Part 7

--wrote Tennyson of the early half of the seventeenth century.

What a suggestive couplet, full of the foibles and follies of the times! A picture a la mode of the period when fair dames made their red cheeks cute with eccentric patches. Ornamented with high coiffures, powdered hair, robed in satin petticoats and square-cut bodices, they blossomed, according to the old engravings, into most fetching figures. Even the beaux of the day affected feminine frills in their many-colored, bell-skirted waistcoats, lace ruffles, patches, and powdered queues.

Dryden must have succumbed to the charms of women through tea, when he wrote:

"And thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes take counsel, and sometimes tay."

From the great vogue which tea started grew a taste for china; the more peculiar and striking the design, the more valuable the tea-set.

Pope in one of his satirical compositions praises the composure of a woman who is

"Mistress of herself though china fall."

Even that fine old bachelor, philosopher, and humorist, Charles Lamb, thought that the subject deserved an essay.

In speaking of the ornaments on the tea-cup he says, in "Old China":

"I like to see my old friends, whom distance cannot diminish, figuring up in the air (so they appear to our optics), yet on terra firma still, for so we must in courtesy interpret that speck of deeper blue which the decorous artist, to prevent absurdity, has made to spring up beneath their sandals. I love the men with women's faces and the women, if possible, with still more womanish expressions.

"Here is a young and courtly Mandarin, handing tea to a lady from a salver--two miles off. See how distance seems to set off respect! And here the same lady, or another--for likeness is identity on tea-cups--is stepping into a little fairy boat, moored on the hither side of this calm garden river, with a dainty, mincing foot, which is in a right angle of incidence (as angles go in our world) that must infallibly land her in the midst of a flowery mead--a furlong off on the other side of the same strange stream!"

The Spectator and the Tatter were also susceptible to the female influence that tea inspired. In both of these journals there are frequent allusions to tea-parties and china. At these gatherings, poets and dilletante literary gentlemen read their verses and essays to the ladies, who criticised their merits. These "literary teas" became so contagious that a burning desire for authorship took possession of the ladies, for among those who made their debut as authors about this time were Fanny Burney, Mrs. Alphra Behn, Mrs. Manley, the Countess of Winchelsea, and a host of others.

One of the readers of the Spectator wrote as follows:

"Mr. Spectator: Your paper is a part of my tea-equipage, and my servant knows my humor so well that, calling for my breakfast this morning (it being past my usual hour), she answered, the Spectator was not come in, but that the tea-kettle boiled, and she expected it every minute."

Crabbe, too, was a devotee of ladies, literature, and tea, for he wrote:

"The gentle fair on nervous tea relies, Whilst gay good-nature sparkles in her eyes; And inoffensive scandal fluttering round, Too rough to tickle and too light to wound."

What better proof do we want, therefore, that to women's influence is due the cultivation and retention of the tea habit? Without tea, what would become of women, and without women and tea, what would become of our domestic literary men and matinee idols? They would not sit at home or in salons and write and act things. There would be no homes to sit in, no salons or theatres to act in, and dramatic art would receive a blow from which it could not recover in a century, at least.

In the year 1700, J. Roberts, a London publisher, issued a pamphlet of about fifty pages which was made up as follows:

Poem upon Tea in Two Cantos . . . 34 pages Dedication of the poem . . . . . . 6 " Preface to the poem . . . . . . . 2 " Poem upon the poem . . . . . .. . 1 " Introduction to the poem . . . . . 4 " To the author upon the poem . . 1 " Postscript . . . . . . . . . .. . 3 " Tea-Table . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 "

The poem--pièce de résistance--which is by one Nahum Tate, who figures on the title-page as "Servant to His Majesty," is an allegory; and although good in spots is too long and too dry to reproduce here. "The poem upon the poem," "The Introduction," and the "Tea-Table" verses will be found interesting and entertaining.

ON OUR ENGLISH POETRY AND THIS POEM UPON TEA

See Spanish Curderon in Strength outdone: And see the Prize of Wit from Tasso won: See Corneil's Skill and Decency Refin'd; See Rapin's Art, and Molier's Fire Outshin'd; See Dryden's Lamp to our admiring View, Brought from the Tomb to shine and Blaze anew!

The British Laurel by old Chaucer worn, Still Fresh and Gay, did Dryden's Brow Adorn; And that its Lustre may not fade on Thine, Wit, Fancy, Judgment, Taste, in thee combine. Thy pow'rful Genius thus, from Censure's Frown And Envy's Blast, in Flourishing Renown, Supports our British Muses Verdant Crown. Nor only takes a Trusty Laureat's Care, Lest Thou the Muses Garland might'st impair; But, more Enrich'd, the Chaplet to Bequeath, With Eastern Tea join'd to the Laurel-Wreath. --R. B.

TO THE AUTHOR ON HIS POEM UPON TEA

Let Rustick Satyr, now no more Abuse, In rude Unskilful Strains, thy Tuneful Muse; No more let Envy lash thy true-bred Steed, Nor cross thy easy, just, and prudent Speed: Who dext'rously doth bear or loose the Rein, To climb each lofty Hill, or scour the Plain: With proper Weight and Force thy Courses run; Where still thy Pegasus has Wonders done, Come home with Strength, and thus the Prize has Won. But now takes Wing, and to the Skies aspires; While Vanquish'd Envy the bold Flight admires, And baffled Satyr to his Den retires. --T. W.

THE INTRODUCTION

Fame Sound thy Trump, all Ranks of Mortals Call, To share a Prize that will enrich 'em All. You that with Sacred Oracles converse, And clearly wou'd Mysterious Truths rehearse; On soaring Wings of Contemplation rise, And fetch Discov'ries from above the Skies; Ethereal TEA your Notions will resine, Till you yourselves become almost Divine.

You statesmen, who in Storms the Publick Helm Wou'd Guide with Skill, and Save a sinking Realm, TEA, your Minerva, shall suggest such Sense, Such safe and sudden Turns of Thought dispense, That you, like her Ulysses, may Advise, And start Designs that shall the World surprise.