1. “What else does the cry of tragedy bewail but the overthrow of happy realms by the unexpected blow of Fortune?” (Boethius). Is Edward II a de casibus tragedy? Discuss with reference to either Chaucer or Lydgate.

2. Step 1. Introduction  Outline your interpretation of the Boethian quotation  Explain that Boethius’ philosophical definition of “tragedy” was absorbed into narrative tragedies such as those of Boccaccio, Chaucer and Lydgate in the Middle Ages.  The thrust of these narratives was didactic and morally exemplary  Define de casibus tragedy  Explain that these narrative de casibus tragedies in turn provided a major model for dramatic tragedies written in the Renaissance  Give an initial opinion as to whether Edward II conforms to this model

3. Step 2. Chaucer  Cite Chaucer’s definitions of tragedy, briefly explain how they incorporate Boethius:

7. Step 2. Chaucer  Like Boethius, Chaucer identifies tragedy as the unhappy result of capricious and untrustworthy fortuna  One notable difference between his definitions and those of the de casibus tradition of tragic narrative that he helped to instate, is that Chaucer does not obviously locate the seeds of tragic misfortune in the character of the protagonist.  Whereas Lydgate’s Fall of Princes fashioned moral exempla whose flawed or tyrannical natures provoked their eventual punishment, Chaucer merely hints at this link: “With unwar strook the regnes that been proude” (MT 2764)

8. Step 3. Is Edward II a de casibus tragedy?  What are the personal qualities that lead to the eventual downfall of Mortimer/Edward? Do their complex and vividly-imagined personalities and psychologies complement or confound de casibus exemplarity?  How does Act 4.7 (Edward discovered in the Welsh abbey where he has sought secret refuge, dressed in a monk’s habit) incorporate/problematise/parody the tradition of de casibus tragedy?  What about Mortimer’s speeches at 5.4.48-71 or 5.6?

9. Sources Primary Texts  Boccaccio, The Consolation of Philosophy  Chaucer, “The Monk’s Tale”  Marlowe, Edward II Secondary Texts  Rebecca Bushnell, Tragedies of Tyrants: Political Thought and Theater in the English Renaissance (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990). pp.1-37.  Douglas Cole, Christopher Marlowe and the Renaissance of Tragedy (PLACE: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995). Chapter 5: Edward II: Tragedy in the De Casibus Tradition.  Frederick Kiefer, Fortune and Elizabethan Tragedy (San Marino: Huntington Library, 1983).