Western Meadow-Rue

Western meadow rue (Thalictrum occidentalis), a buttercup relative, is in our garden instead of “common rue” (Ruta graveolens).  We made this substitution–even though common rue has medicinal applications and many cultural associations in Europe and Africa–because exposure to common rue causes skin blisters and irritation and the plant is toxic if consumed in larger quantities.  Like other members of the buttercup family, Thalictrum occidentale can also cause mild contact dermatitis. 

Rue–also called herb of grace–symbolizes repentance and regret, but also can evoke blessing, grace, and healing.  Ellacomb explains that “Ruth was the English word for sorrow and remorse, and to rue was to be sorry for anything, or to have pity…and so it was a natural thing to say that a plant which was so bitter, and had always borne the name Rue or Ruth, must be connected with repentance (276).   

Rue is one of the plants Ophelia speaks with, saying “There’s rue for you and here’s some for me. We may call it ‘herb of grace’ o’ Sundays.  O, you must wear your rue with a difference” (4.5).  The text does not specify whom she is addressing.  Editors have suggested Claudius, the usurping king who has killed his own brother, old Hamlet (Jenkins, 1982) or Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, who quickly marries Claudius after old Hamlet’s death (Evans, 1974).  

Perdita gives rue to the disguised King of Bohemia, her future father-in-law, in The Winter’s Tale:  “For you, there’s rosemary and rue” (4.4).  See Crown Imperial for more information on Perdita.

Praising Helena in All’s Well that Ends Well, the clown says “Indeed, she was the sweet marjoram of the salad, or rather the herb of grace,” and the lord Lafeu corrects him by saying “They are not salad herbs, you knave, they are nose herbs” (4.5).

When Richard II’s Queen weeps at his fall, the gardener decides 

Here did she fall a tear; here in this place

I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace;

Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen

In remembrance of the weeping Queen. (3.4)

 Shakespeare connects rue to “ruth” (compassion–the opposite of ruthlessness).

Ellacombe (1896, p. 276) suggests that rue is also evoked in Antony and Cleopatra when Antony, speaking to his army before a battle that are likely to lose, evokes tears among his men and then tells them “Grace grow where these drops fall” (4.2).