Scene III.

4. That, loosely used for 'Where,' the preposition 'in' being omitted at the end of the sentence. Compare 1 Henry VI, iii. 2. 25: No way to that, for weakness, which she enter'd'; that is, by which she entered.

5. Whiles. So the folios. The quartos have while.'

6. am bethought, think, intend, am resolved: generally used reflexively, as in Merchant of Venice, i. I. 31.

7. most poorest. Abbott, § II.

10. Blanket. See note on ii. 2. 128.

Ib. elf all my hair in knots, mat together my hair in elf-locks. Hair so matted was believed to be the work of elves or fairies. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 90:

This is that very Mab

That plats the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,

Which once untangled much misfortune bodes.'

For elf' see note on The Tempest, v. I. 33.

14. Bedlam beggars. Steevens quotes from Decker's Bellman of London, of which three editions appeared in 1608, the same year in which King Lear was first printed, the following description of an Abraham man': 'He sweares he hath been in Bedlam, and will talke frantickely of purpose: you see pinnes stuck in sundry places of his naked flesh, especially in his armes, which paine he gladly puts himselfe to, only to make you believe he is out of his wits. He calls himselfe by the name of Poore Tom, and comming near any body cries out, Poor Tom is a-cold. Of these Abraham-men, some be exceeding merry, and doe nothing but sing songs fashioned out of their own braines some will dance, others will doe nothing but either laugh or weepe: others are dogged, and so sullen both in loke and speech, that spying but a small company in a house, they boldly and bluntly enter, compelling the servants through feare to give them what they demand.' See also Harman's Caueat for Commen Cursetors (Early Eng. Text Soc. Extra Series), p. 47. 15. mortified, deadened, insensible.

18. pelting, paltry. Compare Richard II, ii. 1. 60:

'Like to a tenement or pelting farm.'

19. Sometime. The reading of the quartos. The folios have Sometimes.' The two forms of the word are used indifferently. See note on Richard II, i. 2. 54, and compare Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. I. 47:

And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl.'

Ib. bans, curses. See Hamlet, iii. 2. 269:

'With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected.'

In Med. Latin bannum was used to denote, first, an edict or proclamation,

hence, a summons, or an interdict. The original sense in English only remains in the publication of the 'banns of marriage,' and the word has most commonly the secondary meaning of the curse pronounced against the violation of an interdict.

20. Turlygod. Warburton conjectured Turlupin,' the name of a fraternity of naked beggars in the fourteenth century, and Douce holds that • Turlygood,' as he reads with Theobald, is a corruption of this.

21.

Edgar I nothing am, as Edgar I cease to be.

Scene IV.

I. home. The quartos read 'hence.'

7. cruel.

A joke, such as it is, is intended between cruel' and 'crewel,' or worsted, of which garters were often made. The quartos read 'crewell' or 'crewill.'

8. heads. The quartos have 'heeles.'

10. nether-stocks, stockings. Another pun. Compare 1 Henry IV, ii. 4. 131: Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew nether stocks and mend them and foot them too.' Again, Twelfth Night, i. 3. 144: Ay, 'tis strong and it does indifferent well in a flame-coloured stock.' And Taming of the Shrew, iii. 2. 68: With a linen stock on one leg and a kersey boot-hose on the other.' Steevens quotes from Heywood's Epigrams [p. 204, Spenser Soc. ed.]:

·

Thy vpper stocks be they stufte with sylke or flocks,
Neuer become the lyke a nether payre of stocks.'

9. at legs. See note on 'at nostrils' in The Tempest, ii. 2. 59.

12, 13. so much... To. See i. 4. 37, 38.

12. thy place, a double reference to Kent's rank and his then position. Ib. mistook, mistaken. See Hamlet, v. 2. 395, and Abbott, § 343. 23. upon respect, upon consideration, deliberately. Compare King John iv. 2. 214:

To know the meaning

Of dangerous majesty, when perchance it frowns
More upon humour than advised respect.'

That is, rather capriciously than deliberately. Bacon frequently uses 'upon ' in similar phrases. See Glossary to the Essays, ed. Wright. For 'respect' in the sense of consideration see Hamlet, iii. 1. 68. The common ex

.planation of the expression is entirely wrong.

24. Resolve me, satisfy my enquiries. See The Tempest, v. I. 248:

Ib. modest, moderate, well-measured, becoming. Cp. Henry VIII, iv. 1. 82 :

'At length her grace rose, and with modest paces

Came to the altar.'

Ib. which way, in what way.

iii. 1.87:

Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona,

'How and which way I may bestow myself.'

27. commend, commit, deliver. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, iii. 1. 169:

'Ask for her;

And to her white hand see thou do commend

This seal'd-up counsel.'

32. spite of intermission, in spite of interruption, that is, on the part of Kent who had the prior claim to an audience. Compare Macbeth, iv. 3. 232:

'But, gentle heavens,

Cut short all intermission!'

33. presently, immediately. See The Tempest, i. 2. 125, iv. I. 42. Ib. on whose contents, on reading the contents of which. Compare Much Ado about Nothing, iv. I. 225:

'When he shall hear she died upon his words.'

34. meiny, retinue, attendants, household. The quartos read 'men.' Compare Chaucer, Sompnoures Tale, 1. 7738 (ed. T. Wright):

'His meyné, which that herd of this affray,

Com lepand in, and chased out the frere.'

Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) gives, Mesnie: f. A meynie, familie, household, household companie, or seruants.'

Ib. straight, straightway. So Hamlet, v. I, 4 : 41. drew.

'Make her grave straight.' For the omission of the nominative see Hamlet, ii. 2. 67,

'Get weapons, ho! And raise some special officers of night.' Ib. coward, cowardly. Compare Julius Cæsar, i. 2. 122: 'His coward lips did from their colour fly.'

51. dolours.

18, 19.

The same play upon words occurs in The Tempest, ii. I.

52. tell, count, or recount; according to the sense in which 'dolours' is understood.

53. this mother ... Hysterica passio! This disorder, known to modern medical science as hysteria, is generally confined to women, and for the most part to young women. But Shakespeare found in Harsnet's Declaration of Popish Impostures, printed in 1603, the following passages which have been pointed out by Ritson and Bishop Percy. The first occurs at p. 25: Ma: Maynie had a spice of the Hysterica passio, as it seems from his youth, hee himselfe termes it the Moother (as you may see in his confession).' Master Richard Mainy, who was persuaded by the priests that he

was possessed of the devil, deposes as follows, p. 263: The disease I spake of, was a spice of the Mother, where-with I had beene troubled (as is before mentioned) before my going into Fraunce: whether I doe rightly terme it the Mother or no, I know not.' Dr. Jordan, in 1603, published A Briefe Discourse of a Disease called the Suffocation of the Mother.

58. Made... offence. Compare Measure for Measure, iv. 2. 199: 'You will think you have made no offence, if the Duke avouch the justice of your dealing.' And As You Like It, iii. 5. 117:

And faster than his tongue

Did make offence his eye did heal it up.'

So make return,' ii. 4. 146.

60. How chance? how chances it? Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, i. I. 129:

'How chance the roses there do fade so fast? And Troilus and Cressida, iii. 1. 151: How chance my brother Troilus went not?' Abbott, § 37.

64. See Proverbs vi. 6-8. The fool's maxims are 'not altogether fool.' He preaches the faithlessness of summer friends in the winter of adversity, and the keenness with which men seek and follow their self-interest, and desert one whose fortunes are falling. Compare Timon of Athens, iii. 6. 31-34: Sec. Lord. The swallow follows not summer more willing than we your lordship.

Tim. [Aside.] Nor more willingly leaves winter; such summer-birds

are men.'

Malone quotes, in illustration of 'him that's stinking,' Parolles' account of his fallen case in All's Well that Ends Well, v. 2. 4-6: But I am now, sir, muddied in fortune's mood, and smell somewhat strong of her strong displeasure!'

73. That sir which, &c. The fourth folio, followed by many modern editors, reads, "That, sir, which,' &c. But 'sir' is used by Shakespeare as a common noun, as in Othello, ii. i. 176: Which now again you are most apt to play the sir in.' And Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2. 120: 'Sole sir o' the world.' So also Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornful Lady, v. I:

'Means and manners equal

With the best cloth of silver sir i' th' kingdom.'

75. pack, be off. So in The Merchant of Venice, ii. 2. II: 'Well, the most courageous fiend bids me pack.'

79, 80. Johnson thought this passage corrupt, and proposed to amend it by transposing 'knave' and 'fool' in both lines. Capell adopted the change in the first line but not in the second. But the text requires no alteration. The Fool points out who the real fools in the world are. Coleridge said, a knave is a fool with a circumbendibus.

80. perdy, from Fr. par Dieu. See Hamlet, iii. 2. 305.

83. Deny, refuse. Compare Winter's Tale, v. 2. 139: 'You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born.'

84. all the night. The quartos read hard to night.'

Ib. fetches, devices, cunning contrivances, pretexts. See Hamlet, ii. 1. 38: And I believe it is a fetch of warrant.' Compare 2 Samuel xiv. 20, where the verb 'fetch about' occurs in the sense of bringing about by artifice: To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing.'

85. The images... flying off, the signs of rebellion and desertion.

86. Fetch. Pope reads 'Bring,' but a play upon words is intended, and Fetch' is therefore the true reading.

87. quality, nature, character. See below, line 132, and compare King John, v. 7. 8:

'It would allay the burning quality

Of that fell poison which assaileth him.' 88. unremoveable, immoveable. See Abbott, § 442. Remove' in the sense of move' was once common. Compare Psalm cxxvi, Prayer-book Version: Mount Sion, which may not be removed but standeth fast for ever." In Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 518, irremoveable' occurs in the sense of immoveable:

Resolved for flight.'

'He's irremoveable,

6

91. Fiery? what quality? The quartos have 'What fiery quality!' 97. commands her service. The folios have commands, tends, service.' 105. more headier. See ii. 2. 98 for the double comparative.

'heady' in the sense of headstrong, impetuous, see Henry V, i. I. 34: 'Never came reformation in a flood,

With such a heady currance, scouring faults.'

And 2 Timothy iii. 4, where it is the rendering of πponeteîs.

For

109. this remotion, this removal to Gloucester's castle. For the word see Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 346: All thy safety were remotion, and thy

defence absence.'

IIO. practice. See i. 2. 163.

112. presently. See above, 1. 33.

114. Till it cry sleep to death, till its clamour murders sleep. Johnson printed sleep to death' in italic, as if this were to be the cry of the drum; but in this case we should have expected the voice which haunted Macbeth, 'Sleep no more.' Steevens indeed, following Johnson, interprets the words, 'I'll beat the drum till it cries out-Let them awake no more;-Let their present sleep be their last'; but it is difficult to see how such an interpretation could be appropriate.

117. the cockney. The word has here been supposed to have the double meaning of 'cook' and 'a silly, affected person.' Steevens, after Tyrwhitt,