Page 325 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

NOTES 4.6.

magistrate's bench. For the rbbes used in the Law
Courts, see Sh. Eng. 11, 395-7. hide all i.e. cover a
multitude of sins. .Muir cites Lucr, 93, 'Hiding base
sin in plaits of majesty'.
164-9. P^te.,.lips (<F) Q om. Plate sin
(Theob. ii+Camb.) F 'Place sinnes'. For t; c mis-
reading cf. 3.1.10, n. With'it' (1.166) a sing, is needed.
167. None...none The scene of the woman taken in
adultery (St John viii. 3-11) seems to be at the back of
Lear's mind.
168-9. Take...lips. Hitherto unexplained. K.
thinks that 'Lear imagines that Glo. is a criminal, and
makes a gesture as if he were handing him a pardon
signed and sealed'; Muir alternatively that 'that'=this
'piece of information'. But the context suggests
prosecutors open to bribery: Lear having money (i.e.
'the power to seal th'accuser's lips') offers it to the
penniless Glo. (see 1.145) to 'able' (see G.) him, i.e. to
enable him to win his case or to escape a verdict. The
money is, of course, illusory, like the press-money of
1. 87. Lear's thought-processes change abruptly; and
next moment he seems to suggest that Glo. shd use the
'money' to buy spectacles ('glass eyes').
170-1. like...dost not Lear seems still to speak of
lawyers who make themselves blind by poring over old
deeds to discover imaginary points, politician see G.
Not the mod. sense.
171-2. Now...boots He imagines he has just come
home from hunting (K.).
173-4. Cap.'s 'aside'. Cf. Laertes' comments on
Ophelia's madness, Ham. 4. 5. 173, 177, 187-8.
177. Thou...patient Cf. 5. 2. 9-11, and Introd.
p. xliii. patient=rea.dy to endure. I77~9- We came
crying etc. Cf. Tilley, W 889, 'We weeping come into
the world'; D 82, 'I wept when I was born'*
179. wawl (<F) Q 'wayl'.