SOCIAL GOSSIP ABOUT THE WEED 175 



proved himself to be no unworthy match for his more 

 ponderous assailant. In this masterpiece of Dekker's we 

 come upon the earliest allusion to women smokers. 

 Asinius Babo meeting with friends proffers his pipe saying, 

 ' 'tis at your service, gallants, and the tobacco too ; 'tis 

 right good pudding I can tell you : a lady or two took a 

 pipeful or two at my hands and praised it 'fore the heavens.' 

 We learn from Aubrey that in his day (1680) it was 

 considered very improper for ' feamale persons ' to take 

 tobacco. But women's curiosity respecting the new allure- 

 ment to indolence with which men were so greatly 

 enamoured very naturally led them to taste the forbidden 

 leaf. Bearing on this point is a piquant story told by 

 Miss Pardoe in her admirable History of the Court of 

 Louis XIV. The Grand Monarque had a great aversion 

 to tobacco, and no one ventured to smoke in his presence. 

 But his daughters had noticed how comfortable and cosy 

 the men of the Swiss Guard looked while smoking their 

 pipes, and longed for a more intimate acquaintance with the 

 novelty. They grew weary of the restraints of the court 

 circle and sought freedom in their own apartments. On 

 one occasion, when the Dauphin had at a late hour quitted 

 the card-table, he heard noises of revelry while passing their 

 quarter of the Palace. Entering to ascertain the cause, he 

 was astonished to find the princesses engaged in smoking. 

 Their pipes had been borrowed from the officers, who 

 doubtless were instructing them how to make clouds, rings 

 and squirts. Miss Pardoe speaks strongly ; she says that 

 when the princesses became weary of the ' gravity and 

 etiquette of the court circle they were accustomed to 

 celebrate a species of orgie in their own apartments, after 

 supper.' But after all were they not Eve's daughters 

 what else could be expected ? 



