Need clarification on a passage of Hamlet :)
Hi, I have to analyze this passage of Hamlet:
Gertrude:
There is a willow grows aslant a brook
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do “dead men’s fingers” call them.
There, on the pendant 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 a while they bore her up,
Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds
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,
Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.
I do know understand what is meant by "There with fantastic garlands did she come Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do “dead men’s fingers” call them." Why dead men's fingers? what does it symbolize?
Can someone help? :)
Thx very much!! :)
Juliette
