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NOTES.

THE Acts and Scenes are marked throughout in the folios but not in the quartos.

ACT I.

Scene I.

It would appear from these opening sentences that Lear had at first intended to divide the kingdom equally among his children; and so much of his intention he communicated to Kent and Gloucester. His 'darker purpose' developes itself in the course of the scene.

I. affected. To' affect' (Lat. affectare) is literally to aim at or desire, and hence to prefer, or be inclined to. It is used both transitively and intransitively. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, i. 3. 71:

'I go from hence

Thy soldier, servant; making peace or war

As thou affect'st.'

And Much Ado about Nothing, i. 1. 298:

'No child but Hero; she's his only heir.

Dost thou affect her, Claudio?'

·

Again, in Ben Jonson's Alchemist, iii. 4: Pray him aloud to name what dish he affects.'

2. Albany. See the extract from Holinshed in the Preface. The following account is given by the same writer of the origin of the name. Speaking of the division of the land by Brutus among his three sons, Locrine, Camber, and Albanact, he says: 'The third and last part of the Island he allotted vnto Albanacte hys youngest sonne..... This later parcel at the first, toke the name of Albanactus, who called it Albania. But now a small portion onely of the Region (beyng vnder the regiment of a Duke) reteyneth the sayd denomination, the reast beyng called Scotlande, of certayne Scottes that came ouer from Ireland to inhabite in those quarters. It is deuided from Loegres also by the Humber, so that Albania as Brute left it, conteyned all the north part of the Island that is to be found beyond the aforesayd streame, vnto the point of Cathenesse.' (Chron. vol. i. fol. 39 b, ed. 1577.)

5. equalities, equal conditions. The reading of the first two quartos. The folios have qualities.'

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Ib. weighed, balanced. Compare The Tempest, ii. 1.8:

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Then wisely, good sir, weigh

Our sorrow with our comfort,'

that is, balance one against the other.

Ib. curiosity in neither, no nicety or critical scrutiny in regard to either. Compare i. 2. 4. In the sense of critical, scrupulous, 'curious' occurs in Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 31:

• What care Ì

What curious eye doth quote deformities?'

6. moiety, share, literally half, from Lat. medietas; but the word is used loosely of other divisions. See I Henry IV, iii. 1. 96:

'Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here,

In quantity equals not one of yours.'

It may be that in the present passage the word is used in its literal sense, for it is not clear that Gloucester knew anything of Lear's intention to include Cordelia in the distribution of his kingdom.

9. brazed, hardened, made insensible, like brass. Compare Hamlet, iii. 4. 37 where the folio has :

If damned Custome haue not braz'd it so,
That it is proofe and bulwarke against Sense.'

10. some year, a year or so. ii. 1. 22: For some hour before was my sister drowned.'

See i. 2. 5, and compare Twelfth Night, you took me from the breach of the sea

II. account, reckoning, estimation. Compare I Henry IV, v. 1. 37:
'When yet you were in place and in account
Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.'

12. something, somewhat, as the third and fourth folios read. See Abbott, Shakespeare Grammar, § 68, and The Merchant of Venice, ii. 2. 28: For, indeed, my father did something smack, something grow to, he had a kind of taste.' Again, 2 Henry IV, i. 2. 212: My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and something a round belly.'

22. out, seeking his fortune abroad, there being no career for him at home in consequence of his illegitimate birth.

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23. Stage direction. Sennet. So the folios. The first and second quartos have Sound a sennet,' which in the third quarto is oddly corrupted into 'Sunday a Cornet.' The word occurs again in the stage directions to Henry VIII, ii. 4, and Julius Cæsar, i. 2. 24, 214, Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7. 16, Coriolanus, ii. 1. 178, 3 Henry VI, i. 1. 205. In the first part of Jeronimo (Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, vol. iv. 349) it is in the form 'signet' (signate, ed. 1605), and Steevens in his note gives other varieties, 'senet, cynet, sinet, signate, synnet,' all of which he regards as corruptions of the Italian sonata. In Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (ed. Dyce, p. 91), we find

• Sound a sonnet,' and in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of Malta, v. 2, it is in the form 'synnet.' A sennet appears to have been a particular set of notes on a trumpet or cornet which marked the entrance or exit of a procession, and is different from a flourish, for in Dekker's Satiromastix (1602), quoted by Steevens in his note on Julius Cæsar, i. 2. 24, we have, Trumpets sound a flourish, and then a sennet.' In Marston's Antonio and Mellida,

2nd part, act ii, sc. I, we find 'The Cornets sound a cynet.' A further corruption occurs in Webster, Vittoria Corombona, i. I, where the quartos give as a stage direction Enter Senate.'

24. Gloucester, spelt 'Gloster' in the early copies, but 'Gloucester' in the stage direction at the beginning of the scene in the folios.

26. I shall. See Abbott, § 315.

27. shall. So the folios. The quartos have 'will.'

Ib. darker purpose, more secret design, with which Gloucester and Kent were not acquainted," though they were aware of the king's general intention.

28, 29. divided In three. Compare 2 Henry IV, i. 3.74:

'So is the unfirm king

In three divided.'

29. our fast intent, our firm intention, stedfast purpose. The quartos read 'first.' For 'fast' in this sense see Coriolanus, ii. 3. 192:

'If he should still malignantly remain

Fast foe to the plebeii.'

30. from our age. So the folios. The quartos have 'of our state.' In the next line they read' yeares' for 'strengths,' and omit from while we' to May be prevented now.'

31. Conferring. The reading of the folios. The quartos have 'Confirming.' 34. a constant will, a steady, settled purpose, synonymous with the 'fast intent' of line 29. For constant' in this sense compare Julius Cæsar, iii. 1. 60:

'But I am constant as the northern star.'

36. The princes. The quartos here, see 1. 30, read The two great princes.' 40, 41. Since now... state. Omitted in the quartos.

44. Where ... challenge. So the folios. The quartos have 'Where merit most doth challenge it.' The reading here adopted signifies, as Steevens explains, 'where the claim of merit is superadded to that of nature.' For 'challenge' in this sense see iv. 7. 31, and Othello, i. 3. 188:

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And so much duty as my mother show'd
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor my lord.'

46. more than words can wield the matter, more than words can express; the matter being too weighty to be conveyed in mere words.

47. space, the limits within which motion is possible. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, i. 1. 34:

'Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.'

52. Beyond all manner of so much, beyond all these comparisons by which Goneril sought to measure her love. 55. shadowy. So the folios.

sense.

The quartos read 'shady' in the same
Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 4. 2:
This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods.'

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See also this play, v. 2. I:

'Here, father, take the shadow of this tree
For your good host.'

Ib. champains, plains. Compare Deut. xi. 30 (ed. 1611): 'In the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champion ouer against Gilgal.' In Ezekiel xxxvii. 2, the marginal note to 'valley' is 'or, champian.' See Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 174, where it is spelt' champian' in the folios: 'Daylight and champian discovers not more.' In Florio's Italian Dictionary we find, 'Campagna, a field or a champaine.'

Ib. rich'd, enriched. The quartos omit two half lines, and with champains . . . rivers.'

59. Speak. Omitted in the folios.

61. I am made... sister. The reading of the folios. The first quarto, followed substantially by the others, has

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'Sir, I am made of the selfe-same mettall that my sister is.' For self' in the sense of selfsame' see Richard II, i. 2. 23: 'That metal, that self mould, that fashion'd thee.'

62. names my very deed of love, exactly describes my love. 63. that, in that, or for that.

So in Richard II, v. 5. 27:
'Like silly beggars

Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame,
That many have and others must sit there.'

65. Which the most precious square of sense possesses, that is, which the most delicately sensitive part of my nature is capable of enjoying.

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66. felicitate, made happy. For instances of participles formed on the model of the Latin participles in -atus, compare consecrate' (Titus Andronicus, i. I. 14), 'excommunicate' (Article 33), 'articulate' (1 Henry IV, v. I. 72), ' suffocate' (Troilus and Cressida, i. 3. 125), 'create' (Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1. 412).

69. More richer. So the quartos. The folios read 'More ponderous,' which has the appearance of being a player's correction to avoid a piece of imaginary bad grammar. For instances of such double comparatives see more better,' The Tempest, i. 2. 19; Hamlet, ii. I. II; and Abbott, § II.

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72. validity, value, worth. Compare All's Well that Ends Well, v. 3. 192: 'O, behold this ring,

Whose high respect and rich validity

Did lack a parallel.'

And Hamlet, iii. 2. 199.

73. conferr'd. So the folios. The quartos have 'confirm'd.' See 1. 31. 73-77. Now... sisters? This is the reading of Malone, founded mainly upon the folios, which have in 1. 74,

'Although our last and least; to whose yong loue,' &c.

In the first quarto the passage stands thus:

'but now our ioy,

Although the last, not least in our deere loue,
What can you say to win a third, more opulent
Then your sisters.'

Compare Julius Cæsar, iii. 1. 189:

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Though last, not least in love, yours, good Trebonius.' 75. milk of Burgundy. Burgundy was famous for its pastures. See below, line 250.

76. interess'd. The folios have 'interest.' For the form of the word see Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.): Interessé. . . Interessed, or touched in; dishonoured, hurt, or hindered by; &c.' Steevens quotes from the preface to Drayton's Polyolbion: There is scarce any of the nobilitie, or gentry of this land, but he is some way or other by his blood interessed therein.' And from Ben Jonson's Sejanus, iii. I:

But that the dear republic,

Our sacred laws, and just authority

Are interess'd therein, I should be silent.'

See also Massinger, the Duke of Milan, i. I :

'The wars so long continued between

The emperor Charles, and Francis the French king,
Have interess'd in either's cause the most

Of the Italian princes.'

And Florio (Ital. Dict.): Interessare, to interesse, to touch or concerne a mans maine state or fee-simple, to concerne a mans reputation'; and Interessato, interessed, touched in state, in honour or reputation.' Again in Minsheu (Span. Dict.): 'Interessado, m. interessed, hauing right in.' For other instances of verbs of which the participial form has become a new verb, compare 'graff,'' hoise,' which appear in modern speech as 'graft,'

'hoist.'

86. Good my lord. See Abbott, § 13.

87. begot. Shakespeare (see Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 65, ii. 2. 37) uses both forms of the participle 'begot' and 'begotten.' In the Authorised Version the latter only occurs.

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