Note to King Lear, 3.4.144: "Modo he's call'd, and Mahu"


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King Lear,
Act 3, Scene 4, line 144

Modo and Mahu are devils named in Samuel Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures [1603]. The frequent borrowings from Harsnett in King Lear [such as Flibbertigibbet in 3.4.115, Modo and Mahu in 3.4.144] helped scholars to set the earliest composition date for the play.



The devil attacking a window—
a detail from St Anthony the Hermit
by Matthias Grunewald [c.1470-1528]