WS ABC Part 20 - Cordelia

CORDELIA, "the unpriz'd precious maid" whose "voice was ever soft, gentle and low," was the third and youngest daughter of King Lear, the ruler of pre-Christian Britain. When asked to flatter her father and so receive her third of the kingdom on her father's abdication, all she can say is, "Nothing, my lord."
Lear is furious with his honest daughter and banishes her. 

Later she returns with her husband at the head of a French army in order to avenge the wrongs that Lear's other daughters, Goneril and Regan, two "gilded serpents," "she-foxes" and "tigers, not daughters" have done to their ageing father. Cordelia's forces are defeated and she is reunited with her father. They are captured and imprisoned and Edmund, the bastard son of Lear's ally, the Earl of Gloucester, gives orders that Cordelia is to be hanged. At the last moment, in a moment of remorse, Edmund tries to countermand his previous order but it is too late. Cordelia has been hanged. The last we see of her in this powerful tragedy is King Lear holding her dead body as he cries out:

I might have saved her;now she's gone for ever!
Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. 

Although Cordelia has a small part in the play, (117 lines), she plays a  critical role. She represents true love, honesty and virtue in contrast to her evil sisters. (forerunner of Cinderella?) and acts out the role of the dutiful daughter, her love overcoming any materialistic demands.

The original WS tragic end of this play was found to be too much for many 17th century audiences. In 1681, Nahum Tate, an Irish poet and playwright, (1652-1715) changed its final scenes. Cordelia is not hanged. Instead she falls in love with Edgar (Gloucester's good son) and Lear retires peacefully. This version became the standard for 150 years until 1838 when W.C. Macready, an actor and the manager of Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres, had the play returned to its original words.

Shakespeare probably based his play on an earlier happier play, The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his Three Daughters, c.1594. In other versions by Holinshed and Edmund Spenser, Cordelia stabs herself, but several years after Lear dies.

Next time: Yet another tragic lady: Desdemona.
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