her, though he had been unkind, and she should go with him, and
be queen of him and of fair France, and reign over fairer possessions
than her sisters: and he called the Duke of Burgundy in contempt a
waterish duke, because his love for this young maid had in a moment run
all away like water.

Then Cordelia with weeping eyes took leave of her sisters, and besought
them to love their father well, and make good their professions: and
they sullenly told her not to prescribe to them, for they knew their
duty; but to strive to content her husband, who had taken her (as they
tauntingly expressed it) as Fortune's alms. And Cordelia with a heavy
heart departed, for she knew the cunning of her sisters, and she wished
her father in better hands than she was about to leave him in.

Cordelia was no sooner gone, than the devilish dispositions of her
sisters began to show themselves in their true colours. Even before the
expiration of the first month, which Lear was to spend by agreement with
his eldest daughter Goneril, the old king began to find out the
difference between promises and performances. This wretch having got
from her father all that he had to bestow, even to the giving away of
the crown from off his head, began to grudge even those small remnants
of royalty which the old man had reserved to himself, to please his
fancy with the idea of being still a king. She could not bear to see him
and his hundred knights. Every time she met her father, she put on a
frowning countenance; and when the old man wanted to speak with her, she
would feign sickness, or anything to get rid of the sight of him; for it
was plain that she esteemed his old age a useless burden, and his
attendants an unnecessary expense: not only she herself slackened in her
expressions of duty to the king, but by her example, and (it is to be
feared) not without her private instructions, her very servants affected
to treat him with neglect, and would either refuse to obey his orders,
or still more contemptuously pretend not to hear them. Lear could not
but perceive this alteration in the behaviour of his daughter, but he
shut his eyes against it as long as he could, as people commonly are
unwilling to believe the unpleasant consequences which their own
mistakes and obstinacy have brought upon them.

True love and fidelity are no more to be estranged by _ill_, than
falsehood and hollow-heartedness can be conciliated by _good_, _usage_.
This eminently appears i