Page 316 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

4.3« NOTES 241
20. Were...way (K. <Singer) Q 'Were like a
better way'. I.e. were like that, but were even more
attractive. See n. in the 1949 ed., and for another inter-
pretation Jespersen in S.P.E. XLVIII, 270-1.
21. ripe='ie& and full' (On.) like cherries (see
H. 18-25, n.) seemed- (Pope) Q 'seeme'.
25. could...it=COVL11 make it so becoming, question
see G.
30. not believe it (<Pope) Q 'not be beleeft'. £> 2
(+Camb.; G.I.D. 1949) 'not be beleeu'd'—wh. Mai.
explained 'Let not such a thing as pity be supposed to
exist'. Pope's text gives better verse and a meaning apter
to the context. Poss. Q copy read 'not beleeft' (=not
believe it) and the 'be' was added in proof [J.D.W.].
30-1. There...eyes Cf. Introd. p. xx-xxi and G.
'holy water'.
31-2. eyes That clamour (J.D.W.) Q 'eyes, And
clamour*. Mai. interprets Q 'she moisten'd clamour,
or the exclamations she had uttered, with tears'. But it
is her clamour (cries of grief) that moistens her eyes, not
vice versa.
32. clamour moistened} then (Cap.+Camb.) Q
'clamour moystened her, then'. As Mai. noted, the Q
comp.'s eye caught the hypermetrical 'her' from the
line above. But the comp. had hold of the right meaning,
which Mai. had not.
34. conditions see G.
35. make see G.
38. King sc. of France. Cf. 1. T.
43. elbows him=either (i) 'stands at his elbow*
(W.A.W.) i.e. 'haunts' (Schmidt); K. ditto, citing
Marlowe, Ed. II, 5.1.32-3, 'this cave of care [ Where
sorrow at my elbow still attends'; or (ii) 'forcibly
thrusts him back' (Craig); cf. 'detains him' (1. 48).
44. turned her sc. out.
5 2. Some dear cause We are never told what.