Baked Bard? Four age-appropriate pipes with cannabis residue found on Shakespeare's property.

Four pipes with cannabis residue have been found on William Shakespeare's old property, leading to further speculation that the Bard was Baked from time to time. Here is a Fox news link:

www.foxnews.com...

Did the greatest playwright the world has ever known have a taste for the wacky tobaccy? Did William Shakespeare have a case of the munchies while penning "Macbeth"?

The answer may very well be "yes" after a group of South African scientists found that clay pipes recovered from the garden of the Bard's home contain traces of cannabis.

The researchers examined fragments of 24 clay pipes that were recovered from the garden of Shakespeare's home in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, as well as from surrounding houses. After examining the fragments using a gas chromatography technique, the scientists found that eight of the pipes contained traces of cannabis, one contained nicotine, and two contained traces of coc aine derived from Peruvian coca leaves. Four of the pipes containing cannabis came from Shakespeare's property.

And here is a link from a 2011 ATS thread speculating on the Bard's use of something extra, with a very good OP:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: Aleister

Othello, Act 4, Scene 2, Page 4:

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!

Sounds like a stoner to me

To toke, or not to toke.
That is the question.

a reply to: skunkape23

The Bard once wrote:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

But he was assuredly talking of something else, pizza maybe.

a reply to: Aleister

Not surprising at all. Cannabis prohibition was a 20th century phenomenon. They didn't talk about it back in the day because it was a none issue. It was just another herb people used to treat their ailments.

"Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!"
- Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene VII

king of the vines ?
.... pinkeye ?

Yeah baby !

Funny stuff,i wonder he was berated by his peers for being a lazy bum stoner and telling him to get a real job...

a reply to: Aleister

I am sure that is not all he was "baked" on. Really, hardly seems impossible to connect those dots without the evidence of time related material. All the evidence I need is to read his writing to see the guy was way out there.

a reply to: Aleister

If he wasn't stoned he was certainly swilling in booze because the water wasn't safe to drink so they all downed ale etc.
We get the term 'small beer' because of unsafe water which was brewed especially for the little ones. Interesting time to have lived but not without its horrors whether he had developed a huge tolerance is anyone's guess.

Many talented people claim drugs are a means of opening up their creative side - shame it doesn't percolate to our politicians but then one can over do coc aine can't one.

I have to say, it makes A Midsummer's Night Dream more understandable if it were true.

It was like the Dude Where's My Car or Howard and Kumar Go To White Castle of the day.

There's nothing yet to say those pipes indeed belonged to Shakespeare or he did inhale the whacky-tobacco. (He could of been all like Bill Clinton - tried it a few times, didn't like it and didn't inhale )

It could have very well been dumped there another time, or by an acquaintance who did partake...

But I dunno man, like I said, A Midsummer's Night Dream....

Hemp , the name prior to cannabis, is a plant with a wide variety of uses. Most subspecies have very low levels of the drug. The seeds were eaten, the leaves used in salads, the stalks turned to fibre for clothing and ropes. In fact the low drug varieties can still be legally grown for the fibre.

Back in Shakespeare's day it was just a very useful plant and thus to find any trace of it in any home back then is entirely normal.

a reply to: yorkshirelad

These were found in pipes, those old clay pipes which had long stems and then, when the stem was clogged, was cut back a bit.

a reply to: auroraaus

Aye, a "Midsummer Night's Dream". Of course, as you mentioned, these pipes may have been left by anyone over the years, or by Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway, herself. Maybe Anne had to partake just to understand what her husband was talking about sometimes. But if William did have a marijuana habit, poor thing, it must have really been something to engage him in conversation and ascertain what he was putting his attention on. And again, if he did partake, imagine the gatherings he may have had in the home with fellow actors and playwrights (do I sense a movie someday appearing? Calling all thieving screenwriters who wander this site).

Here's a link to the Wikipedia page on the Shakespeare home, New Place. en.wikipedia.org... Actually an interesting read and history. And of course anyone who lived there, or visited, could have left all those pipes laying around, even his daughter who moved into the home again after he cast off the mortal coil. But with the circumstantial evidence adding up that he may have been familiar with the evil weed, the deluded writer (deep in the throes and fits of true reefer madness, the poor chap) would have been more productive if he had abstained and may have made something of his life.

I can only imagine that he did.

His productions done in the original pronunciation of old english are pretty dirty.

Watch this video to see what I mean.

a reply to: Aleister

Dad - Damn it William, fetch the wood, the well water, put down that pipe and look into a getting a damned apprenticeship !

S.P. - One day dad, I'm gonna sell this screenplay, and I'm going to famous !

Original Posted HERE

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