The Christian kings of England could assume a "divine right" imposed by the "natural order" to legitimize their place in the feudal hierarchy, a vision reinforced by Christ's admonition to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" (Matthew 22:21) and various other biblical depictions and endorsements of worldly rulers. In a pre-Christian society, the legitimacy of rulers could not be so easily founded on this concept of an ordered nature of the world, with a metaphysical Lord over a secular Lord over Man. However, in such a society, “Nature” retains its value as a term connoting “order,” simply the way things are. The qualities of Nature are therefore induced by experience and a sense of fairness: filial duty is "Nature", kinship is "Nature", moral behavior is "Nature", stability is "Nature", sanity is "Nature" and the physical world itself is simply "Nature". The problem is that, in the absence of a scriptural definition, these are all subjective notions, each representing part of a certain dialectic of human society. Depending on the experiences of the beholder, “Nature” can easily connote betrayal, disloyalty, immorality, instability, madness, and a violent physical world. If a leader's rule were based on a tradition of Nature that represents the feudal order, then conflicting definitions and evaluations of Nature would inevitably throw this society into disorder. In King Lear, this disorder plays out between two competing visions of Nature, each viewer professing allegiance to their own individual conception of Nature. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law / My services are bound" (1.2.1-2). Edmund's "nature" is an unregulated and uncivilized force, a prehuman world at odds with the "plague of custom" and the laws of man. This conception of nature derives from Edmund's life experience, ironically, as a "natural" (i.e. a bastard): Edmund is condemned by what he considers an unreasonable inherited habit, which he finds unintuitive and illogical. An illegitimate son, considered ignoble by the social standards that he does not accept, Edmund is thus led to condemn every form of legitimacy: the legitimacy of kings, the legitimacy of fathers, the legitimacy of morality. He proceeds to challenge all of these forms throughout the play, upsetting the natural order and helping to send Britain into chaos. The Earl of Gloucester has a different view of nature than his illegitimate son. He considers an eclipse – a disorder or interruption in the natural sky – portentous of disorder, using “nature” to explicitly represent order and stability: “nature finds itself scourged by the consequent effects” (1.2.98-9). This plague is the overturning of social bonds considered natural: friends, lovers, citizens, fathers and children. This connotation is then linked to King Lear's rule, as it "falls by nature's prejudice" (1.2.103): the king who deviates from his nature (wise rule) is therefore unnatural (causes instability). Edmund later reviles his father's allegiance to "natural" portents such as the "escape" of those whose behavior caused their own misfortune. As a warrior king who has ruled Britain for decades, Lear has a view of nature that is equally antithetical to Edmund's view. . Like Gloucester, Lear is attuned to the physical nature and divinity of the stars. Lear disinherits Cordelia with an appeal to the celestial bodies, in a certain sense "naturalizing" Lear's decision and attributing his desires tostars that deliver men to their destiny: Because by the sacred splendor of the sun, The mysteries of Hecate and the night; Throughout the operation of the spheres from which we exist and cease to be (1.1.109-12) Lear curses Goneril also for the "goddess Nature": "Hear, Nature, hear! dear goddess, hear! / Suspend thy purpose, if I would / do this fruitful creature! (1.4.253-4) Here, as elsewhere, Lear uses "Nature" to represent a divine "creator", an ambiguous personification of the process by which one's personality is forged. In this sense Lear calls Cordelia "a wretch whom nature is ashamed / Almost to acknowledge [as] her own" (1.1.214) Lear's faithful Earl of Kent later parrots this usage, telling a disrespectful servant towards the king that "nature denies in you; a tailor made you" (2.2.48). In this case, "unnaturalness" is artificiality, an inhuman separation from the natural elements. This usage deems "nature" to be a creative force, deserving respect. Thus, "unnaturalness ", in the sense of being rejected by nature, is similar to exile or disinheritance. In presupposing a superior creative force of Nature, Lear implicitly suggests an intuitive hierarchy, where the elements of nature are the very reason for nature's existence humanity: “Nothing will come from nothing” (1.1.89). There is a clear human parallel in the family hierarchy, whereby a father deserves the respect of his children. Lear presupposes this filial duty in referring to familial love as “nature ", since it would be proper or "natural" to love those who gave birth to him (the word "nature" is in fact traced back to the Latin verb for birth, "nascor, be born"). In dividing his kingdom, Lear declares: "In order that our greatest generosity may extend / Where nature [filial love] challenges with merit [action]" (1.1.50-1). Lear's love for his daughters is similarly his "nature", as he declares after cursing Goneril, "I will forget my nature. Such a kind father!" (1.5.27). Gloucester also echoes this usage, punning the term in approval of Edmund, beaming: "Loyal and natural boy, I will work with the means / To make you capable", playing with the senses "dutiful/loving" and "illegitimate" (2.1.85-6). Unnaturalness, therefore, is filial disloyalty. Since Gloucester believes that his legitimate son Edgar is plotting against him, he declares: "Unnatural, detested and brutal villain!" (1.2.72). Edmund repeats this in bad faith, warning Edgar of the "unnaturalness between the child and the parent" (1.2.132). This sense of loyalty to a creator or creative force should be familiar to a Christian audience, but it is not necessarily a given. (e.g., scripturally dictated) in a pre-Christian society. Instead it emanates from a familial gratitude and an innate moral tendency towards loyalty, supported by the likes of Cordelia and Kent and expressed in the play simply as the traits of these characters. Cordelia simply insists, "I love your majesty / According to my bond" and "You have begotten me, reared me, loved me; I / Return those duties as they are right, / I obey you, I love you, and most honor you." " (1.1.91-2,95-7). Kent offers no specific reason to persevere in serving Lear other than out of duty to a feudal lord: "Royal Lear, / whom I ever honored as my king, / loved as my father, as my master followed him, / as my great patron" (1.1.139-142). However, Kent goes beyond basic service, defying Lear's command to go into exile and disguising himself to continue helping "the your master, whom you love" (1.4.6). In contrast, Edmund's disorder-goddess "nature" suggests that he has no moral compass. While Cordelia would not flatter her father even if he stands to inherit some of his.