King John

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780486790077
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Critique littéraire de Shakespeare

Amid a backdrop of war, conspiracy, and murder, this historical play depicts the troubled reign of King John, who ruled England from 1199 to 1216. Shakespeare's most enigmatic king struggles with the shifting loyalties of his nobles as well as threats from his covetous heirs and the burdens of his own conscience. The play, which abounds in battles and betrayals, explores issues of politics, inheritance, and legitimacy.
John's problems are threefold: he has usurped the throne from the rightful heir, his nephew Arthur; his relationship with the Vatican is troubled; and he is highly unpopular with his own subjects. Shakespeare's portrayal of the despised monarch finds a more heroic figure in Sir Richard Plantagenet, an illegitimate son of Richard I. The Bastard, as John's loyal nephew is known, forms the moral center of the play as well as a source of irreverent humor and honesty. A cynical play about power struggles, King John offers a remarkably contemporary mix of history and ironic commentary, balanced in equal measures by elements of tragedy and satire.

ACT V.
SCENE I. King John’s Palace.

Enter KING JOHN, PANDULPH, and Attendants

KING JOHN. Thus have I yielded up into your hand

The circle of my glory. [Giving the crown. 2

PAND.

Take again

From this my hand, as holding of the pope

Your sovereign greatness and authority.

K. JOHN. Now keep your holy word: go meet the French,

And from his holiness use all your power

To stop their marches ’fore we are inflamed. 7

Our discontented counties do revolt; 8

Our people quarrel with obedience,

Swearing allegiance and the love of soul 10

To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.

This inundation of mistempered humour 12

Rests by you only to be qualified:

Then pause not; for the present time’s so sick,

That present medicine must be minister’d,

Or overthrow incurable ensues.

PAND. It was my breath that blew this tempest up,

Upon your stubborn usage of the pope;

But since you are a gentle convertite, 19

My tongue shall hush again this storm of war, 20

And make fair weather in your blustering land.

On this Ascension-day, remember well,

Upon your oath of service to the pope,

Go I to make the French lay down their arms.

[Exit.

K. JOHN. Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet

Say that before Ascension-day at noon

My crown I should give off? Even so I have:

I did suppose it should be on constraint;

But, heaven be thank’d, it is but voluntary.

Enter the BASTARD

BAST. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out 30

But Dover Castle: London hath received,

Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers:

Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone

To offer service to your enemy,

And wild amazement hurries up and down 35

The little number of your doubtful friends.

K. JOHN. Would not my lords return to me again,

After they heard young Arthur was alive?

BAST. They found him dead and cast into the streets,

An empty casket, where the jewel of life 40

By some damn’d hand was robb’d and ta’en away.

K. JOHN. That villain Hubert told me he did live.

BAST. So, on my soul, he did, for aught he knew.

But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad?

Be great in act, as you have been in thought;

Let not the world see fear and sad distrust

Govern the motion of a kingly eye:

Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire;

Threaten the threatener, and outface the brow

Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes, 50

That borrow their behaviours from the great,

Grow great by your example and put on

The dauntless spirit of resolution.

Away, and glister like the god of war,

When he intendeth to become the field: 55

Show boldness and aspiring confidence.

What, shall they seek the lion in his den,

And fright him there? and make him tremble there?

O, let it not be said: forage, and run 59

To meet displeasure farther from the doors, 60

And grapple with him ere he come so nigh.

K. JOHN. The legate of the pope hath been with me,

And I have made a happy peace with him;

And he hath promised to dismiss the powers

Led by the Dauphin.

BAST.

O inglorious league!

Shall we, upon the footing of our land, 66

Send fair-play orders and make compromise, 67

Insinuation, parley and base truce 68

To arms invasive? shall a beardless boy, 69

A cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields, 70

And flesh his spirit in a warlik...