Was William Shakespeare a Pot Head?
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  Was William Shakespeare a Pot Head?
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Author Topic: Was William Shakespeare a Pot Head?  (Read 468 times)
Torie
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« on: August 14, 2015, 04:55:41 PM »

Maybe. I didn't know pot had hit England in the 16th century, but the Spanish were running around pillaging the New World, so maybe (assuming pot originated in the New World).
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2015, 12:23:16 AM »

Hashish came from the Muslim world, not the New World. Cannabis cultivation goes back thousands of years and the plant originates from South Asia.
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DemPGH
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« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2015, 12:14:02 PM »
« Edited: August 15, 2015, 12:21:12 PM by DemPGH »

Sonnet 76 is being presented as evidence, but there are certainly allusions to drug use and warped perception in A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's so obvious as to be unavoidable.

Shakespeare was a very, very formulaic writer, so sonnet 76 is him basically answering criticism that he does the same old thing all the time (and I don't really know how much he was criticized for that, though). He basically says that his style and staid formula is timeless like the Sun, which is timeless like the love he has for the lady he is addressing the sonnet to. (There were others like George Herbert who were doing all kinds of inventive things - making the text of his poems into the shape of what he was writing about, for e.g., like an altar or even a butterfly, I think).

"Compounds strange" may refer to stylistic choices as well as drugs, "noted weed" may refer again to something very familiar, which has become stale and unattractive.

Anyway, pot head? Ehh. Did he try some drugs? Oh, I bet.
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angus
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« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2015, 02:23:30 PM »

(assuming pot originated in the New World).

I thought that the ganja was from India.  (I see that Ernest beat me to it.)

Anyway, Shakespeare died in 1616, and at that time the English weren't yet sending soldiers and thieves to the East.  When they finally got around to it, it wasn't ganja, but poppies that they really liked.  Well, that and tea.  

Then again, very few compounds have the same retention times and ion products as THC in a GC/MS experiment.  The only one that I can think of off the top of my head is a canabinoid called dronabinol, and it also comes from the herb, so who knows?  Maybe the bard was toking it up in his dugout.
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The Mikado
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« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2015, 04:08:19 PM »

While cannabis was an Old World plant, smoking was a New World invention first applied to tobacco and then attempted with other substances. Smoking was only beginning to catch on in England towards the tail end of Shakespeare's life (Shakespeare lived until 1616 and smoking began to become something people did in England in the early 17th century). If he did consume cannabis, it would have been more likely that he would have eaten it than smoked it.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus claimed back around 500 BC (and of course we can't take everything he wrote at face value) that the Scythians (who lived basically in what's now Ukraine) would gather in tents and throw cannabis on a fire inside of the tent and breathe the fumes, so it is an ancient practice indeed even within Europe.

EDIT: We also can't rule out the most likely scenario regarding the pipes found: that sometime between Shakespeare's time and now some historians/archeologists got high with Shakespeare's old pipes.
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Cathcon
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« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2015, 06:16:57 PM »

I'm quite sure I'd already read he was into that back when I made a 12th grade report on marijuana for my Forensics class. The attempt to slander the names of great men of history by linking them to marijuana nothing new. Next thing you know, they'll be accusing Barack Obama of the same crime.
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angus
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« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2015, 06:55:34 PM »

While cannabis was an Old World plant, smoking was a New World invention first applied to tobacco...

We also can't rule out ...that sometime between Shakespeare's time and now some historians/archeologists got high with Shakespeare's old pipes.

No doubt, drinking was the word they used, both in the Virginia Colony and in England.  At least as it applied to tobacco.  One drank the tobacco smoke.  I'd assume that they drank the ganja as well.

And, yeah it's true, if I found one of Shakespeare's old pipes, the first thing I'd do would be to break it in with some fine Columbian.  Good call.
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