King John

King John of England is pitted against the united powers of France, Brittany, Austria and the Papacy. Will England be destroyed by his fatal indecision? As alliances are made, broken and remade, the paranoid and erratic John reveals his weakness and reliance on those around him, including his powerful mother Queen Elinor and Faulconbridge, the cynical and witty bastard son of the dead King Richard I. The New Penguin Shakespeare offers a complete edition of the plays and poems. Each volume has been newly prepared from the original texts and includes an introduction, a list of further reading, a full and helpful commentary, and a short account of the textual problems of the play.