9 brazed made brazen, hardened
10 conceive understand (Gloucester then plays on sense of “become pregnant”)
13 ere before
14 fault transgression/loss of scent during a hunt/vagina
15 undone plays on the sense of “not copulated with” issue outcome/child
16 proper handsome/worthy/rightful
17 by … law legitimate
17 some year about a year
18 dearer more beloved (plays on the sense of “more expensive”)
18 account estimation (plays on the financial sense)
21 whoreson i.e. bastard (here used affectionately)
27 sue entreat, seek
28 deserving to be worthy of (your esteem)
29 out away (perhaps abroad or in the house of another nobleman; it was common for a nobleman’s son to be educated in the house of another important family)
1.1 Sennet trumpet call signaling a procession
1.1 bearing a coronet carrying a small crown denoting inferior rank/wearing a wreath or garland about the head (must be of material that can be broken in half)
31 Attend wait on, look after
34 darker secret (with sinister connotations)
36 fast intent firm intention
37 business official duties/exertion/anxiety
39 son i.e. son-in-law (like Albany)
41 constant will unshakable intention
41 publish proclaim, make public
42 several dowers individual dowries
42 that so that
45 sojourn stay
48 Interest possession
50 bounty generosity/gift
51 nature … challenge natural affection, combined with merit, makes a claim
53 wield express
56 grace virtue
58 makes breath poor makes words insufficient/renders one breathless (in the attempt to express it)
58 unable inadequate
59 all … much i.e. all possible expressions of the amount of love
61 bounds territories
62 shadowy shady
62 champaigns riched rich open countryside
63 wide-skirted meads extensive meadows
67 self-mettle same temperament/same substance (“metal”)
68 prize … worth value myself in equal terms
69 deed action, performance/bond, legal document
70 that in that
72 square of sense guiding principle governing the senses/(physical or mental) region of the senses
73 alone felicitate only happy
77 ponderous weighty
78 hereditary by inheritance
80 validity value
83 vines … Burgundy Lear characterizes France and Burgundy by their assets: vineyards and cattle pastures
84 interessed admitted, given a share
84 draw attract/receive, collect/pull forth (as one “draws lots”)
92 bond duty (with connotations both of a binding legal agreement and of restrictive shackles)
93 Mend improve
94 mar spoil
96 begot conceived, fathered
96 bred raised, brought up
101 plight pledge, promise
106 untender hard/cruel (plays on the sense of “not young”)
110 Hecate Greek goddess of witchcraft and the moon
111 operation movement and astrological influence
111 orbs planets
114 Propinquity … blood close ties of kinship
116 this this time (or Lear gestures toward himself)
116 Scythian person from Scythia, an ancient region extending over much of eastern Europe and Asiatic Russia, notorious for its barbarous inhabitants
117 generation children/own people
117 messes small groups of people who eat together/portions of food, meals/disgusting concoctions/troubled, confused conditions
119 neighboured treated with hospitable kindness
120 sometime former
121 liege lord, one to whom feudal duty and service was owed
124 set my rest stake everything (card-playing term)/repose, be at ease
125 kind affectionate (in the manner of a family member)
125 nursery care
125 avoid leave
127 Who stirs? Get on with it!/Why don’t you move?
129 digest absorb, incorporate
130 plainness frankness, plain speaking
130 marry her be her dowry/get her a husband
132 large effects extensive trappings
133 troop with accompany
134 With reservation of reserving the right to have (legal language)
135 sustained maintained, supported
137 th’addition to the title and honors of
137 sway authority, rule
145 make … shaft avoid the arrow (of my anger)
146 fork barbed arrowhead
148 thou kings are almost always addressed, respectfully, as “you”; Kent is unmannerly in his use of the familiar “thou”
151 Reserve thy state retain your sovereignty
152 in … consideration with wise and careful reflection
153 Answer … judgement I’ll stake my life on my opinion
156 Reverb no hollowness do not reverberate hollowly (i.e. emptily/insincerely)
158 held regarded, valued
158 pawn a pledge, surety
159 wage deposit as security
163 blank center of a target/line of sight (Kent asks to be the means to help Lear see better)
164 Apollo Greek and Roman sun god
167 vassal servant/wretch
167 Miscreant villain (literally, “infidel, unbeliever”)
168 forbear stop, desist
169 Kill … disease i.e. Lear has got things the wrong way round