brance: pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts. Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and 180 remembrance fitted. Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines: 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. There's a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they withered all when father died: they say a' made a good end,[Sings] For bonnie sweet Robin is all my joy. Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, She turns to favor and to prettiness. 190 memory, and was therefore used as a token of remembrance and affection between lovers. Why pansies (pensées) are emblems of thoughts is obvious. Fennel was emblematic of flattery. Browne, in his Britannia's Pastorals, says,— "The columbine, in tawny often taken, Is then ascrib'd to such as are forsaken." Rue was for ruth or repentance. It was also commonly called herb grace, probably fror 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. The daisy was emblematic of a dissembler. The violet is for faithfulness, and is thus characterized in The Lover's Nosegaie.—H. N. H. 190. Poor Ophelia in her madness remembers the ends of many old popular ballads. "Bonny Robin" appears to have been a favorite, for there were many others written to that tune. This last stanza is quoted with some variation in Eastward Ho! 1605, by Jonson, Marston, and Chapman.-H. N. H. 191. "Thought" was used for grief, care, pensiveness. “Curarum volvere in pectore. He will die for sorrow and thought" (Baret). -H. N. H. Oph. [Sings] And will a' not come again? And will a' not come again? No, no, he is dead, Go to thy death-bed, He never will come again. His beard was as white as snow, All flaxen was his poll: he is gone, 200 And we cast away moan: God ha' mercy on his soul! And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' you. Laer. Do you see this, O God? [Exit. King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, will. And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you me: If by direct or by collateral hand you and 209 They find us touched, we will our kingdom give, you To Laer. Let this be so; No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones, 198. cp. "Eastward Hoe" (1604), by Jonson, Marston, and Chapmn, for a travesty of the scene and this song (Act III. Sc. i.).— G. No noble rite nor formal ostentation, Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth, King. 220 So you shall; And where the offense is let the great axe fall. [Exeunt. SCENE VI Another room in the castle. Enter Horatio and a servant. Hor. What are they that would speak with me? Serv. Sea-faring men, sir: they say they have letters for you. Hor. Let them come in. [Exit Servant. First Sail. God bless you, sir. Hor. Let him bless thee too. First Sail. He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, sir; it comes from the ambassador that was bound for Eng- 10 220. "call it in question"; the funerals of knights and persons of rank were made with great ceremony and ostentation formerly. Sir John Hawkins observes that "the sword, the helmet, the gauntlet, spurs, and tabard are still hung over the grave of every knight.”— H. N. H. 2. "Sea-faring men"; so Qq.; Ff. read "Sailors.”—I. G. |