ward aloofness and inactivity than to
busy participation in the execution of a plot. Moreover, it was a
tactical error to give prominence to the personal quarrel between Guise
and Mugeroun, for it dissipates upon a private matter the force which,
devoted to an exalted ambition, might have been impressive. However,
there are one or two touches which give a cold grandeur to this
character and seem half to anticipate the Mortimer of the next play. The
following lines are taken from the second scene of the first act--there
are only three acts altogether:

_Guise._ Now Guise begins those deep-engendered thoughts
To burst abroad, those never-dying flames
Which cannot be extinguished but by blood.
Oft have I levelled, and at last have learned
That peril is the chiefest way to happiness,
And resolution honour's fairest aim.
What glory is there in a common good,
That hangs for every peasant to achieve?
That like I best, that flies beyond my reach.
Set me to scale the high Pyramides,
And thereon set the diadem of France;
I'll either rend it with my nails to naught,
Or mount the top with my aspiring wings,
Although my downfall be the deepest hell....
Give me a look, that, when I bend the brows,
Pale death may walk in furrows of my face;
A hand that with a grasp may gripe the world;
An ear to hear what my detractors say;
A royal seat, a sceptre, and a crown;
That those which do behold them may become
As men that stand and gaze against the sun.

_Edward the Second_ is undoubtedly Marlowe's masterpiece. It marks the
elevation of the Chronicle History Play to its highest possibilities,
and is, at the same time, a deeply moving tragedy. One wonders how Peele
could write the medley of incongruous and ill-connected scenes which we
know under the abbreviated title of _Edward the First_ after having once
seen his rival's 'history' acted. For the strength of Marlowe's play
lies in its concentration upon the figure of the king and its skilful
omission of details not dramatically helpful. If there were any balance
of advantage in the choice of subject one must feel that it did not lie
with the earlier writer, who was undertaking the extremely difficult
task of presenting an inglorious monarch sympathetically without
allowing him to appear contemptible. We can imagine how magnificently he
could have set forth the masterful career of Edward I. His coura