King Lear

⁴⁷²If … gorgeous if being sumptuously dressed simply entailed wearing sufficiently warm clothes

⁴⁷³what … wear’st your magnificent clothes

⁴⁷⁹fool … much don’t make me such a fool as

⁴⁸⁸flaws fragments

⁴⁸⁹Or ere before

⁴⁹¹and’s and his

⁴⁹²bestowed lodged, accommodated

⁴⁹³blame fault (that he)

⁴⁹³put … rest turned himself away from repose/deprived himself of peace of mind

⁴⁹⁵his particular him individually

⁵⁰²will will go

⁵⁰³give him way let him go, give him scope

⁵⁰⁶ruffle rage, bluster

⁵⁰⁹themselves procure bring on themselves

⁵¹¹desperate train retinue of dangerous men

⁵¹³have … abused be misled by what he is told

Act 3 Scene 1

^3.1Location: somewhere out in the open, not far from the Earl of Gloucester’s residence

³severally separately

²minded … unquietly in the same restless and disturbed mood as the storm

⁴Contending battling against/competing with

⁶main mainland

⁹out-jest drive out with jokes

¹⁰heart-struck injuries injuries that strike to the heart

¹²warrant … note basis of what I have observed (about you)

¹³Commend … you entrust you with an important matter

¹⁶as … high i.e. like anyone to whom fortune has given power and royal authority

¹⁷seem no less seem to be only servants (but are really spies)

¹⁸France the King of France

¹⁸speculations observers

¹⁹Intelligent of bearing information about

²⁰snuffs resentments

²⁰packings plots

²¹hard rein harsh curbing (equestrian metaphor; puns on “reign”)

²¹borne maintained

²³furnishings superficial trappings

²⁷out-wall outward appearance

³⁰that fellow i.e. Kent

³⁴to effect in importance

³⁵in … this to which end you employ your efforts that way while I go this way

³⁷Holla shout to

Act 3 Scene 2

²cataracts floods/waterspouts

²hurricanoes waterspouts

³cocks weathercocks

⁴thought-executing fires i.e. lightning (as swift as thought/thought-destroying)

⁵Vaunt-couriers forerunners

⁸nature’s moulds the molds in which nature makes living creatures

⁸germens seeds

¹⁰court holy-water courtly flattery

¹⁶tax … with accuse … of

¹⁸subscription allegiance

²¹ministers agents

²²pernicious destructive/wicked

²³high-engendered battles battalions created in the heavens

²³head plays on the sense of “army”

²⁴foul wicked/bad (weather)

²⁵put’s put his

²⁶head-piece helmet/brain

²⁷codpiece penis (literally, appendage worn on the front of a man’s breeches to cover and emphasize the genitals)

²⁷house find a house for itself, i.e. have sex

²⁸any i.e. any shelter

²⁹louse get lice (in pubic and head hair)

³⁰So … many in this way beggars end up with a string of mistresses (or “end up not only with a woman but a quantity of lice”)

³¹makes … make values most what he should value least/considers his penis (sex) more important than his heart (love/moral integrity)

³³corn may suggest a syphilitic sore

³⁵made … glass practiced smiling or pouting in a mirror

⁴⁰grace … codpiece royalty and a fool (fools sometimes wore exaggerated codpieces and were proverbially well-endowed)

⁴⁴Gallow gally, i.e. frighten

⁴⁴wanderers … dark nocturnal animals

⁵¹pudder pother, tumult

⁵⁴Unwhipped of unpunished by

⁵⁵simular faker, pretender

⁵⁶caitiff villain, wretch

⁵⁷seeming false appearances, deception

⁵⁸practised on plotted against

⁵⁹Rive split open

⁵⁹continents containers

⁵⁹cry … grace beg for mercy from these terrifying summoners (officers who summoned the accused to court)

⁶⁵hard near

⁶⁵hard house pitiless household (Gloucester’s house, under the authority of Cornwall and Regan)

⁶⁷demanding (when I was) asking urgently

⁶⁹scanted withheld

⁷²fellow servant (but with connotations of “companion”)

⁷³The … strange necessity has a strange skill

⁷⁷He … day adapted from Feste’s song at the end of Twelfth Night

⁷⁷and a a very

⁷⁷wit possibly plays on the sense of “penis”

⁷⁹make … fit make his happiness fit his fortunes/be content with the fortune that he deserves

⁸²brave fine

⁸²cool i.e. cool the lust of

⁸²courtesan courtier’s mistress, high-class prostitute

⁸⁴in … matter more concerned with words than substance (i.e. do not practice what they preach)