CRITICISM

Axton, Marie. “Miraculous Succession: ‘The Phoenix and the Turtle’ (1601).” In The Queen's Two Bodies: Drama and the Elizabethan Succession, pp. 116-30. London: Royal Historical Society, 1977.

Maintains that Shakespeare's poem, The Phoenix and the Turtle is both politically and philosophically motivated. The poem addresses Shakespeare's attitudes toward kingship, love, and duty—the same attitudes, Axton asserts, that are found in Shakespeare's histories and tragedies.

Erskine-Hill, Howard. “The First Tetralogy and King John.” In Poetry and the Realm of Politics: Shakespeare to Dryden, pp. 46-69. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

Studies the extent to which providentialism is explored in the Henry VI tetralogy and King John, arguing that a providential explanation is not explicit in the tetralogy. In King John, the critic contends, Shakespeare makes specific allusions to contemporary events and suggests that both the papacy and the monarchy are guided only by self-interest.

Jones, Robert C. “King John: ‘Perfect Richard’ versus ‘This Old World.’” In These Valiant Dead: Renewing the Past in Shakespeare's Histories, pp. 46-68. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991.

Examines the issue of legal heritage in King John, demonstrating that despite the clarity of Arthur's legal claim to the throne, the conflict between Arthur and King John reveals the troublesome nature of “right.”

Levine, Nina S. “‘Accursed Womb, the Bed of Death’: Women and the Succession in Richard III.” Renaissance Papers (1992): 17-27.

Explores the significance of the absence of women at the close of Richard III, observing that throughout the Henry VI tetralogy, women played vital roles, yet Shakespeare chose to portray the “glorious beginnings” of Tudor rule from an exclusively male point of view.

Thayer, C. G. “The Silent King; Providential Intervention, Fair Sequence and Succession.” In Shakespearean Politics: Government and Misgovernment in the Great Histories, pp. 62-93. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1983.

Analyzes Bolingbroke's silence as well as his actions and what they suggest about his motivations and succession to the throne.