Other editions of book King John

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small country town. Stratford was famous for its malting. The black plague killed in 1564 one out of seven of the town’s 1,500 inhabitants. Shakespeare was the eldest son of Mary Arden, the daughter of a local landowner, and her husband, John Shakespeare (c. 1530-1601), a glover and wood dealer. John Aubrey (1626-1697) tells in Brief Lives that Shakespeare’s father was a butcher and the young William exercised his father’s trade, "but when he kill'd a Calfe he would do it in a high style, and make a speech." In 1568 John Shakespeare was made a mayor of Stratford and a justice of peace. His wool business failed in the 1570s, and in 1580 he was fined £40, with other 140 men, for failing to find surety to keep the peace. There is not record that his fine was paid. Later the church commissioners reported of him and eight other men that they had failed to attend church "for fear of process for debt". The family’s position was restored in the 1590s by earnings of William Shakespeare, and in 1596 he was awarded a coat of arms. Very little is known about Shakespeare early life, and his later works have inspired a number of interpretations. T.S. Eliot wrote that "I would suggest that none of the plays of Shakespeare has a "meaning," although it would be equally false to say that a play of Shakespeare is meaningless." (in Selected Essays, new edition, 1960). Shakespeare is assumed to have been educated at Stratford Grammar School, and he may have spent the years 1580-82 as a teacher for the Roman Catholic Houghton family in Lancashire. When Shakespeare was 15, a woman from a nearby village drowned in the Avon. Her death was ruled accidental but it may have been a suicide. Later in Hamlet Shakespeare left open the question whether Ophelia died accidentally or by her own hand. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married a local girl, Anne Hathaway (died 1623), who was eight years older. Their first child, Susannah, was born within six months, and twins Hamnet and Judith were born in 1585. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in 1596, at the age of 11. It has often been suggested, that the lines in King John, beginning with "Grief fills the room of my absent child", reflects Shakespeare’s own personal feelings.

Like every other play in the Cambridge School Shakespeare series, King John has been specially prepared to help all students in schools and colleges. This version of King John aims to be different from other editions of the play. It invites you to bring the play to life in your classroom through enjoyable activities that will help increase your understanding. You are encourage to make up your own mind about the play, rather than have someone else's interpretation handed down to you. Whatever you do, remember that Shakespeare wrote his plays to be acted, watched and enjoyed.

KING JOHN's palaceEnter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX,SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLONKING JOHN. Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?CHATILLON. Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France In mybehaviour to the majesty, The borrowed majesty, of England here.ELINOR. A strange beginning- 'borrowed majesty'! KING JOHN. Silence,good mother; hear the embassy. CHATILLON. Philip of France, in rightand 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 swordWhich sways usurpingly these several titles, And put the same into youngArthur's hand, Thy nephew and right royal sovereign. KING JOHN. Whatfollows if we disallow of this? CHATILLON. The proud control of fierceand bloody war, To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld. KING JOHN.Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controlment forcontrolment- so answer France. CHATILLON. Then take my king'sdefiance 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 eyesof France; For ere thou canst report I will be there, The thunder of mycannon shall be heard. So hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath Andsullen presage of your own decay. An honourable conduct let him have-Pembroke, look to 't. Farewell, Chatillon. Exeunt CHATILLON andPEMBROKE ELINOR. What now, my son! Have I not ever said How thatambitious Constance would not cease Till she had kindled France and allthe world Upon the right and party of her son? This might have beenprevented and made whole With very easy arguments of love, Which nowthe manage of two kingdoms must With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.KING JOHN. Our strong possession and our right for us! ELINOR. Yourstrong possession much more than your right, Or else it must go wrongwith you and me; So much my conscience whispers in your ear, Whichnone but heaven and you and I shall hear.

The Life and Death of King John, a history play by William Shakespeare, dramatizes the reign of King John of England (ruled 1199–1216), son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of Henry III of England. It is believed to have been written in the mid-1590s but was not published until it appeared in the First Folio in 1623. King John is closely related to an anonymous history play, The Troublesome Reign of King John (c. 1589), the "masterly construction" but infelicitous expression of which led Peter Alexander to argue that Shakespeare's was the earlier play. E. A. J. Honigmann elaborated these arguments, both in his preface to the second Arden edition of King John, and in his 1982 monograph on Shakespeare's influence on his contemporaries. The majority view, however, first advanced in a rebuttal of Honigmann's views by Kenneth Muir, holds that the Troublesome Reign antedates King John by a period of several years; and that the skilful plotting of the Troublesome Reign is neither unparalleled in the period, nor proof of Shakespeare's involvement.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

King John is a historic chronic by William Shakespeare about the reigning of John Lackland.King John comes into power sidestepping the rights of Arthur, John's nephew, who had more legal claims for the throne. In order to restore the justice Lady Constance, Arthur's mother, and Arthur ask Phillip, King of France, for help. And he starts the war against King John.