Ophe. There's Fennell[16] for you, and Columbines[16]: ther's Rew[17] for you, and heere's some for
[Footnote 1: 'pierce as directly to your judgment.'
But the simile of the day seems to favour the reading of the Q.—'peare,' for appear. In the word level would then be indicated the rising sun.]
[Footnote 2: Not in Q.]
[Footnote 3: 1st Q. 'Enter Ofelia as before.']
[Footnote 4: To render it credible that Laertes could entertain the vile proposal the king is about to make, it is needful that all possible influences should be represented as combining to swell the commotion of his spirit, and overwhelm what poor judgment and yet poorer conscience he had. Altogether unprepared, he learns Ophelia's pitiful condition by the sudden sight of the harrowing change in her—and not till after that hears who killed his father and brought madness on his sister.]
[Footnote 5: 1st Q.
I'st possible a yong maides life,
Should be as mortall as an olde mans sawe?]
[Footnote 6: delicate, exquisite.]
[Footnote 7: 'where 'tis fine': I suggest that the it here may be impersonal: 'where things, where all is fine,' that is, 'in a fine soul'; then the meaning would be, 'Nature is fine always in love, and where the soul also is fine, she sends from it' &c. But the where may be equal, perhaps, to whereas. I can hardly think the phrase means merely 'and where it is in love.' It might intend—'and where Love is fine, it sends' &c. The 'precious instance of itself,' that is, 'something that is a part and specimen of itself,' is here the 'young maid's wits': they are sent after the 'old man's life.'—These three lines are not in the Quarto. It is not disputed that they are from Shakspere's hand: if the insertion of these be his, why should the omission of others not be his also?]