1869.] 
EARLY LITERATURE OF TOBACCO. 
441 
EARLY LITERATURE OF TOBACCO. 
MR. PARTON, in his brochure en- 
titled " Does it Pay to Smoke ? " 
declares that the cigar and pipe have 
become more alluring of late years, be- 
cause they have "got into literature." 
He refers to a passage from Jane Eyre, 
that "is enough to make any old smoker 
feel for his cigar-case." He confesses, 
too, that " Byron, Thackeray, and many 
other popular authors have written pas- 
sages in which the smoke of tobacco in- 
sinuates itself most agreeably into the 
reader's gentle senses." This is, of 
course, all true in regard to what it as- 
serts, but far from true in what it im- 
plies. We confess that a cigar or pipe 
does not receive much additional charm 
from the allusions to it in earlier litera- 
ture ; but such passages are so frequent, 
and begin so far back, that it is evident 
tobacco "got into literature" as soon as 
it was received into any nation having 
a written language. That they belong 
rather to the curiosities than to the 
beauties of literature, is undoubtedly 
owing to the fact that the best writings 
of the times were scholarly or ideal. 
Philosophy and the higher drama gave 
dignified employment to genius. Ro- 
mances were filled with fabulous adven- 
tures, in which dragons, griffins, and 
unicorns, rather than the living men of 
the times, played conspicuous parts. It 
was left to later years, for the most part, 
to develop a taste that should be less 
artificial, by discovering the pathos and 
poetry of common life. 
But in such writers as did deal with 
the events of the days in which they 
lived, there are early and constantly re- 
curring allusions to the use of the fra- 
grant weed. In broadsides, pamphlets, 
and chap-books of the sixteenth and the 
first half of the seventeenth century, we 
have all the pros and cons of the sub- 
ject ; as well intentioned praise and bit- 
ter denunciation, as in the more grace- 
ful praises and more elaborate attacks of 
the present years. 
One of the earliest references to the 
new fashion is found in Taylor, the Wa- 
terman, whose lack of trade drove him 
into selling ale and writing poetry. His 
opinion of all innovations is that of one 
whose "occupation's gone;" and his 
opinion of tobacco is, that "the Devil 
brought it to England in a coach." The 
Anti-Tobacco Society of Massachusetts 
Vol. Ill -29. 442 
EARLY LITERATURE OF TOBACCO. 
[Nov. 
will rejoice in this partial confirmation of 
their theory, that 
criminations between six husbands and 
their wives. " Good tobacco, sweet and 
strong," is spoken of as one of the al- 
lurements to houses of questionable re- 
pute. Perhaps this adds an emphasis 
to the complaint of one of the Merry 
Gossips, that her husband always smelt 
of tobacco. 
Laugh and Lie Downe, or the Worldes 
Folly, is a black-letter quarto, of a.d. 
1605, London. This little book describes 
the characters in an imagined Purgatory 
of Wit, or Fort of Folly. There is a 
neat bit of writing in it, descriptive of a 
fop of the day, showing how indispensa- 
ble the pipe had become to complete the 
outfit of a "man of fashion:" 
"The next was a nimble-witted and 
glib-tongued fellow, who, having in his 
youth spent his wits in the Arte of Love, 
was now become the jest of wit; for his 
looks were so demure, his words so in 
print, his graces so in order, and his con- 
ceits so in tune, that he was - yea, iwis 
(I wis) so was he, such a gentleman for 
a jester, that the Lady Folly could never 
be better fitted for her entertainment of 
all strangers. The pick-tooth in the 
mouth, the flower in the eare, the kisse 
of the hand, the stoupe of the head, the 
leer of the eye, and what not that was 
unneedful, but he had so perfecte at his 
fingers endes, that every she was my 
Faire Ladye, and scarce a Knight but 
was Noble Sir: the tobacco pipe was at 
hand, when Trinidado was not forgotten 
-why all things so well agreed together 
that at this square table of people, or ta- 
ble of square people, this man, made by 
rule, could not be spared for a great 
somme." 
Trinidado was the name given to a fa- 
vorite brand of tobacco, and "square 
people" means here, not what it would 
in modern slang, but simply ^Z^r^-heads. 
In The Gul's Horne Book, (the Green- 
horn's Hand-Book) a well known pam- 
phlet of Decker, London, a.d. 1609 - 
made up of satirical advice as tp proper 
As the introduction of coaches brought 
poverty to the bargemen of the Thames, 
it is hardly to be wondered at that they 
became enemies to whatever new luxu- 
ries appeared at the same time. 
Perhaps the first literary effusion whol- 
ly devoted to the "Nicotian weed" is 
Nash's Lenten Stuffe, an octavo tract, of 
date anterior to a.d. 1600. It is dedi- 
cated to Humphrey King, a London to- 
bacconist and poor pamphleteer. Nash 
was an inveterate Bohemian, and, as 
might be expected, is extravagant in his 
praises of what Spenser also calls "di- 
vine tobacco." This was quickly fol- 
lowed by a larger and better work, in 
mock-heroic verse, entitled The Met- 
amorphosis of Tobacco, and dedicated 
to Drayton. Although published anon- 
ymously, the authorship is generally as- 
cribed to Sir John Beaumont. It has 
recently been reprinted in England, but 
there are probably no copies of it in this 
country. 
Look to it, for He (I'll) Stabbe Ye, 
is the title of a sixty-four-paged quarto, 
published in London about a.d. 1604, 
written by Samuel Rowlands. The merit 
and tenor of the whole may be fairly 
judged by the "Introductory Sonnett," 
which begins as follows: 
"'Twas the Devil sowed the seed." 
" There is a humour us'd of late 
By ev'ry rascall swagg'ring mate 
To give the Stabbe : He stabbe (says hee) 
Him that dares take the wall of me. 
If you to pledge his health denie. 
Out comes his poniard - there you lie. 
If his Tobacco you dispraise, 
He sweares a stabbe shall end your daies." 
The author then makes at all classes, 
dagger in hand. Ina smaller quarto, pub- 
lished a few years later, by the same au- 
thor, entitled A Whole Crew of Kind 
Gossips, all Met to be Merry, the man- 
ners of the times are coarsely satirized 
by the imaginary criminations and re- 1869.] 
EARLY LITERATURE OF TOBACCO. 
443 
city behavior-it is declared, that at the 
table of the inn, 
"Before the meate comes smoaking 
to the boarde, our Gallant must draw 
out his tobacco box, the ladle for the 
cold snuff into his nosthrill, the tongs 
and the priming iron. All this artillery 
may be of gold or silver, if he can reach 
to the price of it; it will be a reasonable 
useful pawn at all times when the cur- 
rent of his money falles out to runne 
low. And here you must observe to 
know in what state tobacco is in town, 
better than t,he merchants, and to dis- 
course of the potecaries where it is to 
be sold as readily as the potecary him- 
selfe." 
We see it hinted in this that the new 
luxury was then, as again now, an ex- 
pensive one. In the comedy called The 
Sun's Darling-published about the 
same time as the above - a dandified 
gallant is spoken of as "some aider- 
man's son - one that blows away his 
patrimony in feathers and tobacco." No 
later than a.d. 1620 England, according 
to Sir Edwin Sandys, was importing 
from Spain ^120,000 worth of tobacco, 
yearly. Remembering the change in 
money values, we can see that even its 
moderate use will necessitate no incon- 
siderable outlay. There were three fa- 
vorite brands: called Trinidado, Leaf, 
and Pudding tobacco. The first came 
in rolls, or coils ; the last was probably 
cut, or chopped. The pipe does not ap- 
pear to have been of expensive materi- 
als. Bishop Bonner, who may be sup- 
posed to have used as good pipes as 
any of his day, died in 1596 at the Gold- 
en Lion, Fulham, while sitting in his 
chair, smoking. This inn was built in 
the time of Henry VIL When it was 
pulled down in 1836 an ancient pipe of 
quaint pattern, in brass, was found be- 
hind the wainscot of the room in which 
the Bishop died. The inn was a resort, 
in the sixteenth century, of the most 
prominent men of the day. The discov- 
ery of the pipe called forth much grave 
discussion as to its probable owner; and 
then I believe it was carefully laid away 
in, some museum as the " Bishop's own." 
But the "artillery" for snuff-making and 
taking, was more costly. There was a 
box to carry the root in, a rasp to reduce 
it to powder, and sometimes a spoon to 
carry it to the nostril. An improvement 
was, to put the rasp on the back of the 
snuff-box. There are several of these 
earliest snuff-rasps, preserved in the 
Hotel Cluny, Paris. They are made of 
ivory and inlaid wood. 
From Ben Jonson's comedy of The 
Alchemyst, we find that sellers soon 
learned to adulterate and to impart false 
flavors to their wares. "Captain Face," 
one of the characters in the play, com- 
mends "Drugger," the apothecary, in 
these words: 
" This is my friend Abel, an honest fellow. 
He lets me have good tobacco; he does not 
Sophisticate it with slack lees, or oil, 
Nor washes it with muscadel or grannis, 
Nor buries it in gravel underground, 
Wrapp'd up in greasy leather or old clouts, 
But keeps it in fine lilypots, that, opened, 
Smell like conserves of roses." 
From Heath's Two Centuries of E-pi- 
grammes- a book of lean poetry and 
leaner wit, edited by a Fellow of New 
College and published at Oxford a.d. 
1610-we see that collegians soon be- 
came familiar with the use of the leaf. 
The 92d Epigram reads: 
"We buy the driest wood that we can finde. 
And willingly would leave the smoke behinde ; 
But in tobacco a thwart course we take. 
Buying the heart only for the smoke's sake." 
The Curtain Drawer of the World, 
(London, 4to, 35 leaves, a. d. 1612) is a 
tedious tirade against the morals and 
manners of the times, unenlivened by 
any flashes of wit. Tobacco, of course, 
could not escape him, though what he 
says is confused, and his words are 
smoky. Nevertheless, it is shown how 
fashionable the custom must have been, 
since he attacks it in the persons of no- 
blemen : 444 
EARLY LITERATURE OF TOBACCO. 
[Nov. 
" Then (i. e., in times past) noblemen's 
chimneyes used to smoake, and not their 
noses; Englishmen without were not 
Blackamoores within, for then Tobacco 
was an Indian, unpickt and unpiped - 
now made the common ivy-bush of lux- 
ury, the curtaine of dishonesty, the pro- 
claimer of vanity, the drunken colourer 
of Drabby salacy." 
I have no doubt that this is severe 
enough for one of Mr. Trask's tracts, if 
one only knew what it meant. 
Techno-gamia, or the Marriage of the 
Arts-a comedy by Holiday, A. D. 1618 
-takes up the praises of the weed in 
this boisterous manner: 
Tobacco is a Whyfiler 
That cries ' Huff, Snuff,' with furie ; 
His pipes, his club and linke ; 
He's the wiser that does drinke : 
Thus armed I fear not a furie. 
Chorus." 
This song was an accompaniment to 
a dance, which gives opportunity for the 
puns in the second verse. "Whyffler" 
("whiffler" in Shakspeare) was a herald 
who went in advance of stately proces- 
sions, with trumpets, (pipes) clubs and 
links, (lanterns, fire) clearing the way 
with loud "furie." 
To "drinke" tobacco, was synony- 
mous with smoking of tobacco. This 
phrase is used in a much better poem of 
the year 1631. In the Soules Solace, or 
Thirty and one Spiritual Emblems, by 
Thos. Jenner, (8vo, 27 leaves) we have 
our old friend transferred from the stage 
to the pulpit. There is an illustration 
accompanying the original, of a gentle- 
man sitting by a table, smoking. The 
words are: 
" Tobacco's a Musician, 
And in a pipe delighteth ; 
It descends in a close. 
Through the organs of the nose, 
With a relish that inviteth. 
Chorus : 
This makes me sing, soho, soho boyes, 
Ho boyes sound I loudly. 
Earth ne'er did breed 
Such a jovial weed, 
Whereof to boast so proudly. 
Tobacco is a Lawyer, 
His pipes do love long cases ; 
When our braines it enters 
Our feet do make indentures. 
While we seal with stamping paces. 
Chorus. 
Tobacco is a Physician, 
Good both for sound and sickly ; 
'Tis a hot perfume 
That expels cold rheume. 
And makes it flow down quickly. 
Chorus. 
Tobacco is a Traveller 
Come from the Indies hither ; 
It passed sea and land 
Ere it came to my hand, 
And 'scaped the wind and weather. 
Chorus. 
Tobacco is a Critticke 
That still old paper turneth ; 
Whose labor and care 
Is smoke in the aire, 
That ascends from a rag when it burneth. 
Chorus. 
Tobacco is an ignis fatuus, 
A fat and fyrie vapoure. 
That leads men about 
Till the fire be out. 
Consuming like a taper. 
Chorus. 
''The Indian weed, withered quite, 
Greene at noone, cut down at night, 
Shows thy decay : all flesh is hay. 
Thus thinke, then drinke Tobacco. 
The Pipe that is so lily-white, 
Shows thee to be a mortal wight, 
And even such, gone with a touch. 
Thus thinke, then drinke Tobacco. 
And when the smoake ascends on high, 
Thinke thou beholdst the vanity 
Of worldly stuffe, gone with a puffe. 
Thus thinke, then drinke Tobacco. 
And when the Pipe grows foul within, 
Thinke on thy soule, defil'd with sin, 
And then the fire it doth require. 
Thus thinke, then drinke Tobacco. 
The ashes that are left behind, 
May serve to put thee still in mind, 
That unto dust return thou must. 
Thus thinke, and drinke Tobacco." 
These quotations might be continued 
indefinitely, in prose or in verse. Its 
enemies called tobacco, in the words of 
George Wythers, "a thing of barbarism 
and shame." Its friends represented 
Vulcan resting by his forge, pipe in 
mouth, and envied by all the dwellers 1869.] 
EARLY LITERATURE OF TOBACCO. 
445 
on Olympus. It is now three hundred 
years since tobacco "got into litera- 
ture;" and.the discussion of it to-day 
is carried on pretty much as it was at 
first. Meanwhile-whether rightly or 
not-there was probably more tobacco 
raised and more used in this past year 
than in any other of the past three hun- 
dred. 
The King issued a famous Broadside 
against it, about a. d. 1603; but the 
smoke of his attack was answered by 
a smoke more fragrant, as also more 
abundant. We know that in A. D. 1600- 
1602 Bucklesbury, London, was famous 
for its shops of "simples," {Merry Wives 
of Windsor, act iii, sc. 3) but by 1617 
most of the herb shops were converted 
into tobacconists' shops. " If I walk in 
the streets," says a lady in the Owl's 
Almanack, (a.d. 1618) "and chance to 
come down Bucklesbury, oh! how the 
whole orbe of air is infected with this 
fume." But even this protest was un- 
heeded, as we believe the protests of 
several ladies have been since; and the 
"fume" in London extends now from 
Marylebone to Lambeth. 
John Hotten, 74 and 75 Piccadilly, 
London, has recently published a Smok- 
er's Text-Book, giving all the best things 
that have been said about the plant by 
its admirers. We have not seen the 
book, nor should we greatly value it. 
But there is a chance for some aspiring 
genius to give us a literary history of the 
whole subject. Let him begin with the 
time "when noses were first made chim- 
neys with smoking men's faces as if they 
were bacon," and bring it down to the 
present. He will carry us through the 
sqcial life of the last three centuries. 
He will show us Sir Walter Raleigh and 
his coterie of friends. We will see many 
social gatherings of Ben Jonson, Beau- 
mont, Fletcher, Condell, and their com- 
panions. And then the smaller fry - 
Nash, Decker, Wythers, Rowlands, and 
their fellow-pamphleteers of A. D. 1590 to 
1630. We shall see "young Rogers" 
at the play, sitting upon the stage the 
better to display the pipe 
" For which he pawned hath his riding cloke." 
Nor shall we lack right royal compa- 
ny, for he will not fail to take us up 
Great Tower Street, to the inn where 
Peter the Great used to smoke his pipe 
after the day's labor, in London, was 
done. We will follow him most gladly 
into the smoky little room of the " Salu- 
tation and Cat," where, night after night, 
Lamb and Coleridge lovingly discussed 
poetry, art, metaphysics, and theology; 
and we will sit down quietly to an after- 
dinner cigar with Thackeray in the Cafe 
de Foy, and with him silently watch the 
rising of the moon over the tiles of the 
Rue Louis le Grand. Who will write 
us the book? Here is an open door to 
Fame; and as to Fortune, we put our- 
selves down for one (complimentary) 
copy, doubting not that thousands will 
be ready to follow our example.