Rabat - Could the English playwright William Shakespeare have written ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ under the effect of cannabis?
Scientists from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, revealed an analysis about tobacco pipes, which were found in the garden of William Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon.
According The Independent, residue from clay tobacco pipes more than 400 years old from the playwright’s garden were analysed in Pretoria using a sophisticated technique called "gas chromatography mass spectrometry."
The same source went on to add that the gas technique is very sensitive to residues that can be preserved in pipes even if they have been smoked 400 years ago.
It went to add that Shakespeare used to smoke cocoa leaves and cannabis before writing, based on the analysis of his poems.
In Sonnet 76, Shakespeare writes about “invention in a noted weed.” The analysis interprets that Shakespeare was willing to use “weed” for inspired writing ("invention").
Additionally, the results indicated that cannabis and cocoa leaves were types of tobacco during the sixteenth century, according to Francis Thackery of Etwatrstrand University in Johannesburg.
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