ABSTRACT
The relationship between The Troublesome Reign, and Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John has long been disputed. But the majority of scholars now accept that the anonymous play precedes the Shakespearian drama rather than being a corrupt off-shoot from it, and it is that view which is adopted here. The similarities between the two plays are extensive, and include a lengthy scene in the first act in which a dispute over inheritance is brought before the King. The inversion of the paradigmatic relationship between the Bastard and his world clearly serves in King John as an implicit criticism of the society in which the action takes place. First performed in the mid-1590s, King John was written during a period of considerable political uncertainty. Shakespeare's alternative tale of the bastard son, in short, while located within a literary tradition and avoiding direct contemporary reference, lends itself to analysis as a politically charged and potentially dangerous work.
