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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 October 2023
It “is almost the anniversary of their son’s death.” Hamnet died in 1596. His parents, Agnes and Will, are literally estranged in their grief; they have had a silent, but heated, argument earlier that day. The husband tries to show an active interest in his wife, who is now gathering flowers.
“Comfrey?” he says.
She cannot think what he means, what he is talking about. How dare he come here and speak to her of flowers? Take your ignorance, she wants to say to him, and your bracelets and your shining, fancy boots back to London and stay there. Never come back.
He is gesturing, now, at the flowers in her basket, asking are they comfrey, are they violas, are they—
“Chamomile,” she manages to say, and her voice, to her ears, sounds dull and heavy.
“Ah. Of course. Those are comfrey are they not?” He points at a clump of feverfew.
She shakes her head and she is struck by how dizzy it makes her feel, as if the slight movement might topple her over into the grass.
“No,” she gestures with fingers stained a greenish-yellow, “those.” He nods vigorously, seizes a spear of lavender in his fingers, rubs it, then lifts his hand to his nose, making exaggerated appreciation noises. (261)
Will mistakes comfrey for chamomile and then misidentifies it as feverfew. When Agnes finally points out the comfrey (“those” in the basket), he picks up some lavender. We can presume that he knows what herb he snatches, since there’s no miscommunication about its name. And yet the “noises” of “exaggerated appreciation” that he makes while smelling it ring hollow. Its scent may not be to his liking, but the excess of his response also suggests how hard he is trying to ingratiate himself. He fails miserably, just as he did when he gifted Agnes a bracelet, the cause of the argument earlier in the day.
On a friend’s recommendation, I read Hamnet, the novel in which this scene of marital disharmony occurs. Knowingly, she told me to begin with its “Acknowledgements,” which are located at the end of my paperback edition.
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