King Lear

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Act 1 Scene 1

^1.1Location: the royal court, Britain

¹affected favored

⁵qualities … moiety their qualities are so evenly balanced that the most careful scrutiny cannot distinguish between either man’s share

⁸breeding upbringing (plays on the sense of “conception”) charge cost (plays on the sense of “accusation, blame”)

⁹brazed made brazen, hardened

¹⁰conceive understand (Gloucester then plays on sense of “become pregnant”)

¹³ere before

¹⁴fault transgression/loss of scent during a hunt/vagina

¹⁵undone plays on the sense of “not copulated with” issue outcome/child

¹⁶proper handsome/worthy/rightful

¹⁷by … law legitimate

¹⁷some year about a year

¹⁸dearer more beloved (plays on the sense of “more expensive”)

¹⁸account estimation (plays on the financial sense)

²¹whoreson i.e. bastard (here used affectionately)

²⁷sue entreat, seek

²⁸deserving to be worthy of (your esteem)

²⁹out 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)

^1.1Sennet trumpet call signaling a procession

^1.1bearing 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)

³¹Attend wait on, look after

³⁴darker secret (with sinister connotations)

³⁶fast intent firm intention

³⁷business official duties/exertion/anxiety

³⁹son i.e. son-in-law (like Albany)

⁴¹constant will unshakable intention

⁴¹publish proclaim, make public

⁴²several dowers individual dowries

⁴²that so that

⁴⁵sojourn stay

⁴⁸Interest possession

⁵⁰bounty generosity/gift

⁵¹nature … challenge natural affection, combined with merit, makes a claim

⁵³wield express

⁵⁶grace virtue

⁵⁸makes breath poor makes words insufficient/renders one breathless (in the attempt to express it)

⁵⁸unable inadequate

⁵⁹all … much i.e. all possible expressions of the amount of love

⁶¹bounds territories

⁶²shadowy shady

⁶²champaigns riched rich open countryside

⁶³wide-skirted meads extensive meadows

⁶⁷self-mettle same temperament/same substance (“metal”)

⁶⁸prize … worth value myself in equal terms

⁶⁹deed action, performance/bond, legal document

⁷⁰that in that

⁷²square of sense guiding principle governing the senses/(physical or mental) region of the senses

⁷³alone felicitate only happy

⁷⁷ponderous weighty

⁷⁸hereditary by inheritance

⁸⁰validity value

⁸³vines … Burgundy Lear characterizes France and Burgundy by their assets: vineyards and cattle pastures

⁸⁴interessed admitted, given a share

⁸⁴draw attract/receive, collect/pull forth (as one “draws lots”)

⁹²bond duty (with connotations both of a binding legal agreement and of restrictive shackles)

⁹³Mend improve

⁹⁴mar spoil

⁹⁶begot conceived, fathered

⁹⁶bred raised, brought up

¹⁰¹plight pledge, promise

¹⁰⁶untender hard/cruel (plays on the sense of “not young”)

¹¹⁰Hecate Greek goddess of witchcraft and the moon

¹¹¹operation movement and astrological influence

¹¹¹orbs planets

¹¹⁴Propinquity … blood close ties of kinship

¹¹⁶this this time (or Lear gestures toward himself)

¹¹⁶Scythian person from Scythia, an ancient region extending over much of eastern Europe and Asiatic Russia, notorious for its barbarous inhabitants