135. the fork, the point of the arrow. Ascham says, in his Toxophilus (p. 135, ed. Arber), that Pollux describes two kinds of arrow-heads: "The one he calleth ovos, descrybynge it thus, hauyng two poyntes or barbes, lookyng backewarde to the stele and the fethers, which surely we call in Englishe a brode arrowe head or a swalowe tayle. The other he calleth yλwxis, hauying .ii. poyntes stretchyng forwarde, and this Englysh men do call a forkehead.'

135. invade, penetrate. Compare iii. 4. 7. Used in the same literal sense by Spenser, Faery Queene, ii. 10. 6:

'But later day,

Finding in it fit ports for fishers trade,

Gan more the same frequent, and further to invade.’

138. have dread, dread, fear. So Chaucer, Book of the Duchess, 1. 24: And drede I have for to die.'

And Lydgate, Minor Poems (Percy Society ed.), p. 175:

'In cheef love God, and with thy love ha dreed.'

140. stoops. So the quartos. The folios have 'falls.'

Ib. Reverse thy doom. The reading of the quartos. The folios have reserve thy state.' Johnson was of opinion that the former was Shakespeare's original reading, as more apposite to the present occasion, and that he changed it afterwards to reserve thy state, which conduces more to the progress of the action.'

142. answer my life my judgement. As Johnson explains, 'Let my life be answerable for my judgement.' Compare 1 Henry IV, îv. 2. 8: An if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make twenty, take them all; I'll answer the coinage.'

145. Reverbs, reverberates. Apparently a word of Shakespeare's coinage. 146. a pawn, or pledge. See Richard II, i. 1. 74:

If guilty dread have left thee so much strength
As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop.'

Du. pand; Germ. pfand.

147. To wage, that is, to gage or pledge. Hence 'wager.' Compare Cymbeline i. 4. 144: 'I will wage against your gold, gold to it.'

150. blank, literally the white mark in the centre of a target; hence, a mark generally. See Hamlet, iv. I. 42:

'As level as the cannon to his blank.'

And Taming of the Shrew, v. 2. 186:

"'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white.'

152. swear'st, adjurest. Shakespeare frequently uses the verb in a transitive scnse, when it has a person for its object. For instance, in Julius Cæsar, ii. 1. 129:

'Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous.'

But in the sense of appealing to a deity by an oath it is not common.

Ib. miscreant. So the folios. The quartos have 'recreant' as the folios in line 158. It is possible that Shakespeare may have used the word here with some sense of its original meaning of 'misbeliever,' after Kent's contemptuous reference to the gods.

153. Dear sir, forbear. The quartos omit this speech.

156. doom. So the quartos. See l. 140. The folios have 'gift.'

·

157. vent clamour. Compare give clamour' in Davenant, Gondibert, ii. 1. 125:

'The people strait united clamour gave.'

·

160. Since. The folios read' That' in the sense of for that,' 'inasmuch as.' See line 63.

161. strain'd, forced, excessive. Johnson defends 'straied,' the reading of the quartos, as denoting exorbitant, passing due bounds.

163. This line gives the key to Lear's hasty and impetuous character. nor, for neither . . . nor.' Compare Othello, iii. 4. 116, 117: If my offence be of such mortal kind,

Ib. nor...

That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,

Nor purposed merit in futurity,

Can ransom me into his love again.'

So or... or' in The Tempest, i. 2. 249.

164. Our potency made good. Lear still speaks as king, although he had announced his intention of abdicating. It is difficult therefore to understand why Steevens should have stumbled at this passage. The reading in the text. is that of all the folios and one of the quartos. The other quartos have 'make,' which can only mean make good or establish our power by taking thy punishment as an acknowledgement of it.'

165. Five. The reading of the folios, as is sixth' in line 167, instead of 'foure' and 'fift' of the quartos.

166. diseases, discomforts. So the first and second quartos read. The folios have a stronger word disasters,' which can scarcely be appropriate to circumstances which could be provided against in a few days. For 'disease' in the sense of discomfort, inconvenience,' see Chapman, Homer's Odyssey, iv. 1088 :

'Doth sleep thus seize

Thy powers, affected with so much disease?'

6

The verb is found in Coriolanus, i. 3. 117: As she is now, she will but disease our better mirth'; and in Chapman, Homer's Odyssey, iv. 606. 172. sith. The reading of the folios. The quartos have since,' two of them omitting thus.' In Hamlet, ii. 2. 6, 12, on the contrary, sith' is the reading of the quartos, which is changed in the folios to 'since.' The two particles appear to have been used indifferently by Shakespeare. At any rate it is clear that he did not observe the distinction, which Mr. Marsh (Lectures on the English Language, pp. 584-586) maintains had begun to

prevail with good authors, between sith' and 'sithence' or 'since,' by virtue of which sith' was used only as a logical word, an illative, while sithence and since, whether as prepositions or as adverbs, remained mere narrative words, confined to the signification of time after.'

173. Freedom. So the folios. The quartos read 'Friendship.' In the next line they have 'protection' for 'dear shelter,' and 'the' for 'thee'; while in line 175 'justly' and 'rightly' are transposed, and 'think'st' become thinkes' or 'thinks.'

and

176. approve, prove the truth of, confirm. See ii. 2. 156, ii. 4. 179. 179. There is evidently a play intended upon the words 'course ' corse.' Steevens quotes from Peele's Battle of Alcazar [Act ii. Scene 4]: 'Saint George for England! and Ireland now adieu,

6

For here Tom Stukeley shapes his course anew.'

180. The folios give this speech to Cordelia.

Ib. Here's, followed by a plural subject. See Abbott, § 335. 182. address towards, direct our speech to, address ourselves to.

183. rivall'd, been a rival. For other instances in Shakespeare of verbs derived from substantives, see below, line 196 stranger'd,' line 212 monsters it,' v. 3. 70 compeers,' v. 3. 71 'husband,' and Abbott, § 290. Ib. in the least, at least. So in the best' for 'at best' in Hamlet, i. 5. 27: 'Murder most foul, as in the best it is.'

185. your quest of love, your errand, or expedition of courtship.

186. hath. The reading of the first and second folios. The other folios and the quartos have what.'

188. we did hold her so, that is, dear.

190. that little seeming substance, that substance which is but little in appearance. Johnson interprets seeming' as 'beautiful.' Steevens says it rather means specious.' The word is no doubt used in the latter sense, but not here. To support his interpretation Steevens put a comma at 'little,' so that the phrase would signify that little which is but substance in appearance.'

191. pieced. See iii. 6. 2. Compare Winter's Tale, v. 2. 117: Shall we thither and with our company piece the rejoicing.'

192. like, please. Compare Hamlet, ii. 2. 8o: 'It likes us well.'

194. owes, owns, possesses. Compare The Tempest, i. 2. 406:

196. Dower'd. So the folios. The quartos, evidently by a misprint, have 'Couered.'

Ib. stranger'd. See lines 183, 212.

not.

198. makes not up, makes not its choice, comes to no decision, resolves We still say to make up one's mind,' and the phrase is here used elliptically in the same sense.

201. make such a stray, wander so far from your love, miss the way to your love so much.

202. beseech you. Compare The Tempest, i. 2. 473: Beseech you, father.' Abbott, § 401.

203. more worthier. Compare more braver,' The Tempest, i. 2. 439. See above, line 69, Abbott, § 11, and note on The Tempest, i. 2. 19.

207. argument, theme, subject. See Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3. II: 'I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another inan is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love.'

208. Most best, most dearest.

Here again, as in line 69, the folios have patched the grammar by reading The best, the dearest.' For the double superlative see Julius Cæsar, iii. 2. 187:

This was the most unkindest cut of all.'

Ib. trice. See The Tempest, v. I. 238, note; and Cymbeline, v. 4. 171: 'It sums up thousands in a trice.'

209. so... to.

laster, iv. 3:

See above, line 202, and Beaumont and Fletcher's Phi

'If my fortune be so good to let me fall

Upon thy hand, I shall have peace in death.'

Ib. to dismantle, to strip off. The object of the verb is usually that from which anything is stripped, not as here the thing stripped off.

211, 212. such . . . That.

Hanmer substituted As' for 'That,' but see

ii. 2. 116, 117, and Abbott, § 279.

212. monsters it, makes it monstrous. Compare Coriolanus, ii. 2. 81: 'I had rather have one scratch my head i' the sun,

When the alarum were struck, than idly sit

To hear my nothings monster'd.'

Ib. or your fore-vouch'd affection, that is, the affection you formerly professed. This reading of the folios is clearly better than that of the quartos, or you for voucht affections.'

213. Fall'n into taint, or decay. The reading of the quartos, for which the folios have 'Fall.' In the former case the construction is made clear by supplying Must be' from line 211; in the latter by supplying 'Must.'

216. for, because.

black.'

See i. 2. 5, and Othello, iii. 3. 263: 'Haply, for I am

Ib. glib, smooth. Compare Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5. 58: 'O, these encounterers, so glib of tongue.'

220. unchaste, the reading of the folios; better than uncleane,' which the quartos have.

222. But even for want of that for which, &c. The construction is imperfect though the sense is clear. We should have expected even the want' as Hanmer reads, but Shakespeare was probably guided by what he had written in the line preceding, and mentally supplied I am deprived.' There is an obscurity about for which.' It would naturally mean for having which,' but here it must signify for wanting which.'

223. still-soliciting, constantly begging. For still' see the note on 'the still-vex'd Bermoothes' in The Tempest, i. 2. 229.

224. As. So the quartos. The folios readThat.' See above, line 212. 225. Hath lost me, hath caused me to lose. See i. 2. 107, 'It shall lose thee nothing.' The 'in' which follows denotes the amount of the loss, as in the phrases, they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver,' Deut. xxii. 19; 'condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver,' &c., 2 Chron. xxxvi. 3; and the common expression to stand one in,' for 'to cost. The phrase may also be explained, hath caused me loss in respect of your love.' 228. unspoke. Shakespeare uses both forms of the participle of the verb 'speak.' See The Tempest, iv. 1. 31, &c. In the Authorised Version of the Bible the form 'spoken' alone occurs. See Abbott, § 343.

230. Compare Sonnet cxvi.

231. regards. The reading of the folios, in place of 'respects' the reading of the quartos. Perhaps the change was made in consequence of the recurrence of the latter word in line 240. Both words are used in the sense of 'considerations.' See Hamlet, ii. 2. 79:

'On such regards of safety and allowance

As therein are set down.'

And again, iii. 1. 68:

There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.'

232. the entire point. Johnson explains' entire' as meaning 'single, unmixed with other considerations.' Compare Taming of the Shrew, iv. 2. 23: 'Signior Hortensio, I have often heard

Of your entire affection to Bianca.'

240. respects.

See above, line 231. The reading adopted is that of the quartos. The folios have 'respect and fortune.'

250. waterish, watery; with a notion of contempt. See Othello, iii. 3. 15: 'Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet.'

Compare also Ovid's Metamorphoses, xi. (trans. Golding, ed. 1603), fol. 136 b:

'Then Peleus stretching foorth his hands to seaward praid in feare
To watrish Psamath that she would her sore displeasure staie,
And helpe him.'

Burgundy was the best-watered district of France.
Description of the Great World, ed. 1633, p. 22):

See Heylyn (A Little

That which Queene