{"id":5781,"date":"2014-02-20T08:32:13","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T08:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=5781"},"modified":"2014-02-20T08:32:13","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T08:32:13","slug":"for-the-rain-it-still-raineth-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2014\/02\/20\/for-the-rain-it-still-raineth-every-day\/","title":{"rendered":"For the rain it (still) raineth every day"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am told that Shakespeare used this in two plays.\u00a0 In a late Twelfth Night song, as shown here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

When that I was and a little tiny boy,<\/span><\/p>\n

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,<\/span><\/p>\n

A foolish thing was but a toy,<\/span><\/p>\n

For the rain it raineth every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

But when I came to man\u2019s estate,<\/span><\/p>\n

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2019Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,<\/span><\/p>\n

For the rain it raineth every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

But when I came, alas! to wive,<\/span><\/p>\n

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,<\/span><\/p>\n

By swaggering could I never thrive,<\/span><\/p>\n

For the rain it raineth every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

But when I came unto my beds,<\/span><\/p>\n

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,<\/span><\/p>\n

With toss-pots still had drunken heads,<\/span><\/p>\n

For the rain it raineth every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

A great while ago the world begun,<\/span><\/p>\n

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s all one, our play is done,<\/span><\/p>\n

And we\u2019ll strive to please you every day<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and also in King Lear where the Fools says this:<\/p>\n

He that has and a little tiny wit--<\/span><\/p>\n

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,--<\/span><\/p>\n

Must make content with his fortunes fit,<\/span><\/p>\n

For the rain it raineth every day. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How true. \u00a0How apt. \u00a0And the rain it raineth on, though I can now glimpse a patch of blue sky \u2026 . \u00a0But here's a bit of perspective which is taken from a talk I gave about 12 months ago:<\/p>\n

Between 950 and 1250 there was what\u2019s known as the Medieval Warm Period<\/a>, and just before 1300, the population of Europe had reached levels not seen again until the nineteenth century. \u00a0 This was putting strain on their ability to provide enough food, and so land was farmed more intensively, and marginal land was planted.\u00a0 In England, the chalk downlands were terraced; the fens were drained.\u00a0 Inevitably, wages fell and food became more expensive.\u00a0 Woodland was not managed sustainably, and wood became scarce and hence expensive.\u00a0 This meant that straw and dung were burnt for warmth, and weren\u2019t ploughed into the fields, reducing soil quality and fertility.\u00a0 Crop yields dropped.\u00a0 At this time, in a good year, the seed to grain ratio could be as high as 7 : 1, while during bad years as low as 2 : 1 \u2013 one seed for next year's planting, and one for food.\u00a0 This was below subsistence levels, and the seed corn was often eaten.\u00a0 Modern farming gives ratios of around 30 : 1 . <\/span><\/p>\n

All this was bad, but then there was a rapid temperature fall over two decades starting in 1310. \u00a0There was a long period of wet weather caused by a string of endless depressions from the Atlantic.\u00a0 What followed was inevitable and might sound familiar.\u00a0 The summer of 1314 was wet and cool and the harvest poor.\u00a0 Corn prices rose again.\u00a0 In May 1315, it began to rain again, and continued for 15 months. Atlantic depression after Atlantic depression \u2013 rather like November 2012 (and January 2014), but for much longer.\u00a0 Two more poor harvests ensued.\u00a0 Food prices in England doubled between spring and midsummer in 1315. <\/strong>And it continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

Between 1310 and 1330 northern Europe saw some of the worst and most sustained periods of bad weather in the entire Middle Ages, characterized by severe winters and rainy and cold summers.\u00a0 There were widespread crop failures. \u00a0Straw and hay couldn\u2019t be cured and so there was no fodder for draft animals which had to be eaten.\u00a0 There were epidemics amongst sheep and cattle.\u00a0 There was famine across most of northern Europe which reached its height in 1317.\u00a0 Finally, in the summer the weather returned to its usual patterns but it wasn\u2019t till 1325 that the food supply returned to normal levels.\u00a0 Somewhere between 10 and 25% of the population of northern Europe had died.\u00a0 Then the Black Death came.\u00a0 This wiped out 40% of England\u2019s people.\u00a0 The young were especially vulnerable, just as they are to today\u2019s pandemics such as bird flu. <\/span><\/p>\n

The point in all this is that the balance between weather (or climate), population, the land, farming, and survival is a dynamic, and a delicate one.\u00a0 This story, or close variants of it, have played out through human history, and continue into the 21st<\/sup> century across the globe.\u00a0 We think we are safe from all this, but are we? \u00a0...<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am told that Shakespeare used this in two plays.\u00a0 In a late Twelfth Night song, as shown here: When that I was and a little tiny boy, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A foolish thing was...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}