Page 241 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

x66 NOTES 1.4.

Lyly was prob. parodying a proverb familiar to the
audience, the speaker being Silena a she-fool. In any
case Sh.'s Fool is clearly himself parodying either Lyly
or the original proverb: 'Fools had never less wit in a
year'(Tilley,F 535).
169. Their... apish They behave so idiotically.
172. e'er (F'ere') Q (+Camb.) 'euer'.
173. mothers (F) £) (+Camb.) 'mother'. Two
daughters=two mothers. Perh. the Fool recalls Lear's
hope to find with Cord, a 'kind nursery' (1.1.123); the
nurseries of Gon. and Reg. not being kind.
173-4. thou gav'st... breeches Cf. Tilley, R153,
'He has made a rod for his own back'.
17 5-8. Then... among Adaptation of the first stanza
of a well-known godly Ballet of John Carelesse
(1586): 'Some men for sodayne ioye do wepe, | And
some in sorow syng: | When that they lie in daunger
depe, j To put away mourning' [H. E. Rollins, M.L.R.
(1920), pp. 87-9; cited Muir].
177-8. play bo-peep...fools among Cf.'Bo-peep'in
J.'s Diet. 'The act of looking out, and drawing back as if
frighted or with the purpose to fright some other'—
wh. well describes the childish way Lear has been going
on (e.g. cf. 1.1.171, n.). App. a game usual with fools
as well as children. Cf. Skelton Image Hypocrisy {Wh.
11, 420), 'Thus you make vs sottes And play with vs
boopeepe' [cited Tilley, B 540]. Not elsewh. in Sh. but
occurs on p. 61 in Harsnett, as Muir notes, fools (Q)
F 'Foole'.
183-5. they'II...peace Such has been his treatment
since he came with Lear to live with Gon. Cf. 1.113, n.
for...peace Perh. because he is too sad to jest.
187. zoit= judgement, intelligence.
188. S.D. (F,Q).
189-90. frontlet=lk. a band worn across the fore-
head; here fig. a wrinkled frown. [<D.N.S.]