Scena Mundi’s "Sad Stories of the Death of Kings: Richard II & Edward II" enjoyed fantastic press and audience reviews while playing in London’s oldest church, St Bartholomew the Great, in May-July 2015.
Similar in theme if not in style, the two plays are so full of echoes that there can be no doubt Shakespeare was inspired by Marlowe’s Edward II. Written within a few months of each other, both dramatise the pursuit of and fall from power of weak monarchs. Presenting them side by side is therefore a choice motivated by the plays themselves.
The Tragedy of King Richard II is one of Shakespeare’s linguistically and poetically richest plays. Richard, the “mockery king of snow”, is a man of refined intellect, subtle and educated, who manipulates his entourage with hisuse of language. Ambitious, arrogant and proud, Richard thinks he is secure in his position as God’s chosen king. When challenged by his cousin Bolingbroke over the death of their uncle, Richard banishes him and precipitates his own downfall. The formidable confrontation that follows, in which man-of-words Richard is set upon by man‐of‐action Bolingbroke, leads to Richard’s capitulation and his surrendering of the crown. The genuine suffering which oppresses him after his abdication is that of a man whose sense of purpose has gone. Richard’s sorrow and philosophical questioning leads him to distinguish between the King and the man – the public figure and the privateindividual.
Shakespeare’s Richard is a multi‐facetted character whose final tragedy cannot fail to move audiences.
Marlowe’s Edward II is a violent tragedy in which power, lust and ambition combine. Edward is a weak king whose advancement of his favourite, Piers Gaveston, garners both the hatred of his Queen, Isabelle, and of his barons, led by the ruthless Mortimer. Finally captured and put to the most horrible of deaths, Edward is succeeded by his son, Edward III, whose first action as King is to have the traitor Mortimer put to death.
A dark play in which no character is given redeeming features, Marlowe’sEdward II takes us to the claustrophobic world of a merciless court where private ambition and revenge are more important than political vision. Edward II is a bloody tale of selfish desire and misguided judgement. The King’s lack of political acumen and his self‐indulgence leads to a chaos which only a strong leader will be able to end. Far from gaining a crown, the rebellious barons find death at the hands of the legitimate heir – the divine right of Kings remains unchallenged.