“See you here, Mr Marshall!” cried Temperance, brandishing her pipe. “Be you wont to solace your studies with this trumpery?”
Mr Marshall smiled. “Truly, nay, Mistress Murthwaite; ’tis accounted scandalous for divines to use that tobago, not to name the high cost thereof.”
“Pray you, how many pence by the ounce hath any man the face to ask for this stinking stuff?”
“Three shillings or more, and that the poorest sort.”
“Mercy me! And can you tell me how folks use it that account it physical?”
“Ay, I have heard tell that the manner of using it as physic is to fill the patient’s mouth with a ball of the leaves, when he must incline the face downward, and keep his mouth open, not moving his tongue: then doth it draw a flood of water from all parts of the body. Some physicians will not use it, saying it causeth over-quick digestion, and fills the stomach full of crudities. For a cold or headache the fumes of the pipe only are taken. His Majesty greatly loathes this new fashion, saying that the smoke thereof resembles nothing so much as the Stygian fume of the bottomless pit, and likewise that ’tis a branch of drunkenness, which he terms the root of all sins.”
Aubrey laughed rather significantly.
“Why,” asked his mother, “is the King’s Majesty somewhat given that way?”
“Well, I have heard it said that when the King of Denmark was here, their two Majesties went not to bed sober every night of the week: marry, ’tis whispered all the Court ladies kept not so steady feet as they might have done.”
“Alack the day! not the Queen, I hope?”