THE PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES (1390)
DOCTOR FAUSTUS (1604)
Author: Christopher Marlowe (1564 ~ 1593)
Age: Renaissance / Elizabethan
Quotations:
|Chorus: |Now is he born of parents base of stock, |Studied theology and shortly was called |
| |In Germany, within a town call'd Rhodes: |doctor. |
| |He surfeits upon cursed necromancy; | |
|Faust: (soliloquy) |A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit: |(Act I – Scene I ) Shows dissatisfaction on |
| | |limitation of his previous knowledge though |
| | |much respected by other people. He desires |
| | |something above life. |
| |Yet art thou still but Faustus, and a man. | |
| | Of power, of honour, and omnipotence, | |
| |Shall be at my command: emperors and kings | |
| |A sound magician is a demigod: | |
|Good Angel: |Read, read the Scriptures:--that is blasphemy. | |
|Evil Angel: |Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky, | |
|Faust: (soliloquy) |And reign sole king of all the provinces; |He resolves for prosperity of people but |
| | |more for his own power. Valdes outlines |
| | |promising future if Faustus learns magic. |
|Faustus: |'Tis magic, magic that hath ravish'd me. | |
|Cornelius: |Then doubt not, Faustus, but to be renowm'd, | |
|Faustus: |This night I'll conjure, though I die therefore. | |
|Two scholars came to know about his passion through Wagner. |(Scene II) |
|Faustus: |And try if devils will obey thy hest, |(Scene III) Faustus attempts magic. |
| |How pliant is this Mephistophilis, | |
| |Full of obedience and humility! | |
| |Such is the force of magic and my spells. | |
| |Now, Faustus, thou art conjuror laureate: | |
| |Thou canst command great Mephistophilis. | |
|Mephistophilis: |For, when we hear one rack the name of God, | |
| |Abjure the Scriptures and his Saviour Christ, | |
| |We fly, in hope to get his glorious soul; | |
| |Nor will we come, unless he use such means | |
|Faustus: |There is no chief but only Belzebub; | |
| |This word "damnation" terrifies not me, | |
| |For I confound hell in Elysium: | |
|Mephistophilis: |O, by aspiring pride and insolence; |(reason of Lucifer’s fall) |
| |Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer, |(describing devils) |
| |Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it: | |
| |Think'st thou that I, that saw the face of God, | |
| |And tasted the eternal joys of heaven, | |
| |Am not tormented with ten thousand hells, | |
| |In being depriv'd of everlasting bliss? | |
|Faustus: |Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitude, |(boasting) |
| |Say, he surrenders up to him his soul, |Sends proposal for Lucifer that he will be |
| |So he will spare him four and twenty years, |attended by Mephistophilis and will be given|
| |Letting him live in all voluptuousness; |whatever he demands and will be answered |
| | |whatever asked by him. |
|Faust: (soliloquy) |Had I as many souls as there be stars, | |
| |I'd give them all for Mephistophilis. | |
| |The Emperor shall not live but by my leave, | |
|Wagner scares clown with two devils and make him slave. |(Scene IV) |
|Faust: (soliloquy) |Despair in God, and trust in Belzebub: |(Act II – Scene I ) |
| |Why waver'st thou? O, something soundeth in mine ear, |Good Angel and Evil Angel try to pull him in|
| |"Abjure this magic, turn to God again!" |two opposite directions. |
| |What power can hurt me? Faustus, thou art safe: |Mephistophilis informs Faustus of Lucifer’s |
| | |acceptance. Faustus writes contract with his|
| | |blood. |
|Mephistophilis: |If thou deny it, I must back to hell. | |
| |And then be thou as great as Lucifer. | |
| |In one self-place; but where we are is hell, |Mephistophilis answers Faustus’ questions |
| |And where hell is, there must we ever be: |and afterwards refuses his request for a |
| | |wife. He gives him the book of magic. |
| |All places shall be hell that are not heaven. | |
| |No, these are trifles and mere old wives' tales. | |
|Faustus: |My heart is harden'd, I cannot repent; |(Scene II) Good & Evil Angels appears twice.|
| | |Faustus asks some questions and finally asks|
| | |who made the world but is not provided the |
| | |answer. In a state of despair he calls for |
| | |Christ. Lucifer and Belzebub also appear and|
| | |forbid him. Faustus promises that he will |
| | |not call Christ again. For pastime he is |
| | |entertained with the seven deadly sins. |
|Mephistophilis: |Ay, that is not against our kingdom; this is. | |
|Evil Angel: |Too late. | |
|Good Angel: |Never too late, if Faustus will repent. | |
|Evil Angel: |If thou repent, devils will tear thee in pieces. | |
|Good Angel: |Repent, and they shall never raze thy skin. | |
|Ludifer: |So shalt thou shew thyself an obedient servant | |
|Faustus: |O, this feeds my soul! (show of 7 deadly sins) | |
|Chorus tells us of learning and wonderful travelling in 8 days and again another journey to Rome (Act III ) |
|Mephistophilis and Faustus make a fun of Pope & other priests. |(Scene I) |
|Chorus describes his skill and fame and his feast with the king |(Act IV ) |
|Ralph & Robin introduced – Robin has stolen one of conjuring book. |(Scene I) |
|Ralph & Robin charm but Mephistophilis make them animals. |(Scene II) |
|Faustus calls the spirits of Alexander before Emperor & punishes a knight |(Scene III) |
|Faustus befooled a horse-courser in this scene |(Scene IV) |
|Faustus proves his magical skills to the Duchess and Duke of Vanholt. |(Scene V) |
|Third Scholar: |No marvel though the angry Greeks persu’d |(Act V – Scene I ) Faustus calls the spirit |
| |With ten years’ ware the rape of such a queen |of Helen |
|First Scholar: |The only paragon of excellence. |Afterwards scholars depart. |
|Faustus: |Says, “Faustus come: thine hour is almost come:” |Talks to the old man. Mephistophilis warns |
| | |him and make him write the contract again |
| | |with his blood. Faustus asks to torment the |
| | |old man and also desires for Helen. |
| |I do repent; and yet I do despair: | |
|Mephistophilis: |His faith is great : I cannot touch his soul; (old man) | |
|Faustus: |Was this face that launch’d a thousand ships, | |
| |And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? – | |
| |Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss -- | |
| |Thou are fairer than the evening air | |
| |Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars; | |
|Old Man: |That from thy soul exclud’st the grace of heaven, |(Scene II) |
|Faustus: |The serpent that tempted Eve may be saved, but not Faustus. |(Scene III) Faustus tells scholars the story|
| | |in fear, remorse and despair and forces them|
| | |to leave him alone. He then asks orbs to |
| | |stop, requests remaining one hour to |
| | |prolong, hills and earth to hide him or turn|
| | |him into mist. |
| |Talk not of me, but save yourselves, and depart | |
|Faust (soliloquy) |Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven, | |
| |That time may cease, and midnight never come: | |
| |Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years, (prays God) | |
| |A hundred thousand, and at last be sav’d! | |
| |This soul should fly from me, and I be chang’d | |
| |Unto some brutish beast! All beasts are happy, | |
|Chorus: |Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, | |
| |And burned is Apollo’s laurel-bough | |
| |Whose fearful fortune may exhort the wise | |
| |To practise more than heavenly power permits. | |
Criticism:
|Emile Legouis: |His merit is that in his short career he set the stage on fire with the flame of his passion. |
|F. P. Wilson: |Recent critics have pointed out how Faustus is cheated by the devil’s promises, how he sells eternity for a toy. He|
| |asks for a wife but the request is evaded, for he never has a wife. He puts the question: “Who made the world?” and|
| |receives no answer. |
|F. P. Wilson: |There is a more dreadful deceit in the requests which he is granted. |
|Felix Schelling: |Is little more than a succession of scenes, void of continuity or cohesion, except for the unity of the main |
| |figure. |
|George Santayana: |His Faustus is still damned, but he is transformed into the sort of personage that Aristotle approves of for the |
| |hero of tragedy, essentially human and noble, but led astray by some excusable vice or error. |
|J. A. Symonds: |What Shakespeare would have been without Marlowe, cannot even be surmised. |
| |His verse is mighty: his passion is intense: the outlines of his plots are large; his characters are Titanic; his |
| |fancy is extravagant in richness, insolence, and pomp. |
|James Smith: |In the body of the play scene succeeds scene, not indeed in any order, but in one which is more of psychological |
| |than chronological significance. |
|John E. Cunningham: |It has been explained as escapism (the Helen episode) |
| |Irony – ‘make me immortal with a kiss’ is spoken by someone who in stage will die in a few moments. |
|Paul H. Kocher: |It is an error to suppose that highest poetry of the play is limited to the passages of rebellion. Surely there are|
| |seldom been more noble expression of the sense of failure and the pain of everlasting banishment from God than that|
| |of the lost demon, Mephistophilis. |
|Richard B. Sewah: |But between disillusioned scholar of the first scene and the agonizing, ecstatic figure of the final scene there is|
| |a difference. He enters, not alone this time, but with the Scholars; and for the first time in the play he has |
| |normal, compassionate discourse with his fellow. |
|Swinburne: |Before him there was neither genuine blank verse nor a genuine tragedy in our language. After his arrival, the way |
| |was prepared; the paths were made, straight for Shakespeare. |
|W. W. Greg: |Faustus … shows himself content to amuse the Emperor with conjuring tricks and play childish pranks on the Pope. |
| |He shows us the betrayal of ideals, the lapse into luxury and buffoonery. |
| |But Marlowe knew the nature of the power he put into the hands of his hero and the inevitable curse it carried with|
| |it. |
Characters:
|Doctor John Faustus |The Pope |The Emperor of Germany |
|Valdes & Cornelius |Wagner |Clown |
|Ralph & Robin |Duchess of Vanholt |Scholars |
|Horse Courser |A Knight |Good & Evil Angels |
|Spirits and devils |Mephistophilis |Lucifer & Beelzebub |
|Seven deadly sins (Pride, Covetousness, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, Lechery) |
Renaissance Theme:
|Marlowe – a product of Renaissance |Faustus – an embodiment of epoch |
|Desire for super-human knowledge and powers |Sensual pleasures and love of beauty |
|A grand tragic hero |Conflict between conscious and passion |
|Originality |Tragic end |
|Doctrine of Medieval Christianity |Symbolism |
Tragedy – Tragic Hero:
|Tragedy before Marlowe |Marlowe’s tragic hero |
|Tragedy of one man |Renaissance spirit – inordinate ambition or passion |
|Inner conflict |Introduction of new blank verse (mighty line) |
|High seriousness |Lack of female characters |
Allegories & Symbolism:
|Moral allegory – proud and inordinate ambition |Two angels and tragic conflict |
|The old man and Helen |Significance of seven deadly sins |
|Significance of character of Mephistophilis | |
Merits & Demerits:
|Mixed reaction from audience and critics |Characterisation |
|Tragic conflict / inner struggle |Tragic hero |
|Outstanding scenes |Originality |
|Poetic quality |Blank verse (mighty line) |
|Character of Mephistophilis |One-man show |
|Comic scenes |Lack of female characters |
|Unlikely behaviour with Duchess & Emperor | |
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