Mr. Bubangrub bowed, and respectfully hinted that every kingdom has its cabals, not excepting the realm of actors and actresses. That to soothe their petty jealousies; check the too-aspiring ambition of one, tickle the self-complacency of another--to be grave with the tragic; funny with the comic; patient with the ignorant and presuming, and on terms of eternal friendship with all--to come off victorious on that slippery ground
"Where unfledg'd actors learn to laugh and cry,
Where infant punks their tender voices try,
are difficulties that none but dramatic politicians of experience and discretion can surmount; and he advised every author to whom appetite offered a more powerful stimulant than genius, to make haste and possess himself of the important secret.
Mine host of the Ram now entered with a curiously compounded mug of mum, in which the great Tragedian (who was not particular from Clos Vougeot to Old Tom) drank the Stage that goes with and without wheels. Mr. Bosky, who had got scent of our "Whereabouts," arrived in time to propose the memory of Shakspere, and Mr. Bubangrub's longevity; Uncle Timothy gave Bonassus Bigstick and Bartlemy Fair; and Pegasus toasted the Tragic Muse and Teresa Tumbletuzzy. The Tragedian unbent by degrees; his adust countenance warmed into flesh and blood, and he grew facetious and festive.
"Bubangrub, my Brother of the Sun and Moon! my Nutmeg of delight! give us a song!"
To pitch the tune Pegasus twanged from his Jew's-harp a chord, and apologizing for being "a little ropy," began, in a voice between a whistle and a wheeze,
* In 1585, the English first saw pipes made of clay, among the native Indians of Virginia; which was at that time discovered by Richard Greenville. Soon after they fabricated the first clay tobacco-pipes in Europe.
In 1604, James the First endeavoured, by means of heavy imposts, to abolish the use of tobacco; and, in 1619, wrote his
"Counterblast" against what he accounted a noxious weed, and ordered that no planter in Virginia should cultivate more than one hundred pounds.
In 1610, the smoking of tobacco was known at Constantinople. To render the custom ridiculous, a Turk, who had been found smoking, was conducted about the streets with a pipe transfixed through his nose! And in 1653, when smoking tobacco was first introduced into the Canton of Appenzell, in Switzerland, the children ran after the Smokers in the streets; the Council likewise punished them, and ordered the innkeepers to inform against such as should smoke in their houses.--In 1724, Pope Benedict XIV. revoked the bull of excommunication, published by Innocent, because he himself had acquired the habit of taking snuff!