Page 276 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

3.8. NOTES 201
44. wanderers.,.dark=t.%. wild beasts.
50. pudder(F) Q (+Camb.) 'Powther'. As Muir
notes, Lamb preferred 'pudder'. (See Misc. Prose, ed.
E.V.Lucas, p. 125).
51. their enemies i.e. secret criminals.
53. Unwhippedof Unpunished by. Cf. Ham. 2.2.
533 'use every man after his desert, and who shall scape
whipping?'
54. simular tif(F) see G. Q (+Camb.) 'simular
man of—prob. memorial anticipation: Q here reflects
the verbal pattern of 3. 6. 36, 'Thou robed man of
justice'; 'justice' (1. 53), is the prob. memorial link.
57. Hast(Q) F'Ha's'. Close (adj.) = secret.
58-9. cry...grace, beg mercy from these dreadful
officers of God's justice. See G. 'grace'. summoners=*
ecclesiastical officers—to serve God's summons upon
sinners.
59-60. I am...sinning i.e. Unlike these sinners I do
not merit the wrath of the 'great gods'. Lear is not yet
radically changed.
64-6. Brackets <F; Q om.
67. My wits...turn. From this point he becomes
aware of the sufferings of others; cf. 11. 72-3.
70-1. The...precious, i.e. Poverty is $ strange
alchemist. See G. 'art', 'necessity'.
r
71. Jnd(F) Q(+Camb.)'that . vile (Pope) F
'vilde'—the usual Sh. form.
71-2. precious...I An excellent example of Q's
defective comma punctuation. F 'precious. Come,
your Houel; | Poore Foole, and Knaue, '; Q 'precious,
I
Come you houell poore, | Foole and knaue, '.
I
72-3. Poor fool...for thee. First utterance of 'the
blessed spirit of kindness' (Bradley, p. 287).
74-7. He that...day Clearly connected with Feste's
song at the end of T10.N., thought by some to be non-
Sh. This, even if traditional, must be Sh.'s by adoption,