The study focused on analyzing the residue of clay pipes using a technique called gas chromatography mass spectrometry, which sounds very scientific and sophisticated so I trust the results wholeheartedly.
Advertisement
William Shakespeare’s clever wordplay and enduring themes might not be the only way that the playwright proved to be ahead of his time.
The analysis found none of the pipes with cocaine residue came from Shakespeare’s garden, but four of the pipes containing cannabis residue did.
William Shakespeare sought inspiration by smoking weed in the sort of pipe commonly referred to as a “bong”, a South African scientist has claimed.
Professor Francis Thackeray of the University of Witwatersrand, who headed the study, writes that several kinds of tobacco were known to early 17th-century Englishmen.
In total, the researchers found four pipes with cannabis residue.
This is the closest link yet between the author and drug use. “Possibly, he preferred cannabis as a weed with mind-stimulating properties”, Thackeray told the Independent.
The report suggests that Shakespeare was familiar with the effects of drugs.
The report didn’t speculate on how frequently Shakespeare may have smoked the substance. Thackeray notes that “In Sonnet 76 Shakespeare writes about “invention in a noted weed”.
The examination of Shakespeare’s grave would involve looking into the playwright’s bones similar to how the skeleton of Richard III was examined.
Advertisement
However, an epitaph on Shakespeare’s grave suggested that the famed poet had a fear of exhumation burial, and mistreatment of corpses.
