Louis Boulanger, “King Lear in Storm”
As I write this, we are expecting “Frankenstorm” Sandy. (I am posting early in case we lose electricity.) King Lear’s famous speech seems appropriate in that it reminds us that, no matter how much power we think we may have, nature ultimately calls the shots. Lear feels humiliated by his sudden awareness of his powerlessness, although I think that the storm may simply confirm what he has long suspected: nature, in the form of old age, is dictating to one who has always dictated. His family meltdown may be precipitated by his panic. For us, his words serve as a useful reminder that we’re not in control.
And if the increasing frequency and severity of hurricanes over the past 25 years are a result of warmer waters brought about by climate change–well, these storms should serve as a wake-up call that we can’t keep freely pumping carbon into the atmosphere.
If anything happens with Sandy, I’ll report back after she has passed through.
King Lear
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!
Crack nature’s moulds, an germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!
Fool
O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry
house is better than this rain-water out o’ door.
Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters’ blessing:
here’s a night pities neither wise man nor fool.
King Lear
Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdom, call’d you children,
You owe me no subscription: then let fall
Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man…