What five humorous puns are delivered between Mercutio and Romeo and then Mercutio and the Nurse in act 2, scene 4 of Romeo and Juliet?

In this
lively scene,runs intoand . Although both friends think Romeo is still pining for Rosaline, he,
of course, has fallen in love with . Therefore, he is in cheerful spirits, no longer moping
around. Here we see two wordsmithsRomeo and Mercutiocross not words but swords. The puns
aboundand we get a deep insight into the friendship that holds these two together.

Mercutio wonders what happened to Romeo after the Capulet party the night before.
Mercutio says "you gave us the counterfeit last night." When Romeo asks what
counterfeit, Mercutio replies "the slip, sir, the slip." Slip is aon Romeo slipping
away from them and also slang at that time period for counterfeit money.

Romeo says that in such a "case" as his, he had a right to slip away. Case
here means both "situation" and "physical condition," meaning pining both
mentally and physically for a woman.

Mercutio catches that lust was part of
Romeo's "case" and makes a joke about Romeo having a worn-out "pump,"
punning on pump as meaning shoe and sexual organ. Romeo responds with the exclamation that this
is "single-soled jest," sole a pun on the sole of a shoe and one's soul.

As we can see, the two match each other word for word.

When he meets
Juliet's nurse, Mercutio puns on "hare" as meaning whore and then puns on the word
"hoar" as meaning both moldly and a whore. He thus implies that the nurse is both old
and a whore.

All of these explanations of puns come from footnotes found in
the Bevington edition of The Complete Works of
Shakespeare.