II. i. 90. miraculous harp. The harp of Amphion, son of Zeus, raised the walls of Thebes by the magic of its music.
II. i. 134. Who hath cause. Who for 'which.' 'Your eye hath cause to be wet with grief at your banishment from Claribel.'
II. i. 137, 138. at Which end . . . bow. The difficulty here is in finding the subject of 'bow'; it may be 'she'; but is more probably 'end.' The confusion of the passage would be somewhat reduced by dropping the word 'at.' The metaphor of a pair of scales needs no interpretation. The poor soul long weighed the hatred of the proposed match over against her desire to obey her father.
II. i. 190. out of her sphere. According to the Ptolemaic astronomy, the moon is a planet, moving in a crystal sphere. The gentlemen are preposterous enough to lift the moon out of her sphere; but she is as inconstant as they, and changes continually.
II. i. 198. Go sleep, and hear us. Perhaps, 'go to sleep, and then, if you can, you will hear us laugh'—laugh with delight, i.e., to be rid of such a bore.
II. i. 233, 234. how, in stripping it, etc. 'This purpose [of being king] you really cherish at heart, though you pretend to mock at the notion of ever being king; but, by laying the notion bare, i.e., by stripping off all pretence, you will invest it with the more attractiveness.' Sebastian is urged by Antonio to express freely his covert ambition to be king.
II. i. 250. Ambition cannot pierce, etc. Any thought of the future which extends beyond the death of Ferdinand will suggest that Sebastian may be the next king. 'When ambition pierces to its furthest wink, there discovery ceases, and the crown is found.' (Furness.)
II. i. 258. she that from whom. A specimen of Shakespeare's hurried and tortuous construction: 'from whom' probably means 'in coming home from
