14Contextual Readings of King John

Biographical Readings

Beginning in 1790 with Edmund Malone--whom Candido identifies as the most important eighteenth-century scholar to "solidify and define the critical tradition of King John" (8)--there was a brief period in which critics determined the date of King John by searching for clues in Shakespeare's own life. Malone concludes that the grief of Constance is best explained by Shakespeare's own grief following the death of his son in 1596:

15Responding specifically to Malone, many critics dismissed this reading of Constance and Shakespeare. In 1799, George Chalmers wrote:

While Malone's claim had more detractors than it did supporters, it was nevertheless important enough that E. K. Chambers addresses the issue in 1925:

16The biographically-based reading of the text continues to surface. In an introduction for audience members attending a fine production of Bard on the Beach in 2012, the artistic director referred to Hamnet's death as he read a passage highlighting Constance's grief as an example of the power of language in the play.

17Historical readings

Historical readings of King John have a much more firmly established tradition than biographical readings. Critics have long been aware of the similarities between King John and the historical moment in which it was written. In his rebuttal of Malone, Chalmers draws attention to the likenesses between the plot of the play and the reality of Shakespeare's time. In 1899, Henry Sebastian Bowden likewise underlines the parallels:

18Other critics have reiterated Bowden's claim, also drawing attention to the 1570 papal bull that excommunicated Queen Elizabeth and pardoned anyone who resisted her, just as Pandulph excommunicates John and encourages his opponents to attack him (McEachern xxxvi; see selection 56). Walter Cohen provides a thorough comparison between the play and the historical circumstances of Elizabeth's reign in his introduction to King John in the Norton Shakespeare Anthology. Cohen focuses particularly on how the illegitimacy of John as King of England--which Shakespeare make unambiguous--resonated particularly with an England that was ruled by a queen who was herself the subject of much debate regarding her legitimacy. Cohen concludes his summaries of the play and history by admitting that drawing these parallels necessarily leads to oversimplification; however:

19Although the most removed and remote of Shakespeare's English history plays from his own time, King John demonstrates Shakespeare's multifaceted engagement with the political events of his century.

Religious readings

20Following from a reading of King John as a play more about the sixteenth-century than the twelfth and thirteenth, critics have also considered the religious implications of the play. One of the most major distinctions between King John and its source-text, TRKJ, is that Shakespeare significantly toned down the anti-Catholic sentiment of the older play. While most critics agree that the hero of TRKJ is clearly John himself, "the Protestant hero fighting the might of Rome," the John that Shakespeare depicts is "a fallible, uncertain, imperfect monarch, successful at first, and with his moment of glory in the full Protestant tradition as he confronts Pandulph in Act III, but increasingly subject to the corrupting power of political need" (Smallwood 12; see selection 45). Shakespeare, then, portrays a complex and morally ambiguous John, whose stand against Rome becomes equally complex and ambiguous. This ambiguity has allowed for critics to argue for both Catholic and Protestant readings of the play.

21Colley Cibber, in his much-criticized eighteenth-century adaptation of King John--Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John--finds the anti-Catholic sentiment lacking in the original and therefore tries to infuse the play with a stronger Protestant message:

Although Cibber concludes that no Catholic could have written John's attack against the purchase of pardons (TLN 1089-1098), his comment inspired other critics likewise to consider the potential implications of the toned-down Protestantism of the play.

22Bowden, a Roman Catholic critic writing in 1899, views the ambiguity of John's character to be far more significant than the words he says against Rome:

Bowden focuses particularly on Shakespeare's adaptation of his source text, already zealous in its Protestantism. Bowden argues that Shakespeare's decision to exclude many of the anti-Catholic sentiments expressed in TRKJ hints that he was, at the very least, sympathetic towards Catholics. Bowden suggests that Pandulph, who denounces John as a tyrant and usurper, might in fact be Shakespeare's mouthpiece and that Shakespeare might be addressing Elizabeth, herself denounced by sixteenth-century Catholics as a tyrant and a usurper. Rather than reading Pandulph as a slave to commodity, as most critics have, Bowden argues that Pandulph, along with the Bastard, plays a key role in the play's resolution: "England is reconciled to the Church, France and England are friends again, the rebel nobles are pardoned, the rightful heir ascends the English throne" (306).

23The critical judgment of Pandulph as a type of Machiavel generally has much more support than Bowden's reading. John Roe quotes Pandulph's opening speech to Philip (TLN 1184-85) and claims: "One cannot get closer to what Il Principe urges than this: morality is to be suspended until the desired aim is achieved" (107; see selection 57). Arguments for Catholic sympathies in King John have been in the minority, with most critics generally accepting it as a Protestant play, but far more nuanced and complex than the anti-Catholic TRKJ. As Cohen suggests, Shakespeare's play resists any sort of decisiveness regarding the issues it contemplates; rather King John considers the many ambiguities in these issues.