• Written c. 1592• Licensed for • publication July • 1593

Act II. Scene VPembroke: I will upon mine honour undertake

To carry him and bring him back again

Act III. Scene IEnter Gaveston mourning, and the Earl of Pembroke’s Men

Edward Alleyn (1566-1626)

Performed Tamburlaine in TamburlaineGreat, Faustus in Doctor Faustus,Barabas in The Jew of Malta, and the Duke of Guise in The Massacre at Paris

Pembroke’s Men

December 1592 – paid for a performance at courtJanuary 1593 – paid for another performance at courtAugust 1593 – return to London, apparently bankrupt

Edward II Act V Scene IContinue ever, thou celestial sun;Let never silent night possess this clime;Stand still, you watches of the element;And times and seasons, rest you at a stay,That Edward may be still fair England’s king.

64-68

Dr Faustus Act V, Scene ii (A Text)Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,That time may cease and midnight never come!

60-61

Act II Scene IIMy swelling heart for very anger breaks.How have I been baited by these peers,And dare not be revenged, for their power is great!Yet shall the crowing of the cockrelsAffright a lion? Edward, unfold thy paws,And let their lives’ blood slake thy fury’s hunger.If I be cruel and grow tyrannous,Now let them thank themselves, and rue too late

(199-206)

Poor Gaveston, that hast no friend but me.Do what they can, we’ll live in Tynemouth here,And so I walk with him about the walls,What care I though the earls begirt us round?

(II.ii. 219-222)

Make several kingdoms of this monarchyAnd share it equally amongst you all,So I may have some nook or corner leftTo frolic with my dearest Gaveston.

(I.iv. 70-73)

Holinshed, The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles (1587)

Holinshed on James VI of Scotland

James has let himself be “obscured by the craft & subtiltie of some lewd and wicked persons of no desert or woorthinesse, and for the most part of base lineage, not born to one foot breadth of land”

Esme Stuart, First Duke of Lennox

Uncle, his wanton humour grieves not meBut this I scorn, that one so basely bornShould by his sovereign’s favour grow so pertAnd riot it with the treasure of the realm.

(Act I. Scene iv, ll. 402-405)

Edward the Second, Second Quarto (1598)

Edward the Second, Third Quarto (1612)

Edward the Second, Fourth Quarto (1622) – note the mention of a revival by“the late Queenes Majesties Servants at the Red Bull”