rule,
             Interest of territory, cares of state,
             Which of you shall we say doth love us most.
             That we our largest bounty may extend
             Where nature doth with merit challenge?
             he is divesting himself of cares he no longer wishes to carry. It is clearly apparent that he is doing it not in the interests of the recipients of his benefits but because he seeks release from duties that are burdensome.
             With his appeal to his daughters to proclaim who loves him most, Lear exposes another weakness; self-love. The problem with self-love is that it subjects a man to flattery, for he needs to have his good opinion of himself sustained. It is difficult to tell the flatterer from the friend, but the basis of judgement is to be found in the fact that the flatterer applies himself to appeal to the passions of the one concerned, while the friend makes the appeal not to passion but to reason. The flatterer is inconstant, the friend constant; the flatterer alway
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