1 The king hath dispossessed himself of all, Robert Adger Law draws a parallel between Perillus' description of Leir's situation and the description of King John's abdication in Shakespeare's King John: "The king hath dispossessed himself of us" (4.3.2021). 5 sojourns stays temporarily. 12 mirror of mild patience, a model of Christian virtue and forbearance. "The Mirror" was a popular genre of didactic literature in which tales of real or imagined figures were recorded for the edification of readers. To declare Leir a "mirror" of patience is to declare that he is the model or mould of patience, from which individuals might learn what the virtue is. See also TLN1275 [[ Invalid href ]] where Gallia describes Cordella as a mirror of virtue; TLN 1070 where Cordella describes to Gallia a "mirror" of zeal, justice, kindness, and care; and TLN 2336) where Cordella describes Perillus as a "Mirror of virtue and true honesty". In True Tragedy, Mistress Shore uses the same language when figuring herself as the mirror of the country's fall (xxxCITE QME) 14 opprobrious sort, vituperative way. 16 sets her parasites of purpose directs her hangers-on to undertake certain tasks. 17 scoffing-wise contemptuously or derisively. 18 Oh, iron age! Oh, times! a conventional formulation through which one laments the present as a moment of broad cultural debasement. This vision of the iron age finds its locus classicus in Virgil's fourth Eclogue (http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/eclogue.4.iv.html). Considering the play's regular invocations of Ovid's Metamorphoses, the source might be the Metamorphoses first book in which Ovid describes the iron age as a time when "Truth, modesty, and shame, the world forsook: / Fraud, avarice, and force, their places took" (xli http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.1.first.html). The precise phrasing of this complaint echoes a famous line from Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline, in which he declaims, "O tempora! O mores" or, "Oh the times! Oh the customs!" (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/24967). 18 vile, vile. 24 alliance, friends or kin. 27 redress make right, correct. 29 latest final.
The History of King Leir (Modern)
Scene 8
742.1[Scene 8] [Video Sc.8]
Enter Perillus [alone]
Perillus
The king hath dispossessed himself of all,
745Those to advance which scarce will give him thanks.
His youngest daughter he hath turned away,
And no man knows what is become of her.
He sojourns now in Cornwall with the eldest,
Who flattered him until she did obtain
750That at his hands which now she doth possess;
And, now she sees he hath no more to give,
It grieves her heart to see her father live.
Oh, whom should man trust in this wicked age
When children thus against their parents rage?
755But he, the mirror of mild patience,
Puts up all wrongs and never gives reply,
Yet shames she not, in most opprobrious sort,
To call him "fool" and "dotard" to his face,
And sets her parasites of purpose oft
760In scoffing-wise to offer him disgrace.
Oh, iron age! Oh, times! Oh, monstrous, vile,
When parents are condemnèd of the child!
His pension she hath half restrained from him,
And will, ere long, the other half, I fear,
765For she thinks nothing is bestowed in vain
But that which doth her father's life maintain.
Trust not alliance, but trust strangers rather,
Since daughters prove disloyal to the father.
Well, I will counsel him the best I can.
770Would I were able to redress his wrong!
Yet what I can unto my utmost power
He shall be sure of to the latest hour.
Exit.

The History of King Leir (Modern)