Violets

Hamlet, [4.5.198-200]. “I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say he made a good end.”

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Laertes compared Hamlet’s love to a violet in Act 1. Pansies, mentioned in the same speech, are a species of violet. In Walden, Thoreau has watered on the yellow variety, or viola pubescens. In Shakespeare, they stand for faithfulness, according to Wright and Lamar.