the same day sevennight before the execution of the Earl of Glocester, Hugh Spenser the younger, as well as the said The chancellor, were put to death. earl, in Newgate, ended his life. through '1327. The morrow after the same feast [Epiphany], the Parlement, which beforehand had been summoned, began, in which it was concluded and fully agreed by all the states (for none durst speak to the contrary), that for diverse articles, which were put up against the king, he was not worthy longer to reign, and therefore should be deposed, and withal they willed to have his son, Edward, Duke of Aquitaine, to reign in his place. But the Duke of Aquitaine, when he perceived that his mother took the matter heavily in appearance, for that her husband should be thus deprived of the crown, he protested that he would never take it on him without his father's consent; and so, thereupon, it was concluded that certain solemn messengers should go to Killingworth, to move the king to make resignation of his crown and title of the kingdom unto his son. There were sent on this message three bishops, two earls. The bishops that were sent were these (as T. de la More noteth), John de Stratford, Bishop of Winchester; Adam de Torleton, Bishop of Hereford; and Henry, Bishop of Lincoln. The two earls (as Southwell hath) were Lancaster and Warwick. The Bishops of Winchester and Lincoln went before, and coming to Killingworth, associated with them the Earl of Leicester, of some called the Earl of Lancaster, that had the king in keeping. And having secret conference with the king, they sought to frame his mind, so as he might be contented to resign the crown to his son, bearing him in hand that if he refused so to do, the people in respect of the evil will which they had conceived against him, would not fail but proceed to the election of some other that should happily not touch him in lineage. And sith this was the only mean to bring the land in quiet, they willed him to consider how much he was bound in conscience to take that way, that should be so beneficial to the whole realm. 'The king being sore troubled to hear such displeasant news, was brought into a marvellous agony, but in the end, for the quiet of the realm and doubt of further danger to himself, he determined to follow their advice; and so when the other commissioners were come, and that the Bishop of Hereford had declared the cause wherefore they were sent, the king in presence of them all, notwithstanding his outward countenance discovered how much it inwardly grieved him, yet after he was come to himself, he answered that he knew that he was fallen into this misery through his own offences, and therefore he was contented patiently to suffer it, but yet it could not (he said) but grieve him that he had in such wise run into the hatred of all his people, notwithstanding he gave the lords most hearty thanks that they had so forgotten their received injuries, and ceased not to bear so much goodwill towards his son Edward, as to wish that he might reign over them. Therefore to satisfy them, sith otherwise it might not be, he utterly renounced his right to the kingdom, and to the whole administration thereof. And lastly, he besought the lords now in his misery, to forgive him such offenses as he had committed against them. 'The ambassadors with this answer, returning to London, declared the same unto all the states. And so thereupon the nine-and-twentieth day of January was the third King Edward ... chosen, and elected King of England, in the year 1326, after the account of the Church of England, beginning the year the five-and-twentieth day of March, but by the common account of writers, it was in the year 1327. On the same day Sir William Trussel, procurator for the whole Parlement, did renounce the old king in name of the whole Parlement, with all homages and fealties due to him. After he was deposed of his kingly honour and title, he remained for a time at Killingworth, in custody of the Earl of Leicester. But within a while, the queen was informed by the Bishop of Hereford (whose hatred towards him had no end) that the Earl of Leicester favoured her husband too much, and more than stood with the surety of her son's state, whereupon he was appointed to the keeping of two other lords, Thomas Berkley and John Matrevers, who, receiving him of the Earl of Leicester the third of April, conveyed him from Killingworth unto the castle of Berkeley, situate not far off from the river of Severn, almost the midway betwixt Glocester and Bristow. 'But forasmuch as the Lord Berkley used him more courteously than his adversaries wished him to do, he was discharged of that office, and Sir Thomas Gourney appointed in his stead, who together with the Lord Matrevers, conveyed him secretly (for fear lest he should be taken from them by force) from one strong place to another, as to the castle of Corfe, and such like, still removing with him in the night season, till at length they thought it should not be known whither they had conveyed him. And so at length they brought him back again in secret manner unto the castle of Berkley. 'Divers of the nobility (of whom the Earl of Kent was chief) began to devise means how they might restore him to liberty. And hereupon the queen and the Bishop of Hereford wrote sharp letters unto his keepers, blaming them greatly for that they dealt so gently with him, and kept him no straitlier, but suffered him to have such liberty that he advertised some of his friends abroad, how and in what manner he was used; and withal the Bishop of Hereford, under a sophistical form of words, signified unto them by his letters, that they should despatch him out of the way, the tenor whereof, wrapped in obscurity, ran thus: "Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est' Which riddle or doubtful kind of speech, as it might be taken in two contrary senses, only by placing the point in orthography called comma, they construed in the worst sense, putting the comma after timere; and so, presuming of this commandment as they took it from the bishop, they lodged the miserable prisoner in a chamber over a foul, filthy dungeon, full of dead carrion, trusting so to make an end of him with the abominable stench thereof; but he bearing it out strongly, as a man of a tough nature, continued still in-life, so as it seemed he was very like to escape that danger. Whereupon, when they saw that such practices would not serve their turn, they came suddenly one night into the chamber where he lay in bed fast asleep, and with heavy feather beds, or a table (as some write) being cast upon him, they kept him down, and withal put into his fundament a horn, and through the same thrust up into his body a hot spit, or (as other have) through the pipe of a trumpet, a plumber's instrument of iron, made very hot, the which passing up into his entrails, and being rolled to and fro, burnt the same, but so as no appearance of any wound or hurt outwardly might be once perceived. His cry did move many within the castle and town of Berkley to compassion, plainly hearing him utter a wailful noise as the tormentors were about to murther him. 'The queen, the bishop, and others, that their tyranny might be hid, outlawed and banished the Lord Matrevers and Thomas Gourney.' It will be evident that all three of these authorities, if not more, were used by Marlow. It was necessary to give them in greater fulness than would otherwise have been desirable, because two high authorities, Professor Ward and Dr W. Wagner, have sanctioned the statement that Fabyan was the writer whom Marlow followed. I have not inserted references to the play in these narratives, because this book is an educational one, and nothing is more mischievous than the modern practice of doing all the intellectual work for pupils, and leaving them only to commit the results to memory. The student is recommended to carefully compare each of these three narratives with the play, and to mark for himself the portions of each chronicler used by Marlow. This exercise will prepare him for higher original work hereafter, and impress the history on his memory more firmly than twenty times reading the results obtained by others. Some aid in this investigation will be found in the Examination Questions at the end of this book. OPINIONS OF CRITICS. 'Edward II is, according to the modern standard of composition, Marlow's best play. It is written with few offences against the common rules, and in a succession of smooth and flowing lines. The poet, however, succeeds less in the voluptuous and effeminate descriptions which he here attempts, than in the more dreadful and violent bursts of passion. Edward II is drawn with historic truth, but without much dramatic effect. The management of the plot is feeble and desultory, little interest is excited in the various turns of fate, the characters are too worthless, have too little energy, and their punishment is in general too well deserved to excite our commiseration; so that this play will bear on the whole, but a distant comparison with Shakespeare's Richard II in conduct, power, or effect. But the death of Edward II in Marlow's tragedy, is certainly superior to that of Shakespeare's king; and in heartbreaking distress, and the sense of human weakness, claiming pity from utter helplessness and conscious misery, is not surpassed by any writer whatever. There are some excellent passages scattered up and down. The description of the king and Gaueston looking out of the palace window, and laughing at the courtiers as they pass, and that of the different spirit shown by the lion and the forest deer when wounded, are among the best' -HAZLITT. 'The reluctant pangs of abdicating royalty in Edward, furnished hints which Shakespeare scarce improved in his Richard II; and the death-scene of Marlow's king moves pity and terror beyond any scene, ancient or modern, with which I am acquainted '-Ć. LAMB. 'The construction is very clear, the two divisions of the reign skilfully interwoven; and the interest after the catastrophe in Act IV powerfully sustained. The characters are mostly well drawn. There is ignobility about the king. His weakness is his doom. In the last scene, pity and terror are mingled in a degree to which Shakespeare himself only on occasions attains. For combined power and delicacy of treatment, we may compare the murder of Desdemona; for the fearful suspense in which the spectator is kept, I know no parallel except the Agamemnon of Eschylus. Shakespeare's play is more elaborate, but hardly more effective. Shakespeare's object was to trace Richard's fall to his errors as a cause justifying it; Marlow's to exhibit in the fate of Edward a calamity which tragically redeemed his earlier errors. While Marlow never reaches Shakespeare's grandeur and wealth of language and thought, he moves pity and terror far more strongly; the death which is a climax in Marlow, is perfunctorily absolved in Shakespeare'-A. W. WARD (greatly condensed. The whole of Mr Ward's criticism should be read if procurable. It is a model of its kind, attaining what some of his predecessors have aimed at, and failed in). METRICAL TESTS. It is not desirable to enter on a controverted subject in this book. I append, however, a table for the use of any student who cares to follow out the investigation: |