131. handy-dandy. Malone says, 'Handy-dandy is, I believe, a play among children, in which something is shaken between two hands, and then a guess is made in which hand it is retained. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1594: "Bazzicchiare, to shake betweene two hands, to play handy dandy.' It occurs in another sense in Piers Plowman (C), v. 68. 139. small. The folios read 'great.'

140-145. Plate . . . lips. Omitted in the quartos. Theobald corrected the 'Place' of the folios into 'Plate.' There is of course a reference to

plate armour.

143. I'll able them, I'll uphold or warrant them. Steevens quotes from Chapman's Widow's Tears [ii. 1; Works, iii. 29]:

'Admitted? I, into her heart, Ile able it.'

149. matter, good sense, meaning. See Hamlet, ii. 2. 95: More matter with less art.'

155. wawl, used of the cry of an infant.

'Hoüaller. To yawle, wawle, or cry out aloud.'

Cotgrave has (Fr. Dict.)

158. this', for this is,' a contraction found not unfrequently in the first folio, as for example in Measure for Measure, v. 1. 131:

'Words against mee? this' a good Fryer belike.'

And Taming of the Shrew, 2.45:

'Why this a heauie chance twixt him and you.'

Ib. block, used for the fashion of a hat. See Much Ado about Nothing, i. 1. 77: 'He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.' And Sir John Davies, Epigram xxii. 5:

'He weares a hat of the flat-crowne block.'

163. lay hand. common lay hands.'

The reading of the folios.

The quartos have the more

166. The natural fool of fortune. Steevens quotes Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1. 141: 'O, I am fortune's fool!'

167. surgeons. So the folios.

The quartos have 'a churgion' and 'a

chirurgeon'; whence Capell reads 'a surgeon.'

170. a man of salt, melting into salt tears. Compare Chapman, Widow's Tears, iv. I (vol. iii. p. 62): 'Ile not turne Salt-peeter in this vault for neuer

a mans companie liuing.'

172. Ay... sir. Omitted in the folios.

173. smug. Omitted in the quartos.

Ib. What! See i. 4. 326.

183. speed you, God speed you. Compare Winter's Tale, iii. 3. 46: Blossom, speed thee well!'

184. toward. See ii. I. 10.

185. vulgar, commonly known. Compare Hamlet, i. 2. 99%

'As common

As any the most vulgar thing to sense.'

188, 189. the main descry Stands on the hourly thought, the full view of the main body is hourly expected.

193. my worser spirit, like 'worser genius' in The Tempest, iv. i. 27. 196. tame to. The quartos have lame by,' with which may be compared Sonnet xxxvii. 3:

'So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite.'

197. feeling sorrows, touching sorrows, sorrows that move compassion. Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 2. 75: Frame some feeling line.' And Winter's Tale, iv. 2. 8: To whose feeling sorrows allay.'

might be some

Which blows these pitchy vapours from their biding.'

201. benison. See i. I. 258.

202. To boot, and boot. So the folios. Some copies of one of the quartos have, to saue thee,' the others read to boot, to boot.'

205. Briefly thyself remember, remember thy sins and confess them before death.

211. Edgar assumes the dialect of a Somersetshire or south-country peasant, not perhaps very accurately.

Ib. Chill, I will, contracted from 'ich will,' just as 'chud' is for 'ich would' or ich should.' In Grose's Provincial Glossary 'chell' is said to be used for 'I shall,' in Somerset and Devon, and cham' for 'I am' in Somerset. In Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra we find 'cham,' 'chy,' 'chaue,' 'chul.'

213. gait for way' is now confined to the north-country dialects. 216. che vore ye, I warn you. Capell quotes from an old comedy called the Contention between Liberality and Prodigality (1602):

Yoo by gisse sir tis high time che vore ye

Cham averd another will ha'te afore me.'

Ib. ise, I shall. The quartos have 'ile,' the folios ice.' In Somersetshire west of the Parret, 'Ise' is used still for 'I' and pronounced like 'ice.' See Jennings, Observations on some of the dialects in the West of England, s. v. Utchy.

217. costard, a humorous term for the head, perhaps from a costard apple. See Richard III, i. 4. 159: Take him over the costard with the hilts of thy sword.'

Ib. ballow, cudgel. Grose gives this as a north-country word. The quartos have 'bat,' and some copies of the earliest edition battero.' 219. Out, dunghill! Compare King John, iv. 3. 87 :

Out, dunghill darest thou brave a nobleman?'

221. foins, passes in fencing. Compare Much Ado about Nothing, v. 1.84: Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence.'

226. Upon the British party. See ii. 1. 26. The folios read English.' See note on iii. 4. 171.

234. deathsman, executioner. See Lucrece, 1001:

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For who so base would such an office have

As slanderous deathsman to so base a slave?'

235. Leave, give me leave, or by your leave; an apologetic exclamation. Compare Cymbeline, iii. 2. 35: 'Good wax, thy leave.'

236. we'ld. The folios read simply we.'

237. Their papers. Supply 'to rip,' from the previous line.

240. fruitfully, fully, plentifully. See All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 2. 73: 'Count. You understand me?

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Clo. Most fruitfully.'

But this in the mouth of the clown may have been an intentional blunder. 244. After servant' one of the quartos reads and for you her owne for Venter.'

246. O indistinguish'd space of woman's will! which is so wide reaching that its workings cannot be discovered. 'Indistinguish'd' is for 'indistinguishable.' See note on i. 2. 70. The earliest quarto reads 'indistinguisht'; the others, undistinguisht'; the folios ‘indinguish'd' and 'indistinguish'd.' For space,' see i. 1. 47. Theobald's remarks are worthy of being reproduced, though he takes a different view of the passage. 'Tis not the Extravagance, but the Mutability, of a Woman's Will that is here satiriz'd. The Change of which (our Author would be understood to say,) is so speedy, that there is no Space of time, no Distance, between the present Will and the next; but it is an undistinguish'd Space. This Sentiment may not be ill explain'd further from what honest Sancho, in Don Quixote, with infinite Humour says upon the Subject. Entre el Si y el No de la muger, no me atreveria yo à poner una punta d'Alfiler. Betwixt a Woman's Yea, and No, I would not undertake to thrust a Pin's Point.' Without calling in question the absolute truth of Sancho's profound observation, it is at least allowable to doubt the propriety of applying it in the present case. Edgar's astonishment is not at the fickleness and caprice of Goneril, but at the enormous wickedness of the plot which her letter revealed.

249. rake up, cover with earth. In the north, to rake the fire at night is to cover it with fuel. See Heywood's Proverbs (Spenser Soc. ed.), p. 48. 'We parted, and this within a daie or twayne,

Was raakt vp in thashes, and couerd agayne.'

252. death-practised, whose death is plotted.

255. ingenious, delicately sensitive, intelligent. Compare Hamlet, v. 1. 271: Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Deprived thee of.'

257. sever'd. The quartos have 'fenced.'

Scene VII.

Enter Cordelia, Kent, and Doctor. So the quartos.

The folios have

Gentleman,' but both are necessary, as appears from the dialogue. Lear is

on a bed in the back of the tent.

4. o'er-paid, that is to be overpaid.

6. clipp'd, diminished, curtailed.

Ib. suited, dressed. See Cymbeline, v. I. 23:

I'll disrobe me

Of these Italian weeds, and suit myself

As does a Briton peasant.'

7. These weeds, this dress. A.S. wed, clothing. So in Coriolanus, ii. 3. 161:

With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds.'

Ib. memories, memorials. Compare As You Like It, ii. 2. 3, and Coriolanus, v. I. 17:

A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,

To make coals cheap,-a noble memory!'

9. my made intent, the plan I had formed.

13. sleeps. For the omission of the nominative see ii. 4. 41.
16. The untuned and jarring senses. Compare Hamlet, iii. 1. 166:
'Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.'

For 'jarring,' the quartos read' hurrying.'

Ib. wind up, as if they were strings of some musical instrument.

17. child-changed, changed by the unnatural conduct of his children. Some understand it as meaning changed to a child, but Lear's malady was insanity, not childishness.

20. After this line the folios have the stage direction, 'Enter Lear in a chaire carried by servants.'

24. temperance, calmness and self-restraint.

3. 28:

Compare Coriolanus, iii.

'Being once chafed, he cannot

Be rein'd again to temperance.' 31. challenged, claimed. See i. I. 44. 32. opposed. The quartos read exposd.' Ib. warring. So the quartos.

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The folios read 'iarring' or 'jarring."

33-36. To stand... helm? omitted in the folios.

35. perdu, forlorn one, as one of a forlorn hope on some desperate night errand. In another sense it is found in a passage quoted by Capell from Chapman's Widow's Tears, ii. 1 (Works, iii. 23):

'Whom prophane Ruffins

Debaucht perdu's haue by their companies
Turn'd Deuill like themselues.'

Cotgrave says (Fr. Dict.), 'Enfans perdus. Perdus; or the forlorne hope, of a campe (are commonly Gentlemen of Companies)'. Whalley quotes from Beaumont and Fletcher, The Little French Lawyer, ii. 3: 'I am set here like a perdue,

To watch a fellow that has wrong'd my mistress.'

36. enemy's. The quartos read iniurious,' and hence Capell 'injurer's.' 38. fain, glad (A. S. fægn), and in a derived sense, obliged from having no other choice. Compare Luke xv. 16, where it occurs as an adverb: 'And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat.'

39. To hovel thee. Compare cabin' used as a verb in Titus Andronicus, iv. 2. 179: And cabin in a cave.'

41. wonder, used for 'wonderful,' just as in Bacon frequently we find 'reason' for 'reasonable.' See for instance Essay xi. p. 39: Nay, retire Men cannot, when they would; neither will they, when it were Reason.' It occurs in Chaucer, Squyeres Tale (Canterbury Tales, 1. 10562, ed. T. Wright):

Tho speeken they of Canacees ryng,

And seyden alle, that such a wonder thing
Of craft of rynges herd they never noon.'
Again in the Knight's Tale, 1. 2075 (ed. Tyrwhitt):
'Ther saw I many another wonder storie.'
Compare it is danger,' L 79, for it is dangerous.'

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42. Had not concluded all, had not come to an end altogether. For 'all' in this sense see Timon of Athens, i. 1. 139:

'If in her marriage my consent be missing,

I call the gods to witness, I will choose

Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world,

And dispossess her all.'

55. abused. See ii. 2. 145. Or it may refer, as Johnson understands it, to the confusion and uncertainty of Lear's mind in which his senses deceive him. See iv. I. 23, and below, 1. 79.

66. mainly, greatly, mightily. In the sense of their might,' it occurs in I Henry IV, ii. 4. 222: a-front, and mainly thrust at me.'

68. nor I know not. See The Tempest, i. 2. 406:

violently,' 'with all These four came all

This is no mortal business, nor no sound

That the earth owes.'

77. abuse. See iv. I. 23.

79. kill'd. The quartos have cured.'

79, 80. and yet. .last. Omitted in the folios.

79. danger. See above, 1. 41.

80. even o'er, smooth over, render what had passed unbroken in his