TOBACCO LEAVES 



written play, nor were " churchwardens " 

 known in Shakespeare's time. Yet there 

 was smoking, as well as drinking, at The 

 Mermaid, The Devil and Apollo, The 

 Boar's Head, and all the other London 

 taverns which Shakespeare frequented; 

 for you may be sure that, like Dickens, 

 this great reporter knew every tavern, 

 church, public house, and street in the 

 town, for which he has done more than 

 all its rulers put together; for Shake- 

 speare is the real king of England the 

 king of all her kings. 



It is quite easy to see that great group 

 around the table in The Mermaid, smok- 

 ing, drinking, and exchanging verbal coins 

 of the realm: the truculent Jonson, send- 

 ing clouds to the ceiling, or into an adver- 

 sary's face; the reserved and aristocratic 

 Raleigh, reflectively drawing the smoke 

 that cheers, but not inebriates; the bitter 

 Marston, the biting Cyril Tourneur, the 



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