English Tragedy Before Shakespeare (Routledge Revivals) by Clemen Wolfgang;

Author:Clemen, Wolfgang;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Edward II

In Edward II we encounter the same artistic problem as faced us in The Jew of Malta. For here is a play which on the one hand shows close structural affinities with the chronicle plays, in that it has a stirring plot with a rapid flow of incident and plenty of variety, while on the other hand it has points of contact with tragedy in its attempts to bring on to the stage heart-rending scenes filled with passionate utterances, deep pathos, and high tragic dignity.1 Another striking thing about the play is that the kinds of situation which, at an earlier stage in the evolution of English drama, would have been turned into entirely static episodes or declamatory show-pieces by a series of long and exaggeratedly rhetorical set speeches, here take the form of swiftly unfolding scenes of action containing a good deal of well-developed dialogue. Examples of this are the baiting of the King by the Barons (I. i. 74–133, I. iv. 8–93), the King's parting from Gaveston (I. iv. 106–69), his grief and mourning at Gaveston's departure (I. iv. 304 ff), and his triumph at the defeat of the rebellious Barons (IV. iii. I ff.). The new dramatic technique employed in these and certain other episodes brings into prominence a whole variety of changing motive forces in the play; it enables us to apprehend all these episodes with great vividness as real actions carried out by the characters with and against one another. Moreover, we no longer find odd moments singled out from the course of events and raised to an artificial intensity by means of set declamations – mere pictures, so to speak, though given the illusion of life; instead, we seem ourselves to be participating in what is taking place.

In Edward II it is made quite clear that the characters not only carry the emotional burden of the play, but also sustain its plot; on the other hand, it is equally clear that the plot is not solely dependent on what they do. Marlowe has struck a balance between a plot whose events are directed by its hero and one which develops independently of him and reacts upon him. It is true that the King sets certain events in motion, but he has also to maintain a passive role in the plot. This plot is broken up into a great many separate episodes, most of them quite short, but we can follow it as a close-knit, coherent and logical chain of cause and effect, for in all the episodes the person and character of the King are in some way involved. Thus Marlowe made an appreciable advance towards what is commonly described as ‘character-drama’, but he was not equally successful all along the line. He was so intent on creating a fast-moving plot, especially in the earlier part of the play, that he did not leave himself enough room to develop the emotional significance of particular moments and to work out his situations in an unhurried way.

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