190. [Dear hap.] Good fortune. The 1st quarto has "good hap," which occurs in iii. 3. 171 below.
Scene III.—
1. [Grey-eyed.] Delius says that grey here and in Much Ado, v. 3. 27 is = "bright blue," and Dyce defines it as "blue, azure"; but there is no reason why the word should not have its ordinary meaning. The grey, as in M.N.D. iii. 2. 419, J.C. ii. 1. 103, and iii. 5. 19 below, is the familiar poetic grey of the early morning before sunrise. Whether ascribed, as here, to the eyes of the Morn, or, as in Milton's Lycidas, to her sandals, does not matter. See also on iii. 5. 8 below.
3. [Flecked.] Spotted, dappled; used by S. nowhere else.
4. [From forth.] Cf. M.W. iv. 4. 53: "Let them from forth a sawpit rush at once," etc. For Titan as the sun-god, cf. V. and A. 177, T. and C. v. 10. 25, Cymb. iii. 4. 166, etc.
7. [Osier cage.] Basket. Dowden suggests that of ours is "possibly not merely for the rhyme's sake, but because the Franciscan had no personal property."
8. [Precious-juiced flowers.] S. here prepares us for the part which the Friar is afterwards to sustain. Having thus early found him to be a chemist, we are not surprised at his furnishing the sleeping-draught for Juliet. Cf. Brooke's poem:—
"What force the stones, the plants, and metals haue to woorke,
And diuers other thinges that in the bowels of earth do loorke,