Lastly he turned to Cordelia, and asked her what she could say to win a third portion of his possessions, richer than her sisters’.
Cordelia, disgusted at their false hypocrisy, answered simply:
“Nothing.”
“Nothing!” echoed Lear.
“Nothing,” repeated Cordelia.
“Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again,” commanded the frowning King.
Cordelia answered quietly that she loved her father as a child ought to do—she obeyed, honoured, and loved him as a father. If her sisters pretended that he was everything in the world to them, why had they husbands? Haply, when she herself wedded, half her love and duty would go to her husband; she would never marry if, like her sisters, all her love was still to remain with her father.
“Goes thy heart with this?” asked Lear.
“Ay, good my lord,” said Cordelia.
“So young and so untender?”