Sudden leaps require daring—the kind of daring Prufrock lacks (even as he asks himself, “Do I dare?”). See also Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), line 404: “The awful daring of a moment’s surrender.”

De Grave: a fine French wine. Also a play on “grave,” foreshadowing the death of Fortunato.

In “Poe’s Wine List” (1972), L. Moffitt Cecil argues that this moment undermines Fortunato’s claim to wine expertise:

Later Montresor “broke and reached him a flagon of De Grave,” which Fortunato “emptied … at a breath” (VI, 170171) . It seems preposterous that some of the nobler wines of France should be treated so cavalierly by reputed connoisseurs. Even if these wines were not estate bottled, still they must have borne upon their labels the names of particular communes and vintage years. But Montresor and Fortunato do not note such things. It is plain that Fortunato is not a connoisseur — he is an alcoholic.

Amontillado is a type of Sherry, but not all types of Sherry are Amontillado. An analogy would be someone who can’t distinguish Champagne from any other white wine, or a Rolex watch from an imitation. Fortunato is telling Montresor not to trust Luchesi’s judgement in identifying the Amontillado, which Montresor says he doubts is genuine.

However there is reason to doubt Fortunato’s own expertise, as L. Moffitt Cecil explains in “Poe’s Wine List” (1972):

All of Poe’s characters who claim to be connoisseurs of wine come off poorly. Fortunato, in “The Cask of Amontillado,” like Bon-Bon and Bibulus O’Bumper, is but a sad travesty of the true expert. Montresor entices Fortunato into his cellar by challenging him to attempt what Poe presents as a very delicate and difficult test — to distinguish between amontillado and sherry. At the time, there may well have been need for such a test. Frank Schoonmaker, in his Encyclopedia of Wine, reports of amontillado that “Its name comes originally from the place-name Montilla, a village and district south of Cordoba whose wines were legally sold as Sherry until quite recently.” Actually, amontillado is an especially fine kind of sherry. Its name means “a Sherry of the Montilla Type” or a “Montillad’d wine.” Schoonmaker describes it as “A superior type of Spanish Sherry, generally fairly dry and paler than the average, although not as pale and light nor generally as dry as a Fino or Manzanilla” (2). Montresor claims that he has purchased a pipe of wine, advertised as amontillado, about which he is doubtful. No small quantity, a pipe contains on the average 130 gallons; so Montresor’s reported investment is considerable.

Although Montresor declares in the story that he is “skillful in the Italian vintages” himself and that Fortunato, a “quack” in some ways, is “sincere” in the “matter of old wines,” their conduct on the excursion into the cellar would seem to belie any such claims. In the first place, Fortunato is intoxicated, a disqualifying condition for any serious wine tasting. Had he come safely to the wine and sampled it, his testimony would have been worthless. He would have failed the great test, which — the distinguishing of amontillado from other lighter and drier or heavier and sweeter sherries — is not an especially difficult challenge.

Romeo asks why she’d want to give her vow again, since that would mean withdrawing it first. The question is probably not serious, but part of their teasing, affectionate banter.

would: wish.

Romeo picks up on Juliet’s fantasy by saying he wants to be her captive or pet–wants to be “tamed by” or “tied down” to her.

Gustave Courbet, Girl with Seagulls, 1865

i.e., she feels like it’ll be twenty years till she sees him again.

Altered perception of time is a running theme throughout the play. Compare Capulet’s dialogue with Second Capulet in 1.5:

CAPULET
How long is’t now since last yourself and I
Were in a mask?

SECOND CAPULET
By'r lady, thirty years.

CAPULET: What, man! ‘tis not so much, 'tis not so much:
'Tis since the nuptials of Lucentio,
Come pentecost as quickly as it will,
Some five and twenty years; and then we mask’d.

SECOND CAPULET
‘Tis more, 'tis more, his son is elder, sir;
His son is thirty.

CAPULET
Will you tell me that?
His son was but a ward two years ago.

To Juliet’s old, settled father, the past thirty years seem like the blink of an eye. To Juliet, young and in love, even a single night without her beloved seems like decades.

Arguably the lovers' stressful situation does have the effect of “aging” them: they seem more mature in Act 5 than in Act 1.

Oh, gentle Romeo, if you do love me, swear it truly.

“Faithfully,” of course, implies the intent to be emotionally and sexually faithful.

While Romeo’s passion for Juliet is clear, the play does leave his capacity for “faithfulness” up for debate. After all, he forgets all about his old love, Rosaline, as soon as he meets Juliet.