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Edward II: The Shadow of Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2022

Eugene M. Waith
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Extract

But what are kings, when regiment is gone, But perfect shadows in a sunshine day?

The weakness of Edward II, the speaker of these lines, not only deprives him of the fascination exerted by other Marlovian heroes but affects the character of the entire play. None of the dialogue can match the glitter of the greatest speeches in Tamburlaine or Doctor Faustus or even of the remarkable opening speech of The Jew of Malta. The story of such a king inevitably lacks the magnificence radiated by one who seeks to rule the world or command the legions of hell. Yet it is a mistake to underestimate Marlowe's achievement in this play. Only Tamburlaine is more completely an artistic success. There the dramatic possibilities of what we have come to consider the typical Marlovian hero are given their logical fulfillment in a design which is both grand and neat.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tulane Drama Review , Volume 8 , Issue 4: Marlowe Issue , Summer 1964 , pp. 59 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © 1964 The Tulane Drama Review

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References

1 Chronicles (London, 1587), III, 342.

2 All quotations from Marlowe's plays are taken from The Complete Plays, ed. Ribner, Irving (New York: Odyssey Press, 1963).Google Scholar

3 Levin, Harry, The Overreacher (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952), p. 88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Leech, Clifford, “Marlowe's ‘Edward II’: Power and Suffering,” Critical Quarterly, I (1959), 181-196CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cole, Douglas, Suffering and Evil in the Plays of Christopher Marlowe (Princeton University Press, 1962), pp. 161-187.Google Scholar

4 The Mirror for Magistrates, ed. Campbell, L. B. (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1960), p. 84.Google Scholar

5 See Levin, pp. 86-87.

6 The Works of Christopher Marlowe, ed. Brooke, C. F. Tucker, 1910.Google Scholar

7 From Mankind to Marlowe (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962), pp. 234-244.

8 English Tragedy before Shakespeare (London: Methuen, 1961), pp. 156-158.

9 Chief Pre-Shakespearean Dramas, ed. Adams, J. Q. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1924), p. 163.Google Scholar

10 In his edition of the play, W. D. Briggs notes that the name “Lightborn,” a translation of “Lucifer,” is given to a devil in the Chester Creation play (Marlowe's Edward II [London: David Nutt, 1914], p. 193).

11 See Empson, William, “Two Proper Crimes,” Nation, 163 (1946), 444-445Google Scholar; Levin, p. 101; Cole, pp. 180-181.