Ophelia me; we may call it herb of grace o' Sundays; O, you must wear your rue with a difference". Rue is well known for its symbolic meaning of regret, but the herb is also used to treat pain, bruises and has abortive qualities. In Act 4 Scene 7, Queen Gertrude reports that Ophelia had climbed into a willow tree ("There is a willow grows aslant the brook"), and that the branch had broken and dropped Ophelia into the brook, where she drowned. Gertrude says that Ophelia appeared "incapable of her own distress". Gertrude's announcement of Ophelia's death has been praised
Critical approaches to Hamlet attention. Even more important was the question of decorum, which in the case of "Hamlet" focused on the play's violation of tragic unity of time and place, and on the characters. Jeremy Collier attacked the play on both counts in his "Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage", published in 1698. Comparing Ophelia to Electra, he condemns Shakespeare for allowing his heroine to become "immodest" in her insanity, particularly in the "Flower Scene". Collier's attack occasioned a widespread, often vituperative controversy. "Hamlet" in general and Ophelia in particular were defended by Thomas D'urfey and George Drake