SOURCE: Knowles, Richard. “Cordelia's Return.” Shakespeare Quarterly 50, no. 1 (spring 1999): 33-50.

In the following essay, Knowles examines Cordelia's unexplained return to England in King Lear, suggesting that Shakespeare purposefully left the matter ambiguous in order to enhance the play's dramatic impact.

I wish to consider a particular textual and structural problem in King Lear, concerning an event that happens offstage, out of the audience's sight or hearing, and yet upon which the whole outcome of the play depends. As everyone knows, in Act 1 King Lear's favorite daughter Cordelia is suddenly disowned by her father, scorned and dismissed by her sisters, and deprived of any claim to British land or power. Then, just as suddenly, her fortunes are reversed: she is taken to wife by a noble and loving man, is thereby made queen of the great country of France, and is forthwith moved safely away from her father's wrath...