“The wond\u27rous leaf”: Tea and curiositas in seventeenth-century England

Although introduced in England during the 1650s, tea remained on the periphery of society until the first quarter of the eighteenth century. An expensive commodity, tea was consumed during this initial period almost exclusively by the elite and its familiar use as a social ritual did not occur until the following century. Tea nonetheless enjoyed widespread acclaim throughout the period by virtue of its exotic origin and putative medicinal properties, a reputation which was highly touted by members of the scientific community and enthusiastically embraced by natural historians and those who subscribed to the virtuoso ideal. This dissertation is concerned with examining perceptions of tea in seventeenth-century England and will demonstrate that tea drew its value from its exotic nature, enhanced by its status as an extremely expensive commodity. As a product of China, tea retained vivid associations with the exotic and wondrous East within a society which was increasingly curious about all aspects of natural history. Our source material indicates that tea was more widely regarded as a medicinal substance which possessed astounding pharmacological properties than as a domestic beverage associated with women. From the first mention of tea in mid-sixteenth-century travel literature to its appearance in plays and poems in the final decade of the seventeenth century, tea is consistently portrayed as an exotic item, enjoyed by the virtuoso and was as wondrous as accounts of foreign lands and unusual natural specimens. At century\u27s end we may also discern that tea was increasingly associated with the royal court and began to take on the specific gender roles which are so readily addressed by scholars of the eighteenth century; yet these associations remained subordinate to the notion that tea drew its value from its exotic nature rather than as an expensive commodity