George Washington University

The Storm in King Lear

Author(s): E. Catherine Dunn
Source: Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Oct., 1952), pp. 329-333
Published by: Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2866694
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 The StorminKingLear
E. CATHERINE DUNN

N the Januaryi95i issue of Shakespeare Quarterly,Mr.

George W. Williamsdiscussed"The Poetryof theStormin
King Lear," analyzingsomeof thesoundpatternsand struc-
turesof meaning,with special emphasisupon the eschato-
logical significanceof the tempest.Mr. Williams sees a
symbolof the Last Judgementand the destructionof the
world in the fearfulstormwhichdescendsupon the heathand the aged king.
I am in generalagreementwith thisview,but would add another,relatedin-
terpretationof the storm,anotherlevel of meaning.Unquestionably, the con-
notationsof doomsdayand its accompanyingphenomenaare containedin the
play and would have reacheda Christianaudience;but I wonderif the primi-
tive storyof Lear does not operatewithina framework of pagan cosmology.I
see in thetempest, as Mr. Williamsdoes,and also Mr. EustaceTillyard,a cosmic
strifeof the fourelements-earth,air, fire,and water; but it appearsto me a
cosmicchaos of the Empedocleantype,a destruction of the universeby Strife
(Striferootedin ingratitude).
Andrew C. Bradleymade a passingobservationsuggestingthe idea with
whichI am concerned,but he did not developthe possibilities inherentin his
remark.Bradleynoticedthatthe play containstwo sharplydefinedgroupsof
characters(exclusiveof Lear, Gloucester,and Albany), which representex-
tremiesof good and evil. Cordelia,Edgar, Kent, and the Fool displaya love
so intensethat it cannotbe destroyedeven by abuse and injustice;Goneril,
Regan, Cornwall,Oswald, and Edmund displaya selfishness so callous thatit
cannot be touchedby the most elementalhuman pity.' Bradleycommented:
. . .the two [groups]are setin conflict,
almostas ifShakespeare,likeEmpedo-
cles,wereregardingLove and Hate as thetwo ultimateforcesof theuniverse."2
The notion,then,of theEmpedocleanconflict ofLove and Hate and thatof the
related clash of the four elementsinvite carefulconsideration, especiallyif
theycan be linkedwith the play's themeof ingratitude.
I think,is crucialto the interpretation
Ingratitude, of the stormmetaphor,
forit is thatevil whichbreakstheheartof Lear, shattershis reason,and bursts
asunderthe bonds of familyaffection in him. By metaphoricalextension,it is
ingratitudewhich breaks the tranquillityof nature and causes the storm;
1 ShakespeareanTragedy(New York: Macmillan
Co., 1949), p. 263.
2 With thiscommentone may compareMr. Tillyard'sshortpassage in The ElizabethanWorld
Picture(New York: Macmillan,1944): "Lear's firstwords in the storminvoke explicitlyall four
elementsin theiruproars;and thoughtheseare presentednot in abstractionbut as manifestedin the
concretenaturalhappenings,basic elementalconflictis as much a part of his thoughtas it is the
actual violenceof the weather"(p. -9).
330 SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY

even more, it is the origin of the cosmic chaos, for unthankfulness is the
particularformof Strifeor Hatred,in the Empedocleansense,whichdestroys
the harmonyof the universeand tearsit into the elementalfragments which
had cohered under the dominanceof Love.3
In the closingscene of Act II, when the stormis beginningto rumblein
the distance,Lear's partingspeech to Goneriland Regan sets the stage,as it
were,for the greatthirdact and gives the metaphoricalkey to it. Struggling
withtheweaknessof tearstheold kingturnsupon his daughtersand threatens
them:
No, you unnaturalhags,
I will havesuchrevenges on youboth,
That all the worldshall-I will do such things-
What theyare,yetI knownot; buttheyshallbe
The terrorsof the earth.You thinkI'll weep
No, I'll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping;but this heart
Shall breakinto a hundredthousandflaws,
Or ere I'll weep. 0, fool,I shall go mad!'
The next line is Cornwall's and it completesthe patternby specific
referenceto the coming storm: "Let us withdraw;'twill be a storm."The
passagegathersintoone the varioustermsof themetaphorwhichis to envelop
Act III, fortheold father,now thoroughly cognizantof his daughters'ingrati-
tude,totterson thevergeof themadnesswhichwill soon shatterhis mind,and
he anticipateshis heart-break"intoa hundredthousandflaws,"whilepredicting
in the same breatha world cataclysmof cosmicproportions-"theterrorsof
theearth."
We are,therefore, preparedforthegreatapostrophes to theheavenswhich
Lear deliversin Act III, sceneii. The firstone is a cursein whichhe callsupon
the wind, rain, thunder,and lightningto crushthe world that producesthe
monsteringratitude:
Blow, winds,and crack yourcheeks!rage! blow!
You cataractsand hurricanes,spout
Till you have drench'dour steeples,
drown'dthecocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing
fires,
Vaunt-couriers thunderbolts,
to oak-cleaving
Singe my whitehead! And thou,all-shaking thunder,
3 Modern Spenserianscholarshiphas revealedthe frequencyof cosmic harmonyand chaos as
themes in Elizabethan literature.Spenser deals with concordand discordas human and cosmic
phenomenain the Hymne in Honour of Love, Hymne in Honour of Beautie,in Book IV of The
Faerie Queene, and the Mutabilitiecantos. See Charles G. Smith,Spenser'sTheoryof Friendship
(Baltimore:the JohnsHopkins Press, 1935), especiallyChaptersI and II. ProfessorSmithhas gath-
ered in ChapterII parallels to Spenser'sconceptionsfromElizabethanpageantsand masques and
fromsuch otherworks as Lyly's The Woman in the Moone, Gascoigne'sJocasta,and Sackville's
Induction.The Variorumeditionof Spenser'sFacrie Queene, Book IV, ed. Edwin Greenlaw,C. G.
Osgood and F. M. Padelford(Baltimore:The JohnsHopkinsPress,1935), summarizesmuch of the
earlierand recentscholarshiprelativeto Spenser'sthemeof concordand itsprovenience. See especially
the notesto Cantos I and X in whichthe allegoricalfiguresof Ate (Discord) and Concordare dis-
cussed by JohnUpton,A. E. Sawtelle,HenryG. Lotspeich,Miss RosemondTuve, and others.Spen-
ser's conceptionis studiedin itselfand is tracedto intermediary sourceslike Alanus de Insulis and
ultimatelyto classicalliterature.
are to the Globe editionof Shakespeare'sworks(I9II).
II. iv. 281-289. All references
 THE STORM IN KING LEAR 33I

Smiteflatthe thickrotundityo' theworld!

Crack nature'smoulds,all germensspill at once,
That make ingratefulman!5
Mr. Williams observes,in the articlecited above (pp. 63-64),the clash of the
fourelementsand comparesthe passagewiththe one in MacbethIV. i. 50-6i.
The second apostropheof Lear, however,Mr. Williams findsanti-climactic,
because the imprecationsare not fulfilledand the old man realizes that the
elementshave refusedto obey him:
Rumblethybellyful! Spit,fire!spout,rain!
Nor rain,wind,thunder, fire,are my daughters:
I tax not you,you elementswithunkindness;
I nevergave you kingdom,call'd you children,
You owe me no subscription: thenlet fall
Your horriblepleasure;here I stand,yourslave,
A poor,infirm, weak, and despisedold man:
But yet I call you servileministers,
That have with two perniciousdaughtersjoin'd
Your high engender'dbattles'gainsta head
So old and whiteas this.0! 0! 'tis foul!
(III. ii. 14-24)
I do not considerthis second apostropheanti-climactic, as Mr. Williams
does. It seems to be a conclusionof the firstapostrophe,and both of them
appear to be Lear's cursesupon himself,primarily.He is obsessedwith his
daughters'ingratitude, buthe realizesthatit was he who fatheredtheungrateful
Goneriland Regan. "'Twas thisfleshbegot/Those pelicandaughters,"as he
says later.6In the firstimprecationhe invitesthe lightningto singe his own
whitehead,the lightningwhichhe had earlieraskedto dartitsblindingflames
into Goneril'seyes (II. iv. i67-i68). In the secondapostrophehe reiterateshis
call for self-punishment, after exoneratingthe elementsfrom ingratitude:
". . . then let fall/ Your horriblepleasure."Lear is, as it were, a Samson,
pullingdown on himselfthe pillarsof his world.
In thus invitingdestruction upon himself,he is repeatinga motifwhich
has been introducedquite earlyin the play. Justbeforethe dreadfulcurseof
Goneril("Hear, nature,hear,"I. iv. 297ff.) he expresseshis own agonyof self-
reproachat his injusticeto Cordelia:
0 Lear, Lear, Lear!
Beatat thisgate,thatletthyfollyin,(Striking
hishead.)
And thydear judgmentout!7
Self-punishmentappearsagain in a scenelaterthanthatofthegreatapostrophes.
At Lear's meetingwith the disguisedEdgar, the king interprets Poor Tom's
miseryas the resultof filialingratitude,
and insistsupon suchan interpretation
even when Kent informshim thatEdgar has no daughters.Lear, apparently
observingthe nakednessof thebeggarand the violencehe had done to himself
5 III. ii. I-9. Mr. Williamsgives a fineanalysisof 11.6-9 in termsof Neo-Platonic
philosophy
(pp. 67-70).
6111.iv. 76-77. See my commentbelow on thisremarkof Lear's.
7I. iv. 292-294. The Variorumeditionattributes thisstagedirectionto Pope (A New Variorum
Editionof Shakespeare:King Lear, ed. H. H. Furness,Philadelphia:J. B. Lippincott,i88o, p. 87).
332 SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY

bystrikingpinsand nailsintohisarms (see II. iii. I3ff.), commentssignificantly

upon self-punishment:
Is it the fashion,thatdiscardedfathers
Should have thus littlemercyon theirflesh?
Judiciouspunishment! 'twas this fleshbegot
Those pelicandaughters.8
To returnto the stormand Lear's apostrophes-hisimprecationsdo not
stop with a curseupon himself.He calls fordestruction of the universe,and
it is in thisidea thattheEmpedocleanstrifeof the fourelementsappearsmost
significant. Lear wishesboththe microcosm(himself)and themacrocosm(the
universe)to be crushed,so thathis curseis at the same timebothself-destruc-
tion and revengeupon his daughters.In a sense,Lear and the macrocosmare
one; the stormin his heartand the clash of the elementsare fused into one
gigantic cataclysm.The terms of the storm metaphorare thereforeinter-
changeable,and bothLear and the cosmosbecomesimultaneously avengerand
victim of ingratitude.
Coleridgeonce exclaimedin awe at the imaginativepowerof Shakespeare
which could fuse such diversity intothe unityof the heathstorm,"wherethe
deep anguish of a fatherspreadsthe feelingof ingratitudeand crueltyover
the veryelementsof heaven."9Granville-Barker's magnificent Prefaceto King
Lear observesthe fusionof the man and the storm,a processby whichLear
transcendstheweaknessof a wretchedold man to becomea titanic,apocalyptic
figureendowedwithall thefury,power,and awesomegrandeurof thestorm.'
Edith Sitwellhas added anotherilluminationto the sceneby designatingLear
as Time, who is morethanOld Age, who becomesa fifth elementliketheother
four,viz., earth,air,fireand water.'
The metaphorof cosmicchaos seemsa particularly fittingway to represent
imaginatively Renaissancemoralphilos-
the unnaturalcharacterof ingratitude.
ophy and courtesyliterature, which I have examinedat lengthelsewhere,12
containmany references to the enormousevil of this vice; the dominantnote
seems to be that of unnatural,monstrousvillainy,which seversthe bonds
amongkinsfolk, friends,and membersof civilsociety.Mostof theseideas made
theirappearancein Renaissanceethicalliteratureas restatements, translations,
or commentsupon classicalideas fromGreek and Latin authors.Ingratitude
was an enemy of human concordand deservingthereforeof the strongest
reproach.I considerthatthe Renaissancehorrorof the vice containsalso over-
tones from the traditionalconceptof feudal fealty,in which gratitudehad
8 III. iv. 74-77. The parallel betweenLear and Gloucesteris, of course,quite obviousin many
partsof the play; each standsin the positionof the fatherrejectedby filialingratitude.The parallel
of theirrespectivedesiresfor self-destruction, however,is deservingof special consideration.Glou-
cester'sleap fromthe cliffis a repetition, key,of Lear's apostropheto the elements,
in a different
calling themto singe his whitehead. Ironically,neitherone perishesby the means whichhe selects
forhimself,but each one dies of the mentaland physicalexhaustion,of heartbreak, inducedby the
total experienceof anguishthroughwhichhe has passed.
9 Coleridge'sShakespeareanCriticsm,ed. T. M. Raysor (London: Constable& Co., 1930),
I, 213.
'0Prefaces to Shakespeare(PrincetonUniversity Press,1946-47), I, 26I-270.
11 A Poet'sNotebook (Boston: Little-Brown,i950), pp. 3, 6o, and 82.
12 The Conceptof ingratitudein RenaissanceEnglishMoral Philosophy.DoctoralThesis (Wash-
ington:The CatholicUniversity of AmericaPress,1946).
 THE STORM IN KING LEAR 333
originally oflordandvassal,andhence
beenthequalitysealingtherelationship
thefundamental bondof feudalsociety.18
The aptnessof cosmicchaosin theEmpedoclean senseto symbolizethe
effectof ingratitude
can perhapsbe seenagainas theplaydrawsto a close.
In thecosmology of E;mpedoclestheuniversepassesthrougha seriesofcycles
in whichfirstLove and thenStrifepredominates.'4Although Strifedestroys
theworld,a newcosmosis bornas Lovereturns. The reappearanceofCordelia,
evenfora shorttime,thevictory of Albany,
and thereinstatementof Edgar
perhapsannouncethe returnof Love, and createthe "restoration of tran-
quillity"
whichis integral
tothetragic LearandGloucester
effect. haveperished
in theupheaval,butso alsohastheevilwhichdestroyed them.

of America
The CatholicUniversity
13Ibidj, pp. 45-91.
14For a translationof fragmentsfromEmpedocles'work,and a discussionof them,see John
Burnet,EarlyGreek
Philosophy, 3rd edition(London: A. and C. Black, 1920), especially pp. 228-234.