All blest secrets,
All you unpublished virtues of the earth,
Spring with my tears. Be aidant and remediate
In the good man’s distress. Seek, seek for him,
Lest his ungoverned rage dissolve the life
That wants the means to lead it.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 4, Scene 4. Cordelia calls on the power of nature with its healing herbs and plants to help heal Lear’s madness. She has come a long way from her last appearance in the first act, when she was disinherited and banished by her father. She is now Queen of France with a great army behind her. But as Lear’s one truly loyal and loving daughter, what she is most concerned about is her father’s health and restoring his sanity.