2933-4 Rewe . . . Grace a Sondaies]

2934 herbe of Grace a Sondaies] Warburton (ed. 1747): “Herb of grace is the name the country people give to Rue. And the reason is, because that herb was a principal ingredient in the potion which the Romish priests used to force the possessed to swallow down when they exorcised them. Now these exorcisms being performed generally on a Sunday, in the church before the whole congregation, is the reason why she says, we call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. Sandys tells us that at Grand-Cairo there is a species of rue much in request, with which the inhabitants perfume themselves, not only as a preservative against infection, but as very powerful against evil spirits. And the cabalistic Gassarel pretends to have discovered the reason of its virtue, La semence de Ruë est faicte comme une Croix. & c’est paraventure la cause qu’elle a tant de vertu contre les possedez, & que l’Eglise s’en sert en les exorcisant. It was on the same principle that the Greeks called sulphur, GREEK HERE, because of its use in their superstitious purgations by fire. Which too the Romish priests employ to fumigate in their exorcisms; and on that account hallow or consecrate it.”

2934 herbe of Grace a Sondaies] Grey (1754, p. 301) “Rue was called herb of grace, by the country people, and probably for the reason assigned by Mr. Warburton, that it was used on Sundays by the Romanists in their exorcisms. It was hung about the neck as an amulet against witchcraft, in Aristotle’s time.”

<p.301><n.> “Rutam fascini amuletum esse, tradit Aristoteles. Wieri De Præstigiis Dæmonum, lib. v. cap. 21. col. 584.” </n.></p.301>

2933 Rewe] Steevens (ed. 1773): “I believe there is a quibble meant in the passage; rue anciently signifying the same as Ruth, i.e. sorrow. Ophelia gives the queen some, and keeps a proportion of it for herself. There is the same kind of play with the same word in Richard the Second. Steevens.”

2934-5 with a difference] Steevens (ed. 1773): “This seems to refer to the rules of heraldry, where the younger brothers of a family bear the same arms with a difference, or mark of distinction. Steevens.”

2932-5 There’s Fennill . . . difference] Capell (1774,1:1:144-5): “Her ‘fennel’ is bestow’d on the King, and also her ‘columbine;’ the reason not apparent in either, unless for the columbine; whose flower is a faint kind of purple, and therefore given to him: Her ‘rue’ she gives the Queen, and herself, being an emblem of repentance and sorrows: of the latter, it might remind her at all times; but ‘on Sundays,’ or when the thoughts are bent Godward, it is an emblem of penitence; and then, she tells the Queen, it might be call’d—’herb of grace,’ (which is a popular name for it) sorrows leading to penitence, and being given by Grace for that purpose. All flowers are funereal, and herbs likewise, as being emblems of the shortness of life: (see the fourth act of Cym. scene the second [4.2.218-229 (2528-39)]) and their scattering, as it were, in this place upon persons who were all to be swallow’d up in short time, flows from that prophetical spirit, which antiquity thought inherent in madness, and the East is said to think so at present. By ‘wear your rue with a difference,’ l.25, is meant—that more repentance was necessary for the Queen than for her, and of a different kind: What the folio’s read in that place, (see the ‘V.R.’) perhaps is better than what we have follow’d; the repetition of ‘may’ is avoided, and the surprize of one who was at point to forget herself is express’d stronger.”

2932 Fennill . . . Colembines] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Greene, in his Quip for an Upstart Courtier, 1620, calls fennel, women’s weeds: ‘fit generally for that sex, sith while they are maidens, they wish wantonly.’

“I know not of what columbines were supposed to be emblematical. They are again mentioned in All Fools, by Chapman, 1605: ‘What’s that? —a columbine? No: that thankless flower grows not in myh garden.’

“Gerard, however, and other herbalists, impute few, if any, virtues to them; and they may therefore be stiled thankless, because they appear to make no grateful return for their creation.

“Again, in the 15th Song of Drayton’s Polyolbion: ‘The columbine amongst, they sparingly do set.’

“From the Caltha Poetarum, 1599, it should seem as if this flower was the emblem of cuckoldom: ‘—the blew cornuted columbine, Like to the crooked horns of Acheloy.’ Steevens.”

2934 herbe of Grace a Sondaies] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Herb of grace is one of the titles which Tucca gives to William Rufus, in Decker’s Satiromastix. I suppose the first syllable of the surname Rufus introduced the quibble. Steevens.”

2934-5 Rewe with a difference] Steevens (ed. 1778): “So, in Holinshed’s Reign of King Richard II. p.443: ‘—because he was the youngest of the Spensers, he bare a border gules for a difference.’

“There may, however, be somewhat more implied here, than is expressed. ‘You, madam (says Ophelia to the Queen), may call your rue by its Sunday name, herbe of grace, and so wear it with a difference to distinguish it from mine, which can never be any thing but merely rue, i.e. sorrow. Steevens.”

2932-3 Colembines] Ayscouth (ed. 1784): “Mr. Steevens says, Greene, in his Quip for an Upstart Courtier, 1620, calls fennel, women’s weeds: “fit generally for that sex, sith while they are maidens, they wish wantonly.” Mr. Steevens adds, that he knows not of what columbines were supposed to be emblematical; but that Gerard, and other herbalists, impute few, if any, virtues to them; and they may therefore be ‘stiled thankless; because they appear to make no grateful return for their creation.”

2934-5 difference] Ayscouth (ed. 1784): “Dr. Warbuton says, that herb of grace is the name the country people give to rue; and the reason is, because that herb was a principle ingredient in the portion which the Romish priests used to force the possessed to swallow down when they exorsied them. Now these exorcisms being performed generally on a Sunday, in the church before the whole congregation, is the reason why she says, we may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. Mr. Steevens believes there is a quibble meant in this passage; rue anciently signifying the same as Ruth, i.e. sorrow. Ophelia gives the queen some, and keeps a proportion of it for herself.. There may, however, he adds, be somewhat more implied here than is expressed. You, madam (says Ophelia to the queen), may call your RUE by its Sunday name, HERB OF GRACE, and so wear it with a difference to distinguish it from mine, which can never be anything but merely RUE, i.e. sorrow. This is part of an old song.”

2933 Rewe] Davies (1784, p. 126): “In presenting rue to the Queen, Mrs. Cibber pronounced the word rue with a particular emphasis, and at the same time lookeed at her with great expression.”

2934-5 you may . . . difference] Davies (1784, pp. 126-7): <p.126> “The meaning I take to be this: ‘Your majesty had cause, indeed, to mourn for one husband’s death; but, since you have married another, you may mix sorrow and gladness together emblematically.’ </p.126><p.127>

“I cannot agree, with an excellent observer, that the distracted Ophelia, is a personage of insensibility. She rather resembles that to which she compares Hamlet’s madness, ‘sweet bells out of tune:’ the sound is still preserved in them, though irregularly played upon. It is rather, I think, sensibility deranged, and deserted by reason. She seems, at times, to recollect her scattered sanses; and throws out, though disorderly, truths, solemn and affecting, in the most pathetic expression.” </p.127>

2932 Fennill] Steevens (ed.1785): “Among Turberville’s Epitaphes, &c. p. 42, b. I likewise find the following mention of fennel: ‘Your fennel did declare (As simple men can showe) That flattrie in my breast I bare Where friendship ought to grow.’”

2932 Colembines] S.W. (apud Steevens, ed. 1785): “Columbine was an emblem of cuckoldom, an account of the horns of its nectaria, which are remarkable in this plant. See Aquilegia, in Linnæus’s Genera, 684. S.W.”

2934 herbe of Grace a Sondaies] Steevens (ed. 1785): “In Doctor Do-good’s Directions, an ancient ballad, is the same allusion: ‘If a man have light fingers that he cannot charme, Which will pick men’s pockets, and do such like harme, He must be let blood, in a scarf weare his arme, And drink the herb of grace in a posset luke-warme.’ Steevens.”

2934 herbe of Grace a Sondaies] Henley (apud Editor, 1787, 6:148): “The following passage from Greene’s Quip for an Upstart Courtier, will furnish the best reason for calling rue herb of grace o’Sundays: ‘—some of them smil’d and said, Rue was called Herbegrace, which though they scorned in their youth, they might wear in their age, and that it was never too late to say miserere.’ Henley.”

2934-5 Rewe with a difference] Henley (apud Editor, 1787, 6:156): “Perhaps the difference consisted in Ophelia’s wearing rue, as an emblem of ruing her own unsuccessful passion; whereas she gives rue to the queen, as herb of grace o’Sundays; to imply that she ought to repent the gratification of hers, by means of an incestuous marriage.”

2935 Dasie] Henley (apud Editor, 1787, 6:157): “Greene in his Quip for an upstart Courtier, has explained the significance of this flower: ‘—Next them grew the dissembling daisie, to warne such light of love wenches not to trust every faire promise that such amorous bachelors make them.’ Henley.”

2934 herbe of Grace] Wesley (ms. notes in v1785): “(S. says there may be a reference to the difference in Heraldry; or that it may mean “you may call it Herb of Grace, but to me it is merely Rue.”) I prefer the former idea.”

2932 Fennill] Malone (ed. 1790): “Ophelia gives her fennel and columbines to the king. In the collection of Sonnets quoted above, the former is thus mentioned: ‘Fennel is for flatterers, An evil thing ‘tis sure; But I have alwaies meant truely, With constant heart most pure.’

“See also Florio’s Italian Dictionary, 1598: ‘ finocchio, to give fennel,—to flatter, to dissemble.’ Malone.”

2933-4 Rewe . . . difference] Malone (ed. 1790): “Herb of grace was not the sunday name, but the every day name of rue. In the common dictionaries of Shakspeare’s time it is called herb of grace. See Florio’s Italian Dctionary, 1598, in v. ruta, and Cotgrave’s French Dictionary, 1611, in v. rue. There is not ground therefore for supposing, with Dr.Warburton, that rue was called herb of grace, from its being used in exorcisms performed in churches on sundays.

“Ophelia only means, I think, that the queen may with peculiar propriety on sundays, when she solicits pardon for that crime which she has so much occasion to rue and repent of, call her rue, herb of grace. So, in R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]. ‘Here did she drop a tear; here in this place I’ll set a bank of rue, for herb of grace. Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen, In the remembrance of a weeping queen.’

“Ophelia, after having given the queen rue, to remind her of the sorrow and contrition she ought to feel for her incestuous marriage, tells her, she may wear it with a difference, to distinguish it from that worn by Ophelia herself; because her tears flowed from the loss of a father, those of the queen ought to flow forher guilt. Malone.”

2936 Violets] Malone (ed. 1790): “The violet is thus characterized in the old collection of Sonnets above quoted, printed in 1584: ‘Violet is for faithfulnesse, Which in me shall abide; Hoping likewise that from your heart You will not let it slide.’ Malone.”

2934 herbe of Grace a Sondaies] Rann (ed. 1791-): “because used in exorcisms, which were generally performed on a Sunday: in the East rue is esteemed a powerful preservative against both evil spirits, and infection. R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]. Gard.”

2935 with a difference] Rann (ed. 1791-): “to distinguish it from mine, which is mere rue, or sorrow: yours may be herb of grace.”

2932 Colembines] White (apud ed. 1793): “Columbine was an emblem of cuckoldom on account of the horns of its mectaria, which are remarkable in this plant. See Aquilegia, in Linnæs’ Genera, 684. The columbine was emblematical of forsaken lovers: ‘The columbine in tawny often taken, Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken.’ Browne’s Britannia’s Pastorals, B. I. Song ii. 1613. Holt White.”

2934-5 Rewe with a difference] Hardinge (1801 Another, Pt.2, p. 22): “A difference, according to him [Steevens], is a mark of distinction amongst heralds.”

2936 Violets] Todd (apud ed. 1803): “So, in Bion’s beautiful elegy on the death of Adonis: ‘—panta oyn aytv Vs thnos teqnke, kai ant emaranqh.’ Todd.”

2932 Rewe] Chedworth (1805, p. 357): “I do not think that Ophelia has so deep a meaning in giving the rue as Mr. Malone supposes.”

2933 Rewe] Pye (1807, p. 324): “This is a curious mode of explaining a word: as a verb, to rue is now by no mean uncommon, but ruth is quite obsolete, though ruthless is still retained, but in verse only.”

2932 you] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “This seems to be an address to the king; although the application to him of the latter of the two things offered, is not obvious.”

2932-5 Rewe . . . difference] Caldecott (ed. 1819):“Malone tells us, that under the word Ruta, in Florio’s Ital., and Cotgrave’s Fr. Dict., it is interpreted herb of grace. When Ophelia, presenting it to the queen, reserves some for herself, she certainly means to infer, that they were both visited by Ruth, or Sorrow; as the words are in terms associated in R2 and as contrition or sorrow is a sign of grace, it may thence have been called herb of grace, and in the passage referred to, it is called sour herb of grace. ‘Rue, sour herb of grace, Rue, ev’n for ruth.’ [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]. Gardener.

2935 with a difference] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “The slightest variation in the bearings, their position or colour, constituted a different coat in heraldry; and between the ruth and wretchedness of guilt, and the ruth and sorrows of misfortune, it would be no difficult matter to distinguish.

“‘If he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse.’ Ado [1.1.68-69 (65-66)] Beatr.”

2932 Rewe] Nares (1822: glossary, rue): “Called herb of grace, and often alluded to; conjectured to be so called because used in exorcisms against evil spirits. See T.J. ‘Here did she drop a tear; here, in this place, I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace.’ R2 [3.4.104-107 [(1916-19)]. See also Ham. 4.5.”

2932 Fennill] Singer (ed. 1821): “Fennel was emblematic of flattery, and ‘Dare finocchio, to give fennel,’ was in other words ‘to flatter, to dissemble,’ according to Florio. Thus in the ballad above cited:— ‘Fennel is for flatterers, An evil thing ‘tis sure.’”

2932 Colembines] Singer (ed. 1821): “Browne, in his Britannia’s Pastorals, says:— ‘The columbine, in tawny often taken, Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken.’”

2933-5 Rewe . . . difference] Singer (ed. 1821): “Rue was for ruth or repentance. It was also commonly called herbgrace, probably from being accounted ‘a present remedy against all poison, and a potent auxiliary in exorcisms, all evil things fleeing from it.’ By wearing it with a difference (an heraldic term for a mark of distinction) Ophelia may mean that the queen should wear it as a mark of repentance; herself as a token of grief.”

2935 Dasie] Singer (ed. 1826): “The daisy was emblematic of a dissembler:—’Next them grew the dissembling daisy, to warne such light of love wenches not to trust every fair promise that such amorous batchelors make.’—Greene’s Quip for an Upstart Courtier.”

2936 Violets] Singer (ed. 1826): “The violet is for faithfulness, and is thus characterised in The Lover’s Nosegaie. In Bion’s beautiful elegy on the death of Adonis, Mr. Todd has pointed out:—‘GREEK HERE.’”

2934 herbe of Grace a Sondaies] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “In his edition 8vo. 1821. XXI. 389, Malone quotes a letter from Alleyn, the player, to his wife in 1593; in which he understands this word in the sense of wormword.’ ‘Keepe your house fayr and clean, and every evening throw water before your dore, and in your back syd, and have in your windowes good store of reue and herbe of grace, and withall the grace of God, which must be obtaynd by prayers; and, so doing, you shall escape the plague; of which, there then died in London in its liberties 10,075.”

2932 Rewe] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “Rue was meant to express ruth—sorrow. For the same reason it was called herb-grace; for ‘he whom God loveth he chasteneth.’”

2935-7 there’s a Dasie . . . dyed] Hunter (1845, 2:259-60): <p.259> “When the mind is unsettled, it is usual for some idea to recure which had been introduced at a critical period of the person’s life. now, when Laertes was warning Ophelia against encouraging the attentions of Hamlet, he urged her to consider his trifling but as ‘A violet in the youth of primy nature. Forward not permanent’ [1.3.7-8 (469-70)]. These words had remained imprinted on her mind, associated with the idea of Hamlet and the idea of her brother, </p.259><p.260> and they now recur to her memory when she again converses with her brother on the same unhappy subject. The violets withered when her father died. When Hamlet had slain Polonius there was a final obstacle interposed to their union. In the delineation of Ophelia in the shattered state of her mind there is much to admire, but there is more to be, if possible, excused.” <p.260>

2932-4 Rewe . . . a Sondaies] Collier (ed. 1843): “Rue seems to have been also constantly called ‘herb of grace.’ Shakespeare so terms it in R2 [3.4.104-107 [(1916-19)] Vol. iv. p. 181:—‘I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace.’ And in AWW [4.5.17 (2498)], Vol. iii. p. 295, it is spoken of as ‘herb of grace’ only.”

2932-4 Rewe . . . a Sondaies] Delius (ed. 1854): “Von der Raute, dem Symbol der Reue = rue und ruth, gibt sie einen Theil der Königin, und sagt ihr dabei, es lasse sich diese Raute an Sonntagen mit ihrem dem Festtage entsprechenden sinnigeren Beinamen: Gnadenkraut (herb of grace) benennen. Gnadenkraut hiess sie, weil die Reue zum Gnadenstande führt. - o’Sundays gehört nicht zu herb of grace, sondern zu we may call it. “Mit einem Abzeichen” soll die Königin ihre Raute tragen, um sie und das darin symbolisirte Leid von der Raute der Ophelia und deren Leide zu unterscheiden.” [She gives a piece of rue, the symbol for regret (rue and ruth) to the queen and says to her that on Sundays rue may be called by its more meaningful name herb of grace. It was called herb of grace because repentance leads to a state of grace.—The words o’Sundays belong not to herb of grace, but to we may call it. The queen is to wear her rue with a difference to distinguish it and the suffering it symbolizes from Ophelia’s rue and suffering.]

2935 Dasie] Delius (ed. 1854): “Wem sie daisy = Masslieb, Symbol der Verstellung überreicht und dafür gern “Veilchen,” das Symbol der Treue, überreicht hätte, ist nicht recht klar.” [To whom she gives a daisy, the symbol of hypocrisy, and would have liked to give violets, the symbol of faithfulness, is not entirely clear.]

2932-5 There’s Fennill . . . difference] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “Fennel was emblematic of flattery. Browne, in his Britannia’s Pastorals, says,—‘The columbine, in tawny often taken, Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken.’

“Rue was for ruth or repentance. It was also commonly called herbgrace, probably from being accounted ‘a present remedy against all poison, and a potent auxiliary in exorcisms, all evil things fleeing from it.’ Wearing it with a difference was an heraldic term for a mark of distinction.”

2935 Dasie] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “The daisy was emblematic of a dissembler.”

2936 Violets] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “The violet is for faithfulness, and is thus characterised in The Lover’s Nosegaie.”

2932 Fennill] Staunton (ms. note in Knight, ed. 1857): “‘Fennel is for flaterers,’ See an account of these floral emblems in ‘The Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions. p. 11. p. 3. Park’s reprint.”

2932-4 Rewe . . . a Sondaies] Staunton (ms. note in Knight, ed. 1857): “See Capell p. 237. Quip for an Upstart Courtier. vol.3.”

2932 Fennill . . . Colembines] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Ophelia gives her fennel and columbines to the King. Malone quotes the former in a collection of Sonnets, thus mentioned: ‘Fennel is for flatterers/An evil thing ‘tis sure/But I have alwaies meant truely,/With constant heart most pure.’ Steevens likewise finds the following mention of fennel, among Turbervile’s Epitaphes, etc. ‘Your fenell did declare/As simple men can showe,/That flattrie in my breast I bare,/Where friendship ought to grow.’”

2932 Fennill . . . Colembines] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “To columbines herbalist impute few, if any, virtues, says Steevens; they may therefore be styled thankless, because they appear to make no grateful return for their creation. They are mentioned in All Fools, by Chapman, 1605: ‘What’s that? – a columbine?/No: that thankless flower grows not in my garden.’ The same commentator asserts that from the Caltha Poetarum, 1599, it should seem as if this flower was the emblem of cockoldom: ‘—the blue cornuted columbine/Like to the crooked horns of Acheloy.’ Holt White confirms, that columbine was supposed to be the emblem of cuckoldom, on account of the horns of its nectaria, which are remarkable in this plant. See Aquilegia, in Linaeus’ Genera. Therefore it was emblematical of forsaken lovers. See Browne’s Britannia’s Pastorals, Book I. Song II. 1613: ‘The colmbine in tawny often taken/Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken.’”

2933-4 Rewe . . . Sondaies] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Steevens believes that there is a quibble meant in this passage; rue anciently signifying the same as ruth, i.e. sorrow, and being the emblem of sorrow. Rue is called herb of grace, because holy water was sprinkled with it, (conjectured though by others to be so called because used in exorcisms against evil spirits). We therefore must join the words thus: on Sundays we may call it herb of grace; for so the queen may call it with peculiar propriety on Sundays, when she solicits pardon for that crime which she has so much occasion to rue and repent of. So, in R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]: ‘Here did she drop a tear; here in this place/I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace,/Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,/In the remembrance of a weeping queen.’ Henley quotes the following passage from Greene’s Quip for an Upstart Courtier, in order to furnish ‘’the best reason’ for calling rue herb of grace o’ Sundays: ‘—some of them smiled and said, Rue was called Herbgrace (herb-grace), which though they scorned in their youth, they might wear in their age, and that it was never too late to say miserere.’ It is scarcely necessary to observe, that Herb of grace was not the Sunday name, but the every day name of rue.”

2934-5 weare . . . difference] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Ophelia after having given the queen rue to remind her of the sorrow and contrition she ought to feel for her incestuous marriage, tells her, she may wear it with a difference, to distinguish it from that worn by Ophelia herself; because her tears flowed from the loss of a father, those of the queen ought to flow for her guilt. M. –So, according to the rules of heraldry, younger brothers of a family are said to bear the same arms with a difference, or mark of distinction.”

2932-4 Rewe . . . a Sondaies] Collier (ed. 1858): “Rue was constantly called ‘herb of grace.’ Shakespeare so terms it in ‘Richard II.’ Vol. iii. p. 280:—‘I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace.’ And in AWW [4.5.17 (2498)] Vol. ii. p. 610, it is spoken of as ‘herb of grace’ only. R. Greene in his ‘Quip for an upstart Courtier,’ 1592, tells us that ‘rue was called herb-grace,’ but it is useless t multiply such authorities.”

2932-4 Fennill . . . herbe of Grace a Sondaies] Staunton (ed. 1860): “For the King [Ophelia] has ‘fennel,’ signifying flattery and lust; and ‘columbines,’ which marked ingratitude; while for the Queen and for herself she reserves the herb of sorrow, ‘rue,’ which she reminds her Majesty may be worn by her ‘with a difference,’ i.e. not as an emblem of grief alone, but to indicate contrition;—’some of them smil’d and said, Rue was called Herbe grace, which though they scorned in their youth, they might wear in their age, and that it was never too late to say Miserere,’—Greene’s Quip for an Upstart Courtier.”

2934 herbe of Grace a Sondaies] White (ed. 1861): “This Sunday name of rue appears to have been worn every day and Sunday too. See R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)], ‘I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace.’”

2933-4 Rewe . . . a Sondaies] Wise (1861, pp. 100-2): “See n. [4.5.48 (2790)].”

2932 There’s Fennill for you] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “The following curious verses on the virtues of fennel are extracted from an excessively rare work, the Castell of Courtesie, by James Yates, 4to. Lond. 1582, fol. 46,— ‘In garden brave, whenas I view’d and saw There every herbe that nature had bedeckt, And every flower so fresh and red as haw, I stoode in choyse of which I should elect; Yet could I none there finde that did me please So much as two, by whom I have found ease. And fennill first for sight hath done me good, Whose water stil’d did ease my pricking eies, Reviv’d my heart and cheer’d my fainting blood, And made me laugh when head was full of cries. What say you now? can you expulse my clause? May I not praise? yes, sir, when I have cause. Yes, sure, this hearbe I like and like againe, And if I had a garden as some have, I would much plant, and take therein greate paine, To have in store for such as will it crave. Yet some will say that fennill is to flatter: They over reache, their tongues too much do clatter.’”

2932-7 Fennill . . . Violets] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “See Note 85, Act iv., AWW [4.5.17 (2498)], and Note 58, Act iii., R2 [4.5.48 (2790)]. ‘Fennel’ was held emblematic of flattery; and ‘columbines’ were given to those who were forsaken. A ‘daisy’ was the token of a dissembler; and ‘violets” were the symbol of faithfulness. Ophelia’s flowers, as it appears to us, are all selected with affecting reference to her own sorrows; they have been supposed by some explainers to bear typical reference to those to whom she presents them; but we think she only for a moment wanders off into other application of them than to her own condition—which moment being when she tells the king that they “may wear” their ‘rue with a difference’; meaning thereby, that for herself it means ‘ruth’ in the sense of piteous regret, whereas for them it means ‘ruth’ in the sense of contrition, repentance, or remorse. A passage from Greene’s ‘Quip for an Upstart Courier’ serves to illustrate this:—“Some of them smil’d and said, Rue was called Herbegrace, which though they scorned in their youth, they might wear in their age, and that it was never too late to say miserere.””

2932 Fennill] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “In Betreff des foeniendum heisst es in Lyly’s Sappho: Flatter, I mean, lie; little things catch light minds, and fancy is a worm, that feedeth first upon fennel.” [Concerning the foeniendum, Lyly’s Sappho has: Flatter, I mean lie; little things catch light minds, and fancy is a worm, that feedeth first upon fennel.]

2932 Colembines] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Die Aquilegia vulgaris wurde für das Zeichen der Undankbarkeit gehalten, wie in Chapman’s All Fools: What’s that? A columbine? No; that thankless flower grows not in my garden. Weiteres s. bei Nares s. v. v. fennel und columbine.” [The aquilegia vulgaris was thought to be a sign of unthankfulness, as in Chapman’s All Fools: What’s That? A columbine? No; that thankless flower grows not in my garden. See further by Nares under fennel and columbine.]

2934 Rewe] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Die ruta graecoleus ist das Sinnbild des Schmerzes und der Reue, das sie, wie ich vermuthe, dem Könige übergiebt, auf den die damit verknüpften Bemerkungen passen. Ueber den Ausdruck: with a difference s. Elze p. 233. Das Vertheilen der Blumen erinnert übrigens an das Sheep-shearing-feast in A Winter’s Tale, wo ebenfalls Blumen mit allegorischen Bemerkung auf die Empfänger vertheilt werden. Es scheint, dass O. in ihrem Irrsinn sich für die Queen des Festes hält.” [The ruta graecoleus is the symbol of pain and regret that she gives, I suspect, to the king, whom the associated observations fit. About the expression with a difference see Elze, p. 233. The distribution of the flowers recalls moreover the Sheep-shearing festival in WT [4.3.37 (1706)], where flowers are also distributed with allegorical remarks to their recipients. It appears that Ophelia in her insanity thinks that she is the Queen of the festival.]

2935 Dasie] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “daisy day’s-eye. Die Bellis perennis, in alten Zeiten der Ostern geweiht, war Blumenorakel, und wird noch heut von Jungfrauen, die den küftigen Geliebten kennen wollen, befragt. Vielleicht behält sie das Maslieb für sich. Die Viola odorata war schon der Farbe wegen symbol der Treue. Die Veilchen welkten als der V a t e r starb, da O. annehmen muss, das Pol. treuloser Weise umgebracht sei.” [daisy day’s eye. The bellis perennis, dedicated in ancient times to Easter, was a flower oracle and is still today questioned by girls who want to know their future lover. Perhaps she keeps the ox-eye daisy for herself. The viola odorata was a symbol of faith because of its color. The violets withered as the father died, since Ophelia must assume that Polonius died in a faithless way.]

2932 Fennill] Moberly (ed. 1870): “The emblem of flattery, which she gives to the courtiers. ‘Dare finocchio,’ to give fennel, is, in Italian, to flatter, dissemble. As to the columbine we have in a song of 1613—‘The columbine in tawny often taken, / Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken.’”

2933 Rewe] Moberly (ed. 1870): “In R2. 3.4 [1916-19], the gardener similarly plays on the words ’rue, sour herb of grace,’ and ’ruth.’ Ophelia means in the next words that the plant has got the week-day name ’rue,’ and the Sunday name ’herb of grace,’ so that it can be worn with two different intentions. The rue is given to the queen; on whom it may have its gracious effect.”

2936 Violets] Moberly (ed. 1870): “The emblem of faithfulness.”

2932 Fennill . . . Colembines] Hudson (ed. 1872): “Fennel and columbine were significant of cajolery and ingratitude; so that Ophelia might fitly give them to the guileful and faithless King.”

2934-5 weare your Rewe with a difference] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Rue was emblematic of sorrow or ruth, and was called herb-grace from the moral and medicinal virtues ascribed to it.—There may be some uncertainty as to Ophelia’s meaning, when she says to the Queen, ‘you must wear your rue with a difference.’ Bearing a difference is an old heraldic phrase; and the difference here intended is probably best explained in Cogan’s Haven of Health: ‘The second property is that rue abateth carnal lust, which is also confirmed by Galen.’ So that the difference in the Queen’s case would be emblematic of her ‘hasty return to the nuptial state, and a severe reflection on her indecent marriage.’”

2935 Dasie . . . Violets] Hudson (ed. 1872): “The daisy was an emblem of dissembling; the violet, of faithfulness and is so set down in The Lover’s Nosegay.”

2935 Dasie] Delius (ed. 1872): “Wem sie daisy = Masslieb, Symbol der Verstillung, überreicht und dafür gern Veilchen, das Symbol der Treue, überreicht hätte, ist nicht recht klar.” [Perhaps she kept the daisy for herself. Dyce quotes here Greene’s Quip for an upstart Courtier: Next them grew the dissembling daisy, to warn such light-of-love wenches not to trust every fair promise that such amorous bachelors make them.]

2932 Fennill] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “Ophelia gives fennel and columbines to the King. Fennel is said to be emblematic of flattery. In Florio’s Worlds of Wordes, 1598, ‘Dare finocchio’ (to give fennel) is translated ‘to flatter, to dissemble.’ Compare Greene’s Quip for an Upstart courtier, p. 7 (Collier’s reprint): ‘Uppon a banke, bordring by, grewe womens weedes, Fenell I meane for flatterers, fit generally for that sexe.’”

2392 Colembines] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “mentioned by Chapman in All Fools, act. ii. sc. 1: ‘What’s that? a columbine? No: that thankless flower fits not my garden.’ If it were an emblem of thanklessness it would be suitable enough to be given to the King.”

cln1 ≈ mal (Cotgrave), stau (Greene analogue) without attribution

2933 Rewe. . . a Sondaies] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “She gives rue to the Queen. the meaning is clearly shown by Richard II, iii. 4. 104, &c.: ‘I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace; Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen, In the remembrance of a weeping queen.’ Cotgrave gives ‘Rue: Rue, hearbe grace.’ In Lyte’s Herball, p. 294, ed. 1595, there is a description of ‘Rue orHerbe Grace.’ To rue is to repent, therefore rue was called ‘herb of grace,’ or ‘herb-grace.’ As Ophelia says, it may fitly bear its religious name on Sundays. There is a curious passage in Greene’s Quip for an Upstart Courtier, p. 9 (Collier’s reprint): ‘But as these upstart changelings went strouting like Philopolimarchides, the bragart in Plautus, they lookte so proudly at the same that they stumbled on a bed of Rue that grewe at the bottome of the banke where the Time was planted, which fall upon the dew of so bitter an herbe taught them that such proude peacockes as over hastily out run their fortunes, at last to speedily fall to repentaunce; and yet some of them smild and said Rue was called herbe grace, which though they scorned in their youth, they might weare in their age, and it was never too late to say Miserere.’”

2935 with a difference] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “This was a term in heraldry meaning the slight changes made in a coat of arms to distinguish one member of a family from another. Ophelia no doubt means that the Queen and she had different causes of ruth.”

2935 Dasie] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “It does not appeare to whom she gives the daisy; probably either to the King or Queen. Henley has quoted Greene’s Quip for an Upstart Courtier [p. 11, Collier’s reprint]: ‘Next them grewe the dessembling daisie.’”

2936 Violets] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “Malone quotes from a collection of ‘Sonnets,’ published in 1584: ‘Violet is for faithfulnesse.’ Perhaps she says this to Horatio.”

2932 Colembines] Moberley (ed. 1873): “As to the columbine, we have in a song of 1613 – ‘The columbine in tawny often taken, Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken.’”

2938 Robin] Mercade (1875, p. 101): “In the words—[quotes line]—we might venture to suggest many ideas it give rise to; but we prefer to leave it as it stands. We will only remark as a hint that the robin is a bird connected by vulgar superstition with the Crucifixion, where a drop of blood is supposed to have stained its chest. Hence its general immunity, in comparison with the safety of other small birds.”

2932 Fennill] Furness (ed. 1877): “Malone: Oph. gives her fennel and columbines to the King. In A Handfull of Pleasant Delites, 1584, the former is thus mentioned: ‘Fennel is for flatterers.’ &c. See also Florio: Dare finocchio, to give fennel . . . . to flatter, to dissemble. Nares: This was generally considered an inflammatory herb, and was certainly emblematic of flattery. [Several instances are given.] Staunton: For the King she has ‘fennel,’ signifying ‘flattery’ and ‘lust’; and ‘columbines,’ which marked ingratitude. Dyce (Gloss.): We may certainly suppose that she offers the King ‘flattery,’ though we do not agree with Staunton in supposing that here fennel signifies ‘lust’ also. Beisly (p. 157) cites Holland’s Pliny [p. 77, ed. 1636]: ‘Fennel hath a singular property to mundifie our sight, and take away the filme or web that ouercasteth and dimmeth our eyes.’ This property is noticed by most of our early writers on plants, and it is in reference to this quaility that Oph. presents it to the King to clear his sight, just as the rosemary was given to Laer. to aid his memory.”

2932 Colembines] Furness (ed. 1877): “Steevens: In All Fools, by Chapman, 1605: ‘a columbine? No; that thankless flower grows not in myh garden’—II, i. Gerard and other herbalists, impute few, if any, virtues to them; and they may therefore be styled thankless, because they appear to make no grateful return for their creation. S[tephen] W[eston]: Columbine was an emblem of cuckoldom on account of the horns of its nectaria, which are remarkable in this plant. Holt White: it was also emblematic of forsaken lovers: ‘The columbine in tawny often taken Is thenm ascribe to such as are forsaken.’—Browne’s Britannia’s Pastorals, v. I, 1613. Dyce (Gloss.): But here Oph. is not assigning the columbine to herself, and, except herself, there is no ‘love-lorn’ person present.”

2932-4 Rewe . . . a Sondaies] Furness (ed. 1877): “Warburton: The reason why ‘rue’ was called ‘herb of grace’ is because that herb was a principal ingredient in the potion which the Romish priests used to force the possessed to swallow down when they exorcised them. These exorcisms being performed generally on a Sunday, in the church before the whole congregation, is the reason why she says we call it ‘herb of grace o’ Sundays.’ [Dyce says Warburton was only repeating what he had read in the works of a great divine,—Jeremy Taylor; see Todd post.] Steevens: I believe there is a quibble meant in this passage; ‘rue’ anciently signifying the same as ruth, i.e. sorrow. Oph. gives the Queen some, and keeps a proportion of it for herself. There is the same kind of play with the same word in R2: III. iv, 104. ‘Herb of grace’ is one of the titles which Tucca gives to William Rufus, in Decker’s Satiromastix. I suppose the first syllable of the surname Rufus introduced the quibble. Henley: ” The following passage from Greene’s Quip for an Upstart Courtier will furnish the best reason for calling rue herb of grace o’Sundays: ‘—some of them smil’d and said, Rue was called Herbegrace, which, though they scorned in their youth, they might weare in their age, and that it was never too late to say Miserere.’ Malone: ‘Herb of grace’ was not the Sunday name, but the every-day name of ‘rue.’ In the common dictionaries of Shakspeare’s time it is called ‘herb of grace.’ See Florio s. v. ruta, and Cotgrave in s. v. rue. There is not ground, therefore, for supposing with Warburton, that ‘rue’ was called ‘herb of grace’ from its being used in exorcisms performed in churches on Sundays. Oph. only means, I think, that the Queen may with peculiar propriety on Sundays, when she solicits pardon for that crime which she has so much occasion to rue and repent of, call her ‘rue’ ‘herb of grace.’ After having given the Queen ‘rue,’ to remind her of the sorrow and contrition she ought to feel for her incestuous marriage, Oph. tells her, she may wear it with a difference, to distinguish it from that worn by Oph. herself; because her tears flowed from the loss of a father, those of the Queen ought to flow forher guilt. Todd (ap. Caldecott) cites Jeremy Taylor’s A Dissuasive from Popery, Part I, c. II. s. ix, ‘They (the Romish exorcists) are to try the devil by holy water, incense, sulphur, rue; which from thence, as we suppose, came to be called ‘herb of grace.’ Caldecott cites a passage from Edward Alleyn’s letters [Var. 1821, vol. xxi, p. 390, and Sh. Soc. vol. ix, p. 26], which seems to imply that ‘herb of grace’ and ‘rue’ were different plants: ‘every evening’ [Alleyn is telling his wife, whom he calls ‘good sweete mouse,’ to take precautions against the plague raging that year, 1593, in London] ‘throw water before your dore, and in your bake sid, and have in your windowes good store of reue and herbe of grace. That this ‘herb of grace’ was wormwood Malone shows by referring to the reply from Alleyn’s parents to this letter: ‘for your good cownsell . . . . we all thanck you, which wasse for keping of our howsse cleane . . . . and strainge our windowes and wormwode and rewe.’—Sh. Soc. vol. ix, p. 30.”

2934 difference] Furness (ed. 1877): “Steevens: This seems to refer to the rules of heraldry, where the younger brothers of a family bear the same arms with a difference, or mark of distinction. So, in Holinshed’s Reign of King Richard II. p.443: ‘—because he was the youngest of the Spensers, he bare a border gules for a difference. There may, however, be somewhat more implied here, than is expressed. You, madam (says Oph. to the Queen), may call your rue by its Sunday name, herb of grace, and so wear it with a difference to distinguish it from mine, which can never be any thing but merely rue, i.e. sorrow. Caldecott: Between the ruth and wretchedness of guilt, and the ruth and sorrows of misfortune, it would be no difficult matter to distinguish. Skeat (N. & Qu., 25 Dec 1869): There is no difficulty here if we do not force the words into some heraldic phrase, It merely means this: I offer you rue, which has tow meanings,; it is sometimes called herb of grace, and in that sense I take some for myself; but with a slight difference of spelling it means ruth, and in that respect it will do for you. This explanation is not mine,—it is Shakespeare’s own; see R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]. [A discussion on the meaning of this phrase is also to be found in Edin. Rev. July, 1869; N. & Qu. 25 Sept. 1869; 23 Oct. 1889, 8 Jan. 1870]”

2935 Dasie] Furness (ed. 1877): “Henley: Greene in his Quip for an upstart Courtier, has explained the significance of this flower: ‘—Next them grew the dissembling daisie, to warne such light-of-love wenches not to trust every faire promise that such amorous bachelors make them. Dyce (Gloss.): Does Oph. mean that the daisy is for herself? Clarendon; It does not appear to whom she gives it; probably either to the King or Queen.”

2936 Violets] Furness (ed. 1877): “Malone: In A Handfull of Pleasant Delites, above quoted, the violet is thus characterized: ‘Violet is for faithfulnesse, Which in me shall abide. Clarendon: Perhaps she says this to Hor.”

2932 Fennill] Neil (ed. 1877): “Foeniculum vulgare, commonly called love-in-a-mist, grows wild by the sea-shore, and its umbels of white flowers appear in July. Its savoury odour, which makes it a suitable sauce-plant, is derived from its aromatic seeds, which are by some thought to be the cummin which the Pharisees tithed so scrupulously in Scripture times. It was emblematical of flattery.”

2932 Colembines] Neil (ed. 1877): “the columbine (Aquilegia) is so called in England, Dr. Darwin says, ‘because its sectary represents the body of a bird, and the two petals, standing on each side, its expanded wings, the whole resembling a nest of young pigeons fluttering while their parent feeds them.’ It represented thanklessness and forlorness: ‘The columbine in tawny often taken Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken.’ – Browns Britannia’s Pasterals, I, ii.”

2934 Rewe] Neil (ed. 1877): “was so called herb-o’-grace (see R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]) because handfuls of the plant were used by the priests to sprinkle holy water upon the congregations assembled for public worship.”

2935 Dasie] Neil (ed. 1877): “Perhaps this was not the ‘wee modest crimson-tipped flower’ of Burns, not’ the bright day’s eye’ of Ben Jonson, or ‘the gentle marguerite’ of Chaucer, or ‘the little dazie, that at evening closes’ of Spenser; but the ox-eye daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), a flower which, though ornamental to the field, is so injurious to the pasture that by one of the laws of Denmark its eradication is enforced by severe penalties. It was formerly called Maudelyne-wort.”

2936 Violets] Neil (ed. 1877): “In former times various flowers bore the name of violets – the snowdrop was called the Narcissus violet; wallflower, the Guernsey violet; honesty, in addition to that of moonwort, had the name of strange violet; the periwinkle, now generally known in France by the name of pervenche, went in former times by the name of violette des sorciers, and our own favourite wild sweet violet, violette de Mars, the March violet. The violet is the loveliest of native flowers from its ‘mingled hues of every sort, blue, white, and purple.’”

2932 Fennill] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Malone says: ‘Ophelia gives her fennel and columbines to the king. In A Handfull of Pleasant Delites, 1584, the former is thus mentioned: “Fennel is for flatterers,” etc. See also Florio, Ital. Dict. 1598: “Dare finocchio, to give fennel,...to flatter, to dissemble.” The plant was supposed to have many virtues, which are well stated by Longfellow in The Goblet of Life: ‘Above the lowly plants it towers,/The fennel, with its yellow flowers,/And in an earlier age than ours,/Was gifted with the wondrous powers,/Lost vision to restore./It gave new strength and fearless mood;/And gladiators, fierce and rude,/Mingled it in their daily food,/And he who battled and subdued/A wreath of fennel wore.’ Cf. 2H4 [2.4.245 (1269)]: "and a’ plays at quoits well, and eats conger and fennel.”*

<n.> *“Our younger readers may be interested in the fact that ferule is derived from the Latin ferula, the name of the giant fennel, the stalks of which were used as ‘birches’ by the Roman schoolmaster.” </n.>

2932 Colembines] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Cf. LLL [5.2.655 (2612)]: ‘That columbine.’ Steevens quotes Chapman, All Fools, 1605: What’s that?--a columbine?/No: that thankless flower grows not in my garden.’ It was the emblem of cuckoldom on account of the horns of its nectaria. The Caltha Poetarum, 1599, speaks of it as ‘the blue cornuted columbine.’ It was also emblematic of forsaken lovers. Holt White quotes Growne, Brit. Past. i. 2: ‘The columbine in tawny often taken/Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken.’”

2933 Rewe] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “This she gives to the queen. It was “the symbol of sorry remembrance” (Schmidt). Cf. WT [4.4.74 (1818)] and R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]. It was also called herb of grace, a name appropriate on Sunday, as Ophelia says. Cf. AWW [4.5.17 (2498)]. It was specially in repute as an eye-salve. Cf. Milton, PL xi. 414: "then purg’d with euphrasy and rue/The visual nerve, for he had much to see.’ Ellacombe quotes the old lines of Schola Salerni: “Nobilis est ruta quia lumina reddit acuta,” etc.”

2935 with a difference] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “’The difference between the ruth and wretchedness of guilt, and the ruth and sorrows of misfortune’ (Caldecott). Skeat explains the passage thus: ‘I offer you rue, which has two meanings: it is sometimes called herb of grace, and in that sense I take some for myself; but with a slight difference of spelling it means ruth, and in that respect it will do for you.’ He adds that the explanation is Shakespeare’s own, and refers to R2 3.4.105 [1916-19]. For a different explanation, see Schmidt, s. v.”

2935 Dasie] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Cf. [4.7.169 (3161)] below; also LLL 5. 2. 904 and Luc. 395. Daisied occurs in Cym. [4.2.398 (2730)]. It was the favourite flower of Chaucer. Cf. Legende of Goode Women, 40: “Now have I thanne such a condicion,/That of al the floures in the mede,/Thanne love I most these floures white and rede, / Such as men callen daysyes in our toune.” It does not appear to whom Ophelia gives the daisy; probably either to the king or queen (Wr.). Henley quotes Greene, who calls it ‘the dessembling daisie.’”

2937 Violets] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Malone quotes a sonnet printed in 1584: “Violet is for faithfulnesse.” Cf. [1.3.7 (469)] above and [5.1.240 (3431)] below.”

2932 Colembines] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Brand’s Popular Antiquities, ed. Ellis. II, 199.”

2933 Rewe] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare N. & Q., Aug. 30, 1879, p. 164 (by Dr Brinsley Nicholson).”

2934 herbe of Grace] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Dekker’s Satiro-Mastix (Hawkins, Origin & c., III, 195): King’s truce, my noble herb o’ grace. According to Peacock’s Glossary of Words used in Manley and Corringham, s. Herbegrass, the Latin name of this plant is ruta graveolens.”

2934 you must weare] Elze (ed. 1882): “The reading of Q2 [you may weare], which is no doubt a faulty repetition of we may call it, has inadvertently been inserted in the text.”

2935 Dasie] Elze (ed. 1882): “The spelling dazie occurs also in Luc.(1594) 1. 395 and in TNK [1.1.5 (50)].”

2934 herbe of Grace] White (ed. 1883): “a common name for rue.”

2935 difference] White (ed. 1883): “the figures, or charges, borne on the same coats of arms of various members of the same family, to distinguish them, are called differences.”

2932 Fennill . . . Colembines] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—said to mean flattery and thanklessness—perhaps given to the king.”

2933 Rewe] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Repentance—given to the queen. Another name of the plant was Herb-Grace, as below, in allusion, doubtless, to its common name—rue or repentance being both the gift of God, and an act of grace.”

2934-5 Rewe . . . difference] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—perhaps the heraldic term. The Poet, not Ophelia, intends the special fitness of the speech. Ophelia means only that the rue of the matron must differ from the rue of the girl.”

2935 Dasie] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “‘the dissembling daisy’: Greene—quoted by Henley.”

2936 Violets] macDonald (ed. 1885): “—standing for faithfulness: Malone, from an old song.”

2932 Fennill for you] Mull (ed. 1885): “to the King.”

2933 Rewe for you] Mull (ed. 1885): “for the Queen.”

2935-6 you some Violets] Mull (ed. 1885): “to Horatio.”

2935 with a difference] Mull (ed. 1885): “in addition a daisy.”

2932 Fennill . . . Colembines] Barnett (1889, p. 57): “emblem of flattery; columbine, emblem of ingratitude.”

2932-6 Rewe . . . herbe of Grace . . . Dasie . . . Violets] Barnett (1889, p. 57): “a bitter herb. from Lat. ruta. The Fr. rue is called herbgrace. It means repentance. Daisy. lit. day’s eye. A.S. daeges, day’s, and eáge, an eye. Violets, for faithfulness. Lat. Viola, from Gr. So named from its colour as in iodine.”

2932 Fennill] Symons (Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Fennel is emblematic of flattery. Compare A Handfull of Pleasant Delites (p. 4), quoted above: ‘Fenel is for flatterers.’ Florio has ‘Dare finocchio, to flatter or glue Fennell.’”

2932 Colembines] Symons (Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Columbines were perhaps the emblem of thanklessness. Compare Chapman, All Fools, ii. 1: ‘What’s that? a Columbine? No: that thankless flower fits not my garden.’”

2933 Rewe. . . Sondaies] Symons (Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Compare R2. [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]: ‘I’ll let a bank of rue, some herb of grace; Rue, e’en for ruth, here shortly shall be seen In the remembrance of a weeping queen.’ See note 250 to that play. The plant is indiscriminately called herb of grace and herb-grace, and both variations are contained in the ld copies, the Qq. having the former, and the Ff. the latter. See Furness, Variorum Ed. vol. i. pp. 347, 348 for a long note on the subject.”

2935 Dasie] Symons (Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Henley quotes Greene, A Quip for an Upstart Courtier (Collier’s reprint, p. 11): ‘Next them grew the dissembling daisie, to warne such light-of-love wenches not to trust every faire promise that amorous bachelors make them.”

irv2 ≈ mal (Handfull ) without attribution

2935 Violets] Symons (Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Compare A Handfull of Pleasant Delites (p. 4), ‘Violet is for faithfulnesse.’”

2932 Fennill . . . Colembines] Deighton (ed. 1891): “presented to the king as emblems of cajolery and ingratitude.”

2932-3 there’s Rewe for you] Deighton (ed. 1891): “said to the queen.”

2933-4 we may . . . Sondaies] Deighton (ed. 1891): “‘Ophelia only means, I think, that the queen may with peculiar propriety on Sundays, when she solicits pardon for the crime which she has so much occasion to rue and repent of, call her “rue” herb of grace’ . . . (Malone).”

2935 with a difference] Deighton (ed. 1891): “according to the writer in the Ed. Rev. already quoted [see n. 2930), one of the properties of rue was that of checking immodest thoughts,—a herb therefore appropriate to the queen.”

dtn ≈ Anon. (Greene analogue) without attribution

2935 a Dasie] Deighton (ed. 1891): “it does not appear to whom the daisy is given; according to Greene, quoted by Henley, it was a ‘dissembling’ flower, and was used as a warning to young firls not to trust the fair promises of men.”

2935 Violets] Deighton (ed. 1891): “emblematical of fidelity.”

2937 made a good end] Deighton (ed. 1891): “died as a good man should die, at peace with all men and trusting to God’s mercy; cp. H5 [2.2.10-12 (833-35)], ‘A’ made a finer end and went away an it had been any christom child.’”

2932 Fennill] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Malone quotes A Handfull of Plesant Delites, 1584: ‘Fennel is for flatterers’; Florio has ‘Dare finocchio, to flatter, or give Fennell.’ Given probably to the King.”

2932 Colembines] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Steevens says: ‘It should seem as if this flower was the emblem of cuckoldom.’ Quotations from Chapman’s All Fools, II,. i. (misunderstood through abbreviation), and Caltha Poetarum, 1599, verify the statement. Given probably to the King.”

2933-5 Rewe. . . difference] Dowden (ed. 1899): “the emblem of sorrow and repentance. See R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]. The name herb-grace or herb of grace is found in the herbals and dictionaries. Given to the queen. Ophelia wears her rue as the emblem of sorrow and of grace. ‘With a difference’ had a heraldic meaning (slight distinctions in coats of arms borne by members of the same family), but that meaning is not required here. Skeat suggests that the difference is that of ‘rue’ and ‘ruth’ (referring to the passage in R2.).”

2935 Dasie] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Henley quotes Greene, Quip for an Upstart Courtier: ‘Next them grew the dissembling daisie, to warne such light-of-love wenches not to trust every faire promise that such amorous bachelors make them.’ But perhaps Chaucer’s flower of the loyal Alcestis has here no such significance; perhaps it is not given away.”

ard1 ≈ mal, cln1

2935 Violets] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Malone quotes A Handfull of Pleasant Delites: ‘Violet is for faithfulness.’ Perhaps, as Clar. Press suggests, these words are spoken to Horatio.”

2934-5 you . . . difference] Herford (ed. 1900): “A ‘difference’ was a heraldic bearing which served to discriminate the arms of distinct branches of the same family. The queen’s ‘repentance’ has to be of another quality than Ophelia’s.”

2932 Fennill . . . Colembines] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “The association of these flowers, the first with the opposite yet interlinked ideas of flattery and clear-sightedness, and the second, on account of its horns, with unfaithfulness, come out in the following quotations from books of the time: ‘In garden brave . . . I stoode in choice of which I should elect . . . by whom I have found ease. And fennill first for sight hath done me good, Whose water stil’d did ease my pricking eies . . . Yet some will say that fennill is to flatter’ (‘The Castell of Courtesie,’ James Yates, 1582). ‘Fennell hath a singular property to . . . take away the filme or web that overcasteth and dimmeth our eyes’ (Holland’s Pliny, 1601). ‘The blue cornuted columbine Like to the crooked horns of Acheloy’ (‘Caltha Poetarum,’ 1599).”

2933-35 Rewe . . . difference] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “To wear the same flower under two names for a difference suiting each wearer is a fancy exemplified in the foregoing quotation from Greene (185). In R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)], ‘sowre Herbe of Grace: Rue, ev’n for ruth,’ the same quip is used as here, and again in agreement with Greene: ‘some of them smil’d and said, Rue was called Herbegrace, which, though they scorned in their youth, they might weare in their age, and that it was never too late to say Miserere.’ The origin of the name as a Sunday or hold name appears in Jeremy Taylor’s ‘Dissuasive from Popery,’ I.ii., to be because the Romish exorcists of bewitched persons used to administer rue, ‘to try the devil by hold water, incense, sulphur, rue; which from thence, as we suppose, came to be called herb of grace’.”

2935 a Dasie] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “Shakespeare seems to have made good use of Greene’s flower fancies, which were popular for the whole scene, and may intend, therefore, following Greene again, to have Ophelia reserve this along with her Rew for herself: ‘Next them grew the dissembling daisie, to warne such light-of-love wenches not to trust every faire promise that such amorous bachelors make them’ (‘Quip for and Upstart Courtier’). Her next mention of the Violets that wither’d when Hamlet killed her father, and that mean faithfulness, takes the mind back to the beginning of her woe, her brother’s advice to hold Hamlet’s love as a Violet in the youth of Primy Nature. Julia Marlowe, in playing Ophelia, departed from the distribution of flowers, so long made the business of this scene, and let fall from her listless fingers from time to time a rain of white petals, always the same although called by these many names; always staring witlessly into vacancy meanwhile, although supposed by her words to be addressing the stricken group around her. It was as if she no longer saw externally, yet had some foold’s power of seeing internally left within her broken mind.”

2932 Fennill] Verity (ed. 1904): “symbolical of dissembling and flattery; columbines, of unfaithfulness in wedlock, from their horned shape (not of ingratitude). These are given to Claudius – the “smiling villain” [1.5.106 (791)], who “with witchcraft of his wit” [1.5.43 (730)] stole the love of his brother’s wife.

“As regards fennel, I think that the association may have been due to the idea that it was a favourite food of the serpent, “the subtlest beast of all the field”; feniculum anguibus gratissimum, says Pliny, Nat. Hist. XIX. 9. Milton alludes to this idea, Paradise Lost, IX. 580, 581.”

2933 there’s Rewe for you] Verity (ed. 1904): “Ophelia is speaking to the Queen. The popular name for rue was herb of grace (Quarto) or herb-grace (Folio), and the particular “grace” meant was repentance, since it was supposed that the name of the plant came from the verb rue = ‘to repent.’ But sometimes rue is the emblem of sorrow, sorrowful remembrance, pity, i.e. without the notion of contrition for wrong-doing. Thus in R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)], the Gardener after speaking with the poor, distressed Queen, says: ‘Here did she fall a tear; here in this place I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace: Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen, In the remembrance of a weeping queen.

“The two cognate ideas – ‘repentance’ and ‘sorrowful remembrance’ are present in Ophelia’s speech: she will wear rue as a symbol of her sorrow (what great misdoing has she to repent of?), but Hamlet’s mother will wear it as a symbol of contrition: a “difference,” indeed!

“The name of the plant is from F. rue, Lat. ruta, Gk., and not connected with the verb rue (whence ruth), cognate with Germ. reue, ‘repentance’.”

2935 with a difference] Verity (ed. 1904): “A phrase from heraldry (an art and practice far more familiar to the Elizabethans than it is to us). An heraldic difference is “an alteration of or addition to a coat of arms to distinguish a junior member or branch or a family from the chief line” – New E. Dict [OED]

“In the early days of Heraldry, Differences were effected by a variety of arbitrary arrangements, such as changing the tinctures of the Coat” – Handbook of Heraldry. These Devices are called technically “Marks of Difference.” Beatrice says satirically of Benedick: “if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse” – Ado [1.1.67-69 (64-66)].”

2935 difference] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “mark of distinction in heraldry.”

2935 I would . . . violets] Subbarau (ed. 1909): “But Horatio is certainly not present. Ophelia says the words to Laertes, mistaking him for the Gentleman-suitor.”

2932-3 there’s Rewe for you] Goggin (ed. 1913): “addressed to the Queen. Rue is the emblem of (1) sorrow or (2) repentance. Editors compare R2. [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]: ‘Here, in this place,/I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace:/Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,/In the remembrance of a weeping queen.’ The word has no etymological connexion with the verb rue, but is from Fr. rue from Latin rula, ‘rue.’ The plant was also known by the name ‘herb-grace’ or ‘herb of grace,’ some say because of its use in exorcisms, others because it denoted the grace of repentance. Ophelia give some of the rue to the Queen.”

2936 Violets] Goggin (ed. 1913): “emblems of faithfulness, naturally out of keeping with the company, therefore absent. It is suggested that Ophelia says this to Horatio, but he had left the stage at line 58, and there is no indication of his return. Perhaps she speaks to Laertes.”

2932 Fennill] Craig (ed. 1931): “emblem of flattery.”

2932 Colembines] Craig (ed. 1931): “emblem of unchastity (?) or ingratitude (?).”

2933 Rewe] Craig (ed. 1931): “emblem of repentance. It was usually mingled with holy water and then known as herb of grace. Ophelia is probably playing on the two meanings of rue, ‘repentance’ and ‘even for ruth (pity); the former signification is for the Queen, the latter for herself.”

2935 difference] Craig (ed. 1931): “an heraldic term for the distinction in the coats of arms of different branches of the same family.”

2935 Dasie] Craig (ed. 1931): “emblem of dissembling, faithlessness.”

2936 Violets] Craig (ed. 1931): “emblems of faithfulness.”

2934 may weare] Wilson (1934, rpt. 1963, 2:240): <2:240> “‘you may weare’ is probably a misprint for ‘you must weare’ by attraction from ‘We may call it’ in the line above [4.5.181 (2933)].” </p/240>

2932 Fennill] Ridley (ed. 1934): “for flattery.”

2932 Colembines] Ridley (ed. 1934): “for faithlessness.”

2933 Rewe] Ridley (ed. 1934): “for repentance.”

2934-5 weare . . . difference] Ridley (ed. 1934): “(in the heraldic sense; almost) with a different implication.”

2935 Dasie] Ridley (ed. 1934): “for deceit.”

2935 Violets] Ridley (ed. 1934): “for faithfulness.”

2935 with a difference] Wilson (ed. 1934): “i.e. for a different reason (v. ‘Rue” in previous note), with a quibble on ‘difference,’ the heraldic term. v. G.”

2935 difference] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary): “a quibble on the heraldic term = an alteration or addition to a coat of arms to distinguish a junior member or branch of a family.”

2933 Rewe] Boas (ed. 1935): “this to the queen. Rue was symbolic of sorrow.”

2935 with a difference Boas (ed. 1935): “The Queen must wear it as a sign of repentance, Ophelia as a sign of grief.”

2935 Dasie] Boas (ed. 1935): “emblem of deceit. Also probably given to the Queen.”

2932 Fennill] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “a symbol of flattery and deceit. Malone quotes Florio’s dictionary, A Worlde of Wordes, 1598, p. 96: ‘Dare Pinochio, to giue fennell, . . . to flatter, to dissemble.’ Nares quotes Greene, A Quip for an Upstart Courtier, 1592 (A3l4. 1 ro; ed. Grosart, XI, 214): ‘Vppon a banke bordring by, grewe womens weedes, Fenell I meane for Flatterers.’ Steevens notes that columbine is called a ‘thankless flower’ by Chapman (All Fools, ii; Pearson ed., I, 139); but it does not appear whether this justifies us in ascribing that meaning to the flower as a symbol.”

2933 rewe] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Since rue is bitter, and since its name coincides with the verb rue, the herb became a symbol for sorrow or repentance. Its name herb of grace was associated with the idea of repentance for one’s sins. Hence Ophelia thinks it a good Sunday name for the herb. Cf. R2 [3.4.104-107 (1916-19)]: ‘Here in this place I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace; Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen, In the remembrance of a weeping queen.’”

2935 with a difference] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “An heraldic term for a variation (usually slight) in a family coat of arms, indicating that the wearer belonged to a younger branch of the family. Ophelia means merely that the Queen’s cause of sorrow differs from hers; but the Queen, and the audience, feel that rue should mean ‘grief’ in Ophelia’s case, ‘repentance for sin’ in the Queen’s. Henley quotes Greene, A Quip for the Upstart Courtier, 1592 (ed. Grosart, XI, 216): ‘Some of them smild and said Rue was called herbe grace, which though they scorned in their youth, they might weare in their age, and it was neuer too late to say Miserere.’”

2935 a daisy] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Henley quotes Greene, A Quip for the Upstart Courtier, 1592 (A3, lf. 2 r0; ed. Grosart, XI, 218): ‘Next there grewe the dessembling daisie, to warne such light of loue wenches not to trust euery faire promise that such amorous batchelers make them.’ Dyce suggests that ‘Ophelia means that the daisy is for herself’: but the next sentence indicates (unless ‘you’ is emphasized or is addresed to the company in general) that she gives it to somebody. Clarke and Wright think she gave it to the King and the Queen.”

2935 Violets] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Malone quotes Clement Robinson’s Handfull of Pleasant Delites, 1584 (ed. Rollins, p. 4): ‘Violet is for faithfulnesse.’”

2935 difference] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “heraldic term for a variation in a coat of arms as borne by different members of a family.”

2934 herbe of Grace a Sondaies ] Rylands (ed. 1947): “i.e. by its second, more religious name.”

2935 with a difference] Rylands (ed. 1947): “for a different reason.”

2932 Fennill] Farnham (ed. 1957): “symbol of flattery.”

2932 Colembines] Farnham (ed. 1957): “symbol of thanklessness.”

2933 Rewe] Farnham (ed. 1957): “symbol of repentance.”

2935 Dasie] Farnham (ed. 1957): “symbol of dissembling.”

2935 Violets] Farnham (ed. 1957): “symbol of faithfulness.”

2934 herbe of Grace] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “the plant associated with repentance might appropriately be called the herb of divine grace.”

2935 a difference] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “a heraldic term for a variation in a coat of arms to distinguish among different branches of a family. Presumably Ophelia has given rue to the King or the Queen; their grief has a different origin than hers, and their need for repentance will be obvious to the audience.”

2938 Munro (ed. 1958): “On this song and the music to it, see Furness, i 349; also Sh. Music, 13.”

2932 Fennill, Colembines] Evans (ed. 1974): “Symbols respectively of flattery and ingratitude.”

2933 Rewe] Evans (ed. 1974): “Symbolic of sorrow and repentance.”

2935 with a difference] Evans (ed. 1974): “i.e. to represent a different cause of sorrow. Difference is a term from heraldry, meaning a variation in a coat of arms made to distinguish different members of a family.”

2935-7 Dasie, Violets] Evans (ed. 1974): “Symbolic respectively of dissembling and faithfulness. It is not clear who are the recipients of these.”

2937 they say . . . good end] Spencer (ed. 1980): “If she is thinking of Polonius, the statement is strikingly untrue; he was killed suddenly, with no opportunity for contrition and for receiving the sacraments.”

2932-3 for you . . . for you] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “As Ophelia passes on, the formula for you . . . for you indicates a succession of recipient, and for dramatic effect these must include the key characters who are present and hence the King and Queen.”

2932-5 Fennill . . . difference] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “It is always assumed that rue is for the Queen and fennel and columbines for the King; but I believe that a consideration of the emblematic implications will sho9w this to be wrong. Fennel normally signifies flattery, as, in spite of an occasional dissentient, is abundantly attested. The count in Jonson’s The Case is Altered, when addressed as ‘my good lord’, exclaims ‘Your good lord! O how this smells of fennel’ (1.7.9). Jas. Yates, after praising its medicinal virtues, adds ‘Yet some will say that fennel is to flatter’ (The Castle of Courtesy, 1582, fol. 47); and in a poem ‘Of Certain Flowers’ by Turbervile we find ‘Your Fennel did declare/ (as simple men can show) That flattery in my heart I bare where friendship ought to grow’ (Epitaphs, 1570, fol. 42v). “Flattery goes with insincerity and hence often with dissembling—Florio in A World of Words explains dare finocchio as ‘to give fennel, to claw, to cog, to foist, to flatter, to dissemble’ – and dissembling in love implies fickleness. Thus Turbervile (fol. 43) makes fennel the opposite of ‘good faith,’ and in “A Nosegay’ ‘Fennel is for flatterers, an evil thing it is sure: But I have always meant truly, with constant heart most pure.’

“Greene in A Quip is more specific: he thinks of fennel, ‘for flatterers’, as ‘women’s weeds . . . fit generally for that sex, sith while they are maidens, they wish wantonly, while they are wives they will wilfully, while they are widows they would willingly: and yet all these proud desires are but clsoe dissemblings’. It seems strange that this passage has escaped attention: if we may take it as a signpost for Hamlet it points plainly to the Queen. Her career as wife is told us by the Ghost (732-4), and for Hamlet she is the pattern of women’s ‘frailty’ ([1.2.146 (330] in whom ‘reason panders will’ [3.4..88 (2463)]. Fennel thus leads on to columbines. This flower was noted for the horned shape of its nectaries: Steevens cited Thos. Cutwode’s Caltha Poetarum, 1599 (st. 16), for its description of ‘The blue cornuted columbine Like to the crooked horns of Acheloy’ (i.e. Achelous, who changed himself into a bull. It is easy to see therefore how the columbine becomes a symbol of cuckoldry. Though the signification is sometimes disputed, it will explain the columbine joke in LLL [5.2.655 (2612)], which commentators curiously ignore; and the scene already cited form All Fools puts the matter beoy6nd doubt. When Cornelio has ascribed the pansy his wife has worked to lover’s thoughts, the dialogue continues: . . . What’s that columbine? —No, that thankless flower fits not my garden. —Hem! Yet it may mine’ (2.1.234-6). And the jealous husband goes on to explicit accusations. It is made clear that the columbine would fit either the man with horns or the wife or lover who, in Chapman’s word, ‘adhorns’ him. The conflicting assumption that the columbine stands for ingratitude seems to rest solely on a misunderstanding of this passage. Those who assert that meaning have never succeeded in showing its relevance to either All Fools or Hamlet. I take it that the columbine is a ‘thankless flower’ because, like a ‘thankless’, or unrewarding, task, it affords no satisfaction. But this is said byu a wife who is laying claims to virtue and thus disdains the flower that Queen Gertrude must accept.

“This leaves the King as the recipient of rue. But who better? The significance of this plant is given by its homonym, and the rue of regret includes not merely sorrow but repentance. And it is the King’s need for repentance that is dramatized in the one scene where he holds alone the center of the stage (3.3). The alternative name for rue, herb o’ grace (or herb grace) emphasized this element of meaning; and though Malone may be right in one sense to insist that this is an everyday and not a special Sunday name, yet it has its special aptness on the day which is given to God and the repentance of one’s sins. For the aptness of rue for the King it is also pertinent to remember that it traditionally had the property of abating carnal lust (Cogan, Haven of Health, 1584, p. 40, citing the authority of Galen); he no less than the Queen may find his sexual transgression s rebuked. The rue that Ophelia keeps herself is appropriate for her sorrow; but when the King is bidden to wear his with a difference, the play uses this metaphor from heraldry to a point a distinction between recipients; and although this remain, like much else, implicit, we shall surely not be wrong to connect it, as has been usually since Malone, with the difference between innocence and guilt.”

2935 Dasie] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The daisy has proved baffling. The much-repeated editorial note that it is a symbol of dissembling is not by itself helpful. But it appears to derive from Greene’s allusion in A Quip, which introduces ‘the dissembling daisy, to warn such light of love wenches not to trust every fair promise that such amorous bachelors make them, but sweet smells breed bitter repentance’. This gives an obvious clue: we recognize the plight imaged forth in Ophelia’s Valentine song (2790-2803) and in the warnings of her father and brother (i.iii). Yet traditionally the daisy is the flower not of deception but of love. As it appears in Greene, it has become sadly tarnished since it was eulogized by Chaucer as the flower of Alcestis, who by sacrificing herself for her husband became the acknowledged queen of love. But one can see how such a change could happen. Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women is a celebration of martyrs in love’s cause, and these not surprisingly include some who suffer through being forsaken by their lovers. As an emblem of love’s victims the daisy has a latent ambivalence; the folly of being deceived, which is emphasized by Greene, may go with a constant devotion (cf. 1771-4). This is just what it implied by Turberville, whose lover suspected of change comments on his mistress’s flower, ‘A daisy doth express/ great folly to remain,’ and gets from her an answer which both accepts the charge of folly and vaunts undying love: ‘Though daisy hit the nail aright,/ my friendship aye shall last.’ However we regard her and it, this is Ophelia’s flower, wherefore a number of editors (Dyce, Dowden, Dover Wilson) have suggested that she keeps it for herself. But this does not inevitably follow, and the language—There’s a daisy (contrast here’s some for me) – parallels it with the flowers given away. It should of course be given where its reproach fits, and in the absence of her lover it must go to whomever among those present her madness now substitutes for him. With nothing to mark a change of recipient (as for you has done before) the King as the person last addressed must be the likeliest candidate; and for Ophelia to offer him, like Laertes and the Queen, a second flower as an afterthought, though this may not be a strong argument, would give a kind of symmetry.”

2936 Violets . . . witherd] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The desired recipient of violets is necessarily the same. It is certainly to her lover that Ophelia would give violets if she could. As ‘A Nosegay’ has it, ‘Violet is for faithfulness, which in my shall abide: Hoping likewise that from your heart, you will not let it slide, And will continue tin the same, as you have now begun, And then for ever to abide: then you my heart have won.’ The significance of violets that have withered is plain enough. Ironically, it is what Ophelia’s brother warned her to expect of Hamlet’s love when he compared it to a violet ‘sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute’ ([1.3.7-10 (469-71)] and it is now Ophelia found it when, ‘their perfume lost’, she returned the tokens of it [3.1.97-98 (1753-4)]. The only thing to surprise us is that the violets are said to have withered when her father died. It cannot be, as has been said, that Hamlet’s killing of Plonius finally killed their love. For Hamlet’s love was lost to her already and hers survived till death (cf. 5.1.239-40 (3430-1)]. What happens, I think, is that amid the memories of forsaken love, symbolized in the rue, in the daisy, and in violets that have withered, her mind drifts back to her father’s death to afford yet another instance of that confusion of grief in which the loss of father and lover merge. The violets have thus, like the flowers given to Laertes, a double implication: they recall along with a lost love Polonius’s faithful service to the state (the first thing suggested to us about him, [1.2.47-49 (227-9)] while seeming to rebuke a court which knows faithfulness no more. Again it is to the King that this would most appropriately be said. Horatio, whom some editors have proposed as one to whom violets might be given, has been out of the dramatist’s mind for at least a hundred lines (cf. n. [4.5.73 (2810.)], and is surely the least eligible person to have it put to him that faithfulness is extinct.”

2934 a] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “As at ii.ii.383, the weakened form of the O.E. prep. on (see OED A prep. 8), common in Elizabethan English and still surviving dialectally. Cf. nowadays.”

2935 a difference] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “a variation in a coat-of-arms (usually indicating a junior member or branch of the family).”

2932-3 Fennill . . . Colembines] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “fennel was the flatterer’s herb, an emblem of treachery and dissembling, and the horned flowers of the columbine suggested cuckoldry. Are both presented to the queen?”

2932-3 Rewe . . . herbe of Grace] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “symbolizing repentance, and perhaps given to the King.”

2933-4 a] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “’a [1.5.19 (704)] n.”

2934-5 difference] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “difference heraldic term for a variation in a coat of arms.”

2934-5 Dasie] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “daisy for devotion.”

2935-7 Violets] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “violets for faithfulness. They would be an embarrassment to the King.”

2937 a] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “’a [1.1.43 (55)].”

2934-5 with a difference] Edwards (ed. 1985): “A term in Heraldry; a mark to distinguish a coat of arms from that of another member or branch of the family.”

2932-7 There’s Fennill . . . dyed] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “The problem this passage raises is that of who receives what. the most thorough discussion of it is Jenkins’s, to which the notes that follow are much indebted.”

2932 Fennill] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “There is ample evidence (OED fennel 3) that, as “A Nosegay’ puts it, ‘Fennel is for flatterers’.”

2932 Colembines] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “’The horned nectaries suggested to an earlier age allusions to cuckoldry’ (OED sb. I). Malone thought that the fennel and columbines were given to Claudius; and he could still be right, since Claudius won Gertrude ‘With witchcraft of his wit’ and thus cuckolded old Hamlet. Jenkins, however, pinning his argument on Greene’s remark that ‘fennel . . . for flatterers’ is ‘fit generally for that sex [women], sith while they are maidens, they wish wantonly; while they are wives they will wilfully; while they are widows, they would willingly; and yet all these proud desires are but close dissemblings’, concludes that the right recipient is the Queen, who certainly will willfully in cuckolding her husband. The virtue of this explanation is that it leaves rue for the King.”

2932 Rewe] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “(I) the bitter plant so named (2) regret, sorrow, repentance. The quibble was almost irresistible; see OED sb Ib. Rue is right for Claudius, the only one of those present who has sought to repent. It also fits Ophelia, but for a different reason: she is filled with sorrow and her ‘mood will needs be pitied’.”

2935 Dasie] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “Greene writes of the ‘dissembling daisy’’ but there seems to be no reason why Ophelia should see it or herself in this light, unless she is thinking of the way in which she was used as a decoy in 3.1. All that can be said with any assurance is that she is fond of the flower, the ‘daisy delectable’ as it is so often called in lyrics of the I6th century, since she finds a place for it in her ‘fantastic garlands’ [4.7.143 (3160)].”

2937 a made a good end] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “proverbial (Dent EI33.I).”

2932-3 Fennill] Bevington (ed. 1988): “(Emblem of flattery).”

2932-3 Colembines] Bevington (ed. 1988): “(Emblems of unchastity or ingratitude).”

2932-3 Rewe] Bevington (ed. 1988): “(Emblem of repentance; when mingled with holy water, it was known as herb of grace).”

2934-5 with a difference] Bevington (ed. 1988): “(A device used in Heraldry to distinguish one family from another on the coat of arms, here suggesting that Ophelia and the Queen have different causes of sorrow and repentance; perhaps with a play on rue in the sense of ruth, pity).”

2934-5 Dasie] Bevington (ed. 1988): “(Emblem of dissembling, faithlessness).”

2935-7 Violets] Bevington (ed. 1988): “(Emblems of faithfulness).”

2934 herbe of Grace] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Another name for Rue. The Gardener uses this same phrase in R2 [3.4.105 (1917)].”

2935 with a difference] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Ophelia’s words derive from heraldry; a difference (such as the Daisy she now presents along with the Rue) was a variation in a coat of arms to allow individual members of a family to be distinguished by their heraldic insignia.”

2937 made . . . end] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Died well (in a state of grace). Compare [1.5.74-80 (759-65)], [3.3.73-96 (2350-71)]. End recalls [4.3.24 (2690)].”

2933 Rewe] Dessen & Thomson(1999): “Rue does not appear in SDs in the period.”

Note prepared by BWK, found in entry under Rosemary. .

2934 o’Sundays] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “on Sundays.”

2934 You may] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Jenkins prefers F’s ’you must’, which is supported by Q1. May could be an erroneous repetition from [2933].”

2935 difference] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “a term from heraldry, meaning a variation in a coat of arms to distinguish one branch of a family from another.”

2937 They. . . end] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Sadly untrue, if we equate the notion of a good end with the opportunity for repentance and forgiveness, as is emphasized in 1.5 and 3.3.”

2937 ’a] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “he.”