The Troublesome Theme of King John

Abstract

Between the publication in 1591 of its probable main source, The Troublesome Raigne Of John King of England, and the mention by Francis Meres in 1598 of Shakespeare’s tragedy of King Iohn, there is no external evidence to help us fix the date of composition of this play. For that matter it may have been the end-product of several stages of rewriting. In the absence of convincing proof for a very early dating (like that proposed by E. A. J. Honigmann in the new Arden edition) or a very late dating, I am inclined to agree with more cautious editors like Blakemore Evans, Herschel Baker, and Robert Smallwood and opt for a date between 1593 and 1595, preferably ‘just before Richard II’, as Smallwood thinks.¹ This would put King John between the first and the second tetralogies. The dating is of no great significance for my present purpose; but it does tell us something about Shakespeare’s long-term planning, or lack of planning, of the history cycles if, after reaching the reign of Henry VII, he went right back to King John before attacking Richard II. There is something about the uncertain exposition of King John, too, which makes it resemble the problematic beginnings of the Lancastrian plays which it probably just preceded.