Women Squeezing Men To Death Wrestling

The real Ophelia? 1569 coroner's report suggests Shakespeare link

A little girl of the 16th century, who lost her footing while picking flowers, tumbled into a mill pond and drowned, could have inspired one of the most famous tragic heroines of literature.

Shakespeare was five at the time of the tragedy that befell Jane Shaxspere in 1569, and would not write Hamlet until 40 years later, but academics now believe the girl may have inspired the fate of the author's character Ophelia.

Shakespeare's noblewoman fell with her garlands of "crow-flowers, nettles, daisies and long purples" into a brook, singing "snatches of old tunes" until her waterlogged clothes dragged her under to her death. She was old enough to marry Hamlet when she drowned, a scene immortalised by many artists including John Everett Millais, who almost killed his model, Lizzie Siddall, by leaving her lying for so long in a bath of cold water.

Jane Shaxspere was only two and a half when she died, picking "yellow boddles" or corn marigolds, according to the coroner's report.

As the scene of her death, Upton Warren on the river Salwarpe, in Worcestershire, was only 20 miles from Shakespeare's childhood home at Stratford-upon-Avon, historians at Oxford University speculate that the playwright could have heard of the event.

Historians believe Jane could even have been a relative of William: the spelling of his surname was notoriously eclectic in his day, and there are variations even in his own signature.

The academics came upon Jane's short life while trawling through Tudor coroners' reports into accidental deaths, part of a four-year research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

The coroner, Henry Feeld, was scrupulous in details: "By reason of collecting and holding out certain flowers called 'yelowe boddles' growing on the bank of a certain small channel at Upton aforesaid called Upton myll pond – 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 in the aforesaid small channel; and then and there she instantly died."

He added the plaintive note: "And thus the aforesaid flowers were the cause of the death of the aforesaid Jane; and they are worth nothing."

Steven Gunn, from the history faculty at Oxford, said: "The detail in which Jane Shaxspere's death was reported suggests children's deaths merited careful consideration. Other young girls are similarly reported as drowning when picking flowers. It was quite a surprise to find Jane Shaxpere's entry in the coroner's reports – it might be just a coincidence but the links to Ophelia are tantalising.

WRESTLING MANIA: Women squeezing men to death wrestling

:This blog is only for entertainment purposes.Content may contain error or inaccurate information,as it is based on news,rumors,and personal opinions.All images and videos that appear on this blog are copyright their respective owners.If you own the rights to any of the images and data on this blog and do not wish them to appear their,then please contact me at this email address(fahim.iiui@yahoo.com)i will remove them immediately.

Exile and the poetics of loss in Greek tradition

Wrestling with the Left, The Making of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Social Life of Early Man

Short Stories of Life and Death, Complexities of the Human Experience

Social Life of Early Man