10 posts messengers
11 intelligent possessed of information
12 lord of Gloucester Edmund’s new title (though when Oswald uses it, he refers to Edmund’s father)
17 questrists seekers
18 the lord’s i.e. Gloucester’s
25 Pinion him bind his arms
26 pass … justice issue a death sentence without a formal trial
28 do a court’sy bow, yield
31 corky withered, dry
3.7 plucks his beard a highly insulting gesture
41 white i.e. old, dignified
42 Naughty wicked
43 ravish seize forcibly, pluck
44 quicken come to life
45 hospitable favours welcoming (facial) features
46 ruffle treat roughly/snatch
48 Be simple answered answer straightforwardly
50 Late footed recently landed
52 guessingly without certain knowledge
54 opposed i.e. to the dukes
59 charged at peril commanded on peril of your life
61 tied to th’stake like a bear in the popular sport of bear-baiting
61 stand endure
61 course designated bout, during which the bear was attacked by dogs
65 anointed i.e. holy (having been anointed with holy oil at the coronation)
67 buoyed swelled, risen
68 stellèd starry
69 holp helped
69 holp … rain i.e. by weeping
70 stern cruel, unyielding
71 turn the key i.e. to let them in
72 All … subscribe i.e. in such circumstances, all other cruel people would sanction a kind action
73 wingèd vengeance i.e. vengeance of the gods
74 Fellows servants
86 shake … quarrel i.e. defy you (or “challenge you to a fight”) over this cause
86 What … mean? What do you think you are doing?
87 villain servant
88 chance of anger risk of what anger may bring (in a fight)
91 mischief on him injury done to him
95 sparks of nature warmth of natural filial affection
96 quit requite, avenge
97 Out expression of impatience and disgust
99 overture disclosure
101 abused wronged, maligned
105 How look you? How are you?
108 apace rapidly
109 Untimely at the wrong time (with war imminent)
3.7 Exeunt here the Quarto text has an additional sequence in which loyal servants apply a palliative to Gloucester’s eye sockets (see “Quarto Passages That Do Not Appear in the Folio,” p. 134)
Act 4 Scene 1
4.1 Location: somewhere out in the open, not far from the Earl of Gloucester’s residence
1 thus i.e. a beggar
1 contemned despised
2 contemned and flattered despised secretly though flattered to your face
4 esperance hope
5 The … laughter the most miserable kind of change is a decline in fortunes; when things are at their worst they can only get better
10 poorly led led by a poor man/led in a way unsuitable to his status
12 But were it not
12 mutations changes/fickleness
13 Life … age we would not accept old age
15 fourscore eighty
18 Thee … hurt i.e. you may be punished for helping me
22 means secure us wealth gives us false security, overconfidence
22 mere defects sheer deficiencies
23 Prove our commodities turn out to be benefits
24 abusèd deceived
31 is not has not yet arrived
36 reason rationality, sanity
41 wanton unruly/cruelly mischievous
44 trade course of action/practice
50 ancient love old affection
54 plague affliction
56 the rest all
57 ’pparel apparel, clothing
58 Come … will whatever may come of it
60 daub it put on a false face, pretend
68 strokes blows, afflictions
69 happier more fortunate
70 superfluous immoderate, extravagant, overindulgent
70 lust-dieted fed solely by pleasure
71 slaves your ordinance subjects your laws to his desires
72 feel empathize, feel compassion (sense then shifts to “experience”)
72 quickly soon/while he is alive/sharply
76 bending overhanging
77 confinèd channeled (between England and France)
78 brim edge
80 about me that I have on my person
Act 4 Scene 2
4.2 Location: outside Goneril and the Duke of Albany’s residence
1 my lord i.e. Edmund
4 army i.e. French army
8 ‘sot’ fool
9 turned … out turned inside out, got things the wrong way round (clothing metaphor)
13 cowish cowardly
14 undertake take action
15 tie … answer oblige him to respond
15 on the way i.e. that we expressed during the journey here
16 prove effects be fulfilled
16 brother brother-in-law, i.e. Cornwall
17 musters gathering of troops
17 conduct his powers escort his forces
18 change exchange
18 distaff spindle for weaving, common symbol of womanhood or wifeliness
20 like likely
4.2 favor love token
22 mistress ruler/lover
24 thy Goneril starts to use the more intimate pronoun to Edmund
24 spirits plays on sense of “penis”
25 conceive understand/imagine (with procreative connotations)