莎士比亚吸毒?

William Shakespeare

威廉·莎士比亚。

加入我们的科学爱好者社区!


关于支持科学新闻业

如果您喜欢这篇文章,请考虑通过以下方式支持我们屡获殊荣的新闻业 订阅。 通过购买订阅,您正在帮助确保未来能够继续讲述关于塑造我们当今世界的发现和思想的具有影响力的故事。


根据新的研究,威廉·莎士比亚著名的戏剧和十四行诗可能是在药物影响下创作的。 在最新一期的《南非科学杂志》中,比勒陀利亚德兰士瓦博物馆的弗朗西斯·萨克雷和他的同事记录了从这位受人爱戴的吟游诗人在斯特拉特福德-阿芬河畔的家中回收的陶土烟斗碎片中发现了可卡因和肉豆蔻酸(一种植物来源的致幻剂)。 他们的分析还暗示存在大麻残留物。

虽然烟斗不能明确地与莎士比亚本人联系起来,但可以肯定的是它的年代可以追溯到 17 世纪。 这一事实让科学家们感到惊讶; 此前,欧洲最早的可卡因记录只能追溯到 200 年前。 萨克雷告诉路透社:“在莎士比亚自己的作品中,有一些暗示性的证据[表明吸毒],”他指出十四行诗 76 中的“著名的杂草”和“奇怪的化合物”等短语。“但我认为莎士比亚可能尝试过这些物质,他是在说他宁愿远离它们。 我不会将其解读为对吸毒的认可。”

Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and senior editor at 大众科学 focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for more than 25 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home, to the shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, to the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and on a "Big Day" race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Kate is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow Wong on X (formerly Twitter) @katewong

More by Kate Wong
© . All rights reserved.