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King John
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Life and Death of King John is one of the Shakespearean histories, plays written by William Shakespeare and based on the history of England. The play dramatizes the reign of King John of England (reigned 1199–1216), son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of Henry III of England.
The play was in existence by 1598, since it is mentioned by Francis Meres in his list of Shakespearean plays published in that year; however, no early performances are recorded. Indeed, the earliest known performance took place in 1737, when John Rich staged a production at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. In 1745, in the atmosphere of the Jacobite rebellion of that year, competing productions were staged by Colley Cibber at Covent Garden and David Garrick at Drury Lane. Charles Kemble's 1823 production made a serious effort at historical accuracy. Since then, King John has been one of Shakespeare's least-performed plays.[1]
The play was first published in the First Folio in 1623.
Shakespeare's play possesses a close relationship with an earlier history play, The Troublesome Reign of King John (ca. 1589). The consensus among modern scholars is that the earlier play provided a source and model for Shakespeare's work.
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The play opens with a demand from the French King Phillip for King John to abdicate in favor of his nephew Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, son of his elder brother Geoffrey. The five acts then depict a dizzying change of alliances, a Papal excommunication and subsequent acceptance, and the play ends finally with King John's slow death after apparent poisoning at the hands of a monk.
Throughout the play, a character known as "The Bastard" delivers a skeptical commentary on nobility, "commodity" (self-interest) and English sovereignty.
It is sometimes considered odd that Magna Carta is never mentioned in the play, since this is what King John is best remembered for today. However, Magna Carta was considered in Shakespeare's time, "not as a triumph for liberty, but rather as a shameful attempt to weaken the central monarchy."[2] Also, the focus of the play is on the quarrel over the succession, and Shakespeare would not have thought Magna Carta relevant to his story. Despite this, it was common for Victorian productions of the play to interpolate a spectacular tableau of the signing of Magna Carta into the middle of the play.
In the Victorian era, King John was one of Shakespeare's most frequently staged plays, in part because of the opportunities it offers for spectacle and pageantry that suited the style of the Victorian stage. However, the play has now dropped in popularity to the extent that it is one of Shakespeare's least-known plays and stagings of it are very rare.
Numerous 17th century references to King John testify to the play's popularity, but the first recorded performance didn't take place until 1737. David Garrick staged the first successful revival in 1745, and Charles Kemble staged a production in 1823 that was important for inaugurating the 19th century tradition of striving for historical accuracy in Shakespearean production. Other successful productions of the play were staged by William Charles Macready (1842) and Charles Kean (1846). 20th century revivals include Robert B. Mantell's 1915 production (the last production to be staged on Broadway) and Peter Brook's 1945 staging featuring Paul Scofield as the Bastard. Herbert Beerbohm Tree made a silent movie in 1899 featuring excerpts from his stage production, and it has been made for television twice, in 1951 with Donald Wolfit and in 1984 with Leonard Rossiter. [3]
- King John
- Prince Henry, son to the King (the future Henry III)
- Arthur, Duke of Britain, nephew to the King (Arthur I, Duke of Brittany)
- Earl of Pembroke (William Marshal)
- Earl of Essex (Geoffrey Fitz Peter)
- Lord Bigot
- Hubert de Burgh
- Robert Faulconbridge, son of Sir Robert Faulconbridge
- Philip the Bastard, his half-brother (also called Richard)
- James Gurney, servant to Lady Faulconbridge
- Peter of Pomfret, a prophet
- Philip, King of France (Philip II of France)
- Louis, the Dauphin (future Louis VIII of France)
- Lymoges, Duke of Austria (represents Leopold of Austria who captured Richard in his domains, Henry VI of Germany who exacted a ransom for Richard's return, and Viscount Aimar V of Limoges whom Richard was besieging when he was killed.
- Cardinal Pandolph, the legate of Pope Innocent III.
- Melune, a French Lord
- Chatillion, ambassador from France to King John
- Queen Elinor, widow of Henry II, mother to King John (Eleanor of Aquitaine)
- Constance, widow of Geffrey (John's elder brother), mother to Arthur (Constance, Duchess of Brittany).
- Blanch of Spain, daughter to King of Castile, niece to King John (Blanche of Castile)
- Lady Faulconbridge, widow of Sir Robert Faulconbridge
- Lords, heralds, etc.
- Complete Text of King John at MIT
- King John - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg
- The life and death of King John - HTML version of this title.
