Page 348 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

5-3. NOTE S 273
arms, whom this man just come in somehow resembles.
'Who are you ?' he asks, coming close and peering into
his face. What answer can Kent make? The usual
interpretation of his words, and one accepted by
Bradley (p. 465) takes them as addressed to the audience
or the world in general and to refer to the misery of Lear
alone. But the 'we' is not general; Kent and Lear are
gazing into each other's eyes; the servant is speaking to
his lord and master. 'Were there ever in history', he
says, 'two who fell from greater happiness into greater
misery than you and I?' Or, as Capell expounded the
lines as long ago as 1779 {Notes, pp. 188—9):
The two objects of fortune's love and her hate are—himself
and his master:...and of these two, says the speaker, you
(the person spoke to) behold one, and I another.

It is an appeal for understanding, for pardon perhaps, in
the name of their fellowship, not now in battle, but in
suffering. And it fails; for though Lear speaks his name,
that enfeebled mind cannot accomplish the feat of
associating 'Kent' with 'Caius', and has forgotten both
by 1. 289, so that for Kent 'all's cheerless, dark, and
deadly' indeed.
282. This.. .sight. He cannot believe his eyes which,
'not o' th' best', he thinks must be deceiving him. 'Are
you not Kent?' he asks in astonishment. Many take
'This' as referring to the dead Cord.
283. Caius The name Kent had used in disguise.
285. strike sc. in defence of his master.
286. man— (Pope +Camb.) Q, F 'man,'.
287. I'll.. .straight=' I'll attend to that in a moment'.
The mind returns to Cord.: Caius-Kent has ceased to
interest him.
288. your.. .decay = the beginning of your change and
of your decline in fortune.
289. steps— (Rowe) Q, F 'steps.'. You...welcome