King John

By William Shakespeare

"King John", a historical play by William Shakespeare, recounts the events of King John's reign of England during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The play opens at the English court of King John. Richard I is killed by a man named Austria. Richard I's widow, Constance, projects that Arthur, Richard I's son should inherit the throne. When the king of France, Phillip becomes involved with appointments to the crown, a tumultuous series of alliances, betrayals, and murders follow.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781596254770

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) is arguably the most famous playwright to ever live. Born in England, he attended grammar school but did not study at a university. In the 1590s, Shakespeare worked as partner and performer at the London-based acting company, the King’s Men. His earliest plays were Henry VI and Richard III, both based on the historical figures. During his career, Shakespeare produced nearly 40 plays that reached multiple countries and cultures. Some of his most notable titles include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. His acclaimed catalog earned him the title of the world’s greatest dramatist.

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KING JOHN

By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

A Digireads.com Book

Digireads.com Publishing

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-3218-8

Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-59625-477-0

This edition copyright © 2012

Please visit www.digireads.com

CONTENTS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I.

SCENE I. King John's Palace.

ACT II.

SCENE I. France. Before the walls of Angiers.

ACT III.

SCENE I. France. The French King's tent.

SCENE II. France. Plains near Angiers.

SCENE III. France. Plains near Angiers.

SCENE IV. France. The French King's camp.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. England. A Castle.

SCENE II. England. King John's Palace.

SCENE III. England. Before the castle.

ACT V.

SCENE I. England. King John's Palace.

SCENE II. England. The Dauphin's camp at Saint Edmundsbury.

SCENE III. England. The Field of Battle.

SCENE IV. England. Another part of the battlefield.

SCENE V. England. The French camp.

SCENE VI. An open place near Swinstead Abbey.

SCENE VII. The orchard of Swinstead Abbey.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

KING JOHN. PRINCE HENRY, his son

ARTHUR, DUKE OF BRITAINE, son to Geffrey, late Duke of Britaine, the elder brother to King John.

WILLIAM MARSHALL, Earl of Pembroke.

GEOFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of Essex, Chief Justiciary of England.

WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury.

ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk.

HUBERT DE BURGH, Chamberlain to the King.

ROBERT FALCONBRIDGE, son to Sir Robert Falconbridge.

PHILIP FALCONBRIDGE, his half-brother, bastard son to King Richard I.

JAMES GURNEY, servant to Lady Falconbridge.

PETER OF POMFRET, a prophet

PHILIP, King of France.

LOUIS, the Dauphin.

ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA.

CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's legate.

MELUN, a French lord.

CHATILLON, Ambassador from France to King John.

ELINOR, Widow of King Henry II and Mother to King John.

CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.

BLANCH OF SPAIN, Daughter to Alphonso, King of Castile, and Niece to King John.

LADY FALCONBRIDGE, Mother to the Bastard and Robert Falconbridge.

Lords, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, Attendants and other Attendants.

THE SCENE: ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

ACT I.

SCENE I. King John's Palace.

[Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLON.]

KING JOHN. Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?

CHATILLON. Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France,

In my behaviour, to the majesty,

The borrow'd majesty of England here.

ELINOR. A strange beginning:—borrow'd majesty!

KING JOHN. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.

CHATILLON. Philip of France, in right and true behalf

Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's son,

Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim

To this fair island and the territories,—

To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine;

Desiring thee to lay aside the sword

Which sways usurpingly these several titles,

And put the same into young Arthur's hand,

Thy nephew and right royal sovereign.

KING JOHN. What follows if we disallow of this?

CHATILLON. The proud control of fierce and bloody war,

To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.

KING JOHN. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood,

Controlment for controlment;—so answer France.

CHATILLON. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth,

The farthest limit of my embassy.

KING JOHN. Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace:

Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;

For ere thou canst report I will be there,

The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:

So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,

And sullen presage of your own decay.—

An honourable conduct let him have:—

Pembroke, look to 't. Farewell, Chatillon.

[Exeunt Chatillon and Pembroke.]

ELINOR. What now, my son! Have I not ever said

How that ambitious Constance would not cease

Till she had kindled France and all the world

Upon the right and party of her son?

This might have been prevented and made whole

With very easy arguments of love;

Which now the manage of two kingdoms must

With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.

KING JOHN. Our strong possession and our right for us.

ELINOR. Your strong possession much more than your right,

Or else it must go wrong with you and me:

So much my conscience whispers in your ear,

Which none but heaven and you and I shall hear.

[Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers to Essex.]

ESSEX. My liege, here is the strangest controversy,

Come from the country to be judg'd by you,

That e'er I heard: shall I produce the men?

KING JOHN. Let them approach.—

[Exit Sheriff.]

Our abbeys and our priories shall pay

This expedition's charge.

[Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE and PHILIP, his bastard Brother.]

What men are you?

BASTARD. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman

Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son,

As I suppose, to Robert Falconbridge,—

A soldier by the honour-giving hand

Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.

KING JOHN. What art thou?

ROBERT. The son and heir to that same Falconbridge.

KING JOHN. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir?

You came not of one mother then, it seems.

BASTARD. Most certain of one mother, mighty king,—

That is well known; and, as I think, one father:

But for the certain knowledge of that truth

I put you o'er to heaven and to my mother:—

Of that I doubt, as all men's children may.

ELINOR. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother,

And wound her honour with this diffidence.

BASTARD. I, madam? no, I have no reason for it,—

That is my brother's plea, and none of mine;

The which if he can prove, 'a pops me out

At least from fair five hundred pound a-year:

Heaven guard my mother's honour and my land!

KING JOHN. A good blunt fellow.—Why, being younger born,

Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?

BASTARD. I know not why, except to get the land.

But once he slander'd me with bastardy:

But whe'er I be as true begot or no,

That still I lay upon my mother's head;

But that I am as well begot, my liege,—

Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!—

Compare our faces and be judge yourself.

If old Sir Robert did beget us both,

And were our father, and this son like him,—

O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee

I give heaven thanks I was not like to thee!

KING JOHN. Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent us here!

ELINOR. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face;

The accent of his tongue affecteth him:

Do you not read some tokens of my son

In the large composition of this man?

KING JOHN. Mine eye hath well examined his parts,

And finds them perfect Richard. Sirrah, speak,

What doth move you to claim your brother's land?

BASTARD. Because he hath

Reviews for King John

[john257hopper · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Having finished the last of a trilogy of novels about Eleanor of Aquitaine last night, I was prompted to read this, one of Shakespeare's less well known and now rarely performed plays. It prevents a telescoped version of the events early in John's reign in 1202-3, where he fought, triumphed over and probably murdered his nephew Arthur of Brittany, who had an arguably superior claim to the throne of England, being the son of one of John's older brothers, Geoffrey. It also presents a fictitious version of John's death and succession by his son, Prince Henry, who was not in reality born until a few years after Arthur's death. (Magna Carta does not exist in this fictionalised version of events). The events are dramatic, but it mostly lacks the memorable and pithy dialogue and quotations of many of the plays, and is one of only two Shakespeare plays written entirely in (mostly blank) verse.

[391_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love, love, love King John. I can see why it's hardly ever performed, though - there's several characters that only show up for a scene or two before leaving (the three women - Constance, Queen Elinore and Blanche disappear after act three), plus it would be hard to find a child actor that could memorize and speak Arthur's role. But, dear God, the characters! Constance and Philip the Bastard may be two of my favorite characters in all the histories. Constance is just so nuts - her catfight with Queen Elinor is hilarious - and the Bastard is so completely epic in every way. His constant haranguing of Austria is hilarious, and his utterly mad schemes of warfare (that always end up working!) are just...he's just awesome.

[anthonywillard · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don' t know why Shakespeare's King John is so little known. It has an involving story line and some quirky characters that I imagine could be played very effectively, though I have never had the opportunity to see it on stage. King John is as bad as he is legendarily supposed to be, though not without redeeming qualities. The famous Eleanor of Aquitaine of Lion in Winter fame plays a substantial part. There is, however, no comic character to compare with Falstaff of the Henry IV plays, though Richard the Bastard, the supposed illegitimate son of King Richard the Lion Heart, has a fair number of snarky lines, and is, in his role of outside observer, a satiric commentator on the political insincerities of the other characters, until his assumption of a redemptive role in the final act.

I had to brush up on the history of the real King John after reading the play. It turns out that King John had a very convoluted and eventful life filled with sound and fury, and Shakespeare selected episodes from it to weave into a tragedy without much regard to the actual historical sequence of events. Yet every episode dramatizes something that is part of the historical record.
I recommend King John if you have already read the major Shakespeare plays. Otherwise go read them first, i.e. Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry IV Parts I and II, Henry V, Othello, etc. King John is not at the same level of excellence, but is still worth a read.

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Has powerful moment when Prince Arthur is pleading with Hubert for his life.

[prop2gether · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This play has absolutely the best line in Shakespeare: Let that be thy message and go rot!

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

WS sees John as a lesser man coming to the throne in the wake of the Glorious Richard Lionheart. He's not that good, and drags the country down, gets it interdicted by the Papacy and invaded by the French. He's also the murderer of his older brother's son, a child with a good claim to the throne. WS creates., a point of view character "Bastard Fauconbridge" who represents the playwright's vision of what the English thought of John. there's no mention of the Magna Carta, because in Elizabeth I's England, it wasn't thought of as an important document. I've recorded it as read 4 times.

[amerynth · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Certainly not among Shakespeare's greatest plays, "King John" isn't among his worst either. I found it pretty middle of the road overall -- a decent plot and good pacing, but lacking in those memorable lines of dialog that have filtered into modern times.The plot, like most of the bard's historical plays, focuses on the struggle over the throne as a vacillating and somewhat weak-willed King John fights with the French. All this is viewed through his brother's illegitimate son's eyes.I'm not sure why this is ranked with Shakespeare's least popular plays -- it's not half bad.

[coach_of_alva · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Bastard Faulconbridge, illegitimate son of Richard the Lion-Hearted, is welcomed at the beginning of the play into the retinue of his uncle John. He spends most of the rest of the play being shocked at the inability of the medieval powers that be to keep their word or maintain their honor or stay the course or even show decent familial feelings when "commodity" enters the picture. This dour play, almost a satire, puts King John in Richard III's position, i.e., having a young boy as a dangerous political rival, but John behaves more like Richard II than III, giving the death order rashly, then whining over its consequences.

[leslie398 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I think I would like a modern English version of this historical (fiction?) play as there was plenty of action. However I struggled with Shakespeare's writing too much to enjoy it.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My memory is sketchy on the facts of John's reign, this may be colored by Shakespeare's need to please Queen Elizabeth and re-write history a bit, but then, who reads Shakespeare for history? There are certainly many pithy, witty and funny lines within this drama. Though it isn't my favorite, it was good to read. I really enjoyed the two women sending verbal barbs at each other, and even teared up a bit at Arthur's death.