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Did Shakespeare smoke pot?

Was Shakespeare gay? Was he a woman? Did he eat barley, or walk with a limp? Let's dig up the corpse and find out!

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 residue on 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.

[Thanks Daniel! Via Huffington Post]

Posted By jamesk at 2011-06-30 10:07:27 permalink | comments
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Dononamous. : 2011-07-04 14:43:47
Lol myricistin
Gwyllm. : 2011-07-03 10:24:04
I suggest we leave this question for the ages, and leave Willy the fuck alone.
primordialstu : 2011-06-30 10:37:09
It is widely believed that Shakespeare was influenced by Francois Rabelais, who, as Chris Bennett points out in the "related links," wrote about "the Herb Pantagruelion" in his satirical novel Pantagruel. So it is not far-fetched to think that the Bard may have emulated Francois' habits as well as his themes and language.

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