John Bale, Barry B. Adams (Editor)
John Bale's "King Johan."
San Marino, California: The Huntington Library, 1969. First edition. ix/211 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6.5" x 9.75", is bound in dark green cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book is in fine condition, with firm binding, clean and bright pages. Dust jacket, with price of $7.50 on front flap, displays shelfwear, with minor wear at top edges, showing very small loss at rear. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover.
"Mr. Adams' edition of the historical morality "King Johan" includes a critical old-spelling text based on firsthand examination of the unique manuscript in the Huntington Library. Previous editions have either relied on John Payne Collier's version, prepared in 1838 when the manuscript was less nearly complete thant it is today, or have worked from a photographic facsimile published by W. Bang in 1909. Prolems of text, date, and sources receive a thorough and scholarly treatment in the Introduction and Appendixes.
In his discussion of the theatrical and literary characteristics of the play, the editor introduces a fresh assessment of Bale as a polemical dramatist. The early Tudor playwright found in King John's struggle with Pope Innocent III the material for a commentary on the political nd religious issues of his own day. To give this commentary dramatic form, he has drawn heavily on the conventions and techniques of hte medieval morality play, modifying them freely to suit his own purpose. "King Johan," indeed, stands out as the earliest example in the English theater of the isolated hero whose nobility and virtue bring about his downfall in a world essentially evil. At the same time, the work points ahead to the popular chronicle plays of the Elizabethan stage."