SOURCE: Simmons, J. L. “Shakespeare's King John and Its Source: Coherence, Pattern, and Vision.” Tulane Studies in English 17 (1969): 53-72.

In the following essay, Simmons compares King John with its source play The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England, noting that Shakespeare's drama corrects the moral confusion of its predecessor while confirming its theme of “the evils of usurpation and rebellion.”

The source of King John, despite the recent attempt by E. A. J. Honigmann to reverse the priority, is generally agreed to be the anonymous Troublesome Raigne of King John [hereafter cited as TR] published in 1591 in two parts.¹ Shakespeare follows the earlier play almost scene by scene in its very skillful conflation of various crises in Holinshed's account of the reign. Except for a few details, one need posit no other direct source for the play. Although recent scholarship has clarified that King John must be...