636 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Nov. 15, 1913. 
brains. The fact is that as soon as tobacco was 
introduced into England, references were made 
to it, not by the best writers, it is true, phil¬ 
osophy and the higher drama gave dignified 
employment to genius. But in such writers as 
did deal with the events of the days in which 
they lived, there are early and constantly recur¬ 
ring allusions to the use of the fragrant weed, 
in the "broad sides,” in the pamphlets and in 
the cheap books of the sixteenth and seven¬ 
teenth centuries we have all the pros and cons 
of the subject. As well as intentioned praise and 
as bitter denunciations as in the more graceful 
panegyrics and more elaborate attacks of later 
years. 
Over the Traps 
At the 
Southern Handicap 
May 15, 1913 
Mr. R. H. Bruns broke 
the 100 straight on the 
16-yard targets, being the 
only one of all the con¬ 
testants to do so. He 
was shooting a 
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The first mention we find of tobacco is in 
the writings of Taylor, the water poet, who lost 
his occupation as waterman by the introduction 
of coaches, and who wrote poetry (so called), 
and sold ale to eke out a living. He expressed 
his opinion that the “devil brought tobacco into 
England in a coach,” which originality became 
a perennial spring of joy to the “antis,” who find 
in it confirmation of their theory, “It was the 
devil sowed the seed.” 
Among the earliest effusions devoted en¬ 
tirely to the soothing weed, possibly the first, 
is in “Nash’s Lenten Stuff,” an octavo ‘tract 
dating back to 1600. Nash was a thorough 
Bohemian, and was extravagant in his praises 
of Spencer called “divine tobacco.” This was 
quickly followed by a larger and better work 
in mock heroic verse entitled the “Metamor¬ 
phosis of Tobacco.” Although published 
anonymously, the authorship is generally 
ascribed to Sir John Beaumont. It was re¬ 
printed in England a few years ago, somewhere 
about i860, but it is very doubtful if any copies 
exist in this country. Its verses were not of a 
very high order, as will be seen from the open¬ 
ing lines: 
Then let the sound of great tobacco’s praise 
A pitch above those love-sick poets raise. 
Let me adorn, with my thrice happy pen, 
The sweet and sole delight of mortal men, 
The cornucopia of all earthly pleasure 
Where bankrupt nature hath consumed her treasure. 
A worthy plant springing from Flora’s hand 
The blessed offering from an uncouth land. 
Soon then began to appear frequent refer¬ 
ences to tobacco in the literature of the day, 
the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben John¬ 
son, Sharpman, Marston and the effusions of 
the lesser scribblers of the period teemed with 
satirical allusions to the weed as the fashionable 
thing to do. 
Here are a few lines from Marston’s “An¬ 
tonio and Melinda ”(1602): 
“A great tobacco taker, too, that’s fiat; 
For his eyes look as if they had been hung 
In the smoak of his nose.” 
And a few more from Roseland’s “Knave of 
Hearts,” speaking of one of the “gilded youth”: 
In a tobacco shop resembling hell 
Fire, stink and smoke must be where devils dwell, 
He sits, you scarce can see his face for vapor, 
Offering to Pluto with a tallow taper. 
Roseland’s sentiments apparently under¬ 
went a radical change later, for in another 
drama entitled, “The Knave of Clubs,” are these 
four lines which are so often quoted: 
Much victuals serve for gluttons to fatten men like swine; 
But he’s a frugal man indeed, who on a leaf can dine, 
And needs no napkins for his hands, his fingers’ ends 
to wipe 
But keeps; his kitchen in a box, and roast meat in a 
pipe.” 
During the reign of King James, that royal 
pedant, or, as he was called by the poet Burn¬ 
ham : 
That gentleman kalled King James, 
In guilded doublet and great trunk breeches, 
Who held in abhorrence both tobacco and witches. 
The literature of tobacco consisted mainly 
of tirades against its use. Discouraged at the 
unfruitfulness of the efforts of his paid pam¬ 
phleteers, King James at last took up his pen, 
raged and foamed in his “Counterblaste to To¬ 
bacco,” in the same arrogant tone and with the 
same supreme disregard for truth, which is to 
be noticed in the arguments of anti-tobaccoites 
of every age since, up to and including the 
present. Many prominent writers of the time 
are believed to have composed essays and poems 
at the order of King James, and to have given 
vent to their feelings in anonymous odes in 
its praise. 
For example, George Wyther. in one o.f his 
essays calls it a “thing of barbarism and a 
shame”; to this same George Wyther is 
ascribed the authorship of a once well known 
poem “Thus Thinke, and Smoke Tobacco.” 
Though it may at once recur to many readers 
of old literature, it is so good that it is irre¬ 
sistible to use it here in its original form. 
"The Indian Weed, withered quite, 
Green at noon, cut down at night, 
Shows they decay; all flesh is hay, 
Thus thinke, then drinke tobacco. 
“The pipe that is so lily white, 
Shows thee to be a mortal wight, 
And even such, gone with a touch; 
Thus thinke and smoke tobacco. 
“And when the smoke ascends on high, 
Thinke thou, beholdst the vanity 
Of worldly stuffe, gone with a puffe; 
Thus thinke and smoke tobacco. 
And when thy pipe grows foul within 
Think on thy soul defiled with sin; 
And then the fire it doth require. 
Thus thinke, then smoke tobacco. 
The ashes that are left behind, 
May serve to put thee still in mind, 
That unto dust return thou must, 
Thus thinke, then smoke to-bacco.” 
The proper thing for poets, of course, in 
the early days was to curry favor with royalty, 
to make themselves and their lines agreeable to 
their Majesties, for in doing so they had every¬ 
thing toi gain and nothing to lose; so it turned 
out with Joshua Sylvester, the prime poetic 
favorite of James I., he worked the muse for all 
that it contained, and mightily pleased the royal 
hater of tobacco by tuning his lyre to a poem 
bearing the rather unlovely title “Tobacco' 
Battered.” Why not have said “Tobacco Tat¬ 
tered,” and thus at least have used “alliteration’s 
artful aid”? “Tobacco Battered,” was what he 
wrote for the title page, and followed along: 
“and the pipes shattered about their ears that 
idly idolized so base and barbarous a weed, or 
at leastwise overlove so loathsome a vanitie, by 
a volley of holy shot thundered from Mount 
Belecon.” The arrogance and verbosity of this 
title page is carried out in the poem which is 
stupidly and intolerably dull, never strong ex¬ 
cept where abusive; a few lines as an example 
will suffice: 
“For Hell hath smoke 
Impenitent tobacconists to choke; 
Though never dead, there they shall have their fill 
In heaven is none, but light and glory still.” 
One naturally recurs to the expression, 
“History repeats itself.” “Never was a good 
and comforting thing in the world but what 
was foully hated and abused, by the vinegar- 
blooded, who never loved God or Man.” So 
wrote a generous and glorious early governor 
of Virginia, very much to his credit as a keen 
observer and a truthful chronicler. However, 
all the poets and all the scribblers did not use 
their pen and their wits in the abuse of the 
“kindly herb.” 
One scholarly and dignified Dr. William 
Barclay, dedicated his graceful little work en¬ 
titled “Nepenthes, or the Virtues of Tobacco,” 
