Monologue

Cordelia Monologue from King Lear

From King Lear by William Shakespeare

female · anguished · 1:20 min

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Very well. (PHYSICIAN: Please you draw near. Louder the music there!) O my dear father! Restoration hang Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss Repair those violent harms that my two sisters Have in thy reverence made! (KENT: Kind and dear princess!) Had you not been their father, these white flakes Did challenge pity of them. Was this a face To be oppos’d against the warring winds? To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder? In the most terrible and nimble stroke Of quick cross lightning? to watch, poor perdu! With this thin helm? Mine enemy’s dog, Though he had bit me, should have stood that night Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father, To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn In short and musty straw? Alack, alack! ’Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once Had not concluded all. He wakes; speak to him.

About this piece

Cordelia expresses her deep sorrow and concern for her father, King Lear, as he suffers in a storm, reflecting on the tragic circumstances that have led to his downfall and her own feelings of helplessness.

20s · sadness · family · betrayal · madness · isolation

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