King John: the conjunction of our inwards souls; a twice told tale: I am a scribble form drawn with a pen

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The Life and Death of King John

     I just finished this play today.  Looking back at past plays and quotes, I can see how I will savor them with re-reading and meditating on their content and poetry.   So many details, themes and beauty to emerge...  

     King John is an intricate commentary on the lust for power, a House of Cards for their times.  Who is the rightful heir to the crown?  Will France successfully invade England?  Will France usurp England’s royal crown?  King John is even willing to murder his nephew, Arthur, to make sure that this rightful heir will not become king.  Ironically, Arthur survives due to the compassion felt by Hubert for this innocent child; quite a contrast to the political machinations of this play.  

    As usual, my emotions were in turmoil reading this play, the last pages filling me with grief as King John dies.  Perhaps it is my age, but endings touch me deeply, whether it is the simple but poignant ending of my reading of this particular play (how many more times can I read and absorb this ecstasy of poetry?) or the ending of King John's life of struggle as he expresses his feelings and worries on his death bed?  His life has fallen apart, his Mother has died, his friends have abandoned him, and France is about to invade England.  How will his son, Henry, deal with this when he is gone and as Henry assumes the crown?  What Father, what Mother, has not shared these thoughts?

     There are many quotes about war and conflict and very few flowery professions of infinite love found here.  And yet…there is the moving poetry of  grief (“here I and sorrow sit”), the passage of time (“I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen upon a parchment”), the puns (“dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes”), the beauty of nature (“thou mayst with lilies boast,” “the glorious sun stays in his course and plays the alchemist”), the Cervantean invention of phrases (cold comfort, twice told tale, fighting ‘fire with fire’) and, yes, even love and connection (“the conjunction of our inwards souls.”)   Very much worth the reading.

Quotes:

(war)

“Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,

Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes.”  English Herald.  2.1.322-323

(beauty)

“Of nature’s gifts thou mayst with lilies boast

And with the half-blown rose.”  Constance.  2.2.53-54

(grief)

“for my grief’s so great

That no supporter but the huge firm earth

Can hold it up; here I and sorrow sit.”  Constance.  2.2.71-73.

(beauty, the sun, nature)

“the glorious sun

Stays in his course and plays the alchemist,

Turning with splendor of his precious eye

The meager cloddy earth to glittering gold.”  King Philip of France.  3.1.3-6

(war)

“The grappling vigor and rough frown of war."  Constance.  3.1.30

“War!  War!  No peace!  Peace is to me a war.”  Constance.  3.1. 39

“the conjunction of our inward souls

Married in league, coupled and linked together

With all religious strength of sacred vows”  King Philip of France.  3.1.153-155

“Life is tedious as a twice-told tale.”  Lewis, the Dauphin.  3.3.107

(medicine)
“Before the curing of a strong disease,

Even in the instant of repair and health,

The fit is strongest.”  Cardinal Pandulph.  3.3.112-114

“Makes sound opinion sick and truth suspected.” Salisbury.  4.2.26

“in the black brow of night.”  Hubert.  5.6.17

“now my soul hath elbow-room.”  King John.  5.7.28

“I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen

Upon a parchment, and against this fire

Do I shrink up.”  King John.  5.7.32-34

“all the shrouds wherewith my life should sail

Are turned to one thread.”  King John.  5.7.53-54

“I have a kind soul that would give thanks,

And knows not how to do it but with tears.”  Prince Henry.  5.7.108-109

Vocabulary:

Sweet x3: “sweet, sweet, sweet poison”

Absey-book (alphabet book, A-B-C)

Recreat

Play fast and loose  3.1.168

Twice told tale  3.3.107

As the day is long  4.1.18

Double pomp  4.2.8

Fighting “fire with fire”  5.1.48

Cold comfort  5.7.42