Poisoned Blades: Fact and Fiction

[Jim McDougall]

"...And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword...
...that if I gall him slightly,
It may be death".
"Hamlet" iv, vii, Shakespeare
In this classic reference, set in the late Middle Ages, but written of course in Elizabethan parlance, Laertes is to poison the tip of his rapier to insure that even a wound would prove fatal to the prince, Hamlet. Using this vehicle, the drama and irony is emplaced with both dying from the poisoned blade.

Wondering what type of poison might have been employed, it is suggested that possibly aconite (wolfsbane) known from Roman times and sometimes used in Europe on arrows may have been the choice ("Murder, Magic and Medicine", James Mann, N.Y. 1992).

Apparantly Prince Edward of England (1239-1307) was wounded by an assassin wielding a poisoned blade, and was saved by his wife who is said to have sucked the poison from the wound. The assassins, masters of poisons, and known to poison blades, were certainly feared, and the victims would have done well to have been dispatched by fatal thrust rather than the painful lingering from poisoned wound.

In an online reference by Dirk H. Breiding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Department of Arms and Armour, he notes that although poisoned blades in Indian weapons were known, incidents in Renaissance Europe seemed rare. The perforations in blades often considered by observers to have been so placed to hold poisons were typically aesthetic arrangements of the artisans skill, and to lighten the blade. It is suggested that these perforations are typically close to the hilt, not further toward the contact points of the blade where dispensation of poison would be expected.

The Indian blade suggestion is supported somewhat by the interesting note by Robert Elgood in "Hindu Arms and Ritual" (15.17, a Tanjore katar, Metropolitan Museum N.Y. item #36.25.1011) In this reference,describing the cobra often found on these hilts close to the forte, ostensibly as often the case, to prevent the user from evil unleashed by the blades violent use, sudden death, and possible association to a poisoned blade.

We know that poisons were often used in many ethnographic tribal cultures on arrows, and that in many cultures even from ancient times, there was a profound fear of poisoning. It seems often the properties believed imbued in materials used for the hilts of edged weapons were specifically chosen for thier value as protection against poisons.

I am wondering just how prevalent the possibility of actual use of poison on blades might have been, or was it a popularized myth, perpetuated by literature and legend in Medieval and Renaissance Europe?

If there was such use, what poisons might have been used, and could they have derived from those discovered in tribal cultures in colonial regions as European explorers ventured into these places? If used in such manner on blades, how effective would what would seem a mimimal dose really be?

I have often thought of this in references to certain weapons suggesting poison on blades, and the use of poison arrows, which is of course widely known. I would really like to explore the plausibility of this interesting aspect of arms used in historical times.

All best regards,
Jim