64. _Rest you merry!_ For the full form, _God rest you merry_! (= God keep you merry), cf. _A.Y.L._ v. 1. 65, etc. It was a common form of salutation at meeting, and oftener at parting. Here the servant is about to leave, thinking that Romeo is merely jesting with him. Cf. 79 below.
66-69. _Signior Martino_, etc. Probably meant to be prose, but some editors make bad verse of it.
69. _Mercutio._ Mercutio here figures among the invited guests, although we find him always associating with the young men of the Montague family. He is the prince's "kinsman," and apparently on terms of acquaintance with both the rival houses, though more intimate with the Montagues than with the Capulets.
71. _Rosaline._ This shows that Rosaline is a Capulet.
74. _Up._ Dowden plausibly prints "Up--," assuming that "Romeo eagerly interrupts the servant, who would have said 'Up to our house.'"
82. _Crush a cup_, etc. A common expression in the old plays. We still say "crack a bottle."
87. _Unattainted._ Unprejudiced, impartial; used by S. only here.
91. _Fires._ The early eds. have "fire," which White retains as an admissible rhyme in Shakespeare's day.
92. _Who often drown'd_, etc. Alluding to the old notion that if a witch were thrown into the water she would not sink. King James, in his _Dæmonology_, says: "It appeares that God hath appointed for a supernatural signe of the monstrous impietie of witches, that the water shall refuse to receive them in her bosom that have shaken off them the sacred water of baptism, and wilfully refused the benefit thereof."
98. _That crystal scales._ The reading of the early eds., changed by some to "those," etc.; but _scales_ may be used for the entire machine. Dyce says it was often so used by writers of the time.
99. _Lady's love._ Some substitute "lady-love," which S. does not use elsewhere. Clarke suggests that _your lady's love_ may mean "the little love Rosaline bears you," weighed against that of some possible _maid_.
101. _Scant._ Not elsewhere used adverbially by S. _Scantly_ occurs only in _A. and C._ iii. 4. 6.
SCENE III.--1. On the character of the Nurse Mrs. Jameson says:--
"She is drawn with the most wonderful power and discrimination. In the prosaic homeliness of the outline, and the magical illusion of the colouring, she reminds us of some of the marvellous Dutch paintings, from which, with all their coarseness, we start back as from a reality. Her low humour, her shallow garrulity, mixed with the dotage and petulance of age--her subserviency, her secrecy, and her total want of elevated principle, or even common honesty--are brought before us like a living and palpable truth....