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
To be, or not to be that we know not of.<br> Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,<br> And thus the native hue of Resolution<br> Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought,<br> And enterprises of great "pitch" and moment, [F: "pith"]<br> With this regard their Currents turn "awry", [F: "away"]<br> And lose the name of Action. Soft you now,<br> The fair Ophelia? Nymph, in thy Orisons<br> Be all my sins remember'd. The "First Quarto" (Q1) is the earliest edition of "Hamlet" but is considered a bad quarto (essentially a theatrical knock-off) rather than a first or earlier draft, and although some parts of