In modern times, though, it’s become a powerful vehicle of liberation. Marlowe’s Edward was squeezed into the margins. Shakespeare duly became the National Poet, the Man of the Millennium, Richard II an A-level set text. He set about writing replies to Marlowe’s plays, taming and humanising them: Merchant of Venice in response to The Jew of Malta, Richard II as Edward II revisited without the overt homoeroticism and with a sensitised inner life for the king. He could now shine, confident that he would soon become top dog in the cut-throat competitive world of the early London theatre scene. The only man who could match him as a playmaker had been swept from the stage. Shakespeare was a safe pair of hands by comparison, and maybe he rested just a little easier in his bed with Marlowe gone. And the story of Edward II, a gay king and his camp followers. The story of a wicked Jew of Malta and the Christians who are just as bad as he is – narrated by Machiavelli, master-politician who knows that religion is just a device to keep the people in awe. The story of how uber-intellectual Dr Faustus makes a contract with the devil. The story of how all-conquering Tamburlaine is finally destroyed not by the Christian God but by Muslim Allah. Marlowe, the double agent: the man employed on her majesty’s service while also writing the most brilliant but also subversive plays of the age. All four were up to their necks in the intrigue of the Elizabethan secret service. Marlowe had gone to Deptford to meet men named Frizer, Poley and Skeres. Shakespeare must have had mixed feelings when he heard the news of what had happened at Widow Bull’s house in Deptford at the end of May 1593: Christopher Marlowe, born the same year as Will, dead in his prime, stabbed through the eye with a twelvepenny dagger in an argument ostensibly about the “reckoning” (bill), but perhaps with something more sinister in the background. Programme note by Professor Jonathan Bate Please follow the links on the left to see feedback from participants in the production.ĭavid Ross (Gaveston) and Matthew Goad (King Edward II)

To tie in with the production, the play was re-introduced as a core text on the English department module Shakespeare and Selected Dramatists, students of which were able to come and see the production as part of their work on the play.

Edward II was a free CAPITAL Centre production of Christopher Marlowe's play, directed by MA student Julia Ihnatowicz.

Edward ii marlowe full text