ANECDOTE OF TAELTOX. 53 



am almost poysonecl.' ' If it offend,' quoth Tarlton, 

 ' let's every one take a little of the smell, and so the 

 savor will quickly go : ' but tobacco whiffes made them 

 leave him to pay all." Rich, in his Irish Hubbub (1019), 

 gives another version of the story — "I remember 

 a pretty jest of tobacco which was this. A certain 

 Welchman coming newly to London, and beholding 

 one to take tobacco, never seeing the like before, and 

 not knowing the manner of it, but perceiving him vent 

 smoke so fast, and supposing his inward parts to be on 

 fire ; cried out, ' O Jhesu, Jhesu man, for the passion 

 of Cod hold, for by Cod's splud ty snowt's on fire,' and 

 having a bowle of beere in his hand, threw it at the 

 other's face, to quench his smoking nose." 



Steadily and quietly the art of smoking made its way 

 in England, until about ten years after its introduction 

 the satirists began to complain of the prevalence of 

 this habit ; but it was too firmly fixed then for their 

 invectives to have any effect; and to take tobacco 

 " with a grace " was looked upon as the necessary 

 qualification of a gentleman. Ben Jonson, in his 

 Every Man out of his Humour, introduces such a 

 character in Sogliardo, who is described as " an essen- 

 tial clown, yet so enamoured of the name of a gen- 

 tleman, tbat he will have it though he buys it. He 

 comes up every term to learn to take tobacco." The 

 hangers-on of society, the needy cavaliers, the tavern- 

 sharpers, and captains of the Bobadil sort, made a 

 profession of the art of smoking. In the play just 

 quoted " rare Ben " gives the form of a placard hung 



