Note to King Lear, 1.1.82-83: "Now, our joy, / Although our last and least"


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King Lear,
Act 1, Scene 1, line 82
As the youngest ["last"] child, Cordelia would be the least likely to inherit Lear's throne, but I don't know if that's why he calls her "least." Perhaps it's because she is the youngest or maybe she is simply small. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, produced about about five years before Lear, there is a notably small adult, Maria, so perhaps Shakespeare had a very small boy who could play Cordelia.