| “What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent” | Cordelia’s asides show the contrast between her and her sisters, she speaks plainly and honestly. |
| “I am sure my love’s more ponderous than my tongue” | Shows that Regan and Gonerill are lying. |
| “Nothing, my lord” | Theme of nothing, shows that she doesn’t want anything or anymore than she has. |
| “I love your majesty according to my bond, no more nor less” | Cordelia is honest and blunt, she hopes that this will show through against her sister’s lies and flattery. |
| “Why have my sisters husbands, if they say they love you all?” | Talk of dividing the kingdom and dividing their love, quantifying love. |
| “Since fortunes are his love, I shall not be his wife” | Cordelia respects those who see more than fortunes and wealth, she has a deeper character than power. |
| “Love well our father: to your professed bosoms I commit him” | Professed shows that they are insincere, exposition at the start of the play shown that Regan and Gonerill will be bad daughters. |
| “It seemed she was a queen over her passion, who most rebel-like sought to be king o’er her” (Quarto version) | Feminism – queen vs. king, male vs. female. She stands up for herself in a patriarchal society. |
| “Sunshine and rain at once”, “Pearls from diamonds dropped”, “Holy water from her heavenly eyes” (Quarto version) | Described with religious imagery and purity and preciousness. Shows her virtuous character is her wealth. |
| “A century send forth… bring him to our eye” | Replace the 100 knights that he was denied, refund the king and reinstall him to his former power. |
| “O you kind gods… wind up of this child-changed father!” | Advocation to the gods, one of her few, she makes it in the name of her father. Shows her holiness and goodness. |
| “Spring with my tears; be aidant remediate” | Natural imagery, of healing and love. |
| “My mourning and importuned tears hath pitied” | Shows her emotion and contrasts Lear’s fear of crying, Cordelia embraces emotion and love. Suggests anti-feminist? Not strong, relies on being given power by men. |
| “O dear father, it is thy business I go about” | Religious imagery, Jesus also goes about the business of his father. AO4 contemporary religious audiences would have recognised this. |
| “No blown ambition doth our arms incite, but love, dear love and our aged father’s right” | Cordelia is driven by love rather than power, repetition of love instills this value. Fighting for what is right, the restoration of justice. |
| “Thy medicine on my lips and let this kiss repair those violent harms that my two sisters have in thy reverence made” | Imagery of healing and love, contrasts the kiss between Regan and Edmond the scene before, shows how she uses love not lust. |
| “Royal lord… your majesty… your highness” | Speaks highly of Lear, shows that she is redeeming the daughters and feminine. Speaks to him like a king. |
| “No cause, no cause” | Forgives him, again religious imagery and Jesus, as Christianity about forgiveness. |
| “We are not the first, who with best meaning have incurred the worst. For thee, oppressed King, I am cast down” | Cordelia’s nobility and heroism, however is she also bitter? Sacrificed herself for him. |
| “Is this the promised end?” (Kent of Cordelia’s death) | Cordelia’s untimely and shocking death like the apocalypse, the death of an angel. |
King Lear: Cordelia
July 21, 2019