Was William Shakespear a Stoner?

by **Dukasaur** on Mon Aug 10, 2015 5:42 pm

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/10/europe/shakespeare-cannabis-pipe/

London (CNN)Was playwright William Shakespeare stoned when he penned masterpieces like "Hamlet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?

New correspondence published in the South African Journal of Science highlights how an analysis of residue found in early 17th-century tobacco pipes excavated in Stratford-upon-Avon, central England, found indications of cannabis and nicotine. The report, which was first published in 2001, said that several of the pipes came from Shakespeare's garden.

A kind of cocaine derived from coca leaves was also found in two samples -- although neither of those were from the playwright's property.

The report did not claim to have proof that the Bard smoked cannabis or even that the pipes found in his garden belonged to him.

But author Professor Francis Thackeray, from the Evolutionary Studies Institute at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, still speculates that cannabis could have been a source of inspiration for the Bard.

In this month's journal, he references a line from Shakespeare's Sonnet 76 that mentions "invention in a noted weed."

He told CNN via email Monday: "I think that Shakespeare was playing with words and (it) is probably a cryptic reference to cannabis."

Shakespeare could have enjoyed "the noted weed" for creative writing because it had mind-stimulating properties, he added.

If true, Shakespeare would join a long and illustrious list of writers from Byron to Hunter S. Thompson who have been inspired by drugs.

by **mrswdk** on Tue Aug 11, 2015 2:32 am

We won't know for certain until we've counted the number of characters in Hamlet, written the number in word form and then converted that number into Wingdings font.

by **degaston** on Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:05 am

Definitely!

Paging AndyDufresne...

by **notyou2** on Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:30 am

I had to get stoned to get through his stuff in high school, so....yes.

It's kind of like when you are stoned and you stash your stuff, but the next day you can't remember where you stashed it and you have to call a friend to get you high so you can remember.