[Elfsea] Shakespeare on drugs??

Terri Head Terri at pandora.org
Sat Mar 8 17:20:35 PST 2003


I bet they mean opium instead of cocaine.  From my understanding (via my dad being a former policeman) cocaine is made from coca leaves, gasoline and formaldahyde (among other things). Ofcourse, I've never made it myself, so I may be sorely mistaken! lol!

Violet


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Tessa Nieto <eleanor_cleavely at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: elfsea at ansteorra.org
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 10:57:19 -0800 (PST)

>Hi Everyone!
>
>I found this on CNN.com and was completely stunned!
>
>"Drugs Clue to Shakespare's Genius?"
>
>STRATFORD, England -- William Shakespeare may have
>relied on more than his genius to write his plays and
>sonnets, scientists say.
>
>Researchers have unearthed fragments of clay pipes
>dating back to the 17th century near the garden of
>England's greatest playwright which have shown traces
>of cocaine and hallucinogenic drugs.
>
>The bard would join other illustrious English literary
>figures if the link was proven such as Coleridge and
>Byron who took their inspiration from drugs.
>
>While there is no proof Shakespeare himself took
>drugs, evidence suggests he and his contemporaries
>might have had access to narcotics.
>
>Cannabis sativa, the plant from which marijuana is
>derived was available in Elizabethan England to be
>used for paper, rope, garments and sails.
>
>But it had not been realised that cocaine had been
>around at the same time -- records have only shown it
>existing up to 200 years ago.
>
>The cocaine was discovered by South African scientists
>in two of 24 pipe fragments examined.
>
>Dr Francis Thackeray, a paleontologist at the
>Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, who co-wrote the article
>which appeared in the latest edition of the South
>African Journal of Science, said the discovery was
>"really quite remarkable."
>
>"The Spanish had access to it at that time in the
>Americas, but the fact that it was smoked in England
>at that time is a first. It is quite a find."
>
>The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in
>Stratford-Upon-Avon permitted researchers to perform
>chemical tests on its 24 pipe fragments from its
>museum collection.
>
>They included samples from Shakespeare's house at New
>Place in Stratford-upon-Avon, and a number of other
>nearby sites.
>
>The two pipe stems which bore unexpected traces of
>cocaine came from the Stratford home of the mother of
>John Harvard, the South African scientists say. The
>other was thought to be from Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
>
>Other fragments showed signs of myristic acid, a
>hallucinogen derived from plants such as nutmeg, and
>cannabis, as well as tobacco and camphor.
>
>Thackeray added: "We do not claim that any of the
>pipes belonged to Shakespeare himself.
>
>"However, we do know that some of the pipes come from
>the area in which he lived, and they date to the 17th
>century."
>
>The scientists say their findings may lend weight to
>the hypothesis that "at least some of Shakespeare's
>texts were associated with the use or at least
>knowledge of the effect of certain hallucinogenic
>substances".
>
>Sonnet 76, for instance, refers to a "noted weed" and
>"compounds strange", while in Sonnet 27, Shakespeare
>talks of "a journey in his head".
>
>However literary critics have interpreted "noted weed"
>as meaning a well known garment or style of dress, and
>"compounds strange" to mean an unusual word
>construction or medicinal mixture.
>
>But Ann Donnelly, curator of the Shakespeare
>Birthplace Trust museum, remains sceptical -- and
>refuses to believe the Bard may have been inspired by
>drugs.
>
>She said: "People love to come up with reasons for
>saying Shakespeare was not a genius. I don't think
>there's any proof that he was helped in any way by
>taking narcotic substances."
>
>Reuters contributed to this report.
>
>
>=====
>The human language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out a tune for a dancing bear, when we hope with our music to move the stars.
>- - - Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
>
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~ Unknown


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