Poisoned Blades: Fact and Fiction

[fearn]

Hi Kisak,

Check out Wikipedia's History of Poisons.

It's just about what you'd expect: aconite (wolfsbane) hemlock, arsenic, ground glass (hard on intestines), bitter almond (cyanide), yew, etc. The usual suspects.

Of these, only the cyanide would work fast enough (maybe!) to kill during a fight. So long as the blade transferred a lot of cyanide (think several pill's worth) and the fight went on for long enough to get the stuff throughout the victim's body.

However, that's kind of not the point, as far as I can tell. The point is that the person stabbed was certain to die. I agree with you that poisons are typically too slow-acting to be some sort of instant-death in a fight. Even today, the only poisons I can think of that are fast-acting enough to stop a fight are military-grade nerve agents, and that's not something to be used in a duel.

Bottom line is that, while poisons were certainly used in the Renaissance, I think the Hamlet scene had a certain amount of dramatic effect.

Best,

F