King John

Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition

Joseph Candido

• Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781350077348
• Edition: 2
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350284173
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism of Shakespeare
• Index: Literature

This new volume in Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition increases our knowledge of how Shakespeare's plays were received and understood by critics, editors and general readers. Updated with a new introduction providing a survey of critical responses to the plays since the late 1930s to the present day, the volume offers, in separate sections, both critical opinions about the play across the centuries and an evaluation of their positions within and their impact on the reception of the play. The chronological arrangement of the text-excerpts engages the readers in a direct and unbiased dialogue, whereas the introduction offers a critical evaluation from a current stance, including modern theories and methods. Thus the volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of the play and of the traditions of Shakespearean criticism surrounding it as they have developed from century to century.

Table of contents

• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• General editor’s preface
• General editors’ preface to the revised editions
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Supplementary introduction
• Chapter 1: Edmond Malone, commentary on King John: 1790
• Chapter 2: Joseph Ritson, response to Malone: 1792
• Chapter 3: George Steevens, response to Malone: 1793
• Chapter 4: George Chalmers, on the date of King John: 1799
• Chapter 5: Elizabeth Inchbald, character and characterization: 1808
• Chapter 6: August Wilhelm von Schlegel, personality and politics: 1815
• Chapter 7: Nathan Drake, Shakespeare’s art of characterization: 1817
• Chapter 8: William Hazlitt, history and character: 1817
• Chapter 9: William Oxberry, prefatory remarks on King John: 1819
• Chapter 10: Augustine Skottowe, The Troublesome Raigne and King John: 1824
• Chapter 11: Samuel Weller Singer, introduction to King John: 1826
• Chapter 12: George Daniel, prefatory remarks on King John: 1826
• Chapter 13: James Boaden, Sarah Siddons as Constance: 1827
• Chapter 14: Anna Brownell Jameson, the character of Constance: 1832
• Chapter 15: Thomas Campbell, Sarah Siddons on Constance: 1834
• Chapter 16: Thomas Campbell, general remarks on King John: 1838
• Chapter 17: Thomas Peregrine Courtenay, King John and history: 1838
• Chapter 18: Charles Knight, The Pictorial Edition of King John: 1838
• Chapter 19: George Fletcher, the female roles in King John: 1843
• Chapter 20: Joseph Hunter, editorial corrections in King John: 1845
• Chapter 21: Hermann Ulrici, ‘history’, church, and state in King John
• Chapter 22: Gulian Crommelin Verplanck, critical remarks on King John: 1847
• Chapter 23: Hartley Coleridge, critical notes on King John: 1851
• Chapter 24: François Pierre Guillaume Guizot, history, art, and character in King John: 1852
• Chapter 25: Henry Norman Hudson, introduction to King John: 1852
• Chapter 26: Henry Reed, history and character: 1855
• Chapter 27: William Watkiss Lloyd, King John and nationalism: 1856
• Chapter 28: John Charles Bucknill, the madness of Constance: 1859
• Chapter 29: Richard Grant White, background and critical notes to King John: 1859
• Chapter 30: Charles Cowden Clarke, characterization, craft, and the philosophy of war: 1863
• Chapter 31: Georg Gottfried Gervinus, politics, ethics, and chararacter: 1863
• Chapter 32: John Abraham Heraud, the politics of national interest: 1865
• Chapter 33: Henry Giles, the transcendent sorrow of Constance: 1868
• Chapter 34: Henry Thomas Hall, national interest and personal loyalty: 1871
• Chapter 35: Richard Simpson, King John and contemporary politics: 1874
• Chapter 36: Edward Dowden, the baseness of John: 1875
• Chapter 37: Algernon Charles Swinburne, Shakespeare’s art of characterization: 1875–6
• Chapter 38: John Weiss, Constance and the nature of woman: 1876
• Chapter 39: Frederick James Furnivall, King John, Richard III, and character: 1877
• Chapter 40: Denton Jaques Snider, the theme of nationality
• Chapter 41: George Wilkes, King John and Roman Catholicism: 1877
• Chapter 42: Frederick Gard Fleay, literary and historical background to King John: 1878
• Chapter 43: Edward Rose, Shakespeare’s adaptation of The Troublesome Raigne: 1878
• Chapter 44: George Henry Calvert, high praise for King John: 1879
• Chapter 45: Henry John Hardy, on Pandulph and history: 1887
• Chapter 46: Henry Morley, on commodity: 1887
• Chapter 47: Francis Albert Marshall, a balanced assessment of King John: 1888
• Chapter 48: Hiram Corson, on Constance and Arthur: 1889
• Chapter 49: Walter Horatio Pater, kingship, personality, and the human condition: 1889
• Chapter 50: Oliver Elton, the artistic excellence of King John: 1890
• Chapter 51: James Appleton Morgan, The Troublesome Raigne and King John: 1892
• Chapter 52: Louis Lewes, on Constance, Elinor, and Blanch: 1894
• Chapter 53: Beverley Ellison Warner, historical character and dramatic character: 1894
• Chapter 54: Barrett Wendell, the oddities of King John: 1894
• Chapter 55: Frederick Samuel Boas, on the principal characters: 1896
• Chapter 56: Georg Morris Cohen Brandes, Shakespeare’s uneven artistry: 1898
• Chapter 57: Henry Sebastian Bowden, Shakespeare’s Roman Catholicism: 1899
• Chapter 58: Charles Harold Herford, Shakespeare’s maturing artistry: 1899
• Chapter 59: Hamilton Wright Mabie, King John as a transitional play: 1900
• Chapter 60: George Charles Moore Smith, weaknesses and strengths of King John: 1900
• Chapter 61: J. Lytelton Etty, the character of John: 1901
• Chapter 62: Felix Emanuel Schelling, Shakespeare and Davenport: 1902
• Chapter 63: Richard Green Moulton, the pendulum of history in King John: 1903
• Chapter 64: Edmund Kerchever Chambers, the formlessness of King John: 1906
• Chapter 65: George Pierce Baker, Shakespeare’s dramatic development: 1907
• Chapter 66: Henry Charles Beeching, on the religion of Shakespeare: 1907
• Chapter 67: Richard Garnett, introduction to King John: 1907
• Chapter 68: Ivor Bertram John, King John and Richard II: 1907
• Chapter 69: Charlotte Endymion Porter, the belittling of John: 1910
• Chapter 70: Frank Harris, Constance and Shakespeare’s shrewish wife: 1911
• Chapter 71: John Edward Masefield, on treachery and ‘Englishness’: 1911
• Chapter 72: Stopford Augustus Brooke, on John, Faulconbridge, and Constance: 1913
• Chapter 73: John James Munro, Shakespeare’s use of The Troublesome Raigne: 1913
• Chapter 74: James Brander Matthews, the artistic flaws of King John: 1913
• Chapter 75: Horace Howard Furness, Jr., on the Bastard, John, and the play: 1919
• Notes
• A select bibliography
• Index