164 ST NICOTINE 



the fashion among gallants of the weed to draw the smoke 

 into the lungs and to eject it ' through the organs of the 

 nose, with a relish that inviteth,' says the gay, laughing, 

 Doctor Barton Holiday, who took such a wicked delight in 

 tormenting King James at Woodstock in his play of the 

 Marriage of the Arts. This was speedily answered by 

 A Defence of Tobacco, printed by Richard Field for 

 Thomas Man, wherein the author shows that the ' warning ' 

 should have roosted at home, where, in its absence, zeal 

 had outrun discretion, and had thereby damaged the cause it 

 would fain have served. 



Verbose titles, full of alliteration, fire and fun, were much 

 appreciated by the militant writers of this period. Witness 

 the following heading to a poem against tobacco by Joshua 

 Sylvester, Gent., the favourite poet of King James : 

 ' Tobacco battered, and the pipes shattered (about their 

 cares that idely idolize so base and barbarous a weed ; or 

 leastwise over-love so loathsome a vanitie), by a volley of 

 Holy shot, thundered from Mount Helicon.' After this 

 brave warning we are prepared to hear that 



Hell hath smoake 

 Impenitent tobacconist to choake. 

 Though never dead, there shall they have their fill ; 

 In heaven is none, but light and glory still. 



Samuel Rowlands in his Knave of Clubbs (1611) writes 

 in a lighter strain, and asks : 



Who durst dispraise tobacco whilst the smoke is in my nose, 



Or say, but fah ! my pipe doth smell ! I would I know but those 



Durst offer such indignity to that which I prefer ; 



For all the brood of blackamoors will swear I do not err, 



In taking this same worthy whiff with valiant cavalier, 



But that will make his nostrils smoke, at cupps of wine or beer, 



