Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.
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Early Modern England Encyclopedia
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The introduction of tobacco to the European continent took early modern society by storm. This controversial herb quickly became incorporated into an average English person’s life by the 17th century. Some believed it was a panacea, the cure to illnesses within the body. Others warned of its evils and claimed the devil himself was the first to discover tobacco.
Tobacco was new for Europeans, first imported into England by Sir Walter Ralegh in 1586. Since Europeans did not have words to describe the act of smoking, it was often called
Print was a key player when it came to the tobacco market in early modern England. Some writers during this period used print to advertise the many wonders the herb offered. Spanish physician Nicholas Monarde was a top advocate for tobacco, stating it could fix men’s and women’s health imbalances. Physicians came forward, including Roger Marbecke, who concluded it could cure dropsies, and waterish diseases, and rheumes, and scurvies, and cold, and weak stomackes
(Romaniello 161).
One of the most influential published works against tobacco was by King James the I of England. His 1604 pamphlet,
deny god and adore the devill as they doe. He also claimed that smoking was
lothesome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black and stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.
Even with such an influential voice taking a stand,ntobacco did not stop spreading throughout this period.
English people developed etiquette and laws regarding smoking. In Norwich, smoking in public was outlawed. In other places, when men and women mixed in social settings, it was expected that a man wait for women’s permission to smoke or ask if it was acceptable. Tobacco was also not to be smoked around any royal figure.
In some parts of London such as
Snuff is a ground-up and treated tobacco that is ingested orally or nasally. Using snuff was more widely accepted than smoking tobacco since it could be enjoyed anywhere without impacting others. By the 18th century, snuff was widely integrated into elite society in England. Additionally, during this time, it was considered bad manners to refuse someone’s offer of a pinch of snuff. Elaborate snuff boxes, often works of art or encrusted with precious stones, became a status symbol.
Tobacco is represented in poetry and drama in the early modern period. One poem by Raphael Thorius in a book titled
Of harmlesse Bowles I mean to sing the praise, And th’Herb which doth the Poets fancy raise Fill me a Pipe (boy), of that lustie smoke That I may drink the God into my brain And so inabled, write a buskin’d strain.
Within early modern drama, tobacco was used as a symbol of risk and questionable morals. A great example occurs in the 1611 play by Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton,
Tobacco is used to show not only Mary Frith as morally suspect, but also as a cause to question the morality of the other characters, such as the young men who plot alongside her. Sir Davey Dapper is concerned about his son Jack Dapper’s actions and comments on the type of activities that go on alongside smoking tobacco: