Sorry about the issues with the CodeRanch Server. Such things happen, unfortunately.
The "verbatim" tag was designed for JSF version 1, which initially leveraged JSPs. JSPs are compiled into linear
Java code, but JSF works by compiling into a 2-dimensional component tree. As a result, loose HTML (and other things) could become lost or misplaced on the resulting output page. The "verbatim" tag bundled such items up in little packages and made sure that they got attached to the component tree in the places where they would be rendered at the right location (more or less). Later JSF versions became better capable of handling such loose text without assistance.
There is no "escape" attribute for the "verbatim" tag, however. The body of the element itself is "escaped", so it would be redundant to say so.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.