was desperate. She was cribbing from Shakespeare: the scene in which Hamlet’s wicked uncle, Claudius, pours hebenon into the ear of the sleeping king. Hebenon, in my opinion, was simply a mangled form of henbane, misremembered by one of Shakespeare’s acting pals when it came time to write down the plays. Either that, or the error was caused by a daydreaming typesetter.
