Commentary
Introduction
DGR's song begins by quoting the first song fragment
sung by Ophelia when she enters in scene 5 Act IV of
<xref doc="a.shakespeare001.004.rad" link="dead">
<hi rend="i">Hamlet</hi>
</xref>
“distracted, with her hair down, playing on a lute”. DGR
“ends”
Ophelia's song in two senses:
first, because in the original play it is a song fragment; and second,
because in DGR's text Ophelia intimates the corresponding madness that
lies in store for the betraying man. The final two lines of the song
sketch the figure of a man haunted by the presence of his dead love. The
figure is nightmarish—a figure of literal possession.
Textual History: Composition
WMR dates the song
“before mid-autumn 1869”
(see Gregory,
Life and Works of DGR,
II. 123
) and simply
“1869”
in
1911
. There is
no evidence to explain these dates. A holograph manuscript is extant that was printer's copy for the Penkill Proofs' text of the poem.
Textual History: Revision
Printing History
The poem was first printed as part of the
prepublication texts that DGR put together in 1869, as a prelude
to the publication of the 1870
<xref doc="a.1-1870.raw">
Poems</xref>
. It was printed in August
in the Penkill Proofs, where
it formed part of the section of
<xref doc="a.44-1869.raw">The House of Life</xref>
poems. DGR moved
the poem to the opening part of his evolving
<xref doc="a.1-1870.raw">Poems</xref>
volume as the prepublication
text moved into the A Proofs for the first edition in early September
1870. The poem was first published in the first edition.
Pictorial
DGR executed a drawing (1858) and
a watercolor (1866) of
Hamlet and
Ophelia.
Literary
The song represents, implictly, an interpretation of
<xref doc="a.shakespeare001.004.rad" link="dead">
<hi rend="i">Hamlet</hi>
</xref>
, which
was one of DGR's favorite works. But that interpretation—which argues that Hamlet's fate follows upon his cruel treatment of Ophelia—inevitably produces a personal contemporary application for DGR, whose guilt about his wife was deep.
Bibliographic
Gregory II. 123