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King John (Shakespeare Project Lecture) (Patreon)

Published:
2023-04-17 19:10:10
Imported:
2026-06
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  • KJ Lecture I.mp3

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Content

‘But from the inward motion to deliver sweet sweet sweet poison for the age’s tooth.’

Congratulations are in order because we have reached the final play of Shakespeare's first period with King John.

You should be incredibly proud of your accomplishment. We are now ushering in an exciting new era with the second phase of our Shakespeare journey. We are soon going to reach the great writer's first masterpieces. 

Timestamps:

  • 0:00 an exciting new era begins
  • 2:35 befriending William Shakespeare
  • 6:00 our thoughts on this first phase?
  • 7:20 the difficulty of King John
  • 8:58 how to read & love weak works
  • 12:00 meeting Shakespeare’s first human
  • 13:00 what do bardolators love about his plays?
  • 13:50 the inward motion of Faulconbridge
  • 14:50 understanding Shakespeare’s creation
  • 19:00 why the story of King John falls short
  • 20:50 when was this play written?
  • 22:00 historical readings & this play’s potential
  • 22:58 the worst monarch in English history
  • 24:00 power, usurpation & illegitimacy
  • 25:00 authentic self vs spontaneous imagination
  • 25:53 on contesting the right to rule
  • 29:00 England being a diseased body
  • 32:00 on Elizabethan stage conventions
  • 37:30 does not the crown prove the king?
  • 41:00 witnessing the emergence of the self
  • 44:40 ‘sweet sweet sweet poison’
  • 47:52 self-otherseeing in Shakespeare
  • 49:30 congratulations for completing phase one
  • 50:00 some reflection questions for you

Recommended Resources:

  • The First Shakespeare Film: King John may be one of the bard's least popular works, but it was the first Shakespeare play committed to film in 1899. Just over one minute of footage survives, which you can view here. 
  • Cunk on Shakespeare: This mockumentary affectionately poking fun at Shakespeare makes for a wonderful treat to celebrate having completed the first phase of our journey. Hilarious, but also surprisingly packed with great information.
  • The Critical Tradition: If you haven't made the acquaintance of Dr Samuel Johnson yet, why not treat yourself to a volume of his writings? Johnson would exert an influence on many of the critics we've already met.   
  • Arden Edition: The Arden edition of this play has an illuminating introduction and superb notes and annotations.
  • Recommended Adaptations: I like to produce King John in the theatre of my mind, but the Arkangel audio dramatisation is very good. And the 1984 BBC Television version starring Leonard Rossiter is also good. We don't seem to have many options when it comes to productions of this one.
  • In the Reign of King John: If you would like to learn more about King John and this period of history, Dan Jones has a splendid book detailing a year in the life of Plantagenet England. 

Questions for You:

1) Do you feel like you're getting to know Shakespeare? Is it really true to say we know nothing about him? And what kind of person do you think he was?

2) Does King John deserve more performances? How would you make it work?

3) What line, passage, or idea most resonated with you? And what is your personal grading for King John?

4) What did you make of the first phase? What are you looking forward to in the second phase? 

Happy reading, Bardolators!

Files

Previews only

Comments

Theresa Garton

I really had a hard time getting involved in this. I found it very boring. I read as I listened to the arkangel recordings, which is usually very absorbing. But, not this one. I agree that Faulconbridge was a different sort of character, and I feel he could have been very interesting. However the person who played this character in the arkangel series was IMO way over the top and manic, so it was hard to step back an assess the character apart from the performance. Even with a good character here, I agree with Bloom that it wouldn't have saved the play. It was a real let down after Richard III. My score was 4 out of 10, or a C-. I gave it one for each category, except a zero for personal meaning. I also agree that there were MANY other possible stories from John's reign that could have made this much more interesting. But, I just feel the pace of the story was poor, and the stories picked to be a part of it were not interesting. Oh, well. !! I am behind, and just finishing this. Plus, I had promised myself that I wouldn't get too tripped up trying to study each play. So, will let it go for now, and try Ben's approach of trying to learn to love what there is to love in this at another time.

Sarah Clark

Meh. Bottom of the list for me. It felt like an exploration of the effect of chance/luck on the world when rulers are weak. An interesting idea for a writing exercise, but not the sort of thing that makes for a compelling story. That said, the character studies of the Bastard and poor young Arthur made it readable. 1) Do you feel like you're getting to know Shakespeare? Is it really true to say we know nothing about him? And what kind of person do you think he was? I think he's an experimenter--playing with the "rules" of story telling as they existed in his day to figure out how they can be stretched and bent without breaking. the downside of being an experimenter is that some experiments inevitably flop. 2) Does King John deserve more performances? How would you make it work? I'm not sure it could be fixed and remain recognizable, just too many plot problems. It almost reads more like a recap from a role playing game that had a few VERY weird dice rolls at key plot points that forced the GM to improvise on the fly. ("Wait Arthur, you BOTCHED your 'escape to France' saving roll? Um...you jump off the castle wall! That's it!") 3) What line, passage, or idea most resonated with you? And what is your personal grading for King John? I think there could be a interesting story in the ways random chance impact the powerful, but this isn't it. D- (Comedy of Errors was no less contrived, but it was at least more coherent) 4) What did you make of the first phase? What are you looking forward to in the second phase? Loved Richard III and even the latter half of the Henry VI trilogy, and Titus Andronicus was an enjoyable taste of tragedies to come. King John aside, the quality is trending up, and I'm looking forward to revisiting some of the plays I read back in school with a better grounding in Shakespeare and a few more decades of life experience.