Note 659 — PHARMACOLOGIA. (continued 7)

It seems very probable that the “juice of cursed hebenon,” by which, according to Shakespeare, the king of Denmark was poisoned, was no other than the essential oil of Tobacco:—

——“Sleeping within mine orchard,

My custom always of the afternoon,

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,

With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,

And in the porches of mine ears, did pour

The leperous distilment.”

In the first place, the learned commentator Dr. Grey, observes that the word here used (hebenon), was more probably designated by a metathesis, either of the poet or transcriber, for henebon, i. e. henbane. Now it appears from Gerarde, that “tabaco” was commonly called henbane of Peru, (hyoscyamus Peruvianus,) and when we consider how high the public prejudice ran against this herb in the reign of James, it seems very likely that Shakespeare should have selected it, as an agent of extraordinary malignity. No preparation of the hyoscyamus, with which we are acquainted, would produce death by application to the ear, whereas the essential oil of Tobacco would, without doubt, occasion a fatal issue. The term distilment has also called forth a remark from Steevens, which is calculated to support this conjecture; surely, says he, this expression signifies, that the preparation was the result of a distillation.