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Lear and Cordelia
Lear being visited by his youngest daughter, Cordelia, in Shakespeare's King Lear, Act IV, scene VII.
Cordelia
fictional character
King Lear Shakespeare's King Lear with the body of his daughter Cordelia, illustration by Friedrich Pecht in Shakespeare-Galerie, 1876.
Cordelia, the king’s youngest and only honourable daughter in Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear. Her enduring love for Lear is evident at their tender and emotional reunion near the end of the play, when she cries,
Was this a face
To be opposed against the warring winds?
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
In the most terrible and nimble stroke
Of quick, cross lightning? To watch—poor perdu!—
With this thin helm? Mine enemy’s dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn
In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!
’Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
Had not concluded all.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.
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