31. [Spite.] Cf. i. 5. 64 above.
38. [Evening mass.] Ritson and others say that Juliet means vespers, as there is no such thing as evening mass; and Staunton expresses surprise that S. has fallen into this error, since he elsewhere shows a familiarity with the usages of the Roman Catholic Church. It is the critics who are in error, not S. Walafrid Strabo (De Rebus Eccles. xxiii.) says that, while the time for mass is regularly before noon, it is sometimes celebrated in the evening ("aliquando ad vesperam"). Amalarius, Bishop of Trèves (De Eccles. Off. iv. 40), specifies Lent as the season for this hour. The Generales Rubricæ allow this at other times in the year. In Winkles's French Cathedrals, we are told that, on the occasion of the marriage of Henrietta of France, daughter of Henry IV., with the Duke of Chevreuse, as proxy for Charles I. of England, celebrated in Notre Dame at Paris, May 11, 1625, "mass was celebrated in the evening." See Notes and Queries for April 29 and June 3, 1876; also M'Clintock and Strong's Biblical Cyclopædia, under Mass.
40. [We must entreat,] etc. We must beg you to leave us to ourselves. Cf. Hen. VIII. i. 4. 71:—
"Crave leave to view these ladies and entreat
An hour of revels with them."
41. [God shield.] God forbid. Cf. A.W. i. 3. 74: "God shield you mean it not." So "Heaven shield," in M. for M. iii. 1. 141, etc. Devotion is here a quadrisyllable.
45. [Past cure,] etc. Cf. L. L. L. v. 2. 28: "past cure is still past care."
48. [Prorogue.] See on ii. 2. 78 above.
54. [This knife.] It was the custom of the time in Italy as in Spain for ladies to wear daggers at their girdles.