Page 29 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

xxiv KING LEAR
Yet does it not, and still more what Coleridge hints of
pride and sullenness', misunderstand completely the
situation in which she stands, misinterpret the very
tones of her voice? When Kent protests a little later,
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least}
Nor are those empty hearted whose low sounds
Reverb no hollowness,
he is clearly comparing the subdued, almost whispered,
tones of Cordelia's reply to Lear with the brazen speeches
of her sisters. For no one can suppose that she liked
answering her father in this way or did not realize that
she was putting him to shame. The agony was that she
had to: he left her no choice. She was of course dis-
gusted by Goneril and Regan's hypocrisy but not
surprised: she knew them well. What afflicted her was
that the father to whom she was devoted asked her to sell
her soul, to purchase a kingdom by coining the love she
bore him into words of flattery so as to outbid her sisters.
I will not praise that purpose not to sell 1
declared her creator finding himself in a predicament
somewhat similar though, we may guess, far less dis-
tressing. For she was a young girl, the youngest of three
daughters in an age when all unmarried daughters were
little more than bond-slaves of their fathers; her father,
who had never known his will thwarted, sat in majesty
upon his throne; and she had to make her declaration,
before the whole court. And so when she heard the
outrageous question
What can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters?
even though she knew it was coming, what other possible
reply could she give than a low voiced 'Nothing' ? She
could not heave her heart into her mouth.
1
Sonnet 21,1. 14.