“goats and monkeys!”: shakespeare, hobbes, and the state of nature

MOORE: “GOATS AND MONKEYS!”: SHAKESPEARE, HOBBES, AND THE STATE
OF NATURE
confederacy with others that are in the same danger with himself.” 34 Since we are all
imperiled by the liberty of our fellow human beings, the logical move is to enter into a
contract with them, agreeing not to do to them what one would not have done to himself
or herself – “to seek peace and follow it.” 35 After that, we need to establish something
that can guarantee our mutual adherence to this agreement, a sovereign power that will
ensure everyone’s good behaviour. This is the social contract, and it guarantees the
conditions most conducive to safety and contentment; within it human beings are able to
pursue the objects of their desire free (or relatively free) of the fear of violent death.
The great concern for Hobbes, of course, is that at any moment we can slip back
into a pre-political state, the state of nature, in which our anti-social impulses are given
free reign as our self-centred drive for security and felicity pits us against our fellow
human beings. Such a slip can occur whenever there is a crisis in the sovereignty of the
state, such as during a civil war or any other period of political upheaval, something like
the succession crisis with which King Lear begins.
Importantly, Lear’s false confidence in his succession plan, like his false
confidence in the outcome of his love game, is based on a rigid and decidedly un-
Hobbesian understanding of the relationship between human nature and political
community. He is confident that “the political order is rooted in the natural, that nature
supports human justice and in particular his own decrees as king.” 36 Specifically, his
political strategy is premised on the notion that his daughters are naturally obedient to
him. Lear believes his daughters’ devotion is akin to the rising and setting of the sun: it is
a law of nature that his children are compelled to obey. This understanding of the nature
34 Hobbes, Leviathan, 93.
35 Hobbes, Leviathan, 99.
36 Paul A. Cantor, “The Cause of Thunder,” 231.
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