One thing that is clear from surviving "plots" or storyboards of plays from the period is that a degree of doubling was necessary. 2 Henry VI has over sixty speaking parts, but more than half of the characters appear only in a single scene and most scenes have only six to eight speakers. At a stretch, the play could be performed by thirteen actors. When Thomas Platter saw Julius Caesar at the Globe in 1599, he noted that there were about fifteen. Why doesn't Paris go to the Capulet ball in Romeo and Juliet? Perhaps because he was doubled with Mercutio, who does. In The Winter's Tale, Mamillius might have come back as Perdita and Antigonus been doubled by Camillo, making the partnership with Paulina at the end a very neat touch. Titania and Oberon are often played by the same pair as Hippolyta and Theseus, suggesting a symbolic matching of the rulers of the worlds of night and day, but it is questionable whether there would have been time for the necessary costume changes. As so often, one is left in a realm of tantalizing speculation.
THE KING'S MAN
On Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603, the new king, James I, who had held the Scottish throne as James VI since he had been an infant, immediately took the Lord Chamberlain's Men under his direct patronage. Henceforth they would be the King's Men, and for the rest of Shakespeare's career they were favored with far more court performances than any of their rivals. There even seem to have been rumors early in the reign that Shakespeare and Burbage were being considered for knighthoods, an unprecedented honor for mere actors--and one that in the event was not accorded to a member of the profession for nearly three hundred years, when the title was bestowed upon Henry Irving, the leading Shakespearean actor of Queen Victoria's reign.
Shakespeare's productivity rate slowed in the Jacobean years, not because of age or some personal trauma, but because there were frequent outbreaks of plague, causing the theaters to be closed for long periods. The King's Men were forced to spend many months on the road. Between November 1603 and 1608, they were to be found at various towns in the south and Midlands, though Shakespeare probably did not tour with them by this time. He had bought a large house back home in Stratford and was accumulating other property. He may indeed have stopped acting soon after the new king took the throne. With the London theaters closed so much of the time and a large repertoire on the stocks, Shakespeare seems to have focused his energies on writing a few long and complex tragedies that could have been played on demand at court: Othello, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and Cymbeline are among his longest and poetically grandest plays. Macbeth survives only in a shorter text, which shows signs of adaptation after Shakespeare's death. The bitterly satirical Timon of Athens, apparently a collaboration with Thomas Middleton that may have failed on the stage, also belongs to this period. In comedy, too, he wrote longer and morally darker works than in the Elizabethan period, pushing at the very bounds of the form in Measure for Measure and All's Well That Ends Well.
From 1608 onward, when the King's Men began occupying the indoor Blackfriars playhouse (as a winter house, meaning that they only used the outdoor Globe in summer?), Shakespeare turned to a more romantic style. His company had a great success with a revived and altered version of an old pastoral play called Mucedorus. It even featured a bear. The younger dramatist John Fletcher, meanwhile, sometimes working in collaboration with Francis Beaumont, was pioneering a new style of tragicomedy, a mix of romance and royalism laced with intrigue and pastoral excursions. Shakespeare experimented with this idiom in Cymbeline, and it was presumably with his blessing that Fletcher eventually took over as the King's Men's company dramatist. The two writers apparently collaborated on three plays in the years 1612-14: a lost romance called Cardenio (based on the love-madness of a character in Cervantes's Don Quixote), Henry VIII (originally staged with the title "All Is True"), and The Two Noble Kinsmen, a dramatization of Chaucer's "Knight's Tale." These were written after Shakespeare's two final solo-authored plays, The Winter's Tale, a self-consciously old-fashioned work dramatizing the pastoral romance of his old enemy Robert Greene, and The Tempest, which at one and the same time drew together multiple theatrical traditions, diverse reading, and contemporary interest in the fate of a ship that had been wrecked on the way to the New World.
The collaborations with Fletcher suggest that Shakespeare's career ended with a slow fade rather than the sudden retirement supposed by the nineteenth-century Romantic critics who read Prospero's epilogue to The Tempest as Shakespeare's personal farewell to his art. In the last few years of his life Shakespeare certainly spent more of his time in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he became further involved in property dealing and litigation. But his London life also continued. In 1613 he made his first major London property purchase: a freehold house in the Blackfriars district, close to his company's indoor theater. The Two Noble Kinsmen may have been written as late as 1614, and Shakespeare was in London on business a little over a year before he died of an unknown cause at home in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616, probably on his fifty-second birthday.
About half the sum of his works were published in his lifetime, in texts of variable quality. A few years after his death, his fellow actors began putting together an authorized edition of his complete Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. It appeared in 1623, in large "Folio" format. This collection of thirty-six plays gave Shakespeare his immortality. In the words of his fellow dramatist Ben Jonson, who contributed two poems of praise at the start of the Folio, the body of his work made him "a monument without a tomb":
And art alive still while thy book doth live
And we have wits to read and praise to give ...
He was not of an age, but for all time!
SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS:
A CHRONOLOGY
1589-91 ? Arden of Faversham (possible part authorship)
1589-92 The Taming of the Shrew
1589-92 ? Edward the Third (possible part authorship)
1591 The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, originally called The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (element of co authorship possible)
1591 The Third Part of Henry the Sixth, originally called The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York (element of co-authorship probable)
1591-92 The Two Gentlemen of Verona
1591-92; perhaps revised 1594 The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus (probably cowritten with, or revising an earlier version by, George Peele)
1592 The First Part of Henry the Sixth, probably with Thomas Nashe and others
1592/94 King Richard the Third
1593 Venus and Adonis (poem)
1593-94 The Rape of Lucrece (poem)
1593-1608 Sonnets (154 poems, published 1609 with A Lover's Complaint, a poem of disputed authorship)
1592-94/1600-03 Sir Thomas More (a single scene for a play originally by Anthony Munday, with other revisions by Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, and Thomas Heywood)
1594 The Comedy of Errors
1595 Love's Labour's Lost
1595-97 Love's Labour's Won (a lost play, unless the original title for another comedy)
1595-96 A Midsummer Night's Dream
1595-96 The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
1595-96 King Richard the Second
1595-97 The Life and Death of King John (possibly earlier)
1596-97 The Merchant of Venice
1596-97 The First Part of Henry the Fourth
1597-98 The Second Part of Henry the Fourth
1598 Much Ado About Nothing
1598-99 The Passionate Pilgrim (20 poems, some not by Shakespeare)
1599 The Life of Henry the Fifth
1599 "To the Queen" (epilogue for a court performance)
1599 As You Like It
1599 The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
1600-01 The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (perhaps revising an earlier version)
1600-01 The Merry Wives of Windsor (perhaps revising version of 1597-99)
1601 "Let the Bird of Loudest Lay" (poem, known since 1807 as "The Phoenix an
d Turtle" [turtledove])
1601 Twelfth Night, or What You Will
1601-02 The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida
1604 The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
1604 Measure for Measure
1605 All's Well That Ends Well
1605 The Life of Timon of Athens, with Thomas Middleton
1605-06 The Tragedy of King Lear
1605-08 ? contribution to The Four Plays in One (lost, except for A Yorkshire Tragedy, mostly by Thomas Middleton)
1606 The Tragedy of Macbeth (surviving text has additional scenes by Thomas Middleton)
1606-07 The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
1608 The Tragedy of Coriolanus
1608 Pericles, Prince of Tyre, with George Wilkins
1610 The Tragedy of Cymbeline
1611 The Winter's Tale
1611 The Tempest
1612-13 Cardenio, with John Fletcher (survives only in later adaptation called Double Falsehood by Lewis Theobald)
1613 Henry VIII (All Is True), with John Fletcher
1613-14 The Two Noble Kinsmen, with John Fletcher
KINGS AND QUEENS OF
ENGLAND: FROM THE
HISTORY PLAYS TO
SHAKESPEARE'S LIFETIME
Life Span Reign
Angevins:
Henry II 1133-1189 1154-1189
Richard I 1157-1199 1189-1199
John 1166-1216 1199-1216
Henry III 1207-1272 1216-1272
Edward I 1239-1307 1272-1307
Edward II 1284-1327 1307-1327 deposed
Edward III 1312-1377 1327-1377
Richard II 1367-1400 1377-1399 deposed
Lancastrians:
Henry IV 1367-1413 1399-1413
Henry V 1387-1422 1413-1422
Henry VI 1421-1471 1422-1461 and 1470-1471
Yorkists:
Edward IV 1442-1483 1461-1470 and 1471-1483
Edward V 1470-1483 1483 not crowned: deposed and assassinated
Richard III 1452-1485 1483-1485
Tudors:
Henry VII 1457-1509 1485-1509
Henry VIII 1491-1547 1509-1547
Edward VI 1537-1553 1547-1553
Jane 1537-1554 1553 not crowned: deposed and executed
Mary I 1516-1558 1553-1558
Philip of Spain 1527-1598 1554-1558 co-regent with Mary
Elizabeth I 1533-1603 1558-1603
Stuart:
James I 1566-1625 1603-1625 James VI of Scotland (1567-1625)
KING JOHN FAMILY TREE
THE HISTORY BEHIND THE
HISTORIES: A CHRONOLOGY
Square brackets indicate events that happen just outside a play's timescale but are mentioned in the play.
FURTHER READING
AND VIEWING
KING JOHN
Critical Approaches
Campbell, Lily B., Shakespeare's "Histories": Mirrors of Elizabethan Policy (1947). Still relevant examination of the plays in their historical context: chapter XII, "The Troublesome Reign of King John," offers interesting parallels with Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
Candido, Joseph, ed., Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition: King John (1996). Valuable collection of early critical essays and performance reviews from 1790 to 1919.
Chernaik, Warren, The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare's History Plays (2007). Contains short, useful overviews: chapter 5, "Gain, Be My Lord: King John" (pp. 70-90).
Curren-Aquino, Deborah T., ed., King John: New Perspectives (1989). Thoughtful, varied collection of twentieth-century critical essays.
Howard, Jean E., and Phyllis Rackin, Engendering a Nation: A Feminist Account of Shakespeare's English Histories (1997). Introductory chapters focus on gender as an issue in Shakespeare's history plays: chapter 9, on King John, explores the centrality of women, maternity, and the "ideological faultlines" that the play explores (pp. 119-36); reprinted in Shakespeare's Histories, ed. Emma Smith (2004), pp. 182-95.
Jones, Robert C., These Valiant Dead: Renewing the Past in Shakespeare's Histories (1991). Examines Shakespeare's understanding of history as expressed by characters within the plays; chapter 4 on King John, " 'Perfect Richard' versus 'This Old World,' " considers the role of the Bastard as a central character and critical commentator.
Piesse, A. J., "King John: Changing Perspective," in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays, ed. M. Hattaway (2002).
Examines the textual relationship between Shakespeare's play, the anonymous The Troublesome Reign of King John of England, and John Bale's King Johan, considering the relationship between the legitimacy of the historical play text and the illegitimate character of the Bastard. Shirley, Frances A., ed., King John and Henry VIII: Critical Essays (1988). Comprehensive selection of important critical essays that examine all aspects of the plays from language, structure, and historical context to performance--King John (pp. 3-205).
THE PLAY IN PERFORMANCE
Hodgdon, Barbara, The End Crowns All: Closure and Contradiction in Shakespeare's History (1991). Focuses on the plays' endings, moving between textual meanings and theatrical representation in significant C20 productions; chapter 2, "Fashioning Obedience: King John's 'True Inheritors,' " examines King John (pp. 22-43).
Jackson, Russell, and Robert Smallwood, eds., Players of Shakespeare 3 (1993). Actors give details of their roles and performances; Nicholas Woodeson talks about his performance as King John in Deborah Warner's 1988 production (pp. 87-98).
Shattuck, Charles A., William Charles Macready's King John (1962). Includes details of performance, illustrations, and a facsimile promptbook of this famous, historical production.
Smallwood, Robert, ed., Players of Shakespeare 6 (2004). Guy Henry, Kelly Hunter, and Jo Stone-Fewings discuss playing Henry, Constance, and the Bastard, respectively, in Gregory Doran's 2002 production (pp. 22-36, 37-49, 50-67).
Tardiff, Joseph C., ed., Shakespearean Criticism 24 (1994). Good stage history overview with reviews and retrospective accounts of selected productions.
AVAILABLE ON DVD
King John directed by William Kennedy, Laurie Dickson, and Walter Fieffer Dando (1899). A three-minute silent short of Herbert Beerbohm Tree's historic production was made: available on YouTube.
King John directed by David Giles for the BBC Shakespeare Series (1984, DVD 2004). Highly praised production with Leonard Ros siter, John Thaw, and Claire Bloom.
HENRY VIII
Critical Approaches
Baillie, William M., "Henry VIII: A Jacobean History," in Shakespeare Studies 12 (1979), pp. 247-66. Detailed analysis, setting the play within its historical context.
Berry, Edward I., "Henry VIII and the Dynamics of Spectacle," Shakespeare Studies 12 (1979), pp. 229-46. Persuasive essay that argues for the play's value as a blend of history, tragedy, masque, and romance.
Chernaik, Warren, The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare's History Plays (2007). Chapter 9 on Henry VIII offers a short introductory overview with some references to the play in performance (pp. 168-78).
Dean, Paul, "Dramatic Mode and Historical Vision in Henry VIII," in Shakespeare Quarterly 37(2) (Summer 1986), pp. 175-89. Examines the play's romance structure in relation to its chronicle sources.
Glimp, David, "Staging Government: Shakespeare's Life of King Henry the Eighth and the Government of Generations," in Criticism 41(1) (Winter 1999), pp. 41-69. Discusses problematics of the interaction between political authority and anxieties regarding theatrical representation in the Elizabethan/Jacobean period.
Hattaway, Michael, ed., Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays (2002). Excellent introduction and overview to subject; there's no specific chapter on Henry VIII, but there are numerous references in passing, especially in chapter 3 by David M. Bergeron, "Pageants, Masques and History" (pp. 41-56), and chapter 13 by R. A. Foakes, "Shakespeare's Other Historical Plays" (pp. 214-28), discusses Henry VIII (pp. 223-28).
Kamps, Ivo, "Possible Pasts: Historiography and Legitimation in
Henry VIII" in College English, Vol. 58, No. 2, Feb. 1996, pp. 192-215. Sees the play as a Jacobean response to developments in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century historiographical discourses, marking a break with Tudor thinking about history and a unique Jacobean response.
Magnusson, A. Lynne, "The Rhetoric of Politeness and Henry VIII" in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 4, Winter 1992, pp. 391-409. A detailed linguistic analysis, focusing on class and gender.
Noll, Mark A., "The Reformation and Shakespeare: Focus on Henry VIII" in Shakespeare and the Christian Tradition, ed. Beatrice Batson (1994). Sees Shakespeare's play as an exploration of the English Reformation and ally of historians in their search for its "human meaning."
Ornstein, Robert, A Kingdom for a Stage (1972). Discusses Henry VIII in terms of the play's opacity and ambiguity, calling it an "extended double-entendre," and arguing that Shakespeare found it easier to adapt to Fletcher's "courtly manner" than Fletcher to "imitate his way with history," pp. 203-220.
Shirley, Frances A., ed., King John and Henry VIII: Critical Essays (1988). Comprehensive selection of important critical essays that examine all aspects of the plays from language, structure, and historical context to performance--Henry VIII, pp. 209-378.
Wilson Knight, G. "Henry VIII and the Poetry of Conversion" in The Crown of Life: Essays in Interpretation of Shakespeare's Final Plays, pp. 256-336. Influential, now classic essay, which argues Shakespeare's final plays are centrally concerned with the nature of art.
THE PLAY IN PERFORMANCE
Richmond, Hugh, Shakespeare in Performance: Henry VIII (1994). Wide-ranging, detailed stage history overview with chapters on performance issues and important productions up to 1983.
Shrimpton, Nicholas, "Shakespeare Performances in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, 1982-3," Shakespeare Survey 37, 1984, pp. 163-73. Includes perceptive, detailed account of Howard Davies's 1983 RSC production of Henry VIII.