Ib. exhibition, allowance. So in Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 3. 69 : 'What maintenance he from his friends receives,

Like exhibition thou shalt have of me.'

And Ben Jonson, Silent Woman, iii. 1: 'Go to, behave yourself distinctly, and with good morality; or, I protest, I'll take away your exhibition.'

21. Upon the gad, as we say, on the spur of the moment, hastily, without reflection. The word 'gad' for a sharp-pointed instrument occurs in Titus Andronicus, iv. I. 103:

'I will go get a leaf of brass,

And with a gad of steel will write these words.'

32. o'er-read, read over.

See 2 Henry IV, iii. 1. 2:

'But ere they come, bid them o'er-read these letters.'

And Measure for Measure, iv. 2. 212: You shall anon over-read it at your pleasure.'

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33. o'er-looking. So the folios. The quartos have liking.' Compare Hamlet, iv. 6. 13: Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king.'

36. are to blame, are blameworthy, are to be blamed. Infinitive active for passive. See Abbott, § 359, and The Tempest, iii. 2. 106:

'And that most deeply to consider is

The beauty of his daughter.'

39. essay or taste, proof or trial. The two words essay' and 'assay' are etymologically the same. In I Samuel xvii. 39 it is said of David in Saul's armour that he assayed to go,' that is, tried or attempted to go. Johnson proposed to read assay or test,' but the change is not necessary. 'Taste' occurs both as a noun and verb as synonymous with test.' Compare 1 Henry IV, iv. 1. 119:

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Come, let me taste my horse.' Steevens points out that essay' and 'taste' are both terms from royal tables, at which it was the business of an attendant to taste of everything that was served in order to ascertain that it was not poisoned. See v. 3. 144. Baret, Alvearie, s. v. Assay, gives, To tast or assay before. Prælibo.' Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) has, ‘Essay: m. An essay, proofe . . . also, the tast, or Essay taken of Princes meat, or drinke.'

41. the best of our times, the best periods of our lives. See i. 1. 287.

42. oldness, age.

43. fond, foolish.

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Compare illness,' Macbeth, i. 5. 21.

See The Merchant of Venice, iii. 3. 9:

'I do wonder,

Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond

To come abroad with him at his request.'

44. who for 'which,' the antecedent really being the persons implied in the word tyranny.' See Abbott, § 264.

45. suffered, permitted, tolerated. Compare 3 Henry VI, iv. 8. 8: 'A little fire is quickly trodden out;

Which, being suffer'd, rivers cannot quench.'

55. closet, private room, study. Compare Julius Cæsar, ii. 1. 34: The taper burneth in your closet, sir.'

And iii. 2. 134:

'But here's a parchment with the seal of Cæsar;

I found it in his closet, 'tis his will.'

56. character, handwriting. Compare Hamlet, iv. 7. 53 : 'Laer. Know you the hand?

King.

58. that, the matter or contents.

58, 59. were... were. Abbott, § 368.

'Tis Hamlet's character.'

58. fain, gladly. A. S. fægn or fægen. See adjective in iv. 7. 39.

4. 28, 171. It occurs as an

66. sons at perfect age. For the omission of being' compare The Merchant of Venice, iii. 2.96:

The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.'

67. declining. So the quartos. The folios have declin'd.'

70. detested, detestable. So unvalued' for 'invaluable,' Richard III, i. 4. 27; unavoided' for 'unavoidable,' Richard II, ii. 1. 268.

71. ay, apprehend. The quartos have ' I, apprehend,' or 'I apprehend'; ' I ' being the common way of printing 'ay.' The folios read 'I'll apprehend.' 76. where, whereas. Compare Coriolanus, i. I. 104:

'Where the other instruments

Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,' &c.

79. pawn down my life, lay down my life as a pledge. See i. I. 147. 80. wrote, written. So the quartos.

Abbott, § 343.

The folios have writ.'

Ib. your honour. For this style of address see Richard III, iii. 2. 21: His honour and myself are at the one.'

See

81. to no further pretence of danger, having no more dangerous intention. Compare Macbeth, ii. 3. 137:

Against the undivulged pretence I fight

Of treasonous malice.'

And the present play, i. 4. 68.

go, 91. wind me into him, gain his confidence in some circuitous way. Compare Coriolanus iii. 3. 64:

'We charge you that you have contrived to take

From Rome all season'd office, and to wind

Yourself into a power tyrannical.'

For the redundant 'me' compare Taming of the Shrew, i. 2, 8: Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.'

92. unstate myself, give up everything that belongs to my position. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 13. 30:

'Yes, like enough, high-battled Cæsar will

Unstate his happiness, and be staged to the show,

Against a sworder!'

Ib. to be in a due resolution, to have my doubts fully resolved. Monck Mason quotes from Massinger's Picture, v. 2:

'What should.... work on my lord To doubt my loyalty, nay more, to take For the resolution of his fears, a course That is by holy writ denied a Christian?" 94. convey, contrive, manage, carry out.

So in Macbeth, iv 3. 71:
'You may

Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty,

And yet seem cold.'

97. the wisdom of nature, that is, natural philosophy can give such and such explanations of the phenomena.

Ib. reason it. See iv. 1. 53; The Tempest, i. 2. 380 ; and Abbott, § 226. 98, 99. the sequent effects, the effects that follow. So Hamlet, v. 2. 54: And what to this was sequent

Thou know'st already.'

101-106. This villain . . . graves. Omitted in the quartos.

103. bias of nature, natural inclination. Compare Twelfth Night, v. I. 267:

'But nature to her bias drew in that.'

106. disquietly, causing us disquiet.

107. lose. See i. 1. 225.

110. Warburton points out the satire which Shakespeare has directed against judicial astrology, and suggests that if the date of the first performance of Lear were well considered it would be found that something or other happened at that time which gave a more than ordinary run to this deceit, as these words seem to intimate: "I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses."

114. treachers, traitors. So the folios. The quartos have 'trecherers.' Compare Beaumont and Fletcher, The Captain, v. 4: Where art thou, treacher?' And The Bloody Brother, iii. 1:

'Play not two parts,

Treacher and coward both.'

115. by spherical predominance, by the powerful influence of the spheres. See i. 1. 103.

117. thrusting on, impulse.

118. pat. See Hamlet, iii. 3. 73.

Ib. the catastrophe of the old comedy, like the 'Deus ex machina' which Horace warns against.

1 9. сие. A player's word, originally denoting the last words (Fr. queue, a tail) of the previous speech which indicated to an actor when his part was coming, and then the part itself. See Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. I. 103: 'Pyramus, enter: your cue is past; it is, "never tire."' And Othello, i. 2. 83:

'Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter.'

Ib. Tom o' Bedlam. See ii. 3. 20.

120, 121. fa, sol, la, mi.

Doctor Burney says, 'Shakespeare shows by the context that he was well acquainted with the property of these syllables in solmisation, which imply a series of sounds so unnatural, that ancient musicians prohibited their use. . . . Edmund, speaking of eclipses as portents and prodigies, compares the dislocation of events, the times being out of joint, to the unnatural and offensive sounds, fa, sol, la, mi!' For this note, Mr. Chappell assures me, there is not the slightest foundation. Edmund is merely singing to himself in order not to seem to observe Edgar's approach. 124, 125. this other day. So Winter's Tale, v. 2. 140: 'You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born.' 127. writ. So the quartos. The folios have writes.' See The Merchant of Venice, ii. 4. 13, 14:

And whiter than the paper it writ on

Is the fair hand that writ.'

127, 128. succeed unhappily, turn out unfortunately. In Elizabethan English the success' of an action was the issue or consequence, good or bad. Hence the word was used with a qualifying adjective. See Joshua i. 8: 'Then thou shalt have good success.'

128-134. as of ... Come, come. Omitted in the folios.

129. amities, friendships. Hamlet, v. 2. 42.

131. diffidences, distrusts. Diffidence' now means distrust of oneself. Here it signifies distrust of others. Compare King John, i. 1. 65 :

Thou dost shame thy mother

And wound her honour with this diffidence.'

145. allay, used intransitively as in 3 Henry VI, i. 4. 146:

And when the rage allays, the rain begins.'

147-152. I pray you.
156. faintly, imperfectly. Compare Romeo and Juliet,'

brother! Omitted in the quartos.

'Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
After the prompter.'

And King John, iv. 2, 227:

'I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death.'

4. 7:

Ib. the image and horror of it, the horror which an exact description of it would give. An instance of hendiadys.

163. practices, plots, contrivances. See ii. 1. 73, and Hamlet, iv. 7. 68 : But even his mother shall uncharge the practice

And call it accident.'

165. can fashion fit, can adapt to any ends.

Scene III.

1. gentleman. See ii. 2. 145..

Ib. for chiding of. See Abbott, § 178.

4. By day and night is taken by Capell and others as an exclamation, comparing Henry VIII, i. 2. 212:

But in the present passage the words are used in their ordinary sense, as appears from every hour' which follows.

5. flashes, blazes, breaks out, See i. 1. 291. The word is very appropriate to Lear's impetuous temper. Compare Hamlet, ii. 1. 33:

The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind.'

6. at odds, in a state of quarrel. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. 2. 5: Of honourable reckoning are you both,

And pity 'tis you lived at odds so long.

8. On every trifle, on the occurrence of every trifle, on every trifling

occasion.

II. answer. See i. I. 142.

13. Put on, assume. See Hamlet, i. 5. 172, and Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 135:

And worthier than himself

Here tend the savage strangeness he puts on.'

14. fellows, companions. See The Tempest, iii. 3. 60.

15. distaste. The reading of the folios. The quartos have dislike.' Compare Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2. 66:

Ib. let him to our sister. See Abbott, § 405, and note on Hamlet, iii. 3. 4. 17-21. Not ... abused.

18. manage, wield.

Omitted in the folios.

Compare Richard II, iii. 2. 118:

'Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
Against thy seat.'

20, 21. Tyrwhitt explains this passage as follows; 'old fools must be used with checks, as well as flatteries, when they (i. e. flatteries) are seen to be abused.'