Editorial note
Page B3v is a pivotal scene in King Lear, circling around his emotions to one of his daughters, Cordelia, right after she tells him she will not follow his orders. We witness Lear grappling with his emotions, and parts of his thought process about sending his daughter away. We wanted to edit this text as if the audience of it was young women, since this page primarily focuses on Cordelia, a young female character.
We made a total of four main changes to our transcription of the text, otherwise trying to keep it as close as we could as to what it looks like on the page itself. The first change was replacing all the pronouns of ‘she’ and ‘her’ that refer to Cordelia with her actual name; this was in an attempt to give her character more individuality. The second point focuses on presenting to the audience in a harsher light of how hurtful Lear’s love for Cordelia becomes, and how much this afflicts Cordelia. For our third point we highlighted all the nouns or adjectives that are mentioned in a line that also referred to Cordelia, and with this we wanted to make clear to the audience how subconsciously it’s easy to equate Cordelia’s character with all these negatively connotated words because that’s how Shakespeare wrote it. Lastly, we explain some of the anomalies on this page, such as the absence of some letters and the addition of words that couldn’t fit on certain lines. Although this does not directly relate to women being our audience, it was important to us that we kept our transcription of the page as accurate as it could be – and by pointing out these anomalies we are reminded how dated this text is, and how these plays were once shared.
All the changes or highlights we made are to give Cordelia the character more recognition, but also to give more power to the women watching and resonating with Cordelia, a female character in a male dominated play. It's important to remember that Cordelia’s character is written with stereotypes of the time period, and can therefore easily be waved off as shallow or simple, especially by the other male counter-parts in the play. By recognizing all her character has to endure, how much pain she has to go through, and the subtle ways she is stripped of her individuality by the other characters and the author – we're able to cultivate a deeper understanding and clearer recognition of Cordelia’s character.
Enjoy,
Isabel and Lila 🙂 (two badass feminists)
The Hiſtorie of King Lear.
That rightly thinks, and haſt moſt iuſtly ſaid,
And your large ſpeeches may your deedes approue,
That good effects may ſpring from wordes of loue:
Thus Kent O Princes, bids you all adew,
Heele ſhape his old courſe in a countrie new.
Enter France and Burgundie with Gloſter.
Gloſt. Heers France and Burgundie my noble Lord.
Lear. My L. of Burgũdie, we ſirſt addres towards you,
Who with a King hath riuald for our daughter,
What in the leaſt will you require in preſent
Dower with Cordelia, or ceaſe your queſt of loue?
Burg. Royall maieſty, I craue no more than what
Your highnes offered, nor will you tender leſſe? (vs
Lear. Right noble Burgundie, when Cordelia was deere to
We did hold Cordelia ſo, but now Cordelia’s priſe is fallen,
Sir there Cordelia ſtands, if ought within that little
Seeming ſubſtãce, or al of it with with our diſpleaſure peec’ſt,
And nothing elſe may fitly like your grace,
Cordelia’s there, and Cordelia is yours.
Barg. I know no anſwer.
Lear. Sir will you with thoſe infirmities Cordelia owes,
Vnfriended, new adopted to our hate,
Couered with our curſe, and ſtranger’d with our oth,
Take Cordelia or leaue Cordelia.
Barg. Pardon me royall ſir, election makes not vp
On ſuch conditions. (me
Lear. Then leaue Cordelia ſir, for by the powre that made
I tell you all Cordelia’s wealth, for you great King,
I would not from your loue make ſuch a ſtray,
To match you where I hate, therefore beſeech you,
To auert your liking a more worthier way,
Then on a wretch whome nature is aſhamed
Almoſt to acknowledge Cordelia’s.
Fra. This is moſt ſtrange, that Cordelia, that euen but now
Was your beſt obiect, the argument of your priſe,
Blame of your age, moſt beſt, moſt deereſt,
Should in this trice of time commit a thing,
So monſtrous to diſmantell ſo many foulds of fauour,
Sure
Image credit: Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections, copy *KC 1608. His True Chronicle Historie of the life and death of King Lear and his three Daughters. First Quarto. London: 1608.
Citing this page: Shakespeare, William. King Lear, B3v. London: 1608. Cacodemon Digital Shakespeare. Edited by [your names]. Source edition: Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library (*KC 1608). http://cacodemonshakespeare.com/tragedies/lear/b3v.
Notes:
Cordelia Name Replacement (Neglect of Cordelia as an Individual) :
Each time Cordelia is referred to in this page none of the characters speak her name directly. Although the majority of this scene is discussing Cordelia, she is only referred to as ‘she’ or ‘her’ throughout this page. One reason we wanted to replace all the pronouns referring to Cordelia with the actual name Cordelia was because we believed that for all the emotion felt towards her, she doesn't nearly get enough recognition as a person. Referring to the character as ‘she’ or ‘her’ dismisses Cordelia’s individuality. By pointing out that her character is nameless in a scene about her, young women reading this play (or watching it performed) are better able to understand how their demographic is often portrayed in Shakespeare’s works. The replacement of the pronouns for instead Cordelia’s name allows for more space to empower women both engaging with Shakespeare’s works and the characters themselves – overall bring more discussion over her vital role in the play. Thus, by typing out C-O-R-D-E-L-I-A, Cordelia’s presence in the scene is finally recognized.
Warped Love (Feelings Towards Cordelia):
Lear having a misshapen love for his daughter displays how he feels much affection for Cordelia, but is only able to express his love with pain. At the moment, he confuses Cordelia’s response as rejection. In this scene where Lear disowns his daughter, he decides to treat her love for him with pain. Lear’s warped love is sourced from his arrogance for the people around him to comply. Despite attempting to disown her, he still isn’t able to fully let her go. Cordelia is the only person in his life who is genuine and honest about how she feels, even if that means not obeying her father’s orders. Despite the fact that Lear continues to find any way possible to abhor Cordelia and find the swiftist way to get rid of her, he continues to put attention and affection towards her, however painful it is.
The King of France is the first to notice Lear’s peculiar behavior towards Cordelia. He is able to notice the contradiction Lear exhibits of degrading Cordelia, his favorite daughter. Highlighting the words “love” and “most” is to signify Lear’s current love for his daughter that contrasts deeply from what he is actively doing to her. We came to the conclusion that because Lear feels so much towards Cordelia, these emotions are a type of love in the sense of how strong and intense they are – demonstrating the side of love that is more hurtful than affectionate.
It’s important for women who read or watch this play to grasp how Cordelia sits in relation to the emotions of the characters around her. That even as she is loved – it easily turns to a cruel, bitter, greedy, and painful type of love that she must endure because of her position and lack of agency. Recognizing that her character has to go through this pain because a man got mad at her for speaking her mind is pointing out a startling message that Shakespeare is implying: if a woman values being honest rather than pleasing a man, there are grave consequences for defiance.
Words Tied to Cordelia (Words and Lines Objectifying Cordelia):
Cordelia is only spoken of as something to exchange from Lear to Burgundy and France. Despite her being in the scene with them, Lear uses every attempt to degrade his daughter of her worth. While reading through this scene we realized that there were common connotations in the adjectives and verbs said by the men in the same lines as ‘she’ and ‘her’ (referring to Cordelia). This includes words like ‘price,’ ‘fallen,’ ‘owes,’ ‘take,’ and ‘leave,’ to name a few (the dark blue highlight indicate singular words used, and the lighter blue highlight lines indicate the few times this happens with the absence of her pronouns in the line, but still referring to her character). With each description and verb used, an overall connotation of her character is built up as someone who is more of an object rather than an individual. Cordelia is treated and described by the characters on this page as a burden, a waste that must be disposed of. In this case, with the numerous mentions about Cordelia’s price, as an animal to be auctioned off. We wanted to include this about Cordelia’s character to point out the tie Shakespeare is building between this young woman and the concept of giving or taking something (not someone) away. By including these demeaning words in the same line of whenever she’s being referred to, Shakespeare is physically putting her name (in a way the essence of her character) next to words that strip her of her humanity. When shining light on this we stop audiences from subconsciously equating Cordelia with those words, and recognize even more how much pain and hatred she endures as a woman who simply spoke her mind.
Special Characters and Word Additions (Bolded and Underlined):
There are two instances where the words “Subſtãce” and “Burgũdie” are both missing an ‘n’ character, and instead include a symbol on top of the letter in front of where the ‘n’ would be to indicate this absence. This symbol was used whenever the printing press wasn’t able to add an ‘n’ into the text. Thus the words “Burgundie” and “Substance” are shortened to “Subſtãce” and “Burgũdie.”
There are two other instances where we see words that could not fit on the line they were supposed to be in, seen in the addition of “(vs,” and “(me,” both added it because there was no space on the line they were supposed to be in.
The reason we wanted to point these out is because we wanted to make our transcription of the text as accurate as we could, including these little anomalies that modern audiences aren’t used to. Explaining what these parts of the page mean helps to remind audiences of the time period the play was first performed and provides more explanation into how these plays were published – hence, how the stories came to life.
