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THE KING JOHN' of Shakspere was first printed in the folio collection of his plays, in 1623. We have followed the text of this edition almost literally. King John' is one of the plays of Shakspere enumerated by Francis Meres, in 1598.

There can be no doubt that Shakspere's 'King John' is founded on a former play. That play, which consists of two Parts, is entitled 'The Troublesome Raigne of John King of England,' and was first printed in 1591. The German critics agree in giving the original authorship to Shakspere.

Assuming that Shakspere did not write the King John' of 1591, it is impossible now, except on very general principles, to determine why a poet, who had the authentic materials of history before him, and possessed beyond all men the power of moulding those materials, with reference to a dramatic action, into the most complete and beautiful forms, should have subjected him self, in the full vigour and maturity of his intellect, to a general adherence to the course of the conventional "history" of the stage. But so it is. The 'King John' of Shakspere is not the King John' of the historians whom Shakspere had unquestionably studied; it is not the 'King John' of his own

HISTORIES. -VOL. I.

imagination, casting off the trammels which a rigid adoption of the facts of those historians would have imposed upon him; but it is the King John,' in the conduct of the story, in the juxtaposition of the characters, and in the catastrophe-in the historical truth, and in the historical error-of the play which preceded him some few years.

The old play of 'The Troublesome Reign' was, in all likelihood, a vigorous graft upon the trunk of an older play, which "occupies an intermediate place between moralities and historical plays,"-that of 'Kynge Johan,' by John Bale, written probably in the reign of Edward VI. Shakspere, then, had to choose between forty years of stage tradition and the employment of new materials. He took, upon principle, what he found ready to his hand. But upon this theory, that 'The Troublesome Reign' is by another poet, none of the transformations of classical or oriental fable, in which a new life is transfused into an old body, can equal this astonishing example of the life-conferring power of a genius such as Shakspere's. On the other hand, if "The Troublesome Reign' be a very early play by Shakspere himself (and we doubt this greatly), the undoubted King John' offers the most marvellous example of

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the resources of a mature intellect, in the creation of characters, in the conduct of a story, and the employment of language, as compared with the crude efforts of an unformed mind. The contrast is so remarkable that we cannot believe in this theory, even with the whole body of German critics in its favour.

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dency to introduce and regulate the conclu-
sion." Again, speaking of the unities of the
critics, he says of Shakspere-" His histories,
being neither tragedies nor comedies, are not
subject to any of their laws; nothing more
is necessary to all the praise which they ex-
pect, than that the changes of action be so
prepared as to be understood, that the inci-
dents be various and affecting, and the cha-
racters consistent, natural, and distinct. No
other unity is intended, and, therefore, none
is to be sought. In his other works he has
well enough preserved the unity of action."
Taking these observations together, as a
general definition of the character of Shak-
spere's histories, we are constrained to say
that no opinion can be farther removed from
the truth. So far from the "unity of action"
not being regarded in Shakspere's histories,
and being subservient to the " "chronological
succession," it rides over that succession
whenever the demands of the scene require
"a unity of a higher order, which connects
the events by reference to the workers, gives
a reason for them in the motives, and pre-
sents men in their causative character."a
The great connecting link that binds to-

That the Kynge Johan' of the Protestant bishop Bale was known to the writer of the 'King John' of 1591, we have little doubt. Our space will not allow us to point out the internal evidences of this; but one minute but remarkable similarity may be mentioned. When John arrives at Swinstead Abbey, the monks, in both plays, invite him to their treacherous repast by the cry of "Wassail." In the play of Bale we have no incidents whatever beyond the contests between John and the Pope-the surrender of the crown to Pandulph-and the poisoning of John by a monk at Swinstead Abbey. The action goes on very haltingly ;-but not so the wordy war of the speakers. A vocabulary of choice terms of abuse, familiarly used in the times of the Reformation, might be constructed out of this curious performance. In the John of 1591 we have none of this vio-gether all the series of actions in the 'King lence; but the writer has exhibited a scene of ribaldry, in the incident of Faulconbridge hunting out the " angels" of the monks; for he makes him find a nun concealed in a holy man's chest. This, no doubt, would be a popular scene. Shakspere has not a word of it. One of the most remarkable characteristics of Shakspere's 'John,' as opposed to the grossness of Bale and the ribaldry of his immediate predecessor, is the utter absence of all invective or sarcasm against the Romish church, apart from the attempt of the Pope to extort a base submission from the English King. Here, indeed, we have his nationality in full power;-but how different is that from fostering hatreds between two classes of one people!

Dr. Johnson, in his preface to Shakspere, speaking of the division, by the players, of our author's works into comedies, histories, and tragedies, thus defines what, he says, was the notion of a dramatic history in those times: "History was a series of actions, with no other than chronological succession, independent on each other, and without any ten

John' of Shakspere, is the fate of Arthur. From the first to the last scene, the hard struggles and the cruel end of the young Duke of Brittany either lead to the action, or form a portion of it, or are the direct causes of an ulterior consequence.

As an historical picture the King John' is wonderfully true. What a Gothic grandeur runs through the whole of these scenes! We see the men of six centuries ago, as they played the game of their personal ambition -now swearing hollow friendships, now breathing stern denunciations ;-now affecting compassion for the weak and the suffering, now breaking faith with the orphan and the mother;-now

"Gone to be married, gone to swear a peace;" now keeping the feast "with slaughtered the denunciations of spiritual power;—and men;"-now trembling at, and now braving, agreeing in nothing but to bend "their sharpest deeds of malice" on unoffending and peaceful citizens, unless the citizens have

• Coleridge's Literary Remains.

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