don,
1903.]

CHAPTER VI

THE POLITICAL PURPOSE OF _KING JOHN_

1591-1592

The three parts of _Henry VI._ and their originals are of interest to
Shakespearean students as marking the beginning of a phase of English
historical drama, afterwards developed by Shakespeare, Kyd, Marlowe, and
others. They owed their origin to the demand of the theatres for
material with which to cater to the ebullient national spirit aroused by
the long-threatened danger of a Spanish invasion, and its happy issue in
the destruction of the great Armada, in 1588. They were originally
produced between 1589 and 1591, and evidently for the Queen's players.
The theatrical managers having found them a profitable investment,
encouraged the continued production of historical plays. Peele, who is
usually supposed to have been the author of _The First Part of Henry
VI._, soon after wrote a play upon the reign of _Edward I._; Marlowe
appropriating _Edward III._ and later on _Edward II._; and Shakespeare
_King John_ in 1591 and _Richard II._ in 1592-93.

Shakespeare, before composing _Richard II._,--in the composition of
which he was evidently guided by the previous production of Marlowe's
_Edward II._,--tried his "prentice hand" on _King John_. Both this play
and the older play of _The Troublesome Raigne of King John_ (upon which
it is based, and which, in fact, it practically recasts) owe their
origin to the same influences as the other historical plays mentioned.
_The Troublesome Raigne of King John_ was composed for the Queen's
company at, or near to, the date of the Spanish Armada, and at a period
when religious animosities were acute. Its anti-Catholic spirit is very
aggressive. We have good evidence, in the manner in which Shakespeare,
on recasting the old play, toned down or eliminated this spirit, that
whatever dogmatic latitude he allowed himself in religion, his social
and religious sympathies at this period were Catholic rather than
Protestant. He was, withal, in common with a large proportion, and
probably a majority, of his compatriots at that time, an English, as
distinguished from a Roman, Catholic, and like them, though he outwardly
acquiesced in the established religion, tacitly favoured the old Church
in spiritual matters, while resenting its political activities.

Socially and politically, Shakespeare was essentially conservative. He
looked naturally unto the rock whence he was hewn and to the hole of the
pit whence he w