Like many of you, I was highly anticipatory of Taylor Swift's new album, which she so inconveniently dropped the weekend of TudorCon. I guess, you know, she didn't consult me first, but there you go. But on Friday, in between running errand, I was listening and I was thrilled when I saw that the first single was a song with a Shakespearean Easter egg.

And now everybody's Googling,

Who on Earth is Ophelia and what exactly was her fate?

Well, I have an answer for that.

Here is the quick answer.

Ophelia is a tragic character from Shakespeare's Hamlet,

and her story is one of the most famous examples of how

women were treated and silenced in Elizabethan drama. She's the girl who loved Hamlet. She lost

everything. She went mad, and she drowned in a brook. It's dark. It's beautiful, and it's been

inspiring art and music for centuries.

So when Taylor Swift sings about Travis Kelsey saving her from the fate of Ophelia,

she's telling us something powerful.

She didn't go under.

She didn't lose her voice and she didn't drown.

Instead, she is rewriting Ophelia's ending.

So, my friend, get comfy, grab a coffee or a water. I've got a

Diet Coke from McDonald's this morning. But either way, settle in, because today we are going to

explore who Ophelia was, what her fate actually meant, and what it says about the role of women

in Elizabethan society.

Music about the role of women in Elizabethan society. Hey friend, welcome back to the YouTube channel for the Renaissance English History Podcast.

I am your host, Heather, and I've been podcasting on Tudor England since 2009 with my show,

which makes it the original Tudor History podcast.

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