Dr. Faustus

By Christopher Marlowe

"Dr. Faustus" is Christopher Marlowe's version of the famous legend of a doctor who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Originally published in 1600 this drama is based on an earlier anonymous German work (c. 1587) which has influenced many subsequent works including Goethe's more comprehensive "Faust" (c. 1808) and the contemporary "Doktor Faustus" (c. 1947) by Thomas Mann. The legend of Faust, reportedly based on a true person, is the origin of one of the most prevalent themes in literary history, the selling of one's soul to the devil.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781596251311

Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) was a 16th century playwright, poet, and translator. Considered to be the most famous playwright in the Elizabethan era, Marlowe is believed to have inspired major artists such as Shakespeare. Marlowe was known for his dramatic works that often depicted extreme displays of violence, catering to his audience’s desires. Surrounded by mystery and speculation, Marlowe’s own life was as dramatic and exciting as his plays. Historians are still puzzled by the man, conflicted by rumors that he was a spy, questions about his sexuality, and suspicions regarding his death.

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DR. FAUSTUS

BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

A Digireads.com Book

Digireads.com Publishing

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-2586-9

Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-59625-131-1

This edition copyright © 2012

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

CHORUS

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE VI

SCENE VII

SCENE VIII

SCENE IX

SCENE X

SCENE XI

SCENE XII

SCENE XIII

SCENE XIV

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Christopher Marlowe, the author of the earliest dramatic version of the Faust legend, was the son of a shoemaker in Canterbury, where he was born in February, 1564, some two months before Shakespeare. After graduating as M.A. from the University of Cambridge in 1587, he seems to have settled in London; and that same year is generally accepted as the latest date for the production of his tragedy of Tamburlaine, the play which is regarded as having established blank verse as the standard meter of the English Drama. Doctor Faustus probably came next in 1588, followed by The Jew of Malta and Edward II. Marlowe had a share in the production of several other plays, wrote the first two sestiads of Hero and Leander, and made translations from Ovid and Lucan. He met his death in a tavern brawl, June 1, 1593.

Of Marlowe personally little is known. The common accounts of his atheistical beliefs and dissipated life are probably exaggerated, recent researches having given ground for believing that his heterodoxy may have amounted to little more than a form of Unitarianism. Some of the attacks on his character are based on the evidence of witnesses whose reputation will not bear investigation, while the character of some of his friends and their manner of speaking of him are of weight on the other side.

The most striking feature of Marlowe's dramas is the concentration of interest on an impressive central figure dominated by a single passion, the thirst for the unattainable. In Tamburlaine this takes the form of universal power; in The Jew of Malta, infinite riches; in Doctor Faustus universal knowledge. The aspirations of these dominant personalities are uttered in sonorous blank verse, and in a rhetoric which at times rises to the sublime, at times descends to rant. Doctor Faustus, though disfigured by poor comic scenes for which Marlowe is probably not responsible, and though lacking unity of structure, yet presents the career and fate of the hero with great power, and contains in the speech to Helen of Troy and in the dying utterance of Faustus two of the most superb passages of poetry in the English language.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

THE POPE.

CARDINAL OF LORRAIN.

EMPEROR OF GERMANY.

DUKE OF VANHOLT.

FAUSTUS.

VALDES AND CORNELIUS, friends to FAUSTUS.

WAGNER, SERVANT TO FAUSTUS.

CLOWN.

ROBIN.

RALPH.

VINTNER,

HORSE-COURSER,

KNIGHT,

OLD MAN,

SCHOLARS, FRIARS, AND ATTENDANTS.

DUCHESS OF VANHOLT.

LUCIFER.

BELZEBUB.

MEPHISOPHILIS.

GOOD ANGEL,

EVIL ANGEL,

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS,

DEVILS, SPIRITS IN THE SHAPE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, OF HIS PARAMOUR, AND OF HELEN OF TROY.

CHORUS.

CHORUS

Enter CHORUS

Chorus. Not marching now in fields of Trasimene,

Where Mars did mate{1} the Carthaginians;

Nor sporting in the dalliance of love,

In courts of kings where state is overturn'd;

Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,

Intends our Muse to vaunt his heavenly verse:

Only this, gentlemen,—we must perform

The form of Faustus' fortunes, good or bad.

To patient judgments we appeal our plaud,{2}

And speak for Faustus in his infancy.

Now is he born, his parents base of stock,

In Germany, within a town call'd Rhodes;{3}

Of riper years to Wittenberg he went,

Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up.

So soon he profits in divinity,

The fruitful plot of scholarism grac'd,{4}

That shortly he was grac'd with doctor's name,

Excelling all those sweet delight disputes

In heavenly matters of theology;

Till swollen with cunning,{5} of a self-conceit,

His waxen wings{6} did mount above his reach,

And, melting, Heavens conspir'd his overthrow;

For, falling to a devilish exercise,

And glutted [now] with learning's golden gifts,

He surfeits upon cursed necromancy.

Nothing so sweet as magic is to him,

Which he prefers