King Lear

The aging King divides his kingdom among his three daughters, basing each one’s share upon a public declaration of love to her father. Goneril and Regan make eloquent and hypocritical speeches, but the youngest daughter, Cordelia, refuses to participate and is disinherited. It is only after enduring terrible suffering that he realizes it is the child he has so bitterly renounced, not those to whose flattery he has succumbed, who truly loves him.