THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING JOHN WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY K. DEIGHTON London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1890 [All rights reserved] INTRODUCTION. INTERNAL evidence as to structure of verse, tone of Date of Com position. thought, style of composition, as well as allusions, real or supposed to contemporary events, have all been appealed to in the endeavour to fix the date at which King John was written; but all we know is that it is first mentioned by Meres in his Palladis Tamia, published in 1598. Apart from history, the play is founded on an earlier Source. one, by an unknown writer, entitled The Troublesome Raigne of Iohn King of England, with the discouerie of King Richard Cordelions base sonne (vulgarly called, The Bastard Fawconbridge): also the death of King Iohn at Swinstead Abbey, etc., which was first printed in 1591. The play opens at Northampton, with the demand made Outline of the Play by the King of France, through his ambassador, that Act I. John should relinquish, in favour of Arthur, the throne of England and Ireland, as well as the French fiefs of Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine. This demand is accompanied by the threat of war in case of refusal, a threat which John meets with haughty defiance and preparation for the invasion of France. On the departure of the ambassador, we are introduced to a quarrel between two brothers, the reputed sons of Sir Robert Faulconbridge, the younger of whom claims his father's vii |