Smoking and drinking : the argument stated for and against / by Medicus ; with appendix ; and a chapter on tobacco / by B.W. Richardson.

  • Farley, R. (Richard)
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Smoking and drinking : the argument stated for and against / by Medicus ; with appendix ; and a chapter on tobacco / by B.W. Richardson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    vailed in England in 1565, when Raleigh was only thirteen years old; and in 1584, two years before Raleigh is said to have introduced it, Queen Ehza- beth issued a proclamation against its use. _ When the courtiers of Elizabeth and the rich citizens of London began to “ drinke tobacco for the verb “to smoke” was then only applied to chimneys, the verb “to drink” then, as now, signifying to inhale, to take in—there were not wanting those who declared that the Indian weed was a sovereign remedy for all the ills that flesh is heir to. ut t e ladies soon found out their dislike to the enjoy¬ ment, which was contemplative and solitary; and King; Tames I. employed his royal wits—and he was no fool upon paper—in inditing a “ Count er- blaste to Tobacco.” Some persons declare that Shakspeare was not a smoker, and hence has never mentioned tobacco; others, that he was a courtiei —as indeed he was, witness his splendid hyperbo e on Queen Elizabeth, to whom he alludes as a air vestal throned by the West”—and omitted all a u- sion to it to please King James. But the reason seems to us to have been this—that, though a con¬ genial soul, he was not a club man, as were Ben Tonson and others; and that probably he did no love the pipe. In Beaumont and Fletcher we have at most but allusions to it. We have “ 1 ah. this filthy, stinking tobacco!” and no panegyric; al¬ though, from the number of pipes^of the period- called dredging pipes now—found in the bed of the Thames, the custom must have soon became ge¬ neral. The bowls of these pipes are very small, not so large as our present cigar-holders; yet the pipe was passed round to many in the company. Nor was the custom of smoking held to be per¬ fectly correct for a long time. In an old demand