Read this if you…
- want an underrated Shakespeare history
- like the quote "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to add a color to the rainbow"
Skip this if you…
- aren't willing to go slow, read notes, look up analyses of famous passages (only way to "get" shakespeare)
- foolishly think shakespeare is overrated
- haven't already read his higher ranked histories
The 
Take
Way better than expected, awesome language as always. To gild gold, to paint the lily, to add a color to the rainbow is an all time verse. All the scheming and changing allegiances and the church demanding allegiance and acting as a meta state was interesting
Depicted in Art
Hubert clutches his head in anguish over the order to blind young Arthur, who clings to him pleading; attendants stand by with a hot iron.
James Northcote, 1790
Lady Constance stands alone in mourning dress, her face turned upward in grief over her son Arthur's fate.
John William Wright, 1849
Black-and-white line illustration of a scene from the play, rendered for a Polish edition of Shakespeare's collected works.
Henry Courtney Selous, 1895
Young Arthur greets the Archduke of Austria, depicted as a knight in lionskin over armor, with attendant women and horses in a formal courtly setting.
William Hamilton, 1791
Actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree in full royal costume as King John, scowling beneath the crown.
Charles A. Buchel, 1900
Recommended Editions
Folger Shakespeare Library
2000
Folger's the readable one. Text on one page, notes on the facing page, written in plain English instead of textbook-speak. Catches every word and reference you'd otherwise Google, without breaking the scene to do it.
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Notable Quotes
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
Screen & Stage
Posters via The Movie Database (TMDB)
- William Hazlitt, English Romantic essayist & critic, 1778–1830: "Its spirit, invention, volubility of tongue, and forwardness in action, are unbounded."
- Harold Bloom, literary critic & Yale professor, 1930–2019: "How much of English literature comes out of the Bastard's monologue!"
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