Page 259 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

184 NOTES 2.2.
commonly taken as a pun on 'a Jakes', accounts for the
suddenness of Corn.'s outburst of anger, otherwise odd
(<O. Jespersen in S.P.E. Tract, xxxm, 424). Neither
K.'s interpretation: 'the great hero Ajax is (by their own
account) a fool in comparison with them\ nor Cap.'s
'Ajax in bragging is a fool to them' seems to fit the
context. And where else does Sh. see Ajax as a 'hero' ?
123. the stocks 'Formerly in great houses, as still in
some colleges, there were moveable stocks for the
correction of servants' (R. Farmer, 1767 ap. Furn.). In
T.L.S. 30 Sept. 1949, G. M. Young cites 'briefe
notes of orders to be observed in the household of the
fifth Earl of Huntingdon' from MSS. c. 1604, which
show that Kent's 'stocking' was 'strictly in accordance
with the discipline observed in a great house of the time'
[Muir].
124. ancient (F) Q uncorr. 'ausrent' (<copy-sp.
'ansient'). Q corr. 'miscreant' is a good ex. of" con-
jecture by the Q press-reader, reverend (Pope, subs.)
Q, F 'reuerent'. Sarcastic. Sh. uses the two forms
indiscriminately.
130. Stocking (F) Q uncorr.'Stobing'(misreading
of 'Stoking'), Q corr. 'Stopping'—another con-
jectural correction. Cf. Greg, Variants, p. 159.
134. should=would.
136. speaks of (F) sc. in her letter (cf. 1. 3.. 26;
1.4.3 3 5), i.e. Kent is behaving like the allegedly unruly
knights, bring away=bring along. S.D.. (F) Placed as
by Dyce; at 1. 134 in F.
138-42. His fault...ill (Q) F om. 'His fault...
punished with', and for *The...ill' (1. 142) reads 'The
King his Master, els must take it ill'—a clear case of
deliberate abridgement.
140. basest and contemned'st (Cap.) Q uncorr.
'belest and contaned', corr. 'basest and temnest'. See
Greg. Variants, p. 159.