Edward II (New Mermaids)

by Christopher Marlowe (Author), Martin Wiggins (Author), Christopher Marlowe (Author), Robert Lindsay (Author), Martin Wiggins (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $3.39

  Marlowe's play retains its power to shock even today, and this edition gives full value to its three overriding themes of sexual favouritism, political confrontation and sheer cruelty. Critics in the last twenty years, who have focused on the overtly sexual relationship between Edward and his favourite Gaveston, have hailed it as a 'gay classic'; earlier interpretations concentrated rather on the deposition by his subjects of a weak king, reading it in tandem with Shakespeare's Richard II. The introduction shows how the play works to give the audience an equal emotional commitment to opposing points of view and concludes that this is what makes Edward II such an uncomfortable and challenging play.

• Used

  Paperback
  1972

  $4.18

  Unlike Marlowe's earlier dramas, Edward II is a play without a starring role. Instead of the splendid rhetoric of Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta comes realistic dialogue and a complex plot telling of the fall of Edward II and the rise and demise of his rival, Mortimer. As the action unfolds, the audience's allegiances switch from character to character. Edward's infatuation with his favourites, neglect of his kingdom and his queen are delicately offset against his genuine love for Gaveston. Mortimer's initial motives of usurping Edward are corrupted by self-interest that rightly earns him the title of 'traitor'. Though Marlowe treats the historical facts 'imaginatively', he achieves his end of emotional authenticity in Edward II.