Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Doobie, or not doobie? That is the question

By +Alexa Rankin

A joint investigation between South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand and the Stratford-upon-Avon town council have announced that 4 pipes found in the garden of the world famous writer, William Shakespeare, have tested positive for cannabis.

William Shakespeare, without pipe
The 17th century find was unearthed by Francis Thackeray and his team, who then took the pipes for chemical analysis, initially to check their age, and perhaps pick out a favored type of tobacco. These routine exams threw up an anomaly which turned out to be THC, the chemical found in cannabis.

While it is still supposition as to whether Shakespeare dabbled with the weed, having read some of his classics, you might need to be a little high to get most of it. Shakespeare, being a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, would have to keep his hemptastic habits hidden to avoid falling out of high society, or worse, having his head separated from his body. If things had shaken up differently some of his works may have had alternative titles.
  • Hash Ado About Nothing
  • As You Light It
  • The Toking of the Shrew
  • A Midsummer Night's Munchies
  • The Hempest
  • Henry VIII (the Brits will get this one)
  • It got contrived at this point so I quit before I put 'The Merchant of Dimebags'
As well as being a superstar writer, William Shakespeare also married and fathered 3 kids with Anne Hathaway. Upon consummating his marriage, he published the sonnet entitled 'I did hath my way with Hathaway'.

Anne Hathaway - shocked by Shakespeare's claim
Anne Hathaway is so surprised she nearly loses her top
Do you think Shakespeare was a stoner? Does the suggestion of drug use make you view his works in a different light? Can you think of any better Shakespeare drug influenced play puns? Share with us below in the comments section.

2 comments :

Janene said...

Ha! Love the play titles. That crazy Shakespeare. I swear, after reading Tempest I should have known he was high when he was writing it. ;)

Alexa Rankin - STP said...

Thanks Janene. Will Shakes was a crazy cat. I think A Midsummer Night's Dream was definitely influenced by substance (ab)use. Many classic works, either written or musical or film have their basis in augmented reality of some description. While Shakespeare was smoking the weed, Francis Bacon and Edward de Vere were writing all of his material anyway.

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