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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2021
One of the most remarkable aspects of Leben Eduards des Zweiten is that it is an almost womanless play. Complementary to this observation is that the various antagonists in Marlowe's play become protagonists in Brecht's version. Furthermore, these protagonists—Edward, Gaveston, Mortimer, and Edward's son—are all “youths” and have as their opponents, obviously, father figures. That some of these protagonists oppose themselves does not contradict this. In starting with the Queen, I do not mean that she is the chief character. Quite to the contrary, we find her to be an absence, a negativity which allows our protagonists to stand in sharper profile.
The play consists of twelve captioned episodes which constitute a three-part structure: I. A-C; II. D, alone; and III. E-L. In the first episode (A), we find Gaveston back from exile, invited by the present King Edward, who has dared to recall his bosom friend against his now dead father's proscription and the peers’ wills.
1 My original assay of Brecht's Edward II was a comparison with Marlowe's play of the same subject. It had the title “Brecht's entre-chats to Marlowe's Hay: A Study of Bertolt Brecht's Leben Eduards des Zweiten von England.” Though I dealt in the main with Brecht's play, I also attempted to throw some interpretative light on Marlowe's. As the title indicates, both writers were performing the same dance. But to show their beat and pattern, substance and thought, required the depth and scope of a book, not an article. And, indeed, I hope that such a book on Brecht will soon be possible, mainly because an intensive study of Brecht is still lacking, but also because a thorough book on Brecht, done from the point of view of phenomenological criticism, would aid the rewriting of the works on Marlowe. In the following essay, then, I shall deal only with Brecht's play about Edward II.
2 All quotations from Stiicke II (Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1960). Pagination is given in the text. The translations are mine.
3 Edward is not the only subject of his own fate, nor is he the sole agent of his action. The physical identity of Gaveston and Edward has been pointed out in the description of the first episode. Their fates will be similar in manner and kind: Gaveston will die early, while Edward's life will be protracted to the end of the play. In the protraction of Edward's life, the plot arranges the remainder of the characters. Edward is the suffering agent; Gaveston the fated body; Mortimer the extended mind: the three figures are totally complementary.
Photos by courtesy of The Actor's Workshop