Claims that Shakespeare “turned to marijuana seeds” for inspiration
Skin Up With Shakespeare: “However, using marijuana seeds to uncover under-lying inspiration is certainly nothing new in the world of literature. Francois Rabelais, who died about ten years before the birth of William Shakespeare, made many cryptic references to cannabis. His book, Pantagruel, describes the drug as the herb Pantagruelion, a term used to escape persecution from the Church. For a long time the book was banned from the Catholic Church and in many modern versions of the book the coded references to marijuana seeds are omitted.”