"Tobacco's an outlandish weed,
Doth in the land strange wonders breed,
It taints the breath, the blood it dries,
It burns the head, it blinds the eyes;
It dries the lungs, scourgeth the lights,
It numbs the soul, it dulls the sprites;
It brings a man into a maze,
And makes him sit for other's gaze;
It makes a man, it mars a purse,
A lean one fat, a fat one worse;
A sound man sick, a sick man sound,
A bound man loose, a loose man bound;
A white man black, a black man white,
A night a day, a day a night;
The wise a fool, the foolish wise,
A sober man in drunkard's guise;
A drunkard with a drought or twain,
A sober man it makes again;
A full man empty, and an empty full,
A gentleman a foolish gull;
It turns the brain like cat in pan,
And makes a Jack a gentleman."
The well-known song of "Tobacco is an Indian Weed," was written most probably the last half of the Seventeenth Century, Fairholt gives the best copy we have seen of it. It is taken from the first volume of "Pills to Purge Melancholy," and reads thus:
"Tobacco's but an Indian weed,
Grows green at morn, cut down at eve,
It shows our decay, we are but clay;
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.
"The pipe, that is so lily white,
Wherein so many take delight,
Is broke with a touch—man's life is such;
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.
"The pipe, that is so foul within,
Shews how man's soul is stained with sin,
And then the fire it doth require;
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.
"The ashes that are left behind
Do serve to put us all in mind
That unto dust return we must;
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.
"The smoke, that does so high ascend,
Shews us man's life must have an end,
The Vapor's gone—man's life is done;
Think of this when you smoke tobacco."
One of the strongest objections against the use of the "Indian novelty" was its ruinous cost at this period. During the reign of James The First and Charles The Second, Spanish tobacco sold at from ten to eighteen shillings per pound while Virginia tobacco sold for a time for three shillings. In no age and by no race excepting perhaps the Indians was the habit so universal or carried to such a length as in the Seventeenth Century—its supposed virtues as a medicine induced many to inhale the smoke constantly. This was one reason why tobacco was condemned by so many of the writers and playwrights of the day yet many of them used the weed in some form from Ben Johnson to Cibber the one fond of his pipe the other of his snuff.
In 1639 Venner published a volume entitled "A Treatise" concerning the taking of the fume of tobacco. His advice is "to take it moderately and at fixed times." Many of the clergy were devoted adherents of the pipe. Lilly says of its use among them:
"In this year Bredon vicar of Thornton a profound divine, but absolutely the most polite person for nativities in that age, strictly adhering to Ptolemy, which he well understood; he had a hand in composing Sir Christopher Heydon's defence of judicial astrology, being that time his chaplain; he was so given over to tobacco and drink, that when he had no tobacco, he would cut the bell-ropes and smoke them."[Back to Contents]