LAUDATORY SONGS. ( J7 



ointment for sowre teeth,* first knot of good fellowship, + adamant of 

 company, swift wind to spread the wings of time, hated of none but those 

 who know him not, and of so great deserts that whoso is acquainted with 

 him can hardly forsake him." 



The latter words seem to bear out the remark made 

 by Sir Kenelm Digby, in his Observations upon Be- 

 ligio Medici : " Who was ever delighted with tobacco, 

 the first time he took it ? And who could willingly be 

 without it, after he was a while habituated to the use 

 of it ? " 



The writers of this era abound with allusions to the 

 use of the " divine weed." The poets and dramatists 

 celebrate its sway.t It is recorded that James I. sat 

 out very uneasily the performance of Dr. Barton Holi- 

 day's Tcchnogamia, or marriage of the Arts (played 

 at Woodstock, August 2G, 1021), in which the follow- 

 ing song is sung : — 



Tobacco's a Musician, 



And in a pipe delighteth ; 



It descends in a close, 



Through the organs of the nose, 

 With a relish that inviteth. 



* This will be best understood from the following passage in Ashmole's 

 Diary, bearing date January 24, 16S5 : " I was much troubled with my 

 teetb, in my upper jaw, on my left side, which, by fits, continued for a 

 week ; and then I held pills in my mouth, made of burned allom, pepper, 

 and lobacco, which drew much rheum from me, and so I was eased." 



t So Stephens in his Essayes, 1615, declares "good fellows take tobacco 

 for company sake." 



X In the Epigrams by Marlowe and Sir John Davis, appended to Dyce's 

 edition of Marlowe (vol. iii. p. 249), may be read a poem on the peculiar 

 curative virtues once attributed to the herb . 



