80 TOBACCO IN EUROPE. 



their souls like Pope Urban (whose name certainly 

 belied his actions), but he did all that laid in his power 

 to damage the cause of tobacco, and the character of 

 smokers. He has been happily described by Bar- 



11 A gentleman called King James, 



In quilted doublet and great trunk breeches, 

 Who held in abhorrence tobacco and witches. " 



Sir John Harrington, in his Nugce Antiques, relates 

 a conversation he had with the king in the first }^ear 

 of his accession to the throne, when he strongly 

 denounced it. Ben Jonson, in his Masque, The Gipsies 

 Metamorphosed, three times played before James I., 

 politely wished his Majesty's sense of smelling pro- 

 tected 



' ' From tobacco, with the type 

 Of the devil's glyster-pipe." 



On his visiting Oxford in 1605, the University 

 gratified the king, by debating on the salutary charac- 

 ter of the herb, and of course deciding against it; 

 though to the honour of some of the number be it 

 said,! that after the monarch had confirmed the verdict 

 in very strong language, Dr. Cheynell holding a, 

 tobacco-pipe in his hand, extolled the virtues of the 

 herb in the highest terms, placing it in advance of 

 every other remedial agent. The king had written 

 his famous Counterblaste to Tobacco, in which all his 



* Ingoldsby Legends — The Witches' 1 Frolic. 

 f See Wake's Rex Platonkus. 1627. 



