ITS GOLDEN AGE. 



63 



The commencement of the seventeenth century was 

 the golden age of tobacco. It was favoured by all, and 



valued for imputed virtues more than it possessed. It 

 received a large amount of literary notice, larger than 

 ever after fell to its share. Poets were inspired with 

 a desire to sing its praises, and exert their fancy in its 

 honour. The Metamorphosis of Tobacco is one of 

 these effusions, an ambitious addition to those narrated 

 by Ovid. It is dedicated by its unknown author to 

 Michael Drayton, one of England's worthiest poets, and 

 was printed in 1602 ; on the title is a cut of the tobacco- 

 plant growing in the cleft of " the bi-forkecl hill," with the 

 motto round it Digna Pamasso et Apolline. The author 

 takes a dignified view of his subject as he exclaims : — 



" Me let the sound of great Tobaccoes praise 

 A pitch above those love-sick poets raise. 



