Page 15 - FEN1(2)C01 LITERATURES IN ENGLISH PAPER I: From Chaucer to the Present

Annotations
1. “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth; I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less”

These lines occur in the opening scene of William
Shakespeare’s famous play King Lear. These words are said by
Cordelia to her father King Lear when he asked how much she
loved him.

Cordelia heard what her two elder sisters had told the king
about their love for him. It was downright hypocrisy and there
was not an inch of honesty in their reply. They really fooled
their father. But Cordelia wants to be sincere. She knows that
her love for her father is deeper than that of her two elder
sisters. She also thinks that love cannot be described by mere
ornamental words and phrases for the benefit of some
material gain such as a portion of the kingdom. So Cordelia
tells her father that her feelings are so deep that she cannot
express them in mere words. She tells him that she loves him
neither less nor more than a child loves her father.

But some critics are of the opinion that Cordelia should not
have spoken in such manner to her aged and loving father.