King John (Vol. 56) - A. R. Braunmuller (essay date 1988)
A. R. Braunmuller (essay date 1988)
SOURCE: “King John and Historiography,” in ELH, Vol. 55, No. 2, Summer, 1988, pp. 309-32.
[In the following essay, Braunmuller compares the accounts of Shakespeare's King John, Holinshed's Chronicles, and Sir John Hayward's writings, to discern Shakespeare's perception and treatment of historiography.]
Meercraft: By my ’faith you are cunning i’ the Chronicle, Sir. Fitzdottrel: No, I confess I ha’t from the Play-books, And think they’are more authentic. Engine: That’s sure, Sir.
—Ben Jonson, The Devil Is an Ass
Thinking about Renaissance English history plays, we typically but wrongly treat the chronicles as sources of a different color. Making Comedy of Errors from Menaechmi, or Measure for Measure from Promos and Cassandra, or a history play from Hall and Holinshed, Foxe and Stowe, are similar creative acts...
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