Show Cordelia f 3 I ITHE THE ch character of Cor Cordelia li lii i is probably ob b 1 that of one of the sweetest and most spiritual of all Shakespeare's heroines As Portia in Julius C Caesar sar is an ideal wife in Cordelia we we have the ideal daughter Of Portia however we see seeless seeless seeless less and her Spartan fate is told us by Brutus Cordelia is brought before us in all the calm and terror of death and andas as we listen to Lears Lear's wild lamentation it is more vividly impressed on the mind mind and and she was so young so young and fair i With Shakespeare's ares are's other heroines she cannot be well com compared she pared she lacks Rosalind's vivacity Beatrices Beatrice's sauciness ss the Shrews Shrew's temper and the unnatural impossible powers of the Portia of the Merchant of Venice She is Cordelia the daughter neither more nor less but oh what a a multitude of qualities are included in in included in that word daughter as personified personified per per- by Cordelia Tender self for sympathetic utterly forgiving with forgiving with with all these she shea a appeals to our hearts as few characters of fiction do The emotions stirred in her are communicated to our own breasts we not only see we feel her sorrows and joys We are at her side eagerly waiting to give our word of praise raise to clasp to our hearts this noblest of women 1 From her h words actions and arid general gen geri general gen gen- era eral bearing through the play what a striking picture we can conceive of her In Inthe the opening scene she enters a gentle dignified young woman above medium height her features classic her eyes yes deep transparent wells through which is reflected the brilliant purity of her soul her gown white draping gracefully about her figure How readily the mind conjures up this vision Then the wild despair depicted on her What countenance as she says shall Cordelia speak cLove cLove- Love Love- and be silent And again the light of love in her eyes when she speaks speaks' Then Jhen hen poor 1 i. i ii-i ii J. J J. J Cordelia and yet hot so since I am sure surey my y 1 loves love's more ponderous than my tongue quiet sarcasm Thus we might continue indefinitely to picture the ever- ever varying expressions of her fac face Her Her whole nature truth incarnate incarnate ate rebels when listening to her sisters sisters' feigned devotion She will Vill love and be silent she will not stoop to extravagant l hypocritical expressions to gain a p petty tty r. r part of the kingdom kingdom- kingdom no no not for worlds will she do that Her father knows she loves him best then the w why y make ake use of I this absurd method in In dividing his lands These might express her thoughts before she makes that answer answer so fatal to herself herself hert her her- t t self and her father Nothing my l lord rd This is only another way of placing that f eminently feminine reply denoting con contrariness E No I shant t And this once said is in the most womanly manner followed by another nothing and true to her sex she would have rep repeated this to the end of time and in the face of an any consequences ces that might have been set before her And to carry it further it is pure contrariness contrariness contrariness con con- which prompts the plain speaking speaking speaking speak speak- ing which wounds her kind old father so painfully and which she does not mean i at all It is just a tinge of the obstinacy obstinacy i nacy inherited from Lear Most women have it just as our lords of creation oft- oft times insist and storm and demonstrate that this thing must be done so when reason sense common-sense and all the other attributes of higher animals make Tits its absurdity quite obvious to t l those about and particularly to that queer little creature creature creature crea crea- ture to whom so much wisdom comes by mere intuition woman Yes men f need her contrariness to balance their r obstinacy So why talk of womans woman's sphere as separate from from mans man's They are intangibly interwoven But if she will rule the world let her adopt weapons weapons weapons ons peculiar peculiar- to herself caresses and tears tears- which only i make her the more enchanting ther than JL i. i undertake to manage such such ponde ponderous ponderous' ungraceful arms as as ballots a and d from her throne one good mans man's ans an's heart which i is hers by right of conquest let her send forth her decrees by the lisping of babes oh oh sweetest music of our earth earth de crees so noble just incorruptible temperate temperate tem tem- yet couched in such mild ilc and d cultured language that all the they y world will bow before its queen That is let her children be he the exponents of her opinions and convictions rather than boxes ballot-boxes or campaign speeches Let the halo haio of motherhood shed its radiant light ab about t th h her r head rather than the course cours dis disfiguring disfiguring g ring r- r I ing wig of the justice let her herI wield the therod therod therod rod of correction ov over r naughty boys boy rather rather rath rath- er than the scalpel over overa a ghastly corp corpse e ein in a dissecting room For just such unnatural fancies ha have e taken take possession of many dear 11 little brained brained well-meaning well but vastly mistaken girls of our day and their whole lifes life's happiness may be destroyed before this tangled mesh of womans rights is unraveled But this is digressing fairly pol poles s asunder fron our subject which which was was to tobe tobe tobe be a criticism of the character of Cordelia Cordelia Cordelia Cor Cor- delia daughter of Lear king of Britain in about the year of th the world as portrayed by Shakespeare rather than thana a dissertation on womans woman's suffrage by a maiden of the latter part of J the he nineteenth nineteenth nineteenth nine nine- century and sub rosa one not old enough to vote After contemplating the beauties of Cordelia's character all the latent anti anti- womans woman's rights surged up within my breast and must needs find vent some some- where And now that I think of it it may be well t to write that there really is isa a little connection in thought between Lear and womans woman's rights for we may feel certain that Cordelia's sisters Regan Regan Regan Re Re- gan and d Goneril would have been rno most most t ardent advocates of womans woman's rights rights' and patrons of divorce courts h had d they th y Art aA J f ul if s 1 lived in our day But away with this j school girl reasoning To return to Lear It is primarily not a play with which one can while Reclining Reclining Re Re- away a pleasant summer afternoon clining on the mossy bank of a babbling brook far up in the heart of the Rock Rock- ies with the exhilarating odor of pines and the fragile variegated wild flowers delighting the senses one can dream with Rosalind and wander at her side side side- among the sylvan bowers of the forest of Arden there Arden there one can appreciate Shakespeare's marvelous powers of interpreting interpreting interpreting in in- natures nature's secrets and of painting painting painting paint paint- ing such exquisite suggestive and realistic realistic realistic real real- pen pictures as have never probably probably probably ably been peered But when the heart heartis is scourged by disappointment lacerated by bereavement or purged by deep soulful repentance then read and ponder pond pond- er well King Lear and you will turn from it at peace with yourself and the world Its lessons are well worth studying studying studying study study- ing amidst all the strife and dissension and error and disappointment and censure censure cen cen- sure of the world there still is love and beauty and goodness where we least expect to find it As you like it appeals to the senses and aesthetic tastes Lear to to the deepest feelings feeling and passions of civilized civilized civilized civil civil- man The character of Cordelia shines forth in the play playas as a pure unblemished pearl which though lashed and starved ever clings lings to the author of its being and with it is borne through a turbulent sea full of alluring whirlpools and shoals as deceptive as Scylla and of old until scorned by the world but serene in the consciousness of innocence and chastity of which it is i's s the emblem it is worthy at last to grace the diadem of God r. r j R. 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