sake of speed, precision, and increased power. His insights 
appear so richly in his lines that it is very difficult to select 
among them. But with the very opening words of Goneril’s aria 
we are deep in them:

     I love you more than words can wield the matter; 
     Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty:

     The stripping of the very human senses themselves will be 
one of the themes of this play. The separation of sight from 
the other senses has already been stressed in Lear’s expression 
of his “darker purpose” and his resort to the mere visual map. 
But whereas Goneril is ready to strip off sight as an expression 
of devotion, Regan rallies to her challenge with:

                                . . . I profess