A PIPE of TOBACCO In Imitation of Six Several AUTHORS. Isaac Hawkins Browne Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T131163 K104099.002 Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. II. London printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley 1763 [1st ed. 1758] pp. 280-286. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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A PIPE of TOBACCO In Imitation of Six Several AUTHORS .
IMITATION I. A NEW-YEAR'S ODE . RECITATIVO . OLD battle-array , big with horror is fled , And olive-rob'd peace again lifts up her head . Sing , ye Muses , TOBACCO , the blessing of peace ; Was ever a nation so blessed as this ? AIR . When summer suns grow red with heat , TOBACCO tempers Phoebus' ire , When wintry storms around us beat , TOBACCO cheers with gentle fire . Yellow autumn , youthful spring , In thy praises jointly sing . RECITATIVO . Like NEPTUNE , CAESAR guards VIRGINIAN fleets , Fraught with TOBACCO'S balmy sweets ; Old Ocean trembles at BRITANNIA'S pow'r , And BOREAS is afraid to roar . AIR . Happy mortal ! he who knows Pleasure which a PIPE bestows ; Curling eddies climb the room , Wafting round a mild perfume . RECITATIVO . Let foreign climes the vine and orange boast , While wastes of war deform the teeming coast ; BRITANNIA , distant from each hostile sound , Enjoys a PIPE , with ease and freedom crown'd ; E'en restless faction finds itself most free , Or if a slave , a slave to liberty . AIR . Smiling years that gayly run Round the zodiack with the sun , Tell , if ever you have seen Realms so quiet and serene . BRITISH sons no longer now Hurl the bar , or twang the bow , Nor of crimson combat think , But securely smoke and drink . CHORUS . Smiling years , that gayly run Round the zodiack with the sun , Tell , if ever you have seen Realms so quiet and serene .
IMITATION II . LITTLE tube of mighty pow'r , Charmer of an idle hour , Object of my warm desire , Lip of wax , and eye of fire : And thy snowy taper waist , With my finger gently brac'd ; And thy pretty swelling crest , With my little stopper prest , And the sweetest bliss of blisses , Breathing from thy balmy kisses . Happy thrice , and thrice agen , Happiest he of happy men ; Who when agen the night returns , When agen the taper burns ; When agen the cricket's gay , ( Little cricket , full of play ) Can afford his tube to feed With the fragment INDIAN weed : Pleasure for a nose divine , Incense of the god of wine . Happy thrice , and thrice agen , Happiest he , of happy men .
IMITATION III . O Thou , matur'd by glad Hesperian suns , TOBACCO , fountain pure of limpid truth , That looks the very soul ; whence pouring thought Swarms all the mind ; absorpt is yellow care , And at each puff imagination burns : Flash on thy bard , and with exalting fires Touch the mysterious lip that chaunts thy praise , In strains to mortal sons of earth unknown . Behold an engine , wrought from tawny mines Of ductile clay , with plastick virtue form'd , And glaz'd magnifick o'er , I grasp , I fill . From PAETOTHEKE with pungent pow'rs perfum'd Itself one tortoise , all , where shines imbib'd Each parent ray ; then rudely ram'd illume , With the red touch of zeal-enkindling sheet , Mark'd with Gibsonian lore ; forth issue clouds , Thought-thrilling , thirst-inciting clouds around , And many-mining fires : I all the while , Lolling at ease , inhale the breezy balm . But chief , when Bacchus wont with thee to join , In genial strife and orthodoxal ale , Stream life and joy into the Muse's bowl . Oh be thou still my great inspirer , thou My Muse ; oh fan me with thy zephyrs boon , While I , in clouded tabernacle shrin'd , Burst forth all oracle and mystick song .
IMITATION IV . CRITICKS avaunt ; TOBACCO is my theme ; Tremble like hornets at the blasting steam . And you , court-insects , flutter not too near Its light , nor buzz within the scorching sphere . POLLIO , with flame like thine , my verse inspire , So shall the Muse from smoke elicit fire . Coxcombs prefer the tickling sting of snuff ; Yet all their claim to wisdom is — a puff : Lord FOPLIN smokes not — for his teeth afraid : Sir TAWDRY smokes not — for he wears brocade . Ladies , when pipes are brought , affect to swoon ; They love no smoke , except the smoke of town ; But courtiers hate the puffing tribe , — no matter , Strange if they love the breath that cannot flatter ! Its foes but shew their ignorance ; can he Who scorns the leaf of knowledge , love the tree ? The tainted templar ( more prodigious yet ) Rails at TOBACCO , tho' it makes him — spit . CRITONIA vows it has an odious stink ; She will not smoke ( ye gods ! ) — but she will drink : And chaste PRUDELIA ( blame her if you can ) Says , pipes are us'd by that vile creature Man : Yet crowds remain , who still its worth proclaim , While some for pleasure smoke , and some for fame : Fame , of our actions universal spring , For which we drink , eat , sleep , smoke — ev'ry thing .
IMITATION V. BLEST leaf ! whose aromatick gales dispense To templars modesty , to parsons sense : So raptur'd priests , at fam'd DODONA'S shrine Drank inspiration from the steam divine . Poison that cures , a vapour that affords Content , more solid than the smile of lords : Rest to the weary , to the hungry food , The last kind refuge of the WISE and GOOD . Inspir'd by thee , dull cits adjust the scale Of Europe's peace , when other statesmen fail . By thee protected , and thy sister , beer , Poets rejoice , nor think the bailiff near . Nor less the critick owns thy genial aid , While supperless he plies the piddling trade . What tho' to love and soft delights a foe , By ladies hated , hated by the beau , Yet social freedom , long to courts unknown , Fair health , fair truth , and virtue are thy own . Come to thy poet , come with healing wings , And let me taste thee unexcis'd by kings .
IMITATION VI . BOY ! bring an ounce of FREEMAN'S best , And bid the vicar be my guest : Let all be plac'd in manner due , A pot wherein to spit or spue , And London Journal , or Free-Briton , Of use to light a pipe , or ** ********* ********* This village , unmolested yet By troopers shall be my retreat : Who cannot flatter , bribe , betray ; Who cannot write or vote for * . Far from the vermin of the town , Here let me rather live , my own , Doze o'er a pipe , whose vapour bland In sweet oblivion lulls the land ; Of all which at Vienna passes , As ignorant ** Brass is : And scorning rascals to caress , Extol the days of good Queen BESS , When first TOBACCO blest our isle , Then think of other Queens — and smile . Come jovial pipe , and bring along Midnight revelry and song ; The merry catch , the madrigal , That echoes sweet in City Hall ; The parson's pun , the smutty tale Of country justice o'er his ale . I ask not what the French are doing , Or Spain to compass Britain's ruin : Britons , if undone , can go , Where TOBACCO loves to grow .