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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