1.king lear
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty
According to my bond; no more nor less.
Cordelia speaks these words when she address her father, King Lear, who has demanded
that his daughters tell him how much they love him before he divides his kingdom among
them (1.1.90–92). In contrast to the empty flattery of Goneril and Regan, Cordelia offers her
father a truthful evaluation of her love for him: she loves him “according to my bond”; that
is, she understands and accepts without question her duty to love him as a father and king.
Although Cordelia loves Lear better than her sisters do, she is unable to “heave” her heart
into her mouth, as her integrity prevents her from making a false declaration in order to gain
his wealth. Lear’s rage at what he perceives to be her lack of affection sets the tragedy in
motion. Cordelia’s refusal to flatter Lear, then, establishes her virtue and the authenticity of
her love, while bringing about Lear’s dreadful error of judgment.
2.
Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
…
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land.
Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate. Fine word—“legitimate”!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper.
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
Edmund delivers this soliloquy just before he tricks his father, Gloucester, into believing that
Gloucester’s legitimate son, Edgar, is plotting against him (1.2.1–22). “I grow; I prosper,” he
says, and these words define his character throughout the play. Deprived by his bastard
birth of the respect and rank that he believes to be rightfully his, Edmund sets about raising
himself by his own efforts, forging personal prosperity through treachery and betrayals. The
repeated use of the epithet “legitimate” in reference to Edgar reveals Edmund’s obsession
with his brother’s enviable status as their father’s rightful heir. With its attack on the “plague
of custom,” this quotation embodies Edmund’s resentment of the social order of the world
and his accompanying craving for respect and power. He invokes “nature” because only in
the unregulated, anarchic scheme of the natural world can one of such low birth achieve his
goals. He wants recognition more than anything else—perhaps, it is suggested later,
because of the familial love that has been denied him—and he sets about getting that
recognition by any means necessary.
3.
O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
