'Commanding peace

Even with the same austerity and garb

As he controll'd the war.'

Hamlet, ii. 2. 390: Let me comply with you in this garb.' Again, Ben Jonson, Every Man Out of His Humour, iv. 4, has

'And there, his seniors give him good slight looks,

After their garb, smile, and salute in French

With some new compliment.'

96. so, that is, be it so. See I Henry IV, v. 3. 60.

97. These kind of knaves. See Abbott, § 412.

98. more corrupter. See The Tempest, i. 2. 19; Abbott, § 11. 99. ducking, bowing. See Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 18:

The learned pate

Ducks to the golden fool.'

Ib. observants, courtiers, who watch their lord with slavish attention. 'To observe' in Shakespeare's time signified to pay court or attention to any one.' See in 2 Henry IV, iv. 4. 30:

For he is gracious if he be observed.'

And Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 212:

'Hinge thy knee,

And let his very breath, whom thou'lt observe,

Blow off thy cap.'

In Hamlet, iii. 1. 162, 'The observed of all observers' means he to whom all

courtiers pay court. Hence observance' is used for ceremony, as in

Merchant of Venice, ii. 2. 204:

6 Use all the observance of civility.'

100. nicely, with minute particularity. Hence 'fancifully,' as in Richard II, ii. 1. 84:

Can sick men play so nicely with their names.'

And Twelfth Night, iii. 1. 17: They that dally nicely with words may quickly make them wanton.'

102. aspect, an astrological term, like influence' in the following line. Compare Troilus and Cressida, i. 3. 92:

And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
Amidst the other; whose medicinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil.'

And Winter's Tale, ii. 1. 107:

There's some ill planet reigns:

I must be patient till the heavens look
With an aspect more favourable.'

The accent is always on the last syllable in Shakespeare.

104. flickering. The quartos have 'flitkering' or 'fletkering': the folios 'flicking.'

Ib. What mean'st. See ii. 1. 89.

106. beguiled, deceived. See iv. 6. 63, and Macbeth, i. 5. 64.

108. your displeasure, that is, you in your displeasure. See note on some discretion,' ii. 4. 144.

113. upon his misconstruction, in consequence of his misunderstanding me. 114. conjunct. The reading of the quartos. The folios have compact.' The word occurs again in v. I. 12.

115. being down, insulted. That is, I being down, he insulted, &c. Compare Richard III, v. 3. 95:

'But on thy side I may not be too forward,

Lest, being seen, thy brother, tender George,
Be executed in his father's sight.'

See Abbott, § 378.

117. worthied him, won him a reputation for his heroic act, like one of the old worthies.

119. in the fleshment. Being as it were fleshed with this first success. See note on ii. 2. 43. The reading 'fleshment' is that of the folios. The quartos have 'flechuent' or 'flechvent.'

120. None. For the omission of 'there is' in such sentences compare Richard III, ii. 1. 84:

'No one in this presence

But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.'

121. their fool, a fool to them.

126. shall. See Abbott, § 315.

The quartos have 'should.'

128. Stocking. See ii. 4. 184.

For instances of transitive verbs formed from substantives see Abbott, § 290. The quartos read 'Stopping.' 133. should. So the folios. The quartos have could' or 'cold.'

134. colour. The quartos read 'nature.'

6

137-141. His fault . . . punish'd with. These words are omitted in the folios, which fill up the last line thus:

'The king his master needs must take it ill.'

The text is substantially that of the quartos, with Pope's arrangement of the lines and Capell's reading 'contemned'st' for 'temnest' or 'contaned.'

137. much, great; used frequently as an adjective. Compare Measure for Measure, v. I. 534:

Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness.' 138. check, rebuke, chide. Compare Julius Cæsar, iv. 3. 97:

Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother;
Check'd like a bondman; all his faults observed.'

142, 143. The quartos and two later folios read 'hee's' or 'he's,' and

with this reading the construction in the following line is explained as an ellipsis of the nominative. See Abbott, § 399.

143. answer, be answerable for. See i. I. 142, i. 3. II.

144. more worse. See line 98.

145. abused, misused, ill-treated.

150. rubb'd, hindered. The figure is taken from the game of bowls. See notes on Richard II, iii. 4. 4, Macbeth, iii. 1. 133.

153. out at heels, like out at elbows' denotes the condition of one in depressed circumstances. Compare Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3. 34:

'Fal. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels.

Pist. Why, then, let kibes ensue.'

157, 158. Thou out of heaven's ... warm sun. The meaning of this proverbial expression is obviously to change from better to worse, but the origin of it is less clear. Hanmer explains it as applied to those who are turned out of house or home to the open weather. Johnson suggests that it was perhaps used of men dismissed from an hospital, or house of charity, such as was erected formerly in many places for travellers. Tyrwhitt quotes from Heywood's Proverbs, Book ii. chap. v. [p. 55, Spenser Society ed.]:

'In your rennyng from him to me, ye runne

Out of gods blessing into the warme sunne.'

Capell gives the following instance from Harrison's Description of Britain, printed in Holinshed, vol. i. [fol. 11 a, col. 2, ed. 1577]: This Augustine after his arriuall, conuerted the Saxons in deede from Paganisme, but as the Prouerb sayth, bringing them out of Goddes blessing into the warme sunne, he also imbued them wyth no lesse hurtfull supersticion, then they did knowe before.' Compare also Lyly's Euphues and his England (ed. Arber), p. 320: 'Thou forsakest Gods blessing to sit in a warm Sunne.' The proverb is reversed in the Letters of Euphues (Ibid. p. 196): Therefore if thou wilt follow my aduice, and prosecute thine owne determination, thou shalt come out of a warme Sunne into Gods blessing.'

164-166, and shall find time ... remedies. For this obscure if not corrupt passage no very satisfactory explanation has been given. Steevens suggests that Kent is reading divided parts of Cordelia's letter, and it may have been thus fragmentary in consequence either of the imperfect light or of Kent's weariness. Malone supposed two half lines to be lost between 'state' and 'seeking.' Capell thought the sense was made clear by supplying the words 'to raise us' (that is, the king and himself) after time.' 166. enormous, in the sense of abnormal, irregular, monstrous, is used by Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 297:

Wild above rule and art, enormous bliss.' Steevens quotes from Holinshed [ed. 1587, p. 645, col. 1]: The maior perceiuing this enormious dooing.'

Scene III.

4. That, loosely used for 'Where,' the preposition 'in' being omitted at the end of the sentence. Compare 1 Henry VI, iii. 2. 25: No way to that, for weakness, which she enter'd'; that is, by which she entered.

5. Whiles. So the folios. The quartos have while."

6. am bethought, think, intend, am resolved: generally used reflexively, as in Merchant of Venice, i. I. 31.

7. most poorest. Abbott, § II.

10. Blanket. See note on ii. 2. 128.

Ib. elf all my hair in knots, mat together my hair in elf-locks. Hair so matted was believed to be the work of elves or fairies. Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 90:

This is that very Mab

That plats the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,

Which once untangled much misfortune bodes.'

Forelf' see note on The Tempest, v. 1. 33.

14. Bedlam beggars. Steevens quotes from Decker's Bellman of London, of which three editions appeared in 1608, the same year in which King Lear was first printed, the following description of an Abraham man': '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.' See also Harman's Caueat for Commen Cursetors (Early Eng. Text Soc. Extra Series), p. 47. 15. mortified, deadened, insensible.

18. pelting, paltry. Compare Richard II, ii. 1. 60:

Like to a tenement or pelting farm.'

19. Sometime. The reading of the quartos. The folios have 'Sometimes.' The two forms of the word are used indifferently. See note on Richard II, i. 2. 54, and compare Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 47: 'And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl.'

Ib. bans, curses. See Hamlet, iii. 2. 269:

"With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected.'

Med. Latin bannum was used to denote, first, an edict or proclamation,

hence, a summons, or an interdict. The original sense in English only remains in the publication of the 'banns of marriage,' and the word has most commonly the secondary meaning of the curse pronounced against the

violation of an interdict.

20. Turlygod. Warburton conjectured Turlupin,' the name of a fraternity of naked beggars in the fourteenth century, and Douce holds that 'Turlygood,' as he reads with Theobald, is a corruption of this.

21. Edgar I nothing am, as Edgar I cease to be.

Scene IV.

1. home. The quartos read' hence.'

7. cruel. A joke, such as it is, is intended between 'cruel' and 'crewel,' or worsted, of which garters were often made. The quartos read 'crewell'

or 'crewill.'

8. heads. The quartos have 'heeles.'

9. at legs. See note on at nostrils' in the Tempest ii. 2. 59.

10. nether-stocks, stockings. Another pun. Compare 1 Henry IV, ii. 4. 131: Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew nether stocks and mend them and foot them too.' Again, Twelfth Night, i. 3. 144: Ay, 'tis strong and it does indifferent well in a flame-coloured stock.' And Taming of the Shrew, iii. 2. 68: 'With a linen stock on one leg and a kersey boot-hose on the other.' Steevens quotes from Heywood's Epigrams [p. 204, Spenser Soc. ed.]:

'Thy vpper stocks be they stufte with sylke or flocks,

Neuer become the lyke a nether payre of stocks.'

12, 13. so much... To. See i. 4. 37, 38.

12. thy place, a double reference to Kent's rank and his then position. Ib. mistook, mistaken. See Hamlet v. 2. 395, and Abbott, § 343. 23. upon respect, upon consideration, deliberately. Compare King John iv. 2. 214:

To know the meaning

Of dangerous majesty, when perchance it frowns
More upon humour than advised respect.'

That is, rather capriciously than deliberately. Bacon frequently uses 'upon' in similar phrases. See Glossary to the Essays, ed. Wright. For 'respect' in the sense of consideration' see Hamlet, iii. 1. 68. The common explanation of the expression is entirely wrong.

24. Resolve me, satisfy my enquiries. See The Tempest, v. 1. 248:

'Single I'll resolve you,

Which to you shall seem probable, of every

These happen'd accidents.'

Ib. modest, moderate, well-measured, becoming. Cp. Henry VIII, iv. 1.82:

At length her grace rose, and with modest paces

Came to the altar.'