Kirjailijakuva

Charles R. Forker (1927–2014)

Teoksen The troublesome raigne of John, King of England tekijä

4+ teosta 26 jäsentä 1 Review

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Associated Works

Rikhard II (1597) — Toimittaja, eräät painokset4,135 kappaletta
Edvard II (1590) — Toimittaja, eräät painokset584 kappaletta
The Cardinal (1964) — Toimittaja, eräät painokset12 kappaletta
Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More (1989) — Avustaja — 4 kappaletta
Shakespeare the Man: New Decipherings (2014) — Avustaja — 4 kappaletta
Shakespeare's Romances Reconsidered (1978) — Avustaja — 1 kappale

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[The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England] - George Peele - Edited by Charles R Forker.
The anonymous The Troublesome Reign of King John (TR) was printed in 1591 and Probably composed in 1589-90. It was rewritten by Shakespeare perhaps five or six years later and printed in the first folio in 1623 under the title The Life and Death of King John. Is it worth reading the anonymous play when we have Shakespeare's more famous version to hand? This is a question I asked myself when I started reading TR and found myself frequently turning to Shakespeare to appreciate the differences.

I read TR in the Revels Plays edition published by Manchester University Press, which claims to be 'a fully annotated, historically contextualised and modernised text of the most formative Elizabethan chronicle play apart from Shakespeare and Marlowe's Edward II.' The edition is edited by Charles R Forker whose weighty introduction of over 100 pages seems more intent on proving that George Peele was the author of TR than on providing a critical analysis of the play. I have to say that one of my pet dislikes in reading criticism of Elizabethan plays is the inordinate amount of space wasted on trying to establish authorship of anonymous or contentiously authored plays. I think to myself "who cares" especially when we know that many plays of this period were collaborations. The sometimes fanatical drive to establish authorship does very little to enhance knowledge or enjoyment of the text itself and seems to be more of a need to establish the romantic ideal of individualism.

TR is a historical drama dealing seriously with political matters that is well plotted and to my mind an improvement on the True Tragedie of Richard III a slightly earlier play that was also in the repertoire of the queens men players. It takes as its subject King John who reigned some 400 years before this play was written using as its main source the Holinshed chronicles, but inserting the fictitious character of Philip the Bastard. It tells its story chronologically although sometimes taking liberties with the timescales in order to make things work, and work it certainly does. There is a feeling of completeness at the end of the play, the audience feels that a story has been told, this is not just a patchwork of events thrown together to provide an entertainment. The major events are the wars with France and the rights of succession to the throne: King John is challenged by Arthur the son of Richard-coeur-de-lions brother for the right to rule and he is supported by King Philip of France. Meanwhile John with his mother in close attendance is sitting in judgement over another right of succession to the Falconbridge estate where it emerges that Philip Falconbridge is in fact a bastard son of Richard coeur-de-lion and aligns himself steadfastly with King John. The wars with France are inconclusive but are made more complicated when the Pope's legate Cardinal Pandulph arrives to effectively excommunicate King John for not appointing The Popes nominee as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Arthur is captured by King John and taken to England and placed under guard. John orders Hubert to blind Arthur, but Hubert cannot bring himself to carry out the order when face to face with Arthur. John appears to be relieved when he learns his oder has not been carried out, but Arthur dies anyway trying to escape his prison. The nobles in England align themselves with King Philip of France who launches an invasion of England, meanwhile Philip the Bastard is intent on despoiling the monasteries. The Bastard rallies the English soldiers and the nobles turn to King John, meanwhile an already feeble king is poisoned by a monk in a monastery.

The obvious themes that emerge are the divine right of kings and the rights of illegitimacy. There is also King John's stand against the Pope and the wars with France. King John appears at turns weak and strong, he seems to be influenced by his matriarchal mother Queen Eleanor at the start of the play but then grows into his kingship. He stands strong against the French and more importantly against the Pope. He is to be pitied when he is dying at the monastery. The invented character of Philip the Bastard has the longest and best speeches and he is the principal character in the satirical scene that turns into farce when he seeks to rob one of the monasteries. Characterisation is not a strong point in the play, but there are some strong characters for example the two queen mothers.

There is action on stage and the death scenes of Arthur and John are given some poignancy. There are other excellent dramatic scenes like the judgement of the Falconbridge brothers and the proposed blinding of Arthur. The play is largely written in iambic pentameters apart from some prose passages that are used for less noble characters for example when Cardinal Pandulph makes his first appearance. Doggerel used in the comic scene in the monastery. The language: the blank verse is good throughout and there is some good imagery; what is absent is the pageantry and listings of previous efforts, this really does feel like the start of modern theatre. When reading Shakespeare's later version I found TR easier to read, the less complex language makes the plot easier to follow, that is not to say that TR is pedestrian, it just seems to be written by a different author or authors.

The revels edition contains as much information as most readers will need to enjoy this play. There is a detailed commentary below the text, which also includes references to Shakespeare's play. There is a very useful appendix containing historical background and longer extracts from Holinshed's chronicles. A not so useful (to me) index of 'unique matches of three consecutive words in the Troublesome reign with comparable word strings in other plays by Peele' as if we did not have enough words in the introduction on this topic of authorial identification. I enjoyed reading this play, it is easy to read in this modern spelling edition and so 4 stars.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
baswood | Jul 27, 2019 |

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