns,
This sounds as if 'twere true.

A Fisherman did boldly tell,

And strongly did avouch,

He Caught a Shoal of Mackarel,

That Parley'd all in Dutch,

And cry'd out Yaw, Yaw, Yaw myn Heer;

But as the Draught they drew,

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