Marlowe's Edward II as "Actaeonesque History" - Connotations

Marlowe's Edward II as "Actaeonesque History" 13
In the same way that Edward's speech has held from the beginning the
promise of dismemberment, the words of the nobles from early on have
responded in kind. In the first scene, the irate Lancaster connects the King's
physical self and the symbol of monarchy to decapitation:
Lane.: Look to see the throne, where you should sit,
To float in blood, and at thy wanton head
The glozing head of thy base minion thrown. (I.i.131-33)
This threat, unlike so many of Edward's rending vaunts, is later followed
to the letter:
Warwick: ... by my sword,
His head shall off. Gaveston, ...
. . . it is our country's cause
That here severely we will execute
Upon thy person.
Mort.: Thus we'll gratify the King:
We'll send his head .... Let him bestow
His tears on that, for that is all he gets
Of Gaveston, or else his senseless trunk. (II.v.21-25,55-58)
There is a triumphant lingering over these scattered body parts.
Towards the end of the play, similar sadistic pleasure comes from ripping
apart, and is related with tragic irony to Edward's role as a failed Diana.
The two final scenes of the deposed King grotesquely invert Gaveston's
initial fantasy of a theatrical "Diana" displaying himself in the shimmering
waters of a gorgeous Gargaphie. The waters of these last two scenes become
progressively more foul; the recollection of the opening titillation, with
the boy's hair "gilding the water as it glides" (l.i.62), is a cruel memory.
Edward's jailers Matrevis and Gurney are gleefully sadistic versions of
Diana's nymphs. Instead of delicately assisting with the refinements of
the monarch's sacred bath, they profanely and brutally "bathe" him and
shave off his beard in dirty "puddle water" (Viv.27-38).35 In Marlowe's
treatment, the shaving symbolically prefigures the more literal ripping
apart that comes next.