Climate as climax in Shakespeare’s Plays

Abstract

Thanks to the recent advent of ecocriticism in the field of Shakespeare studies, we are becoming increasingly aware that the representation of climate in early modern drama intersects with discourses on crops and food as well as on race and humours. Yet, as climate resists being represented, few critics think of considering its role per se. What did it really bring to early modern audiences? Keeping in mind the Greek etymology of “climate”, klineio or “slope” (latitude), is quite useful to account for a number of references linked to the humoral physiology that prevailed at the end of the sixteenth century. Unsurprisingly, Shakespeare is concerned with the ways in which the local weather durably affects the nature of men as well as with the way their humours are temporarily modified, through the skin, by climate and environment. I argue that this concern actually prompts him to reverse the traditional points of view in order to show that things also work the other way round. Indeed, in some of his plays, the playwright insists on men’s unfortunate capacities to provoke violent climatic (and climactic) disorders and to generate chaos on earth. As an example of the interactions between men and weather in Shakespeare’s drama, I will explore climate as climax in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear. Indeed, in these three works, action is framed by, grounded in, and focused on severe climatic conditions.