Note return to page 1 The vague, mythological period of pre-history in which KING LEAR is set tended to baffle the Victorian taste for minute antiquarian accuracy in stage design, a taste recorded most vividly by the acting editions of Charles Kean. Kean's production of KING LEAR, first performed in 1858, used, as this edition shows, a heavily-cut text similar to Macready's, its abbreviation partly required to make room for Kean's pictorial designs, which set the play, as his notes explain, in the Anglo- Saxon times of the ninth century.

Note return to page 2 1Handsome.

Note return to page 3 2About a year.

Note return to page 4 3&lblank; out nine years,] absent nine years.

Note return to page 5 4Id est., we will discover the reason (not yet communicated and therefore dark) by which we shall regulate the partition of the kingdom.

Note return to page 6 5Determined resolution.

Note return to page 7 6A determination.

Note return to page 8 7Beyond all assignable quantity. I love you beyond limits.

Note return to page 9 8Made happy.

Note return to page 10 9Value.

Note return to page 11 10From the French verb, interesser.

Note return to page 12 11Perhaps.

Note return to page 13 12Unkind.

Note return to page 14 13From this time.

Note return to page 15 14Titles.

Note return to page 16 15All the other business.

Note return to page 17 16Id est., I never regarded my life as my own, but merely as a thing of which I had the possession, not the property; and which was entrusted to me as a pawn or pledge, to be employed in waging war against your enemies.

Note return to page 18 17Pride exorbitant—passing due bounds.

Note return to page 19 18Our power to execute that sentence.

Note return to page 20 19In the full power of our authority.

Note return to page 21 20Follow his old mode of life—he will continue to act upon the same principles.

Note return to page 22 21Specious.

Note return to page 23 22Election comes not to a decision.

Note return to page 24 23To turn.

Note return to page 25 24Is it no more than this?

Note return to page 26 25Thou losest this residence to find a better residence in another place. Here and where have the power of nouns.

Note return to page 27 26Blessing.

Note return to page 28 27Cunning thinly concealed—thinly spread over.

Note return to page 29 28In allusion to his birth as a natural son.

Note return to page 30 29Wherefore should I submit tamely to the plagues and injustice of custom.

Note return to page 31 30The over nice scrupulousness.

Note return to page 32 31To disinherit.

Note return to page 33 32To subscribe is to transfer.

Note return to page 34 33Exhibition is allowance.

Note return to page 35 34Done upon the gad!] viz., to act upon the sudden stimulation of caprice, as cattle run madding when they are stung by the gad fly. —Johnson. “Gad” also means an iron bar; and some commentators suppose that the expression is analogous to the phrase “strike the iron while it is hot.”

Note return to page 36 35&lblank; taste of my virtue.] Id est, a test, trial, or proof of my virtue.

Note return to page 37 36Idle and weak bondage.

Note return to page 38 37&lblank; to converse] to keep company.

Note return to page 39 38Since my young lady's going into France, Sir, the Fool hath much pined away.] This is an endearing circumstance in the Fool's character, and creates such an interest in his favour, as his wit alone might have failed to procure for him. —Steevens.

Note return to page 40 39&lblank; take my coxcomb:] Meaning his cap, called so, because on the top of the fool or jester's cap was sewed a piece of red cloth, resembling the comb of a cock. The word, afterwards, was used to denote a vain, conceited, meddling fellow. —Warburton.

Note return to page 41 40In allusion to the frontlet, which was anciently part of a woman's dress, to which Lear compares her frowning brows.

Note return to page 42 41To promote—push it forward.

Note return to page 43 42&lblank; allowance,] approbation.

Note return to page 44 43&lblank; fraught;] stored.

Note return to page 45 44&lblank; favour] complexion.

Note return to page 46 45The sea-monster is supposed to be the Hippopotamus, the hieroglyphical symbol of impiety and ingratitude.

Note return to page 47 46&lblank; engine,] the instrument of torture called the rack.

Note return to page 48 47&lblank; untented]—undressed.

Note return to page 49 48Derogate for degraded.—blasted.

Note return to page 50 49&lblank; disnatur'd] wanting in natural affection.

Note return to page 51 50&lblank; cadent tears] falling tears.

Note return to page 52 51&lblank; pains, and benefits,] pains and good offices which Goneril, as a mother, bestows upon her child.

Note return to page 53 31100001[A] (A) Enter King Lear.] Shakespeare found the story of King Lear in his favourite historian Holinshed, who had abridged it from the chronicles of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Holinshed relates as follows:— “Leir, the son of Bladud, was admitted ruler over the Britains in the year of the world 3105. At what time Joas reigned as yet in Juda. This Leir was a prince of noble demeanour, governing his land and subjects in great wealth. He made the town of Cairleir, now called Leicester, which standeth upon the river of Dore. It is writ that he had by his wife three daughters, without other issue, whose names were Gonorilla, Regan, and Cordilla, which daughters he greatly loved, but especially the youngest, Cordilla, far above the two elder. “When this Leir was come to great years, and began to wear unwieldy through age, he thought to understand the affections of his daughters towards him, and prefer her whom he best loved to the succession of the kingdom; therefore, he first asked Gonorilla, the eldest, how well she loved him: the which, calling her gods to record, protested that she loved him more than her own life, which by right and reason should be most dear unto her; with which answer the father, being well pleased, turned to the second, and demanded of her how well she loved him? which answered (confirming her sayings with great oaths) that she loved him more than tongue can express, and far above all other creatures in the world. “Then called he his youngest daughter, Cordilla, before him, and asked of her what account she made of him: unto whom she made this answer as followeth:—Knowing the great love and fatherly zeal you have always borne towards me (for the which, that I may not answer you otherwise than I think, and as my conscience leadeth me), I protest to you that I have always loved you, and shall continually while I live, love you as my natural father; and if you would more understand of the love that I bear you, ascertain yourself, that so much as you have, so much you are worth, and so much I love you, and no more. “The father being nothing content with this answer, married the two eldest daughters, the one unto the duke of Cornwall, named Henninus, and the other unto the duke of Albania, called Maglianus; and betwixt them, after his death he willed and ordained his land should be divided, and the one-half thereof should be immediately assigned unto them in hand; but for the third daughter, Cordilla, he reserved nothing. “Yet it fortuned that one of the princes of Gallia (which is now called France), whose name was Aganippus, hearing of the beauty, womanhood, and good conditions of the said Cordilla, desired to have her in marriage, and sent over to her father, requiring that he might have her to wife; to whom answer was made, that he might have his daughter, but for any dowry he could have none, for all was promised and assured to her other sisters already. “Aganippus, notwithstanding this answer of denial to receive anything by way of dower with Cordilla, took her to wife, only moved thereto (I say) for respect of her person and amiable virtues. This Aganippus was one of the twelve kings that ruled Gallia in those days, as in the British history it is recorded. But to proceed; after that Leir was fallen into age, the two dukes that had married his two eldest daughters, thinking it long ere the government of the land did come to their hands, arose against him in armour, and reft from him the governance of the land, upon conditions to be continued for term of life: by the which he was put to his portion; that is, to live after a rate assigned to him for the maintenance of his estate, which in process of time was diminished, as well by Maglianus as by Henninus. “But the greatest grief that Leir took was to see the unkindness of his daughters, who seemed to think that all was too much which their father had, the same being never so little, in so much that, going from the one to the other, he was brought to that misery that they would allow him only one servant to wait upon him. In the end, such was the unkindness, or, as I may say, the unnaturalness, which he found in his two daughters, notwithstanding their fair and pleasant words uttered in time past, that, being constrained of necessity, he fled the land, and sailed into Gallia, there to seek some comfort of his youngest daughter, Cordilla, whom before he hated. “The lady Cordilla, hearing he was arrived in poor estate, she first sent to him privately a sum of money to apparel himself withall, and to retain a certain number of servants, that might attend upon him in honourable wise, as apperteyned to the estate which he had borne. And then, so accompanyed, she appointed him to come to the court, which he did, and was so joyfully, honorably, and lovingly received, both by his son-in-law Aganippus, and also by his daughter Cordilla, that his heart was greatly comforted: for he was no less honoured than if he had been king of the whole country himself. Also, after that he had informed his son-in-law and his daughter in what sort he had been used by his other daughters, Aganippus caused a mighty army to be put in readiness, and likewise a great navy of ships to be rigged to pass over into Britain, with Leir his father-in-law, to see him again restored to his kingdom. “It was accorded that Cordilla should also go with him to take possession of the land, the which he promised to leave unto her, as his rightful inheritor after his decease, notwithstanding any former grants made unto her sisters, or unto their husbands, in any manner of wise; hereupon, when this army and navy of ships were ready, Leir and his daughter Cordilla, with her husband, took the sea, and arriving in Britain, fought with their enemies, and discomforted them in battle, in the which Maglianus and Henninus were slain, and then was Leir restored to his kingdom, which he ruled after this by the space of two years, and then died, forty years after he first began to reign. His body was buried at Leicester, in a vault under the channel of the river Dore, beneath the town.” Holinshed further narrates that Cordelia became queen after her father's death; but her nephews “levied war against her, and destroyed a great part of the land, and finally took her prisoner, and laid her fast in ward, wherewith she took such grief, being a woman of manly courage, and despairing to recover liberty, there she slew herself.”

Note return to page 54 31100002[B] (B) &lblank; Sword bearer.] The King was seated on his throne, habited in his robes of state, a crown on his head, and a sceptre in his hand; on his left hand appears his sword bearer, who was fully armed, and is generally represented standing. —Strutt's Saxon Antiquities, vol. 1. The handles of the swords of state were made of gold, and embellished with precious stones. The sheath in which the sword was contained, and its girdle or belt by which it was attached to the side, were also ornamented in the same splendid manner. —Strutt's Habits of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. 1.

Note return to page 55 31100003[C] (C) &lblank; Musicians.] The musical instruments principally in use among the Anglo-Saxons were the harp, the psaltry, violin, horn, trumpet, and a peculiar war trumpet, very long, called cornicinus. They played on two flutes (like the Romans), and this they accompanied with a lyre of four strings, which was beat with a small instrument for this purpose. The harp, however, was the national instrument. —Vide Strutt.

Note return to page 56 31100004[D] (D) &lblank; and to eat no fish.] In Queen Elizabeth's time the Papists were esteemed, and with good reason, enemies to the government. Hence the proverbial phrase of, He's an honest man, and eats no fish; to signify he's a friend to the government, and a Protestant. The eating fish, on a religious account, being then esteemed such a badge of popery, that when it was enjoined for a season, by Act of Parliament, for the encouragement of the fish-towns, it was thought necessary to declare the reason; hence it was called Cecil's fast. To this disgraceful badge of popery Fletcher alludes in his Woman-hater, who makes the courtezan say, when Lazarillo, in search of the umbrano's head, was seized at her house by the intelligencers of a traytor: “Gentlemen, I am glad you have discovered him. He should not have eaten under my roof for twenty pounds. And sure I did not like him when he called for fish.” And Marston's Dutch Courtezan: “I trust I am none of the wicked that cat fish a Fridays.” —Warburton.

Note return to page 57 31100005[E] (E) Enter Fool.] The fool in this play is the genuine domestic buffoon; but notwithstanding his sarcastical flashes of wit, for which we must give the poet credit, and ascribe them in some degree to what is called stage effect, he is a mere natural, with a considerable share of cunning. Thus Edgar calls him an innocent, and every one will immediately distinguish him from such a character as Touchstone. His dress on the stage should be particoloured; his hood crested either with a cock's comb, to which he often alludes, or with the cock's head and neck. His bauble should have a head like his own, with a grinning countenance, for the purpose of exciting mirth in those to whom he occasionally presents it. The kindness which Lear manifests towards his fool, and the latter's extreme familiarity with his master in the midst of the most poignant grief and affliction, may excite surprise in those who are not intimately acquainted with the simple manners of our forefathers. An almost contemporary writer has preserved to us a curious anecdote of William duke of Normandy, afterwards William I. of England, whose life was saved by the attachment and address of his fool. An ancient Flemish chronicle among the royal MSS. in the British Musuem, 16, F. iii., commences with the exile of Salvard Lord of Roussillon and his family from Burgundy. In passing through a forest they are attacked by a cruel giant, who kills Salvard and several of his people; his wife Emergard and a few others only escaping. This scene the illuminator of the manuscript, which is of the fifteenth century, has chosen to exhibit. He has represented Emergard as driven away in a covered cart or waggon by one of the servants. She is attended by a female, and in the front of the cart is placed her fool, with a countenance expressive of the utmost alarm at the impending danger. Nor would it be difficult to adduce, it necessary, similar instances of the reciprocal affection between these singular personages and those who retained them. —Douce. Shakepeare's fools are certainly copied from the life. The originals whom he copied were, no doubt, men of quick parts— lively and sarcastic. Though they were licensed to say anything, it was still necessary to prevent giving offence, that everything they said should have a playful air; we may suppose, therefore, that they had a custom of taking off the edge of too sharp a speech by covering it hastily with the end of an old song, or any 'glib nonsense that came into the mind. I know no other way of accounting for the incoherent words with which Shakespeare often finishes his fool's speeches. —Sir Joshua Reynolds. In a very old dramatic piece, entitled, A very merry and pythic Comedy, called, The longer thou livest, the more fool thou art, printed about the year 1580, we find the following stage direction:—“Entreth Moros, counterfeiting a vaine gesture and a foolish countenance, synging the foote of many songs, as fools were wont.” —Malone.

Note return to page 58 1&lblank; queazy question,] Delicate question.

Note return to page 59 2The meaning is, have you said nothing upon the party formed by him against the duke of Albany?

Note return to page 60 3Advise yourself.] Consider—recollect yourself.

Note return to page 61 4&lblank; Capable.] Id est., capable of succeeding to my land, notwithstanding the legal ban of thy illegitimacy.

Note return to page 62 5Id est., discovered—betrayed his wicked purpose.

Note return to page 63 6Not at home, but at some other place.

Note return to page 64 7&lblank; addition.] Titles.

Note return to page 65 8&lblank; barber-monger,] A fop who deals much with barbers.

Note return to page 66 9&lblank; unbolted villain] This coarse—unrefined villain.

Note return to page 67 10&lblank; fleshment]—A young soldier is said to flesh his sword the first time he draws blood with it. The word is used here in a sarcastic sense.

Note return to page 68 11Formerly, in great houses, there were moveable stocks for the correction of the servants.

Note return to page 69 12&lblank; saw!] Saying or proverb.

Note return to page 70 13Cordelia having heard the reports of approaching civil war, and having also discovered the situation and fidelity of Kent, writes to inform him, that she should avail herself of the first opportunity which the enormities of the times might offer, of restoring him to her father's favour, and her father to his kingdom.

Note return to page 71 14Hair thus knotted was supposed to be the work of elves and fairies in the night.

Note return to page 72 15&lblank; pelting] petty.

Note return to page 73 16&lblank; lunatic bans,]—id. est., curses.

Note return to page 74 17As poor Tom I may exist;—appearing as Edgar I am lost.

Note return to page 75 18Lear is musing on Cordelia.

Note return to page 76 19If this be their behaviour, the king's troubles are not yet an end.

Note return to page 77 20&lblank; remotion] removing from their own house to that of the Earl of Gloster.

Note return to page 78 21Practice in Shakespeare's time was commonly used in an ill sense for unlawful artifice.

Note return to page 79 22A burst of dramatic passion, meaning— Let them awake no more; Let their present sleep be their last.

Note return to page 80 23&lblank; scant her duty.] Be wanting in her duty.

Note return to page 81 24&lblank; house.] The order of families—duties of relation. Lear is speaking of himself as the head of the house.

Note return to page 82 25&lblank; tender-hested nature] id. est., whose bosom is agitated by tender passions. Shakespeare uses hests for heavings.

Note return to page 83 26Allow] approve.

Note return to page 84 27&lblank; finds,] thinks.

Note return to page 85 28To wage] or make war.

Note return to page 86 29&lblank; flaws,] small broken particles.

Note return to page 87 31100006[A] (A) Exterior of the Earl of Gloster's Castle.] We find that, anciently, the Anglo-Saxons used to fortify their camps much on the same plan with the camps of the Romans, setting thick rows of pallisadoes, or strong stakes on the vallums of earth. Ella, first King of Deira, a division of Northumberland, built the castle of Bamborough with strong wooden pales, which Ida, soon after (according to the Scala Chronica), caused to be walled round with stone: and Old Bale, in Yorkshire (according to Camden), was first fortified with thick planks of wood, 18 feet in length, but was afterwards encompassed about with a wall of stone. —Strutt's Antiquities, vol. 1.

Note return to page 88 31100007[B] (B) Of Bedlam beggars,] Randle Holme, in his Academy of Arms and Blazon, B. III. c. 3, has the following passage descriptive of this class of vagabonds:—“The Bedlam is in the same garb, with a long staff, and a cow or ox-horn by his side; but his cloathing is more fantastick and ridiculous; for, being a madman, he is madly decked and dressed all over with ribbons, feathers, cuttings of cloth, and what not, to make him seem a mad-man, or one distracted, when he is no other than a dissembling knave.” In The Bell-man of London, by Decker, 5th edit. 1640, is another account of one of these characters, under the title of an Abraham-Man: “&lblank; 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.” Again, in O per se O, &c. Being an Addition, &c., to the Bellman's Second Night-walke, &c. 1612: “Crackers tyed to a dogges tayle make not the poore curre runne faster, than these Abram ninnies doe the silly villagers of the country, so that when they come to any doore a begging, nothing is denied them.” To sham Abraham, a cant term, still in use among sailors and the vulgar, may have this origin. —Steevens.

Note return to page 89 31100008[C] (C) In the fourteenth century there was a new species of gipsies, called Turlupins, a fraternity of naked beggars, which ran up and down Europe. However the church of Rome hath dignified them with the name of hereticks, and actually burned some of them at Paris.

Note return to page 90 31100009[D] (D) O, how this mother, &c.] Lear here affects to pass off the swelling of his heart ready to burst with grief and indignation, for the disease called the Mother or Hysterica Passio, which, in our author's time, was not thought peculiar to women only. In Harsnet's Declaration of Popish Impostures, Richard Mainy, Gent., one of the pretended demoniacks, deposes, p. 263, that the first night that he came to Denham, the seat of Mr. Peckham, where these impostures were managed, he was somewhat evill at ease, and he grew worse and worse with an old disease that he had, and which the priests persuaded him was from the possession of the devil, viz., “The disease, I spake of was a spice of the Mother, wherewith I had bene troubled ... before my going into Fraunce: whether I doe rightly term it the Mother or no, I knowe not.... When I was sicke of this disease in Fraunce, a Scottish doctor of physick then in Paris, called it, as I remember Vertiginem Capilis. It riseth ... of a winde in the bottome of the belly, and proceeding with a great swelling, causeth a very painfull collicke in the stomack, and an extraordinary giddines in the head.” It is at least very probable, that Shakespeare would not have thought of making Lear affect to have the Hysterick Passion, or Mother, if this passage in Harsnet's pamphlet had not suggested it to him, when he was selecting the other particulars from it, in order to furnish out his character of Tom of Bedlam, to whom this demoniacal gibberish is admirably adapted. —Percy.

Note return to page 91 1&lblank; fretful element:] The air.

Note return to page 92 2&lblank; the main,] The main land, the continent. Lear wishes for the destruction of the world, either by the winds blowing the land into the waters, or raising the waters so as to overwhelm land.

Note return to page 93 3&lblank; warrant of my art,] id est, on the strength of my skill in physiognomy.

Note return to page 94 4&lblank; to plain.] To complain of.

Note return to page 95 5As fear not but you shall] as doubt not but you shall.

Note return to page 96 6&lblank; your fellow is] your companion is.

Note return to page 97 7&lblank; thought-executing] doing execution with the rapidity of thought.

Note return to page 98 8Vaunt-couriers] avant couriers.

Note return to page 99 9&lblank; all germens spill at once,] id est, destroy all the seeds of matter that are hoarded within the mould of nature.

Note return to page 100 10&lblank; subscription,] obedience.

Note return to page 101 11&lblank; O! 'tis foul!] shameful, dishonorable.

Note return to page 102 12&lblank; pother] blustering noise.

Note return to page 103 13Under covert and convenient seeming, means, appearance suitable to a design such as may promote his purpose to destroy.

Note return to page 104 14&lblank; concealing continents,] continent stands for that which contains or incloses.

Note return to page 105 15&lblank; dreadful summoners grace.] Summoners are here the officers that summon offenders before a proper tribunal; grace is favor.

Note return to page 106 16Part of the Clown's song in Twelfth-Night.

Note return to page 107 17&lblank; footed:] landed.

Note return to page 108 18&lblank; go first.] This is intended to represent that humility or tenderness, or neglect of forms, which affliction forces on the mind.

Note return to page 109 19Your loop'd and window'd raggedness,] Loop'd is full of small apertures, id est., your tattered garments.

Note return to page 110 20Edgar gives the sign used by those who are sounding the depth of the sea.

Note return to page 111 21&lblank; through fire and through flame,] Alluding to the ignis fatuus, supposed to be lights, kindled by mischievous beings, to lead travellers into destruction.

Note return to page 112 22Bless thy five wits!] Five senses.

Note return to page 113 23To take is to blast, or strike with malignant influence.

Note return to page 114 24&lblank; pelican daughters.] The young pelican is fabled to suck the mother's blood.

Note return to page 115 25Pillicock &lblank;] The name of a devil.

Note return to page 116 26&lblank; wore gloves in my cap,] id est, his mistress's favours, which was the fashion of that time.

Note return to page 117 27&lblank; light of ear,] credulous of evil, ready to receive malicious reports.

Note return to page 118 28 Smolkin, the name of a spirit.

Note return to page 119 29Rabelais, B. 11, Ch. 30, says, that Nero was a fidler in hell, and Trajan an angler.

Note return to page 120 30&lblank; pray, innocent,] this is addressed to the Fool, who were anciently called innocents.

Note return to page 121 31&lblank; brache, or lym;] brache is a scenting dog, such as a lurcher or beagle, or any fine-nosed hound. Lym is a bloodhound.

Note return to page 122 32Bob-tail tike,] tike is the Runick word for a little, worthless dog.

Note return to page 123 33&lblank; trundle tail;] a common cur.

Note return to page 124 34The prince of darkness is a gentleman;] this is spoken in resentment of what Gloster has just said:—“Has your grace no better company?”

Note return to page 125 35Child Rowland] Child is an old term for knight, and frequently occurs in the relics of ancient English poetry.

Note return to page 126 31100010[A] (A) Alack, bare-headed!] Kent's faithful attendance on the old king, as well as that of Perillus, in the old play which preceded Shakespeare's, is founded on an historical fact. Lear, says Geoffery of Monmouth, “when he betook himself to his youngest daughter in Gaul, waited before the city where she resided, while he sent a messenger to inform her of the misery he was fallen into, and to desire her relief to a father that suffered both hunger and nakedness. Cordeilla was startled at the news, and wept bitterly, and with tears asked him, how many men her father had with him. The messenger answered he had none but one man, who had been his armour-bearer, and was staying with him without the town. —Malone.

Note return to page 127 31100011[B] (B) &lblank; knives under his pillow,] Temptations by which Edgar was prompted to suicide. The opportunities of destroying himself, which often occurred to him in his melancholy. Shakespeare found this charge against the fiend, with many others of the same nature, in Harsnet's declaration. The passage in Harsnet's book which Shakespeare had in view, is this:— “This Examt. further sayth, that one Alexander, an apothecarie, having brought with him from London to Denham on a time a new halter, and two blades of knives, did leave the same upon the gallerie floore, in her maisters house.—A great search was made in the house to know how the said halter and knife-blades came thither,—till Ma. Mainy, in his next fit said, it was reported that the devil layd them in the gallerie, that some of those that were possessed, might either hang themselves with the halter, or kill themselves with the blades.” The kind of temptation which the fiend is described as holding out to the unfortunate, might also have been suggested by the story of Cordila, in The Mirrour for Magistrates, 1575, where Despaire visits her in prison, and shows her various instruments by which she may rid herself of life: “And there withall she spred her garments lap assyde, “Under the which a thousand things I sawe with eyes; “Both knives, sharpe swords, poynadoes all bedyde “With bloud, and poysons prest, which she could well devise.” —Malone.

Note return to page 128 31100012[C] (C) &lblank; proud in heart and mind; that curl'd my hair, &c.] “Then Ma. Mainy, by the instigation of the first of the seaven [spirits], began to set his hands unto his side, curled his hair, and used such gestures, as Ma. Edmunds [the exorcist] presently affirmed that that spirit was Pride. Herewith he began to curse and banne, saying, What do I here? I will stay no longer among a company of rascal priests, but go to the court, and brave it amongst my fellows, the noblemen there assembled.” —Harsnet's Declaration, &c., 1603. “&lblank; shortly after they [the seven spirits] were all cast forth, and in such manner as Ma. Edmunds directed them, which was, that every devil should depart in some certaine forme representing either a beast or some other creature, that had the resemblance of that sinne whereof he was the chief author: whereupon the spirit of pride departed in the forme of a peacock: the spirit of sloth in the likeness of an asse; the spirit of envie in the similitude of a dog; the spirit of gluttony in the form of a wolfe, and the other devils had also in their departure their particular likenesses agreeable to their natures.” —Malone.

Note return to page 129 31100013[D] (D) &lblank; Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, &c.] The Jesuits pretended to cast the seven deadly sins out of Mainy in the shape of those animals that represented them; and before each was cast out, Mainy by gestures acted that particular sin; curling his hair to show pride, vomiting for gluttony, gaping and snoring for sloth, &c.—Harsnet's book, pp. 279, 280, &c. To this probably our author alludes. —Steevens.

Note return to page 130 31100014[E] (E) &lblank; Hey no nonny.] Hey no nonny is the burthen of a ballad in The Two Noble Kinsmen, (said to be written by Shakspeare, in conjunction with Fletcher,) and was probably common to many others. The folio introduces it into one of Ophelia's songs:— “Dolphin, my boy, my boy,   “Cease, let him trot by; “It seemeth not that such a foe   “From me or you would fly.” This is a stanza from a very old ballad written on some battle fought in France, during which the King, unwilling to put the suspected valour of his son the Dauphin, i.e., Dolphin, (so called and spelt at those times,) to the trial, is represented as desirous to restrain him from any attempt to establish an opinion of his courage on an adversary who wears the least appearance of strength; and at last assists in propping up a dead body against a tree for him to try his manhood upon. Therefore, as different champions are supposed to cross the field, the King always discovers some objection to his attacking each of them, and repeats these two lines as every fresh personage is introduced: Dolphin, my boy, my boy, &c. The song I have never seen, but had this account from an old gentleman, who was only able to repeat part of it, and died before I could have supposed the discovery would have been of the least importance to me. Sessa, from the French word cessez, cease. —Steevens.

Note return to page 131 31100015[F] (F) &lblank; whipped from tything to tything,] A tything is a division of a place, a district; the same in the country, as a ward in the city. In the Saxon times every hundred was divided into tythings. Edgar alludes to the acts of Queen Elizabeth and James I. against rogues, vagabonds, &c. In the Stat. 39 Eliz. ch. 4, it is enacted, that every vagabond, &c., shall be publickly whipped and sent from parish to parish. —Steevens.

Note return to page 132 31100016[G] (G) But mice, and rats, and such small deer, Have been Tom's food for seven long year.] This distich is part of a description given in the old metrical romance of Sir Bevis, of the hardships suffered by Bevis, when confined for seven years in a dungeon: “Rattes and myce and such small dere “Was his meate that seven yere.” Sig. F. iij. —Percy.

Note return to page 133 31100017[H] (H) &lblank; thy horn is dry.] Men that begged under pretence of lunacy used formerly to carry a horn, and blow it through the streets. —Johnson. A horn is at this day employed in many places in the country as a cup for drinking, but anciently the use of it was much more general. Thy horn is dry, however, appears to be a proverbial expression, introduced when a man has nothing further to offer, when he has said all he had to say. Such a one's pipe's out, is a phrase current in Ireland on the same occasion. I suppose Edgar to speak these words aside. Being quite weary of his Tom o'Bedlam's part, and finding himself unable to support it any longer, he says privately, “—I can no more: all my materials for sustaining the character of Poor Tom are now exhausted; my horn is dry: i.e., has nothing more in it; and accordingly we have no more of his dissembled madness till he meets his father in the next Act, when he resumes it for a speech or two, but not without expressing the same dislike of it that he expresses here, ‘—I cannot daub it further.’” —Steevens.

Note return to page 134 31100018[I] (I) &lblank; Flibbertigibbet:] “Frateretto, Fliberdigibet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto, were four devils of the round or morrice......These four had forty assistants under them, as themselves doe confesse.” Harsnet, p. 49. —Percy.

Note return to page 135 31100019[K] (K) &lblank; he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock;] It is an old tradition that spirits were relieved from the confinement in which they were held during the day, at the time of curfew, that is, at the close of day, and were permitted to wander at large till the first cock-crowing. —Malone.

Note return to page 136 31100020[L] (L) Saint Withold footed thrice the wold] Saint Withold traversing the wold or downs, met the nightmare; who having told her name, he obliged her to alight from those persons whom she rides, and plight her troth to do no more mischief. This is taken from a story of him in his legend. Hence he was invoked as the patron saint against that distemper. And these verses were no other than a popular charm, or night-spell against the Epialtes. The last line is the formal execration or apostrophe of the speaker of the charm to the witch, aroynt thee right, i.e., depart forthwith. Bedlams, gipsies, and such like vagabonds, used to sell these kinds of spells or charms to the people. They were of various kinds for various disorders, and addressed to various saints. We have another of them in the Monsieur Thomas of Fletcher, which he expressly calls a night-spell, and is in these words: “Saint George, Saint George, our lady's knight, “He walks by day, so he does by night: “And when he had her found, “He her beat and her bound; “Until to him her troth she plight, “She would not stir from him that night.” —Warburton.

Note return to page 137 31100021[M] (M) Modo he's call'd, and Mahu.] So, in Harsnet's Declaration, Maho was the chief devil that had possession of Sarah Williams; but another of the possessed, named Richard Mainy, was molested by a still more considerable fiend called Modu. See the book already mentioned, p. 268, where the said Richard Mainy deposes: “Furthermore it is pretended,... that there remaineth still in mee the prince of all other devils, whose name should be Modu.” He is elsewhere called, “the prince Modu.” So, p. 269: “When the said priests had dispatched theire business at Hackney (where they had been exorcising Sarah Williams) they then returned towards mee, uppon pretence to cast the great prince Modu ... out mee.” —Steevens.

Note return to page 138 1&lblank; our mild husband] It must be remembered that Albany, the husband of Goneril, disliked, in the end of the first act, the scheme of oppression and tyranny. —Johnson.

Note return to page 139 2Like monsters of the deep.] Fishes are known to prey upon their own species.

Note return to page 140 3Proper deformity] id est., diabolick qualities appear not so horrid in the devil, to whom they belong, as in woman, who unnaturally assumes them. —Warburton.

Note return to page 141 4One way I like this well;] Goneril's plan was to poison her sister, to marry Edmund, to murder Albany, and to get possession of the whole kingdom. As the death of Cornwall facilitated the last part of her scheme, she was pleased at it; but disliked it, as it put it in the power of her sister to marry Edmund.

Note return to page 142 5When a man divests himself of his real character, he feels no pain from contempt, because he supposes it incurred only by a voluntary disguise, which he can throw off at pleasure. —Johnson.

Note return to page 143 6&lblank; contemn'd and flatter'd.] Than to be flattered by those who secretly contemn us.

Note return to page 144 7&lblank; esperance,] hope.

Note return to page 145 8&lblank; lives not in fear:] Where there is no hope, there is no fear.

Note return to page 146 9&lblank; O world!] If reverses of fortune and (mutations) changes such as I now see and feel, from ease and affluence to poverty and misery, did not show us the little value of life, we should never submit with any kind of resignation to the weight of years, and its necessary consequence, infirmity and death. —Malone.

Note return to page 147 10&lblank; see thee in my touch,] so, in another scene, I see it feelingly.

Note return to page 148 12Disguise it longer.

Note return to page 149 13Shakspeare here considers the sea as a mirrour; to look in a glass, is yet our colloquial phraseology. —Malone.

Note return to page 150 14&lblank; rank fumiter,] Id est, fumitory: by the old herbalists written fumittery. Shakespeare calls it rank, because it grows freely and luxuriantly among corn, where it is a troublesome weed. —Nares's Glossary.

Note return to page 151 15&lblank; harlock,] Supposed to be a corruption of charlock, which is the wild mustard, a very common weed in fields. —Nares's Glossary.

Note return to page 152 16Darnel,] Gerard says this is the most hurtful of weeds.

Note return to page 153 17&lblank; A century send forth;] Id est, send forth a party of an hundred men.

Note return to page 154 18&lblank; simples operative,] Medical ingredients to produce sleep.

Note return to page 155 19&lblank; the means to lead it.] The reason which should guide it.

Note return to page 156 20&lblank; important tears,] Importunate tears.

Note return to page 157 21No blown ambition] No inflated, no swelling pride.

Note return to page 158 22Edgar is not here supposed to be on the brink of a precipice, but is describing an imaginary one.

Note return to page 159 23&lblank; choughs,] Daws.

Note return to page 160 24Show scarce so gross as beetles:] Gross is here used for large.

Note return to page 161 25&lblank; her cock,] Her cock-boat.

Note return to page 162 26Topple] To tumble.

Note return to page 163 [27] Would I not leap upright.] Upwards from the ground.

Note return to page 164 28&lblank; a clothier's yard.] An arrow of a cloth yard long.

Note return to page 165 29&lblank; the brown bills.] A kind of Battle-axe, affixed to a long staff.

Note return to page 166 30Well-flown, bird, was the falconer's expression when the hawk was successful in her flight; but Lear may perhaps use the word bird for arrow, from the swiftness of its flight.

Note return to page 167 31&lblank; i'the clout,] the white mark in the centre of a target.

Note return to page 168 32Lear supposes himself in a garrison, and before he lets Edgar pass, requires the watchword. —Johnson.

Note return to page 169 33&lblank; They flatter'd me like a dog;] they played the spaniel to me.

Note return to page 170 34They told me that I had the wisdom of age before I had attained to manhood.

Note return to page 171 35This is, perhaps, an allusion to King Canute and his flatterers.

Note return to page 172 36&lblank; trick] peculiarity.

Note return to page 173 37Luxury was the ancient term for incontinence.

Note return to page 174 38Handy-dandy is supposed to be an ancient play among children, in which they change hands and places.

Note return to page 175 39We wawl, id. est., we howl.

Note return to page 176 40&lblank; delicate stratagem] clever stratagem.

Note return to page 177 41&lblank; kill, kill, &c.] This was formerly the word given in the English army when an onset was made on the enemy.

Note return to page 178 42&lblank; worser spirit] my evil genius.

Note return to page 179 43Briefly thyself remember:] id est., quickly recollect the past offences of thy life, and recommend thyself to heaven.

Note return to page 180 44&lblank; go your gait,] Gang your gait is a common expression in the north.

Note return to page 181 45&lblank; costard &lblank;] Id. est, head.

Note return to page 182 46&lblank; bat &lblank;] a staff or club.

Note return to page 183 47&lblank; your foins.] Thrusts as in fencing.

Note return to page 184 48The meaning is, our enemies are put to torture and torn to pieces, to extort confession of their secrets; to tear open their letters is more lawful.

Note return to page 185 31100022[A] (A) An ancient obelisk.] Pillars and obelisks are sometimes with, and sometimes without, inscriptions; some stand by themselves; and others, like those of the Danes, are surrounded with earth or stones, or else they stand on barrows. They are sometimes sepulchral, and sometimes in memory of particular and memorable actions, or military trophies, and sometimes they are boundaries. —Strutt's Antiquities, vol. 1.

Note return to page 186 31100023[B] (B) &lblank; dreadful trade!] The gathering of samphire was literally a trade in Shakespeare's time, it being carried and cried about the streets, and much used as a pickle. In Smith's “History of Waterford,” published 1774, it is stated that it is terrible to see how the people gather it, hanging by a rope several fathoms from the top of the impending rocks, as it were, in the air.

Note return to page 187 31100024[C] (C) There's your press-money.] It is evident from the whole of this speech, that Lear fancies himself in a battle: but, There's your press-money has not been properly explained. It means the money which was paid to soldiers when they were retained in the King's service; and it appears from some ancient statutes, and particularly 7 Henry VII. c. 1., and 3 Henry VIII. c. 5., that it was felony in any soldier to withdraw himself from the King's service after receipt of this money, without special leave. On the contrary, he was obliged at all times to hold himself in readiness. The term is from the French “prest” ready. It is written prest in several places in King Henry VIII's Book of household expenses, still preserved in the Exchequer. This may serve also to explain the following passage in Act V. sc. ii: “And turn our imprest lances in our eyes;” and to correct Mr. Whalley's note in Hamlet, Act I. sc. i; “Why such impress of shipwrights?” —Douce.

Note return to page 188 31100025[D] (D) That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper:] A crow-keeper or field-keeper were very common in Shakespeare's time. The following curious passage in Latimer's Fruitful Sermons, 1584, fol. 69, will show how indispensable was practice to enable an archer to handle his bow skilfully: “In my time (says the good bishop) my poor father was diligent to teach me to shoote, as to learne me any other thing, and so I thinke other men did their children. He taught me how to draw, howe to lay my body in my bow, and not to drawe with strength of armes as other nations doe, but with strength of bodye. I had my bowes bought me according to my age and strength: as I encreased in them, so my bowes were made bigger and bigger: for men shall neuer shoote well, except they be brought up in it.” —Holt White.

Note return to page 189 31100026[E] (E) &lblank; horse with felt:] This “delicate stratagem” had actually been put in practice about fifty years before Shakspeare was born, as we learn from Lord Herbert's Life of Henry the Eighth, p. 41. “And now,” says that historian, “having feasted the ladies royally for divers dayes, he [Henry] departed from Tournay to Lisle, [Oct. 13, 1513,] whither he was invited by the lady Margaret, who caused there a juste to be held in an extraoardinary manner; the place being a fore-room raised high from the ground by many steps, and paved with black square stones like marble; while the horses, to prevent sliding, were shod with felt or flocks (the Latin words are feltro sive tomento); after which the ladies danced all night.” —Malone.

Note return to page 190 1A father, whose jarring senses have been untuned by the monstrous ingratitude of his daughters.

Note return to page 191 2I am mightily abus'd.] Id est, I am strongly imposed on by appearances; I am in a strange mist of uncertainty.

Note return to page 192 3&lblank; the great rage,] madness.

Note return to page 193 [4] &lblank; his constant pleasure.] i.e., his settled resolution.

Note return to page 194 5&lblank; machination ceases.] Id est, all designs against your life will have an end.

Note return to page 195 6We will greet the time.] i.e., we will be ready to meet the occasion.

Note return to page 196 7&lblank; carry out my side,] Bring my purpose to a successful issue, to completion. Side seems here to have the sense of the French word partie in prendre partie, to take his resolution. —Johnson.

Note return to page 197 8&lblank; are to censure them.] To pass sentence or judgment on them.

Note return to page 198 9&lblank; have incurr'd the worst.] The worst that fortune can inflict.

Note return to page 199 10packs and sects] combinations and parties.

Note return to page 200 11&lblank; take thou this note;] a warrant signed by Edmund and Goneril for the execution of Lear and Cordelia.

Note return to page 201 12&lblank; thy great employment] the commission given him for the murder.

Note return to page 202 13&lblank; will not bear question;] question here signifies discourse— conversation.

Note return to page 203 14To make all hearts pity him.

Note return to page 204 15The let-alone lies not in your good will.] To prevent their union lies not in your good pleasure.

Note return to page 205 16&lblank; single virtue;] thy single valour.

Note return to page 206 17&lblank; here is mine.] My sword.

Note return to page 207 18&lblank; it is the privilege of mine honours, My oath, and my profession. The old rights of knighthood are here alluded to—whose oath and profession required him to discover all treasons, and whose privilege it was to have his challenge accepted. As Edgar comes disguised, it is necessary he should tell Edmund that he was a knight.

Note return to page 208 19&lblank; maugre,] Notwithstanding.

Note return to page 209 20&lblank; In wisdom, I should ask thy name;] Because, if his adversary was not of equal rank, Edmund might have declined the combat.

Note return to page 210 21Say for sample.

Note return to page 211 22&lblank; nicely,] punctiliously. If I stood on minute forms, I might well decline.

Note return to page 212 23Where they shall rest for ever.] To that place where they shall rest for ever, id est, thy heart.

Note return to page 213 24&lblank; practice,] stratagem.

Note return to page 214 25aye] for ever.

Note return to page 215 26&lblank; fordid herself.] To fordo signifies to destroy.

Note return to page 216 27Is this the promis'd end? Or image of that horror?] Is this the end of the world, or the horrible circumstances which are foretold will precede our final dissolution?

Note return to page 217 28Fall and cease!] Rather fall and cease to be, at once, than continue in existence only to be wretched.

Note return to page 218 29&lblank; decay,] misfortunes.

Note return to page 219 30Nor no man else;] Kent means, I welcome—no, nor no man else.

Note return to page 220 31&lblank; my poor fool is hanged!] Poor fool, in the age of Shakespeare, was an expression of endearment.

Note return to page 221 32Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all?] id est., let nothing now live—let there be universal destruction.

Note return to page 222 33Pray you, undo this button.] The swelling and heaving of the heart is described by this most expressive circumstance.

Note return to page 223 31100027[A] (A) Louder the musick there.] I have already observed, in a note on The Second Part of King Henry IV. Vol. XII. p. 197, n. 2, that Shakspeare considered soft musick as favourable to sleep. Lear, we may suppose, had been thus composed to rest; and now the Physician desires louder musick to be played, for the purpose of waking him. So again, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609, Cerimon, to recover Thaisa, who had been thrown into the sea, says— “The rough and woeful musick that we have, “Cause it to sound, 'beseech you.” Again, in The Winter's Tale: “Musick, awake her; strike!” —Malone.

Note return to page 224 31100028[B] (B) They fight. Edmund falls.] In matters which could not be easily determined, the usual way of decision was, after the custom of their ancestors, by single combat, while the fighting parties were animated with the sound of the horn and long trumpet, called cornicinus, as also by the dancing and strange gestures of the by-standers. In an old MS. by the side of the delineation of this trumpet is written in Saxon characters:— “When the trumpet ceases to sound, the sword is returned to the scabbard.” —Strutt's Anglo-Saxon Antiquities.

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