2006 - 2007

18th Apr 2007 - 'Funerals, Executions, & Easter Bunnies,' hosted by Dr Andrew J. Power
4th Apr 2007 - 'Allegories & Personifications of Evil,' hosted by Kate Roddy
7th Mar 2007 - 'Memory and Memento Mori,' hosted by Gabriel Ford
21st Feb 2007 - 'Revenge and Guilt,' hosted by Rory Loughnane
7th Feb 2007 - 'Valentines, Eros, and Thanatos,' hosted by Sarah Lidwell-Durnin
24th Jan 2007 - 'Space, Geography, and Maps,' hosted by Dr Paris O'Donnell
15th Nov 2006 - 'Barbarism,' hosted by Rory Loughnane
25th Oct 2006 - Initial Gathering of Taverners

from Lines on the Mermaid Tavern

I have heard that on a day
Mine host’s sign-board flew away,
Nobody knew whither, till
An astrologer’s old quill
To a sheepskin gave the story,
Said he saw you in your glory,
Underneath a new old-sign
Sipping beverage divine,
And pledging with contented smack
The Mermaid in the Zodiac.
- John Keats (1795–1821)

On Ben Jonson and a Country Man

Ben Johnson in a tavern once began
Rudely to talk to a plain Country man.
And thus it was, Thou dull laborious Moyle
That I beleeve wert made for nought but toyle
For every Acre of thy Land I have
Twenty of wit: Such Acres Sir, are brave,
Replyed the Country man: What great Mistakers
Have we been of your wealth, Mr Wise-Acres.
- Thomas Jordan (from Jewels of Ingenuity. 1660?)

The Sun which doth the greatest comfort bring

...what things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid: heard words that have been
So nimble, so full of subtil flame …
Then when there hath been thrown
Wit able enough to justifie the Town
For three days past, wit that might warrant be
For the whole City to talk foolishly
Till that were cancell'd, and when that was gone,
We left and Air behind us which alone,
Was able to make the two next Companies
Right witty; though but downright fools, more wise.
- Beaumont's epistle to Jonson (1605?)