Nature, as a word, has many different associations, many of which are explored in King Lear. The Jacobean audiences watching the play would have known of, and possibilities believed in, herbal remedies, or the curing (Cordelia's medicines) and fortune telling (Gloucester's avid belief in astronomy) powers of nature. There is a general sense that nature affected people's normal lives much more than our present sheltered existence. A bad harvest or a deep flood could reduce families to starvation and poverty, whereas now we have protection against such natural disasters. This is demonstrated by the storm and the panic surrounding it, "Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks". Therefore Shakespeare is touching upon an issue much more part of Jacobean lives, rather than contemporary. .
In our scientifically and mechanically advanced world we are further away from the basic foundation of life, nature, than Jacobean audiences. We do, however, all eventually return to nature when we die, and automatically loose all the materialistic objects and clutter we had collected. Shakespeare is touching on an issue ahead of his time, the question of how important cultured luxuries are to us in our vastly materialistic world. Humans build on their natural foundation, adding luxuries but also unseen laws such as hierarchy and society morals. Shakespeare also appears to criticise hierarchy, as Lear says, "Through tattered clothes great vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all"; if people are high status, does this automatically mean they are naturally good people and appropriate for the position, or has false language just granted them their title (as in Goneril and Regan's case)? .
It is ironic in some ways that many of the characters in King Lear, who own or receive positions of high authority (Lear, Goneril, Regan, Edmund) are very flawed, and the last three could even be described as "evil".
