Note to Hamlet, 4.5.183: "You may wear your rue with a difference"


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Hamlet,
Act 4, Scene 5, line 183
You may wear your rue with a difference: —In heraldry, a coat of arms with a "difference" had a variation to indicate that the persons who wore it belonged to a branch of the family, and were not in the main line of descent. Perhaps Ophelia's mad statement suggests that Queen Gertrude's "rue" (pity) for her dead husband is not the same as Ophelia's pity for her dead father.