But James did, at least, give Harington an insight into what he thought of the English court.
It was clear, for example, that James was shocked by the prevalence of smoking. The habit had become fashionable after Ralegh’s discovery of Virginia and courtiers lavished as much as £300 or £400 a year on it. James was ahead of his time in recognizing smoking as unhealthy, and he warned Harington that tobacco “would, by its use, infuse ill qualities on the brain, and that no learned man ought to taste it, and [he] wished it forbidden.”
He was already planning a treatise on the subject, A Courtier-blast to Tobacco, which would be published anonymously a few months later. He may well have been writing it at the table in the little room in which they stood.
Source:
Lisle, Leanda De. "The God of Truth and Time." After Elizabeth: The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England. New York: Ballantine, 2005. 281-82. Print.
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