King Lear

²²mere defects sheer deficiencies

²³Prove our commodities turn out to be benefits

²⁴abusèd deceived

³¹is not has not yet arrived

³⁶reason rationality, sanity

⁴¹wanton unruly/cruelly mischievous

⁴⁴trade course of action/practice

⁵⁰ancient love old affection

⁵⁴plague affliction

⁵⁶the rest all

⁵⁷’pparel apparel, clothing

⁵⁸Come … will whatever may come of it

⁶⁰daub it put on a false face, pretend

⁶⁸strokes blows, afflictions

⁶⁹happier more fortunate

⁷⁰superfluous immoderate, extravagant, overindulgent

⁷⁰lust-dieted fed solely by pleasure

⁷¹slaves your ordinance subjects your laws to his desires

⁷²feel empathize, feel compassion (sense then shifts to “experience”)

⁷²quickly soon/while he is alive/sharply

⁷⁶bending overhanging

⁷⁷confinèd channeled (between England and France)

⁷⁸brim edge

⁸⁰about me that I have on my person

Act 4 Scene 2

^4.2Location: outside Goneril and the Duke of Albany’s residence

¹my lord i.e. Edmund

⁴army i.e. French army

⁸‘sot’ fool

⁹turned … out turned inside out, got things the wrong way round (clothing metaphor)

¹³cowish cowardly

¹⁴undertake take action

¹⁵tie … answer oblige him to respond

¹⁵on the way i.e. that we expressed during the journey here

¹⁶prove effects be fulfilled

¹⁶brother brother-in-law, i.e. Cornwall

¹⁷musters gathering of troops

¹⁷conduct his powers escort his forces

¹⁸change exchange

¹⁸distaff spindle for weaving, common symbol of womanhood or wifeliness

²⁰like likely

^4.2favor love token

²²mistress ruler/lover

²⁴thy Goneril starts to use the more intimate pronoun to Edmund

²⁴spirits plays on sense of “penis”

²⁵conceive understand/imagine (with procreative connotations)

²⁶death plays on sense of “orgasm”

²⁹services sexual services

³⁰fool i.e. Albany

³⁰usurps wrongfully possesses

³²worth the whistle worth looking for (from the proverb “it is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling”)

³³Goneril … face the Quarto text has a longer dialogue in which Albany berates Goneril (see “Quarto Passages That Do Not Appear in the Folio,” p. 135)

³⁴rude rough

³⁶Milk-livered pale-livered, cowardly (cowardice was associated with lack of blood in the liver and milk with women)

³⁸discerning … suffering that can distinguish between what may be honorably tolerated from what must not be endured

⁴¹Proper … woman deformity does not seem as abhorrent in a devil (to whom it is appropriate) as it does in a woman

⁴³vain stupid/worthless

⁴⁸bred brought up in his household

⁴⁸thrilled pierced, moved

⁴⁸remorse pity (for Gloucester)

⁴⁹Opposed opposed himself

⁴⁹bending aiming, directing

⁵⁰threat-enraged enraged by the threat

⁵³after i.e. to death

⁵⁵justices (divine) judges

⁵⁵nether earthly

⁵⁶venge avenge, punish

⁶³all … life demolish the dream (of having Edmund) that I have constructed, leaving me with the life I hate

⁶⁵tart sour

⁶⁹back going back

^4.3Location: the French camp, near Dover. The Quarto text precedes this scene with another one in which Kent and a Gentleman discuss the French king’s return to France and Cordelia’s concern for her father (see “Quarto Passages That Do Not Appear in the Folio,” pp. 137–39)

Act 4 Scene 3

^4.3Colours military banners

²vexed angry, turbulent

³rank fumiter abundant fumitory (a vigorously growing weed)

³furrow weeds weeds that grow in the furrows of plowed fields

⁴burdocks weeds with prickly flower heads or burs

⁴hemlock plant producing a potentially lethal sedative

⁴cuckoo-flowers name given to various wildflowers growing when the cuckoo calls (i.e. May/June)

⁵Darnel type of grass that grows as a weed among corn

⁵idle useless

⁸What … wisdom what can human knowledge do

⁹bereavèd stolen, lost

¹⁰outward worth worldly goods

¹²repose rest, sleep

¹³that … operative there are many effective medicinal herbs that can induce that in him

¹⁷unpublished virtues secret powers (of herbs)

¹⁸aidant helpful

¹⁸remediate remedial, healing

²⁰rage frenzy

²¹wants the means i.e. lacks the sanity