Did Cannabis Fuel Wm. Shakespeare's Writing? Many Like Him Were And Are Still Inspired By The Plant

Several years ago when the web overheated with speculation about whether William Shakespeare did or did not smoke weed, Sonnet 53 came to mind: “What is your substance, whereof are you made/That millions of strange shadows on you tend.” In fact, the reference to millions of strange shadows might even suggest the bard may have been consuming something even a bit stronger. 

So, what started the “Rumor’s tongue [on which] continual slanders ride” about Shakespeare? 

It was modern forensics, a class of science the bard would likely have relished. 

South African anthropologist Francis Thackeray actually dug up Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon garden and had a good look at the writer’s pipes. The conclusion reached by Thackeray? Of the 24 pipe fragments examined, eight tested positive for 17th-century cannabis residue and two of them contained definite evidence for Peruvian cocaine from coca leaves.

Hemp, one of the earliest known garment fibers in history, was widely used to produce paper, rope and clothing during Shakespeare’s time. And, as cannabis use goes back to antiquity, according to the historian Herodotus, it should come as no surprise that a prodigious writer like Shakespeare might put a bit of the plant into a pipe to puff on as he composed.

Another Clue

Although the astronomer Copernicus had already published his then-groundbreaking book, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, well before Shakespeare was born in 1564, the bard’s multitude of references to astrology and cosmology has led many readers to conclude that he was keenly aware of science and was also quite, well, heady.

When Cassius, in "Julius Caesar," speaks out against superstitions, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings,” surely numerous Elizabethan eyebrows shot up. Astrologers in the Elizabethan era tended to believe that the stars and planets could tell the future, linking astrology to the supernatural rather than science. Whereas Shakespeare, who believed in science, referenced astrology to illuminate the traits of his characters.

So did cannabis fuel Shakespeare’s genius? 

Thackeray’s findings, according to many, beg the question as to whether Shakespeare’s plays were performed in a smoke-filled haze and whether he was stoned when he wrote them.

We’ll never know for sure, but it’s fun to speculate. There are many references that can be viewed as descriptions of altered consciousness in his 37 plays and 154 sonnets, so dust off your Shakespeare volumes and have a look.

Which Other Writers Have Partaken To Enhance Their Creativity?

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) said she used cannabis regularly in her later years as a creativity-generating therapy. “From a natural stiffness, I melted into a grinning tolerance. Walking on the streets became high adventure, eating my mother’s huge dinners an opulent entertainment, and playing with my son was side-cracking hilarity. For the first time, life amused me,” Angelou wrote in her autobiography "Gather Together in My Name."

Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005), in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” the iconic “gonzo” journalist, described himself driving with a “car full of marijuana and head full of acid.” 

Victor Hugo (1802-1885), author of “Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Les Misérables,” met with his colleagues regularly at a hash-eaters club in a Paris cafe where they consumed a cannabis-infused paste made of pistachios and honey.

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), “Les Fleurs du Mal” (“The Flowers of Evil”), was part of the Hugo’s hash-eaters club. We have the French poet to thank for early canna-literature including “The Poem of Hashish,” an essay reflecting on the vastly different effects of alcohol and cannabis on the body.

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), founding member of the hash-eaters club, included an ode to cannabis in his novel “The Count of Monte Cristo,” wherein one of the characters bursts out: “When you return to this mundane sphere from your visionary world, you would seem to leave a Neapolitan spring for a Lapland winter – to quit paradise for earth – heaven for hell! Taste the hashish, guest of mine – taste the hashish!”

A list of prominent modern writers who use or used cannabis includes Stephen King, the late Jack Kerouac, Carl Sagan, Norman Mailer, William S. Burroughs, Susan Sontag and Allen Ginsberg.