Nature is fine in loves and, where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves]
These lines are not in the quarto, and might hare been omitted in the
folio without great loss, for they are obscure and affected; but, I
think, they require no emendation. _Love_ (says Laertes) is the passion
by which _nature is most_ exalted and _refined_; and as substances
_refined_ and subtilised, easily obey any impulse, or follow any
attraction, some part of nature, so purified and _refined_, flies off
after the attracting object, after the thing it loves.
_As into air the purer spirits f1ow,
And separate from their kindred dregs below,
So flew her soul_.--
IV.v.171 (297,1) O how the wheel becomes it!] [W: weal] I do not see why
_weal_ is better than _wheel_. The story alluded to I do not know; but
perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was reduced to _spin_.
IV.v.175 (297,2) There's rosemary, that'll far rememberance. Pray you,
love, remember. And there's pansies, that's for thoughts] There is
probably some mythology in the choice of these herbs, but I cannot
explain it. _Pansies_ is for _thoughts_, because of its name, _Pensées_;
but _rosemary_ indicates _remembrance_, except that it is an ever-green,
and carried at funerals, I have not discovered.
IV.v.214 (300,7) No trophy, sword, nor batchment] It was the custom, in
the times of our author, to hang a sword over the grave of a knight.
IV.v.218 (300,8) And where the offence is, let the great axe fall] [W:
tax] _Fall_ corresponds better to _axe_.
IV.vi.26 (301,9) _for the bore of the matter_] The _bore_ is the
calibier of a gun, or the capacity of the barrel. _The matter_ (says
Hamlet) _would carry the heavier words_.
IV.vii.18 (302,1) the general gender] The _common race_ of the people.