SOURCE: Champion, Larry S. “‘Confound Their Skill in Covetousness’: The Ambivalent Perspective of Shakespeare's King John.” Tennessee Studies in Literature 24 (1979): 36-55.

In the following essay, Champion examines the characterization, dramatic technique, and thematic structure of King John, maintaining that Shakespeare's use of shifting angles of vision in the work creates a successful and complex pattern of ambiguity.

Dating King John from external evidence is simply impossible. We know only that the play, first published in F₁ 1623, is noted as Shakespeare's by Francis Meres in 1598; the first recorded performance is at Covent Garden in 1737. Internal evidence has led the majority of Shakespearean critics to suggest 1594-1596, though a minority view—which holds that The Troublesome Raigne of King John (published in 1591) is dependent on Shakespeare's play—argues for 1590 or earlier.¹ The structure of the play, considered in terms of Shakespeare's developing historical perspective, strongly supports a date between Richard...