Hard things — i.e., a hard fate.
Wine of astonishment. — Literally, either wine of reeling — i.e., an intoxicating draught — or wine as reeling — i.e., bewilderment like wine, or wine, which is not wine, but bewilderment, according as we take the construction.
In any case the figure is the same which meets us often in Hebrew poetry (comp. Psalms 75:8-9; Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 25:15, &c) expressing that infatuation which the heathen proverb so well describes: —
“Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat.”