Sodomy and Stage Directions in Christopher Marlowe’s Edward(s) II

Nearly all scholars assume that the assassin Lightborne kills Edward by raping him with a spit at the conclusion of Marlowe’s Edward II. They thus assert that this act mocks the desire it punishes—Edward’s for Gaveston. This article emphasizes that early modern texts of the play lack the stage direction that would describe Lightborne’s actions and hence argues that this stage omission’s ambiguity undercuts sodomy’s early modern cultural logic. Marlowe does not defend sodomy but demonstrates that accusations of sodomy are themselves sodomitic, foreclosing jurisprudential efforts to categorize sexual acts in moral terms.