King Lear, page 28
6 angler fisherman/thief
7 lake of darkness presumably the Stygian lake of the classical underworld, but a phallic fishing rod and vaginal dark lake may also be implied; perhaps Nero’s murder of his own mother is glanced at—she reportedly asked to be stabbed in the womb as this was where her son had grown
10 yeoman land owner below the rank of gentleman
12 to as
13 mad sense now shifts to “angry”
15 a thousand i.e. a thousand devils
16 hizzing hissing
16 ’em them i.e. Goneril and Regan; the Quarto text continues at this point with an imaginary “arraignment” of Goneril (see “Quarto Passages That Do Not Appear in the Folio,” p. 132)
21 mar my counterfeiting spoil my pretense
23 Trey … Sweetheart names for bitches—even his female dogs, he imagines, have turned against him; their names may suggest Lear’s daughters (“tray” can mean “pain, affliction,” “blanch” can mean “to deceive,” “to flatter”)
24 throw his head unclear; presumably a threatening gesture of some sort
24 Avaunt begone
25 or black or either black or
26 poisons i.e. with rabies
27 grim fierce
28 brach bitch
28 him male
29 bobtail tyke small dog with a tail that has been bobbed (cut short)
29 trundle-tail dog with a long, curling tail
32 hatch lower half of a divided door
33 Do … de apparently the sound of chattering teeth again
33 Sessa! cry of encouragement used in hunting or may derive from the French cessez (“stop”)
33 wakes annual parish fairs (frequented by beggars)
34 horn beggars carried drinking horns on strings round their necks
35 anatomize dissect
37 entertain employ
39 Persian i.e. gorgeous, luxurious
41 curtains Lear imagines that he is in a curtained bed
48 litter vehicle containing a bed, here apparently drawn by horses
49 Dover port on the south coast
54 to … conduct i.e. hastily guide you to the necessary supplies for your journey
Act 3 Scene 7
3.7 Location: the Earl of Gloucester’s residence
1 Post travel swiftly
7 sister sister-in-law, i.e. Goneril
8 Advise counsel, urge
9 duke i.e. the Duke of Albany
9 festinate preparation hasty preparation of troops
10 posts messengers
11 intelligent possessed of information
12 lord of Gloucester Edmund’s new title (though when Oswald uses it, he refers to Edmund’s father)
17 questrists seekers
18 the lord’s i.e. Gloucester’s
25 Pinion him bind his arms
26 pass … justice issue a death sentence without a formal trial
28 do a court’sy bow, yield
31 corky withered, dry
3.7 plucks his beard a highly insulting gesture
41 white i.e. old, dignified
42 Naughty wicked
43 ravish seize forcibly, pluck
44 quicken come to life
45 hospitable favours welcoming (facial) features
46 ruffle treat roughly/snatch
48 Be simple answered answer straightforwardly
50 Late footed recently landed
52 guessingly without certain knowledge
54 opposed i.e. to the dukes
59 charged at peril commanded on peril of your life
61 tied to th’stake like a bear in the popular sport of bear-baiting
61 stand endure
61 course designated bout, during which the bear was attacked by dogs
65 anointed i.e. holy (having been anointed with holy oil at the coronation)
67 buoyed swelled, risen
68 stellèd starry
69 holp helped
69 holp … rain i.e. by weeping
70 stern cruel, unyielding
71 turn the key i.e. to let them in
72 All … subscribe i.e. in such circumstances, all other cruel people would sanction a kind action
73 wingèd vengeance i.e. vengeance of the gods
74 Fellows servants
86 shake … quarrel i.e. defy you (or “challenge you to a fight”) over this cause
86 What … mean? What do you think you are doing?
87 villain servant
88 chance of anger risk of what anger may bring (in a fight)
91 mischief on him injury done to him
95 sparks of nature warmth of natural filial affection
96 quit requite, avenge
97 Out expression of impatience and disgust
99 overture disclosure
101 abused wronged, maligned
105 How look you? How are you?
108 apace rapidly
109 Untimely at the wrong time (with war imminent)
3.7 Exeunt here the Quarto text has an additional sequence in which loyal servants apply a palliative to Gloucester’s eye sockets (see “Quarto Passages That Do Not Appear in the Folio,” p. 134)
Act 4 Scene 1
4.1 Location: somewhere out in the open, not far from the Earl of Gloucester’s residence
1 thus i.e. a beggar
1 contemned despised
2 contemned and flattered despised secretly though flattered to your face
4 esperance hope
5 The … laughter the most miserable kind of change is a decline in fortunes; when things are at their worst they can only get better
10 poorly led led by a poor man/led in a way unsuitable to his status
12 But were it not
12 mutations changes/fickleness
13 Life … age we would not accept old age
15 fourscore eighty
18 Thee … hurt i.e. you may be punished for helping me
22 means secure us wealth gives us false security, overconfidence
22 mere defects sheer deficiencies
23 Prove our commodities turn out to be benefits
24 abusèd deceived
31 is not has not yet arrived
36 reason rationality, sanity
41 wanton unruly/cruelly mischievous
44 trade course of action/practice
50 ancient love old affection
54 plague affliction
56 the rest all
57 ’pparel apparel, clothing
58 Come … will whatever may come of it
60 daub it put on a false face, pretend
68 strokes blows, afflictions
69 happier more fortunate
70 superfluous immoderate, extravagant, overindulgent
70 lust-dieted fed solely by pleasure
71 slaves your ordinance subjects your laws to his desires
72 feel empathize, feel compassion (sense then shifts to “experience”)
72 quickly soon/while he is alive/sharply
76 bending overhanging
77 confinèd channeled (between England and France)
78 brim edge
80 about me that I have on my person
Act 4 Scene 2
4.2 Location: outside Goneril and the Duke of Albany’s residence
1 my lord i.e. Edmund
4 army i.e. French army
8 ‘sot’ fool
9 turned … out turned inside out, got things the wrong way round (clothing metaphor)
13 cowish cowardly
14 undertake take action
15 tie … answer oblige him to respond
15 on the way i.e. that we expressed during the journey here
16 prove effects be fulfilled
16 brother brother-in-law, i.e. Cornwall
17 musters gathering of troops
17 conduct his powers escort his forces
18 change exchange
18 distaff spindle for weaving, common symbol of womanhood or wifeliness
20 like likely
4.2 favor love token
22 mistress ruler/lover
24 thy Goneril starts to use the more intimate pronoun to Edmund
24 spirits plays on sense of “penis”
25 conceive understand/imagine (with procreative connotations)
26 death plays on sense of “orgasm”
29 services sexual services
30 fool i.e. Albany
30 usurps wrongfully possesses
32 worth the whistle worth looking for (from the proverb “it is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling”)
33 Goneril … face the Quarto text has a longer dialogue in which Albany berates Goneril (see “Quarto Passages That Do Not Appear in the Folio,” p. 135)
34 rude rough
36 Milk-livered pale-livered, cowardly (cowardice was associated with lack of blood in the liver and milk with women)
38 discerning … suffering that can distinguish between what may be honorably tolerated from what must not be endured
41 Proper … woman deformity does not seem as abhorrent in a devil (to whom it is appropriate) as it does in a woman
43 vain stupid/worthless
48 bred brought up in his household
48 thrilled pierced, moved
48 remorse pity (for Gloucester)
49 Opposed opposed himself
49 bending aiming, directing
50 threat-enraged enraged by the threat
53 after i.e. to death
55 justices (divine) judges
55 nether earthly
56 venge avenge, punish
63 all … life demolish the dream (of having Edmund) that I have constructed, leaving me with the life I hate
65 tart sour
69 back going back
4.3 Location: the French camp, near Dover. The Quarto text precedes this scene with another one in which Kent and a Gentleman discuss the French king’s return to France and Cordelia’s concern for her father (see “Quarto Passages That Do Not Appear in the Folio,” pp. 137–39)
Act 4 Scene 3
4.3 Colours military banners
2 vexed angry, turbulent
3 rank fumiter abundant fumitory (a vigorously growing weed)
3 furrow weeds weeds that grow in the furrows of plowed fields
4 burdocks weeds with prickly flower heads or burs
4 hemlock plant producing a potentially lethal sedative
4 cuckoo-flowers name given to various wildflowers growing when the cuckoo calls (i.e. May/June)
5 Darnel type of grass that grows as a weed among corn
5 idle useless
8 What … wisdom what can human knowledge do
9 bereavèd stolen, lost
10 outward worth worldly goods
12 repose rest, sleep
13 that … operative there are many effective medicinal herbs that can induce that in him
17 unpublished virtues secret powers (of herbs)
18 aidant helpful
18 remediate remedial, healing
20 rage frenzy
21 wants the means i.e. lacks the sanity
24 preparation equipped military force
27 France i.e. the King of France
28 importuned importunate, pressing
29 blown swollen with pride/corrupt
Act 4 Scene 4
4.4 Location: the Earl of Gloucester’s residence
4 ado fuss
8 import mean, contain
10 posted hurried
11 ignorance folly
15 nighted darkened (literally, and in terms of his fortunes)
15 descry discover
17 after go after
19 ways roads
21 charged my duty swore me to obedience
23 Belike perhaps/probably
24 I’ll love thee Regan switches to the familiar thee to cajole him—love implies the promise of favors, sexual or otherwise
29 oeillades amorous glances
29 speaking eloquent
30 of her bosom in her confidence/sexually intimate
32 Y’are ye (you) are
33 take this note note this well
35 convenient fitting
36 gather more infer the rest
39 call … her have more sense
43 meet i.e. meet him
Act 4 Scene 5
4.5 Location: somewhere out in the open, near Dover
1 that same hill the hill I mentioned (i.e. the cliff Gloucester described at the end of Act 4 Scene 1)
11 phrase and matter style and sense
17 choughs jackdaws or other birds of the crow family
17 wing fly across
17 midway i.e. middle regions of
18 gross large
19 samphire aromatic plant used in pickling; it was picked from cliffs by men suspended on ropes
22 yond yonder, that
22 bark small ship
23 her cock (the size of) her cock boat, a small boat towed behind a ship
25 th’unnumbered idle pebble countless insignificant pebbles
27 the deficient my defective
28 Topple topple me
32 leap upright jump up in the air
34 Here, friend’s here, friend, is
36 Prosper it cause it to prosper
40 trifle play
46 opposeless irresistible
47 My … nature the smoldering wick and hated remains of my life
51 conceit imagination
53 Yields submits willingly
54 this this time, now
56 pass die
57 What who (Edgar adopts another persona)
59 aught anything
60 precipitating falling headlong
61 shivered shattered
63 at each end to end
67 bourn boundary (between land and sea)
68 a-height on high
68 shrill-gorged shrill-throated
73 beguile cheat
84 whelked twisted
85 fiend i.e. tempting him to the sin of suicide
85 happy father fortunate old man (father was a form of address for an elderly man, though Edgar plays with the literal sense)
86 clearest brightest, purest
86 make … impossibilities acquire honor for themselves by performing things that are impossible in the human world
93 free untroubled
94 The … thus were he (Lear) in his right mind, he would never permit himself to dress like this (or possibly “Gloucester’s senses will not be able to withstand seeing his master like this”)
96 touch accuse, blame/lay hands on
100 press-money money paid to military recruits when they were conscripted (Lear seems to imagine he is recruiting an army)
100 crow-keeper scarecrow/person employed to scare crows from the crops
101 Draw … yard draw your bow to its fullest extent (the length of a longbow’s arrow, which, at about thirty-six inches, was the same as the length of a cloth-seller’s measuring rod)
102 gauntlet armored glove thrown down as a challenge to a duel
103 prove it on make good my cause against
103 brown bills long-handled weapons, painted or varnished brown and topped with axe-like blades; or soldiers carrying such weapons
103 well flown, bird the language of falconry, here used to describe an arrow’s flight
104 I’th’clout cloth at the center of an archer’s target
104 hewgh perhaps Lear imitates the sound of the arrow as it flies through the air or hits the target
104 word password (continues Lear’s military fantasy)
105 Sweet marjoram Edgar invents a password that relates to Lear’s headgear and to the plant’s alleged medicinal properties in treating brain disorders
109 like a dog i.e. as if they were fawning dogs
109 had … there i.e. was wise even while I was still a child
111 divinity theology
112 me i.e. my teeth
113 peace be still
116 ague-proof immune to fever and shivering
117 trick characteristic, individual quality
121 cause charge, offense
124 goes to’t does it, has sex
125 lecher fornicate
127 got begot, conceived
128 luxury lechery, lust
128 for … soldiers i.e. more sex means more children to man his army
130 between … snow forecasts frigidity between her legs
131 minces virtue affects chastity
131 shake the head i.e. in disapproval
133 fitchew polecat/prostitute
133 soilèd fed with green fodder, so lively, skittish
134 riotous unrestrained, lustful
135 centaurs mythical creatures that were human above the waist and horse below; reputed to be lustful
136 But … girdle only as far as the waist
136 inherit possess, have power over
138 hell slang term for the vagina
138 sulphurous suggests both hell and syphilis
139 burning … consumption alludes to painful syphilitic burning, odor and decay (consumption)
140 civet perfume
140 apothecary person who prepared and sold drugs, spices, perfumes etc.
143 mortality being human/death
145 so similarly
147 squinny squint
147 Cupid Roman god of love, traditionally depicted as blind or blindfolded
148 challenge written challenge to a duel
148 penning style/handwriting
150 take … report believe it if I heard it reported
153 case sockets
155 heavy case sorrowful predicament
157 feelingly literally, through touch/with great emotion
159 justice judge
160 simple humble
161 handy-dandy take your pick (from the child’s game of guessing which clenched hand contains something)
165 a … office given authority, even a dog will be obeyed
167 beadle parish officer, responsible for punishing thieves, prostitutes, and vagabonds
169 use employ sexually
169 kind manner
170 usurer moneylender, notorious for charging excessively high interest
170 cozener cheat
172 Place … gold i.e. when sins are committed by the rich
173 hurtless harmlessly
174 it i.e. sin
175 able ’em authorize them
178 scurvy politician despicable schemer
179 Now … now perhaps comforting Gloucester, perhaps distracted by his boots
