And in Dugdale's Warwickshire: "He hath a release from Rose ... of all her interest to the manor of Pedimore." Scene IV. 7 et seq. [Melun.] The chronicler tells the following story of this Melun upon the authority of Matthew Paris: "The Viscount of Melune, a Frenchman, fell sick at London, and, perceiving that death was at hand, he called unto him certain of the English barons, which remained in the city, upon safeguard thereof, and to them made this protestation: I lament, saith he, your destruction and desolation at hand, because you are ignorant of the perils hanging over your heads. For this understand that Lewis, and with him sixteen earls and barons of France, have secretly sworn, if it shall fortune him to conquer this realm of England, and be crowned king, that he will kill, banish, and confine all those of the English nobility, which now do serve him, and persecute their own king, as traitors and rebels. And because you shall have no doubt hereof, I, which lie here at the point of death, do now affirm unto you, and take it on the peril of my soul, that I am one of those sixteen that have sworn to do this thing.'" The Dauphin's oath runs thus in the old King John:— "There's not an English traitor of them all, John once despatch'd, and I fair England's king, Scene V. 10, 11. the English lords, etc.:-"Magna Charta," observes Lloyd, "is omitted in the play, and the obtaining of it from the reluctant and speedily recusant John was in fact, as regards the leading movement of the reign, an episode, and omitted of necessity. The struggle that Magna Charta symbolizes awaited still its grandest manifestation when Shakespeare lived and wrote. . . . Still the genius of Magna Charta is infused into the play, and in the concession which John is forced to make to the barons in the interest of humanity and conciliation of his subjects, we recognize the seal of the cause of justice against arbitrary administration." Scene VI. 66 23. The king, I fear, is poison'd, etc. :-Not one of the historians who wrote within sixty years of the event mentions this story. Thomas Wykes is the first who mentions it. According to the best accounts John died at Newark, of a fever. The following account is given by Holinshed from Caxton: After he had lost his army, he came to the abbey of Swineshead in Lincolnshire, and there understanding the cheapness and plenty of corn, showed himself greatly displeased therewith, and said in his anger, that he would cause all kind of grain to be at a far higher price ere many days should pass. Whereupon a monk that heard him speak such words, being moved with zeal for the oppressions of his country, gave the king poison in a cup of ale, whereof he first took the assay, to cause the king not to suspect the matter, and so they both died in manner at one time." Scene VII. 66 26, 27. To set a form, etc.:-Compare with Ovid's description of Chaos (Metamorphoses, i.) Quem dixere Chaos, rudis indigestaque moles." 64. Devoured by the unexpected flood:-This untoward accident really happened to King John himself. As he passed from Lynn to Lincolnshire he lost by an inundation all his treasure, carriages, baggage, and regalia. 64. [The King dies.] The tragic Poet," says Verplanck, "has here brought the death of John into immediate contact with his most atrocious crime, as the natural sequence and just retribution of his guilt towards young Arthur. The matter-of-fact commentators complain, with Mr. Courtenay (Commentaries on Shakespeare's Historical Plays), that here is a long interval leaped over at once in which foreign and cruel wars had raged with varied success, and one event had happened of which, although it is that by which we now chiefly remember King John, no notice is taken whatever. This is no other than the signature of Magna Charta.' The plain answer to this is, that the Poet's design was not to turn the chronicle of John's reign into dramatic dialogue, but to produce from the materials an historical tragedy; for which purpose Constance, Arthur, and the half-fictitious Faulconbridge afforded more suitable materials for his imagination than Magna Charta, and the political rights of Englishmen ac quired under it. By the selection he made he was naturally led to the exhibition of female character as intense, as passionate, and as overflowing with feeling, and with the most eloquent expression, as his own Juliet, but with the same all-absorbing affection transferred from the lover to an only child. On the other hand, had he chosen the great political question for the turning-point of interest in his drama-and if touched on at all it must have been made the main and central point of the action-it would have required all the Poet's skill to have avoided the too literal but unpoetical truth which Canning has so drolly ridiculed in his mockGerman play, when one of the exiled Barons informs the other that : 'The charter of our liberties receiv'd The royal signature at five o'clock, When messengers were instantly dispatch'd Knight on this point has these discriminating remarks: “The 99. At Worcester must his body be interr'd:-A stone coffin, containing the body of King John, was discovered under the pavement of the choir in the Cathedral of Worcester in 1797. The effigy, supposed to be the original cover of the coffin, is also the earliest sculpture of a sovereign now to be seen in England. III. Since it hath been, etc. :-Seeing that previously we have had enough of grief, let us not now give way to sorrow beyond what is necessary. Questions on King John. 1. What is the approximate date of the composition of King John? When was it first printed? 2. In what respects does it differ from the earlier play, The Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England? ACT FIRST. 3. Who occupy the stage at the opening of the first Scene? Why was it necessary to open this play with the principals in the action? 4. Explain the keynote, borrowed majesty. What is the claim of Philip of France? 5. How does Elinor explain the cause of the French demands? In this does she understand Constance? If you decide that Elinor's charge against Constance of being ambitious is a dramatic device employed in depicting Elinor's character, is it good art to strike a false note and establish a prepossession concerning a character not yet introduced to speak for herself? 6. How does John regard his own relation to the sovereignty? Does his mother show the clearer brain? 7. What dispute is brought to John to settle? What is the temper of Faulconbridge? Who first detects the paternity of Faulconbridge? 8. How is the dispute settled? ACT SECOND. 9. With what purpose does the Duke of Austria assume a part in the action? 10. With what speech does Arthur first appear in the play? What does Constance first say? What traits does she show? 11. What are King Philip's protestations? Who urges a stay until the messenger arrives from England. 12. What is Chatillon's announcement? In what spirit is it couched? 13. How is the demand of the French king answered by King John? 14. How are Elinor and Constance brought into the dispute? Characterize the bearing of each. 15. Why does a quarrel break out between Austria and the Bastard. 16. What English possessions in France does the French king demand of John in behalf of Arthur? 17. What appeal is made to the citizens of Angiers, and how is it answered? What is the dramatic effect of the sallies of the Bastard? 18. What was the result of the fight? What second answer comes from the citizens of Angiers? 19. To what course does the Bastard (Sc. i., lines 350-360) urge the two kings? What was his purpose in recommending the sack of the town? 20. What is the recommendation of the First Citizen? What motives lead the two kings to adopt it? 21. What is the Bastard's feeling about Arthur's rights? In his survey of the act of the French king, how is he led to consider his own individual case? Was it the conflict between his sense of justice and the anomalies of his position that led him to commit himself to the worship of commodity? 22. Do his subsequent acts prove him here to be indulging in self-slander? ACT THIRD. 23. Quote the line in the preceding Act where Sc. i. is foreshadowed. 24. Characterize the emotional state of Constance at the opening of this Act. 25. What is Arthur's attitude towards his mother? 26. What is the dramatic purpose of lines 110, III? 27. What was signified by the lion's hide? 28. Upon what mission does Pandulph come? 29. What motive led John to defy the pope and suffer excommunication? 30. Estimate the character of the French king. Why did he withdraw from the agreement with John? |