To be high or not to be high: That is the question scientists are asking after discovering cannabis in pipes dug up in Shakespeare's garden.

The find suggests William Shakespeare may have been smoking the illicit drug when he produced some of his famous works.

Scientists in Pretoria analysed 400-year-old tobacco pipes found in and around the playwright's home in Stratford-Upon-Avon, The Independent reports.

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Of 24 fragments of pipe, four pipe fragments from Shakespeare's garden were found to have traces of cannabis in them.

It's not the first time that scientists have hinted the great bard was on drugs. In 2001, researchers analysing the same pipes claimed to have found traces of cocaine and hallucinogenic drugs.

However, unlike the latest find, the clay pipes with cocaine did not come from Shakespeare's garden. This is the closest link yet between the author and drug use.

Other famous literary figures such as Coleridge and Byron were known to have taken some inspiration from narcotics.

Maybe Shakespeare knew more about the "noted weed" than everyone thought.