Brewer's: Ophelia

Daughter of Polonius the chamberlain. Hamlet fell in love with her, but after his interview with the Ghost, found it incompatible with his plans to marry her. Ophelia, thinking his “strange conduct” the effect of madness, becomes herself demented, and in her attempt to gather flowers is drowned. (Shakespeare: Hamlet.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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