“Nothing will come from nothing.”
So says the king to his daughter Cordelia in the beginning of “King Lear.” When asked to compete with her two sisters by draping the king with accolades of affection, Cordelia, who loves her father most of all, refuses. To the king’s question, “What can you say to draw a third more opulent than your sisters?” Cordelia replies, “Nothing.” She then explains her answer, but the enraged Lear sticks by what he has told her: “Nothing will come from nothing.” He disinherits her and divides his kingdom between her two sisters.
