In 2001 Francis Thackeray, the director of the Institute for Human Evolution at South Africa’s University of Witwatersrand, headed up a study that [link|http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1195939.stm|discovered traces of marijuana on pipes] dug up in Shakespeare’s garden. Now Thackeray would like to dig up the Bard himself and test his remains for pot.
 
Thackeray undertook his earlier investigation based on a reading of Sonnet 76, which contains a reference to “a noted weed” (read the full sonnet below). While the “noted weed” in the sonnet can be interpreted many ways, Thackeray’s reading resulted in his hypothesizing “that Shakespeare may have used cannabis as a source of inspiration.” 
 
Based on his discovery ten years ago, Thackeray has submitted an application to the Church of England for permission to examine the remains of Shakespeare, his wife Anne, and his daughter Susanna. Thackeray hopes to discover what killed the world’s most enduring writer and, “if there is any hair, if there is any keratin from the fingernails or toenails, then we will be in a position to undertake chemical analysis on extremely small samples for marijuana.”
 
Adding to the intrigue of this request is the [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shakespeare_grave_-Stratford-upon-Avon...|engraving on Shakespeare’s grave], which now seems oddly prescient:
 
“Blessed be the man that spares these stones / And cursed be he who moves my bones.”
 
To avoid this “curse” Thackeray plans to use a “technique called laser surface scanning,” which would allow his team to study Shakespeare’s remains without moving them.
 
Of course, a tooth or two might be necessary for definitve DNA analysis. But as Thackeray points out, “He does not refer to teeth” in the engraved “curse.”
 
No word yet from the Church of England, which claimed last week that they’ve not received an application to open up Shakespeare’s grave. We’ll keep you posted.
 
More @ [link|http://www.livescience.com/14797-shakespeare-bones-smoked-pot.html|livescience.com] & [link|http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/hottopics/detail?entry_id=91863&tsp=1|sfgate.com]
 
 
Sonnet 76:
Why is my verse so barren of new pride,

So far from variation or quick change?

Why with the time do I not glance aside

To new-found methods and to compounds strange?

Why write I still all one, ever the same,

And keep invention in a noted weed,

That every word doth almost tell my name,

Showing their birth and where they did proceed?

O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,

And you and love are still my argument;

So all my best is dressing old words new,

Spending again what is already spent:
   
For as the sun is daily new and old,
   
So is my love still telling what is told.