That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,
Should make thee worth them.--Blasts and fogs upon thee!
The untented woundings of a father's curse
Pierce every sense about thee!--Old fond eyes,
Beweep this cause again]
I will transcribe this passage from the first edition, that it may
appear to those who are unacquainted with old books, what is the
difficulty of revision, and what indulgence is due to those that
endeavour to restore corrupted passages.--_That these hot tears, that
breake from me perforce, should make the worst blasts and fogs upon the
untender woundings of a father's curse, peruse every sense about the old
fond eyes, beweep this cause again, &c._
I.iv.362 (358,3) compact it more] Unite one circumstance with another,
so as to make a consistent account.
I.iv.366 (358,4) You are much more at task for want of wisdom] It is a
common phrase now with parents and governesses. _I'll take you to task_,
i.e. _I will reprehend and correct you. To be at task_, therefore, is to
be liable to _reprehension and correction_. (1773)
I.v.5 (358,1) I shall be there afore you] He seems to intend to go to
his daughter, but it appears afterwards that he is going to the house of
Glo'ster.
I.v.25 (359,2) I did her wrong] He is musing on Cordelia.
I.v.42 (359,3) To take it again perforce!] He is meditating on the
resumption of his royalty.
II.i.9 (360,1) ear-kissing arguments] Subjects of discourse; topics.
II.i.19 (361,2) queazy question] Something of a _suspicious,
questionable, and uncertain nature_. This is, I think, the meaning.
II.i.27 (361,4) have you nothing said/Upon his party 'gainst the duke of
Albany?] I cannot but think the line corrupted, and would read,
_Against_ his party, _for_ the duke of Albany?
II.i.57 (363,7) gasted] Frighted.
II.i.59 (363,8) Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;/And
found--Dispatch] [Not in this land shall he remain uncaught; And found
dispatch--the noble duke, &c.]
[W: found, dispatch'd.] I do not see how this change mends the sense: I
think it may be better regulated as in the page above. The sense is
interrupted. He shall be caught--and found, _he shall be punished_.
Dispatch.
II.i.67 (363,2) And found him pight to do it, with curst speech] _Pight_
is _pitched_, fixed, settled. _Curst_ is severe, harsh, vehemently
angry.
II.i.122 (366,7) Occasions, noble Glo'ster, of some prize] [W: poize]
_Prize_, or _price_, for value. (1773)
II.i.126 (366,8) from our home] Not at home, but at some other place.
II.ii.9 (367,1) Lipsbury pinfold] The allusion which seems to be
contained in this line I do not understand. In the violent eruption of
reproaches which bursts from Kent in this dialogue, there are some
epithets which the commentators have left unexpounded, and which I am
not very able to make clear. Of a _three-suited knave_ I know not the
meaning, unless it be that he has different dresses for different
occupations. _Lilly-liver'd_ is _cowardly_; _white-blooded_ and
_white-liver'd_ are still in vulgar use. An _one-trunk-inheriting
slave_, I take to be a wearer of old cast-off cloaths, an inheritor of
torn breeches.
II.ii.36 (368,4) barber-monger] Of this word I do not clearly see the
force.
II.ii.39 (368,5) Vanity the puppet's] Alluding to the mysteries or
allegorical shews, in which vanity, iniquity, and other vices, were
personified.
II.ii.45 (369,6) neat slave] You mere slave, you very slave.
II.ii.69 (369,8) Thou whoreson zed; thou unnecessary letter!] I do not
well understand how a man is reproached by being called _zed_, nor how Z
is an _unnecessary letter_. Scarron compares his deformity to the shape
of Z, and it may be a proper word of insult to a crook-backed man; but
why should Gonerill's steward be crooked, unless the allusion be to his
bending or cringing posture in the presence of his superiors. Perhaps it
was written, _thou whoreson_ C (for cuckold) _thou unnecessary letter_.
C is a letter unnecessary in our alphabet, one of its two sounds being
represented by S, and one by K. But all the copies concur in the common
reading.
II.ii.87 (371,3) epileptic visage!] The frighted countenance of a man
ready to fall in a fit.
II.ii.103 (372,5) constrains the garb/Quite from his nature] Forces his
_outside_ or his _appearance_ to something totally _different from_ his
natural disposition.
II.ii.109 (372,8) Than twenty silly ducking observants] [W: silky] The
alteration is more ingenious than the arguments by which it is
supported.
II.ii.119 (373,8) though I should win your displeasure to intreat me
to't] Though I should win you, displeased as you now are, to like me so
well as to intreat me to be a knave.