The Daisy and Pansy are two flowers that are associated with Ophelia in Hamlet. Learn more about their meaning and symbolism and other places where Shakespeare used them in his work.
Daisy (Bellis perennis)
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“When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows with delight,”
- Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V, Scene 2
“There’s a daisy”
- Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5
“There were fantastic garlands did she come,
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies and long purples.”
- Hamlet, Act IV, Scene7
The Daisy’s botanical name comes from the Latin bellis, meaning pretty. Its English name is derived from the Anglo Saxon daeges eage
or day’s eye. It was so called because its petals open during the day
and close at night. The Daisy is often associated with childhood and
innocence, in the north of England and in Scotland it is sometimes
referred to as Bairnwort, bairn being another word for child. When
Ophelia hands out her flowers to the court she announces the Daisy but
does not hand it out, suggesting that there is no innocence or purity
within the court.
Daisies continue to thrive in the English fields, lawns and grassy
slopes and making daisy chains is still a common practice among
children.
Type: Perennial
Height: Up to 4 inches
When to Plant: Early spring or late summer
Flowers: Spring, summer, autumn
Pansy (Viola tricolor)
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“… and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts”
- Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5
“Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,
And maidens call it Love-in-Idleness …
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid,
Will make man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.”
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II, Scene 2
The word pansy comes from the French pensée, meaning for thoughts. Other names for the flower include Johnny-Jump-Ups, Three-Faces-Under-a-Hood, Herb-Trinity, Love-in-Idleness and Heartsease. Herb-Trinity and its botanical name tricolor refers to the flowers' three main colours, white, purple and yellow. The flower was also an ingredient used in medieval love potions, hence the name Love-in-Indleness meaning love in vain. It's heart shaped petals were also thought to help heal a broken heart, so it was also known as Heartease. It is an extract of this flower that Oberon and Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, squeeze into the sleeping eyes of Titania, making her fall in love with the weaver Bottom. It is also later used on the youths in the enchanted forest.
Type: Annual
Height: 6 to 9 inches
When to Plant: Plant seeds in late winter for early spring and summer flowering, or in summer for winter flowering.
Flowers: Spring, summer, autumn, winter