THE TRUTH.

When King Lear is figuring out how much dowry to grant to his three daughters he asks each of them how much they love him. The eldest two, Goneril and Regan, are effusive and hyperbolic in the expression of their affection: "we love you so so much!" they say. So then he asks Cordelia the youngest: what can you say to match those two responses? And she replies: "nothing". She says that she loves him as much as she needs to and that’s all: “According to my bond; nor more nor less”. The King is furious and disowns her. (A bit later he refers to her as ‘unfriended’!)

Cordelia says she is just being truthful and Lear says to her bitterly: "thy truth, then, be thy dower". He sounds so petty saying that. Like the nursery/kindergarten jibe/insult where one child says they really like chocolate and another says “If you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?”.

So is Cordelia a philosopher if she loves the truth more than her father? I suppose her zealous honesty can come across as a bit smug. Like she's boasting of how honest she is. If she had a boyfriend she probably would not ever say to him that he was “the best boyfriend ever” the way other people do. Instead she would say that there were, obviously, plenty of men better than him but, in the absence of getting the attention of one of those, she’s settled for him. The truth clearly stated.

Goneril and Regan will no doubt have bought the King a mug with “World’s Best Dad” written on it. Cordelia would have said that it would be impossible to make such an assertion unless you had conducted an extensive investigation into the fathering achievements of all other dads on the planet.

[26 April 2016]