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hand over his whole kingdom undivided to his youngest daughter Cordeilla, her whom he "best loved." Holinshed is quite singular in this rendering of the story, and it is rather curious that he should have thus diverged, not only from the older accounts of it, but even from that given by Fabyan and Grafton, the English chroniclers immediately preceding him (see p. xlviii).

Again, this account varies from that in King Lear, in apparently making Leir wed his eldest daughter to the Duke of Cornewal and the second to the Duke of Albania (Shakespeare making him give the eldest to Albany and the second to Cornwall). This account, I may also observe, compared with Shakespeare's, appears rather to slur over the later events of the story.

Another rendering of the old story, which Shakespeare had evidently read with care, and which he appears to follow in some particulars, is that given in Spenser's Faerie Queene (Book II. canto 10, stanzas xxvii.-xxxii.). According to Spenser's account, Lear only questions his daughters in order to have his ears gratified with their loving speeches, for he had already divided his "realme" into "equal shayres," which he was about to bestow on them in order of seniority. Shakespeare seems to have followed Spenser here, for in King Lear we are told that the shares given to Albany and Cornwall are so much alike "that curiosity in neither can make choice of other's moiety"; and though Lear declares that he has reserved for Cordelia "a third more opulent than her sisters," by this he can only mean (if we are not to suppose him suffering from the effects of dotage) that his best-beloved

child was about to receive at his hands the most fertile and desirable" third." It is also practically certain (for the old ballad "King Leir and his Three Daughters" certainly appears to me to be later than Shakespeare (see p. xxvi, footnote)) that the beautiful name Cordelia comes from the Faerie Queene; in the older versions she is Cordoylle or Gordoylle, Cordeilla, Cordeill, Cordella, Cordell (Spenser once has Cordeill). Again, in Spenser, Goneril is made to wed a "King of Scots" (corresponding to Albany in King Lear), and not Cornwal, as in Holinshed. Spenser, I may add, in company with the old play alone, diverges from Shakespeare by making Regan wed the King of Cambria.1

Again, in the Faerie Queene account there is a passage which Knight thinks Shakespeare imitated, and that he did so is not impossible (see note to I. iv. 237).

But I think it is also certain that the old anonymous play, already referred to, The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his Three Daughters, afforded some hints to Shakespeare for the plot of King Lear. In the footnotes to the present edition I have pointed out several instances in the text where there seems to be an echo from it. But with regard to the plot, in the first place, it appears that he may have followed it in giving to Lear the idea, not only of dividing his kingdom, but also of entirely resigning his power and authority. In the older accounts Leir wishes to wed his daughters " to neighbour princes," and divide his kingdom among them. In Layamon's account, as we shall presently see, the narrative on this point is rather vague and contradictory;

1 One account makes Ragan wed the Duke of Wales and Cornwall,

but even here it is plain that Leir does not contemplate absolute resignation, nor is the idea of it brought out in any of the accounts. But Leir, at the opening of the old play (p. 380), thus addresses his nobles :

The world of me, I of the world am weary,
And I would faine resigne these earthly cares,
And think upon the welfare of my soule.

And later (p. 389) he says:

I presently will dispossesse myselfe,

And set up these upon my princely throne.

Compare with these two passages King Lear, I. i. 38–41:

and 'tis our fast intent

To shake all cares and business from our age,
Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
Unburden'd crawl toward death.

I have said (p. xxix) that Spenser's account may have suggested to Shakespeare Lear's division of his kingdom into equal shares; but the old play may possibly have helped him to this idea, for at the beginning of it (p. 380) Leir says that he will resign his crown

In equal dowry to my daughters three.

Here Skaliger, a courtier, breaks in, and suggests that Leir, knowing his princely daughters have several suitors, should

... make them each a jointer (jointure) more or less As is their worth to them that love profess.

But Leir declines to do as suggested, saying:

Both old and young shall have alike for me.

The nobles then request Leir to match his daughters with some of the "neighbour kings." Leir assents, but remarks:

My youngest daughter, fair Cordella, vows
No liking to a monarch, unless love allowes.

And Perillus, a nobleman, the original of Shakespeare's
Kent, exclaiming (p. 381), "Do not force love," Leir

says:

I am resolved, and even now my mind
Doth meditate a sudden stratagem,

To try which of my daughters loves me best,
Which till I know I cannot be at rest.

This granted, when they jointly shall contend
Each to exceed the other in their love,
Then at the vantage will I take Cordella,
Even as she doth protest she loves me best.
I'll say then, Daughter, grant me one request:
To shew thou lovest me as thy sisters do,

Accept a husband whom myself will woo."

Leir's intention, when he had thus entrapped his daughter, was to "match her with a king of Brittany." I think that the careful reader will not fail to see, though Shakespeare does not suggest this as Leir's reason for his questioning his daughters, that not only had he carefully read it, but that it influenced his mind.

Again, let us remember that in all the previous accounts of the story the French monarch, Aganippus, hearing of the beauty and good qualities of Cordella, sends to her father asking her in marriage, and that Leir sends her dowerless to France; the old play alone before Shakespeare brings the French king to Britain, see p. 389, where he says:

Disswade me not, my lords, I am resolv'd
This next fair winde to sail for Brittany

In some disguise, to see if flying fame

Be not too prodigal in the wondrous praise

Of these three nymphes, the daughters of King Leir.

Is it not nearly certain that Shakespeare followed this source when he brings the King of France to Lear's Court, where "long had he made his amorous sojourn,” a suitor for the hand of the king's youngest daughter? Again, Perillus, as has several times been pointed out, is evidently the original, if only the pale original, of “the noble and true-hearted Kent" of King Lear. In none of the older accounts is there any trace of such a character. Leir goes to France, accompanied with one knight or soldier (in one case with two attendants, a knight and a soldier who had formerly been his standard-bearer). Perillus, in the old play, laments over Leir's conduct towards Cordella (see p. 389):

O how I grieve to see my lord thus fond,

To dote so much upon vain flattering words.

And later, like Kent, he pleads for her with Leir (pp. 396, 397):

I have bin silent all this while, my lord,

To see if any worthier than myself

Would once have spoke in poor Cordellae's cause.

O heare me speak for her, my gracious lord,

Whose deeds have not deserved this ruthless doom.

And to this Leir hastily replies:

Urge this no more, and if thou love thy life.

Observe the closely parallel reply of King Lear in Shakespeare to Kent's similar plea (I. i. 154):

Kent, on thy life, no more.

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