42. _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.
43. _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.
45. _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.
47. _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."
50. _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.
53. _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.
54. _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.