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EspañolEDWARD II (PLAY)
'''Edward II''' is an Elizabethan play written by Christopher Marlowe. It is one of the earliest English history plays. The full title of the first publication is '''The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer'''.
Marlowe found most of his material for this play in the third volume of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). He stayed close to the account, but he embellished history with the character of Lightborn (or Lucifer) as Edward's assassin. The play was first acted in 1592 or 1593 by Pembroke's Men.
The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on July 6, 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;[1] a second edition, issued in 1598, was printed by Richard Braddock for Jones, and provided a scene not included in the 1594 text. Subsequent editions were published in 1612, by Richard Barnes, and in 1622, by Henry Bell. The title page of the 1622 edition states that the play was performed by Queen Anne's Men at the Red Bull Theatre, showing that ''Edward II'' was still in the active repertory well into the seventeenth century.[2]
The play telescopes most of Edward II's reign into a single narrative, beginning with the recall of his lover, Piers Gaveston, from exile, and ending with his son Edward III's execution of Mortimer the younger for the king's murder.
Marlowe's play opens at the very 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. In the following passage he plans the entertainments with which he will delight the king:
:Music and poetry is his delight;
:Therefore I'll have Italian masques by night,
:Sweet speeches, comedies, and pleasing shows;
:And in the day, when he shall walk abroad,
:Like sylvan nymphs my pages shall be clad;
:My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,
:Shall with their goat-feet dance an antic hay.
:Sometime a lovely boy in Dian's shape,
:With hair that gilds the water as it glides,
:Crownets of pearl about his naked arms,
:And in his sportful hands an olive tree
:To hide those parts which men delight to see,
:Shall bathe him in a spring; and there, hard by,
:One like Actaeon, peeping through the grove,
:Shall by the angry goddess be transformed,
:And running in the likeness of a hart
:By yelping hounds pulled down and seem to die.
:Such things as these best please his majesty. (I.i.53-70)
However much they may please his majesty, however, they find scant favour from his nobles, who are soon clamouring for Gaveston's exile. Edward is forced to agree to this and banishes Gaveston to Ireland, but Isabella of France, the Queen, who still hopes for his favour, persuades Mortimer, 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.
Edward now seeks comfort in a new favourite, Spencer, and his father, decisively alienating Isabella, who takes Mortimer as her lover and travels to France with her son in search of allies. 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 outgeneralled, while his brother Edmund, Earl of Kent, who, after having initially renounced his cause, now tries to help him, is executed by Mortimer. 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 first to Kenilworth and then to Berkeley Castle, where he meets his death at the hands of the luxuriously cruel Lightborn, whose name is an anglicised version of “Lucifer”. The play ends with the accession of Edward III, who orders the imprisonment of his mother and the execution of Mortimer.
The play's opening speech is heavily homoerotic in its language, and the nature of Gaveston's relationship with the king is clearly romantic, as the elder Mortimer suggests by comparing their relationship with other famous lovers, both real and mythical:
''Mortimer Sr:''
:Leave now to oppose thyself against the king;
:Thou seest by nature he is mild and calm,
:And seeing his mind so dotes on Gaveston,
:Let him without controlment have his will.
:The mightiest kings have had their minions:
:Great Alexander loved Hephaestion,
:The conquering Hercules for Hylas wept,
:And for Patroclus stern Achilles drooped.
:And not kings only, but the wisest men:
:The Roman Tully loved Octavius,
:Grave Socrates, wild Alcibiades;
:Then let his grace, whose youth is flexible
:And promiseth as much as we can wish,
:Freely enjoy that vain light-headed earl,
:For riper years will wean him from such toys.
Some passages could be compared to Romeo and Juliet, and may be the only time such professions of love between two men occur in a play of this period. However, in the context of the play as a whole, homosexuality is not necessarily seen as a good thing.
''Gaveston:''
:My lord, I hear it whispered everywhere
:That I am banished and must fly the land.
''Edward II:''
:'Tis true, sweet Gaveston (oh, were it false!).
:The legate of the Pope will have it so,
:And thou must hence or I shall be deposed.
:But I will reign to be revenged of them,
:And therefore, sweet friend, take it patiently:
:Live where thou wilt, I'll send thee gold enough,
:And long thou shalt not stay, or if thou dost,
:I'll come to thee; my love shall ne'er decline.
''Gaveston:''
:Is all my hope turned to this hell of grief?
''Edward:''
:Rend
★ not my heart with thy too-piercing words: [
★ tear]
:Thou from this land, I from my self am banished.
''Gaveston:''
:To go from hence grieves not poor Gaveston,
:But to forsake you , in whose gracious looks
:The blessedness of Gaveston remains,
:For nowhere else seeks he felicity.
''Edward:''
:And only this torments my wretched soul,
:That whether I will or no, thou must depart.
:Be governor of Ireland in my stead
:And there abide till fortune call thee home.
:Here take my picture and let me wear thine;
:O, might I keep thee here as I do this,
:Happy were I, but now most miserable.
''Gaveston:''
:'Tis something to be pitied of a king.
''Edward:''
:Thou shalt not hence; I'll hide thee, Gaveston!
''Gaveston:''
:I shall be found, and then 'twill grieve me more.
''Edward:''
:Kind words and mutual talk makes our grief greater,
:Therefore with dumb embracement let us part —
:Stay, Gaveston, I cannot leave thee thus!
''Gaveston:''
:For every look my lord drops down a tear;
:Seeing I must go, do not renew my sorrow.
''Edward:''
:The time is little that thou hast to stay
:And therefore give me leave to look my fill.
:But come sweet friend, I'll bear
★ thee on thy way. [
★ see, accompany]
''Gaveston:''
:The peers will frown.
''Edward:''
:I pass not for their anger; come, let's go.
Still, the barons who oppose Gaveston, specifically Mortimer Jr., do so because he is low-born and pert, not necessarily because of his sexuality, as Mortimer Jr. replies to his uncle's previous speech:
''Mortimer Jr:''
:Uncle, his wanton humor grieves not me,
:But this I scorn: that one so basely born
:Should by his sovereign's favor grow so pert
:And riot it with the treasure of the realm,
:While soldiers mutiny for want of pay.
:He wears a lord's revenue on his back,
:And Midas-like he jets
★ it in the court [
★ shows it off]
:With base outlandish cullions
★ at his heels, [
★ rascals]
:Whose proud fantastic liveries make such show
:As if that Proteus, god of shapes, appeared —
:I have not seen a dapper Jack so brisk.
:He wears a short Italian hooded cloak
:Larded with peal, and in his Tuscan cap
:A jewel of more value than the crown.
:While others walk below, the king and he
:From out a window laugh at such as we,
:And flout
★ our train and jest at our attire;
:Uncle, 'tis this that makes me impatient.
Edward and his favourite are portrayed in an unflattering light throughout much of the play, as they overspend and neglect their duties. However, after Gaveston is killed at the beginning of act three, Edward becomes an increasingly tragic figure as he is captured and imprisoned. He mourns his loss in a dungeon before being murdered. The most interesting and dichotomous attribute of Marlowe's Edward II, is the way an audiences' sympathies can shift from an anti-Edward sentiment, to a anti-Mortimer Jr. sentiment. As much as Edward might neglect his duties, Mortimer Jr. exploits his weakness for Gaveston as a means to usurp the throne.
''Edward II'' may have been the only one of Marlowe's plays not written for the greatest actor of the time, Edward Alleyn. It has been suggested that this is the reason the play lacks a dominating protagonist and the grand speeches usually associated with the playwright. It is also one of the best preserved texts of any Marlovian play and indicates that the quality of his writing was much greater than is suggested by the corrupt or extensively rewritten texts of plays like ''Doctor Faustus'' or ''The Jew of Malta''.
''Edward the Second'' may have been Marlowe's last play, and gives a sense of his progress as a dramatist just as his life was cut short. It contains his most mature characterisation, and some fine speeches, such as the final words of the queen's lover, Mortimer:
:Base Fortune, now I see, that in thy wheel
:There is a point, to which when men aspire,
:They tumble headlong down. That point I touched,
:And, seeing there was no place to mount up higher,
:Why should I grieve at my declining fall?
:Farewell, fair Queen, weep not for Mortimer,
:That scorns the world and, as a traveller,
:Goes to discover countries yet unknown.
The play has been revived several times, usually in such a way as to make explicit Edward's homosexuality. The Prospect Theatre Company's production of the play, starring Ian McKellen and James Laurenson, caused a sensation when it was broadcast by the BBC during the 1970s. Numerous other productions followed, starring actors such as Simon Russell Beale and Joseph Fiennes. There has even been a ballet created for the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
The play was adapted by Bertolt Brecht in 1923 as ''Leben Eduard des Zweitens''. The Brecht version, while acknowledging Marlowe's play as its source, uses Brecht's own words, ideas, and structure, and is regarded as a separate work in its own right.
In 1991, the play was heavily adapted into a film by Derek Jarman which used modern costumes and made overt reference to the gay rights movement and the Stonewall riots.
1. Logan and Smith, p. 31.
2. Chambers, Vol. 3, p. 425.
★ Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage.'' 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
★ Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. ''The Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama.'' Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1973.
★ Text at The Perseus Project
★ Text at Bartleby.com
Marlowe found most of his material for this play in the third volume of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). He stayed close to the account, but he embellished history with the character of Lightborn (or Lucifer) as Edward's assassin. The play was first acted in 1592 or 1593 by Pembroke's Men.
| Contents |
| Publication |
| Synopsis |
| Comments |
| The play in modern times |
| Notes |
| References |
| External links |
Publication
The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on July 6, 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;[1] a second edition, issued in 1598, was printed by Richard Braddock for Jones, and provided a scene not included in the 1594 text. Subsequent editions were published in 1612, by Richard Barnes, and in 1622, by Henry Bell. The title page of the 1622 edition states that the play was performed by Queen Anne's Men at the Red Bull Theatre, showing that ''Edward II'' was still in the active repertory well into the seventeenth century.[2]
Synopsis
The play telescopes most of Edward II's reign into a single narrative, beginning with the recall of his lover, Piers Gaveston, from exile, and ending with his son Edward III's execution of Mortimer the younger for the king's murder.
Marlowe's play opens at the very 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. In the following passage he plans the entertainments with which he will delight the king:
:Music and poetry is his delight;
:Therefore I'll have Italian masques by night,
:Sweet speeches, comedies, and pleasing shows;
:And in the day, when he shall walk abroad,
:Like sylvan nymphs my pages shall be clad;
:My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,
:Shall with their goat-feet dance an antic hay.
:Sometime a lovely boy in Dian's shape,
:With hair that gilds the water as it glides,
:Crownets of pearl about his naked arms,
:And in his sportful hands an olive tree
:To hide those parts which men delight to see,
:Shall bathe him in a spring; and there, hard by,
:One like Actaeon, peeping through the grove,
:Shall by the angry goddess be transformed,
:And running in the likeness of a hart
:By yelping hounds pulled down and seem to die.
:Such things as these best please his majesty. (I.i.53-70)
However much they may please his majesty, however, they find scant favour from his nobles, who are soon clamouring for Gaveston's exile. Edward is forced to agree to this and banishes Gaveston to Ireland, but Isabella of France, the Queen, who still hopes for his favour, persuades Mortimer, 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.
Edward now seeks comfort in a new favourite, Spencer, and his father, decisively alienating Isabella, who takes Mortimer as her lover and travels to France with her son in search of allies. 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 outgeneralled, while his brother Edmund, Earl of Kent, who, after having initially renounced his cause, now tries to help him, is executed by Mortimer. 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 first to Kenilworth and then to Berkeley Castle, where he meets his death at the hands of the luxuriously cruel Lightborn, whose name is an anglicised version of “Lucifer”. The play ends with the accession of Edward III, who orders the imprisonment of his mother and the execution of Mortimer.
Comments
The play's opening speech is heavily homoerotic in its language, and the nature of Gaveston's relationship with the king is clearly romantic, as the elder Mortimer suggests by comparing their relationship with other famous lovers, both real and mythical:
''Mortimer Sr:''
:Leave now to oppose thyself against the king;
:Thou seest by nature he is mild and calm,
:And seeing his mind so dotes on Gaveston,
:Let him without controlment have his will.
:The mightiest kings have had their minions:
:Great Alexander loved Hephaestion,
:The conquering Hercules for Hylas wept,
:And for Patroclus stern Achilles drooped.
:And not kings only, but the wisest men:
:The Roman Tully loved Octavius,
:Grave Socrates, wild Alcibiades;
:Then let his grace, whose youth is flexible
:And promiseth as much as we can wish,
:Freely enjoy that vain light-headed earl,
:For riper years will wean him from such toys.
Some passages could be compared to Romeo and Juliet, and may be the only time such professions of love between two men occur in a play of this period. However, in the context of the play as a whole, homosexuality is not necessarily seen as a good thing.
''Gaveston:''
:My lord, I hear it whispered everywhere
:That I am banished and must fly the land.
''Edward II:''
:'Tis true, sweet Gaveston (oh, were it false!).
:The legate of the Pope will have it so,
:And thou must hence or I shall be deposed.
:But I will reign to be revenged of them,
:And therefore, sweet friend, take it patiently:
:Live where thou wilt, I'll send thee gold enough,
:And long thou shalt not stay, or if thou dost,
:I'll come to thee; my love shall ne'er decline.
''Gaveston:''
:Is all my hope turned to this hell of grief?
''Edward:''
:Rend
★ not my heart with thy too-piercing words: [
★ tear]
:Thou from this land, I from my self am banished.
''Gaveston:''
:To go from hence grieves not poor Gaveston,
:But to forsake you , in whose gracious looks
:The blessedness of Gaveston remains,
:For nowhere else seeks he felicity.
''Edward:''
:And only this torments my wretched soul,
:That whether I will or no, thou must depart.
:Be governor of Ireland in my stead
:And there abide till fortune call thee home.
:Here take my picture and let me wear thine;
:O, might I keep thee here as I do this,
:Happy were I, but now most miserable.
''Gaveston:''
:'Tis something to be pitied of a king.
''Edward:''
:Thou shalt not hence; I'll hide thee, Gaveston!
''Gaveston:''
:I shall be found, and then 'twill grieve me more.
''Edward:''
:Kind words and mutual talk makes our grief greater,
:Therefore with dumb embracement let us part —
:Stay, Gaveston, I cannot leave thee thus!
''Gaveston:''
:For every look my lord drops down a tear;
:Seeing I must go, do not renew my sorrow.
''Edward:''
:The time is little that thou hast to stay
:And therefore give me leave to look my fill.
:But come sweet friend, I'll bear
★ thee on thy way. [
★ see, accompany]
''Gaveston:''
:The peers will frown.
''Edward:''
:I pass not for their anger; come, let's go.
Still, the barons who oppose Gaveston, specifically Mortimer Jr., do so because he is low-born and pert, not necessarily because of his sexuality, as Mortimer Jr. replies to his uncle's previous speech:
''Mortimer Jr:''
:Uncle, his wanton humor grieves not me,
:But this I scorn: that one so basely born
:Should by his sovereign's favor grow so pert
:And riot it with the treasure of the realm,
:While soldiers mutiny for want of pay.
:He wears a lord's revenue on his back,
:And Midas-like he jets
★ it in the court [
★ shows it off]
:With base outlandish cullions
★ at his heels, [
★ rascals]
:Whose proud fantastic liveries make such show
:As if that Proteus, god of shapes, appeared —
:I have not seen a dapper Jack so brisk.
:He wears a short Italian hooded cloak
:Larded with peal, and in his Tuscan cap
:A jewel of more value than the crown.
:While others walk below, the king and he
:From out a window laugh at such as we,
:And flout
★ our train and jest at our attire;
:Uncle, 'tis this that makes me impatient.
Edward and his favourite are portrayed in an unflattering light throughout much of the play, as they overspend and neglect their duties. However, after Gaveston is killed at the beginning of act three, Edward becomes an increasingly tragic figure as he is captured and imprisoned. He mourns his loss in a dungeon before being murdered. The most interesting and dichotomous attribute of Marlowe's Edward II, is the way an audiences' sympathies can shift from an anti-Edward sentiment, to a anti-Mortimer Jr. sentiment. As much as Edward might neglect his duties, Mortimer Jr. exploits his weakness for Gaveston as a means to usurp the throne.
''Edward II'' may have been the only one of Marlowe's plays not written for the greatest actor of the time, Edward Alleyn. It has been suggested that this is the reason the play lacks a dominating protagonist and the grand speeches usually associated with the playwright. It is also one of the best preserved texts of any Marlovian play and indicates that the quality of his writing was much greater than is suggested by the corrupt or extensively rewritten texts of plays like ''Doctor Faustus'' or ''The Jew of Malta''.
''Edward the Second'' may have been Marlowe's last play, and gives a sense of his progress as a dramatist just as his life was cut short. It contains his most mature characterisation, and some fine speeches, such as the final words of the queen's lover, Mortimer:
:Base Fortune, now I see, that in thy wheel
:There is a point, to which when men aspire,
:They tumble headlong down. That point I touched,
:And, seeing there was no place to mount up higher,
:Why should I grieve at my declining fall?
:Farewell, fair Queen, weep not for Mortimer,
:That scorns the world and, as a traveller,
:Goes to discover countries yet unknown.
The play in modern times
The play has been revived several times, usually in such a way as to make explicit Edward's homosexuality. The Prospect Theatre Company's production of the play, starring Ian McKellen and James Laurenson, caused a sensation when it was broadcast by the BBC during the 1970s. Numerous other productions followed, starring actors such as Simon Russell Beale and Joseph Fiennes. There has even been a ballet created for the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
The play was adapted by Bertolt Brecht in 1923 as ''Leben Eduard des Zweitens''. The Brecht version, while acknowledging Marlowe's play as its source, uses Brecht's own words, ideas, and structure, and is regarded as a separate work in its own right.
In 1991, the play was heavily adapted into a film by Derek Jarman which used modern costumes and made overt reference to the gay rights movement and the Stonewall riots.
Notes
1. Logan and Smith, p. 31.
2. Chambers, Vol. 3, p. 425.
References
★ Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage.'' 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
★ Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. ''The Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama.'' Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1973.
External links
★ Text at The Perseus Project
★ Text at Bartleby.com
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