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Part 21

Beetle-brows. Prominent or overhanging brows. Cf. the verb beetle in Ham. i. 4. 71.
Rushes. Before the introduction of carpets floors were strewn with rushes. Cf. 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 214: "on the wanton rushes lay you down;" Cymb. ii. 2. 13:--

"Our Tarquin thus Did softly press the rushes," etc. See also R. of L. 318, T. of S. iv. 1. 48, and 2 Hen. IV. v. 5. 1. The stage was likewise strewn with rushes. Steevens quotes Dekker, Guls Hornbook: "on the very rushes where the comedy is to daunce."

I am proverb'd, etc. The old proverb fits my case, etc. To hold the candle is a very common phrase for being an idle spectator. Among Ray's proverbs is "A good candle-holder proves a good gamester" (Steevens).
The game, etc. An old proverbial saying advises to give over when the game is at the fairest; and Romeo also alludes to this.
Dun's the mouse. Apparently = keep still; but no one has satisfactorily explained the origin of the phrase. Malone quotes Patient Grissel, 1603: "yet don is the mouse, lie still;" and Steevens adds The Two Merry Milkmaids, 1620: "Why then 'tis done, and dun's the mouse and undone all the courtiers."
If thou art Dun, etc. Douce quotes Chaucer, C.T. 16936:

"Ther gan our hoste for to jape and play, And sayde, 'sires, what? Dun is in the myre.'"

Gifford explains the expression thus: "Dun in the mire is a Christmas gambol, at which I have often played. A log of wood is brought into the midst of the room: this is Dun (the cart-horse), and a cry is raised that he is stuck in the mire. Two of the company advance, either with or without ropes, to draw him out. After repeated attempts, they find themselves unable to do it, and call for more assistance. The game continues till all the company take part in it, when Dun is extricated of course; and the merriment arises from the awkward and affected efforts of the rustics to lift the log, and from sundry arch contrivances to let the ends of it fall on one another's toes. This will not be thought a very exquisite amusement; and yet I have seen much honest mirth at it." Halliwell-Phillipps quotes Westward Hoe, 1607: "I see I'm born still to draw dun out o' th' mire for you; that wise beast will I be;" and Butler, Remains: "they meant to leave reformation, like Dun in the mire."

Sir-reverence. A contraction of "save reverence" (salva reverentia), used as an apology for saying what might be deemed improper. Cf. C. of E. iii. 2. 93: "such a one as a man may not speak of without he say 'Sir-reverence.'" Taylor the Water-Poet says in one of his epigrams:--

"If to a foule discourse thou hast pretence, Before thy foule words name sir-reverence, Thy beastly tale most pleasantly will slip, And gaine thee praise, when thou deserv'st a whip."

Here "Mercutio says he will draw Romeo from the mire of this love, and uses parenthetically the ordinary form of apology for speaking so profanely of love" (Knight). For the full phrase, see Much Ado, iii. 4. 32, M. of V. ii. 2. 27, 139, etc.

Burn daylight. "A proverbial expression used when candles are lighted in the daytime" (Steevens); hence applied to superfluous actions in general. Here it is = waste time, as the context shows. Cf. M.W. ii. 1. 54, where it has the same meaning.
We waste, etc. The quartos have "We waste our lights in vaine, lights lights by day;" the folios, "We wast our lights in vaine, lights, by day." The emendation is Capell's. Daniel and Dowden read, "light lights by day," which is very plausible.
Five wits. Cf. Much Ado, i. 1. 66: "four of his five wits went halting off;" Sonn. 141. 9: "But my five wits nor my five senses." Here the five wits are distinguished from the five senses; but the two expressions were sometimes used interchangeably. The five wits, on the other hand, were defined as "common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation (judgment), and memory."
To-night. That is, last night, as in M.W. iii. 3. 171: "I have dreamed to-night;" W.T. ii. 3. 10: "He took good rest to-night," etc. See also ii. 4. 2 below.
Queen Mab. No earlier instance of Mab as the name of the fairy-queen has been discovered, but S. no doubt learned it from the folk-lore of his own time. Its derivation is uncertain.
The fairies' midwife. Not midwife to the fairies, but the fairy whose department it was to deliver the fancies of sleeping men of their dreams, those children of an idle brain (Steevens). T. Warton believes she was so called because she steals new-born infants, and leaves "changelings" (see M.N.D. ii. 1. 23, etc.) in their place.
No bigger, etc. That is, no bigger than the figures cut in such an agate. Cf. Much Ado, iii. 1. 65: "If low, an agate very vilely cut." Rings were sometimes worn on the thumb. Steevens quotes Glapthorne, Wit in a Constable, 1639: "and an alderman as I may say to you, he has no more wit than the rest o' the bench; and that lies in his thumb-ring."
Atomies. Atoms, or creatures as minute as atoms. Cf. A.Y.L. iii. 2. 245: "to count atomies;" and Id. iii. 5. 13: "Who shut their coward gates on atomies." In 2 Hen. IV. v. 4. 33, Mrs. Quickly confounds the word with anatomy. S. uses it only in these four passages, atom not at all.
Spinners. Long-legged spiders, mentioned also in M.N.D. ii. 2. 21: "Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!"
Worm. Nares says, under idle worms: "Worms bred in idleness. It was supposed, and the notion was probably encouraged for the sake of promoting industry, that when maids were idle, worms bred in their fingers;" and he cites Beaumont and Fletcher, Woman Hater, iii. 1:--

"Keep thy hands in thy muff and warm the idle Worms in thy fingers' ends."

67-69. Her chariot ... coachmakers. Daniel puts these lines before 59. Lettsom says: "It is preposterous to speak of the parts of a chariot (such as the waggon-spokes and cover) before mentioning the chariot itself." But chariot here, as the description shows, means only the body of the vehicle, and is therefore one of the "parts."

Sweetmeats. That is, kissing-comfits. These artificial aids to perfume the breath are mentioned by Falstaff, in M.W. v. 5. 22.
A courtier's nose. As this is a repetition, Pope substituted "lawyer's" (from 1st quarto), but this would also be a repetition. Other suggestions are "tailor's" and "counsellor's;" but the carelessness of the description is in perfect keeping with the character. See the comments on the speech p. 290 below.
Sometime. Used by S. interchangeably with sometimes.
Ambuscadoes. Ambuscades; used by S. only here. The Spanish blades of Toledo were famous for their quality.
Healths, etc. Malone quotes Westward Hoe, 1607: "troth, sir, my master and sir Goslin are guzzling; they are dabbling together fathom deep. The knight has drunk so much health to the gentleman yonder, upon his knees, that he hath almost lost the use of his legs." Cf. 2 Hen. IV. v. 3. 57:--

"Fill the cup, and let it come; I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom."

Plats the manes, etc. "This alludes to a very singular superstition not yet forgotten in some parts of the country. It was believed that certain malignant spirits, whose delight was to wander in groves and pleasant places, assumed occasionally the likeness of women clothed in white; that in this character they sometimes haunted stables in the night-time, carrying in their hands tapers of wax, which they dropped on the horses' manes, thereby plaiting them in inextricable knots, to the great annoyance of the poor animals and vexation of their masters. These hags are mentioned in the works of William of Auvergne, bishop of Paris in the 13th century" (Douce).
Elf-locks. Hair matted or clotted, either from neglect or from the disease known as the Plica Polonica. Cf. Lear, ii. 3. 10: "elf all my hair in knots;" and Lodge, Wit's Miserie, 1596: "His haires are curld and full of elves locks."
Which, etc. The real subject of bodes is which once untangled = the untangling of which.
Who. For which, as often; but here, perhaps, on account of the personification. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 22:--

"the winds, Who take the ruffian billows by the top."

My mind misgives, etc. One of many illustrations of Shakespeare's fondness for presentiments. Cf. ii. 2. 116, iii. 5. 53, 57, etc., below. See also 50 above.
Date. Period, duration; as often in S. Cf. R. of L. 935: "To endless date of never-ending woes;" Sonn. 18. 4: "And summer's lease hath all too short a date;" M.N.D. iii. 2. 373: "With league whose date till death shall never end," etc.
Expire. The only instance of the transitive use in S. Cf. Spenser, F.Q. iv. 1. 54: "Till time the tryall of her truth expyred."
Clos'd. Enclosed, shut up. Cf. v. 2. 30 below: "clos'd in a dead man's tomb." See also R. of L. 761, Macb. iii. 1. 99, etc.
In the early eds. the stage-direction is "They march about the Stage, and Seruingmen come forth with [or with their] Napkins." This shows that the scene was supposed to be immediately changed to the hall of Capulet's house.

SCENE V.--2. Shift a trencher. "Trenchers [wooden plates] were still used by persons of good fashion in our author's time. In the Household Book of the Earls of Northumberland, compiled at the beginning of the same century, it appears that they were common to the tables of the first nobility" (Percy). To shift a trencher was a technical term. For scrape a trencher, cf. Temp. ii. 2. 187: "Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish."

Joint-stools. A kind of folding-chair. Cf. 1 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 418, 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 269, etc.
Court-cupboard. Sideboard. Steevens quotes Chapman, Monsieur D'Olive, 1606: "Here shall stand my court-cupboard with its furniture of plate;" and his May-Day, 1611: "Court-cupboards planted with flaggons, cans, cups, beakers," etc. Cotgrave defines dressoir as "a court-cupboord (without box or drawer), onely to set plate on."

Good thou. For this vocative use of good, cf. Temp. i. 1. 3, 16, 20, C. of E. iv. 4. 22, etc.

Marchpane. A kind of almond-cake, much esteemed in the time of S. Nares gives the following from one of the old English receipt-books, Delightes for Ladies, 1608: "To make a marchpane.--Take two poundes of almonds being blanched, and dryed in a sieve over the fire, beate them in a stone mortar, and when they be small mix them with two pounde of sugar beeing finely beaten, adding two or three spoonefuls of rosewater, and that will keep your almonds from oiling: when your paste is beaten fine, drive it thin with a rowling pin, and so lay it on a bottom of wafers, then raise up a little edge on the side, and so bake it, then yce it with rosewater and sugar, then put it in the oven againe, and when you see your yce is risen up and drie, then take it out of the oven and garnish it with pretie conceipts, as birdes and beasts being cast out of standing moldes. Sticke long comfits upright in it, cast bisket and carrowaies in it, and so serve it; guild it before you serve it: you may also print of this marchpane paste in your molds for banqueting dishes. And of this paste our comfit makers at this day make their letters, knots, armes, escutcheons, beasts, birds, and other fancies." Castles and other figures were often made of marchpane, to decorate splendid desserts, and were demolished by shooting or throwing sugar-plums at them. Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, Faithful Friends, iii. 2:--

"They barr'd their gates, Which we as easily tore unto the earth As I this tower of marchpane."

Part 21

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