Ophelia by Millais is the most popular postcard sold by the Tate
and yet the subject is not a happy one. Ophelia is a character
in Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. She is driven mad when her
father, Polonius, is murdered by her lover, Hamlet. She dies
while still very young in grief and madness. The events shown in
Millais's Ophelia are not actually seen on stage. Instead they
are referred to in a conversation between Queen Gertrude and
Ophelia's brother Laertes. Gertrude describes how Ophelia fell
into the river whilst picking flowers and slowly drowned,
singing all the while. detail of Ophelia © Tate, London 2003
Hamlet, Act 1V, Scene V11 ||Drowned! O, where? There is a willow
grows That shows his hoar leaves in the garlands did she make Of
crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples That liberal
shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do There on
the pendent boughs her to hang, an envious sliver broke, When
down her weedy trophies and herself in the weeping brook. Her
clothes spread wide, And