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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
One of the troublesome problems in King Lear concerns the parting between the kings of England and France in the first scene of the first act. When France espouses the dowerless Cordelia, Lear turns on him angrily:
Thou hast her, France; let her be thine, for we
Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
That face of hers again; therefore be gone
Without our grace, our love, our benison.
(I.i.262-265)To the insulting ‘be gone’ he adds a brutal snub, ‘Come, noble Burgundy,' and walks off without giving France the opportunity to reply. Commentators on the play ask us to believe that a few minutes later the two kings meet again for a formal leave-taking.
1 Some editors suppose that the words ‘therefore be gone… benison’ are addressed to Cordelia. The only warrant for this must be the notion that Lear would not have addressed a brother monarch in such terms. But Lear's rashness is one of the points of the play. Kent's espousal of Cordelia's cause made him reach for his sword; is it strange that France's espousal of Cordelia should have made him lose his temper? 2 Greg, W. W., ‘Time, Place, and Politics in King Lear,’ Modem Language Review, 25 (1940)Google Scholar, 444.