The Library Annex

Within me is a hell; and there the poison
Is, as a fiend, confin’d to tyrannize
On unreprievable condemned blood.

In this political thriller, Shakespeare pits the fates of England and France against themes of honor and moral depravity. One might imagine a two-dimensional propogandic triumph of English nobility against French serpentine falsehood. However, Shakespeare attributes these characteristics to both sides.

I should note that I really enjoyed Shakespeare’s style. His language, though passionate and poetic, seems more accessible and direct. And the episodes elapse at a quick pace. Also, while certain scenes jar the spectators ire, others slip into satirical farce without losing the essence of Shakespeare’s critique.

The theme of illigitimacy interlaces itself through the play. King John begins by accepting an illigitimate bastard named Philip into his inner circle. Perhaps he does this to bolster his own position as an illigitimate king. But more importantly, Philip surprises me by not only willingly acknowledging his illigitimacy but embracing it as a blessing. In a society wherein honor and nobility stem from authorized parentage, we immediately meet two characters bent on personal advancement at the cost of their social integrity. However, the bastard, throughout the play, serves as a different voice, one who seeks to learn how to navigate this England while all others seem to dominate it regardless of their social fates.

After one of the funnier Acts in Shakespeare’s reportiore, in my opinion, wherein France and England face off before the gates of Angiers and, at a breathtaking pace, act out a microchosm of the various forms of conflict resolution – begging for the loyalty of those they would conquer, combining forces to bombard the same citizenry they previously courted, then finally settling their differences through a marriage arrangement – the bastard alone seems to realize that the goal of the enterprise was not to benefit their respective countries but only to augment their own power and wealth. In this, the bastard embodies a clear sight on the inner circle of power from an outsider’s perspective and ultimately finds it fical. He reasonably decides, then, that the moral props of society only keep citizenry loyal and in servitude to whichever king the elite can prove legitimate. If politics rob power from truth and justice, one might as well look after one’s own interests, then!

Commodity, the bias of the world;
the world who of itself is peised well,
Made to run even upon even ground,
Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
This sway of motion, this commodity
Makes it take head from all indifferency,
From all direction, purpose, curse, intent:
And this same bias, this commodity,
This bawd this all-changing word,
Clapp’d on the outward eye of fickle France,
Hath down himi from his own determin’d aid,
From a resolv’d and honourable war
To a most base and vile-concluded peace. –
And why rail I on this commodity?
But for because he hath not woo’d me yet:
Not that I have the power to clutch my hand
When his fair angels would salute my palm;
But for my hand, as unattempted yet,
Like a poor beggar, raileth on the rich.
Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail,
And say, There is no sin but to be rich;
And, being rich, my virtue then shall be,
To say, There is no vice but beggary:
Since kings break faith upon commodity,
Gain, by my lord! – for I will worship thee.

But politics and greed also rob power from legitimacy, which shatters the nations royal integrity. Constance, the mother of Arthur, arguably true heir to the English throne, wails bitterly and without restraint at these kings and their agreement. Again, we see a strong, though ultimately powerless, woman carry out the defenses of reason and nobility against men of power.

But don’t breathe easy yet! As King John offends the Pope’s emmisary, the war begins again with no thought of England’s benefit or France’s costs. Not only does personal commodity come before nation, so does pride. King John plots to remove the threat of Arthur and, through a spin of coincidence, his own men trade their legitmate English parentage to join France against King John, as the bastard abandoned his own parentage for his convictions.

And yet, with this concoction of moral nobility, truth and justice, embodied in Arthur, Constance, Hubert, and others, as well as greed and illigitimacy embodied by King John, Louis and the Cardinal, England yet triumphs! If the audience looks for a happy ending for any particular character, it is found in England herself. King John falls, Louis and his French army fail, and though death descends on all characters of truth and falsehood alike, England holds firm and survives no matter the fates of those she births.