Edward II (play)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The prisoner king is then taken to Berkeley Castle, where he meets the luxuriously cruel Lightborn, whose name is an anglicised version of "Lucifer".

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).

Edward III then orders Mortimer's death and his mother's imprisonment, and the play ends with him taking the throne.

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).

[15] Mortimer describes Gaveston as someone who corrupts, dishonors and shames the court of the King, thus showing the homophobia of the state.

[14][13] Mortimer's homophobia is possibly rooted from his loyalty to deceased king Edward I, whom he sees as a father figure of the kingdom.

[15][16] In other words, Mortimer is desperately trying to get rid of people, Gaveston, Edward and Spencer(s), who trigger his homoerotic impulses.

[15][16] The method with which Edward II is assassinated, a hot poker through his anus, is a symbolic death of homophobia of both the state and Mortimer.

When Edward and Gaveston strip the Bishop of Coventry of his lands and possessions, they joke subversively about religious traditions.

[20] Knutson uses the number of lines assigned to players, Marlowe's familiarity to the different play companies, and the role of Isabella to provide evidence for her argument.

According to E. K. Chambers, Edward II was one of three plays sold to booksellers—along with The Taming of a Shrew and The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York—and was probably the only one of those three not worked on by Shakespeare.

[22] 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.

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 (as it included the first gay kiss transmitted on British television).

[26] In 1986, Nicholas Hytner directed a production at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Ian McDiarmid, Michael Grandage, Iain Glen and Duncan Bell.

In 1991, the play was adapted into a film by Derek Jarman which used modern costumes and made overt reference to the gay rights movement and the Stonewall riots.

The production strongly emphasized the gay relationship between Edward II and Gaveston and was one of two Marlowe works inaugurating the company's new Sidney Harman Hall.

[citation needed] In October 2013, the New National Theatre Tokyo staged the play in Japanese, featuring Mori Shintaro as a director.

[30] In July 2016, an adaptation opened at Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, directed by Matthew Lutton and written by Anthony Weigh.

[32] For 2025, the play has been scheduled for a February-April performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon,[33] with Daniel Evans in the titular role.