In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, written in 1609, Ophelia marches to her watery grave wearing a garland of flowers: crow-flowers, nettles, daisies and long purples. To the modern reader, this is mere description. But to a Victorian reader with a particular education, it could be much more.
The crow-flower was known as the “Fayre Mayde of France” at the time; long purples were likened to dead men’s hands or fingers; the daisy signified pure virginity; and nettles had the peculiarly specific meaning of being “stung to the quick,” or deeply and emotionally hurt.
