Edward the Second

Marlowe, Christopher, 1564-1593Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.3

Word count: 130K words
Chapters: 13

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Edward the Second by Christopher MarloweAuthor: Marlowe, Christopher, 1564-1593,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jan 4, 2007

Editor's review

Edward the Second is the most structurally complete of Marlowe's surviving plays and the most finely drawn in psychological characterization, and it is a landmark text in the maturation of the Elizabethan history play. Centering on the monarch's excessive reliance on his favorite and the resulting confrontation with the noble faction, the play weaves kingship, desire, loyalty, and betrayal into an irreversible tragic chain. Edward II himself is both pitiable and blameworthy; the motives of Gaveston, the younger Spencer, and Queen Isabella advance layer by layer, and there are almost no purely flat characters. Marlowe's blank verse is eloquent and austere, and several confrontation scenes and the abdication scene in particular display his skill; the play is often regarded as a key example of English Renaissance drama's transition from the morality play to the tragedy of character. This is Project Gutenberg's English public-domain electronic text, convenient for searching and citation and suitable as a close-reading base text for class or as primary material for essays. It is worth reading alongside Shakespeare's comparable history plays to observe how the two dramatists handle royal crises differently, and to note how the recurring imagery of tears, embraces, and violence together creates the tragic atmosphere.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Undergraduates and graduate students studying English Renaissance drama and Marlowe's works
Teachers of courses on the prehistory of Shakespeare or early modern English literature
Literature lovers interested in royal tragedy and power struggles
Writers who need the English public-domain play text for quotation and textual analysis

Not a good fit for

Readers who want a Chinese translation and cannot read the English original
Readers who want only a plot summary and are unwilling to spend time on the play
Readers who prefer modern vernacular narrative and find blank-verse drama alien

Reading tips

Read the whole play once to clarify the characters' relationships, then return to Act I and note the foreshadowing in each party's attitude at Gaveston's entrance.
Keep pen and paper to mark each clash between Edward II and the nobles, observing how his power is gradually stripped away.
Read the abdication scene together with the ending, comparing the images of kingship in Edward II and the young Edward.
After finishing, compare the play with Shakespeare's Richard II and note the two dramatists' different emphases in handling deposition.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I read Edward the Second without having read Marlowe's other works?

Absolutely. The play's character relationships are clear and its plotlines concentrated, and it does not depend on prior knowledge of Marlowe's other plays. A general understanding of the relationship between kingship and the nobility in late medieval England is enough to enter the text smoothly. To understand Marlowe's style more deeply, you can read Doctor Faustus afterward.

Is this Project Gutenberg edition suitable for classroom use?

Yes. It is an English public-domain electronic text, convenient for full-text searching, copying quotations, and printing for distribution, making it suitable as a base text for close reading in class or for essay citation. However, it includes no annotations, introduction, or textual collation notes; for in-depth study, it is best used alongside a scholarly annotated edition.

Does the play match the historical facts?

The play's main lines—Edward II's conflicts with his favorites Gaveston and the Spencers and Queen Isabella's rebellion—generally follow chronicle sources, but events are compressed and characters heightened for theatrical effect. Read it as a history play rather than a historical source, attending to how the dramatist selects and interprets events rather than checking every fact.

What background knowledge do I need before reading this play?

A grasp of the tension between the English crown and the baronial parliament, the resentment caused by favorite politics, and the popularity of history plays in the Renaissance is enough. Some adjustment to the rhythm of blank-verse drama also helps. This background is sufficient for understanding; there is no need to study a large body of historical scholarship beforehand.

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About the author

Marlowe, Christopher, 1564-1593 Author

Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) was a major playwright and poet of the English Renaissance. Publicly available information on the details of his life is limited, yet his surviving works already reveal a distinctive creative personality. His representative works include Tamburlaine the Great, Part 1, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta, and the long poem Hero and Leander along with other poems; the present Chinese database holds twelve of his works. His plays largely centre on conflicts among power, ambition, knowledge, and faith, with grand scenes, eloquent and tense language, skilled use of blank verse, and characters of strong will, often presenting the tension between desire and morality. His poetry inherits the classical tradition, with delicate feeling and vivid imagery. Marlowe exerted a profound influence on later English drama and poetry, and his works are still read and performed today.