208 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



elated with pure and faithful love, is the crow- 

 flower; and authority is given to this theory in the 

 old ballad, which, of course, Shakespeare knew, 

 called "The Deceased Maiden Lover" : 



Then round the meddowes did she walk 

 Catching each flower by the stalk, 

 Such as within the meddowes grew, 

 As dead man's thumb and harebell blue, 

 And as she pluckt them still cried she, 

 "Alas ! there 's none ere loved like me." 



Some critics have objected to the blue harebell 

 because it is a spring flower, and it is midsummer 

 when Ophelia drowns herself. These authorities 

 suggest the Ragged Robin for Ophelia's crow-flower, 

 and others again the buttercup, also called creeping 

 crowfoot (Ranunculus repens). Bloom writes: 



"It is generally assumed that the flowers are those 

 of the meadow and that a moist one. Why 4 ? It is 

 equally probable they are those of the shady hedge 

 bank and that the crow-flowers are the poisonous 

 rank Ranunculus reptans and its allies; that the 

 nettles are the ordinary Urtica dioica not necessarily 

 in flower, or if this be objected to on account of the 

 stinging qualities which the distraught Ophelia 

 might not be insensible to, its place could be taken 

 by the white dead nettle Lamium album L. The 

 daisies may be moon-daisies and the long purples 



