By
King James VI of Scotland and
I of England
By the end of the 16th Century smoking had become widespread and popular in Britain. Christopher Marlowe declared that "all they that love not tobacco and boys are fools." Many disagreed, however, and King James, though a lover of boys, abhorred tobacco. In 1604 he initiated a two-pronged attack on the habit, imposing a heavy tax on it, and publishing this pamphlet. He attacks the habit of smoking from several angles, culminating in a rousing peroration where he describes it as
"A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful
to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black
stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit
that is bottomless."
For many years afterwards, James was dismissed as a silly and puritanical bigot; however his views are now commonplace, even orthodox. How times change: the pendulum swings, and then swings back.
