King Lear

²⁴preparation equipped military force

²⁷France i.e. the King of France

²⁸importuned importunate, pressing

²⁹blown swollen with pride/corrupt

Act 4 Scene 4

^4.4Location: the Earl of Gloucester’s residence

⁴ado fuss

⁸import mean, contain

¹⁰posted hurried

¹¹ignorance folly

¹⁵nighted darkened (literally, and in terms of his fortunes)

¹⁵descry discover

¹⁷after go after

¹⁹ways roads

²¹charged my duty swore me to obedience

²³Belike perhaps/probably

²⁴I’ll love thee Regan switches to the familiar thee to cajole him—love implies the promise of favors, sexual or otherwise

²⁹oeillades amorous glances

²⁹speaking eloquent

³⁰of her bosom in her confidence/sexually intimate

³²Y’are ye (you) are

³³take this note note this well

³⁵convenient fitting

³⁶gather more infer the rest

³⁹call … her have more sense

⁴³meet i.e. meet him

Act 4 Scene 5

^4.5Location: somewhere out in the open, near Dover

¹that same hill the hill I mentioned (i.e. the cliff Gloucester described at the end of Act 4 Scene 1)

¹¹phrase and matter style and sense

¹⁷choughs jackdaws or other birds of the crow family

¹⁷wing fly across

¹⁷midway i.e. middle regions of

¹⁸gross large

¹⁹samphire aromatic plant used in pickling; it was picked from cliffs by men suspended on ropes

²²yond yonder, that

²²bark small ship

²³her cock (the size of) her cock boat, a small boat towed behind a ship

²⁵th’unnumbered idle pebble countless insignificant pebbles

²⁷the deficient my defective

²⁸Topple topple me

³²leap upright jump up in the air

³⁴Here, friend’s here, friend, is

³⁶Prosper it cause it to prosper

⁴⁰trifle play

⁴⁶opposeless irresistible

⁴⁷My … nature the smoldering wick and hated remains of my life

⁵¹conceit imagination

⁵³Yields submits willingly

⁵⁴this this time, now

⁵⁶pass die

⁵⁷What who (Edgar adopts another persona)

⁵⁹aught anything

⁶⁰precipitating falling headlong

⁶¹shivered shattered

⁶³at each end to end

⁶⁷bourn boundary (between land and sea)

⁶⁸a-height on high

⁶⁸shrill-gorged shrill-throated

⁷³beguile cheat

⁸⁴whelked twisted

⁸⁵fiend i.e. tempting him to the sin of suicide

⁸⁵happy father fortunate old man (father was a form of address for an elderly man, though Edgar plays with the literal sense)

⁸⁶clearest brightest, purest

⁸⁶make … impossibilities acquire honor for themselves by performing things that are impossible in the human world

⁹³free untroubled

⁹⁴The … thus were he (Lear) in his right mind, he would never permit himself to dress like this (or possibly “Gloucester’s senses will not be able to withstand seeing his master like this”)

⁹⁶touch accuse, blame/lay hands on

¹⁰⁰press-money money paid to military recruits when they were conscripted (Lear seems to imagine he is recruiting an army)

¹⁰⁰crow-keeper scarecrow/person employed to scare crows from the crops

¹⁰¹Draw … yard draw your bow to its fullest extent (the length of a longbow’s arrow, which, at about thirty-six inches, was the same as the length of a cloth-seller’s measuring rod)

¹⁰²gauntlet armored glove thrown down as a challenge to a duel

¹⁰³prove it on make good my cause against

¹⁰³brown bills long-handled weapons, painted or varnished brown and topped with axe-like blades; or soldiers carrying such weapons

¹⁰³well flown, bird the language of falconry, here used to describe an arrow’s flight

¹⁰⁴I’th’clout cloth at the center of an archer’s target

¹⁰⁴hewgh perhaps Lear imitates the sound of the arrow as it flies through the air or hits the target

¹⁰⁴word password (continues Lear’s military fantasy)

¹⁰⁵Sweet marjoram Edgar invents a password that relates to Lear’s headgear and to the plant’s alleged medicinal properties in treating brain disorders

¹⁰⁹like a dog i.e. as if they were fawning dogs

¹⁰⁹had … there i.e. was wise even while I was still a child

¹¹¹divinity theology

¹¹²me i.e. my teeth

¹¹³peace be still

¹¹⁶ague-proof immune to fever and shivering

¹¹⁷trick characteristic, individual quality

¹²¹cause charge, offense

¹²⁴goes to’t does it, has sex

¹²⁵lecher fornicate

¹²⁷got begot, conceived

¹²⁸luxury lechery, lust

¹²⁸for … soldiers i.e. more sex means more children to man his army