Formalism, take one

King of France, “proposal” to Cordelia: (King Lear, Act 1)

°Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, •being poor;                 __          / u u / u u u u / u /

Most °choice, •forsaken; and most °loved, •despised!          __            u / u / u / u / u /**   

Thee and thy °virtues here I seize upon:                               __              …

Be it lawful I take up what’s  •cast away.                              __

• Gods, gods! ’tis strange that from their cold’st neglect      a

° My love should kindle to inflamed respect.                       a

• Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,        b

° Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:                       b

Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy                                c

Can buy this •unprized °precious maid of me.                      c

Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:                        d

Thou •losest here, a °better where to find*.                          d

Something new

I’m trying out a different way to view Shakespeare: looking at just one passage with close-reading eyes (without thinking about Spanish, this is new!). Formalist readings have never been easy for me, but here goes.

Etymology

My gaze was first drawn to the fact that Cordelia’s name seems different linguistically than “Regan” or “Goneril”. After researching, I found that the prevailing opinion is that Cordelia’s name comes from the French phrase: “Coeur de lion”, or “lionhearted”. In the light of the fact that Cordelia is bravely refusing to please her father with the painted words of adulation her sisters give (holding her love deeply inside instead), I would say that this is quite fitting, and seems to be an intentional usage on Shakespeare’s part. “Goneril” is a purely Celtic name, which is fitting, and Regan means “heir if a king” from what I have researched. Though I found no site specifying one way or another, I presume it comes from the Latin “rex”, meaning “king”. This seems to give a preliminary air of apartness to Cordelia, that her name has a more powerful name in comparison to her two sisters. This contributes to the overall meaning:

Meaning

Most interesting to me is how it seems all the formal aspects of the (almost) sonnet contribute to suggest that the King of France is set apart from the world, and therefore qualified to bind himself to Cordelia as an appropriate match for her, which I will argue here.

Different than other portions of the text, this passage utilizes 4 rhyming couplets, whereas the first portion of the text does not. The consecutive usage of rhymes draws attention to itself; it is not subtle.

At the same time, there is an obvious use of contrasting ideas, lacking in subtlety just like the rhyming. On one hand France emphasizes the perspective of the others present who have rejected Cordelia for one reason or another (her father, Burgandy, etc.). They see her as at loss, rejected, and almost as refuse. The contrasting idea that either immediately precedes or procedes the previous idea is that of how the very rejection leads France to love her more. The goodliness and virtue of Cordelia is emphasized (*Above I have marked the two ideas in filled and unfilled dots, respectively).

Both the rhyming and the immediate, “in-your-face” contrasting of ideas over and over again—which contrast happens 8 times in 12 lines—carry on air of distinction or apartness, separation from everyone else: as if her were saying: “this is the way that they are, but y’know, you and me are different”. By repeated juxtaposition of his own feelings to the negative perceptions of the others, therefore, in essence France sets himself up as higher than those that would oppose her or tell her she is wrong (either to flatter or to convince, I can’t be sure). 

What I draw from these assumptions about the attitude of France is solidified by the word choice of France. The negative words he projects upon the assailants of Cordelia are, that they: “despise” her, “neglect” her, have “cast her away”, is viewed “unprized”, and basically “forsaken”. In comparison, France asserts Cordelia is: “most choice”, “most rich”, “most loved”, “precious”, and “better” off in the end. It is almost as if he is stereoptyping, putting up only two extremes to make the situation more radical, as politicians often do, since being in the ‘middle’ is bad for the primary elections. 

Set apart

By the language devices evident in the short passage, we readily feel the urgency of France to make a distinction between himself and others. All of his literary devices reflect his attitude of setting himself apart; and so, in doing this he attempts to show Cornelia that he identifies with her on a basic level. ‘Both of us appear to be in the same boat’, he says, essentially, which he might suggest for wanting to comfort her or put in a good word for himself. Whichever the case, I am going to keep an eye out for that as I continue to read, and hopefully get some more clues.

** Also interesting that the passage is written entirely in iambic pentameter, except for the first line. I am curious about the import of that breakage.