SMOKERS' STORIES. 81 



SHAKESPEARE AND TOBACCO. 



IT is a curious fact that no allusion to 

 " divine Tobacco," as Spenser calls it, is 

 to be found in the works of Shakespeare, 

 though Ben Jonson and his contem- 

 poraries indulge in jests at the expense 

 of the lately imported weed, which was 

 smoked under the very noses of the 

 players by the gilded youth of the period, 

 who were wont to take up their positions 

 upon the stage where stools were placed 

 for them, ahd smoke incessantly during 

 the whole performance. 



Shakespeare being the favorite play- 

 wright of James I., whose hatred of smok- 

 ing is well known, it is not surprising that 

 he failed to notice it favorably in the days 

 of that monarch ; but that the companion 

 of Raleigh and Bacon at the " Mermaid " 

 should have nothing to say upon the sub- 

 ject is an enigma which some future Shake- 

 spearean scholar may perhaps unravel. 



