Note 67 — CHARACTERS OF SHAKESPEAR’S PLAYS (continued 2)

In the account of her death, a friend has pointed out an instance of the poet’s exact observation of nature:—

‘There is a willow growing o’er a brook,

That shews its hoary leaves i’ th’ glassy stream.’

The inside of the leaves of the willow, next the water, is of a whitish colour, and the reflection would therefore be ‘hoary.’