King Lear

⁹⁴suum, mun presumably Edgar imitates the sounds of the wind

⁹⁴nonny often used as part of a refrain in popular songs

⁹⁵Dolphin … by perhaps Edgar addresses an imaginary horse; sessa is a cry of encouragement used in hunting or may derive from the French cessez (“stop”)

⁹⁶answer face, encounter

⁹⁹cat no perfume the secretions of the anal glands of the civet cat are used to make perfume

¹⁰⁰on’s of us

¹⁰⁰sophisticated not simple or natural

¹⁰¹unaccommodated unprovided for (i.e. not wearing clothes)

¹⁰²lendings clothes that are “lent” only, not part of him

¹⁰⁴naughty nasty, wicked

¹⁰⁷walking fire i.e. Gloucester and his torch

¹⁰⁸Flibbertigibbet the name of a devil (all of the devils Edgar mentions are to be found in Samuel Harsnett’s 1603 Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures)

¹⁰⁸curfew i.e. nightfall

¹⁰⁹cock cockcrow

¹⁰⁹web … pin cataract of the eye

¹¹⁰squints causes to squint

¹¹²old wold, downs

¹¹²swithold probably Saint Withold, apparently a protector from harm

¹¹²footed thrice walked three times

¹¹³nightmare evil female spirit supposed to settle upon a sleeper’s chest, inducing bad dreams and feelings of suffocation

¹¹³nine-fold perhaps the imps who attend her

¹¹⁵her troth plight give a solemn promise (to do no more harm)

¹¹⁶aroint begone (used to witches and demons)

¹¹⁸What’s who’s

¹²²wall-newt i.e. lizard on the wall

¹²²water i.e. water newt

¹²⁴ditch-dog i.e. dead dog in a ditch

¹²⁵mantle scum

¹²⁵standing stagnant

¹²⁵whipped the standard punishment for vagabonds

¹²⁶tithing parish

¹²⁷three … shirts the clothing allowance of a servant

¹²⁹deer animals

¹³¹Smulkin the name of a devil (that, according to Harsnett, took the form of a mouse)

¹³³The … darkness the devil

¹³³Modo … Mahu the names of two devils

¹³⁵flesh and blood i.e. children (Gloucester is thinking of Edgar, Goneril, and Regan)

¹³⁵vile debased, corrupted

¹³⁶gets begets, conceives

¹⁴⁷Theban i.e. Greek philosopher (from Thebes)

¹⁴⁹prevent forestall, thwart

¹⁵¹Importune urge

¹⁵²t’unsettle to be disturbed

¹⁵⁸blood lineage, family

¹⁶³cry you mercy excuse me

¹⁷⁰keep still remain

¹⁷¹soothe indulge, humor

¹⁷²him you on him along with you

¹⁷⁴Athenian i.e. Greek philosopher (from Athens)

¹⁷⁶Child … came perhaps a line from a lost ballad about the legendary French hero Roland (Child was the title for a young man seeking knighthood)

¹⁷⁷word password/customary saying

¹⁷⁷still always

¹⁷⁷fie … man the cry of the giant in the children’s tale of Jack the giant-killer

Act 3 Scene 5

^3.5Location: the Earl of Gloucester’s residence

¹his i.e. Gloucester’s

²nature natural familial affection

³something fears somewhat frightens

⁵his i.e. Gloucester’s

⁵provoking … himself Edgar’s sense of his own worth, provoked into action by Gloucester’s reprehensible badness/a provoking quality in Gloucester, which incited Edgar’s reprehensible wickedness

⁸to be of being

⁹approves proves

⁹an intelligent party a spy, an informer

¹⁷apprehension arrest

¹⁹his suspicion suspicion of Gloucester

Act 3 Scene 6

^3.6Location: unspecified; presumably an outbuilding on the Earl of Gloucester’s estate

²piece out supplement

⁵impatience anger/inability to bear suffering

⁶Frateretto the name of a devil; in Harsnett he is associated with a “fiddler,” which perhaps suggests Nero, the first-century Roman emperor who famously played the fiddle while Rome burned

⁶angler fisherman/thief

⁷lake of darkness presumably the Stygian lake of the classical underworld, but a phallic fishing rod and vaginal dark lake may also be implied; perhaps Nero’s murder of his own mother is glanced at—she reportedly asked to be stabbed in the womb as this was where her son had grown

¹⁰yeoman land owner below the rank of gentleman

¹²to as

¹³mad sense now shifts to “angry”

¹⁵a thousand i.e. a thousand devils

¹⁶hizzing hissing

¹⁶’em them i.e. Goneril and Regan; the Quarto text continues at this point with an imaginary “arraignment” of Goneril (see “Quarto Passages That Do Not Appear in the Folio,” p. 132)

²¹mar my counterfeiting spoil my pretense