With my two daughters’ dowers digest the third.
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
I do invest you jointly with my power,
Preeminence, and all the large effects
That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,
With reservation of an hundred knights
By you to be sustained, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
The name, and all the additions to a king.
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Belovèd sons, be yours, which to confirm,
This coronet part betwixt you.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. In this opening scene King Lear bestows his entire kingdom upon Regan and Goneril and their husbands, the Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Albany. There is a tragic irony in Lear’s blind trust and love for these two daughters whom he abdicates his kingly role to. For they prove not to love him at all and they end up betraying him completely. Lear does wish to hold onto some power for himself, however, and will retain one hundred knights. As far as Cordelia is concerned, he says she can marry her "pride." This is also ironic as it is Lear’s pride that stops him from seeing the virtue of Cordelia’s plain honesty.