Oxford's Toad Licking Fetish.

While rereading Ogburn's "The Mysterious William Shakespeare", I came across the rather odd reference in "As You Like It" to, what appears to be, Toad Licking.

The speech of Duke Senior, Opening act III is quoted in full.


Act II. Scene I.


The Forest of Arden.


Enter DUKE Senior, AMIENS, and other Lords, like Foresters.

Duke S. Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet 4
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference; as, the icy fang 8
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
‘This is no flattery: these are counsellors 12
That feelingly persuade me what I am.’
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; 16
And this our life exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
I would not change it.

The following excerpt is from Time Magazine. In the middle of discussing the wonders of Pharmacology, the author mentions our Bard...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882154-3,00.html
"
Toad Juice. In Eli Lilly's Indianapolis drug laboratories where he directs pharmacological research. Dr. Ko Kuei Chen, Johns Hopkins graduate, applied himself to finding out what there is in folk medicine which helps Chinese cure toothache, sinusitis and mouth sores with applications of dried toad venom and which made Shakespeare note: "Sweet are the uses of adversity, which like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head (As You Like It). From glands located behind the eyes of 7,500 U. S., German, Jamaican, Uruguayan, South African, Chinese and Japanese toads. Dr. Chen extracted potent drugs (adrenalin, cholesterol, ergosterol, and two digitalis-like substances) which modern scientific medicine considers indispensable. Apparently toads do not use these potent drugs in their own economies. When Dr. Chen removed the glands from several toads, they seemed as well as ever, pursued their proper business of bug hunting. Prospective toad farmers should note that a toad produces only one crop of drugs. The extirpated glands do not grow back.


Now, of the 16 times the Bard uses the word "Toad" in the works, most convey the sense of poison, or ugliness. But wait, yonder comes Juliet in Act 2:

Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes,
 O, now I would they had changed voices too!
 Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
 Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day,
 O, now be gone; more light and light it grows.

Change Eyes?
Hmmmmmm.

And who could forget....

Macbeth..Act 4, Scene 1

First Witch Round about the cauldron go;
 In the poison'd entrails throw.
 Toad, that under cold stone
 Days and nights has thirty-one
 Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
 Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

The Best Resource for Toad Licking Info seems to be:
http://www.erowid.org/archive/sonoran_desert_toad/LaLaw.htm

"Of course the licking myth is newspaper hype -- it is the venom that is active, and it is smoked." - Shulgin