TEXT:
OPHELIA
There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,
love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for thoughts.
LAERTES
A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.
OPHELIA
There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue
for you; and here's some for me: we may call it
herb-a-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with
a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you
some violets, but they withered all when my father
died: they say he made a good end…
Sings
For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
LAERTES
Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
She turns to favour and to prettiness.
OPHELIA
Sings
And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead:
Go to thy death-bed:
He never will come again.
His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll:
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan:
God ha' mercy on his soul!
And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye.
Exit (or Exeunt)
NOTES:
Robert Greene
Greene has the unfortunate position of being one of very few people immortalised for not liking Shakespeare. In his most famous text, Greene’s Groat’s-worth of Wit, he mocks Shakespeare as an “upstart crow, beautified with our feathers.” Greene represents the University Wits, so different in educational background from Shakespeare’s country grammar school. He’s been made into a preening character in Ben Elton’s sitcom about Shakespeare, appropriately titled Upstart Crow. Greene wrote a few plays and a considerable number of prose texts, among them A Quip for an Upstart Courtier, quoted in this episode. (Upstart appears to have been his word of the year, since his jab at Shakespeare was published the same year.)
Botany
It's worth always bearing in mind that Shakespeare grew up in the country, and was deeply aware of the life of the seasons. No surprise that there are enough botanical references in Shakespeare to fill a book - and a lovely one, too - Gerit Quealey has put together "An Illustrated Compendium of All the Flowers, Fruits, Herbs, Trees, Seeds, and Grasses Cited" - you can find it here. It lists every instance of every plant that Shakespeare ever mentions - terribly useful for analysing a scene like this one.
Ophelia’s Flowers
In the little gallery below you can see all of the flowers and herbs Ophelia has collected - when combined they clearly look like a haphazard bunch of stems, weeds and wild flowers. I didn’t mention in the episode that there’s some discussion over whether they are all in her head. I’ve seen productions work onstage with flowers, without flowers, and in one extraordinary instance, with old masks. Anything is possible!
She mentions the following: rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbines (note the horns!), rue/herb of grace, a daisy and some violets.
