Edward II: A Critical Reader

Kirk Melnikoff is Associate Professor of English at UNC Charlotte, USA. He has published numerous articles and chapters on Elizabethan literature and culture, has edited two volumes on the late sixteenth-century pamphleteer Robert Greene, and is the 2013 co-winner of the Calvin and Rose G. Hoffman Prize for a Distinguished Essay on Christopher Marlowe.

In gathering together chapters rich in detail and brimming with critical vigor, this recent Arden Early Modern Drama Guide fulfills the goal, set out by the Series Editors, of offering “a clear picture of the critical and performative contexts” of Marlowe’s tragedy. Taken together, these chapters offer a plethora of original arguments that will inspire new critical responses to Edward II in scholarship, performance, and teaching. The high critical calibre of these chapters position Edward II at the centre of what Melnikoff calls ‘a larger Marlowe moment’ (5). Melnikoff’s succinctly and persuasively argued Introduction makes it clear that this moment arises from both the play’s ‘theatrical vitality’ (4) and the work of scholars who address important topics in rigorous and accessible ways … This volume compiles plenty of fresh evidence and many new insights in carefully organized chapters moving from general to specific themes. By this criterion alone, the collection is excellent … By blending original research of new evidence with rigorous and accessibly presented surveys of the main areas of the historiography of Marlowe’s tragedy, Melnikoff’s superbly edited book offers itself as an indispensable contribution to the collections of new essays that indeed created and extended the Marlowe moment in criticism.

• Series IntroductionEdward II TimelineIntroductionThe Critical Backstory: Marlowe’s Legacy: A Critical Survey of the Playwright’s Reception to 1991Performance History: “Yet I have a braver way than these”: A Performance History of Edward IIThe State of the Art: Edward II: Sexuality, History, and the TheatreNew Directions: 1. Gratia Flagrans: Edward II and the Micro-Macro-politics of (In)Subordination2. Edward II in Repertory3. The Corporate Life of Monarch and Minion in Edward II4. Édouard et Gaverston: New Ways of Looking at an English History PlayLearning and Teaching Resources: History, Politics, and Edward IINotesBibliographyIndex