Where’s the love?
In the original version of the play The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged, actor Austin Tichenor opens with a gag, bragging about how much more of an expert in Shakespeare he is than his audience because none of them have read King John.
The truth is, King John is not performed, studied, or read nearly as often as many of Shakespeare’s other history plays. It lacks the scope and breadth of the Henriads, and even Henry VIII, dusty and fawning as it occasionally is, is more of a curiosity than King John.
But skipping over King John is unfortunate, as it is not only a compelling and fascinating story, but there are many wonderful elements that one misses out on. Here are a few to enjoy in your read through:
The clash of mothers
Shakespeare has some great and complex mother figures: Volumnia, Gertrude, and Dionyza, for example. But King John has a great scene wherein two powerful and manipulative mothers face off to push their sons into positions of power. It’s epic and not to be missed.
Queen Eleanor: There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father.
Constance: There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.
Unspoken suggestions
Shakespeare is a master of subtext, and this particular play has a king who is caught in his desire for power and walking an ethical line. At one point, he attempts to express his desire to end his nephew’s life to his strongman Hubert, but can’t bring himself to put it into words, and so he keeps hinting around at it and buttering Hubert up to try to get him to understand. It’s almost painful. Of course, the suggestion come back around to haunt him for the rest of the play.
Give me thy hand. I had a thing to say,
But I will fit it with some better time.
By heaven, Hubert, I am almost ashamed
To say what good respect I have of thee…
I had a thing to say, but let it go…
Pathetic Fates
One of the most fascinating aspects of the play is how everyone grasps for what they want, but suffers pathetic and miserable ends. Most Shakespeare plays end with a climactic finale—Hamlet’s corpse-strewn stage, Macbeth’s final duel with MacDuff, Brutus’s noble suicide—but in King John, Shakespeare explores a more pitiful end to many of his characters. They go out, as T. S. Eliot says, “Not with bang, but a wimper.” Although less heightened in drama, this play still explores fascinating themes.
There is so hot a summer in my bosom,
That all my bowels crumble up to dust:
I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen
Upon a parchment, and against this fire
Do I shrink up.
Now that’s a brutal death speech! Ouch!
Striking grief speeches
Shakespeare knows how to explore the whole range of human experience, including grief and loss. Notably, King John holds some of his best moments, from the tragic Blanche, who realizes that no matter which way the battle goes, she will lose someone she loves, to the broken Constance holding fast to the grief of her lost son because it’s all she has left of him. These are speeches to be savored.
Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
Then, have I reason to be fond of grief?
Despite being a lesser-known play, King John is not to be missed! Enjoy!
