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Topic: Edward The Second as a Modern Tex

Christopher Marlowe was an embodiment of the Elizabethan golden age. Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote, “If Shakespeare was the dazzling sun of this mighty period, Marlowe is certainly the morning star.“Edward The Second” is Marlowe’s one of the most perfect achievement in dramatic structure and one of the most furnished and satisfactory of Marlowe’s plays, evidently and carefully written with the skilful handling of the historical material. We hear in his plays the great voice of the Elizabethan England .He represents its overwhelming pride ,the enthusiasm of discovery and conquest, the stout of success, the limitless aspiration of passion and intellect and the inflexible power of an abnormally developed will .In the present era, whether for good or for evil, we are much closer to the Elizabethan temperament than any of the generations stand between. “Edward The Second” is generally known as a chronicle tragedy play based on “Holinshed’s Chronicle” but it also contains some striking modern elements for which it can also be regarded as a modern play. The elements such as homosexuality, desire for power and authority, dealing with Edward’s personal obsession, his peculiar psychology etc. have made the play very distinct .This play is about desire for power and authority and the struggle for it, the complex psychosexuality of Edward and Gaveston:their homo-erotic relationship and the King’s personal obsession, his peculiar psychology as can be seen in the play in finding his own identity as a King and as a lover. The term ‘homosexuality’ is a modern one but it does not mean that homoerotic behaviour and feelings were absent in the ancient and mediaeval world.Evidences of homo erortic behaviour and feelings are to be found in all cultures of all times in history and England was also not an exception to this. But these were not discussed openly. But Marlowe described it so openly that critics did not hesitate to call him a homosexual writer. The text of “Edward The Second”establishes homoerotic overtones at the very first scene where Gaveston reads a letter from the King,Edward The Second,homosexual partner,then muses on his relationship with him.

“Sweet Prince,I come:these ,these thy amorous lines Might have enforced me to have swum from France, And,like Leander,gasped upon the sand, So thou would’st smile,and take me in thy arms.” (I.i.6-9)

And, “The King,upon whose bosom let me die, And with the world be still at enmity.” (I.i.14-15)

The speech is full of homosexual implications and they appear first time in the stage,the hints given by Marlowe in the opening soliloquy are developed further. When King Edward is given to sign on the form of Gavestone’s exile,he refuses and then Mortimer asks him “Why should you love him whom the world hates so?”(I.iv.76-77).Edward’s reply is poignant and,somehow, strikingly modern: “Because he loves me more than all the world.”(I.iv.78)When Edward finally signs the document, he weeps saying: “Instead of ink,I’ll write it with my tears”, Mortimer mocks him: “The King is lovesick for his minion.”There are many such lines that describes the homosexual relationship between the King and Edward The Second through out the play. Aristotle said’ “Man is by virtue a political animal.”Again power and politics are correlated. Both Edward and Mortimer are driven by a desire to control the power. Edward II is a monarch who tries to rule as a absolute monarch and fails. It is the tragedy of the King Edward who tries but could not retain power to his hand.On the other hand ,Mortimer’s initial want for justice turns into a desire for power that he temporarily obtains as Isabella’s lover and as Edward III’s protector .One could say, initially his intention was kingdom’s well being, but gradually he starts to show his rebellious attitude towards the King. Slowly and slowly, Marlowe unfolds his real self .He proposes to depose the King to elect another King and suggests a popular uprising against the King: “Curse him, if he refuse; and then may we Depose him and elect another King.”(I.iv.54-55).His metaphor of the cedar upon which an eagle is perching rightly portrays him as someone who wishes to have the power to control. Just as the eagle is on a superior position ,so does he see himself above the authority of Edward The Second. In the play, “Edward The Second”, Marlowe very skillfully related the two different issues of sexual or erotic desires and politics. Marlowe’s drama is clearly about the complex encounter between sexual passion and politics. To a certain extent, Gaveston, Edward II ,Isabella and Mortimer have or eventually develop a strong erotic attachment to a person that enables them to gain the political power. But there are time when desire alone is not enough to keep such an illusory status.Those who are today on top of the wheel, may tomorrow be crushed by it, as the King,his minion, his Queen and her lover realised. Edward II’s weakness as a ruler acquires a psychological dimension absent in the chronicle, Marlowe’s King nevertheless becomes more despotic and absolutist in his futile attempt to retain control. Too late Edward becomes fully aware of what he was meant to be, and the realization of his original status plunges him into a hell of grief. Adopting a more psychological approach ,Constance Brown Kuriyama treats the character of Edward II as a study in ‘sexual and emotional infantilism’.Ronald Huebert probes the sexual psychology of the title character by exploring ‘Marlowe’s characteristic fusion of defiance and desire’. In the play characters are torn not merely between private and public roles that they are called upon to play, but by a fundamental confusion of their social and real ,i.e.,psychic identities .And it is in this insight ,sex and politics intersect ,for the Kings tragedy is neither purely personal nor yet providential. Ultimately it is a tragedy of loneliness ,in which the King’s conflicting identities reconciled only in his brutal murder.Thus,Marlowe moved tragedy in an entirely new direction,the psychological thriller. Thus the play,“Edward The Second” by Christopher Marlowe, though essentially a chronicle tragedy play,it bears certain elements which are really very modern. From this point of view, “Edward The Second” by Christopher Marlowe can also be termed as a modern play.

Bibliography

i) Marlowe,Christopher, “Edward The Second”,Ed.William Dinsmore Briggs:London:1914.(Internet Archieve)

ii) Simkim,Stevie.Analysing Texts,Marlowe-The Plays:Palgrave:Newyork:2001

iii) Thomas,Arvind.Land,Law and Desire in Marlowes Edward II.The Marlowe Society.Research Journal:Volume 05 – 2008:Online Research Journal Article.

iv) Kelly J. Michael.Christopher Marlowe and the Golden Age of England.The Marlowe Society.Research Journal:Volume 05 – 2008:Online Research Journal Article