Notes for lecture
Main points:
-The historical king John
-Historiography and Poetry
-Shakespeare’s transformation of history
-Historical relativism and the question of the hero
-The figure of the child
Shakespeare’s source:
-King Johan, John Bale, 1539 performed, 1838 printed: moralist history
-The third volume of Chronicles, Holinished, London 1587: relationship between English history and biblical
history
-The troublesome raigne of John king of England: critics, published later under Shakespeare name probably
to make money but different in style and kind of writing from Shakespeare.
Historiography: Sir Philip Sidney: An apology for poetry (1595 published). Historian has only manuscript to
say what is happened in the past. The poet combines philosopher and historian, which are imperfect being.
Shakespeare uses actual event, not just invented event. He skips some unimportant event as Magna Carta.
The child
People, who are along dead, come to life again on the stage. There are seventeen years told in three hours:
Shakespeare invents a character and aids him. This character is a child, Arthur. A passage focused on this
topic: The bastard and different perspectives on History, soliloquy of the Bastard is most important. Arthur
represents a better and a different world. Shakespeare uses the script form to describe Arthur.
Arthur is a rose, a beautiful figure, for this reason he is right. The bastard changes after Arthur death. The
bastard refuses the temptation of power in order to become king of England. Negative: regard to the asset of
power and the fact that the power become powerlessness.
Video: King John, the French king and the pope. King John rejected Catholic Church. There is no order in
the world and no one who can solve this chaos.
