Edward II

Edward II by Christopher Marlowe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This struck me as structurally similar to Doctor Faustus – the subject of the play indulges in heterodox pleasures and is ultimately doomed by overplaying his hand. Substitute dalliances with devils to attain forbidden power and knowledge for dalliances with favourites of low birth and the same sex. Edward II like Doctor Faustus wants to live deliciously, and Marlowe clearly sympathises with that libertine spirit even while ensuring it is violently crushed at the end. Tragedy demands the reassertion of traditional religious, sexual and social norms. The sinners are punished and the audience should leave the theatre feeling righteous, except Marlowe never quite purges his (and our) admiration for the radicalism of his tragic heroes. The poet is of the Devil’s party, and Marlowe certainly knew it.

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Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Definitely a play of two halves, the second of which doesn't match the dramatic interest of the first. Basically everything after Mark Anthony's rhetorical showstopper with Caesar's body is quite dull. I find Brutus and Cassius's long quarrel scene odd and their subsequent deaths bathetic. Shakespeare does a good job balancing the different viewpoints, although I suspect that the conspirators' cries of liberty and enfranchisement would appear more suspect to an Elizabethan audience than they do now. Caesar's murder is essentially a regicide that unleashes a civil war, and eventually results in Octavian as emperor anyway, so while Brutus may have been high-minded he was certainly (and quite literally) misguided. The influence of rhetoric on politics is ultimately what the play is about – the tribunes chiding the mechanicals at the start, then Cassius drawing out Brutus as the figurehead for the conspiracy, and climaxing with Mark Antony's playing the mob like a fiddle. The latter half loses that thread a bit, which is why this reputedly balanced play feels lopsided to me.

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Volpone

Volpone by Ben;Brockbank Jonson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A play that’s better performed than read. On the page you can easily lose track of the disguises and tricks being played on the different gulls, which on the stage would be clear to see. This is nonetheless very funny, with the pace and lightness of a screwball comedy, despite the somewhat disturbing themes of rape and torture it touches on. Volpone and Mosca are delighted by their own ingenious dramaturgy, and you can sense Ben Jonson’s own satisfaction with his craft shine through his protagonists.

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King Lear

King Lear by William Shakespeare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This hits different when you have two daughters who refuse to do what you tell them to do. When I was a teenager I found Lear unreasonable and the complaints of Goneril and Regan understandable. Reading it now brings out just how pointed and heartbreaking a portrayal of patriarchal love it is. Lear overbearing affection makes him myopic, and he largely brings his afflictions on his own head. Edmund’s cold attitude to his family, perhaps born of a lack of affection, provides the perfect counterpoint. He and Edgar are the co-plotters of this tragedy. The brothers are like Hamlet split in two – Edmund inheriting a ruthless intelligence and Edgar acting like a madman for the moral edification of failed fathers. In a bleak play he and Cordelia provide a grim sense of hope that a younger generation through their determination and suffering can redeem their parents.

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