As early and late, to meditate?
Thus think, and drink tobacco.
G. W.
Ancient and delightful George Wither, while suffering for conscience’ sake imprisonment in the Marshalsea, found a never-failing comfort in his beloved Indian weed. Its soothing vapours moved him to meditation; the earthen pipe, the burning weed, the vanishing fumes, and the ashes left behind, were to him emblems of the transitory nature of man’s earthly career. Musing thus, he poured forth his thoughts in a poem which has taken a firmer hold on the popular taste than any other of the countless songs composed on the subject of tobacco. It has undergone numerous alterations, but in every instance for the worse. In a mutilated form, and with a second part added, it is found among the ‘Gospel Sonnets’ of the Rev. Ralph Erskine, of the Scottish Church. It is the ‘Smoking Spiritualized’ which is still in print among the ballad-vendors of the east end of London. It reappeared with variations in Mr. J. H. Dixon’s ‘Songs and Ballads of the Peasantry of England’; and again in the Rev. James Plumptre’s ‘Tobacco is an Indian weed.’ So popular had the song become that Dr. Hague, in 1805, set the words to music, and Mr. Samuel Wesley, at a later date, adapted them to a tune said to be still in vogue. Yet, out of the multitude of admirers who so readily adopted and adapted Wither’s song, no one seems to have cared to acknowledge the source of his inspiration. But for the diligent research of Mr. Payne Collier, the student might have remained forever in ignorance of its true parentage. Turning to Mr. Chappell’s ‘Popular Music of the Olden Time’ we come upon the following passage relating to this song:—‘The earliest copy’ says Mr. Chappell, ‘I have seen is in a manuscript volume of poetry transcribed during James’s reign and which was kindly lent to me by Mr. Payne Collier. It there bears the initials of G[eorge] W[ither] a very likely person to have written such a song. A courtier poet would not have sung the praises of smoking—so obnoxious to the King as to induce him to write a Counterblaste to Tobacco—but Wither despised the servility which would have tended to his advancement at Court.’ The original song, the first verse of which is at the head of this chapter, runs as follows:—
The earthen pipe so lily white
Shows that thou art a mortal wight;
Even such—and gone with a small touch:
Thus think, and drink tobacco.
And when the smoke ascends on high,
Think on the worldly vanity