Letter from a French gentleman in London to his friend in Paris… Containing an Account of Will’s Coffeehouse, and of the Toasting and Kit-Kat-Clubs. Made English’, in Letters of Wit, Politicks, and Morality. Written originally in Italian, by the famous Cardinal Bentivoglio; in Spanish by Signior Don Guevara;… Done into English, by the Honourable H— H— Esq; Tho. Cheek, Esq; Mr. Savage. Mr. Boyer &c. To which is added a large collection of original letters of Love and Friendship, ed. by Abel Boyer (London, J. Hartley, W. Turner, and Tho. Hodgson, 1701), 437pp. BL: 93.c.5. ESTCT102964. Extract, pp. 215–24.

ABSTRACT

A descriptive epistle supposedly written by a French gentleman travelling in London to his ‘Friend in Paris’ describing the role of coffee-house sociability in the literary culture of London at the turn of the eighteenth century. In the first section, the letter-writer offers subtle and sophisticated critical judgements about the literary writings of the ‘wits’, a self-defined group of writers of the period who assemble at Will’s Coffee-house. The French correspondent writes here as a critic, naming individuals and making remarks about particular texts. In the second half, the letter moves into a more satirical mode to discuss the ‘would-be-wits’ an un-named group of hacks and aspirant writers whose writing and critical judgements are dismissed as shallow and ill-considered. Such distinctions were important in defining the nature of criticism in the early eighteenth century.