TEXT:
GERTRUDE
Alas, look here, my lord.
OPHELIA [Sings]
Larded with sweet flowers
Which bewept to the grave did not go
With true-love showers.
CLAUDIUS
How do you, pretty lady?
OPHELIA
Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's
daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not
what we may be. God be at your table!
CLAUDIUS
Conceit upon her father.
OPHELIA
Pray you, let's have no words of this; but when they
ask you what it means, say you this:
Sings
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donned his clothes,
And dupped the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
NOTES:
Lard
Shakespeare uses the word “lard” to mean “decorate” in four different instances. The meaning is derived from cookery - lard is pig fat, specifically (as opposed to suet, which comes from beef). Lard was added to dishes to enrich the texture and enhance the flavour. In the late 20th century it fell out of favour, since it is not suitable for vegetarians, vegans, or anyone who avoids pork products. It has had something of a renaissance of late among foodies who like to enhance and enrich dishes with it.
Jesus, the Owl and the Baker’s Daughter
While I’m not particularly convinced of how it’s relevant to Ophelia, here is the story of Jesus and the baker’s daughter, as described in Francis Douce in his “Illustrations of Shakespeare” in 1839. He himself records it as coming from the Gloucestershire peasantry: “Our Saviour went into a baker's shop where they were baking, and asked for some bread to eat; the mistress of the shop immediately put a piece of dough into the oven to bake for him; but was reprimanded by her daughter, who, insisting that the piece of dough was too large, reduced it to a very small size; the dough, however, immediately began to swell, and presently became a most enormous size, whereupon the baker's daughter cried out, 'Heugh, heugh, heugh!' which owl-like noise probably induced our Saviour to transform her into that bird for her wickedness." Another version of the same story, as formerly known in Herefordshire, substitutes a fairy in the place of our Saviour. Similar legends are found on the Continent.” (I do like that he acknowledges that between Gloucestershire and Herefordshire there’s a difference, and that in Herefordshire it’s a fairy who changes the young lady into a bird!)
Owls
I went rather overboard looking for owls in Shakespare this week. There’s so much material that I’ve given it its own page. You can read it all here.
Bakers’ Daughters
There are very few bakers in all of Shakespeare. Bakers’ wives get a mention in Henry IV, and the baker’s daughter shows up in Hamlet. In both cases, the speaker is likely referring to prostitutes. The association seems to go back at least as far as ancient Rome, where “the alicariae, or [female] bakers, were women of the street who waited for fortune at the doors of bakeries, especially those which sold certain cakes destined for offerings to Venus. On certain festivals, the master bakers sold nothing but sacrificial breads, and at the same time they had slave girls or servant maids who prostituted themselves day and night in the bakery.” (This text comes from the extravagant, six-volume History of Prostitution by Paul Lacroix, written in the 1850s.)
Valentine’s Day
The first recorded association between St. Valentine’s Day and romantic love is in Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls, in which he describes the match between Richard II and his queen, Anne of Bohemia. Thereafter the celebration blossomed through the centuries to the monstrous pressure-cooker of chocolate, cards, roses and expectation enjoyed annually on February 14th.