Shakespeare was a countryman. Herbal lore was an important part of a Tudor medicine chest. As well as remedies for various aliments flowers could also ward off various supernatural evils. In Hamlet, Ophelia talks about rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbines, daisies and violets.
Ask students to guess what the significance of these plants might have been. It could be a matching exercise or supposition based on a brief presentation (you may have to do your own research here or there again I may get to grips with a blog entry at a later date).
Then ask them to go and research what these flowers signified.
Younger students may enjoy a session on the language of flowers. This then has potential as a topic for a short story or a poem.
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