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The scene depicted is from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act IV, Scene vii, in which Ophelia, driven out of her mind when her father is murdered by her lover Hamlet, drowns herself in a stream: 'There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up; Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes, As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and indued Unto that element; but long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death'.
Date
1851–2
Medium
Oil on canvas
Measurements
H 76.2 x W 111.8 cm
Accession number
N01506
Acquisition method
Presented by Sir Henry Tate 1894
Work type
Painting
Inscription description
date inscribed
Tate Britain
Millbank, London, Greater London SW1P 4RG England
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