> DRY
DRUNK
THE GREAT DEBATE
Although there had been reservations about the new herb from the start,
the first full-fledged anti-tobacco treatises appeared only after the practice
of "drinking," and getting drunk from, tobacco had begun to be commonplace.
Nowhere was the debate more heated or highly placed than in England, where
King James I (reigned 1603–25) spearheaded an intensive, but ultimately
unsuccessful, effort to ban the stuff. A cornerstone of his argument was
the link between tobacco and syphilis: he argued that both came from the
Indians, whom he characterized as crude and savage, and that tobacco was
used by them as a cure against the dread disease, compounding its foulness.
During the intense early period of the debate, from about 1590 to 1630, many
of Europe's most interesting and challenging minds, literary as well as philosophical
and scientific, took part in the polemic, frequently, it must be said, with
tongues at least partially in cheek. Most stood a middle ground, supporting
moderate recreational and medicinal use and opposing outright abuse for any
purpose.
Meanwhile, Virginia tobacco had begun to meet with great favor among English
smokers, much to the despair of James I, who eventually limited his ban on
tobacco to just the non-Virginian product. The tax revenues from the import
went directly into the King's coffers; as in other places and at other times,
this was undoubtedly an important factor in his astounding reversal of position.
Eventually the debate cooled, without, however, becoming entirely dormant.
Eighteenth-century responses to tobacco were mixed, but essentially it was
considered a gentlemanly act to while away an evening over a pipe; by the
19th century, it was a gentleman's –even a young boy's –duty
to master the art of the cigar, which had by then displaced the pipe as the
most elegant (and least time-consuming) smoking instrument.
17
Johannes van Vliet (Dutch, active ca. 1628–37)
The sense of smell
Etching, 1634
Print Collection
An accomplished etcher, Van Vliet is best known for his collaborations
with Rembrandt, but he also created an interesting oeuvre of his own, including
many prints depicting the lives and trades of his fellow countrymen. The
sense of smell is vividly enacted here by the young man rather maliciously
blowing a blast of tobacco smoke into his neighbor's face. This makes quite
clear that tobacco "drinking" was neither a fully acceptable activity by
the 1630s nor an activity for mixed company.
18
James I, King of England (British, 1566–1625)
A Proclamation Concerning Tobacco
Broadside, four pages letterpress
London: Bonham Norton and John Bill, 1624
Arents Tobacco Collection
In the 20 years following publication of his strongly worded Counterblaste –"surely
in my opinion, there cannot be a more base, and yet hurtful, corruption
in a Countrey, then [sic] is the vile use (or rather abuse) of taking Tobacco
in this Kingdome" –King James came to see "that our colonies, still
in their infancies can't be expected to prosper unless we tolerate the
planting and venting of tobacco." A major problem addressed in this 1624
proclamation was the large quantity of Spanish tobacco being imported into
England annually, despite high tariffs and the concomitant expense passed
on to the consumer; the problem was, English consumers not only wanted
to smoke, they preferred the Spanish product.
19
Unidentified (German, mid-17th century)
Lobspruch des edlen hochberuhmten Krauts Petum oder Taback, von dessen
Ankunft und garloblichen Gebrauch bey manchen teutschen Helden [In praise
of the noble and most famous herb petum, or tobacco, pertaining to its
origin, its highly praiseworthy use by many German heroes, and its real
virtue and effect]
Broadside, engraving and letterpress
Nuremberg: Paulus Fürst, 1652
Arents Tobacco Collection
Hardly a simple song of praise, this German broadside provides an encapsulated
history of the "intoxicating herb," from A to H. Its origin with the "wild
people" of the New World, for example, explains why it makes people crazy
and wild. It is shown to have medicinal value, but is also greatly appreciated
by the Germans, who combine the new "drunkenness" with beer. Several common
legends about tobacco are presented, including its use in appeasing hunger
pangs, and to clear the brain. Regarding women and tobacco: on the one
hand, wives complain that their husbands squander everything on tobacco,
while on the other, women who smoke think they are men's equal, and soon
will try to wear the metaphorical trousers, in an evocation of the late
medieval "battle of the trousers."
20
Unidentified (British, 2nd half 17th century)
The Taylor and the Cobbler
Mezzotint, n.d.
Arents Tobacco Collection
The stupefying effects of tobacco "drunkenness" and its close associations
with alcohol are stressed in this print, which also plays on competition
between the trades.
21
William Hogarth (British, 1697–1764)
Beer Street
Etching, 1751
Print Collection, Gift of William Elliott
In this print (published by Hogarth along with another called Gin Lane,
in which the evils of the stronger foreign alcohol are highlighted), the
wholesome aspects of beer drinking and tobacco smoking are emphasized.
The suggestion is that regular consumption of a good, healthy mug of British
beer –and the pipe of tobacco that accompanies it –promotes
positive values in society. The robust blacksmith holds the composition
together, raising high his mug and a shoulder of mutton, while he puffs
away at his pipe, in a set of gestures that are as nationalistic as they
are hearty.
22
Unidentified (British, 1st quarter 18th century)
The Bubbler's Mirror
Etching, engraving, and mezzotint, published by Thomas Bowles, 1720
Print Collection, Gift of Alexander Maitland
The South Sea Company, also known as the "South Sea Bubble," was formed
in 1710 as a venture to make money through New World investments, but a
decade later what had originated as a legitimate enterprise devolved, through
massive overspeculation in England, France, and Holland, into a financial
catastrophe on an enormous scale. Many prominent investors lost huge sums.
Hundreds of prints were published about the affair, including this unusual
broadside with its mezzotinted mourner lamenting his emptied purse. Tobacco
imports were included in the "List of ye Bubbles of less Note" (along with
widows' pensions, malt liquor, grand American fishery, the River Oronoko,
corn trade, extracting silver from lead, butter from beech trees, paper
manufactory, an air pump for the brain, etc., etc.).
23
James I, King of England (British, 1566–1625)
A Counterblaste to Tobacco
London: Robert Barker, 1604
Arents Tobacco Collection
James I was no friend to Sir Walter Raleigh, which might explain his
vehement opposition to tobacco. He argues against even the medicinal use
of the herb, suggesting that, while it is true that it is hot and dry,
it also has a "certain venemous facultie . . . which makes it haue an Antipathie
against nature." He further links the (ab)use of tobacco to the "sinne
of drunkennesse," and concludes his essay with this rather prescient statement
about the dangers of its use:
A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull
to the braine, daungerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume
thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that
is bottomlesse.
24
Anthony Chute (British, d. 1595?)
Tabaco. The distinct and Severall opinions of the late and best Phisitions
that have written of the divers natures and qualities thereof
London: Adam Islip for William Barlow, 1595
Arents Tobacco Collection
Chute devoted the first half of his little treatise –the first
on tobacco in the English language –to promoting tobacco "drinking" as
a health remedy, which he rightfully states had not been done before. Pipes,
he noted, could be made of either silver or clay, although silver got hot
fast and was problematic to keep clean. Convinced that tobacco should be
consumed only for health reasons, he suggests that it can relieve just
about any ailment related to excess fluids in the body:
I thinke that there is nothing that harmes a man inwardly from
his girdle upward, but may be taken away with a moderate use of Tabacco,
and in those parts consist the chief reasons of our health, for the stomacke
and head being cleare and void of evill humors, commonly the whole body
is the better.
25
Unidentified (Dutch, 1st quarter 17th century)
The Origins of Tobacco Drinking
Etching in: Jan Jansz Starter (Dutch, b. England, 1594–1626). Friesche
Lust-Hof, Beplant met verscheyden stichtelijcke Minne-Liedekens Gedichten ende
Boertighe Kluchten [Frisian pleasure garden, planted with various edifying
love-songs, poems and humorous farces]. Amsterdam: Hessel Gerritsz, 1627
Spencer Collection
Starter, whose English family fled to the Netherlands for religious
reasons, became a popular author of songs and occasional poetry. In his
farcical poem on the origins of tobacco, the Olympian gods become so disgusted
with Vulcan's new habit of smoking tobacco that they cast his supply out
of their realm, thereby planting it upon the earth. There, the habit of
pipe-smoking quickly becomes the vogue among wealthy, idle young men. The
poem elaborates on a theme found in Samuel Rowlands's 1613 poem "To smokey
Noses, and stinking Nostrils."
26
Gillis van Scheyndel (Dutch, ca. 1595/1600–1649)
Title page vignette: still-life with skull, bat, hourglass, and tobacco pipes
Etching in: Pieter Schrijver (Dutch, 1576–1660). Saturnalia, ofte
poëtisch vasten-avond spel vervatende het gebruyk ende misbruyk vanden
taback [Saturnalia, or poetic play for Shrovetide, containing the use and abuse
of tobacco]. Haarlem: Adriaen Roman, 1630
Arents Tobacco Collection
Pieter Schrijver was one of the most eloquent advocates of the youthful
Republic of the Netherlands; his historical treatises are exemplars of
thorough research. Although conceived as a lenten play, Saturnalia is no
exception to this rule: the playful verses, informative in and of themselves,
are preceded by a summary of the medicinal uses of tobacco. Several verses
focus on the use of tobacco as a replacement for food –hence the
appropriateness of the lenten theme. Another verse debates whether tobacco
is drunk or eaten: the author calls on the common wisdom that smoke is
not drunk, and concludes that it should indeed be considered food, not
drink.
27
William Marshall (British, active 1617–49)
A Tobacco Shop to Life Presented
Engraved frontispiece to: Richard Brathwait (British, 1588?–1673). The
Smoaking Age, Or, the Man in the Mist: with the Life and Death of Tobacco.
Dedicated to Those Three Renowned and Imparallel'd Heroes, Captaine Whiffe,
Captaine Pipe, and Captaine Snuffe. London: E. Griffin, 1617
Arents Tobacco Collection
Said to be the earliest representation of an English tobacco shop,
this image dates precisely to the period when such specialty shops were
replacing the apothecary as suppliers of tobacco. The Latin text swarming
above the Captaines Whiffe, Pipe, and Snuffe suggests that tobacco is capable
of turning white men into "Ethiopians." Further evidence of the otherness
associated with tobacco are the blackamoor on the counter in the left foreground,
and the running and swimming natives cavorting in the land of "Nicotiana" in
the upper register. Brathwait's often biting satire also includes a mythological
version of tobacco's origins.
28
George Cruikshank (British, 1792–1878)
A smoking dandy, seen from behind
Wood engraving on cover of: Anonymous. More Hints on Etiquette. London:
Charles Tilt, 1838
Print Collection, Bequest of Mary Stillman Harkness
Once attributed to the young Charles Dickens, this book satirizes mid-19th-century
masculine etiquette, and includes a chapter on the cigar, which is considered
to be:
imperative; no gentleman can pretend to be a gentleman unless
he smokes his cigar, and the sooner you master this accomplishment the
better. . . . We think little gentlemen would always look very interesting
with a pipe in one hand and a lollipop in the other. . . . Now, if you
aspire to the Exquisite, . . . Take up your cigar with the forefinger and
thumb, press it tenderly, very tenderly, all around, moistening it with
your lips, then place it between the fore and middle fingers, (being careful
to have primrose or lavender-coloured kid gloves on,) then allow one end
to come in contact with the flame of a wax candle. . . . The best places
for puffing cigars are certainly the public streets, or on the inside of
stage-coaches, –it makes it so agreeable to the other passengers,
particularly to the females.