Ruta graveolens the isolation of the furanocoumarin chalepensin. The essential oil of "R. graveolens" contains two main constituents, undecan-2-one (46.8%) and nonan-2-one (18.8%). The bitter taste of its leaves led to rue being associated with the (etymologically unrelated) verb "rue" "to regret". Rue is well known for its symbolic meaning of regret and it has sometimes been called "herb-of-grace" in literary works. It is one of the flowers distributed by the mad Ophelia in William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (IV.5): It was planted by the gardener in "Richard II" to mark the spot where the Queen wept upon hearing news of Richard's capture (III.4.104–105):
Hamlet in performance the States, fathering the nation's most famous Hamlet and its most notorious actor: Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth. Charles Kemble initiated an enthusiasm for Shakespeare in the French: his 1827 Paris performance of "Hamlet" was viewed by leading members of the Romantic movement, including Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, who particularly admired Harriet Smithson's performance of Ophelia in the mad scenes. Edmund Kean was the first Hamlet to abandon the regal finery usually associated with the role in favour of a plain costume and to play Hamlet as serious and introspective. The actor-managers of the Victorian era (including Kean,