Throughout literary history, kings and noblemen have had daughters, and the youngest of these have always been the loveliest, brightest and most favored daughters of their fathers. Shakespeare and the Brothers Grimm brought recognition to two such daughters in King Lear and the many variations of Beauty and the Beast. 

Cordelia is Lear’s youngest daughter, his most beloved, and despite her sisters’ words, she is the child that holds the highest regard for her father. Beauty is also her father’s dearest child, and in many stories favored also by the family’s acquaintances. When the family’s fortune fails, her sisters are mocked for their proud ways, while Beauty is spoken of with sympathy: “For Beauty’s sake, we are truly sorry for their misfortune. What a sweet girl she is! How kindly she spoke to poor folk! She was always so gentle, so good!” (de Beaumont, 2). Both women find themselves in unfortunate circumstances: Cordelia banished for her honesty and Beauty to suffer an unknown fate at the hands of the Beast, but they face danger with courage and spirit; and, while their stories end very differently, in the end they both triumph over their sisters’ greed and envy. 

There are many versions of the Beauty and the Beast story, and titles range from the well-known Beauty and the Beast to The Lady and the Lion, The Lady and the Lark, and The Singing, Soaring Lark. All of these stories begin in the same manner, with the merchant’s family losing their fortune, and being forced to live in the country as farmers. He receives word that one of his ships has arrived in port, and as he leaves to secure his interests, the merchant asks each daughter what she would like him to bring her. The oldest daughter asks for silks and furs and the middle daughter asks for pearls and jewels. Beauty, knowing her father will not be able to afford such luxurious gifts, asks for nothing. Her self-sacrificing nature is reviled by her sisters, and to spare an argument she asks for a ‘singing, soaring lark’. (Variations of the story have Beauty asking her father for a rose.) Here is where Beauty’s story really begins, for it is her fate that is set in motion when the merchant shelters at the mysterious castle on his way home. As he leaves the castle, as penniless as he arrived, he catches a lark (or plucks a rose) for his dearest daughter. For this crime, the Beast demands the first thing that greets the merchant at his door, and the merchant allows himself to believe it will be only a cat, not his favorite daughter, as it is. Beauty’s regard for her father has marked her as a sacrifice, as does Cordelia’s. As Lear announces that he will divide his kingdom into three parts, Cordelia learns that she will be married. This, as well as a portion of the kingdom, should be a gift, but Cordelia’s honesty seals her fate: “Why have my sisters husbands if they say they love you all? Haply, when I shall wed, that lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry half my love with him, half my care and duty: sure, I shall never marry like my sisters, to love my father all.” (King Lear, I, i, 99-103). Cordelia will not lie to her father, just as Beauty will not ask for gifts her father cannot give. Cordelia is banished for her apparent lack of regard for her father, and Beauty is brought to the Beast’s castle to become his prisoner. 

In their banishment both women find fortune, however. The Duke of Burgundy refuses Cordelia’s hand on learning she has no dowry, but the King of France steps forward and takes Cordelia as his Queen. Cordelia’s sisters have made good marriages to her father’s dukes, and each will have a portion of England to call her own, but Cordelia wins the love of a king and all of France. 

In different versions of the Beauty and the Beast theme, Beauty either meets first the Beast (or a lion), and later a handsome Prince, whom she weds that same night, or she doesn’t see the Beast at all, only the handsome youth who becomes her husband. Through her marriage, Beauty becomes Queen of a dark and mysterious Faerie Realm and finds joy in her exile. Her sisters also marry well, one to a vain, narcissistic man who loves his reflection more than his wife, and the other to a brilliant man, who uses his wit to torment his wife. Like Goneril and Regan, Beauty’s sisters find little happiness in their marriages. 

Cordelia’s happiness in France is marred by her concern over her father’s welfare, and she returns to find her homeland in chaos and her father a madman. Beauty also longs to see her father again, and finds he is ill, pining for the daughter he believes he has killed. Both daughters manage to heal their fathers’ hurts, but in so doing both are taken captive by their sisters. Literally, in Cordelia’s case, as in Act V she and Lear are led to the dungeons by her sisters’ soldiers: “For thee, oppressed king, I am cast down…Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?

King Lear: No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison…” 

                                                                  (King Lear, V, iii, 6-9)

Beauty’s sisters use subtler methods of capture. In the hopes that the Beast will become enraged and kill Beauty when she returns, her sisters beseech her to extend her stay with her family, and instead of three days Beauty lingers for a month, accepting her sisters’ honeyed falseness with innocent happiness. A dream prompts her to return to her home and her husband just in time, and she spends her days happily ever after with her husband. Sadly, Cordelia will never return to her husband, except to be placed in the family mausoleum with the honors due a Queen.

These two faithful daughters begin their lives blessed: they are raised in luxury and wealth, but their security is snatched away by fickle fate. Their devotion is rewarded, however, for Cordelia’s sincerity makes the King of France see how great a treasure she really is, and Beauty’s kind nature rewards her with a husband that treasures her above all things. Both of these youngest daughters are gifted with beauty, intelligence, and kindness. They are well-loved by their people (Kent even goes into exile for his defense of Cordelia), and their sisters are justly punished for their actions: Goneril and Regan kill each other, and Beauty’s sisters are forced to live knowing their sister is alive and well, and loved by her husband in a way they will never be. Despite Cordelia’s sad end, she, like Beauty, is a perfect illustration of the blessed youngest daughter idolized in literature. 

Sources
de Beaumont, Marie LePrince. Beauty and the Beast. Richard Howard, translator. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster Books, 1990.

Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales. Barnes & Noble Edition. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Books, 1993.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Giant Junior Classics Edition. New York, NY: Books, Inc. (date unknown).

Kaye, M.M. The Ordinary Princess. Chiswick Mall, London: Jane Nissen Books, 2002.

Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears. Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, editors. New York, NY: Avon Books, 1995. 

Shakespeare, William. William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. The Shakespeare Head Press Edition, Oxford. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Books, 1994.

The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Jack Zipes, editor. Expanded Edition. New York, NY: 1992.

[Nicole Kapise Perkins is the author of Held Captive and This Is The Mask: Poems. She holds a degree in Literary Studies and Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts. When she isn’t writing she is reading, usually with a mug of tea. Nicole Kapise Perkins lives in Massachusetts with her husband, their children, and an evil little cat.]