The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer, known as Edward II, is a Renaissance or early modern period play written by the English playwright Christopher Marlowe. It is one of the earliest English history plays, and focuses on the relationship between King Edward II of England and Piers Gaveston, and Edward's murder on the orders of Roger Mortimer.
Marlowe found most of his material for this play in the third volume of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). Frederick S. Boas believes that "out of all the rich material provided by Holinshed" Marlowe was drawn to "the comparatively unattractive reign of Edward II" due to the relationship between the King and Gaveston. Boas elaborates, "Homosexual affection ... has (as has been seen) a special attraction for Marlowe. Jove and Ganymede in Dido, Henry III and his 'minions' in The Massacre, Neptune and Leander in Hero and Leander, and all akin, although drawn to a slighter scale, to Edward and Gaveston."Frederick S. Boas, Christopher Marlowe: A biographical and critical study (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), pp. 174f Boas also notes the existence of a number of parallels between Edward II and The Massacre at Paris, asserting that "it is scarcely too much to say that scenes xi–xxi of The Massacre are something in the nature of a preliminary sketch for Edward II." Marlowe stayed close to the account but embellished it with the character of Lightborn (or Lucifer) as Edward's assassin.
Publication The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 6 July 1593, five weeks after Marlowe's death. The earliest extant edition was published in octavo in 1594, printed by Robert Robinson for the bookseller William Jones. The 1594 edition, customarily referred to as Q1, "is a quarto in size, shape and signature format . . . gathered and signed in fours."Jeffrey Masten, ed., Edward II (Arden Early Modern Drama/Arden Shakespeare, 2026), p. 123 A second edition, issued in 1598, was printed by Richard Braddock for Jones. Subsequent editions were published in 1612, by Richard Barnes, and in 1622, by Henry Bell.
The 1594 first edition of the play is very rare and was uncovered only in 1876.The Atheneum, No. 2562, 2 December 1876. Only one copy, held at the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, was known to exist after a second was lost in the Second World War. In 2012, a third copy was discovered in Germany by Jeffrey Masten. The volume was bound by its original German owner, who visited England in 1594, with a treatise arguing against the execution of heretics and another on Turkey and Islam.Masten, ed., Edward II, pp. 9-10, 71-72
Authorship Each of the first four quartos of the play lists Marlowe as the playwright, and his authorship has never been in doubt. Robert Dodsley included it in his Select Collection of Old Plays in 1744, but Marlowe's name was not even mentioned in the preface.Robert Dodsley. Select Collection of Old Plays (12 vols.), 1744 Marlowe's reputation was still damaged by Thomas Beard's libel in The Theatre of God's Judgement, published in 1597.cf. Thomas Dabbs. Reforming Marlowe: The Nineteenth-Century Canonization of a Renaissance Dramatist. London, (Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1991)
Characters
Edward II Prince Edward Kent, (half-)brother to King Edward the Second Gaveston Archbishop of Canterbury Bishop of Coventry Bishop of Winchester Warwick Lancaster Pembroke Arundel Leicester Berkeley Mortimer the Elder Mortimer the Younger, his nephew Spenser the Elder Spenser the Younger Baldock Baumont Trussel (Thomas) Gurney Matrevis Lightborn Sir John of Hainault Levune Rice ap Howel Abbot of Neath James Horse Boy The Herald The Champion Post Mayor of Bristow Monks Lords, Poor Men, James, Mower, Champion, Messengers, Soldiers, and Attendants Queen Isabella, wife to King Edward the Second Lady Margaret de Clare, Niece to King Edward Ladies
Synopsis The play telescopes most of Edward II's reign into a single narrative, beginning with the recall of his favourite, Piers Gaveston, from exile, and ending with his son, Edward III, executing Mortimer Junior for the king's murder.
Marlowe's play opens at the outset of the reign, with Edward's exiled favourite, Piers Gaveston, rejoicing at the recent death of Edward I and his own resulting ability to return to England. He plans entertainments with which he will delight the king.
Upon Gaveston's re-entry into the country, Edward gives him titles, access to the royal treasury, and the option of having guards protect him. Although Gaveston himself is not of noble birth, he maintains that he is better than common people and craves pleasing shows, Italian masques, music and poetry. However, as much as Gaveston pleases the king he finds scant favour from the king's nobles, who are soon clamouring for Gaveston's exile. Almost as soon as he arrives, Gaveston and Edward's court begin to quarrel. Edward is forced to agree to this and banishes Gaveston to Ireland. Isabella of France, the Queen, who still hopes for his favour, persuades Mortimer, who later becomes her lover, to argue for his recall, though only so that he may be more conveniently murdered. The nobles accordingly soon find an excuse to turn on Gaveston again, and eventually capture and execute him. Before executing Gaveston, Edward requests to see Gaveston one more time. Arundel and Pembroke agree to Edward's request. However, Warwick attacks and kills Gaveston while he is being taken to Edward. Edward in turn executes two of the nobles who persecuted Gaveston, Warwick and Lancaster.
Edward then seeks comfort in new favourites, Spencer and his father. This alienates Isabella, who takes Mortimer as her lover and travels to France with her son in search of allies. France, however, will not help the queen and refuses to give her arms, although she does get help from Sir John of Hainault. Edward, both in the play and in history, is nothing like the soldier his father was—it was during his reign that the English army was disastrously defeated at Bannockburn—and is soon . Edward takes refuge in Neath Abbey, but is betrayed by a mower, who emblematically carries a scythe. Both Spencers are executed, and the king himself is taken to Kenilworth. His brother Edmund, Earl of Kent, after having initially renounced his cause, now tries to help him but realizes too late the power the young Mortimer now has. Arrested for approaching the imprisoned Edward, Edmund is taken to court, where Mortimer, Isabella and Edward III preside. He is executed by Mortimer, who claims he is a threat to the throne, despite the pleading of Edward III.
The prisoner king is then taken to Berkeley Castle, where he meets the luxuriously cruel Lightborn, whose name is an anglicised version of "Lucifer". Despite knowing that Lightborn is there to kill him, Edward asks him to stay by his side. Lightborn, realizing that the king will not fall for delay, has him restrained by four men, and murders him by burning out his bowels from the inside with a red hot poker (so as not to leave external marks of violence). Maltravers and Gurney witness this, before Gurney kills Lightborn to keep his silence. Later, however, Gurney flees, and Mortimer sends Maltravers after him, as they fear betrayal. Isabella arrives to warn Mortimer that Edward III, her son with Edward II, has discovered their plot. Before they can plan accordingly, her son arrives with attendants and other lords, accusing Mortimer of murder. Mortimer denies this, but eventually is arrested and taken away. He tells Isabella not to weep for him, and the queen begs her son to show Mortimer mercy, but he refuses. Edward III then orders Mortimer's death and his mother's imprisonment, and the play ends with him taking the throne.
Themes Homoeroticism
Edward and Gaveston's homoerotic relationship provides the backdrop for the play. When Gaveston plans to produce his masque, he describes "a lovely boy in Dian's shape... / And in his sportful hands an olive tree / To hide those parts which men delight to see" (1.2.60–63). Gaveston is deeply aware of the theatre's ability to eroticize young male actors. The Queen feels jealous of Gaveston and Edward's relationship, noting: "For now my lord the king regards me not, / But dotes upon the love of Gaveston. / He claps his cheeks and hangs about his neck, / Smiles in his face and whispers in his ears" (1.2.49–52).
Much of the criticism on Edward II focuses on homoeroticism and power. For example, Emily Bartels's Spectacles of Strangeness—which focuses on how Marlowe depicts "others" and how that depiction exposes "demonization of the other as a strategy for self-authorization and self-empowerment"—has a chapter on Edward II entitled "The Show of Sodomy". In this chapter, Bartels focuses on how sodomy is politicized, exposed and defined, stating, "In Marlowe, sodomy is finally neither unseeable nor unspeakable. Rather it is exposed as a subject obscured and displayed as beyond display by those who would maintain a hegemonic hold over 'what the matter meant.'" In order to show how sodomy works in Marlowe's plays, Bartels places particular attention to the tension between how sodomy is hidden in the play and then sanctioned as the means of killing Edward. Bartels pays close attention to the fact that Lightborn's murder of the king leaves no marks on his body. She concludes that "sodomical leanings...are not politically corrupt. Though largely unspoken, they are not unspeakable."
Sodomy was not a clearly defined act in the early modern period. Jonathan Goldberg asserts that sodomy was "invisible so long as homosexual acts failed to connect with the much more visible signs of social disruption represented by unorthodox religious or social positions".Goldberg, Jonathan. "Sodomy and Society: The Case of Cristopher Marlowe", Staging the Renaissance: Reinterpretations of Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. Edited by David Kastan and Peter Stallybrass, Routledge, 1991. David Stymeist reconciles two opposing critical approaches to Edward II—one that views the play as subversive towards sexual norms and one that upholds sexual norms—by paying attention to how the play presents alternative sexuality and how it punishes sexual transgressions.
The spatial difference between Ireland and England is the significance of how much Edward's state wanted Gaveston gone, but at the same time, if Gaveston travels such distance to see the King, it puts a big spotlight on their desire to see one another and their intimacy.
Queer brotherhood Queer brotherhood specifically refers to the sexual brotherhood intertwined with the political aspects of Ireland and England. In Edward II, Ireland is a place that accepts sexual brotherhood, and it is the only place, outside of England, that exposes male bonds and extreme homoerotic scenes. The relationship between Gaveston and Edward is interconnected with the political aspects of Ireland and England. Edward referring to Gaveston as a 'Brother' shows the intimacy between the two rather than just calling him a 'Friend'.
Homophobia