Ebenezer Cook (1665–1732)

The Sot-Weed Factor is an Eighteenth-Century satirical poem written in Hudibrastic couplets about an Englishman who travels to the new American colonies to make his fortune trading in sot-weed (tobacco) only to be shocked by the vulgar behaviors of both the colonists and natives, and flees back to his native land after being robbed blind. A satire of both the American colonists and those seeking out their fortunes in the new Americas, not much of the poem actually comes off as overly funny, show more although being an audience three hundred years after the fact may have something to do with that. There are some lines of verse that stood out (“Condemn'd by Fate to way-ward Curse, Of Friends unkind, and empty Purse;”), but for the most part I was not overly impressed by the piece, and the only reason it was on my reading list in the first place was due to its connection to the novel of the same name by John Barth. show less

A fun little read.

"Condemn'd by Fate to way-ward Curse, Of Friends unkind, and empty Purse", E. Cook leaves England to visit the New World in hopes of making his fortune.

Surrounded by drunkards and pugilists, he is defrauded twice: once by a Quaker, once by a corrupt court, and flees to the Old World one step ahead of justice.