Shakespeare was a Stoner
Cannabis discovered in tobacco pipes found in William Shakespeare's garden
Forensic testing of 400-year-old pipes suggest playwright might have smoked more than just tobacco
South African scientists have discovered that 400-year-old tobacco pipes excavated from the garden of William Shakespeare contained cannabis, suggesting the playwright might have written some of his famous works while high.
Residue from early 17th century clay pipes found in the playwright’s garden, and elsewhere in Stratford-Upon-Avon, were analysed in Pretoria using a sophisticated technique called gas chromatography mass spectrometry, the Independent reports.
Of the 24 fragments of pipe loaned from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to University of the Witwatersrand, cannabis was found in eight samples, four of which came from Shakespeare's property.
There was also evidence of cocaine in two pipes, but neither of them hailed from the playwright's garden.
Shakespeare's sonnets suggest he was familiar with the effects of both drugs.
In Sonnet 76, he writes about “invention in a noted weed", which could be interpreted to mean that Shakespeare was willing to use “weed”, or cannabis, while he was writing.
In the same sonnet it appears that he would prefer not to be associated with “compounds strange”, which can be interpreted, at least potentially, to mean “strange drugs” (possibly cocaine).
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | February 27, 2021 8:00 PM
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A week ago my uncle from Birmingham came to visit and told me that academics now reckon that Shakespeare's accent would have been similar to a Brummie accent. I find that much more shocking.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | August 9, 2015 10:36 PM
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What about that theory that Shakespeare wasnt a real person, or at least not the author of the works attributed to him?
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | August 10, 2015 11:25 AM
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[quote]What about that theory that Shakespeare wasnt a real person, or at least not the author of the works attributed to him?
There's nothing to even suggest (let alone prove) that the real Shakespeare (he was a real man) didn't write the plays he's famous for, beyond a bunch of snobs who don't believe a person from the lower classes couldn't possibly have written them and who jump on various odd things about the man (like the assertion that he never had any books in his house when he died) and hold them up as proof of a conspiracy. The fact is, no one apart from Shakespeare has ever written plays to equal them, so an upper class highly educated man is as unlikely as any other. And the oddities of Shakespeare's belongings and his personality are entirely plausible when you consider the man was a unique genius and is unlikely to have behaved in entirely conventional ways. It's utter balls.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | August 10, 2015 12:30 PM
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Sorry, that should say "a bunch of snobs who don't believe a person from the lower classes COULD possibly have written them".
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | August 10, 2015 12:32 PM
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R3 Many academics, scholars and and academic researches have found reasonable doubt about his authorship. I.a. because he has also written a lot of history and there is a lot of history, politics, psychology and academia in his works in general, it is quite suspicious that there isn't much to indicate that he got a good and even much education, I think he didn't go to university, and there was just one or so hand-written note of him found. His learned job doesn't indicate creativity either, but being at least somewhat good with business. If Shakespeare would be exposed as a fraud, financially, academically and otherwise there would be quite a suffering. Of course an American website supports the genius out of nothing view and a good and ruthless business man.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | August 10, 2015 4:09 PM
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"Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day. (Macbeth)"
Shakespeare probably wrote that at 420 in the afternoon.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | August 10, 2015 4:44 PM
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No one ever suggested Shakespeare's genius came "out of nothing". It's like many other conspiracy theories: mostly propagated by people who have very little knowledge of the subject. The most hilarious element of all this is that pretty much all of the alternative candidates for authorship were shit writers whose own work doesn't come anywhere near the quality of Shakespeare's. But they were from the upper classes therefore they're apparently more qualified to have written the plays. What horseshit.
One thing they always ignore is that there are a great deal of references to where Shakespeare grew up in the works.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | August 10, 2015 4:51 PM
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R3 I like you! Very kind of you to defend his legacy against snobs who believe in nothing but tearing down a dead man who had more talent than they ever will.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | February 27, 2021 8:00 PM
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