Researcher Ruth Houghton visited the Theatre Collection in 2023 to examine the Herbert Beerbohm Tree Business Archive. This blog highlights her reading room discoveries around Tree’s 1899-1900 production of King John, which have led to her 2024 article, published in the journal Law and Humanities (full details below).
King John is probably best known for sealing Magna Carta in 1215. Yet, this significant event in the constitutional history of Great Britain does not feature in Shakespeare’s play The Life and Death of King John; a fact that has preoccupied both literary and historical scholars. In contrast, 19th century productions of the play were littered with references to the Charter. From discussions in the programmes of the events at Runnymede to insertions into the very text of the play about the rights and liberties protected by Magna Carta, theatre producers across the century were reimagining the role of the Charter within the play.
No-one does this more spectacularly than Herbert Beerbohm Tree. In his 1899 production of King John at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London (which incidentally would go on to be the first filmed recording of a Shakespeare production), Beerbohm Tree staged a magnificent tableau – or living picture – depicting ‘The Granting of Magna Charta’.
The tableau is often assumed to be silent, a ‘dumb-show’, which scholars have argued facilitated an a-political representation of Magna Carta as it allowed Beerbohm Tree to display the historical moment of the sealing of the Charter without praise or blame. (source: J. M. Lander and J. J. M. Tobin (eds) The Arden Shakespeare: King John (3rd edn, Bloomsbury 2018), p.102.)
However, documents in the Herbert Beerbohm Tree Business Archive give insight into the specific sounds and movements that accompanied the scene.
In the Stage [rehearsal] Notes of the tableau from the 13th September 1899, it states:
‘Super is holding document, puts it on table in front of JOHN, points to it for JOHN’S signature. After John has put his hand to the seal – inspiring music – then shout from everyone onstage.’
However, the Property Plot (undated but presumably created separately on a different day), details minor alterations that give an alternative approach to the scene:
‘Document is on table – Mr Tree [as King John] enters, goes towards table, man takes up document, gives it to Mr Tree, who reads it, looks round at Nobles, puts down the document, looks around again, then puts finger on paper – Music changes to ‘joyous rainbow’ strain – Mr Tree gives paper back to man – Loud cheers.’
The archive here uncovers a more complicated representation of the constitutional significance of the Charter. On 13th September, the pointing for a signature could be constructed as a visual representation of John being asked to submit, reluctantly, to the demand of the barons. In contrast, the longer stage direction of HBT/40/13 has the additional ‘gives paper back’, which is evocative of the idea that John gives the charter (almost magnanimously) to the people. Indeed, the ‘cheers’ in this rehearsal happen when the people are in possession of the Charter.
These two versions of the tableau found in the archives present distinct constitutional readings. Whilst one exaggerates the symbolism of the Charter as an act of holding a sovereign to account, the other places emphasis on the idea that the people now possess rights and liberties. These notes therefore offer a fascinating insight into how representations of Magna Carta in 19th century productions of King John can shed light on the perception and development of the Charter’s constitutional status during this period.
The Herbert Beerbohm Tree Business Archive is housed in the University of Bristol Theatre Collection.
This research has been published in Houghton, R. (2024). ‘Performing a constitution: a history of Magna Carta in Shakespeare’s King John’. Law and Humanities, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521483.2024.2370673.