4. Dr. Faustus
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Christopher Marlowe (26 February
1564 – 30 May 1593)- Also known as Kit Marlowe
Christopher
Marlowe was the son of a wealthy Canterbury shoemaker who was an influential
citizen in his community. Marlowe was born on February 6, 1564, and was
baptized at Saint George's church in Canterbury on February 26. (Shakespeare
was born in the same year). After
attending King's School in Canterbury, Marlowe went to Corpus Christi College
in Cambridge in December 1580. He attended on a scholarship founded by
Archbishop Parker which was granted for six years to those who were studying
for a career in the church. From this fact, it appears that it was Marlowe's
intention to go into the church, even though in the college records he first
appears as a student of dialectics.
Marlowe received
his B.A. in 1584, and three years later he received his M.A. degree. His
academic career was fairly conventional except for some long periods of
absences during his second year. The only trouble which Marlowe had was just
before he was granted his M.A. degree. Because of the prevalence of certain
rumors, the college was going to hold up his degree. The Privy Council of the
queen wrote a letter to the university assuring the college about Marlowe's
character and asserting that he had been of service to her majesty. The purpose
of this letter was to allay rumors that Marlowe planned to join the English
Catholics at Reims in France.
Marlowe appears
to have performed services for the government during these years, such as
carrying dispatches overseas or else acting as a spy in the service of Sir
Francis Walsingham, who was the head of Queen Elizabeth's secret service. No
direct evidence, however, remains as to what his specific tasks or assignments
were in the service of the queen.
After receiving
his M.A. from the university, he moved to London, where he was a part of a
brilliant circle of young men which included Rawley, Nashe, and Kyd. Before the
end of the year 1587, both parts
of his first play, Tamburlaine the
Great, had been performed on the stage. At this time, Marlowe was a
young man of only twenty-three and already established as a known dramatist as
a result of the success of this first play.
In the remaining
six years of his life after he had left the university, he lived chiefly in the
theatrical district of Shoreditch in London. Although he traveled a great deal
for the government during this time, he always retained this London address. For
a time, he had as his roommate Thomas Kyd, who is also the author of a very
popular Elizabethan play, The
Spanish Tragedy. Kyd later made the statement that Marlowe had a
violent temper and a cruel heart.
In September of 1589, Marlowe
was imprisoned in Newgate for his part in a street fight in which William
Bradley, the son of a Holborn innkeeper, was killed. One of Marlowe's friends
named Watson had actually killed the man with his sword, so Marlowe was not
charged with murder himself. He was released on October 1, on a bail of forty
pounds, and was discharged with a warning to keep the peace.
Three years
later, in 1592, Marlowe became involved in a court action as he was summoned to
court for assaulting two constables in the Shoreditch district. The officers
said that they had been in fear of their lives because of Marlowe's threats. He
was fined and released.
In the spring of
1593, Marlowe again found himself in difficulty with the Privy Council on the
charge of atheism and blasphemy. Thomas Kyd had been arrested for having in his
possession certain heretical papers denying the deity of Christ. Kyd denied that
they belonged to him and maintained that they were Marlowe's. Marlowe was then
summoned to the Privy Council, which decreed that he must appear daily before
them until he was licensed to the contrary.
Then, twelve days
later, Marlowe was killed in a tavern in Deptford, a dockyard adjacent to
Greenwich. On that day, Marlowe had accepted an invitation from Ingram Frizer
to feast at the tavern with several other young men of dubious reputation who
had been mixed up in confidence games, swindles, and spy work. After supper,
Marlowe got into an argument with Frizer over the tavern bill. When Marlowe
struck Frizer on the head with a dagger, Frizer twisted around somehow and
thrust the dagger back at Marlowe, striking him on the forehead and killing him
at the age of 29.
During his short
career as a dramatist, Marlowe gained a significant reputation on the basis of
four dramas. Other than his first play, Tamburlaine, he was also the author of Faustus in 1589 or 1592, The Jew of Malta in 1589, and Edward II in 1592. In addition to
his dramatic pieces, he translated Lucan's Pharsalia and Ovid's Amores. He
also wrote poems, among which his most famous are "The Massacre of
Paris" and "Hero and Leander."
He
introduced Blank verse in drama. He made blank verse a powerful vehicle
for the expression of varied human emotions, as no one had before him. His
blank verse, which Ben Jonson calls “Marlowe’s mighty
line’’. Known as Father of
English Tragedy. He was the most important dramatist before
Shakespeare and also the youngest among the University Wits. Swinburne called
him as “a man in genius, and a god in
ambition.”
Peele wrote on his
death ‘unhappy in thine end, Marley, the
Muses darling, for thy verse.” Shakespeare paid tributes to him
as “Dead Shepard” in As You
Like It. All his plays were tragedies.
Six dramas have been attributed to him:
1.
The Tragedy of Dido: Queen of Carthage -with Thomas
Nashe- first performed play of Marlowe, published posthumously in 1594. Centers
on Dido, the queen of Carthage, her love for Aeneas (Trojan Hero) and about her
suicide after Aeneas’s betrayal. Based on Virgil’s Aeneid.
2.
Tamburlaine the Great 1587– first English play to use blank verse –
Tamburlaine’s passion is thirst for power. Based on Asian emperor Timur,
once was a Scythian Shepard, and rises to the rank of emperor, invaded whole
east and died of disease. (Massacred one lakh prisoners in Delhi, chariot was
drawn by Captive Kings).
3.
The Jew of Malta (1592)– the passion is greed of riches as well as hatred of enemies. When
Barabas (cruel money lender) and fellow Jews asked to give up half of the
wealth or convert into Christianity, Barabas rejected to convert, nor to pay
the half of his wealth. When they confiscated all his property, he weaves many
evil plots to take revenge but dies in the end after falling into a cauldron of
boiling water which he had prepared to destroy his enemies. Barabas suggests
cruel money lenders: Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and “The Volpone or The
Fox” in Ben Jonson’s play
4.
Dr. Faustus – Blank verse play. Perfomed in 1594, first published in 1601. It is the
story of a man coming to grief by his unbridled thirst for knowledge and power.
Dr. Faustus is a scholar longs for infinite knowledge, learns black magic from
Valdes and Cornelius, sells his soul to Lucifer for 24 years of power, but
wasted the time by playing practical jokes. At Eleventh hour, Mephistopheles
collects his soul. He presented the tragic conflict between good and evil
forces in it.
Famous
quote:
Ø Che
serà , serà : What will be, shall be. (Faustus, Act-I)
Ø “Hell
hath no limits, nor is circumscribed” (Mephistopheles,
Act II)
Ø ‘Why,
this is hell, nor am I out of it’
Ø ‘Was this the face that launched a thousand
ships,
And
burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me
immortal with a kiss! (Faustus,
Act-V)
Ø ‘A sound magician is a mighty god’;(Act-I)
Ø Eleventh hour (famous phrase in it);
Ø He that loves pleasure, must for pleasure fall. (Evil Angel, Act V)
5.
Edward II- based on Raphael Hollingshead’s Chronicles, predecessor of Shakespeare’s
historical plays.
6.
The Massacre at Paris 1593- unfinished play, play deals with the
massacre of Protestants in Paris on St Bartholomew's day, 24 Aug. 1572
Remember:
Edward-I- Peele;
Edward-II-Marlowe;
Richard-II and III- Shakespeare
Minor works:
7.
Hero and Leander – non-dramatic unfinished poem. Completed by Chapman.
8.
The passionate Shepard to his love (1599):- popular
lyric of the time. famous line:
Ø “Come
live with me and be my love”
Context of Dr Faustus
Born in Canterbury in
1564, the same year as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe was an actor,
poet, and playwright during the reign of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth I (ruled
1558–1603). Marlowe attended Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University and
received degrees in 1584 and 1587. Traditionally, the education that he
received would have prepared him to become a clergyman, but Marlowe chose not
to join the ministry. For a time, Cambridge even wanted to withhold his degree,
apparently suspecting him of having converted to Catholicism, a forbidden faith
in late-sixteenth-century England, where Protestantism was the state-supported
religion. Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council intervened on his behalf, saying that
Marlowe had “done her majesty good service” in “matters touching the benefit of
the country.” This odd sequence of events has led some to theorize that Marlowe
worked as a spy for the crown, possibly by infiltrating Catholic communities in
France.
After leaving Cambridge, Marlowe
moved to London, where he became a playwright and led a turbulent,
scandal-plagued life. He produced seven plays, all of which were immensely
popular. Among the most well known of his plays are Tamburlaine, The
Jew of Malta, and Doctor Faustus. In his writing, he
pioneered the use of blank verse—nonrhyming lines of iambic pentameter—which
many of his contemporaries, including William Shakespeare, later adopted.
In 1593, however, Marlowe’s career was cut short. After being accused of
heresy (maintaining beliefs contrary to those of an approved religion), he was
arrested and put on a sort of probation. On May 30, 1593, shortly after being
released, Marlowe became involved in a tavern brawl and was killed when one of
the combatants stabbed him in the head. After his death, rumors were spread
accusing him of treason, atheism, and homosexuality, and some people speculated
that the tavern brawl might have been the work of government agents. Little
evidence to support these allegations has come to light, however.
Doctor Faustus was probably written
in 1592, although the exact date of its composition is uncertain, since it was
not published until a decade later. The idea of an individual selling his or
her soul to the devil for knowledge is an old motif in Christian folklore, one
that had become attached to the historical persona of Johannes Faustus, a
disreputable astrologer who lived in Germany sometime in the early 1500s. The
immediate source of Marlowe’s play seems to be the anonymous German work
Historia von D. Iohan Fausten of 1587, which was translated into English
in 1592, and from which Marlowe lifted the bulk of the plot for his drama.
Although there had been literary representations of Faust prior to Marlowe’s
play, Doctor Faustus is the first famous version of the story.
Later versions include the long and famous poem Faust by the nineteenth-century
Romantic writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, as well as operas by Charles Gounod
and Arrigo Boito and a symphony by Hector Berlioz. Meanwhile, the phrase
“Faustian bargain” has entered the English lexicon, referring to any deal made
for a short-term gain with great costs in the long run.
Plot structure
Scene
Summary
/ Plot Points
Prologue
The Chorus introduces Faustus, a brilliant scholar from
Wittenberg who turns to necromancy out of a thirst for knowledge and power.
Scene 1
Faustus debates the limits of various forms of knowledge
(law, medicine, theology) and resolves to practice magic. Valdes and
Cornelius encourage him to pursue necromancy.
Scene 2
Comic relief: Wagner, Faustus’s servant, mocks two
scholars and shows off his own skills in conjuring. Scholars are worried
about Faustus.
Scene 3
Faustus conjures Mephistopheles. He demands service from
Mephistopheles and decides to sell his soul to Lucifer in exchange for 24
years of magical power.
Scene 4
Wagner convinces a clown to become his servant using
magic; continues comic subplot.
Scene 5
Faustus formally signs the pact with Lucifer, using his
blood. He asks Mephistopheles questions about hell, Lucifer, and the cosmos.
Good and Evil Angels appear, symbolizing his inner conflict.
Scene 6
Faustus uses his powers to play tricks on the Pope in
Rome, mocking Catholic practices. This is an example of Faustus using his
powers for petty purposes.
Scene 7
Comic scene: Robin and Rafe experiment with conjuring;
light satire and parody of Faustus.
Scene 8
Faustus travels across Europe and gains fame. He is
invited to courts. He conjures Alexander the Great's image for Emperor
Charles V and humiliates a knight (Benvolio).
Scene 9
Faustus continues petty tricks, like making antlers grow
on a knight’s head. The knight (Benvolio) plans revenge. Faustus defeats him
using magic.
Scene 10
Comic subplot continues with Robin, Rafe, and a
horse-courser, who gets fooled by Faustus’s magic horse.
Scene 11
Faustus visits the Duke and Duchess of Vanholt, conjures
grapes in winter to impress them. Faustus’s powers are shown as a source of
entertainment.
Scene 12
The Old Man tries to save Faustus’s soul. Faustus is torn
but reaffirms loyalty to Lucifer. He gives Helen of Troy to scholars as a
vision of beauty.
Scene 13
Faustus reflects on his choices. Scholars pray for him.
The Good and Evil Angels appear again. Faustus regrets too late. Devils
arrive to claim his soul.
Epilogue
The Chorus concludes the play, offering a moral: Faustus’s
fall is a warning against overreaching ambition.
Note:
Play begins with a Prologue and
ends epilogue. In Prologue and Epilogue the chorus is the speaker.
Faustus is the speaker in the
first and last scene of the play.
Opening line:
In Prologue (by Chorus)
Not marching now in
fields of Thrasimene,
Where Mars did mate the
Carthaginians,
Nor sporting in the
dalliance of love,
In courts of kings where
state is overturned;
In the fisrt scene (by
Faustus)
Settle thy studies,
Faustus, and begin
To sound the depth of
that thou wilt profess:
Having commenced, be a
divine in shew,
Yet level at the end of
every art,
Closing line:
In the last scene (by Faustus)
Ugly hell, gape not!
come not, Lucifer!
I'll burn my books!−Ah,
Mephistophilis!
In Prologue (by Chorus)
Faustus is gone: regard
his hellish fall,
Whose fiendful fortune
may exhort the wise,
Only to wonder at
unlawful things,
Whose deepness doth
entice such forward wits
To practice more than
heavenly power permits. (by Chorus)
Short Summary
Doctor Faustus, a well-respected German scholar, grows dissatisfied with
the limits of traditional forms of knowledge—logic, medicine, law, and
religion—and decides that he wants to learn to practice magic. His friends
Valdes and Cornelius instruct him in the black arts, and he begins his new
career as a magician by summoning up Mephastophilis, a devil. Despite Mephastophilis’s warnings about the
horrors of hell, Faustus tells the devil to return to his master, Lucifer, with
an offer of Faustus’s soul in exchange for twenty-four years of service from
Mephastophilis. Meanwhile, Wagner, Faustus’s servant, has picked up some
magical ability and uses it to press a clown named Robin into his service.
Mephastophilis returns
to Faustus with word that Lucifer has accepted Faustus’s offer. Faustus
experiences some misgivings and wonders if he should repent and save his soul;
in the end, though, he agrees to the deal, signing it with his blood. As soon
as he does so, the words “Homo fuge,” Latin for “O man, fly,” appear branded on
his arm. Faustus again has second thoughts, but Mephastophilis bestows rich
gifts on him and gives him a book of spells to learn. Later, Mephastophilis
answers all of his questions about the nature of the world, refusing to answer
only when Faustus asks him who made the universe. This refusal prompts yet
another bout of misgivings in Faustus, but Mephastophilis and Lucifer bring in
personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins to prance about in front of Faustus,
and he is impressed enough to quiet his doubts.
Armed with his new
powers and attended by Mephastophilis, Faustus begins to travel. He goes to the
pope’s court in Rome, makes himself invisible, and plays a series of tricks. He
disrupts the pope’s banquet by stealing food and boxing the pope’s ears. Following
this incident, he travels through the courts of Europe, with his fame spreading
as he goes. Eventually, he is invited to the court of the German emperor,
Charles V (the enemy of the pope), who asks Faustus to allow him to see
Alexander the Great, the famed fourth-century b.c. Macedonian
king and conqueror. Faustus conjures up an image of Alexander, and Charles is
suitably impressed. A knight scoffs at Faustus’s powers, and Faustus chastises
him by making antlers sprout from his head. Furious, the knight vows revenge.
Meanwhile, Robin,
Wagner’s clown, has picked up some magic on his own, and with his fellow
stablehand, Rafe, he undergoes a number of comic misadventures. At one point,
he manages to summon Mephastophilis, who threatens to turn Robin and Rafe into
animals (or perhaps even does transform them; the text isn’t clear) to punish
them for their foolishness.
Faustus then goes on
with his travels, playing a trick on a horse-courser along the way. Faustus
sells him a horse that turns into a heap of straw when ridden into a river.
Eventually, Faustus is invited to the court of the Duke of Vanholt, where he
performs various feats. The horse-courser shows up there, along with Robin, a
man named Dick (Rafe in the A text), and various others who have fallen victim
to Faustus’s trickery. But Faustus casts spells on them and sends them on their
way, to the amusement of the duke and duchess.
As the twenty-four
years of his deal with Lucifer come to a close, Faustus begins to dread his
impending death. He has Mephastophilis call up Helen of Troy, the famous beauty
from the ancient world, and uses her presence to impress a group of scholars. An
old man urges Faustus to repent, but Faustus drives him away. Faustus summons
Helen again and exclaims rapturously about her beauty. But time is growing
short. Faustus tells the scholars about his pact, and they are horror-stricken
and resolve to pray for him. On the final night before the expiration of the
twenty-four years, Faustus is overcome by fear and remorse. He begs for mercy,
but it is too late. At midnight, a host of devils appears and carries his soul
off to hell. In the morning, the scholars find Faustus’s limbs and decide to
hold a funeral for him.
Character List
Doctor John
Faustus - The protagonist. Faustus is a brilliant
sixteenth-century scholar from Wittenberg, Germany, who becomes
dissatisfied with the limitations of knowledge, wealth,
and worldly might makes him willing to pay the ultimate price—his soul—to
Lucifer in exchange for supernatural powers. Faustus’s initial tragic grandeur
is diminished by the fact that he never seems completely sure of the decision
to forfeit his soul and constantly wavers about whether or not to repent. His
ambition is admirable and initially awesome, yet he ultimately lacks a certain
inner strength. He is unable to embrace his dark path wholeheartedly but is
also unwilling to admit his mistake.
A brilliant man, who seems to have reached the limits
of natural knowledge. Faustus is a scholar of the early sixteenth century in
the German city of Wittenburg. He is arrogant, fiery, and possesses a thirst
for knowledge. As an intellectual, Faustus is familiar with things (like demon
summoning and astrology) not normally considered academic subjects by today's
universities. Faustus decides to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for
earthly power and knowledge and an additional 24 years of life. He proceeds to
waste this time on self-indulgence and low tricks.
Faustus is the absolute center of the play, which has
few truly developed characters.
Mephastophilis - A prince of the
underworld who appears to Faustus and becomes his servant for twenty-four
years. A devil whom Faustus summons with his initial magical
experiments. Mephastophilis’s motivations are ambiguous: on the one hand, his
oft-expressed goal is to catch Faustus’s soul and carry it off to hell; on the
other hand, he actively attempts to dissuade Faustus from making a deal with
Lucifer by warning him about the horrors of hell. Mephastophilis is ultimately
as tragic a figure as Faustus, with his moving, regretful accounts of what the
devils have lost in their eternal separation from God and his repeated
reflections on the pain that comes with damnation.
From the Hebrew, mephitz, destroyer, and tophel, liar.
A devil of craft and cunning. He is the devil who comes at Faustus' summoning,
and the devil who serves Faustus for 24 years. In lore, Mephostophilis (also
spelled Mephistopheles, or Miphostophiles, and also called Mephisto) seems to
be a relative latecomer in the recognized hierarchy of demons. He possibly was
created for the Faustus legend.
In Marlowe's play, Mephostophilis has layers to his
personality. He admits that separation from God is anguish, and is capable of
fear and pain. But he is gleefully evil, participating at every level in
Faustus' destruction. Not only does Mephostophilis get Faustus to sell his
soul; he also encourages Faustus to waste his twenty-four years of power.
Chorus A device used to
comment upon the action of the play or to provide exposition.Chorus
stands outside the story, provides narration and commentary. The Chorus was
customary in Greek tragedy.
Old Man - An
enigmatic figure who appears in the final scene. The old man urges Faustus to
repent and tries to tell Faustus that there is still time to repent (Ask
God for mercy). Faustus initially thanks him. But later, Faustus sends devils
to harm the Old Man. He seems to replace the good and evil angels, who, in the
first scene, try to influence Faustus’s behavior.
Good Angel- A spirit that urges
Faustus to repent for his pact with Lucifer and return to God. Along with the
old man and the bad angel, the good angel represents, in many ways, Faustus’s
conscience and divided will between good and evil.
Evil Angel - A spirit
that serves as the counterpart to the good angel and provides Faustus with
reasons not to repent for sins against God. The evil angel represents the evil
half of Faustus’s conscience.
Lucifer -
Satan- King of the underworld and a fallen angels (The
prince of devils) who had rebelled against God and thereafter tries
desperately to win souls away from the Lord.(the
ruler of hell), and Mephastophilis’s master. "Lucifer" original meant Venus, referring to the planet's
brilliance.
Wagner -
Faustus’s servant. Wagner steals his master’s books to learn how to summon
devils and work magic but fails in a ridiculous and comic manner. At the end of the
play, he seems concerned about his master's fate.
Clown -
A clown who becomes Wagner’s servant (as Mephistophilis becomes a servant to Faustus).
The clown’s antics provide comic relief; he is a ridiculous character, and his
absurd behavior initially contrasts with Faustus’s grandeur. As the play goes
on, though, Faustus’s behavior comes to resemble that of the clown.
Robin
-
An ostler (or innkeeper) who steals some of Dr. Faustus' books and tries
to conjure up some devils. Like the clown, he provides a comic contrast to
Faustus. Robin and his friend Rafe learn some basic conjuring, demonstrating
that even the least scholarly can possess skill in magic. Marlowe includes
Robin and Rafe to illustrate Faustus’s degradation as he submits to simple
trickery such as theirs.
Rafe (Ralph) / Dick - An ostler or
groomer- A friend of Robin who is present with Robin during the attempt to
conjure up devils. Rafe
appears as Dick (Robin’s friend and a clown) in B-text editions of Doctor
Faustus.
Valdes and Cornelius -
Two German
scholars(friends of Faustus), both magicians, who teach him the art of
black magic. They appears only in Act One.
Horse-courser -
A horse-trader who buys a horse from Faustus, which vanishes after the
horse-courser rides it into the water, leading him to seek revenge.
Carter:
A man who meets Faustus while
carting hay to town. Faustus tricks this man by eating all of his hay for only
three farthings.
Hostess:
An ale wench. She treats Robin and
his friends kindly.
The Scholars - Faustus’s
colleagues at the University of Wittenberg. Loyal to Faustus, the scholars
appear at the beginning and end of the play to express dismay at the turn
Faustus’s studies have taken, to marvel at his achievements, and then to hear
his agonized confession of his pact with Lucifer.
Pope Adrian -
The head of the Roman Catholic Church and a powerful political figure in the
Europe. Marlowe depicts him as cruel, power-mad, and far from holy. Faustus
plays practical jokes which amuses the Protestant
audience.
Emperor of Germany, Charles V -
The most powerful monarch in Europe, whose court Faustus visits. The emperor holds
a feast for Faustus and at his court Faustus, illustrates his magical powers.
Raymond: King
of Hungary. He serves the Pope.
Knight - A German
nobleman at the emperor’s court. The knight is skeptical of Faustus’s power. This haughty and
disdainful knigh insults Faustus. In revenge, Faustus makes a pair of horns (antlers) appear on the
knight to teach him a lesson. The knight is further
developed and known as Benvolio in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus;
Benvolio seeks revenge on Faustus and plans to murder him.
Bruno- a man whom the
Emperor of Germany tried to make Pope. Bruno is captured by the pope and freed
by Faustus. Bruno appears only in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus. He
represents the conflicts between Church and state authority.
Duke of
Vanholt: German Noble man- Faustus visits his court and conjures up
some grapes in January for Duchess.
Saxony:
A man attending at the court of
the German Emperor.
Martino and Frederick - Knights at
the court of German Emperor. Friends of Benvolio. When Benvolio seeks revenge
against Faustus, they reluctantly join his attempt to kill Faustus. Martino and
Frederick appear only in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus.
Vintner: A wine merchant-
who chases down Robin and Rafe for the payment for goblet, after they steal it
from him.
Belzebub: One of Lucifer's officers. A powerful demon.
Seven Deadly
Sins, Alexander the Great, Darius, Helen of Troy, and Alexander's
Paramour- Spirits or apparitions which appear during the course of the play.
Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Sin, Redemption, and Damnation
Insofar as Doctor Faustus is
a Christian play, it deals with the themes at the heart of Christianity’s
understanding of the world. First, there is the idea of sin, which Christianity
defines as acts contrary to the will of God. In making a pact with Lucifer,
Faustus commits what is in a sense the ultimate sin: not only does he disobey
God, but he consciously and even eagerly renounces obedience to him, choosing
instead to swear allegiance to the devil. In a Christian framework, however,
even the worst deed can be forgiven through the redemptive power of Jesus
Christ, God’s son, who, according to Christian belief, died on the cross for
humankind’s sins. Thus, however terrible Faustus’s pact with Lucifer may be,
the possibility of redemption is always open to him. All that he needs to do,
theoretically, is ask God for forgiveness. The play offers countless moments in
which Faustus considers doing just that, urged on by the good angel on his
shoulder or by the old man in scene 12—both
of whom can be seen either as emissaries of God, personifications of Faustus’s
conscience, or both.
Each time, Faustus
decides to remain loyal to hell rather than seek heaven. In the Christian
framework, this turning away from God condemns him to spend an eternity in
hell. Only at the end of his life does Faustus desire to repent, and, in the
final scene, he cries out to Christ to redeem him. But it is too late for him
to repent. In creating this moment in which Faustus is still alive but
incapable of being redeemed, Marlowe steps outside the Christian worldview in
order to maximize the dramatic power of the final scene. Having inhabited a
Christian world for the entire play, Faustus spends his final moments in a
slightly different universe, where redemption is no longer possible and where
certain sins cannot be forgiven.
Conflict between
medieval and renaissance
Scholar R.M. Dawkins
famously remarked that Doctor Faustus tells “the story of a
Renaissance man who had to pay the medieval price for being one.” While
slightly simplistic, this quotation does get at the heart of one of the play’s
central themes: the clash between the medieval world and the world of the emerging
Renaissance. The medieval world placed God at the center of existence and
shunted aside man and the natural world. The Renaissance was a movement that
began in Italy in the fifteenth century and soon spread throughout Europe,
carrying with it a new emphasis on the individual, on classical learning, and
on scientific inquiry into the nature of the world. In the medieval academy,
theology was the queen of the sciences. In the Renaissance, though, secular
matters took center stage.
Faustus, despite being
a magician rather than a scientist (a blurred distinction in the sixteenth
century), explicitly rejects the medieval model. In his opening speech in
scene 1, he goes through every field of
scholarship, beginning with logic and proceeding through medicine, law, and
theology, quoting an ancient authority for each: Aristotle on logic, Galen on
medicine, the Byzantine emperor Justinian on law, and the Bible on religion. In
the medieval model, tradition and authority, not individual inquiry, were key.
But in this soliloquy, Faustus considers and rejects this medieval way of
thinking. He resolves, in full Renaissance spirit, to accept no limits,
traditions, or authorities in his quest for knowledge, wealth, and power.
The play’s attitude
toward the clash between medieval and Renaissance values is ambiguous. Marlowe
seems hostile toward the ambitions of Faustus, and, as Dawkins notes, he keeps
his tragic hero squarely in the medieval world, where eternal damnation is the
price of human pride. Yet Marlowe himself was no pious traditionalist, and it
is tempting to see in Faustus—as many readers have—a hero of the new modern
world, a world free of God, religion, and the limits that these imposed on
humanity. Faustus may pay a medieval price, this reading suggests, but his
successors will go further than he and suffer less, as we have in modern times.
On the other hand, the disappointment and mediocrity that follow Faustus’s pact
with the devil, as he descends from grand ambitions to petty conjuring tricks,
might suggest a contrasting interpretation. Marlowe may be suggesting that the
new, modern spirit, though ambitious and glittering, will lead only to a
Faustian dead end.
Power as a corrupting
influence
Early in the play,
before he agrees to the pact with Lucifer, Faustus is full of ideas for how to
use the power that he seeks. He imagines piling up great wealth, but he also
aspires to plumb the mysteries of the universe and to remake the map of Europe.
Though they may not be entirely admirable, these plans are ambitious and
inspire awe, if not sympathy. They lend a grandeur to Faustus’s schemes and
make his quest for personal power seem almost heroic, a sense that is
reinforced by the eloquence of his early soliloquies.
Once Faustus actually
gains the practically limitless power that he so desires, however, his horizons
seem to narrow. Everything is possible to him, but his ambition is somehow
sapped. Instead of the grand designs that he contemplates early on, he contents
himself with performing conjuring tricks for kings and noblemen and takes a
strange delight in using his magic to play practical jokes on simple folks. It
is not that power has corrupted Faustus by making him evil: indeed, Faustus’s
behavior after he sells his soul hardly rises to the level of true wickedness.
Rather, gaining absolute power corrupts Faustus by making him mediocre and by
transforming his boundless ambition into a meaningless delight in petty
celebrity.
In the Christian
framework of the play, one can argue that true greatness can be achieved only
with God’s blessing. By cutting himself off from the creator of the universe,
Faustus is condemned to mediocrity. He has gained the whole world, but he does
not know what to do with it.
The divided nature of
man
Faustus is constantly
undecided about whether he should repent and return to God or continue to
follow his pact with Lucifer. His internal struggle goes on throughout the
play, as part of him of wants to do good and serve God, but part of him (the
dominant part, it seems) lusts after the power that Mephastophilis promises.
The good angel and the evil angel, both of whom appear at Faustus’s shoulder in
order to urge him in different directions, symbolize this struggle. While these
angels may be intended as an actual pair of supernatural beings, they clearly
represent Faustus’s divided will, which compels Faustus to commit to
Mephastophilis but also to question this commitment continually.
Magic and the
supernatural
The supernatural
pervades Doctor Faustus, appearing everywhere in the story. Angels
and devils flit about, magic spells are cast, dragons pull chariots (albeit
offstage), and even fools like the two ostlers, Robin and Rafe, can learn
enough magic to summon demons. Still, it is worth noting that nothing terribly
significant is accomplished through magic. Faustus plays tricks on people,
conjures up grapes, and explores the cosmos on a dragon, but he does not
fundamentally reshape the world. The magic power that Mephastophilis grants him
is more like a toy than an awesome, earth-shaking ability. Furthermore, the
real drama of the play, despite all the supernatural frills and pyrotechnics,
takes place within Faustus’s vacillating mind and soul, as he first sells his
soul to Lucifer and then considers repenting. In this sense, the magic is
almost incidental to the real story of Faustus’s struggle with himself, which
Marlowe intended not as a fantastical battle but rather as a realistic portrait
of a human being with a will divided between good and evil.
Practical jokes
Once he gains his
awesome powers, Faustus does not use them to do great deeds. Instead, he
delights in playing tricks on people: he makes horns sprout from the knight’s
head and sells the horse-courser an enchanted horse. Such magical practical
jokes seem to be Faustus’s chief amusement, and Marlowe uses them to illustrate
Faustus’s decline from a great, prideful scholar into a bored, mediocre
magician with no higher ambition than to have a laugh at the expense of a
collection of simpletons.
Blood
Blood plays multiple
symbolic roles in the play. When Faustus signs away his soul, he signs in
blood, symbolizing the permanent and supernatural nature of this pact. His
blood congeals on the page, however, symbolizing, perhaps, his own body’s
revolt against what he intends to do. Meanwhile, Christ’s blood, which Faustus
says he sees running across the sky during his terrible last night, symbolizes
the sacrifice that Jesus, according to Christian belief, made on the cross;
this sacrifice opened the way for humankind to repent its sins and be saved.
Faustus, of course, in his proud folly, fails to take this path to salvation.
Faustus’s rejection of
the ancient authorities
In scene 1, Faustus goes through a list of the major fields of
human knowledge—logic, medicine, law, and theology—and cites for each an
ancient authority (Aristotle, Galen, Justinian, and Jerome’s Bible,
respectively). He then rejects all of these figures in favor of magic. This
rejection symbolizes Faustus’s break with the medieval world, which prized
authority above all else, in favor of a more modern spirit of free inquiry, in
which experimentation and innovation trump the assertions of Greek philosophers
and the Bible.
THE GOOD ANGEL AND THE
EVIL ANGEL
The angels appear at
Faustus’s shoulder early on in the play—the good angel urging him to repent and
serve God, the evil angel urging him to follow his lust for power and serve
Lucifer. The two symbolize his divided will, part of which wants to do good and
part of which is sunk in sin.
Act wise and
scene wise summary:
The play (A- Text) consists of a prologue, 13 scenes
and an epilogue.
Prologue
The Chorus (it is a
tradition of Greek tragedy), a single actor, enters and introduces the plot of
the play. Chorus insists that the play is involve neither love nor war between
Rome and Carthage, or on the “courts of kings”
or the “pomp of proud audacious deeds”
Instead, we are to witness the “form
of Faustus’ fortunes”, the life of an
ordinary man, born to humble parents. The Chorus chronicles how Faustus was
born to lowly parents in the small town of Rhode, how he came to the
town of Wittenberg to live with his kinsmen, and how he was educated at
Wittenberg, a famous German university. After earning the title of doctor of
divinity, Faustus became famous for his ability to discuss theological matters.
The Chorus adds that Faustus is “swollen
with cunning” and has begun to practice necromancy, or black
magic. The story that we are about to see is compared to the Greek myth of
Icarus, a boy whose father, Daedalus, gave him wings made out of feathers and
beeswax. Icarus did not heed his father’s warning and flew too close the sun,
causing his wings to melt and sending him plunging to his death. In the same
way, the Chorus tells us, Faustus will “mount
above his reach” and suffer the consequences. The Prologue concludes
by stating that Faustus is seated in his study.
Scene 1
In a long soliloquy,
Faustus reflects on the most rewarding type of scholarship. He first
considers logic, quoting the Greek philosopher Aristotle, but notes that
disputing well seems to be the only goal of logic, and, since Faustus’s
debating skills are already good, logic is not scholarly enough for him. He
considers medicine, quoting the Greek physician Galen, and decides that
medicine, with its possibility of achieving miraculous cures, is the most
fruitful pursuit—yet he notes that he has achieved great renown as a doctor
already and that this fame has not brought him satisfaction. He considers law,
quoting the Byzantine emperor Justinian, but dismisses law as too petty,
dealing with trivial matters rather than larger ones. Divinity, the study of
religion and theology, seems to offer wider vistas, but he quotes from St.
Jerome’s Bible that all men sin and finds the Bible’s assertion that “[t]he reward of sin is
death” an
unacceptable doctrine. He says,
Ay,
we must die an everlasting death.
What
doctrine call you this, Che sera, sera,
What
will be, shall be? Divinity, adieu!
These
metaphysics of magiciäns,
And
negromantic books are heavenly;
He then dismisses religion and
fixes his mind on magic, which, when properly pursued, he believes will make
him “A sound
magician is a mighty god”
Wagner, Faustus’s servant,
enters as his master finishes speaking. Faustus asks Wagner to bring Valdes and
Cornelius, Faustus’s friends, to help him learn the art of magic. While they
are on their way, a good angel and an evil angel visit Faustus. The good angel
urges him to set aside his book of magic and read the Scriptures instead; the
evil angel encourages him to go forward in his pursuit of the black arts. After
they vanish, it is clear that Faustus is going to heed the evil spirit, since
he exults at the great powers that the magical arts will bring him. Faustus
imagines sending spirits to the end of the world to fetch him jewels and
delicacies, having them teach him secret knowledge, and using magic to make
himself king of all Germany.
Valdes and Cornelius
appear, and Faustus greets them, declaring that he has set aside all other
forms of learning in favor of magic. They agree to teach Faustus the principles
of the dark arts and describe the wondrous powers that will be his if he remains
committed during his quest to learn magic. Cornelius tells him that “[t]he miracles that
magic will perform / Will make thee vow to study nothing else”. Valdes lists a number of
texts that Faustus should read, and the two friends promise to help him become
better at magic than even they are. Faustus invites them to dine with him, and
they exit.
Scene 2
Two scholars come to see
Faustus. Wagner makes jokes at their expense and then tells them that Faustus
is meeting with Valdes and Cornelius. Aware that Valdes and Cornelius are
infamous for their involvement in the black arts, the scholars leave with heavy
hearts, fearing that Faustus may also be falling into “that damned art” as well.
Scene 3
That night, Faustus stands
in a magical circle marked with various signs and words, and he chants in
Latin. Four devils and Lucifer, the ruler of hell, watch him from the shadows.
Faustus renounces heaven and God, swears allegiance to hell, and demands that Mephistopheles
rise to serve him. The devil Mephistopheles then
appears before Faustus, who commands him to depart and return dressed as a Franciscan
friar, since “[t]hat holy shape becomes a devil best”. Mephistopheles
vanishes, and Faustus remarks on his obedience. Mephistopheles then reappears,
dressed as a monk, and asks Faustus what he desires. Faustus demands his
obedience, but Mephistopheles says that he is Lucifer’s servant and can obey
only Lucifer. He adds that he came because he heard Faustus deny obedience to
God and hoped to capture his soul.
Faustus quizzes Mephistopheles
about Lucifer and hell and learns that Lucifer and all his devils were once
angels who rebelled against God and have been damned to hell forever. Faustus
points out that Mephistopheles is not in hell now but on earth.
Mephistopheles willingly tells
Faustus that his master, Lucifer, is less powerful than God, having been thrown
“by
aspiring pride and insolence, / … from the face of heaven”. Furthermore,
Mephistopheles offers a powerful portrait of hell that seems to warn against
any pact with Lucifer. When Faustus asks him how it is that he is allowed to
leave hell in order to come to earth, Mephistopheles famously says:
Why this is hell, nor am
I out of it.
Think’st thou that I, who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?
Mephistopheles
has finished telling him of the horrors of hell and urged him not to sell his
soul, Faustus blithely dismisses what Mephistopheles has said, accused him of
lacking “manly
fortitude (=courage)” and then declares that he will offer his soul to
Lucifer in return for twenty-four years of Mephistopheles’s service.
Mephistopheles agrees to take this offer to his master and departs. Left alone,
Faustus remarks that if he had “as many souls as there be stars,” he would offer them all
to hell in return for the kind of power that Mephistopheles offers him. He
eagerly awaits Mephistopheles’s return.
Scene 4
Wagner converses with a
clown and tries to persuade him to become his servant for seven years.
The clown is poor, and Wagner jokes that he would probably sell his soul to the
devil for a shoulder of mutton; the clown answers that
it would have to be well-seasoned mutton. After first agreeing to be Wagner’s
servant, however, the clown abruptly changes his mind. Wagner threatens to cast
a spell on him, and he then conjures up two devils, who he says will carry the
clown away to hell unless he becomes Wagner’s servant. Seeing the devils, the
clown becomes terrified and agrees to Wagner’s demands. After Wagner dismisses
the devils, the clown asks his new master if he can learn to conjure as well,
and Wagner promises to teach him how to turn himself into any kind of
animal—but he insists on being called “Master Wagner.”
Scene 5
Faustus prepares to sell
his soul. The good angel tells him to abandon his plan and “think of heaven, and
heavenly things,” but he dismisses the good angel’s words, saying
that God does not love him. The good and evil angels make another
appearance, with the good one again urging Faustus to think of heaven, but the
evil angel convinces him that the wealth he can gain through his deal with the
devil is worth the cost. Faustus then calls back Mephistopheles, who tells him
that Lucifer has accepted his offer of his soul in exchange for twenty-four
years of service. Faustus asks Mephistopheles why Lucifer wants his soul, and
Mephistopheles tells him that Lucifer seeks to enlarge his kingdom and
make humans suffer even as he suffers.
Faustus
decides to make the bargain, and he stabs his arm in order to write the deed in
blood. However, when he tries to write the deed his blood congeals,
making writing impossible. Mephistopheles goes to fetch fire in order to loosen
the blood, and, while he is gone, Faustus endures another bout of indecision,
as he wonders if his own blood is attempting to warn him not to sell his soul.
When Mephistopheles returns, Faustus signs the deed and then discovers an
inscription on his arm that reads “Homo fuge,”
Latin for “O man, fly”.
Faustus has signed his deed, he swears by Lucifer rather than God: “Ay,
take it; and the devil give thee good on’t”.
His rejection of God is also evident when he says, “Consummatum
est,” meaning “it is finished,” which were Christ’s dying
words on the cross.
While Faustus wonders
where he should fly Mephistopheles presents a group of devils, who cover
Faustus with crowns and rich garments. Faustus puts aside his doubts and he
hands over the deed.
After he turns in the
deed, Faustus asks his new servant where hell is located, and
Mephistopheles says that it has no exact location but exists everywhere.
Mephistopheles says,
Hell hath no limits, nor
is circumscribed
In one self-place; for where we are is hell,
And where hell is, there must we ever be…
All places shall be hell that is not heaven.
Faustus tells Mephistopheles that
“I think hell’s a fable / . . . /
Think’st thou that Faustus is so fond to imagine
That after this life there is any pain?
Tush, these are trifles and mere old wives’ tales”.
At Faustus’s request for a
wife, Mephistopheles offers Faustus a she-devil, but Faustus refuses.
Mephistopheles then gives him a book of magic spells and tells him to read it
carefully.
Faustus once again wavers
and leans toward repentance as he contemplates the wonders of heaven from which
he has cut himself off. The good and evil angels appear again, and Faustus
realizes that “[m]y
heart’s so hardened I cannot repent!”. He then begins to ask
Mephistopheles questions about the planets and the heavens. Mephistopheles
answers all his queries willingly, until Faustus asks who made the world. Mephistopheles
refuses to reply because the answer is “against our kingdom”; when Faustus presses
him, Mephistopheles departs angrily.
Faustus then turns his
mind to God, and again he wonders if it is too late for him to repent. The good
and evil angels enter once more, and the good angel says it is never too late
for Faustus to repent. Faustus begins to appeal to Christ for mercy, but then
Lucifer, Belzebub (another devil), and Mephistopheles enter, he becomes
suddenly afraid and exclaims, “O Faustus, they are come to
fetch thy soul!”. When Faustus appeals to Christ to save his
soul, Lucifer declares that “Christ cannot save thy soul, for
he is just,” and orders Faustus to cease thinking about God and
think only of the devil. Then present a show of the Seven Deadly Sins. Each
sin—Pride, Covetousness, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth, and Lechery (PCEWGSL)—appears
before Faustus and makes a brief speech. The sight of the sins delights
Faustus’s soul, and he asks to see hell. Lucifer promises to take him there
that night. For the meantime he gives Faustus a book that teaches him how to
change his shape.
Scene 6
Meanwhile, Robin, a
stablehand, has found one of Faustus’s conjuring books, and he is trying to
learn the spells. He calls in an innkeeper named Rafe, and the two go to a bar
together, where Robin promises to conjure up any kind of wine that Rafe
desires.
Chorus 2
Wagner takes the stage and
describes how Faustus traveled through the heavens on a chariot pulled by
dragons in order to learn the secrets of astronomy. Wagner tells us that
Faustus is now traveling to measure the coasts and kingdoms of the world and
that his travels will take him to Rome.
As the play progresses,
his interests diminish in importance from astronomy, the study of the heavens,
to cosmography, the study of the earth, meddle in political matters (Bruno),
and playing practical jokes
Scene 7
Faustus appears,
recounting to Mephistopheles, his travels throughout Europe—first from Germany
to France and then on to Italy. He asks Mephistopheles if they have arrived in
Rome and Mephistopheles replies that they are in the pope’s privy chamber. It
is a day of feasting in Rome, to celebrate the pope’s victories, and Faustus
and Mephistopheles agree to use their powers to play tricks on the pope.
Note: The events described
in the next two paragraphs occur only in the B text of Doctor Faustus, in Act
III, scene i.
As Faustus and
Mephistopheles watch, the pope comes in with his attendants and a prisoner,
Bruno, who had attempted to become pope with the backing of the German emperor.
While the pope declares that he will depose the emperor and forces Bruno to
swear allegiance to him, Faustus and Mephistopheles disguise themselves as
cardinals and come before the pope. The pope gives Bruno to them, telling them
to carry him off to prison; instead, they give him a fast horse and send him
back to Germany.
Later, the pope confronts
the two cardinals whom Faustus and Mephistopheles have impersonated. When the
cardinals say that they never were given custody of Bruno, the pope sends them
to the dungeon. The pope and his attendants then sit down to dinner. During the
meal, Faustus and Mephistopheles make themselves invisible and curse noisily
and then snatch dishes and food as they are passed around the table. The
churchmen suspect that there is some ghost in the room, and the pope begins to
cross himself, much to the dismay of Faustus and Mephistopheles. Faustus boxes
the pope’s ear, and the pope and all his attendants run away. A group of friars
enters, and sing a dirge damning the unknown spirit that has disrupted the
meal. Faustus and Mephistopheles
seem to fear the power of their words invoke.
Mephistopheles says, “[W]e shall be
cursed with bell, / book, and candle”
(God is stronger than the devil). Mephistopheles and Faustus
beat the friars, fling fireworks among them, and flee.
Scene 8
Robin the ostler, or
stablehand, and his friend Rafe have stolen a cup from a tavern. They are
pursued by a vintner (or wine-maker), who demands that they return the cup.
They claim not to have it, and then Robin conjures up Mephistopheles, which
makes the vintner flee. Mephistopheles is not pleased to have been summoned for
a prank, and he threatens to turn the two into an ape and a dog. The two
friends treat what they have done as a joke, and Mephistopheles leaves in a
fury, saying that he will go to join Faustus in Turkey.
Chorus 3
The Chorus enters to
inform us that Faustus has returned home to Germany and developed his fame by
explaining what he learned during the course of his journey. The German
emperor, Charles V, has heard of Faustus and invited him to his palace, where
we next encounter him.
Scene 9
Note: The events
described in the first two paragraphs of this summary occur only in the B text
of Doctor Faustus, in Act IV, scenes i–ii.
At the court of the
emperor, two gentlemen, Martino and Frederick, discuss the imminent arrival of
Bruno and Faustus. Martino remarks that Faustus has promised to conjure up
Alexander the Great, the famous conqueror. Another gentleman, Benvolio declares
that he would watch the action from his window, because he has a hangover.
Faustus comes before the
emperor, who thanks him for having freed Bruno from the clutches of the pope.
Faustus acknowledges the gratitude and then says that he stands ready to
fulfill any wish that the emperor might have.
The emperor tells Faustus
that he would like to see Alexander the Great (Macedonian conqueror) and his
lover. Faustus tells him that he cannot produce their actual bodies but can
create spirits resembling them.
Before the eyes of the
court, Faustus creates a vision of Alexander embracing his lover (in the B
text, Alexander’s great rival, the Persian king Darius, also appears; Alexander
defeats Darius and then, along with his lover, salutes the emperor). A knight
present in the court (Benvolio in the B text) is skeptical, and asserts that it
is as untrue. Faustus conjures a pair of antlers onto the head of the knight
(Benvolio in the B text). The knight pleads for mercy, and the emperor entreats
Faustus to remove the horns. Faustus complies, warning Benvolio to have more
respect for scholars in the future.
Note: The following
scenes do not appear in the A text of Doctor Faustus. The summary below
corresponds to Act IV, scenes iii–iv, in the B text.
With his friends Martino
and Frederick and a group of soldiers, Benvolio plots an attack against
Faustus. His friends try to dissuade him, but he is so furious at the damage
done to his reputation that he will not listen to reason. They resolve to
ambush Faustus as he leaves the court of the emperor and to take the treasures
that the emperor has given Faustus. When Faustus enters, Benvolio stabs him and
cuts off his head, but Faustus rises with his head restored. Faustus tells them
that they are fools, since his life belongs to Mephistopheles
and cannot be taken by
anyone else. He summons Mephistopheles, who arrives with a group of lesser
devils, and orders the devils to punish Benvolio and his friends, so that the
world will see what happens to people who attack Faustus.
Benvolio,
Frederick, and Martino reappear. They are bruised and bloody from having been
chased and harried by the devils, and all three of them now have horns
sprouting from their heads. Earlier in the play, he boasts that he will divert
the River Rhine and reshape the map of Europe, but now he is using his
unlimited powers for cracking practical jokes/tricks.
Scene 10
Faustus sells him his
horse to a horse-courser but warns him not to ride the horse into the water.
Faustus begins to reflect on the pending expiration of his contract with
Lucifer and falls asleep. The horse-courser reappears, complaining that when he
rode his horse into a stream it turned into a heap of straw. He decides to get
his money back and tries to wake Faustus by hollering in his ear. He then pulls
on Faustus’s leg when Faustus will not wake. The leg breaks off, and Faustus
wakes up, screaming bloody murder. The horse-courser takes the leg and runs
off. Meanwhile, Faustus’s leg is immediately restored, and he laughs at the
joke that he has played. Wagner then enters and tells Faustus that the Duke of
Vanholt has summoned him. Faustus agrees to go, and they depart together.
Note: The following scene
does not appear in the A text of Doctor Faustus. The summary below corresponds
to Act IV, scene vi, in the B text.
Robin and Rafe have
stopped for a drink in a tavern. They listen as a carter, or wagon-driver, and
the horse-courser discuss Faustus. The carter explains that Faustus stopped him
on the road and asked to buy some hay to eat. The carter agreed to sell him all
he could eat for three farthings, and Faustus proceeded to eat the entire
wagonload of hay. The horse-courser tells his own story, adding that he took
Faustus’s leg as revenge and that he is keeping it at his home. Robin declares
that he intends to seek out Faustus, but only after he has a few more drinks.
Scene 11
At the court of the Duke
of Vanholt, Faustus’s skill at conjuring up beautiful illusions wins the duke’s
favor. Duchess tells him she would like a dish of ripe grapes, and Mephistopheles
brings her some grapes in
winter. The duke and duchess are much pleased with Faustus’s display, and they
promise to reward Faustus greatly.
Chorus 4
Wagner announces that
Faustus must be about to die because he has given Wagner all of his
wealth. But he remains unsure, since Faustus is not acting like a dying
man—rather, he is out carousing with scholars.
Scene 12
Faustus enters with some
of the scholars. One of them asks Faustus if he can produce Helen of Greece
(also known as Helen of Troy), who they have decided was “the admirablest lady /
that ever lived”. Faustus agrees to produce her, and gives the order
to Mephistopheles: immediately, Helen herself crosses the stage, to the delight
of the scholars.
The scholars leave, and an
old man enters and tries to persuade Faustus to repent. Faustus becomes
distraught, and Mephistopheles hands him a dagger. However, the old man
persuades him to appeal to God for mercy, saying,
“I see an angel hovers
o’er thy head /
And with a vial full of
precious grace /
Offers to pour the same
into thy soul!”
Once the old man leaves,
Mephistopheles threatens to shred Faustus to pieces if he does not reconfirm
his vow to Lucifer. Faustus complies, sealing his vow by once again stabbing
his arm and inscribing it in blood. He asks Mephistopheles to punish the old
man for trying to dissuade him from continuing in Lucifer’s service;
Mephistopheles says that he cannot touch the old man’s soul but that he will
scourge his body. Faustus then asks Mephistopheles to let him see Helen again.
Helen enters, and Faustus makes a great speech about her beauty and kisses her.
Was this the face that
launched a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless
towers of Ilium –
Sweet Helen, make me
immortal with a kiss:
Her lips sucks forth my soul, see where it flies!
Come Helen, come, give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for heaven be in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena!
Scene 13
The final night of
Faustus’s life has come, and he tells the scholars of the deal he has made with
Lucifer. They are horrified and ask what they can do to save him, but he tells
them that there is nothing to be done. Reluctantly, they leave to pray for Faustus.
A vision of hell opens before Faustus’s horrified eyes as the clock strikes
eleven. The last hour passes by quickly, and Faustus exhorts the clocks to slow
and time to stop, so that he might live a little longer and have a chance to
repent. Faustus appears to be calling on Christ, seeking the precious drop of
blood that will save his soul:
”O, I’ll leap up to my
God! Who pulls me down?
One drop of blood would save my soul, half a drop: ah my Christ”
He then begs God to reduce his
time in hell to a thousand years
or a hundred thousand years so long as he is eventually saved:
“Let Faustus live in
hell a thousand years,
A hundred thousand, and
at last be saved!”
He curses his parents and himself,
and the clock strikes midnight. Devils enter and carry Faustus away as he
screams,
“My God, my God, look not
so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let
me breathe a while!
Ugly hell gape not! Come
not, Lucifer! /
I’ll burn my books—ah,
Mephistopheles!”
Epilogue
The Chorus enters and warns
“Cut is the branch that
might have grown full
straight,
And burnèd is Apollo's
laurel-bough,
Faustus is gone! Regard
his hellish fall,
Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise
Only to wonder at unlawful things:
Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits
To practice more than heavenly power permits.”
and not to trade their souls for
forbidden knowledge.
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