I have seen the great Henderson [1747-1785].... His “Don John” is a comic “Cato,” and his “Hamlet” a mixture of tragedy, comedy, pastoral, farce, and nonsense.—David Garrick 1775.
John (Friar), a tall, lean, wide-mouthed, long-nosed friar of Seville, who despatched his matins and vigils quicker than any of his fraternity. He swore like a trooper, and fought like a Trojan. When the army from Lernê pillaged the convent vineyard, Friar John seized the staff of a cross and pummelled the rogues without mercy, beating out brains, smashing limbs, cracking ribs, gashing faces, breaking jaws, dislocating joints, in the most approved Christian fashion, and never was corn so mauled by the flail as were these pillagers by “the baton of the cross.”—Rabelais, Gargantua, i. 27 (1533).
⁂ Of course, this is a satire of what are called Christian or religious wars.
John Humphreys. Pious and priggish hero of The Wide, Wide World. He is the brother of Alice Humphreys, the adopted sister of Ellen Montgomery, the little heroine of the story. He trains and molds Ellen from childhood, and finally marries her.—Susan Warner, The Wide, Wide World (1851).
John (King), a tragedy by Shakespeare (1508). This drama is founded on The First and Second Parts of the Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England, etc. As they were sundry times publickly acted by the Queenes Majesties players in the Honourable Citie of London (1591).
In “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,” “Wolsey,” “Coriolanus,” and “King John,” he [Edmund Kean, 1787-1833] never approached within any measurable distance of the learned, philosophical, and majestic Kemble.—Quarterly Review (1835).
W.C. Macready [1793-1873], in the scene where he suggests to “Hubert” the murder of “Arthur,” was masterly, and his representation of death by poison, was true, forcible, and terrific.—Talfourd.
⁂ Kynge Johan, a drama of the transition state between the moralities and tragedy. Of the historical persons introduced, we have King John, Pope Innocent, Cardinal Pandulphus, Stephen Langton, etc.; and of allegorical personages, we have Widowed Britannia, Imperial Majesty, Nobility, Clergy, Civil Order, Treason, Verity, and Sedition. This play was published in 1838 by the Camden Society, under the care of Mr. Collier (about 1550).
John (Little), one of the companions of Robin Hood.—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).
John (Prester). According to Mandeville, Prester John was a lineal descendant of Ogier, the Dane. This Ogier penetrated into the north of India, with fifteen barons of his own country, among whom he divided the land. John was made sovereign of Teneduc, and was called Prester, because he converted the natives.