Posted on 07/09/2011 2:03:24 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A South African anthropologist has asked permission to open the graves of William Shakespeare and his family to determine, among other things, what killed the Bard and whether his poems and plays may have been composed under the influence of marijuana.
But while Shakespeare's skeleton could reveal clues about his health and death, the question of the man's drug use depends on the presence of hair, fingernails or toenails in the grave, said Francis Thackeray, the director of the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who floated the proposal to the Church of England.
Thackeray conducted a study in 2001, which found evidence of marijuana residueon pipe fragments found in Shakespeare's garden. Cannabis was grown in England at the time and was used to make textiles and rope. Some Shakespearian allusions, including a mention of a "noted weed" in Sonnet 76, spurred Thackeray's inquiry into whether Shakespeare may have used the mind-altering drug for inspiration.
"If there is any hair, if there is any keratin from the fingernails or toenails, then we will be in a position to undertake chemical analysis on extremely small samples for marijuana," Thackeray told LiveScience.
A poet's curse
Whether or not Shakespeare smoked pot, he certainly didn't want his remains disrupted. The stone covering the poet's grave carries an engraved curse for any would-be intruders.
"Blessed be the man that spares these stones," the engraving reads, "And cursed be he who moves my bones." [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]
Thackeray said he has a way around the Bard's curse.
"We don't want to move any of the bones," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
I think Falstaff and Sir Toby Belch are Shakespeare’s best known references to substance abuse. :’)
Sounds like you have first hand experience today from what was sold in the 60’s. I agree that pot sold today is much stronger than was sold then. I would not call it hashish as I have not seen any since about 1975.
Not a PING
I see your point. But then, I was stymied by the opacity of some of Shakespeare’s work when I was in high school, so it’s not surprising. But it may be opium and not marijuana. They’ll find out.
O, ay; as summer flies are in the shambles,
That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed,
Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet
That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst
ne'er been born!
Othello (IV, ii)
Not sure if they could tell if he smoked pot by his bones, but they probably could by his joints! ;)
Thanks to you, I DID learn something new today.
Now if I can just remember it...
Good one!
Well, you know how the homosexual lobby likes to claim without proof that many of teh founders or other similar national heroes were homosexual?
Well, this is the pot version of that.
Could Shakespeare’s Bones Tell Us if He Smoked Pot?
The short answer is, “no.”
To elaborate...
In the first place, the bones are not Shakespeare’s; they are the remains of another guy named William Shakespeare, who is really wrote Shakespeare’s plays, and just put Shakespeare’s name on them.
If shakespeare’s bones don’t really belong Shakespeare, then they can’t tell us anything about Shakespeare.
That is such a libel of Lovecraft. You make the unwarranted assumption that he didn't know better, just because his readers didn't.
Had he tried to educate them, rather than pander to their ignorance by conforming to the incorrect convention, it would have cost him enormously in terms of future sales.
OTOH, maybe he was ignorant of the real thorn, as opposed to the spurious Y.
Good idea (that opium might be found), but then I rather doubt this will go forward.
It’s easy enough to find evidence that he didn’t like the Elizabethan chicks who liked to partake —
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
[Sonnet 130]
It’s easy enough to find evidence that he didn’t like the Elizabethan chicks who liked to partake —
He could have said as much so more plainly and simply:
All ye ladies faire,
Take note1 —beware!
Any whom doth partake,
My love shalt forsake!
Or, a more ‘modern’ version, even though I just wrote that...
Rooty-toot-toot, we’re the boys of The Institute;
We don’t drink; we don’t smoke; we don’t chew,
And we don’t pitch woo to the girls who do!
(As taught to me by my apostate Mormon father some 50+ years ago.)
You’re right. There is that pesky curse and all. We know what happened to the people who defiled the tomb of Tutankhamen!
Actually, I really think Lovecraft didn’t know. I do recall somewhere else in his body of work the ‘ye’ article showing up (not 100% sure). Has been a long time since I read it and am not sure, but Charles Dexter stood out because so much of the ancestor’s notes were in that form.
I haven’t read his letters and they possibly would shed light on this (or not).
Libel is one of the more serious accusations against me recently, particularly concerning someone dead 75 years. :/
As far as what his intentions were in this, who knows, but I, despite having studied anglo-saxon previously, didn’t figure out where this ‘ye’ article came from until I was older than lovecraft was at death. I remember thinking “ok so they used declensions of The and Se as articles in old english, we use ‘the’ in modern english, where is this ‘ye’ coming from? Not old norse...
Thy gown? Why, ay. Come, tailor, let us see 't. O mercy God, what masking-stuff is here? What’s this? A sleeve? 'Tis like a demi-cannon. What, up and down carved like an apple tart? Here's snip and nip and cut and slish and slash, Like to a censer in a barber's shop.
Smoked pot my ass.
Dame Judi Dench stuns everyone with her Shakespeare sonnet reading
The Graham Norton Show - BBC | 3:30
BBC | 14.1M subscribers | 671,829 views | November 1, 2023
Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
Then, have I reason to be fond of grief?
Fare you well. Had you such a loss as I,
I could give better comfort than you do.
[Constance, King John, act 3, scene 4]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
