Page 290 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

3-4. N O T E S
Untill such time as he hir found,
He hir beat and he hir bound,
Untill hir troth she to him plight
She would not come to hir that night.
The 'hir' in 1. 3 we take to be the woman suffering
from indigestion and 'our ladies' in 1. 1 to be 'our
Lady's'. See Montague Summers' ed. of Scot (1930),
p. 49. flight- (J.D.W.) Q, F 'plight,'
124. And aroint...thee! Addressed to the witch at
whose orders the Incubus had visited its victim.
125. How...grace? (Q, F) Sisson gives to Glo. But
the words are in keeping with Kent's tender solicitude
throughout (e.g. 3. 6. 33—4, 'How do you, Sir?...Will
you lie down', etc.). Glo. is still coming up and first
addresses them in 1. 128. Cf. 1. 115, n.
130. tadpole (J.) F 'Tod-pole'. Cf. Tit. (Q) 4.2.85
'tadpole', the wall-newt...water The term 'wall-
newt' (= ?lizard) is app. not known elsewh. and may
be Sh.'s coinage to distinguish it from the water-newt
(=newt or triton). Poss. he wrote 'water-newt',
which Rowe read, and Q, F omitted 'newt'.
131. the fury.. .rages Refers to the Abram-man's fits
of pretended madness, put on to terrify people. Cf. .3.
2
14, n.
134-5. whipped...imprisoned Ace. to the Statute of
1572 'For the punishment of Vacabondes' [see
Chambers, Eliz. Stage, iv, 269]. See also extract from
Harrison, Description of England (1587), in JJD.W.'s
Life in Sh.'s England (Penguin), pp. 296-300.
stock-punished (<Q) F 'stockt, punish'd'.
135. hathhad (Q + Camb.) F'hath'. Seei949ed.
p. 179. three suits...six shirts The allowance for a
gentleman's servant (cf. 1. 84, n. and 2. 2. 14-15, n.).
137. Verse in F, prose in Q (+Camb.).
138-9. But mice...year. Adapted from lines in the
Middle English romance Bevis of Hampton.