Notes on Act III, scene vii

Post: hurry

festinate preparation: speedy preparation for war against France

posts: messengers

intelligent: informative

Gloucester: Cornwall rewarded Edmund with his father's title of Lord of Gloucester in sc. 5, which is confusing as the next line refers to the father by the same title.

questrists: pursuers

pinion: tie him up

pass upon: pass a death sentence upon his life

do a courtesy: defer to

corky: withered with age

quicken: come alive

hospitable favours: the face of your host

footed: landed

guessingly: tentatively, not certain of the facts

opposed: against England

Wherefore: why

course: a contemporary reference to the bloody Elizabethan sport of bear-baiting where a bear would be tied to a chain on a stake while dogs attack it.

buoyed: risen

stelled: starry (if the sea were like the storm he endured, it would have risen up and put out the stars)

holp: helped, encouraged

cruels: if wolves (cruels, wild creatures) had howled at your door, you would have given them protection (subscription, support) from the storm, but not your father

winged: heavenly, swift

mock: the eyeless socket will make the healthy one look ridiculous because they don't match 

shake: an insult said to Regan, similar to Regan's plucking at Gloucester's beard

nature: natural feelings

quit: requite, avenge

apace: swiftly; the servant wounded him in the fight

REGAN: Some productions have Regan ignore her mortally wounded husband whom she leaves to die on stage; she's already planning for her future.

meet the old course of death: dies naturally of old age

Bedlam: Poor Tom