The murder of the king fits perfectly with the title of this course, "Violated Bodies..." The reader receives an end note that a hot spit was thrust into Edward's anus, leaving him unbruised and making signs of the murder difficult to detect. I am interested whether Edward's perceived homosexuality had any effect on the way he was murdered. If indeed the murderers sodomized
Edward with a hot spit, were they signaling his relationship with Gaveston as the cause of his downfall? Surely they could have murdered him in another way which leaves little outward sign of the crime (poison, anyone?). Yet they chose this violent end. It leaves me to think the murderers picked the hot spit for more than merely practical reasons.
Conversation Piece - Monday, December 8, 2008
"Oh, come not near me, sir; I shall defile you.
I am that of your blood was taken from you
For your better health. Look no more upon't
But cast it to the ground regardlessly;
Let the common sewer take it from distinction.
Beneath the stars, upon yon meteor
Ever hung my fate, 'mongst things corruptible;
I ne'er could pluck it from him. My loathing
Was prophet to the rest, bu ne'er believed;
Mine honor fell with him, and now my life."
(The Changeling V.iii.158-67)
I am that of your blood was taken from you
For your better health. Look no more upon't
But cast it to the ground regardlessly;
Let the common sewer take it from distinction.
Beneath the stars, upon yon meteor
Ever hung my fate, 'mongst things corruptible;
I ne'er could pluck it from him. My loathing
Was prophet to the rest, bu ne'er believed;
Mine honor fell with him, and now my life."
(The Changeling V.iii.158-67)
