BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1798, 22 August 1906, Page 61

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

TOBACCO IN LITERATURE

The part that narcotics play in ordinary life folds an echo in literature. The reader sometimes fancies that he finds in some strangely imaginative poem traces of the influence of the potent opium that he knows to have thrown its evil spell over the author. Sometimes, as in Do Quinoey’s of an English Opium-eater,” the witter boldly proclaims his use of the drug and describes, more or less fictitiously, perhaps, its influence upon him. We have even, in the -case of another drug, a deliberate imitation of De Qudncey’s work, in the little paper-covered book issued anonymously in 1884 by Mr George Redway, under the title of “Confessions of an Elnglish Hachish Eater.” But no narcotic has appealed to so many writers, and plays so great a part in literature, as the milder and widely-used tobacco. It is, of course, only in modern literature that tobacco finds a place. Ancient and mediaeval writers had no knowledge of the “Indian weed.” One woiild like to have had an Ode by Anacreon or Horace on what the gentle Barrie cads affectionately “My Lady Nicotine,” but as this is impossible, the devotee of the pape must solace himself, if he has literary tastes, with the efforts of the moderns.

It was in November 1492 that two of Columbus’s men, while exploring Cuba, first discovered, the Indian practice of smoking tobacco, and thus became the ( means of introducing the plant to the notice of Europe. It' was, hoivever, many years before tbe custom ol smoking became common in Europe. Gonzalo Hernando de Oviedo introduced the plant into Spain, where it was grown for ornamental purposes. Francesco Hernandez first investigated its medicinal properties. Jean Nicot, French ambassador at Lisbon in 1559, bought some tobacco seed from a sea-captain just returned from Florida, and on his return to France in 1561 took with him some tobacco plants. It was from has name that the plant obtained its scientific appellation Nicotiana, whence also tbe term “nicotine” for its well-. known poisonous product. The plant was first -introduced into Italy in 1560, and into England by Sir John Hawkins in 1565, though popular tradition affirms that it was Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake who first brought it home from America in 1586. The .legend of the servant who deluged Raleigh with water, believing him to be on fire, ie well known. It Avas, however, Ralph Lane, and other returned colonists from Virginia in 1586 who first introduced the plant in any quantity, and along with at the habit of smoking: while Sir Walter Raleigh’s example .seems to have oonduced greatly to the spread of the habit.

Both on the continent anil in England the use of tobacco soon became popular., and met with violent opposition from those who saw in new customs nothing hut what was bad. Popes Urban. VIII. and Innocent XI. thundered against it from the papal throne; the Sultan and priests of Turkey (where smoking now seems as important as eating) declared smoking to he a crime, punishable in aggravated cases by the most barbarous of deaths. In Turkey, too, it is said that pipes were thrust into the noses of smokers; while in Russia. in the early part of the 17th century, the no sea of smokers were cut off. Think of this, ye modern devotees of r 4he weed!” In England opposition did not take such extreme forms. Proclamations were issued, statutes were, passed, and duties were imposed, to limit or stop the use of the “pernicious weed”; hut the custom spread, and the seductive plant found advocates in print, to he met .and answered in the same way. Early an the 17th century the Scots poet, William Barclay, wrote several poems in praise of tobacco. But the best English encomium of this period is Barton Holyday’s “Tobaccos a Musician.” (1621). Tobacco’s a Musician, And in a pipe delighteth ; It descends in a dose, Through the organs of the nose, With a relish that inviteth. Chorus. — This makes me sing, soho, soho, hopes, Ho. boyes. sound I loudly; Ebrth ne’er did breed Such a Jovial weed, Whereof to boast so proudly! 'Tobacco -is a Lawyer, His pipes do love long cases; When our brains it enters 'Our feet do make indentures, While we seal wit-h stamping paces. 'Tobacco's a Physician, Good both for sound, and sickly ; "’Tis -a hot- perfume "That expels cold Theurne, And mabc-s it how down quickly. ’Tobacco is a Traveller, tCoroe from the Indies hither; It passed sea and land < ’Ere it came to my hand, And ’-scaped the wind and weather. 'Tobacco is a Ordtticke, That still -old -paper turneth, Whose labour and care ,j , Is smoke in the airej u ,-u ’That nsconde from a rag when it Irorawfti.

Tobacco’s .an ignis fatuus, A fat and iyrie vapourq, That leads men about Till the fire he out. Consuming like a taper. Tobacco is a Whyffler That cries “Huff Snuff,” with fiurie; His pipes, his club .and lirike, He’s wiser that does drin’k;

Tims armed I fear not a furie. This spirited old song, set to a lively tune composed in 1777 by a German composer, is to be found in the “University Song Book.” The practice of smoking %vas at this time called “drinking tobacco,” probably from the habit of swallowing the smoke. This will explain ihe last line of each verse of the anonymous poem, “The Indian Weed.” This Indian weed, now withered quite, Though green at noon, cut down at night, Shows thy decay; All flesh is hay, Thus think, and drink tobacco.

On the other hand, no less a person than King James I. entered the lists to do battle against' the seductive “weed.” The “wisest fool in Christendom” had leanings towards literature. He had already in 1585 published some poems under the title of “Essays of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie.” Now, in 1604, he issued a “Counterblaste to Tobacco,” summing up the habit of smoking as “a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the : brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in i the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke \ of the pit that it bottomless.” Ben, Jonson, too, who had, in his “Every! Man in his Humour” (Act 111., Sc. 2), j acted in November 1596, presented in j the speeches of Bobadilla and Cob both; sides of the controversy, later on great- 1 ly pleased James I. by abusing tobacco; in no measured terms in his “Gipsies’ ! Metamorphosis.” A voluminous versi- 1 fier of the same reign, Joshua Sylvester j (well-known to scholars for his translation of Du Barbas), issued in 1614 a ; poetical invective, with one of the extra- i vagant titles that were not uncommon * then : “Tobacco battered : and the Pipes j shattered .(about their care that idlely idolise so base and barbarous a Aveed; or at least-wise over-love so lothsome j vanitie:) by a Volley of Holy Shot thundered from Mount Helicon.” It is-only necessary to quote a few of the concluding lines to show the character; of this invective:

Hoav juster xvill the Heav’nly God, Th’ Eternal, punish with infernal Rod, In Hell’s darke (Fornace, with black Fumes, to choak) Those, that on Earth will still offend in Smoak ? Offend their Friends, with a. most unRespect: Offend their Wives and Children, with Neglect: Offend tbe Eyes, with foulo and loathsome Sipawlingfs: Offend the Nose, with filthy Fumes exhaling® :. Offend the Ears, with lowd lewd Execrations : Offend the Mouth, with ougly Execrations: Offend the Sense, with stupefying Sense: Offend the Weake, to follow their Offense : Offend the Body, and offend the Minde: Offend the Conscience in a fenrefull kinde: Offend their Bap tisane, and their Second Birth: Offond the Majestie of Heav’n and Earth. Woe to the World because of such Offenses; So voluntaire, so voyd of all pretenses Of all Excuse (save Fashion, C'ustome, Will) In so apparant, proved, granted. 111. Woe, woe to them by Whom Offences come, So scandalous to All our Christendoms. In 1616 John Deacon also dedicated to James I. his prose work, “Tobacco tortured: or the filthie fume of Tobacco refined.” But the King Avas not alloAved to go unanswered. William Barclay, a Scots physician, already mentioned as a poet, issued in 1614 a. flat contradiction to the counterblaste under the title of “Nepenthes, or the Vertues of Tobacco,” while in the very next year an English Avork shows the rapid growth of tobacco smoking. “An Advice how to plant Tobacco in England: and how to firing it to colour and perfection, to whom it may fie profitable, and to whom harmful!. The vertues of the Hearbe in general, as well in the outward application as taken in Fume, With the danger of the Spanish Tobacco, Written by C.T.” But this is hardly literature. The controversy lasted only during the 17th century, and especially in its earlier part. In the 18th century avg have a few Avell-luiown praises of tobacco, tho best known, perhaps, bejng Isaac Hawkins BfoAvne’s “A Pipe of Tobacco,” six clever parodies of Colley Oihber, Ambrose Phillips, Thomson, Young, Pope, and Swift, respectively. It may be mentioned that in. parodying Swift the author imitated Swift’s regrettable obscenity.

The 19th-century can show a vast increase in the literary praises of what Byron -calls “sublime tobacco.” Here is the -very passage in which he uses this expression, from his “Island. Sublime Tobacco ! which from east to west , Cheers the .tar’s labour or the Turkman s -rest;

r Which on the Moslem’s ottoman divides His ho uts, and rivals opium and his brides; Magnificent in -Stamboul, but less grand, Though not less loved, in Wapping or the Strand; Divine in hookers, glorious in a pipe, When tipp’d with amber, yelloAV, rich, and ripe; Like other charmers, Avooing the caress More dazzlingly when daring in full dress; Yet thy true lovers more admire by far Thy naked beauties —Hive me a cigar! .Charles Lamb sings— For thy sake. Tobacco, I Would do anything but die. And Hood Avritee— Some sigh for this or that; My wishes don’t go far; The Avorld may Avag at will, S ! o I have my cigar. Henry &\ Leigh’s “three loves” are hiis “pipe, cigar, and cigaiet-te.” Loavcll Avrote tAA r o pretty little poems of thanks for gifts of cigars and a meerchaum pipe, and begins his “Winter Evening Hymn to My Fire” with the lines — Nicotia, dearer to the Muse

Than all the grape’s bewildering juice, j We Avorship, unforbid of thee. And one might go on quoting a. hundred ! major and minor poets, English and j American (space forbids mention of foreign authors) —W. E. Henley, James j Thomson (“8.V.”), Arthur Symons,; Richard Lo Gallienne, C. G. Leland, j Brander Matthews, and dozens more, j not to mention the prose writers like j Barrie. Nay, even poetesses find to-; baeco a subject for their verses. Ella . Wheeler Wilcox, in her pretty little j poem, “The Duct,” gives an important i place to a cigarette. Kate Carrington ! sings— j What is it comes through the deepening | dusk —• ! Something sweeter than jasmine scent, Sweeter than rose and violet, blent, More potent in power than orange or i musk ? The scent of a good, cigar. ! And what does it say ? Ah. that’s for me ’ And niy heart alone to know; But that heart thrills Avith a sudden glow, Tears fill my eyes till I cannot see— From the scent of that good cigar. There is no pathetic sentiment in Dollic Radford 7i “A Novice” — What i,s it, in those latter days, Transfigures my domestic Avays, And round me. as a halo, plays? My cigarette. ft The symbolism of tobacco is not far to seek, and Avriters for the last three centuries have found it useful for pointing a moral. In Elizabethian times Thomas Dekker spoke of “that lean, taAvny face tobacconist, Death, that turns all into smoko” ; and in our oavu days diaries Sprague, in his “Ode to My Cigar,” thus moralises in verses with Avhich this brief article may fittingly conclude:— Life’s but a leaf adroitly rolled, And time’s the wasting breath, That late or early we behold Gives all to dusky death. From beggar’s frieze to monarch’s robe One common doom is passed ; Sweet nature’s Avork, the sAvelling globe, Must all burn out at last. And. Avliat id he Avho smokes thee now ? A little moving heap, That soon like thee to fate must boAV, With thee in dust must sleep. But though thy ashes downward go, Thy essence rolkj on high ; Thus, AA'heu my body must lie loav, My soul shall cleave tbe ekv. ,