Abstract: Poison is an essential element of Shakespeare’s theatre. From Macbeth to Othello, from King Lear to Antony and Cleopatra, the playwright poisons numerous of his plays. Its role is decisive in Romeo and Juliet, but poison needs to be understood in a metaphorical sense as well. False words poison minds and spread from ear to ear like a contagious infection. More generally in Shakespeare’s work, theatre itself offers the ambivalence of pharmakon, both poison and antidote.
