The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.1265  Wednesday, 30 May 2001

From:           Gary Allen <
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Date:           Monday, 28 May 2001 21:00:51 EDT
Subject: 12.1250 Re: Hemp and hanging
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.1250 Re: Hemp and hanging

Peter Groves remarks:

>Not that curious, considering that very few of his plays are set in the
>here-and-now, and tobacco was a striking novelty.

Even more an innovation than I had realized.  According to a timeline
presented at:

http://www.tobacco.org/History/Tobacco_History.html

1586: ENGLAND: Tobacco Arrives in English Society. In July 1586, some of
the Virginia colonists returned to England and disembarked at Plymouth
smoking tobacco from pipes, which caused a sensation. William Camden
(1551-1623) a contemporary witness, reports that "These men who were
thus brought back were the first that I know of that brought into
England that Indian plant which they call Tabacca and Nicotia, or
Tobacco" Tobacco in the Elizabethan age was known as "sotweed." (BD)

1564 or 1565: ENGLAND: Tobacco is introduced into England by Sir John
Hawkins and/or his crew. Tobacco is used cheifly by sailors, including
those employed by Sir Francis Drake, until the 1580s.

Gary

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