19. "The Complete Plays," by Christopher Marlowe, pp. 463-505

Edward the Second, Scenes 14-26 

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[Scene 14] 
Kent aids Mortimer to escape the Tower and sail with him to France. 


[Scene 15] 
The queen's mission to France has failed and the prince urges her to return to England. Sir John of Hainault persuades them to go with him to Flanders, and when Kent and Mortimer meet up with them, they join up, planning to raise an army to attack the king. 


[Scene 16] 
Edward has executed the rebellious nobles, and he gloats that "The lords of France love England's gold so well / As Isabella gets no aid from thence." Spencer reads a letter from Levune telling about the efforts of Kent and Mortimer to raise an army in Flanders. 


[Scene 17] 
The queen and her followers arrive in England and prepare to attack Edward. 


[Scene 18] 
Spencer, Baldock and the king flee to Ireland from the queen's troops. 


[Scene 19] 
Kent turns against Mortimer and denounces "this unnatural revolt," observing that "Mortimer and Isabel do kiss while they conspire." When the others enter, he asks the queen what she plans to do with her husband. Mortimer, in an aside to the queen, says, "I do not like this relenting mood in Edmund." Spencer's father has been captured, and Mortimer orders him beheaded. 


[Scene 20] 
The king, Spencer, and Baldock, whose plans to sail for Ireland have been stymied by bad weather, have taken refuge with some monks, but Spencer has noticed "A gloomy fellow in a mead below" who he fears may have recognized them. Sure enough, a mower has informed on them and Rice ap Howell and the Earl of Leicester arrive with soldiers to arrest Spencer and Baldock for high treason and to take custody of the king. Edward is sent to Killingworth Castle.


[Scene 21] 
At Killingworth, Leicester demands that the king surrender his crown. Edward protests, "But tell me, must I now resign my crown / To make usurping Mortimer a king?" The Bishop of Winchester tells him that the crown is for his son. Edward protests that his son is "a lamb encompassèd by wolves," but Leicester persists in demanding the crown. Edward takes it off, but puts it on again: "in this torment comfort find I none / But that I feel the crown upon my head, / And therefore let me wear it yet a while." They insist, and, as the stage direction puts it, "The KING rageth." Finally, he gives in. Leicester receives a message from the queen that Edward is to be handed over to Sir Thomas Berkeley. 


[Scene 22] 
Mortimer tells the queen that Spencer and Baldock have been executed. He proposes that the prince be made king with himself as protector, and the queen tells him to do whatever is necessary. A messenger arrives with a letter and the Bishop of Winchester with the crown, as well as the news that "we have heard that Edmund laid a plot / To set his brother free." Mortimer summons Gurney and Matrevis to take over from Berkeley the handling of Edward, so that only they will know where the king is. The queen frets that as long as Edward is alive, "What safety rests for us, or for my son?" Mortimer asks her, "shall he presently be dispatched and die?" and the queen replies, "I would he were, so it were not by my means." Mortimer orders Gurney and Matrevis to do whatever they can to make the king's life miserable." The queen pretends to be sympathetic to the king and gives Matrevis a ring to give the king "as witness of my love." When they leave, Mortimer tells her, "Finely dissembled," and suggests that she continue to pretend to love the king when her son enters. 


The prince is accompanied by Kent, and Mortimer observes, "If he have such access unto the prince, / Our stratagems will soon be dashed." The queen urges him, "Use Edmund friendly, as if all were well." But Kent quickly sees through their pretense to be upset at Edward's abdication. Mortimer says to Kent that he should be the young new king's protector, but Kent says that his mother should have that role. And when the prince says he doesn't want to be king without talking to his father first, Kent says that he should do that. The queen retorts, "Brother, you know it is impossible."


PRINCE  Why, is he dead? 
QUEEN  No, God forbid! 
KENT 
I would those words proceeded from your heart.


Mortimer points out that Kent was part of the plot that led to Edward's imprisonment, and Kent expresses his regret for it. When the prince takes Kent's side, Mortimer seizes him roughly. And when the queen takes Mortimer's side, Kent vows 


Mortimer shall know that he hath wronged me. 
Hence will I haste to Killingworth Castle, 
And rescue agèd Edward from his foes, 
To be revenged on Mortimer and thee. 


[Scene 23] 
Mathias and Gurney torment the king by giving him sewer water to wash in. They also shave his beard. Edward laments, "O Gaveston, it is for thee that I am wronged; / For me, both thou and both the Spencers died, / And for your sakes a thousand wrongs I'll take." Kent arrives, demanding to speak with the king, and is captured and taken to Mortimer. Kent complains, "O, miserable is that commonweal / Where lords keep courts and kings are locked in prison!" 


[Scene 24] 
Mortimer is resolved that the king must die because "The commons now begin to pity him." But he wants to make sure that he's not blamed for the king's death, so he has had a letter written in  Latin that can be translated as either "Fear not to kill the king" or "Kill not the king," depending on where the comma is placed. By leaving it unpunctuated, he makes the letter ambiguous, so that "if it chance to be found, / Matrevis and the rest may bear the blame / And we be quit that caused it to be done." He also hires an assassin named Lightborne (as the note points out, a translation of "Lucifer"), whom he sends to Matrevis and Gurney with a secret message that Lightborne should be killed after he kills the king. Lightborne assures Mortimer that he's skilled in all forms of poisoning, including "take a quill / And blow a little powder in his ears," which is a variant of the way Claudius offed the elder Hamlet. When Lightborne leaves, Mortimer gloats, "I am Protector now. / Now all is sure. The queen and Mortimer / Shall rule the realm, the king, and none rule us."  


The prince, the newly crowned Edward III, enters with a retinue that includes the queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who proclaims "Long live King Edward, by the grace of God, / King of England and Lord of Ireland!" Kent is brought in as a prisoner, and when Mortimer orders him beheaded, the young king tries to intervene but is overruled. Edward III asks, "What safety may I look for at his hands / If that my uncle shall be murdered thus?" The queen tells him, "He is a traitor. Think not on him. Come." 


[Scene 25] 
Matrevis and Gurney are surprised that Edward II has survived their treatment of him: He has been  kept in "a vault up to the knees in water" supplied by the castle's latrines. Gurney says, "I opened but the door to throw him meat, / And I was almost stifled with the savour." Lightborne enters with the letter from Mortimer, and they interpret the Latin as saying that the king should be killed. They also read the note that says the murderer should be killed, too. So they give the keys to the dungeon to Lightborne, who orders, "get me a spit, and let it be red hot," as well as a table and a featherbed. 


Lightborne recoils at the state of the dungeon, but pretends to be there with good news for the king, who sees through the ruse easily: "These looks of thine can harbour nought but death." The king's murder is vaguely described in the stage directions: "MATREVIS and GURNEY bring in a table and a red-hot spit." And by Lightborne's instructions: "So, lay the table down, and stamp on it, / But not too hard, lest that you bruise his body." Afterward, when Lightborne says, "Tell me, sirs, was it not bravely done?" Gurney stabs him and says to Matrevis, "Come, let us cast the body in the moat, / And bear the king's to Mortimer, our lord." 


[Scene 26] 
Mortimer meets Matrevis, who tells him the deed is done and Gurney has fled, "and will, I fear, / Betray us both; therefore let me fly." Mortimer says, "Fly to the savages." Mortimer boasts to himself, "I stand as Jove's huge tree, / And others are but shrubs compared to me." The queen enters to say that her son has heard the news of his father's death, but Mortimer is unconcerned: "What if he have? The king is yet a child." But Edward III enters with lords and attendants to denounce Mortimer as "Villain!" and to proclaim that Mortimer should be executed and his head placed on his feather's hearse. Mortimer denies being responsible for his death, but Edward shows him the letter sent to order the murder. "False Gurney hath betrayed me and himself," Mortimer says aside. The queen pleads for Mortimer, who tells her, "Madam, entreat not. I will rather die / Than sue for life unto a paltry boy." And Edward says, "This argues that you spilt my father's blood, / Else would you not entreat for Mortimer," although he admits to one of the lords, "I do not think her so unnatural." He sends her to the Tower to await further trial. The queen exits, and a lord enters with the head of Mortimer. Edward II's hearse is brought on as the young king says, "let these tears distilling from mine, / Be witness of my grief and innocency." 

18. "The Complete Plays," by Christopher Marlowe, pp. 429-462

Edward the Second, Scenes 5-13

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[Scene 5] 
Spencer Junior and Baldock, members of the household of the late Earl of Gloucester, are seeking a new nobleman to join up with. Spencer has already decided that he'll join Gaveston as "his companion, for he loves me well, / And would have once preferred me to the king." Baldock says Gaveston is banished, but Spencer has heard otherwise: "even now a post came from the court / With letters to our lady from the king, / And as she read, she smiled, which makes me think / It is about her lover Gaveston." (The lady referred to, the notes tell us is Margaret de Clare, the king's niece.) Baldock has been her tutor, and Spencer urges him to become a courtier: "You must be proud, bold, pleasant, resolute, / And now and then stab as occasion serves." The lady herself enters, reading a letter from Gaveston announcing his return and one from the king asking her to come to the court. She sends Baldock to order her coach and tells Spencer of the good news.


[Scene 6] 
Edward, attended by the queen, Lancaster, Mortimer, Warwick, Pembroke and Kent, is anxiously awaiting Gaveston's arrival. Meanwhile, Mortimer informs Edward that "The King of France sets foot in Normandy," to which the king replies, "A trifle. We'll expel him when we please." But in conversation with Mortimer and Lancaster, they reveal to the king their scorn for Gaveston, which angers him: "They love me not that hate my Gaveston." The queen tries to calm him, while Mortimer asks the other nobles, "If in his absence thus he favours him, / What will he do whenas he shall be present?" 


They don't have long to wait, because Gaveston enters immediately to an effusive welcome from Edward. The nobles greet Gaveston with cold sarcasm, and he bridles at the insult, causing Lancaster and Mortimer to draw their swords and Gaveston to draw his. Mortimer wounds Gaveston, who is hustled off by an attendant. Edward banishes them from the court, and Warwick says, "Look to your own crown, if you back him thus." The king, the queen, and Kent exit, leaving the nobles to swear "To prosecute that Gaveston to the death" and to threaten to depose the king. A messenger brings word that Mortimer's uncle has been taken prisoner by the Scots, who are demanding five thousand pounds in ransom. Mortimer insists on going to the king for the ransom because his uncle has been taken prisoner in the king's war. Lancaster agrees to go with him, while the others go off to gather troops in their rebellion. 


A guard prevents Mortimer and Lancaster from seeing the king, but Edward and Kent enter as they are arguing with the guard. When Mortimer tells the king the news, Edward declines to pay the ransom himself and tells Mortimer to pay it, giving him license to beg for the money "thoroughout the realm." Mortimer is insulted and touches the hilt of his sword threateningly while denouncing "The idle triumphs, masques, lascivious shows, / And prodigal gifts bestowed on Gaveston." Lancaster joins in denouncing the king's extravagance and his loss of prestige both at home and abroad, noting that the Scots have composed ballads mocking Edward. They depart, with Lancaster threatening, "Look next to see us with our ensigns spread." 


Kent then angers the king further by warning him, "your love to Gaveston / Will be the ruin of the realm and you." Edward orders his brother "Out of my sight, and trouble me no more," and Kent leaves him. The queen enters with Gaveston and a retinue including the king's niece, Baldock and Spencer. Gaveston asks why the king doesn't send Mortimer to the tower, and Edward replies that "the people love him well." The niece introduces Edward to Baldock and Spencer, and Edward proclaims to her, "this day shall be your marriage feast. / And, Gaveston, think that I love thee well / To wed thee to our niece." 


[Scene 7] 
Kent joins the nobles in their revolt against the king, although he has to overcome their skepticism first. Lancaster announces that Gaveston and the king are there in Tynemouth, and that they are planning to attack and seize Gaveston, with the proviso, "None be so hardy as to touch the king, / But neither spare you Gaveston nor his friends." 


[Scene 8] 
Edward and Spencer enter, fleeing from the attack, followed by Gaveston, the queen and the king's niece. Edward sends Gaveston away by water while he and Spencer will travel by land. But when the queen asks Edward for a farewell, he denounces her as Mortimer's lover. The barons enter to find the queen lamenting her mistreatment. When Lancaster tells her "We would but rid the realm of Gaveston. / Tell us where he remains, and he shall die," she reveals, "He's gone by water unto Scarborough; / Pursue him quickly, and he cannot 'scape." She explains that the king and Gaveston separated to divide the forces of their attackers. And when the nobles leave, she admits that she is attracted to Mortimer, but will try to persuade the king to give up Gaveston. Otherwise, "My son and I will over into France, / And to the king my brother there complain / How Gaveston hath robbed me of his love." 


[Scene 9] 
Gaveston enters and is captured by the nobles. Lancaster likens him to -- who else? -- Helen of Troy, "the Greekish strumpet," because he has cause so many to take up arms. There is some dispute over whether they'll behead him or hang him, to which Gaveston responds, "Then I perceive / That heading is one, and hanging is the other, / And death is all." The Earl of Arundel enters, with a message from the king, who wants to see Gaveston before he dies. Warwick says, "we will gratify the king / In other matters; he must pardon us in this." Arundel insists, "he swears / He will but talk with him and send him back," and he offers to "be pledge for his return." Pembroke intervenes to say, "I will upon mine honour undertake / To carry him and bring him back again." They agree, reluctantly, and Gaveston says, "Sweet sovereign, yet I come / To see thee ere I die." But in an aside, Warwick says, "Yet not, perhaps, / If Warwick's wit and policy prevail." 


[Scene 10] 
Warwick prevails. He follows the men charged by Pembroke with looking after Gaveston and takes him. 


[Scene 11] 
Edward,  Spencer and Baldock enter, and Spencer urges the king to behead the nobles who have taken Gaveston. Spencer's father arrives "with a band of bowmen and of pikes, / ... Sworn to defend King Edward's royal right." Edward creates Spencer Earl of Wiltshire, and announces that he intends to outbid the barons for the land Lord Bruce is selling. The queen enters with the news that her brother, the King of France, has seized Normandy, so he sends her and their son, the prince, to "parley with the King of France." 


Arundel arrives with the news that Gaveston is dead by Warwick's hand. Edward kneels to vow: 


Treacherous Warwick, traitorous Mortimer! 
If I be England's king, in lakes of gore 
Your headless trunks, your bodies will I trail, 
That you may drink your fill and quaff in blood, 
And stain my royal standard with the same, 
That so my bloody colours may suggest 
Remembrance of revenge....


He makes Spencer Earl of Gloucester and Lord Chamberlain. A herald arrives from "The barons up in arms" to say that they urge "That from your princely person you remove / This Spencer, as a putrefying branch / That deads the royal vine." Edward defiantly embraces Spencer. 


[Scene 12] 
The battle between the king's forces and the barons' take place. 


[Scene 13] 
The king's forces prevail and the barons and Kent are led in as captives. Kent is banished from court as punishment, but Warwick and Lancaster are led off by the elder Spencer to be beheaded, and Mortimer is sent to the Tower. When the king leaves, Spencer, a hanger-on named Levune, and Baldock remain to plot further. Spencer sends Levune to France to bribe "the lords of France" against the queen. 

17. "The Complete Plays," by Christopher Marlowe, pp. 397-428

Edward the Second, Scenes 1-4

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[Scene 1]
Gaveston has received a letter from Edward announcing his father's death and his ascension to the kingship and inviting him to "come ... / And share the kingdom with thy dearest friend." For Gaveston, this means no more "base stooping to the lordly peers; / My knee shall bow to none but to the king." While he waits for the king he is approached by three poor men, whom he at first scorns and then realizes might be useful: "I'll flatter these and make them live in hope." He tells them, "I came lately out of France, / And yet I have not viewed my lord the king; / If I speed well, I'll entertain you all." They thank him, but he says to himself, "These are not men for me." He wants "wanton poets, pleasant wits, / Musicians that with touching of a string / May draw the pliant king which way I please." He may love the king, but his motives are self-interested. He proposes to "have Italian masques by night" in which

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.

The image is both androgynous and homoerotic.

The king enters with Lancaster, the Mortimers, Kent, Warwick and a retinue, while Gaveston listens in concealment as Edward argues with them about returning Gaveston from exile. Edward grows increasingly angry as Lancaster, Warwick, and especially the Mortimers denounce Gaveston. Only Kent stands with the king. The opponents leave as Lancaster utters a warning:

Adieu, my lord, and either change your mind
Or look to see the throne where you should sit
To float in blood, and at thy wanton head
The glozing head of thy base minion thrown.

After they leave, and only the king and Kent remain, Gaveston comes forward and embraces the king, who creates him "Lord High Chamberlain, / Chief Secretary to the state and me, / Earl of Cornwall, King and Lord of Man." Even Kent protests, "Brother, the least of these may well suffice / For one of greater birth than Gaveston."

The Bishop of Coventry enters, on his way to Edward's father's funeral, and asks, "But is that wicked Gaveston returned?" Gaveston takes hold of the bishop, who was the chief proponent of exiling him, as Edward urges, "Throw off his golden mitre, rend his stole, / And in the channel christen him anew." Kent protests that the bishop will "complain unto the see of Rome," to which Gaveston replies, "Let him complain unto the see of hell, / I'll be revenged upon on him for my exile." Edward proposes that Gaveston become bishop too, but Gaveston just wants the bishop sent to the Tower. Edward complies with the request and tells Gaveston to "take possession of his house and goods" as well.

[Scene 2]
The Mortimers, Warwick and Lancaster are furious at the treatment of the bishop and at the titles given to Gaveston. The Archbishop of Canterbury joins them, and sends a messenger to inform the pope of the treatment of the bishop. Queen Isabella appears, distressed that "now my lord the king regards me not, / But dotes upon the love of Gaveston." When the others threaten rebellion against the king, however, both Canterbury and the queen urge them against it. She says, "rather than my lord / Shall be oppressed by civil mutinies, / I will endure a melancholy life, / And let him frolic with his minion." Canterbury asks the men to join him in a conference on the situation at Lambeth.

[Scene 3]
Gaveston has heard that Lancaster, the Mortimers, and Warwick have "gone towards Lambeth. There let them remain."

[Scene 4]
Gaveston's opponents have drawn up a document exiling him again. The king and Gaveston enter; Edward sits on the throne with Gaveston beside him. Lancaster says it's a good move, "For nowhere else is the new earl so safe." The Mortimers, Pembroke, and Warwick all utter their disgust as seeing Gaveston there, and when they seize Gaveston, Kent protests, "Is this the duty that you owe your king?" Gaveston and Kent are both taken away under guard, leaving Edward with the others. The Archbishop presents the document to Edward, in the name of "legate to the Pope," and orders him to "Subscribe as we have done to his exile." Mortimer says in an aside to the Archbishop, "Curse him if he refuse, and then may we / Depose him and elect another king." But Canterbury decides to invoke his ecclesiastical authority and threatens to "presently discharge these lords / Of duty and allegiance due to thee." Edward realizes that "The legate of the Pope will be obeyed" and tries to bribe them with new titles.

                            If this content you not, 
Make several kingdoms of this monarchy 
And share it equally amongst you all, 
So I may have some nook or corner left 
To frolic with my dearest Gaveston. 

But they persist in urging him to sign the order of exile, and he is forced to give in. They exit with the orders, and Edward remains to utter a particularly Elizabethan anti-Catholic speech:

Why should a king be subject to a priest? 
Proud Rome, that hatchest such imperial grooms, 
For these thy superstitious taper lights, 
Wherewith thy antichristian churches blaze, 
I'll fire thy crazèd buildings and enforce 
The paper towers to kiss the lowly ground.

Gaveston returns, having been told of his banishment, and Edward makes him governor of Ireland: "there abide till fortune call thee home." Kent and the queen enter as Edward is getting ready to see Gaveston set off. Edward calls her a "French strumpet" and Gaveston hints that she has been having an affair with Mortimer. She says, "Is't not enough that thou corrupts my lord / And art a bawd to his affections, / But thou must call mine honour thus in question?" Gaveston claims he didn't mean to imply such a thing, but Edward insists that she is "too familiar with that Mortimer, / And by thy means is Gaveston exiled." And he exits with Gaveston, telling the queen that until the banishment order on Gaveston is lifted, "Assure thyself thou com'st not in my sight." The queen mourns that "never doted Jove on Ganymede / So much as he on cursèd Gaveston."

When the noblemen enter, the queen tells them that she must plead for the repeal of the orders against Gaveston "Or else be banished from his highness' presence." Lancaster says Gaveston won't come back "Unless the sea cast up his shipwrack body" and Mortimer says he hopes Gaveston now "floats on the Irish seas." But the queen takes Mortimer aside to persuade him to repeal the order. She convinces him that Gaveston has money in Ireland that will enable him to start a rebellion, and he argues to the others that if they allow Gaveston to return, "How easily might some base slave be suborned / To greet his lordship with a poniard, / And none so much as blame the murderer." And that when they show their power over Gaveston, he'll be on his best behavior -- and if not, they'll have good reason to move against him.

When Edward returns, the queen gives him the news that the order against Gaveston has been repealed. He's so pleased that he kisses her and proclaims, "Once more receive my hand, and let this be / A second marriage 'twixt thyself and me." He also bestows favors on the nobles, making the young Mortimer "Lord Marshal of the realm" and putting Mortimer Senior in charge of "the levied troops / That now are ready to assail the Scots." The queen proclaims, "Now is the King of England rich and strong, / Having the love of his renownèd peers." Edward sends Beaumont to tell Gaveston of the repeal, and exits with the queen and the other nobles, except for the Mortimers.

Even Mortimer Senior is mollified toward Gaveston, and cites examples of other men who had male lovers:

Great Alexander loved Haphaestion, 
The conquering Hercules for Hylas weept, 
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 his toys.

His nephew is not so thoroughly persuaded. He detests Gaveston's showy manner and fancy clothes, and the fact that "the king and he / From out a window laugh at such as we, / And flout our train, and just at our attire." His uncle says "the king is changed," but Mortimer expresses doubts.