Edward II: Act 3, Scene 2 Summary & Analysis

Perhaps in order to curry favor with Edward, both Spencer Junior and Baldock defend the King's right to exercise virtually unlimited power. In fact, Spencer goes further and suggests that in allowing the nobles to act in opposition to him, Edward is actually dishonoring his own royal status, since his birth and lineage entitle him to respect. Ironically, this defense of royal birthright shares may similarities with the nobility's protectiveness of their own status (and corresponding dislike of Gaveston and Spencer). It's telling, then, that Spencer ultimately urges Edward to act as the nobles have and shore up his claims to authority with violence. 

Once more, Edward reveals himself to be easily swayed by flattery and personal emotion. He takes Spencer Senior's words about Edward's royal prerogative as an indication of the man's "noble" character and confers a title on him, effectively revealing that he is more interested in having his own ideas confirmed than in seriously considering what is best for either him or the country.

As the nobles earlier warned, Edward's negligence has opened England up to attacks by foreign powers. What is even more worrying, however, is Edward's response: he still does not see Isabella as a potential political threat, and therefore entrusts her with representing his interests in France. This proves to be a disastrous decision, since Isabella eventually returns from France with the army that will unseat Edward. Once again, in other words, the most serious dangers in the play come from within. Isabella's comments about the uprising attest to this, while also touching on the play's interest in disruptions of the social order: according to Isabella, it is not just treasonous but "unnatural" to challenge the rule of a king.

Edward's initial response to Gaveston's death is typically passive. In fact, Edward seems in this case to reject not only action, but even words. Instead (and as Isabella did earlier), Edward turns whatever violent impulses he has inwards and wishes for death. It takes the intervention of Spencer Junior to persuade Edward to shift his attention from self-destruction to the rebel nobles.

Once again, Edward speaks at length about the elaborate vengeance he intends to take. In this case, Edward's words do translate into action, since he (temporarily) succeeds in crushing the nobles' rebellion. This in turn allows Edward to execute Lancaster and Warwick, partially fulfilling the vows he makes in this speech. Interestingly, however, Lancaster and Warwick's eventual deaths are rather anticlimactic when compared to the passion of Edward's speech in this scene (in fact, the nobles do not even die onstage). This is perhaps an indication of where the play's real sympathies lie: although the plot repeatedly suggests that words are useless in such a violent world, Marlowe ensures that it is the play's language (rather than its action) that ultimately sticks in the audience's mind.

The nobles' description of Spencer as a corrupting influence on both Edward and the country echoes their earlier statements about Gaveston. Given that Spencer has now stepped into the role Gaveston formerly held as Edward's favorite, the comparison is a logical one. In this case, however, the nobles are unwilling to even pretend to compromise with Edward over his favoritism, instead jumping straight to threats of civil war. This is an early hint that the nobles have begun to overstep their own authority, and have even perhaps lost sight of their justified grievances as a result of their own ambition.

Once again, Edward defends his right to do as he wishes as a king. In previous scenes, this insistence has tended to sound arrogant: Edward's love for Gaveston might be understandable, but his preoccupation with his own power verges (as the nobles themselves say) on "tyrannical." In the context of the nobles' own high-handed behavior, however, Edward's complaints begin to seem justified. As the play goes on, Edward will become increasingly sympathetic while his enemies (particularly Mortimer Junior and Isabella) become increasingly less so.