Editing Lear: The Power of Action in a World without Meaningful Language

        Within the first scene of King Lear, the audience is introduced to the distinctive characters of Lear and his three daughters. Most salient, the scene provides a cursory glimpse into the psychology of Cordelia as she struggles to devise a way to remain both truthful and loving toward her father. Immediately following the blandishment Goneril offers Lear, Cordelia probes her own conscience and determines to “Love and be silent.” The question she asks of herself which allows her to come to this conclusion differs between the two editions of the play: “What shall Cordelia do?” is printed in the First Quarto, and “What shall Cordelia speak?” in the First Folio. The difference in wording here inbues the two separate questions with divergent significance for the play.

         The question contained within the folio, “What shall Cordelia speak?”, has Cordelia direct her attention toward the immediate situation at hand, namely, what to say to Lear so that he is both appeased and truthfully informed. Thus while the question advances the scene itself, it holds little bearing on the play as a whole. In contrast to the folio’s question of speech, the question Cordelia asks in the quarto edition, “What shall Cordelia do?”, sets the precident for one of the major themes in King Lear. That is, it draws attention to the possibility of action in a world where language is often rendered ineffective. Cordelia ponders what she shall do, and ultimately picks action over speech in her decision to “Love and be silent.” The answer she provides to her own question draws a dichotomy between the power of action and that of words. Thus early on in the play we see action—in this case, love—as a mean of communication.

        Indeed, the world in which King Lear takes place is one in which speech is both censored and ignored. Kent, the Fool, and Cordelia all resort to communicating through oblique means when their initial attempts to speak truth are unheeded and resented. The question, “What shall Cordelia do?” embodies this reality and early on depicts a universe in which words remain devoid of significance.

        Moreover, the question, as presented in the quarto, alludes to the duty Cordelia feels toward her father. Beginning in the early seventeenth century, during the time of King Lear’s publication, the noun “do” came to embody the notion of personal duty. The Oxford English Dictionary lists a now archaic use of the word in phrases which convey this sense of obligation; “to do one's do” (i.e. what one has to do, or what one can do).(OED, 2nd ed., s.v. "do," 2a.) Thus in Shakespearean England, the question “What shall Cordelia do?” would insinuate the necessity of action in addition to underscoring the filial piety Cordelia shows to her father throughout the play. Indeed, this sense of duty to the King is also manifest in the actions of both Kent and the Fool. Both characters, like Cordelia, remain with Lear during his internal storms and present him with truth—if not through words directly, then through their compassionate doings.