It might be useful to view nature as `the natural order of the world' (and, perhaps, the universe). When one goes against the natural order, chaos will follow. Shakespeare has made this point clear in "Troilus and Cressida" where Ulysses predicts that once "the specialty of rule hath been neglected disaster will follow, for take but degree away, untune that string, and hark what discord follows" (I.iii). But what are the natural orders that were upset in King Lear? First, and foremost, King Lear divided his kingdom and stepped down from the throne. A king of divine right is king until he dies; by disinheriting the throne and relinquishing it in parcels to daughters, Lear upset the natural order of...