ay to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters'? Speak!

CORDELIA.

Nothing, my lord.

LEAR.

Nothing!

CORDELIA.

Nothing.

LEAR.

Nothing can come of nothing: speak again!

CORDELIA.

Unhappy that I am! I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more, nor less.

Now this is perfectly natural. Cordelia has penetrated the vile
characters of her sisters. Is it not obvious, that, in proportion as her
own mind is pure and guileless, she must be disgusted with their gross
hypocrisy and exaggeration, their empty protestations, their "plaited
cunning;" and would retire from all competition with what she so
disdains and abhors,--even into the opposite extreme? In such a case, as
she says herself--

What should Cordelia do?--love and be silent?

For the very expressions of Lear--

What can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters'?

are enough to strike dumb forever a generous, delicate, but shy
disposition, such as Cordelia's, by holding out a bribe for professions.

If Cordelia were not thus portrayed, this deliberate coolness would
strike us as verging on harshness or obstinacy; but it is beautifully
represented as a certain modification of character, the necessary result
of feelings habitually, if not naturally, repressed: and through the
whole play we trace the same peculiar and individual disposition--the
same absence of all display--the same sobriety of speech veiling the
most profound affections--the same quiet steadiness of purpose--the same
shrinking from all exhibition of emotion.

"Tous les sentimens naturels ont leur pudeur," was a _viva voce_
observation of Madame de Stael, when disgusted by the sentimental
affectation of her imitators. This "pudeur," carried to an excess,
appears to me the peculiar characteristic of Cordelia. Thus, in the
description of her deportment when she receives the letter of the Earl
of Kent, informing her of the cruelty of her sisters and the wretched
condition of Lear, we seem to have her before us:--

KENT.

Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief?

GENTLEMAN.

Ay, sir, she took them, and read them in my presence
And now and then an am