378
NOTES AND QUERIES. [2* s. N 19., MAY 10. '5.
" Kot ^/u.eis /3ovA.evcra/xe8a Kal eypai/fafiev OTI Iva. exO
TTairas TO. Trporo/xia avrov Kara TOVS Kavdvas, (cal ra pijra rS>v
g.yi<ov, Kal TTJI- ei'ap Tpatftyv, Kal TO. irpaKTiKa. T>V a~ov6Siav."
Cone. Florent., sep. xxv., versus finem.
J. SANSOM.
SONG ON TOBACCO.
"(2 nd S. I 115. 182. 258. 320.)
The following version of this popular song, the earliest yet discovered, is from a MS. of the early part of the seventeenth century, in the possession of Mr. J. Payne Collier.* It has the initials " G. W." (i. e. George Withers ?) at the end. Like Milton, Withers is said to have indulged in the luxury of smoking ; and many of his evenings in Newgate (during his long imprisonment), when weary of numbering his steps, or telling the panes of glass, were solaced with " meditations over a pipe," not without a grateful acknowledgment of God's mercy in thus wrapping up " a blessing in a weed."
" Why should we so much despise, So good and wholesome an exercise, As early and late to meditate : Thus think, and drink tobacco.
" The earthen pipe so lily white, Shows that thou art a mortal wight, Even such, and gone with a small touch : Thus think, and drink tobacco.
" And when the smoke ascends on high, Think on the worldly vanity Of worldly stuff, 'tis gone with a puff: Thus think, and drink tobacco.
" And when the pipe is foul within, Think how the soul's defiled with sin, To purge with fire it doth require : Thus think, and drink tobacco.
" Lastly, the ashes left behind, May daily show to move the mind, That to ashes and dust return we must : Thus think, and drink tobacco."
A printed broadside of this song, dated 1670, is still in existence. It has the tune at the top, and corresponds with the preceding in all material points, excepting the first stanza, which runs thus :
" The Indian weed withered quite, Grown at noon, cut down at night, Shows thy decay, all flesh is hay: Thus think, then drink tobacco."
Drinking tobacco was another term for smoking it :
" The smoke of tobacco (the which Dodoneus called rightly Henbane of Peru) drunlte and drawen by a pipe, filleth the membranes of the braine, and astonislieth and filleth many persons with such joy and pleasure, and sweet losse of senses, that they can by no means be without it." The Perfuming of Tobacco, and the great Abuse committed in it, 1611.
- Printed in my Little Book of Songs and Ballads from
Ancient Mustek Books MS., and printed, 8vo., 1851.
The version quoted by MB. W. H. HUSK from
The Aviary, or Magazine of British Melody, be-
ginning :
" Tobacco's but an Indian weed,"
was first, printed (as far as I have observed) in Wit and Mirth, or PiUs to Purge Melancholy, 1707, vol. i. p. 315. The burden in this latter copy reads :
" Think of this, and take tobacco."
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
The song on tobacco quoted in your last num-
ber is but a clumsy paraphrase of that ballad first
printed in 1672, in a minor " Counterjjlaste," en-
titled Two Broadsides against Tobacco : it was
afterwards reprinted in a Paper of Tobacco, pub-
lished in 1837, and now out of print, and again in
the Book of English Songs, where another version,
differing again from your correspondent's, is also
given. You will notice in the original, how much
more smooth the rhyme is, and, although quaint,
is a much better piece of poetical moralisation
than its copy :
" The Indian weed wither'd quite, Green at noon, cut down at night, Shews thy decay, All flesh is hay,
Thus think, then drink * tobacco. ; " The pipe that is so lily white Shews thee to be a mortal wight, Even as such Gone at a touch,
Thus think, then drink tobacco.
" And when the smoke ascends on high, Think thou behold'st the vanity Of worldly stuff,; Gone at a puff;
Thus think, then drink tobacco.
"And when the pipe grows foul within, Think on thy soul defiled with sin, And of the fire It doth require ;
Thus think, then drink tobacco.
" The ashes that are left behind, May serve to put thee still in mind, That unto dust Return thou must ;
Thus think, then drink tobacco.
J. BEBTBAND PAYNE.
Sudbury.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
(2 nd S. i. 268.)
To the first Query of ANON, whether a version of the Commandments, such as described by Dr.
- It may be as well to add that drinking tobacco was
the ancient term given to what we now term smoking; this had more significance then, as the smoke was swal- lowed and ejected through the nostrils, in the same man- ner as the modern Spaniards smoke their cigarettos.
