Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and CommerceBillings, E. R.
History
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce
Billings, E. R.
Tobacco -- History; Tobacco industry -- History; Tobacco use
There is printed evidence, however, in this same period to show not
only that all the English ladies of the time were not enemies to
tobacco, but that some of them were themselves smokers. In 1674 an
anonymous quarto appeared under the title of "The Women's Petition
against Coffee." It was a protest against the growing influence of the
coffee-houses in seducing men away from their homes to sit together
making mischief and drinking "this boiled soot." It was answered in
the same year by "The Men's Answer to the Women's Petition." After
speaking of the providential introduction of coffee into England in
the midst of the Puritan epoch, when Englishmen wanted some kind of
drink which would "at once make them sober and merry," the writer
glorifies the coffee-house.
John Taylor, "the Water Poet," made a kind of compromise when he
attributed the introduction of tobacco, not to the devil, but to
Pluto,--"Pluto's Proclamation concerning his Infernal Pleasure for the
Propagation of Tobacco." It appears in the folio collection of his
works of the year 1628. The confusion of tobacco with opium and such
destructive drugs seems to have been common with the travelers of the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. Camerarius, in his "Historical
Meditations," translated into English by John Malle (folio, 1621),
speaks of tobacco as to be seen growing in many gardens throughout
Europe. He quotes Jerome Benzo as saying that in Hispaniola "there be
among them some that take so much of it, as their senses being all
overcome and made drunke with the same, they fell down flat to the
ground as if they were dead, and there lie without sense or feeling
most part of the day or of the night."
The tobacco-box, during the reign of Elizabeth, was no unimportant
part of a dandy's outfit; sometimes a pouch or bag was used.
Tobacco-boxes came into general use in England soon after the
introduction of tobacco, and were much sought after by all who "drank"
tobacco. Marston, the Duke of New Castle, and other dramatists,
alluded to the tobacco-box as a part of the smoker's outfit; thus in
the play of "The Man in the Moone" (1609), one character, in answer to
an inquiry who one of the company is, answers: "I know not certainly,
but I think he cometh to play you a fit of mirth, for I behelde pipes
in his pocket; now he draweth forth his tinder-box and his touchwood,
and falleth to his tacklings; sure his throate is on fire, the smoke
flyeth so fast from his mouth; blesse his beard with a bason of water,
lest he burn it; some terrible thing he taketh, it maketh him pant and
look pale, and hath an odious taste, he spitteth so after it."
The tobacco boxes of the Seventeenth Century were much larger than
those of the present. Some of them held a pound of tobacco besides
space for a number of pipes.
Many of them were made of brass while others were fashioned from horn:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account