Both Uses of
reprove
in
King Lear
- I now perceive it was not altogether your brother's evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reproveable badness in himself.†
Scene 3.5reproveable = able to be criticizedstandard suffix: The suffix "-able" in reproveable means able to be. This is the same pattern you see in words like breakable, understandable, and comfortable.
- he's full of alteration And self-reproving:
Scene 5.1 *reproving = criticism
Definitions:
-
(1)
(reprove) express disapproval or criticism -- typically in a mild manner & sometimes even in a friendly manner
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely (though often from Shakespeare), the form reproof describes punishment rather than merely criticism.