Edward II: Style 1 key example

The style of Edward II is dramatic and rhetorically lofty. The play's dialogue is written primarily in blank verse—or, in other words, unrhymed iambic pentameter. This verse form gives the language a rhythmic, formal quality, allowing for heightened emotional expression and dramatic impact. In addition, Marlowe’s writing in the play is characterized by its elaborate rhetorical devices and classical allusions. The primary characters of this play are drawn from the highest classes of English society and their elaborate speeches reflect their elevated status. When the defeated King Edward II is asked to relinquish his crown, for example, his speech reflects the rhetorical sophistication that characterizes the style of the play:  

No, ’tis for Mortimer, not Edward’s head,       
For he’s a lamb encompassèd by wolves 
Which in a moment will abridge his life. 
But if proud Mortimer do wear this crown, 
Heavens turn it to a blaze of quenchless fire, 
Or, like the snaky wreath of Tisiphon, 
Engirt the temples of his hateful head! 
So shall not England’s vine be perishèd 

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