Esquire

After doing some close reading with the text, and specifically with the aforementioned passage, I came across information discussing the education of Baldock. He did in fact receive a doctorate from Oxford which consequently promoted him, as if automatically, to the position of an Esquire--a status of gentry. Since we have previously discussed the importance of social status in the Renaissance and Medieval era I found that Baldock was humbly attemping to impress the King with that very remark--as if he were "name-dropping" to advance himself. Moreover, Baldock is trying to make the point that he did not receive his current stature through heraldic means, such as the military, but rather through his own intellect. I'm not quite sure if Marlowe was incorporating a sense of humor into the play through this remark or not. By introducing characters that have never experienced the sensation of nobility seems awfully unsual. At this point in the text one is curious as to whether what Edward will use Baldock for. Nonetheless,  Edward II appears to find this characteristic advantageous to him.