The Tragedy of King Lear , an annotated digital edition

Page 20

In this line Lear is spewing as much venom about Cordelia as possible. He wishes her the worst and for her child to be a monster as she was to him. She wants Cordelia to feel the same pain he feels from her own child. He dramatically compares having an ungrateful child as being more painful than the bite of a snake. The irony here is that Cordelia was actually a grateful daughter who loved him.