60. _Soon-speeding gear._ Quick-despatching stuff. Cf. the extract from Brooke just above. For _gear_, see ii. 4. 97 above.
64. _As violently_, etc. See on ii. 6. 9 above.
67. _Any he._ Cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 2. 414: "that unfortunate he;" 3 _Hen. VI._ i. 1. 46: "The proudest he;" _Id._ ii. 2. 97: "Or any he the proudest of thy sort," etc. _Utters them_ = literally, sends them _out_, or lets them go from his possession; hence, sells them. Cf. _L. L. L._ ii. 1. 16 and _W.T._ iv. 4. 330.
70. _Starveth._ That is, look out hungrily; a bold but not un-Shakespearian expression, for which Otway's "stareth" (adopted by some editors) is a poor substitution. See on i. 1. 216 above; and for the inflection, on prol. 8.
SCENE II.--4. _A barefoot brother._ Friars Laurence and John are evidently Franciscans. "In his kindness, his learning, and his inclination to mix with and, perhaps, control the affairs of the world, he [Laurence] is no unapt representative of this distinguished order in their best days" (Knight). Warton says that the Franciscans "managed the machines of every important operation and event, both in the religious and political world."
"Apace our frier Iohn to Mantua him hyes; And, for because in Italy it is a wonted gyse That friers in the towne should seeldome walke alone, But of theyr couent ay should be accompanide with one Of his profession, straight a house he fyndeth out, In mynde to take some frier with him, to walke the towne about."
Each friar has a companion assigned him by the superior when he asks leave to go out; and thus they are a check upon each other (Steevens).
6. _Associate me._ Accompany me. For the transitive use, cf. _T.A._ v. 3. 169: "Friends should associate friends in grief and woe."
9. _A house._ According to both the poem and the novel, this was the convent to which the "barefoot brother" belonged.
16. _Infection._ A quadrisyllable. Cf, iv. 1. 41 above.
18. _Nice._ Trifling, unimportant. See on iii. 1. 157 above. For _charge_, cf. _W.T._ iv. 4. 261: "I have about me many parcels of charge."
19. _Dear._ Cf. v. 3. 32 below: "dear employment."
20. _Do much danger._ See on iii. 3. 118 above.
25. _This three hours._ The singular _this_ is often thus used; but cf. iv. 3. 40 above: "these many hundred years;" and v. 3. 176 below: "these two days."