Page 330 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

4.6. NOTES 255

is the letter finishing 'and you own Goneril for venture*
(J.D.W.).
268. O...zoill! 'O woman's lust, how limitless is
thy range!'(K.).
269. upon=against. Cf. G. 'on'.
270-2. Here...lechers•=I'il shovel thee into an un-
sanctified grave here in the sands, messenger of lecherous
murderers. Perh. 'unsanctified'=unsanctifiable. Edg.
speaks as if they were actually on Dover beach. The
'sands' were convenient to the context and Sh. prob.
felt he might risk the inconsistency. But how was the
body disposed of on the stage? Does Edg. drag it 'off'
at 1. 27 5, leaving Glo. talking, and then return at 1.2 81 ?
271. tkou.post (Furn. conj.) F 'the poste'.
272. mature Accented 'mature'.
273. strike see G. 274. death-practised see G.
277. ingenious feeling acute consciousness; see G.
'ingenious'. 281. S.D. (F).
283. S.D. F 'Exeunt.'.

4-7

S.D. Zor. (Steev. after Cap.) Entry (Craig) F 'Enter
Cordelia, Kent, and Gentleman'. Q 'Enter Cordelia,
Kent, and Doctor'. Both Gent, and Doct. are needed
in the full sc. but F cuts 11. 85-97, and so saves a 'part*
by combining them. See p. 124.
Though F (+Delius, Craig, K., Muir, etc.) has at
1. 20 the S.D. 'Enter Lear in a chaire carried by
Seruants', Camb.+most mod. edd. begin the sc. with a
discovery of 'Lear on a bed asleep'. Apart from the fact
that Sh. envisaged no inner stage in this play (see Greg
in R.E.S. xvi, 300-3), Bradley (Sh. Trag. pp. 453 ff.)
notes this opening 'discovery' as 'utterly wrong' and
going far to defeat Sh.'s purpose. This sc. 'shows the
first meeting of Cord, and Kent, and the first meeting of