ivial soul; but there is no pipe for her, and such
provision was no doubt unusual.

There is direct evidence, too, besides the story in the first
paragraph of this chapter, that women disliked the prevalence of
smoking. In Marston's "Antonio and Mellinda," 1602, Rosaline, when
asked by her uncle when she will marry, makes the spirited
reply--"Faith, kind uncle, when men abandon jealousy, forsake taking
of tobacco, and cease to wear their beards so rudely long. Oh, to have
a husband with a mouth continually smoking, with a bush of furs on the
ridge of his chin, readie still to flop into his foaming chops, 'tis
more than most intolerable;" and similar indications of dislike to
smoking could be quoted from other plays.

On the other hand, it is certain that from comparatively early in the
seventeenth century there were to be found here and there women who
smoked.

On the title-page of Middleton's comedy, "The Roaring Girle," 1611, is
a picture of the heroine, Moll Cutpurse, in man's apparel, smoking a
pipe, from which a great cloud of smoke is issuing.

In the record of an early libel action brought in the court of the
Archdeacon of Essex, some domestic scenes of 1621 are vividly
represented. We need not trouble about the libel action, but two of
the _dramatis personae_ were a certain George Thresher, who sold beer
and tobacco at his "shopp in Romford," and a good friend and customer
of his named Elizabeth Savage, who, sad to say, was described as much
given to "stronge drincke and tobacco." In the course of the trial, on
June 8, 1621, Mistress Savage had to tell her tale, part of which is
reported as follows:

"George Thresher kept a shoppe in Romford and sold tobacco there. She
came divers tymes to his shoppe to buy tobacco there; and sometimes,
with company of her acquaintance, did take tobacco and drincke beere
in the hall of George Thresher's house, sometimes with the said
George, and sometimes with his father and his brothers. And sometimes
shee hath had a joint of meat and a cople of chickens dressed there;
and shee, and they, and some other of her freinds, have dined there
together, and paid their share for their dinner, shee being many times
more willing to dine there than at an inne or taverne."

Elizabeth was evidently of a sociable turn, and though she turned her
nose up at a tavern, there seems to have been little difference
between these festive dinners at Mr. Thresher's "shopp," where
Mistress Savage