25, 26. I would . . . speak.

Omitted in the folios. Goneril had said

the same thing in her previous speech.

27. very. Omitted in the folios. My very course' is equivalent to my exact course, exactly the course I have followed.

Scene IV.

2. defuse, disorder, and so disguise; generally used of dress. Kent had disguised his apparel. Theobald's spelling diffuse' has been adopted by many editors. But the other form is of common occurrence. See Richard III, i. 2. 78:

'Vouchsafe, defused infection of a man.'

And Lyly's Euphues (ed. Arber) p. 64: In battayles there ought to be a doubtfull fight, and a desperat ende, in pleadinge a diffyculte enteraunce, and a defused determination, in loue a lyfe wythout hope, and a death without feare.' Again, in Armin's Nest of Ninnies, p. 6 (Shaksp. Soc. ed.): 'It is hard that the taste of one apple should distaste the whole lumpe of this defused chaios.' 'Diffused' is found in Henry V, v. 2. 61 :

'To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire,

And everything that seems unnatural.'

And in Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4. 54:

'Let them from forth a sawpit rush at once

With some diffused song.'

6. come, come about, come to pass. See ii. 1. 5, and Lucrece, 895: 'How comes it then, vile Opportunity,

Being so bad, such numbers seek for thee?'

Again, Othello, v. 2. 326. Malone reads 'So may it come' parenthetically, as an exclamation.

8. a jot, the smallest quantity of anything, here of time. So Twelfth Night, iii. 2. 1: 'No, faith, I'll not stay a jot longer.'

15. to converse, to associate. So in As You Like It, v. 2. 66: 'I have, since I was three year old, conversed with a magician.'

16. cannot choose, cannot help it, have no choice but to fight. So Hamlet, iv. 5. 68: But I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i' the cold ground.'

17. to eat no fish. The mark, says Warburton, of the Papists, who were looked upon as no good subjects in Elizabeth's reign. He quotes Marston's Dutch Courtezan [i. 2]: 'Yet I trust I am none of the wicked that eate fish a Fridaies.' And Fletcher's Woman Hater, iv. 2: 'He should not have eaten under my roof for twenty pounds; and surely I did not like him when he call'd for fish.'

24. Who. See Abbott, § 274.

32, 33. a curious tale, an elaborate story.

37, 38. so... to. For the omission of 'as' in such phrases see ii. 4. 12, 13, Abbott, § 281, and the quotation in note on i. 2. 43.

46. clotpoll, thickskull, blockhead. See Cymbeline, iv. 2. 184:

'I have sent Cloten's clotpoll down the stream.'

In Twelfth Night, iii. 4, 208, it is spelt' clodde-pole.' In the present passage the quartos have clat-pole,' the folios clotpole.'

53. roundest, most direct, plainest.

Compare Othello, i. 3. 90:

'I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver.'

And Bacon, Essay i. p. 3 (ed. W. A. Wright): 'It will be acknowledged even by those, that practize it not, that cleare and Round dealing, is the Honour of Mans Nature.'

57,58. that ... as. See note on i. I. 88.

59. appears. For the omission of the relative see Abbott, § 244.

65. rememberest, remindest. See The Tempest, i. 2. 243:

'Let me remember thee what thou hast promised.'

66. most faint, very slight.

67. curiosity, nicety of observation, punctiliousness.

Ib. very, real, actual; literally, true. Compare The Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 226: My very friends.'

68. pretence. See i. 2. 81.

69, 70. this two days. In such cases Shakespeare uses indifferently 'this' and these.' ·

See Winter's Tale, v. 2. 147: Ay, and have been so any

time these four hours.' And Pericles, v. I. 24:

'A man who for this three months hath not spoken

To any one.'

89. go to, an expression of impatience, as in Measure for Measure, ii. 1. 98: Go to, go to; no matter for the dish, sir.'

91. earnest, money given in advance upon making a bargain as a security that will be completed. There is a play upon the two meanings of the word in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 1. 163:

'Speed. But did you perceive her earnest.

Val. She gave me none, except an angry word.'

In a metaphorical sense it occurs in Macbeth, i. 3. 132:

Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth?'

92. coxcomb, the jester's cap, which had a piece of red cloth sewn upon it, like the comb of a cock. See Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare (ed. 1839), page 508, plate ii.

94. you were best. See The Tempest, i. 2. 366, and Abbott, § 230.

95. Why, fool? The folios read Lear. Why my Boy?' but they are clearly wrong, for Lear had not taken any one's part that was out of favour.

On the other hand, though it is appropriate to Kent, it is not easy to suppose that the Fool recognized him in his disguise.

97. an, if. The old copies have and' or '&.' See Abbott, § 101.
Ib. as the wind sits. Compare The Merchant of Venice, i. I. 18:
'Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind.'

And Hamlet, i. 3. 56:

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail.'

Ib. thou'lt. So the folios. The quartos have thou't.'

Ib. catch cold, that is, as Farmer explains, be turned out of doors, and exposed to the inclemency of the weather.

99. on's, of his, as two of the quartos read. Compare i. 4. 146, i. 5. 19, iv. I. 51; Abbott, § 182.

my

IOI. nuncle, said to be shortened from mine uncle' as naunt' from 'mine aunt.' So in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, iv. 7, we find nown good harte roote.' In Littré's Dictionary, under the word 'Tante,' it is stated that nante' is a form of the word in Picardy, and in justification of the derivation of tante from ta ante, reference is made to the Wallon dialect, in which mononk, matante, and similar forms are used, the possessive pronoun having no force whatever. If the origin of nuncle' is not analogous, it must be referred to the principle by which Noll, Ned, Nan, Nell, Numps, are formed from Oliver, Edward, Anne, Ellen, and Humphrey. Ib. two coxcombs, to mark his double folly.

104. living, property, estate. See Bacon, Essay xlv. p. 181: 'Where a Man hath a great Living laid together, and where he is scanted.'

The

108. Lady the brach. This is the reading adopted by Malone. quartos have 'Ladie (or Lady) oth'e brach'; the folios the Lady Brach.' Steevens quotes 1 Henry IV, iii. 1. 240: I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in Irish.' A brach was a bitch hound. See iii. 6. 67. Florio (Ital. Dict.) has, Bracca, a brache, or a bitch, a beagle '; Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) 'Braque: m. A kind of short-tayled setting dog; ordinarily spotted, or partie-coloured.' Baret (Alvearie) gives, a Brache or biche. Canicula.' The word is found in German Bracke, and in Dutch Brak. Compare Webster, The White Devil, p. 48 (ed. Dyce):

'Vit. Cor. You see the fox comes many times short home; 'Tis here proved true.

Flam. Kill'd with a couple of braches.'

The late Mr. Archibald Smith conjectured that the reading in the present passage should be Lie the brach.'

117. trowest, thinkest, believest. Compare Richard II, ii. I. 218:

'To-morrow next

We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow.'

118. Set less, stake less, risk less.

See Macbeth, iii. 1. 113:

K

'So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,
That I would set my life on any chance,

To mend it, or be rid on 't.'

133-148. That lord . . . snatching. Omitted in the folios.

146. a monopoly. A satire,' says Warburton, 'on the gross abuses of monopolies at that time; and the corruption and avarice of the courtiers, who commonly went shares with the patentee.'

154. thou borest thine ass on thy back o'er the dirt, a reference to the fable of the old man and his ass.

158. wit. The reading of the quartos, which is supported by the form of the saying in Lyly's Mother Bombie, ii. 3: I thinke gentlemen had never lesse wit in a yeare.' The folios read ‘grace.'

་

163. used it, practised it, been accustomed to it. See Measure for Measure, iv. 2. 121: Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted putting-on; methinks strangely, for he hath not used it before.'

6

164. mother. So the quartos. The folios have Mothers.'

166. Steevens points out a resemblance to this song in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece (Works, v. 179), published in 1608:

'When Tarquin first in court began,

And was approved King,

Some men for sodden joy gan weep,

But I for sorrow sing.'

180. What makes that frontlet on? What makes you wear that frown, like a frontlet or forehead cloth? Steevens quotes from Zepheria (1594) [Canzon. 27]:

But now my sunne it fits thou take thy set,

And vayle thy face with frownes as with a frontlet.'

And Malone has a parallel passage from Lyly's Euphues and his England (ed. Arber, p. 286): The next daye I comming to the gallery where she was solitaryly walking, with her frowning cloth, as sick lately of the solens, &c.' Compare also I Henry IV, i. 3. 19:

And majesty might never yet endure

The moody frontier of a servant brow,' where 'frontier' is apparently used with some reference to 'tire' or headdress.

189. a shealed peascod. Capell introduced the modern spelling shell'd,' and Pope in his second edition printed peascod' for the 'pescod' of the quartos and folios, which represents the provincial pronunciation of the word. Tollet remarks that the robing of Richard II's effigy in Westminster Abbey is wrought with peascods open, and the peas out; perhaps an allusion to his being once in full possession of sovereignty, but soon reduced to an empty title.' Unfortunately for this theory, the peascods in question

are the pods of the planta genista, or broom plant, the badge of the Plantagenets. Moreover, although the pods are open the seeds are indicated. 191. other, used for the plural, as in Josh. viii. 22, Luke xxiii. 32. See Abbott, § 12.

193. rank, gross. See Hamlet, ii. 1. 20.

195. safe, sure, certain.

197. put it on, urge it on, promote it. Compare Macbeth, iv. 3. 239: The powers above

Put on their instruments.'

And Hamlet, v. 2. 394:

'Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause.'

198. allowance, approval. Compare Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 146: 'A stirring dwarf we do allowance give Before a sleeping giant.'

200. in the tender of a wholesome weal, in caring for a sound or healthily organized commonwealth. For 'tender as a verb in this sense compare Henry V, ii. 2. 175:

'But we our kingdom's safety must so tender.'

And for a play upon its other senses see Hamlet, i. 3. 106-109. For 'wholesome' in the sense of healthy' compare Hamlet, iii. 4. 65: 'Like a mildew'd ear,

Blasting his wholesome brother.'

'Weal' for commonwealth' occurs in Macbeth, iii. 4. 76:

.

Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal.'

204. know. The reading of the folios. The quartos have 'trow.' With this compare Taming of the Shrew, i. 2. 165:

Trow you whither I am going?'

The latter

206. it head... it young. 'It' is an earlier form of 'its.' word came into use about the end of the sixteenth century. See notes on The Tempest, i. 2. 95, ii. 1. 163. The folios read 'it's had'; that is, it

has had.

207. So out went... darkling. Probably, as Farmer suggested, a fragment of an old song, which the Fool brings in to divert attention when he has said anything which might be taken amiss. Steevens quotes from the stage direction of an old comedy called The Longer thou livest the more Foole thou art; 'Entreth Moros, counterfaiting a vaine gesture and foolish countenance, synging the foote of many songs, as fooles were wont.'

Ib. darkling, in the dark. Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 2. 86: 'O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.'

The Scotch still usedarklins.' For the adverbial termination '-ling,' or '-long,' see Morris, English Accidence, p. 194, and compare flatlong,' The Tempest, ii. 1. 181. 'Hedlynge' and 'hedlynges' are found in the Glossary to the Wicliffite versions.