SOURCE: Beaurline, L. A., ed. Introduction to The New Cambridge Shakespeare: King John, by William Shakespeare, pp. 1-62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

In the following excerpt, Beaurline traces parallels between the structural design and characterizations of King John.

Like Shakespeare's other histories and tragedies, [King John] falls into two unequal parts, roughly equivalent to Acts 1-3 and 4-5.¹ The first part concerns two challenges to John's authority, one of which he finesses, the other he overcomes: the second part concerns the French invasion, which the kingdom survives but John does not. Part I is dominated by three massive scenes with Tamburlaine-like debates, used as weapons with intent to beat down an opponent. Part II still contains some big speeches, but the scenes are scaled down and they move ahead breathlessly from one catastrophe to the next. Part I creates the conditions for John's tragedy in a series of...