From Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, literary classics have helped inspire some of Taylor Swift’s most popular music. The singer’s new album The Life of a Showgirl, releasing Friday, is no exception and pays homage to one of William Shakespeare’s most famous characters with its opening single “The Fate of Ophelia.”
While Swift confirmed on the New Heights podcast the song is indeed inspired by the Bard’s tragedy Hamlet—in which the fictional Ophelia drowns in a brook following the death of her father—she has offered few details about its lyrics or themes. We’ll find out the latter during the album’s official release party, which will feature the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia.”
But what about a real-life Ophelia? It turns out there are multiple theories—including one involving Shakespeare’s own family.
A possible cousin of Shakespeare died similarly to Ophelia
An Oxford University research project previously uncovered a coroner’s report from 1569 with remarkable similarities to Ophelia’s demise. Written in Latin, the account details the death of Jane Shaxspere, a 2-and-a-half-year-old girl who apparently drowned by picking marigolds from a stream in England.
“By reason of collecting and holding out certain flowers called ‘yellow boddles’ growing on the bank of a certain small channel at Upton aforesaid called Upton millpond—the same Jane Shaxspere the said sixteenth day of June about the eighth hour after noon of the same day suddenly and by misfortune fell into the same small channel and was drowned,” per the document.
Noting Jane’s similar last name to Shakespeare, some researchers have speculated she may have been a young cousin or other relation to the playwright, who was born sometime around April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. We’ll never know for sure, given the gaps in the Bard’s family history.
“It was quite a surprise to find Jane Shaxspere’s entry in the coroners’ reports—it might just be a coincidence, but the links to Ophelia are certainly tantalizing,” historian Steven Gunn told the BBC in 2011.
Shakespeare could have drawn elements from multiple drownings at the time
Shaxspere’s speculative connection aside, it’s possible Shakespeare combined elements from other tragic deaths to incorporate Ophelia into his narrative.
One notable example is Katharine Hamlet, who drowned in the River Avon at Tiddington—located very close to Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon hometown—in 1579. The playwright would have been around 15 years old at the time of her death.
Unfortunately, drowning was not uncommon for the age and accounted for half of all mortality. Women might experience fatal accidents while fetching buckets of water, while men regularly drowned while bathing or traveling across water sources to work or the marketplace, Gunn explained to The Lancet.
“I like the analogy of a car crash. Other than being stabbed or falling ill—or some other happenstance—I suppose death by drowning would have been a similarly major worry,” author Ben Crystal added.
A famous painting of Ophelia nearly killed a model
Artists long before Swift offered their own take on the fate of Ophelia—including one that almost turned deadly. In 1851, British painter John Everett Millais hired a young woman named Elizabeth Siddal to model as Ophelia for his portrayal of the Hamlet figure.
Millais asked Siddal to float in a water-filled tub with her palms up to recreate the famous scene. What he didn’t realize was the oil lamps and candles keeping the tub warm had extinguished, meaning Siddal continued posing in frigid water. She contracted pneumonia and was prescribed an opioid called laudanum, according to JSTOR Daily.
While Siddal survived the illness, she became addicted to the drug and died of an overdose in 1862. It’s still debated if her death was accidental or resulted from a suicide attempt. Siddal’s likeness was later used to portray another literary figure, Beatrice from Dante Alighieri’s Inferno.
It remains to be seen if Swift’s song alludes to any of these theories or sticks to Shakespeare’s fictional material. Either way, the legacy of the real Ophelia—whomever she may be—remains as prominent as ever.
Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
