Note to King Lear, 2.2.16: "three-suited"; "hundred-pound"


Return
to
King Lear,
Act 2, Scene 2, line 16
"three-suited":
Servants were commonly given a minimum of three suits of clothes per year, so that a servant who had only the minimum would be considered to be the lowliest of the low.

"hundred-pound":
"Hundred-pound" must be some sort of insult, but I don't understand what the insult is. A hundred pounds was a substantial amount of money in the time of Shakespeare, who in 1597 paid £60 for New Place, a very large house in Stratford, complete with two barns and an orchard.



Sketch of New Place, 1737