Arthur Hughes: Ophelia (ca. 1863-1864, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA)
Act IV, Scene 5 (Ophelia and Laertes).
Ophelia's funeral rites, under the eyes of her shocked brother. But does she recognise Laertes? I frankly doubt it: for not only outwardly I think we must imagine him substantially changed and appearing significantly more mature than at his departure for France (he's the leader of a rebel army and is being declared "King" by vox populi, for crying out loud), which in itself would already suggest otherwise; but moreover, he effectively functions as Ophelia's Chorus here – and the Chorus is a play's commentator, a party either not noticed by the principals at all or at least not considered to actually be a participant in the action. Since Laertes himself, however, is clearly grief-stricken by his sister's fate, his Chorus-like detachment from her can only be brought about by some circumstance on her side, i.e., her madness.
O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight
Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
O heavens! is't possible a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.
"Nature is fine in love, and ... it sends some precious instance of itself after the thing it loves": A sample of Ophelia's refined wits has been sent after her murdered father's soul.
They bore him barefac'd on the bier
(Hey non nony, nony, hey nony)
So who is being buried in Ophelia's mind? Again, it could be either of the two men already dead (Polonius and/or King Hamlet), but I think "barefac'd" actually suggests a younger man; so more likely it's either Laertes or Hamlet. Could it be that by "burying" the Prince, she is also trying to finally "bury" her love? This verse's remaining symbolism makes me think this is indeed what might be going on.
Bier: a corpse prior to its burial; its transportation to the grave. In Easter symbolism: the bier receiving Christ's body on Good Friday morning, and carried through the streets in a funeral procession on the night of that day. St. Peter's incensing the bier and leading the prayer represents the father of the Church sanctifying the Holy Bed.
And in his grave rain'd many a tear.
A reversion of "bewept to the grave did not go with true-love showers" from the scene's first part. If earlier we were in fact talking about Polonius (and/or King Hamlet), neither of whom was properly bewept, then it's all the more likely she is referring to Hamlet here; or to her love for him.
Fare you well, my dove!
There's a reason "dove" rhymes with "love" ... And given the strong symbolism of innocence, peace, and love associated with this particular bird, also further indication that the nature of Ophelia's own feelings for Hamlet was initially far less explicit than his for her, at least until the beginning of his verbal and behavioural abuse.
Dove: peace; innocence; hope; fidelity; chastity; purity; gentleness; harmlessness; incapacity of malice; affection; love; inspiration; good tidings; simplicity; temperance; patience in suffering. Biblically: the Holy Spirit; the Eucharistic vessel; the Church itself; baptism; the dove released from Noah's Ark, which returned with an olive branch; the Apostles; faith; hope; promise; resurrection; deliverance, Divine peace and forgiveness; the human soul; but also: martyrdom. The dove is often represented as coming out of the mouths of saints at death. Pope Gregory the Great (St. Gregory, 590 – 604) is generally depicted with a dove on his shoulder, symbolising Divine guidance. Allegedly, the devil and witches can turn themselves into any bird but the dove. – Mythologically: like the owl, a bird associated with Athena (Minerva), representing the renewal of life; but also of Aphrodite (Venus), symbolising love and devotion. – White doves connote a wedding, but also a funeral (eternal peace).
Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,
It could not move thus.
You must sing 'A-down a-down, and you call him a-down-a.'
The song's refrain? The spinning wheel (see next line)? "Down" as in "downfall"? Whatever she means here, I think the subtext of the entire verse is that while she is "burying" her love, and although there is so much injustice and immorality around, life still goes on.
O, how the wheel becomes it!
Ballads were often sung to the spinning of a wheel. On the other hand, persons were also broken on the wheel in torture. – Biblically: understanding; advancing; the Lord's presence; Divine truth; birth, death, and resurrection; paradise; eternal life. In mythology: the universe; the cycles of heavenly bodies and of the seasons; the tides of the sea; energy; journeys; movement; the calendar; harmony; death (wheels on tombstones; small wheels buried with the dead); rebirth; transformation; protection; the wheel of time; the wheel of fortune; luck; Heracles' twelve labours. In heraldry: transportation; successful journeys and expeditions; perpetuity.
It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.
This nothing's more than matter.
False steward, biblically: an unfaithful servant. Here: Claudius, God's unfaithful servant on earth.
Master's daughter: Denmark, which was "stolen" by Claudius, who would – had he any issue – be able to sideline Hamlet's aspirations to the throne for good. The biblical reference may be to I Chronicles 2:34-31, according to which Jarha, Sheshan's Egyptian servant, married his master's daughter and became the father of Attai, who was then nevertheless counted as a continuation of Sheshan's own line of descendants. Possibly also a reference to 2 Samuel 12:8 (part of the story of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah the Hittie – see the discussion on Claudius's "prayer").
Next, we're coming to Ophelia's little flower basket: the most popular part of the entire scene, because of the guessing game involved in deciding who gets which flower(s). I think some are fairly obvious; others depend on how you read the scene as a whole.
There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love,
remember.
An easy one to get us started: Rosemary to Laertes, the only one around to remember both her and Polonius now, and whose brotherly love forms a marked contrast to that of Hamlet. And this although she doesn't even recognise him – but instinctively she is certainly receiving his emotional signals loud and clear.
Rosemary: remembrance; fidelity; love; friendship; healing; warding off the plague; also: death. Christian lore has it that the flowers were originally white, but turned blue when St. Mary hung her blue mantle over the bush. In spiritualism: protection; love; lust; mental powers; clairvoyance; exorcism; purification; healing; sleep; youth. In mythology: Love. Rosemary (a/k/a sea dew, from its Latin name Rosmarinus) is said to have obtained the power to stimulate love and passion in Aphrodite's (Venus's) birth, sprung from the foam of the sea. Also: memory (Greek students used to wear garlands of rosemary around their necks at exam time). In heraldry: Fidelity in love.
And there is pansies, that's for thoughts.
A document in madness! Thoughts and remembrance fitted.
Pansies: also to Laertes, for essentially the same reasons as rosemary – and he even confirms it for us.
Pansy: thoughts; memories; souvenirs; remembrance; recollection; merriment; faithfulness; the loved one and curing a love-sick heart (but also: love in vain); humility; modesty; divination; good fortune; healing; magic. From French, pens–e(s). Its three main petals also symbolise the Holy Trinity. Mythologically believed to have been white originally, but turned colourful when it was pierced by Cupid's arrow.
There's fennel for you,
Moving on to the master flatterer and Great Deceiver ...
(Fennel: flattery and deceit; though also strength and praiseworthiness. In spiritualism: protection; healing; purification. In mythology: a sexual stimulant and symbol of success.)
and columbines.
... who also gets these, I think, although this is a bit of a mixed signal. But Laertes already has his share of flowers, Horatio – while a scholar and overall worthy of much praise – is not a saint; and adultery and, again, deceit, just fit too smack dab with Claudius not to double up on the symbolism.
Columbines: on the one hand, adultery, ingratitude, deceit, and foolishness. On the other hand, known as the "dove plant" (from the Latin columba, named for the little doves formed by its five petals), and as Herba leonis (the favourite plant of lions); in that connotation, also associated with courage, love, anxiousness, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, fidelity, and even Holy Mary.
There's rue for you,
and here's some for me. We may call it herb of grace o' Sundays.
O, you must wear your rue with a difference!
Gertrude: rue personified. Another easy one methinks, although apparently not everybody agrees on this.
Rue: sorrow; repentance; regret; mortification; loss; redemption; piety; grace; sacramental blessing; manners; but also: adultery and abortion. The epithet "Herb of Grace" derives from its use in the holy water sprinkled during Mass. Also known as Cross-Rue, or Five-Wounds-Plant, for being sprinkled with the waters of redeeming grace flowing from the crucified Christ's pierced sides, and as the judges' plant, deemed to protect them from jail fever during sentencing.
With a difference: in heraldry: a variation in a coat of arms. Here: proudly, defiantly; possibly also: for a different reason (than Ophelia, that is).
There's a daisy.
A popular interpretation seems to be to have Ophelia pick up an imaginary daisy and then drop it again in disgust, as if to say, "Innocence, fidelity and truthfulness – here?" But I disagree: there is someone whom these qualities and also the other ones typically associated with the little white flower fit like the proverbial glove; particularly so, loyalty, gentleness, and the promise never to tell. That's right ... the daisy goes to Horatio! (And with a very childlike, innocent gesture, too, I imagine.)
Daisy: innocence; purity; fidelity; truth; simplicity; beauty; affection; loyal love; dissembling; childhood and youth; gentleness; the promise never to tell. Its name derives from the Anglo-Saxon "daes eage" ("day's eye"), because the flower opens and closes with the sun. – Biblically: Christ; the Virgin Mary.
I would give you some violets, but they wither'd all when my father
died. They say he made a good end.
Because of what Ophelia says, the violets are typically associated with Polonius, and she is thought to address these comments to the entire group. But the symbolism is actually not so different from that of a daisy; therefore, I think during her very first words she is still looking at Horatio here – then her eyes take in the group as a whole, then she turns to Gertrude, who is the only one who was actually present during Polonius's death, and who must be feeling Ophelia's last comment as an echo of the "daggers" of her son's tongue, although it is not even intentionally meant in that way.
Blue violets: faithfulness; loyalty; constancy; watchfulness; chastity; humility; modesty; delicacy; shyness; sweetness; love; but also: death in the young. Yellow violets: happiness and modest worth. White: candour; modesty; hope; "let's take a chance on happiness." In spiritualism: Protection; luck; love; lust; wishes; peace; healing; shyness. Mythologically, violets are linked with the legend of Io, a nymph courted and turned into a white cow by Zeus to hide her from his ever-jealous wife Hera. When Io bewept the coarse grass she henceforth had to eat, Zeus changed her tears into sweet violets which she alone was allowed to eat. According to a Roman myth, Venus (Aphrodite) once beat a group of maidens, whom Cupid had declared more beautiful than her, until they turned blue (and ultimately into violets).
For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
This one is a bit obsucre, although I think there is a certain significance in the fact that "Robin" is capitalised. That opens up three major possibilities in my view: Firstly, Elizabeth I's "Sweet" Lord Robert (Robin) Dudley – which would be a bit of a risky choice, though, given that the play was likely written at the time when the Virgin Queen was going through what would be her last turmoil with another fervent (ex-)favourite, the rebellious Earl of Essex. Conceivably, after already having penned the quintessential mutiny play in Richard II (which would even come to be undusted during the Essex rebellion, much to the peril and embarrassment of the Lord Chamberlain's Men), the Bard may have preferred not to hazard his monarch's ill-will yet again by reminding her of another, equally torrent affair. – Second option: Robin Hood, which would make Ophelia the Maid Marian; certainly a possibility, particularly given Marian's ambiguous portrayal as, on the one hand, chaste and virtuous; but on the other hand also cast out by Robin Hood for excessive promiscuity. Marian is also said to sometimes have distributed flowers during the May Games.
Lastly, there is Robin Redbreast, the bird also known as ruddock, which according to legend was told by God that it had to stay gray until it had earned its red badge of courage. At Golgatha, it overcame its fear of the mocking crowd, flew to Christ, and pulled a thorn out of His head, whereupon its breast turned red from the blood spilling out of the thorn's wound. – Whatever the reference, though, I think the line does refer to Hamlet ... having distributed all her flowers, Ophelia's mind turns back to the object(s) of her funeral rites, as her next words show as well.
Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
She turns to favour and to prettiness.
And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead;
Go to thy deathbed;
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.
Finally she now also mingles the images of those she already knows to be dead (the white-bearded King Hamlet and Polonius) with the feared and anticipated death of flaxen-haired Hamlet, and the "burial" of her love for him; bringing together the entire associated symbolism and adding further references reinforcing the image thus created.
Beard: Mature manhood; wisdom; strength; respect. Priests were anointed with oil, which ran down their beards.
Flax: Fate; kindness; domesticity; commerce; a benefactor. Biblically: recalls the white priestly linens, altar cloths, Christ's white linen burial shroud, and the white linen clothes worn by the newly baptised and at Easter (linen is made from flax). In that context, flax signifies the righteousness of Christ and the saints; cleanliness; newness; grace; the absence of sin; purification by suffering and by the blood of Christ (flax is turned into linen by beating, weaving, washing and bleaching). In spiritualism: money; protection; beauty; psychic powers; healing.
God 'a'mercy on his soul!
And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God b' wi' you.
A final prayer, echoing that of a priest concluding mass – but also expressing her anguish concerning the Godless state of the entire country, I think, as well as her own soul, eerily foreshadowing her impending death.
– Continue: The Greek tragedies' Cassandra: the model for the "mad Ophelia" scene(s) in "Hamlet"? –
Copyright 2002 – 2009: Ulrike Böhm, all rights reserved.
