Exiled by the recently deceased Edward I for corrupting his son, Gaveston is a cynical and manipulative, and yet at times engaging and sympathetic figure, who makes it clear from the outset that he has no love for the land he has returned to. The play opens with Gaveston, Edward II’s favourite (though lowly born) courtier, returning to England at the new King’s command. Marlowe compresses his twenty-year rule, which spanned from 1307 to 1327, into a five act play telescoping the action where necessary for dramatic effect, though remaining throughout remarkably faithful to his historical sources. Son of Edward Longshanks 1, his reign was characterized by extravagances, civil disputes and lost wars. History has not dealt kindly with King Edward II. And so, of all Marlowe’s creations, Edward II is the only one who fails because he is weak. Attempting to hold her lover, Aeneas, from his divine mission, she pits herself against Olympian deities and challenges the lord of Heaven himself.

These characters strive for the impossible that lies beyond even their superhuman grasps. Their ambitions for power, knowledge and wealth are limitless, which is why they ultimately end in failure. They are Tamburlaine, the lowly shepherd turned emperor of half the world Faustus the scholar who sought ultimate knowledge even at the cost of his immortal soul and Barabas, who contained infinite riches in a little room. The rest are all outsiders - characters whom the critic Harry Levin famously called the ‘overreachers’ - individuals who strive above all to achieve greatness and great things, remaking themselves into the image of gods. The silver-spoon brigade consists of Marlowe’s noble-born creations his great queen, Dido, and his doomed king, Edward II.

There are two types of people in the world of Christopher Marlowe’s plays: those who are born to power, and those who take it.

Edward 2 christopher marlowe