How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line)
Quote #4
ARTHUR, weepingGood my mother, peace.
I would that I were low laid in my grave.
I am not worth this coil that's made for me. (2.1.168-170)
Poor little Arthur. This kid's just not cut out for all the political drama that surrounds him. (Then again, what child would be?) Here, it's obvious that Arthur isn't (yet) fit to be ruler England. He bursts into tears when his mom and grandmother fight over who should be king. How the heck is he supposed to govern a nation? The answer is that he's not, and everybody knows it—especially the people who support his claim. Why do they support his claim, after all? Because they want him to be their political puppet. (Constance and King Philip, we're looking at you.)
Quote #5
KING JOHN
Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
KING PHILIP
Speak, citizens, for England. Who's your king?
CITIZEN
The King of England, when we know the King.
KING PHILIP
Know him in us, that here hold up his right.
KING JOHN
In us, that are our own great deputy
And bear possession of our person here,
Lord of our presence, Angers, and of you.
CITIZEN
A greater power than we decides all this,
And till it be undoubted, we do lock
Our former scruple in our strong-barred gates,
Kings of our fear, until our fears resolved,
Be by some certain king purged and deposed. (2.1.377-388)
The citizens of Angers base their decision on which king to submit to entirely based on how much force each king displays. From the standpoint of power politics, this makes perfect sense. Think about it: if the citizens of Angers make an alliance with the weaker of the two kings, then the stronger of the two kings will just attack them, anyway, and defeat them (because he will be fighting against the weaker king). Then, he will probably kill the citizens of Angers, just to punish them for having supported the other guy. On the other hand, if the citizens of Angers side with the stronger king, then they will be protected against the weaker king in case the weaker king then attacks them. But the only way they can find out which king is stronger is by watching them fight it out outside the city. Thus, they refuse to open their gates until "it be undoubted" which army is the strongest.
Quote #6
KING JOHN
What earthly name to interrogatories
Can task the free breath of a sacred king?
Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name
So slight, unworthy and ridiculous,
To charge me to an answer, as the Pope.
Tell him this tale, and from the mouth of England
Add thus much more, that no Italian priest
Shall tithe or toll in our dominions;
But as we under God are supreme head,
So, under Him, that great supremacy
Where we do reign, we will alone uphold
Without th' assistance of a mortal hand.
So tell the Pope, all reverence set apart
To him and his usurped authority. (3.1.153-166)
In these lines, King John refers to a political theory that was widespread in Shakespeare's day, known as the Divine Right of Kings. As the name suggests—and as John's speech outright says—it held that kings "under God, are supreme head," meaning that nobody, not even the Pope, had authority over them.
When King John says that he can rule just fine on his own, without the help of any "mortal hand," couldn't this reference to the "hand," the source of physical strength, be a subtle dig at the Church, whose power, in theory at least, was spiritual, and not material? As we will see, though, John underestimates the danger posed to him by the Church's special kind of power.