The School of Politicks: or, The Humours of a Coffee-House. A Poem. Licensed, Apr. 15. 1690 (London, R. Baldwin, 1690), [4], 24pp.; 4°. BL: 11626.e.52. ESTCR4030

An extended Hudibrastic satirical poem on the variety of coffee-house discussion, comprising approximately 564 lines in 16 stanzas. The poem describes these stanzas as odes, recalling the method of the Anacreontic ode. Named after Anacreon of Teos (6th century bc), the Anacreontea comprise 60 short, lyrical poems on wine, love and song. The School of Politicks is clearly one poem, however, and the influence of the Anacreontics perhaps does not extend beyond the felicity of the theme. In the poem, the speaker, having time on his hands, visits a coffee-house by himself, and after describing the general buzz of conversation there, moves around the room to overhear the discussion at each table. Using the conceit of the invisible spectator, the poem is able to satirically describe both the variety of topics in coffee-house conversation, but also something of the diverse sociabilities encountered therein. The spectator witnesses conversations between a politically radical leveller, a disgruntled soldier, a group discussing the great storm of 1689, another discussing prodigies and prophecies, some country bumpkins discussing politics in ludicrous rural accents, some silent conspirators, and finally a group discussing affairs of state, such as the legacy of the republic, the war in Ireland and the election of 1690. The general tendency of the satire is to attack radical voices (both commonwealthmen and Tories) and celebrate the Williamite succession. A second edition, ‘Corrected and much Enlarged’, was published in September 1690, and for this, the poem was extended by another eight stanzas, to something over 700 lines. The additions make much of William’s successes in Ireland in the campaign of 1690, including a portrait of a drunkard who demonstrates the battle of the Boyne using a tankard of ale and some tobacco pipes (pp. 14–15).