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"Kaffeebesuch" From the painting by Peter Philippi |
"Coffee Comes to the Aid of the Muse" From the painting by Ruffio |
Hogarth figures in the Sam Ireland collection with several original drawings of frequenters of Button's in 1730.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827) the great English caricaturist and illustrator, has given us several fine pictures of English coffee-house life. His "Mad Dog in a Coffee House" presents a lively scene; and his water-color of "The French Coffee House" is one of the best pictures we have of the French coffee house in London as it looked during the latter half of the eighteenth century.
During the campaign in France in 1814, Napoleon arrived one day, unheralded, in a country presbytery, where the good curé was quietly turning his hand coffee-roaster. The emperor asked him, "What are you doing there, abbé?" "Sire", replied the priest, "I am doing like you. I am burning the colonial fodder." Charlet (1792–1845) made a lithograph of the incident.
Several French poet-musicians resorted to music to celebrate coffee. Brittany has its own songs in praise of coffee, as have other French provinces. There are many epics, rhapsodies, and cantatas—and even a comic opera by Meilhat, music by Deffes, bearing the title, Le Café du Roi, produced at the Théâtre Lyrique, November 16, 1861.
"Mad Dog in a Coffee House"—Caricature by Rowlandson
Fuzelier wrote, in honor of coffee, a cantata, set to music by Bernier. This is the burden of the poet's song:
Ah coffee, what climes yet unknown,
Ignore the clear fires that thy vapors inspire!
Thou countest, in thy vast empire
Those realms that Bacchus' reign disown.
Favored liquid, which fills all my soul with delights,
Thy enchantments to life happy hours persuade,
We vanquish e'en sleep by thy fortunate aid,
Thou hast rescued the hours sleep would rob from our nights.
Favored liquid which fills all my soul with delights,
Thy enchantments to life happy hours persuade.
Oh liquid that I love,
Triumphant stream of sable,
E'en for the gods above,
Drive nectar from the table.
Make thou relentless war
On treacherous juices sly,
Let earth taste and adore
The sweet calm of the sky.
Oh liquid that I love,
Triumphant stream of sable,
E'en for the gods above,
Drive nectar from the table.