Page 284 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

3.4. NOTES 209
window* (K.)—cf. O.Fr. *puye'=balcony. But
O.E.D. gives no support. The ord. meaning 'seat in
church' wd make the temptation more sinister.
55-6. ride four-inched bridges Cf. the half-witted
tailor in The Magnetic Lady, v, i, 8 (Jonson, vi, 589),
who speaks of running 'over two-inch bridges'. Perh.
proverbial; in any case <Lat. prov. 'ire per extentum
funem', to walk the tight-rope, to perform a very
difficult feat. Cf. 1. 144, n.
course...traitor i.e. like a cat chasing its tail. Cf.
'
Tilley, S 281, To be afraid of one's own shadow'.
Bless <Q)=(May God) protect or save. F 'blisse'—
(
also in 1. 58.
57. Jive wits the mental powers enumerated by
Hawes (Pastime of Pleasure, xxiv, 2) as common wit,
imagination, fantasy, estimation, memory [Mai.] Cf.
Son. 141. 0, dode, do de t do de. (<F) Q om. His
teeth chatter.
60-1. There...there! He snatches 'at different parts
of his body as if to catch vermin—or devils' (K.). Cf.
3.6.17'bites my back', and there! <F) Qom. S.D.
(
(F) Qom.
62. What, has his (G.I.D.) Q, 'What, his', F 'Ha's
his'. Prob. F comp. took collator's 'has' as substitute
not supplement. Cf. 1949 ed. pp. 15-16. Camb.
(<Theob.) 'What, have his'.
64. reserved He recalls the 'reservation' at 1.1.132;
2. 4. 248. The hundred knights had barely concealed
Lear's beggary.
67. Hang...faults Cf, R. II, I. 3. 284, 'Devouring
pestilence hangs in our air', and Harsnett, p. 159, 'that
all the sensible accidents should be made pendulous in
the air'.
69. subdued nature=brought down a human being.
72. thus...flesh Refers to the pins or thorns Edg. has
stuck in his arms. Cf. 2. 3. 15-16. At this Edwin