Scientists want to dig up Shakespeare to find out if he smoked weed

[Seedersandleechers]

Recently uncovered evidence suggests that William Shakespeare used marijuana, and now a team of paleontologists want to dig him up to prove it.

Francis Thackeray, an anthropologist and director of the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, has made a formal request to the Church of England to unearth the playwright.

"We have incredible techniques," Thackeray told Fox News. "We don't intend to move the remains at all."

After determining the identity of the remains, Thackeray's team hopes to find out more about Shakespeare's life and even the cause of his death


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/23/scientists-want-to-dig-up-shakespeare-to-find-out-if-he-smoked-weed/

[ixion]

1. Why not let the Bard rest...

Just sayin'...

[aquart]

22. Hell no.

If they are going to dig him up, I want a complete autopsy. I want to know WHY he went back to Stratford and why he was only contributing bits to plays at the end.

Although there might be a curse on the tombstone? I'd watch out for that.

[Syrinx]

2. How could they tell that?

And who is the naked man and child?

[Seedersandleechers]

3. Joe Dallesandro

[Syrinx]

6. what relevance does an "underground gay sex icon" have regarding what you posted?

[Bluenorthwest]

25. Photographed by Scavullo

nt

[LARED]

4. I think Mr. Thackeray may have been under the

influence of the wacky weed when cooking up this idea.

[Bluenorthwest]

14. Not everyone agrees with you

I posted a link to Harvard Magazine below, it is about some of the past elements of this line of study, which include archeological finds which show evidence of marijuana use. Here it is again:
http://harvardmagazine.com/2001/09/shakespeares-tenth-m...

[LARED]

16. Maybe it just me, but I don't give a hoot if

he smoked pot. And I think it unseemly to disturb his remains to find out if he did or not.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. So mocking Thackery did not work so you shift to 'I don't care'?

My suggestion would be that you not take part in the research. 'Unseemly' is just not a word that impresses me. Unseemly? What does that even mean? What in the works of the man gives any hint that he'd give a rip for such affectations? The unending intellectual and emotional curiosity of the author of the plays would suggest to me that he'd be the first on the scene to poke at any grave that might yield knowledge. Hard to see him arguing for decorum over investigation.

[LARED]

26. I failed to see that this investigation was one of great importance

I guess I was wrong.

BTW the word "unseemly" is easliy found in any dictionary. Again maybe it's just me, but disturbing remains for trival purposes IS unseemly IMHO.

[aquart]

23. It's been suggested he had crippling arthritis in his hands by the end.

Anything that blunted that would be nice, I expect.

[Syrinx]

5. And I think you may be misquoting the Doctor

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/dubiousquotes/a/hunter_thompson_2.htm

[the other one]

7. "shake-speare" was Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford

His resting place is not known. He quite possibly tried every drug available in his day. But there is as much proof of that as there is evidence that a man from Stratford wrote the works: none.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. No, he wasn't

There is no evidence that the Earl of Oxford has any connection to the plays attributed to William Shakespeare; there is much contemporary evidence that there was a man called SHakespeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, who was within a decade after his death referred to in connection with the plays that bear his name, and who was known to his contemporaries as their author (see Ben Jonson's introduction to the First Folio).

The idea that Shakespeare could not have been the author of the plays attributed to him and that it must instead have been the Earl of Oxford, or Francis Bacon, or someone else, is an idea born of nothing more than snobbery; the greatest poet the English language has produced CAN'T POSSIBLY be a provincial nobody with a grammar school education! Pfft. Nonsense.

[aquart]

20. Not going to university probably saved him.

The university playwrights tended to over-revere the ancients. Shakespeare crapped on Aristotle with every script.

[Bluenorthwest]

11. And the 'evidence' that Oxford wrote the plays?

Same as that other evidence: none. So much of the Oxfordian rap is based on silly, classist assumptions and utter misunderstanding of the plays. Oxfordians are almost always pure theory, that is, they are rarely practicing theater artists, so discussing the plays with them is like talking about sex with a Catholic priest, lots of fact in place, but no real time behind the wheel. Can not know that which you can not work. Sorry about that.
I also offer to the poor Oxfordians the fact that Eddie the Earl is forgotten, while Will is celebrated every day we spin around the sun. And thus it will continue. If Oxford wrote the plays, it could not possibly matter in any way. The world declares Will of Stratford to be the author of the plays and of the sonnets, it is settled business. Oxfordians are the flat earthers of literature. The plot the contrive is as viable as say that of Comedy of Errors.
But, but only a man of Noble Blood could have such genius! Look at the works of current nobility, and look at the so called plays of today's rabble, and one can instantly see that only royalty can make good theater! Why, Prince Charles has a bedroom farce in the West End right now that is putting them in in aisles!

[aquart]

19. Which is another argument against Oxford.

Playwrights tend to come from rising or falling gentry. Noblemen are pretty notorious for not being playwrights. Please don't bring up those unperformable horrors Byron wrote. Although they do make the case.

[veerik]

32. the evidence lies in the gunpowder plot

bluenorthwest:

we can discuss until the end of time, but the fact is that shakespeare is the most comprehensive chronicler of his time and quite obsessed with the power behind monarchy. how can it be that will spent 10 years 5 months and 11 days WITHOUT EVER MENTIONING THE BIGGEST THREAT TO THE MONARCHY, the gunpowder plot, november 5, 1605? de vere died months before, hence, i believe, the fact. interestingly enough, the internet collective known as anonymous has chosen guy fawkes as an avatar...

[EFerrari]

35. Um, Shakespeare was not a chronicler, he was a playwright.

And he did not write any history of the Elizabethan or Jacobean throne. The closest he came was writing a play to celebrate the birth of Elizabeth and that text is disputed.

Plus, it's not likely that, should anyone choose to write such a play, it would get by the Stationer and onto the stage.

[aquart]

18. If you had ever bothered to read Oxford's WYSIWYG poetry

You would know that isn't remotely possible. Besides, he was dead during the crucial changeover to tragicomedy which was entirely Jacobean. Those plays weren't written earlier and Oxford didn't die later.

Shakespeare's work has "tells" when he's about to be especially wicked. Oxford's...doesn't.

And the list of why the Oxford argument is ridiculous could go on and on and on...

[John Paul Jones]

8. What ever happened to the concept of "rest in peace?"

[Syrinx]

10. seeders and leechers

Things that make you go "hmmm."

Six years? Damn.

[ThomWV]

12. Please excuse me for asking, but did marijuana grow in Britain in the late 1500's?

I thought it came from Asia or South America and did not grow naturally in cooler climates. I realize there was already a lot of trade east and west by then but I don't recall ever reading of there being pot in use during that period. That all by itself would seem awfully odd because if Shakespeare had smoked the stuff I would have expected it would have been mentioned frequently in his writings.

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. Ropes were made from hemp; the Royal Navy needed quite a lot of rope.

Hemp was introduced into Britain c. 800 AD and its cultivation increased significantly in the 16th century with the growth of the Royal Navy.

[eShirl]

28. I always assumed there was at least some trade in hashish

[Bluenorthwest]

13. Hemp was crop number two after wheat in that time and place

In recent years, some pipes and the like have been unearthed at key sites in Stratford, some of which retain cannabidiol and cannabinol, elements of marijuana. This is an ongoing area of study.
http://harvardmagazine.com/2001/09/shakespeares-tenth-muse.html

[aquart]

17. Might be a whole other explanation of his problems with his father.

Which is a running theme throughout the plays.

[Bluenorthwest]

24. When our younger folks picked up new habits it caused

new tensions between the generations, as well as a sense for the young of being made different by experiences the elders had not had and continued to reject, the sense of the possible being larger than the previous possible.

[aquart]

27. Actually, I was thinking of it the other way around.

Stoner Shakespeare couldn't have done the hard slogging work he did, both as playwright and actor-manager.

But The Ruler Who Refuses to Rule is a staple in his work. He had to leave school at 13(?) because Daddy was screwing up his alderman duties, getting into debt. Could have been recusancy fines. But others managed to get around those. Maybe Daddy was smoking too much.

I just find it weird that the eldest son in a primogeniture, oldest-son-takes-all country was the one who left home and didn't much come home till Daddy was dead.

[eShirl]

29. interesting... n/t

[Downtown Hound]

30. Who the hell cares?

Let the man rest.

[Donnachaidh]

31. So what exactly is this supposed to prove if they do exhume him?

Is there some database somewhere that keeps lists of historical playwrights who tested positive for cannabis? Is there some professor somewhere with a burning desire to write some definitive piece about how Shakespeare (and other playwrights who test positive) could not have written their masterpieces without the added tool of marijuana?

I could see if they wanted to test him for poisons, if there were rumors about how he died. But pot? WTF? And also, who cares?

:shrug:

[LetTimmySmoke]

33. I give it a 99.84% chance of a positive

[SoDesuKa]

34. Out Out Brief Candle

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.


— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 19-28)

[peopleb4money]

36. They should

[Raine]

37. What a ridiculous reason to disturb his eternal rest ...

Leave him to rest in peace! :mad: