King Lear Cordelia Quotes

LEAR: Speak.
CORDELIA: Nothing, my lord.
LEAR: Nothing?
CORDELIA: Nothing.
LEAR: Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. Lear asks Cordelia to articulate the depth of her love for him, so that in the division of the kingdom she can "draw a third more opulent than your sisters." But his favorite daughter has nothing to say, her pride and stubbornness won’t allow her play her father’s game like her sisters have done. The repetition of the word "nothing" in this passage and throughout the play reflects themes of disorder, chaos and disintegration in the tragedy of King Lear. English Shakespearean actor Corin Redgrave said in an article in The Guardian newspaper: "Cordelia’s little word ‘nothing’, from which, according to classical philosophy, there could be no consequences, sets in motion a chain of action and reaction that, like the butterfly’s wings in the chaos theory, leads to Armageddon." Lear does indeed warn Cordelia that she will gain no favors from him if she does not make flattering speeches of her love for him. Lear’s use of the language of nihilism, "nothing will come of nothing" is significant. It prepares us for a drama that opens with the absurdity of Lear’s rash and senseless actions and ends with hopelessness, despair and lack of redemption for some of its characters. Ironically Lear is one of these characters, who ends up with nothing in the end, foreshadowed here by his own words.

I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty
According to my bond, no more nor less.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. The stubborn Lear encounters an equally stubborn Cordelia, as her integrity and pride stop her from taking part in the narcissistic Lear’s love test in which his daughters must flatter him to gain his wealth. Using a metaphor she says that she cannot "heave" her heart into her mouth – put her feelings into words. She tells him that she loves him as a daughter should love a father and her king, no more and no less. The "bond" she refers to is the relationship within a family, and also the one between kings and their subjects.

Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me.
I return those duties back as are right fit:
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands if they say
They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
Sure I shall never marry like my sisters,
To love my father all.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. Cordelia speaks candidly here about her loyalty and bond to Lear. She says that Lear fathered, raised and loved her, and in return she will obey, love and honor him. But hopefully when she gets married, she will give half her love and duty to her husband. She questions how her married sisters can claim to love their father only when they have husbands to love. She is suggesting that Regan and Goneril are being disloyal to their husbands. Cordelia vows that she will never marry like them to "love my father all" and leave no love for her husband.

Let it be so. Thy truth, then, be thy dower,
For by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate and the night,
By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist, and cease to be,
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity, and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
Or he that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
Be as well neighboured, pitied, and relieved
As thou my sometime daughter.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. Lear flies into a rage at Cordelia’s stubborn refusal to flatter him and play ball with his love test charade. Her truth will be her only inheritance, he tells her. He calls on the natural forces of the sun, moon and planets to assist in his disowning of Cordelia. Lear promises to treat her "as a stranger to my heart" (simile). He compares his daughter to a "barbarous Scythian" who eats their own children. When he says "Here I disclaim all my paternal care" the tragedy of the play starts to unfold, as Lear gives up his fatherly care and love for her. The first major betrayal in the play is Lear’s betrayal of his daughter Cordelia. This is a decision which will have far-reaching and serious consequences for Lear. And it is one he will later learn to regret when his two other daughters treat him exactly this way. They treat him with unkindness and show him no compassion, just as he does with Cordelia. It is ironic that the daughter who loves King Lear most and the one who respects him most to tell the truth is the one who is disinherited and banished from her own country. This betrayal and cruel abuse of power turns out to be Lear’s greatest folly. His astounding blindness to the true worth of Cordelia and her sisters is his most unforgiveable case of choosing appearances over reality.

With my two daughters’ dowers digest the third.
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
I do invest you jointly with my power,
Preeminence, and all the large effects
That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,
With reservation of an hundred knights
By you to be sustained, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
The name, and all the additions to a king.
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Belovèd sons, be yours, which to confirm,
This coronet part betwixt you.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. In this opening scene King Lear bestows his entire kingdom upon Regan and Goneril and their husbands, the Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Albany. There is a tragic irony in Lear’s blind trust and love for these two daughters whom he abdicates his kingly role to. For they prove not to love him at all and they end up betraying him completely. Lear does wish to hold onto some power for himself, however, and will retain one hundred knights. As far as Cordelia is concerned, he says she can marry her "pride." This is also ironic as it is Lear’s pride that stops him from seeing the virtue of Cordelia’s plain honesty.

Reserve thy state,
And in thy best consideration check
This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgment,
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least,
Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sounds
Reverb no hollowness.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. Kent tries to make Lear see the foolishness of his actions. He asks him to reverse his decision to break his bond with Cordelia. He labels Lear’s act as hideous and rash, swearing on his own life that Lear’s youngest daughter Cordelia doesn’t love him least. Just because her plain speech does not offer hollow words of flattery (a dig at Regan’s and Goneril’s insincerity) doesn’t mean she is unloving, Kent bluntly tells Lear.

Take her or leave her.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. Lear says this to Cordelia’s suitor the Duke of Burgundy about taking his daughter with all her flaws. Lear has disowned her, leaving her without dowry and inheritence! The full quote: "Will you, with those infirmities she owes, Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate, Dowered with our curse and strangered with our oath, Take her or leave her?" Burgundy, a rival along with the King of France for Cordelia’s favor when she was in Lear’s good graces, says it is impposible to choose in such a situation.

This is most strange,
That she, that even but now was your best object,
The argument of your praise, balm of your age,
Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time
Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
So many folds of favour.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. The King of France comments on Lear’s irrational behavior and on his former affection for Cordelia. He finds it strange that Cordelia, Lear’s "best object," should have done something so monstrous to lose that affection. France is being ironic here, for he can see clearly, if Lear cannot.

Sure, her offence
Must be of such unnatural degree
That monsters it, or your forevouched affection
Fall into taint; which to believe of her
Must be a faith that reason without miracle
Should never plant in me.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. The King of France confronts Lear about his newly dowerless daughter Cordelia. He says that her offense must have been so unnatural to make Lear’s affection for her turn rotten. But he adds that it would take a miracle to make him believe she could do something like that.

It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
No unchaste action, or dishonoured step,
That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;
But even for want of that for which I am richer,
A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
As I am glad I have not, though not to have it
Hath lost me in your liking.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. Cordelia makes clear to Lear that she is no fortune hunter. She said that she lost her father’s favour not for an act of murder, lust or dishonour. But she offended him because she didn’t have a greedy eye and smooth tongue. She tells him she is glad she doesn’t have them, even though it has cost her his love. Cordelia shows her integrity and honesty in this speech, and shows up Lear for his foolishness and blindness.

Gods, gods! ‘Tis strange that from their cold’st neglect
My love should kindle to enflamed respect. –
Thy dow’rless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,
Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. Every cloud has a silver lining. The King of France says that the gods in neglecting Cordelia so cruelly have fanned the flames of his love and respect for her. He declares that Lear’s dowerless daughter Cordelia is now queen of the French – making her a very powerful person in Europe.

The jewels of our father, with wash’d eyes
Cordelia leaves you. I know you what you are,
And like a sister am most loath to call
Your faults as they are named.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. Bidding farewell to her sisters Regana and Goneril, Cordelia refers to them as "The jewels of our father." Ordinarily this metaphor would be a flattering term, but here it is used ironically to express contempt. While Cordelia also says that as a sister she won’t name their faults, she makes clear that is well aware of their true intentions and game they are playing in kissing up to Lear.

The man that makes his toe
What he his heart should make,
Shall of a corn cry woe,
And turn his sleep to wake.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2. The Fool dishes up more of rhyming wisdom to the tormented Lear. He advises him that the man who values the least important parts of himself as if they were the best, will bring himself pain and sleepless nights. The Fool is mocking Lear for preferring Goneril and Regan to Cordelia. He is uggesting that Lear’s foolishness and pride has brought this pain upon himself. He must reconnect with his heart and the daughter who truly loved him – Cordelia.
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