Gloucester. Sirrah, naked fellow--
Edgar. Poor Tom's a-cold. [Aside] I cannot daub itdeg further.
Gloucester. Come hither, fellow.
Edgar. [Aside] And yet I must.--Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed.
Gloucester. Know'st thou the way to Dover?
Edgar. Both stile and gate, horse-way and footpath. Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits.
Bless thee, good man's son, from the foul fiend!
Five fiends have been in Poor Tom at once; of lust, 37 How should this be i.e., how can this horror be?
39 Ang'ring offending
43 ancient (1) the love the Old Man feels, by virtue of his long tenancy (2) the love that formerly obtained between master and man
46 times' plague characteristic disorder of this time
47 thy pleasure as you like
48 the rest all
49 'parel apparel
52-53 daub it lay it on (figure from plastering mortar)
as Obidicut;deg Hobbididence, prince of dumb
ness;deg Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; Flib
bertigibbet, of mopping and mowing;deg who since
possesses chambermaids and waiting-women. So,
bless thee, master!
Gloucester. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heavens' plagues Have humbled to all strokes:deg that I am wretched
Makes thee the happier. Heavens, deal so still!
Let the superfluousdeg and lust-dieteddeg man,
That slavesdeg your ordinance,deg that will not see
Because he does not feel, feel your pow'r quickly;
So distribution should undo excess,deg
And each man have enough. Dost thou know
Dover?
Edgar. Ay, master.
Gloucester. There is a cliff whose high and bendingdeg head Looks fearfullydeg in the confined deep:deg
Bring me but to the very brim of it,
And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear
With something rich about me: from that place
I shall no leading need.
Edgar. Give me thy arm: Poor Tom shall lead thee. Exeunt.
61 Obidicut Hoberdicut, a devil (like the four that follow, from Harsnett's Declaration)
61-62 dumbness muteness (like the crimes and afflictions in the next lines, the result of diabolic possession)
63 mopping and mowing grimacing and making faces
67 humbled to all strokes brought so low as to bear anything humbly
69 superfluous possessed of superfluities
69 lust-dieted whose lust is gratified (like Gloucester's)
70 slaves (1) tramples, spurns like a slave (2) ? tears, rends (Old English slaefan)
70 ordinance law
72 So ... excess then the man with too much wealth would distribute it among those with too little
75 bending overhanging
76 fearfully occasioning fear
76 confined deep the sea, hemmed in below
Scene 2. [Before the Duke of Albany's palace. ]
Enter Goneril and Edmund.
Goneril. Welcome, my lord: I marvel our mild husband
Not metdeg us on the way.
Enter Oswald.
Now, where's your master? Oswald. Madam, within; but never man so changed. I told him of the army that was landed:
He smiled at it. I told him you were coming;
His answer was, "The worse." Of Gloucester's
treachery,
And of the loyal service of his son
When I informed him, then he called me sot,deg
And told me I had turned the wrong side out:
What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;
What like,deg offensive.
Goneril. [To Edmund] Then shall you go no further. It is the cowishdeg terror of his spirit,
That dares not undertake:deg he'll not feel wrongs,
Which tie him to an answer.deg Our wishes on the
way
May prove effects.deg Back, Edmund, to my brother;
Hasten his mustersdeg and conduct his pow'rs.deg 4.2.2 Not met did not meet
8 sot fool
11 What like what he should like
12 cowish cowardly
13 undertake venture
14 tie him to an answer oblige him to retaliate
14-15 Our ... effects our desires (that you might be my husband), as we journeyed here, may be fulfilled
16 musters collecting of troops
16 conduct his pow'rs lead his army
I must change namesdeg at home and give the
distaffdeg
Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant
Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear,
If you dare venture in your own behalf,
A mistress'sdeg command. Wear this; spare speech;
[Giving a favor]
Decline your head.deg This kiss, if it durst speak,
Would stretch thy spirits up into the air:
Conceive,deg and fare thee well.
Edmund. Yours in the ranks of death.
Goneril. My most dear Gloucester! Exit [Edmund]. O, the difference of man and man!
To thee a woman's services are due:
My fool usurps my body.deg
Oswald. Madam, here comes my lord. Exit.
Enter Albany.
Goneril. I have been worth the whistle.deg
Albany. O Goneril! You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face. I fear your disposition:deg
That nature which contemnsdeg its origin
Cannot be bordered certain in itself;deg
She that herself will sliver and disbranchdeg 17 change names i.e., exchange the name of "mistress" for that of "master"
17 distaff spinning stick (wifely symbol)
21 mistress's lover's (and also, Albany having been disposed of, lady's or wife's)
22 Decline your head i.e., that Goneril may kiss him
24 Conceive understand (with a sexual implication, that includes "stretch thy spirits," 1. 23; and "death," 1. 25: "to die," meaning "to experience sexual intercourse")
28 My fool usurps my body my husband wrongfully enjoys me
29 I ... whistle i.e., once you valued me (the proverb is implied, "It is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling")
31 disposition nature
32 contemns espises
33 bordered ... itself kept within its normal bounds
34 sliver and disbranch cut off
From her material sap,deg perforce must wither
And come to deadly use.deg
Goneril. No more; the textdeg is foolish.
Albany. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile: Filths savor but themselves.deg What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed?
A father, and a gracious aged man,
Whose reverence even the head-lugged beardeg
would lick,
Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you
madded.deg
Could my good brother suffer you to do it?
A man, a prince, by him so benefited!
If that the heavens do not their visible spiritsdeg
Send quickly down to tame these vile offenses,
It will come,
Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
Like monsters of the deep.
Goneril. Milk-livereddeg man! That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
Thine honor from thy suffering;deg that not know'st
Fools do those villains pity who are punished
Ere they have done their mischief.deg Where's thy
drum?
France spreads his banners in our noiselessdeg
land,
With plumed helmdeg thy state begins to threat,deg 35 material sap essential and life-giving sustenance
36 come to dea
dly use i.e., be as a dead branch for the burning
37 text i.e., on which your sermon is based
39 Filths savor but themselves the filthy relish only the taste of filth
42 head-lugged bear bear-baited by the dogs, and hence enraged
43 madded made mad
46 visible spirits avenging spirits in material form
50 Milk-livered lily-livered (hence cowardly, the liver being regarded as the seat of courage)
52-53 discerning ... suffering able to distinguish between insults that ought to be resented, and ordinary pain that is to be borne
54-55 Fools ... mischief only fools are sorry for criminals whose intended criminality is prevented by punishment
56 noiseless i.e., the drum, signifying preparation for war, is silent
57 helm helmet 7 thy ... threat France begins to threaten Albany's realm
Whilst thou, a moraldeg fool, sits still and cries
"Alack, why does he so?"
Albany. See thyself, devil! Properdeg deformity seems not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman.
Goneril. O vain fool!
Albany. Thou changed and self covereddeg thing, for shame, Be-monster not thy feature.deg Were 't my fitnessdeg
To let these hands obey my blood,deg
They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
Thy flesh and bones: howe'erdeg thou art a fiend,
A woman's shape doth shield thee.
Goneril. Marry,deg your manhood mewdeg--
Enter a Messenger.
Albany. What news?
Messenger. O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall's dead, Slain by his servant, going todeg put out
The other eye of Gloucester.
Albany. Gloucester's eyes!
Messenger. A servant that he bred,deg thrilled with remorse,deg Opposed against the act, bending his sword
To his great master, who thereat enraged
Flew on him, and amongst them felleddeg him dead,
But not without that harmful stroke which since 58 moral moralizing; but also with the implication that morality and folly are one
60 Proper (1) natural (to a fiend) (2) fair-appearing
62 changed and self-covered i.e., transformed, by the contorting of her woman's face, on which appears the fiendish behavior she has allowed herself. (Goneril has disguised nature by wickedness)
63 Be-monster not thy feature do not change your appearance into a fiend's
63 my fitness appropriate for me
64 blood passion 66 howe'er but even if
68 Marry by the Virgin Mary
68 your manhood mew (1) coop up or confine your (pretended) manhood (2) molt or shed it, if that is what is supposed to "shield" me from you
71 going to as he was about to
73 bred reared
73 thrilled with remorse pierced by compassion
76 amongst them felled others assisting, they felled
Hath plucked him after.deg
Albany. This shows you are above, You justicers,deg that these our netherdeg crimes
So speedily can venge.deg But, O poor Gloucester!
Lost he his other eye?
Messenger. Both, both, my lord. This letter, madam, cravesdeg a speedy answer; 'Tis from your sister.
Goneril. [Aside] One way I like this well; But being widow, and my Gloucester with her,
May all the building in my fancy pluck
Upon my hateful life.deg Another way,deg
The news is not so tart.deg--I'll read, and answer.
Exit.
Albany. Where was his son when they did take his eyes?
Messenger. Come with my lady hither.
Albany. He is not here.
Messenger. No, my good lord; I met him backdeg again.
Albany. Knows he the wickedness?
Messenger. Ay, my good lord; 'twas he informed against him, And quit the house on purpose, that their punish
ment
Might have the freer course.
Albany. Gloucester, I live To thank thee for the love thou showed'st the
King,
And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend:
Tell me what more thou know'st. Exeunt.
78 plucked him after i.e., brought Cornwall to death with his servant
79 justicers judges
79 nether committed below (on earth)
80 venge avenge
82 craves demands
85-86 May ... life these things (1.84) may send my future hopes, my castles in air, crashing down upon the hateful (married) life I lead now
86 Another way looked at another way
87 tart sour
90 back going back
[Scene 3. The French camp near Dover.]
Enter Kent and a Gentleman.
Kent. Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back, know you no reason?
Gentleman. Something he left imperfect in the state,deg which since his coming forth is thought of, which importsdeg to the kingdom so much fear and danger that his personal return was most required and necessary.
Kent. Who hath he left behind him general?
Gentleman. The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far.
Kent. Did your letters piercedeg the queen to any demonstration of grief?
Gentleman. Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence, And now and then an ample tear trilleddeg down
Her delicate cheek: it seemed she was a queen
Over her passion, who most rebel-like
Sought to be king o'er her.
Kent. O, then it moved her.
Gentleman. Not to a rage: patience and sorrow strove Who should express her goodliest.deg You have seen
Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
That played on her ripe lip seemed not to know
What guests were in her eyes, which parted thence 4.3.3-4 imperfect in the state unsettled in his own kingdom
5 imports portends
10 pierce impel
13 trilled trickled
18 Who ... goodliest which should give her the most becoming expression
20 Were like a better way i.e., improved on that spectacle
20 smilets little smiles
As pearls from diamonds dropped. In brief,
Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved,
If all could so become it.deg
Kent. Made she no verbal question?
Gentleman. Faith, once or twice she heaveddeg the name of "father" Pantingly forth, as if it pressed her heart;
Cried "Sisters! Sisters! Shame of ladies! Sisters!
Kent! Father! Sisters! What, i' th' storm? i' th'
night?
Let pity not be believed!"deg There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamor moistened:deg then away she started
To deal with grief alone.
Kent. It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions;deg
Else one self mate and make could not beget
Such different issues.deg You spoke not with her
since?
Gentleman. No.
Kent. Was this before the King returned?
Gentleman. No, since.
Kent. Well, sir, the poor distressed Lear's i' th' town; Who sometime in his better tunedeg remembers
What we are come about, and by no means
Will yield to see his daughter.
Gentleman. Why, good sir?
Kent. A sovereigndeg shame so elbowsdeg him: his own unkindness 24-25 Sorrow ... it sorrow would be a coveted jewel if it became others as it does her
26 heaved expressed with difficulty
30 Let pity not be believed let it not be believed for pity
32 clamor moistened moistened clamor, i.e., mixed (and perhaps assuaged) her outcries with tears
34 govern our conditions determine what we are
35-36 Else ...
issues otherwise the same husband and wife could not produce such different children
40 better tune composed, less jangled intervals
43 sovereign overpowering
43 elbows jogs his elbow i.e., reminds him
That stripped her from his benediction, turned her
To foreign casualties,deg gave her dear rights
To his dog-hearted daughters: these things sting
His mind so venomously that burning shame
Detains him from Cordelia.
Gentleman. Alack, poor gentleman!
Kent. Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not?
Gentleman. 'Tis so;deg they are afoot.
Kent. Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master Lear, And leave you to attend him: some dear causedeg
Will in concealment wrap me up awhile;
When I am known aright, you shall not grieve
Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you, go
Along with me. [Exeunt.]
[Scene 4. The same. A tent.]
Enter, with drum and colors, Cordelia, Doctor, and Soldiers.
Cordelia. Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now As mad as the vexed sea; singing aloud;
Crowned with rank femiter and furrow-weeds,
With hardocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flow'rs,
Darnel,deg and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn.deg A centurydeg send forth;
Search every acre in the high-grown field, 45 casualties chances
50 'Tis so i.e., I have heard of them
52 dear cause important reason
4.4.3-5 femiter ... Darnel: femiter fumitory, whose leaves and juice are bitter; furrow-weeds weeds that grow in the furrow; or plowed land; hardocks ? hoar or white docks, burdocks, harlocks; hemlock a poison; nettles plants which sting and burn; cuckoo-flow'rs identified with a plant employed to remedy diseases of the brain; Darnel tares, noisome weeds
6 sustaining corn life-maintaining wheat
6 century ? sentry; troop of a hundred soldiers
And bring him to our eye [Exit an Officer.] What
can man's wisdomdeg
In the restoring his bereaveddeg sense?
He that helps him take all my outwarddeg worth.