"Gather me balme and cooling violets
And of our holy herbe nicotian,
And bring withall pure honey from the hive
To heale the wound of my unhappy hand."
Barclay, in his tract on "The Vertues of Tobacco," recommends its use as a medicine. The following is one of the modes of use:
"Take of leafe Tobacco as much as, being folded together, may make a round ball of such bignesse that it may fill the patient's mouth, and inclyne his face downwards toward the ground, keeping the mouth open, not mouthing any whit with his tongue, except now and then to waken the medicament, there shall flow such a flood of water from his brain and his stomacke, and from all the parts of his body that it shall be a wonder. This must he do fasting in the morning, and if it be for preservation, and the body be very cacochyme, or full of evil humors, he must take it once a week, otherwise once a month. He gives the plant the name of 'Nepenthes,' and says of it, that 'it is worthy of a more loftie name.'" He writes the following verse addressed to:
"The Abusers of Tobacco."
"Why do you thus abuse this heavenly plant,
The hope of health, the fuel of our life?
Why do you waste it without fear of want,
Since fine and true tobacco is not ryfe?
Old Enclio won't foul water for to spair,
And stop the bellows not to waste the air."
He also alludes to the quality of tobacco and says: "The finest Tobacco is that which pearceth quickly the odorat with a sharp aromaticke smell, and tickleth the tongue with acrimonie, not unpleasant to the taste, from whence that which draweth most water is most veituous, whether the substance of it be chewed in the mouth, or the smoke of it received."
He speaks of the countries in which the plant grows, and prefers the tobacco grown in the New World as being superior to that grown in the Old. In his opinion, "only that which is fostered in the Indies, and brought home by Mariners and Traffiquers, is to be used." But not alone were Poets and Dramatists inspired to sing in praise or dispraise of tobacco, Physicians and others helped to swell in broadsides, pamphlets and chap-books, the loudest praises or the most bitter denunciation of the weed. Taylor, the water poet, who lost his occupation as bargeman when the coach came into use, thought that the devil brought tobacco into England in a coach. One of the first tracts wholly devoted to tobacco is entitled Nash's "Lenten Stuffe." The work is dedicated to Humphrey King, a tobacconist, and is full of curious sayings in regard to the plant. Another work, entitled "Metamorphosis of Tobacco," and supposed to have been written by Beaumont, made its appearance about this time. Samuel Rowlands, the dramatist, wrote two works on tobacco; the first is entitled "Look to it, for I'll Stabbe Ye," written in 1604; the other volume is a small quarto, bearing this singular title: "A whole crew of Kind Gossips, all met to be Merry." This is a satire on the time and manners of the period, and is written in a coarse style worthy of the author. In 1605 there appeared a little volume bearing for its title, "Laugh and Lie Down, or the World's Folly." This work describes the fops and men of fashion of its time, and shows how popular the custom of tobacco taking had become. In 1609, in "The Gull's Horne Book," a gallant is described as follows:
"Before the meate comes smoaking to the board our Gallant must draw out his tobacco box, the ladle for the cold snuff into his nostrils, 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 current of his money falles out to rune low. And here you must observe to know in what state tobacco is in town, better than the merchants, and to discourse of the potecaries where it is to be sold as readily as the potecary himself."
One of the severest tirades against tobacco appeared in 1612, "The Curtain Drawer of the World." In speaking of the users of the weed, and especially noblemen, he says:
"Then noblemen's chimneys used to smoke, 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 luxury, the curtaine of dishonesty, the proclaimer of vanity, the drunken colourer of Drabby solacy."