CHAPTER IX

169

SOCIAL GOSSIP ABOUT THE WEED

George Wither’s song on tobacco-smoking—Undergoes numerous alterations by later writers—Mr. Chappell, through Mr. Payne Collier, traces the original song to Wither—Bishop Fletcher succumbs to over-indulgence in the pipe—Rev. W. Bredon resorts to the hemp cut off the ends of the church bell-ropes as a substitute for tobacco—Raleigh carries the novelty to Court and makes smoking popular—Merriment in the city over the ‘tobacconists’—Ben Jonson’s mention of smoking—‘Every Man out of his Humour’—‘The Gipsies Metamorphosed’—‘Bartholomew Faire’—Dekker’s ‘Gull’s Horn Book’—His ‘Satiromastix’—Women smokers—The daughters of Louis XIV. smoke in their private apartments—England’s paper warfare over the merits or demerits of the weed—Joshua Sylvester supports the King’s ‘Counterblaste’—Heavy duty on tobacco and its ruinous cost to the consumer—Peter Campbell’s will—Sir Edwin Sandys on the sum paid for tobacco received from Spain—Dr. Everard on the ‘Wonderful Vertues of Tobacco taken in a Pipe’—Dr. Barclay’s Nepenthes—De Rochefort tells of smoking in rural England—Mentions the case of a Spaniard using a bit of the cable end in lieu of tobacco—Of smoking in bed—Mission’s remarks about the effects of tobacco on Englishmen—His verses in praise of smoking—Dr. Aldrich, Dean of Christchurch, Oxford—His song on tobacco, to be smoked while singing—His higher claims to admiration.

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