| NERISSA | Portia's lady-in-waiting in The Merchant of Venice |
| WITHER | Like many a lady-in-waiting in decline |
| EMILIA | Lady-in-waiting in "Othello" |
| RALEIGH | Privateer who led two expeditions in search of the fabled lost city of gold, El Dorado, and fathered three sons with Elizabeth I's lady-in-waiting Bess Throckmorton, including Carew, conceived in the |
| BALTHASAR | Portia's masculine alter ego in The Merchant of Venice |
| BASSANIO | Portia's lover in The Merchant of Venice (8) |
| MURASAKISHIKIBU | Japanese novelist, poet, and lady-in-waiting from the Heian period who penned one of the most influential and widely read Japanese classical works: The Tale of Genji. |
| COLCHIS | In Greek mythology, it was the home of Medea and the destination of the Argonauts, a place of great wealth. In The Merchant of Venice (act 1, scene 1), Bassanio says, "Hang on her temples like a golde |
| GLENCONNER | Lady Anne -; author of a bestselling memoir who was a maid of honour at the Queen's coronation and Princess Margaret's lady-in-waiting (10) |
| HEROIC | Descriptive of Leander's nightly swims, or of the lady-in-waiting? (6) |
| RIALTO | It is a stone-arch bridge that crosses over the narrowest point of the Grand Canal in Venice. It is also the oldest bridge across that canal. In The Merchant of Venice (act 1, scene 3), Shylock says, |
| MARGARET | Younger sister of the Queen described in a memoir by her former lady-in-waiting Anne Glenconner (8) |
| ASITIS | Donkey keeps waiting in the middle, in the current circumstances (2,2,2) |
| COURTIER | A cupbearer, lady-in-waiting, liege, page, steward or other attendant at the royal household of a sovereign (8) |
| TRAY | This is carried by the lady in waiting (4) |
| BEATON | Mary ----, lady-in-waiting to Mary Queen of Scots (6) |
| ONTAP | Waiting in the wings or in a keg |
| SETASIDE | Waiting in the wings regardless of scenery and props (3,5) |
| STARMAN | He's "waiting in the sky" in a classic David Bowie song |
| PIGEONS | These birds (about 250 known species) occur worldwide except in the coldest regions and the most remote islands. They all strut about with a characteristic bobbing of the head. In The Merchant of Veni |
