Page 293 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

ai8 NOTES 3.4.

reflecting Horace, cited 1. 144, n., and here meaning
members of ancient Greek universities, perh. hinting at
Cambridge and Oxford. Cf. Dryden, Prologue to the
Univ. of Oxford(Kinsley, 1, 375):
Thebes did His Green, unknowing Youth ingagej
He chuses Athens in His Riper Age—
Thebans being considered less cultivated than Athenians.
Note that Lear comes to think more highly of his
philosopher as time goes on.
158. study = special branch of 'philosophy'. See
also G.
'
159-60. How...in private. We can guess what the
question wd have been.—How did he kill his daughters ?'
Blunden, op. cit. p. 332.
162. His...unsettle. 'Very significant as to the
history of Lear's madness. Cf. 3.2.67...and enough to
disprove the theory...that Lear is a sufferer from "senile
dementia", at the very beginning of the play' (K.).
S.D. (F).
171. Grace—(Cap.) Q, F 'grace.' cry.,.sir i.e. by
your leave, sir. Glo. takes his arm, trying to separate
him from his 'philosopher'; Lear refuses.
175. all Emphatic. This way i.e. away from the
hovel and towards the house (cf. 1. 153). him! Em-
phatic. If Edg. stays in the hovel, so will Lear.
177. soothe humour.
181. hush! A sign (to the audience) that they will
be sheltering in a house near the castle.
182-4. Childe...man. Edg., warned by GIo.'s
'hush!', is himself the Childe venturing into a dark
house where the unknown awaits him. He is also Jack
invisible, of noble British blood, though outlawed from
it (1. 167).
182. Childe...came. Prob. from a lost ballad,
alluded to again (J.C.M. notes) in Beaumont and