Note to King Lear, 3.4.75: "Those pelican daughters."

King Lear calls Goneril and Regan "pelican daughters" because he feels they are feeding on his own heart's blood. In legend, pelican young were depicted as feeding on the blood of their parents. In the general version of the legend, as young pelicans grow, they begin to strike their parents in the face with their beaks. Though the pelican has great love for its young, it strikes back and kills the chicks. After three days, the mother pierces her side or her breast and lets her blood fall on the dead chicks, and thus revives them. Some say it is the male pelican that kills the young and revives them with his blood. Many different versions of the pelican legend have been told over the centuries.


Pelican from legend feeding her chicks her own blood Actual chick feeding from parent's crop