| King John |
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Period written:
1595-1596 First known performance: 1598 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 death at the hands of a monk. Throughout the play, a character known as "The Bastard" delivers a sceptical commentary on nobility, "commodity" (self-interest) and English sovereignty. It is sometimes considered odd that the Magna Carta is never mentioned in the play, since this is what King John is best remembered for today. However, the Magna Carta was not considered to be of any great moment in Shakespeare's time. Also, the focus of the play is on the quarrel over the succession, and Shakespeare would not have thought the 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 the Magna Carta into the middle of the play. Discuss this play in our forums.
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