26 death plays on sense of “orgasm”
29 services sexual services
30 fool i.e. Albany
30 usurps wrongfully possesses
32 worth the whistle worth looking for (from the proverb “it is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling”)
33 Goneril … 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)
34 rude rough
36 Milk-livered pale-livered, cowardly (cowardice was associated with lack of blood in the liver and milk with women)
38 discerning … suffering that can distinguish between what may be honorably tolerated from what must not be endured
41 Proper … woman deformity does not seem as abhorrent in a devil (to whom it is appropriate) as it does in a woman
43 vain stupid/worthless
48 bred brought up in his household
48 thrilled pierced, moved
48 remorse pity (for Gloucester)
49 Opposed opposed himself
49 bending aiming, directing
50 threat-enraged enraged by the threat
53 after i.e. to death
55 justices (divine) judges
55 nether earthly
56 venge avenge, punish
63 all … life demolish the dream (of having Edmund) that I have constructed, leaving me with the life I hate
65 tart sour
69 back going back
4.3 Location: 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
4.3 Colours military banners
2 vexed angry, turbulent
3 rank fumiter abundant fumitory (a vigorously growing weed)
3 furrow weeds weeds that grow in the furrows of plowed fields
4 burdocks weeds with prickly flower heads or burs
4 hemlock plant producing a potentially lethal sedative
4 cuckoo-flowers name given to various wildflowers growing when the cuckoo calls (i.e. May/June)
5 Darnel type of grass that grows as a weed among corn
5 idle useless
8 What … wisdom what can human knowledge do
9 bereavèd stolen, lost
10 outward worth worldly goods
12 repose rest, sleep
13 that … operative there are many effective medicinal herbs that can induce that in him
17 unpublished virtues secret powers (of herbs)
18 aidant helpful
18 remediate remedial, healing
20 rage frenzy
21 wants the means i.e. lacks the sanity
24 preparation equipped military force
27 France i.e. the King of France
28 importuned importunate, pressing
29 blown swollen with pride/corrupt
Act 4 Scene 4
4.4 Location: the Earl of Gloucester’s residence
4 ado fuss
8 import mean, contain
10 posted hurried
11 ignorance folly
15 nighted darkened (literally, and in terms of his fortunes)
15 descry discover
17 after go after
19 ways roads
21 charged my duty swore me to obedience
23 Belike perhaps/probably
24 I’ll love thee Regan switches to the familiar thee to cajole him—love implies the promise of favors, sexual or otherwise
29 oeillades amorous glances
29 speaking eloquent
30 of her bosom in her confidence/sexually intimate
32 Y’are ye (you) are
33 take this note note this well
35 convenient fitting
36 gather more infer the rest
39 call … her have more sense
43 meet i.e. meet him
Act 4 Scene 5
4.5 Location: somewhere out in the open, near Dover
1 that same hill the hill I mentioned (i.e. the cliff Gloucester described at the end of Act 4 Scene 1)
11 phrase and matter style and sense
17 choughs jackdaws or other birds of the crow family
17 wing fly across
17 midway i.e. middle regions of
18 gross large
19 samphire aromatic plant used in pickling; it was picked from cliffs by men suspended on ropes
22 yond yonder, that
22 bark small ship
23 her cock (the size of) her cock boat, a small boat towed behind a ship
25 th’unnumbered idle pebble countless insignificant pebbles
27 the deficient my defective
28 Topple topple me
32 leap upright jump up in the air
34 Here, friend’s here, friend, is
36 Prosper it cause it to prosper
40 trifle play
46 opposeless irresistible
47 My … nature the smoldering wick and hated remains of my life
51 conceit imagination
53 Yields submits willingly
54 this this time, now
56 pass die
57 What who (Edgar adopts another persona)
59 aught anything
60 precipitating falling headlong
61 shivered shattered
63 at each end to end
67 bourn boundary (between land and sea)
68 a-height on high
68 shrill-gorged shrill-throated
73 beguile cheat
84 whelked twisted
85 fiend i.e. tempting him to the sin of suicide