Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
The title of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story collection, Twice Told Tales, comes from a line in Shakespeare's King John: "Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, / Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man"(3.4.110-111) (source).
In 1899, King John became the very first Shakespeare play to be filmed. The only surviving scene from this old flick is King John's death. Check it out here
Shakespeare may not mention it in the play, but the historical King John is the same guy as the evil Prince John featured in stories about Robin Hood.
The King John in Shakespeare's play is also the same English king who was made to sign the Magna Carta, a document limiting royal power. This document is now viewed as a major landmark in the history of English law. (There's also no mention of the Magna Carta in this play, though.)
Here's how The Reduced Shakespeare Company sums up King John in their "Tweeting Shakespeare" Project: "When writing a play about somebody, don't leave out the most interesting things (Magna Carta) they did" (source).