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Ophelia Say you? Nay, pray you, mark. He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone; At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone. Queen Nay, but Ophelia— Ophelia Pray you, mark. Queen Alas, look here, my lord. Larded all with sweet flowers; Which bewept to the ground did not go With true-love showers. King Claudius How do you, pretty lady? Ophelia Well, God dild you. They say the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are but know not what we may be. God be at your table.

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Like this: Like Loading Previous Article So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. Next Article How now, Ophelia! Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:.

It's enough to almost make us feel sorry for the King, if he hadn't brought it all on himself. Just as the King is finishing his complaint, we hear noises and in comes a messenger with more bad news. Laertes is just outside, at the head of a mob which is clapping, cheering, and shouting, "Choose we: Laertes shall be king!

To protect her husband, Gertrude rushes forward and clings to Laertes, but the King acts the part of a king and faces Laertes down. This king hasn't much divinity in him, but he gets his way. Laertes is full of words, saying that he doesn't care if he's damned to hell. But Laertes doesn't act. Re-enter Ophelia: At this point, just as it appears that the King is getting Laertes to calm down, there's more trouble.

The mob outside begins rumbling again, and we hear someone say "Let her come in! Traditionally, she appears--in the sixteenth-century phrase--"with her hair about her ears," and carrying flowers. As soon as Laertes sees her, he understands that she has gone mad. In other words, he wishes that his tears could make him blind.

His next thought is of revenge, and he promises that someone will have to pay for his sister's madness. Last, he mourns.

He addresses his sister as "O rose of May! Then he asks if a young woman's wits can be destroyed as easily as an old man's life, and decides that Ophelia loved her father so much that her sanity followed him to the grave.

As before, Ophelia sings. Now she seems to be singing of how her father was carried to his grave, never to return. But before she finishes singing the song, Ophelia passes out flowers. Today, we associate roses with love, and lilies with Easter. In Shakespeare's time, many more flowers had meaning, and it seems that Ophelia's flowers have some kind of mad meaning. Perhaps the rosemary for remembrance and the pansies for thought go to Laertes, who remembers his father and thinks about his sister.

The fennel for flattery and the columbines for ingratitude could go to the King. Ophelia has some rue, for sorrow and repentance, and maybe she gives some to the Queen, with the comment that "you must wear your rue with a difference" 4.

There's a daisy for dissembling, which could also go to the Queen, or perhaps the King. Finally, there's violets for faithfulness. Ophelia says of them: "I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died: they say he made a good end" 4. Then Ophelia sings again of a funeral, and says goodbye, and is gone.

Exit Ophelia: After Ophelia has gone, the King gets right back to work on Laertes, telling him how sorry he is, and that Laertes can choose anyone he wants to judge whether or not he had anything to do with Polonius' death. If the King is guilty, Laertes can have the kingdom and everything else the King has.