Don Juan, the 1655 five-act comedy by Molière, begins with a rhapsody on the benefits of snuff: the pulverized tobacco product popularized in the courts and salons of 17th-century Europe. “It’s the passion of the virtuous man,” Molière’s rakish hero waxes. “Not only does it purge the human brain, but it also instructs the soul in virtue and one learns from it how to be a virtuous man.”
Don Juan’s ode to smokeless tobacco was consistent with similar ecstasies of the era. The distinguished English scholar and encyclopedist Robert Burton claimed tobacco went “far beyond all other panaceas, potable gold, and philosopher’s stones, a sovereign remedy to all diseases”. Mark Twain, the eminent American wit, once proclaimed: “If smoking is not allowed in heaven, I shall not go.”
