Gaveston in Ireland: Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II and the casting of queer brotherhood

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis essay explores Anglo–Irish relations in the early modern period as dramatised in Christopher Marlowe’s 1592 play, Edward II. Specifically, the argument emphasises the role Gaveston played as King Edward II’s Governor of Ireland, highlighting Marlowe’s interest in dramatising this history in sexual terms. Marlowe integrates two moments in the history of Anglo–Irish relations, one is the fourteenth-century history of the reign of Edward II and his political aspirations in Ireland; the other is Marlowe’s perspective of the history of Anglo–Irish contacts in the 1590s. Marlowe presents these personal and political themes through the affective and sexual ambiguities that characterise the relationship between Edward and Gaveston.