Shakespeare in the Pantry No. 5: Cordelia and Her Sisters
Oil on linen - 11 x 18 - Available
Artist Comments
In the first Act of King Lear, Lear announces his intention to confer a third of his kingdom on each of his three daughters, but only after hearing each of them tell him how much she loves him, so that he can bestow the choicest third on the one who "doth love him most." Lear's two oldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, promptly make extravagant, and dubious, professions of their love, during which Cordelia, aghast at this display, says in an aside: "What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent." And so, within its first few lines, the spring of the play is wound.
In the first Act of King Lear, Lear announces his intention to confer a third of his kingdom on each of his three daughters, but only after hearing each of them tell him how much she loves him, so that he can bestow the choicest third on the one who "doth love him most." Lear's two oldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, promptly make extravagant, and dubious, professions of their love, during which Cordelia, aghast at this display, says in an aside: "What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent." And so, within its first few lines, the spring of the play is wound.