Here, three principal players in the tragedy, mourn the death of Ophelia. Laertes her brother, Gertrude, mother of Prince Hamlet, and her husband, Claudius, murderer of Hamlet's father. "How now, sweet Queen?" "There is a willow grows aslant a brook/ That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream". Here Gertrude describes Ophelias death to her brother. "Her clothes spread wide, / And mermaid like a while they bore her up". Laertes and Claudius, in shocked silence, listen as Gertrude intones the death scene, one of the most gripping in the play. "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". Here, Laertes weeps, and the scene ends with Claudius lamenting.
