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Written c. 1592
Licensed for
publication July
1593
Act II. Scene V
Pembroke: I will upon mine honour undertake
To carry him and bring him back again
Act III. Scene I
Enter Gaveston mourning, and the Earl of Pembroke’s Men
Edward Alleyn (1566-1626)
Performed Tamburlaine in Tamburlaine
Great, 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 court
January 1593 – paid for another performance at
court
August 1593 – return to London, apparently
bankrupt
Edward II Act V Scene I
Continue 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 II
My 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 cockrels
Affright 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 monarchy
And share it equally amongst you all,
So I may have some nook or corner left
To 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 me
But this I scorn, that one so basely born
Should by his sovereign’s favour grow so pert
And 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”