Page 344 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

5.3. NOTE S 269
169-72. The gods...eyes 'The dramatic answer to
Glou.'s cry, 4. 1. 36' (Muir). 'Lear, intemperate in.
mind, is betrayed by unfilial daughters and loses the light
of his mind; Glo., intemperate in body, is betrayed by
his bastard son and loses the light of his body' (R. W.
David). 169. pleasant see G.
173. here i.e. I end as I began at the lowest point of
Fortune's wheel.
174. S.D. (Han.).
176. split my heart Cf. R, III, T. 3. 300; W.T. T. 2.
349. 177. Worthy see G. 182. The...proclama-
tion see 2. 1. 60-3, 110-11; 2. 3. 1-3.
183-5. F's brackets.
183. life's (J.C.M.) Q, F 'Hues', all edd. 'lives'',
but the meaning, Maxwell notes, is rather 'the sweet-
ness that life has for us' than 'the sweetness of our
(several) lives'.
184-5. zve...once=Mve prefer to suffer the pain of
death every hour than to have done with it by dying at
once.
186. /'(F) Q (+Camb.) 'To'.
191. Brackets in Q, F. fault='mistake* or perh.
'misfortune' (cf. Per. 4. 2. 73; M.W.W. I. I. 87;
3. 3. 208). See 4. 1. 38-9,11.
193. this good success i.e. his defeat of Edm. SeeG.
'success'.
195. our pilgrimage our wanderings about together.
!Perh. with a Christian significance—by the end of the
journey Glo.'s soul is saved. [G.I.D., withdrawing Q's
l
my pilgrimage', see 1949 ed., p. 191.]
195-8. But his flawed he art...smilingly Cf. Lear's
death—and the account of the old blind king's death ia
Sidney's Arcadia (quoted at 1. 310, n.).
196. Brackets <F; Q om.
202. dissolve i.e. to tears. Cf. Ant. 5. 2. 298-9.
203-20. Edgar. This...slape. From Q; F om.