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RHETORICAL AND POETICAL CONVENTIONS
point of view, since it makes evident that they are flattering long before Kent
names their intention in his warning to King Lear: “think’st thou that dutie /
Shall haue dread to speake, when power to flatterie bowes.”??? In other words,
the characteristic feature of Shakespeare’s poetic practice in this case is that
the elder daughter’s act of dissimulation finds expression not only in their
behavior but also in their diction.
Shakespeare, however, did diverge from his assumed historical source, The
True Chronicle Historie, not only in the case of Gonorill and Regan but also
in the case of Cordelia, whose behavior and diction differ considerably from
Cordella’s reactions. Listening to the flood of her two sister’s flattering words,
Cordella immediately indicates that their speeches are acts of false adulation
by using a structure that strongly echoes her father’s enthusiasm. In Gonorill’s
case they react in the following manner: “Leir. O, how thy words revive my
dying soule! / Cor. O, how I doe abhorre this flattery!”**°; to Ragan’s words,
they respond: “Leir. Did never Philomel sing so sweet a note. / Cord. Did never
flatterer tell so false a tale.””*! These comments suggests that Cordella fulfills
an interpretive function, and in her answer, she adopts a nonfigurative style,
saying: “I cannot paynt my duty forth in words, / Ihope my deeds shall make
report for me: / But looke what love the child doth owe the father, / The same
to you I beare, my gracious Lord.” When both her sisters and her father
scold her for the short and plain reply or, in other words, for the absence of
figurative language, she excuses herself, saying: “do not so mistake my words,
/ Nor my playne meaning be misconstrued; / My toung was never usde to
flattery.”*** By contrast, Shakespeare’s Cordelia does the exact opposite: she
does not comment on her sister’s adulation, which would signal an interpretive
function, but she rather anticipates her own response to Lear’s question, an
act that suggests a conscious and thoroughly planned reaction. Listening to
Gonorill’s confession, Cordelia remarks: “What shall Cordelia doe, loue and be
silent." She then responds similarly to Regan’s words: “Then poore Cord. &
yet not so, since I am sure / My loues more richer then my tongue.” In short,
in King Lear, only Cordelia reveals her intentions directly to the audience, and
her asides provide the backdrop to the line “Nothing my Lord,” the seemingly
unexpected and embarrassing answer to King Lear’s question.
239
Shak-speare: His True Chronicle, sig. B3r.
Anonymous: The True Chronicle, sig. B1r.
241 Thid., sig Blv.
242 Tbid., sig. Blv.
243 Tbid., Blv—B2r.
244 Shak-speare: His True Chronicle, sig. B1v.
245 Ibid., sig. B2r.
240
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