'Hey, ho, the wind and the rain' Twelfth Night Act 5, Scene 1, and King Lear Act 3, Scene 2
Shakespeare's Songs: Fools and Fortune
Clown
When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came to man's estate,
With hey, ho, & c.
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain, & c.
But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, & c.
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain, & c.
But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, & c.
With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain, & c.
A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, & c.
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.
Fool
He that has and a little tiny wit--
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,--
Must make content with his fortunes fit,
For the rain it raineth every day.
The somewhat melancholy tune featuring the refrain 'hey, ho, the wind and the rain', appears in two of Shakespeare's plays. One is a comedy (Twelfth Night), and the other is a tragedy (King Lear), but in both the lines are sung by the fool of the play. In Twelfth Night, the refrain is a part of a longer song, sung by Feste at the end of the play; in King Lear, the lines form only one verse, recited briefly by the Fool during the storm.
While watching a production of King Lear, I was surprised to hear the lines I knew from the earlier comedy arise again, this time in a much bleaker scene in a more sombre play. Shakespeare rarely reuses material, so this definitely makes for an intriguing occurance, well worth another look.
Firstly, it is important to consider the matter of authorship. One reason why Shakespeare's plays may feature this tune more than once, could be that it already existed as a song in Elizabethan England. If it did pre-date Shakespeare's first use of it in Twelfth Night, we might never know - songs, especially those created by commoners, would most likely have been transmitted orally, leaving us without any physical written evidence of their origin. Shakespeare's use of it on the stage would also have been an oral transmission, it it wasn't for the preservation of his works in quarto and folio form. Featuring a song already recognisable to playgoers would have furthered their enjoyment of this comedy: as well as encouraging audience participation, it would ally them with the character of Feste, allowing them to share in his mockery of the lives of drunken lords, sour-faced stewards, and love-sick lords and ladies.
Another claim for authorship of this song (other than Shakespeare, who could indeed have penned the lines into both plays), is Robert Armin. The comic actor of the Lord Chamberlain's Men who rose to prominence after the departure of his predecessor, Will Kempe, would have portrayed Feste when the play was first performed in 1602. It is generally accepted that the character of Feste was written with Armin in mind: Feste is a philosophical fool with a quick, dry wit, in line more with Armin's style than the traditionally 'clownish' style of Kempe. Armin - who later went on to portray (amongst others) Touchstone in As You Like It, the porter in Macbeth, Autolycus in The Winter's Tale, and indeed the Fool in King Lear - brought an intelligence and cynicism to the fool roles, and was also an accomplished author on the craft of fooling. He could definitely be a contender for having written the oddly forlorn song.
Now to consider the song itself. As in Shakespeare's 'seven ages of man' (As You Like It), this song tracks the life of the singer from his childhood as a 'little tiny boy', through his apprenticeship, marriage, and later life as a destitute drunk. For each period of life he is unfit: as a child he is a mere toy, with no purpose other than to fool around and play; as a young man, he is spurned from his place of work, and from his wife's bed, as a knave and a swaggerer; in later life he has no better bed than where his drunken head falls. The repeated refrains of 'the wind and the rain', and 'the rain it raineth every day', emphasise this gloomy, miserable way of life. Yet, as the latter line suggests, such misfortune is to be abided much as the constant, drizzly rain is. Whether this song follows Feste's life in particular, or the trials and tribulations of life in general, the sentiment is something many common playgoers would sympathise with, aligning them even moreso with Feste. The placement of the song at the end invites the audience to join Feste in a final sly commentary on the privilege of the noble lead characters, who at the end of the play, are love-blinded to the way, for other folk, life goes on as tediously as the rain.
So how much does the use of this song compare and contrast to its brief revival in King Lear? The verse is spoken by the Fool, who would have also have been portrayed by Robert Armin - that the lines echo Armin's previous role, whether dictated by Shakespeare or Armin himself, reminds us that Lear's Fool is as intelligent and sharp as Feste. It also conveys how the life of a fool to a nobleman is not one of comfort or wealth; independent of their masters' fortunes, fools must abide the rain 'every day'. Lear's fool, of course, is abiding the rain literally, as he huddles with his master in the storm. This adds further significance to this verse - while the Fool has weathered the rain all his life, Lear 'must make content with his fortunes fit', and do the best he can to adapt to his new circumstances. The echo of Feste's 'little tiny boy' in the line 'little tiny wit' shows how the Fool views Lear as having returned to a childish state- a 'second childishness' to quote the 'seven ages of man' speech.
Playgoers at a performance of King Lear, first performed in 1606, might remember 'the wind and the rain' from a performance of Twelfth Night four years earlier. Seeing Armin in both roles would make sense of the crossover. But if we consider the worlds inside the plays, we might questions how Lear's Fool learnt this song in order to recite it here. It could be that the song exists both in the worlds of King Lear and Twelfth Night. It could also be attributed to the 'Chorus' role that Lear's Fool embodies; the character seems to exist out of time, making commentaries and prophecies which betray an understanding of the world far beyond what what we might expect of the Fool. In his final cryptic monologue, he makes a prediction about Merlin, despite the fact that the play is set in an ancient British civilisation long before the sixth-century reign of King Arthur. Therefore, he might also have a prophetic knowledge of Feste's land, in the time of Twelfth Night.
In King Lear, the song has been condensed to a single verse. In these four lines, the Fool encapsulates the bitter perspective on privilege, with none of the playfulness of Feste's song. The stripping back of this song may be due to the restrictions of the setting - during a raging storm, and the raging tirade from Lear, one verse may be all one can manage. It may also be on account of the subject matter: while Feste whimsically recounts the tragi-comedy of his own life, the Fool is speaking of Lear's fate, a fall from fortune which can be summarised in a few short lines - of childishness and old age coming all at once, of fortunes flipping as quick as a lightning flash. Yet what both these iterations reveal is that, whether young or old, over the course of a lifetime or a few short days, the tides of fortune can change. That the song appears in both a comedy and a tragedy reveals what all of Shakespeare's plays have at their core - a nuanced understanding that power, social status, relationships, and indeed the human condition, are as inconstant and changeable as the weather.
While watching a production of King Lear, I was surprised to hear the lines I knew from the earlier comedy arise again, this time in a much bleaker scene in a more sombre play. Shakespeare rarely reuses material, so this definitely makes for an intriguing occurance, well worth another look.
Firstly, it is important to consider the matter of authorship. One reason why Shakespeare's plays may feature this tune more than once, could be that it already existed as a song in Elizabethan England. If it did pre-date Shakespeare's first use of it in Twelfth Night, we might never know - songs, especially those created by commoners, would most likely have been transmitted orally, leaving us without any physical written evidence of their origin. Shakespeare's use of it on the stage would also have been an oral transmission, it it wasn't for the preservation of his works in quarto and folio form. Featuring a song already recognisable to playgoers would have furthered their enjoyment of this comedy: as well as encouraging audience participation, it would ally them with the character of Feste, allowing them to share in his mockery of the lives of drunken lords, sour-faced stewards, and love-sick lords and ladies.
Another claim for authorship of this song (other than Shakespeare, who could indeed have penned the lines into both plays), is Robert Armin. The comic actor of the Lord Chamberlain's Men who rose to prominence after the departure of his predecessor, Will Kempe, would have portrayed Feste when the play was first performed in 1602. It is generally accepted that the character of Feste was written with Armin in mind: Feste is a philosophical fool with a quick, dry wit, in line more with Armin's style than the traditionally 'clownish' style of Kempe. Armin - who later went on to portray (amongst others) Touchstone in As You Like It, the porter in Macbeth, Autolycus in The Winter's Tale, and indeed the Fool in King Lear - brought an intelligence and cynicism to the fool roles, and was also an accomplished author on the craft of fooling. He could definitely be a contender for having written the oddly forlorn song.
Now to consider the song itself. As in Shakespeare's 'seven ages of man' (As You Like It), this song tracks the life of the singer from his childhood as a 'little tiny boy', through his apprenticeship, marriage, and later life as a destitute drunk. For each period of life he is unfit: as a child he is a mere toy, with no purpose other than to fool around and play; as a young man, he is spurned from his place of work, and from his wife's bed, as a knave and a swaggerer; in later life he has no better bed than where his drunken head falls. The repeated refrains of 'the wind and the rain', and 'the rain it raineth every day', emphasise this gloomy, miserable way of life. Yet, as the latter line suggests, such misfortune is to be abided much as the constant, drizzly rain is. Whether this song follows Feste's life in particular, or the trials and tribulations of life in general, the sentiment is something many common playgoers would sympathise with, aligning them even moreso with Feste. The placement of the song at the end invites the audience to join Feste in a final sly commentary on the privilege of the noble lead characters, who at the end of the play, are love-blinded to the way, for other folk, life goes on as tediously as the rain.
So how much does the use of this song compare and contrast to its brief revival in King Lear? The verse is spoken by the Fool, who would have also have been portrayed by Robert Armin - that the lines echo Armin's previous role, whether dictated by Shakespeare or Armin himself, reminds us that Lear's Fool is as intelligent and sharp as Feste. It also conveys how the life of a fool to a nobleman is not one of comfort or wealth; independent of their masters' fortunes, fools must abide the rain 'every day'. Lear's fool, of course, is abiding the rain literally, as he huddles with his master in the storm. This adds further significance to this verse - while the Fool has weathered the rain all his life, Lear 'must make content with his fortunes fit', and do the best he can to adapt to his new circumstances. The echo of Feste's 'little tiny boy' in the line 'little tiny wit' shows how the Fool views Lear as having returned to a childish state- a 'second childishness' to quote the 'seven ages of man' speech.
Playgoers at a performance of King Lear, first performed in 1606, might remember 'the wind and the rain' from a performance of Twelfth Night four years earlier. Seeing Armin in both roles would make sense of the crossover. But if we consider the worlds inside the plays, we might questions how Lear's Fool learnt this song in order to recite it here. It could be that the song exists both in the worlds of King Lear and Twelfth Night. It could also be attributed to the 'Chorus' role that Lear's Fool embodies; the character seems to exist out of time, making commentaries and prophecies which betray an understanding of the world far beyond what what we might expect of the Fool. In his final cryptic monologue, he makes a prediction about Merlin, despite the fact that the play is set in an ancient British civilisation long before the sixth-century reign of King Arthur. Therefore, he might also have a prophetic knowledge of Feste's land, in the time of Twelfth Night.
In King Lear, the song has been condensed to a single verse. In these four lines, the Fool encapsulates the bitter perspective on privilege, with none of the playfulness of Feste's song. The stripping back of this song may be due to the restrictions of the setting - during a raging storm, and the raging tirade from Lear, one verse may be all one can manage. It may also be on account of the subject matter: while Feste whimsically recounts the tragi-comedy of his own life, the Fool is speaking of Lear's fate, a fall from fortune which can be summarised in a few short lines - of childishness and old age coming all at once, of fortunes flipping as quick as a lightning flash. Yet what both these iterations reveal is that, whether young or old, over the course of a lifetime or a few short days, the tides of fortune can change. That the song appears in both a comedy and a tragedy reveals what all of Shakespeare's plays have at their core - a nuanced understanding that power, social status, relationships, and indeed the human condition, are as inconstant and changeable as the weather.
Photo Credits:
'Clown (sings): For the rain it raineth every day' by William Heath Robinson, found here.
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