"Impoveryshyd and mad a beggar": Poverty and Widowhood in John Bale's King Johan

Abstract

In King Johan, John Bale adopts the convention of the widow as member of the deserving, loyal, and obedient poor, staging Ynglond as a destitute widow in need of poor relief. In doing so, Bale has Ynglond deploy a powerful contemporary discursive strategy contingent on her status as petitioning widow. Johan's ultimate recognition of Ynglond as a member of the deserving poor and his dismissal of Sedicyon's attempts to discredit the integrity of Ynglond's poverty is thus central to the play's action. By grounding Ynglond's supplication to Johan in an ethical and moral appeal for the material relief of the deserving poor, Bale posits Ynglond's widowhood as a recognizable model of political subjectivity which rejects armed insurrection and rebellion.