Theatre
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe · 1589
Opening lines
Faustus
Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin
To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess:
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
In Wittenberg, Doctor Faustus has exhausted logic, medicine, law and theology, and expects nothing more from them. He turns to magic and summons Mephistophilis, a servant of Lucifer, who admits that he lives in hell because he has lost the sight of God. Faustus disregards this: he offers his soul in exchange for twenty-four years of power and knowledge, and signs the pact in his own blood. He then uses his powers in Rome, where, invisible, he steals the pope's dishes, and afterwards at the emperor's court and at the Duke of Vanholt's.
Context
The source is not the German book published in Frankfurt in 1587 but its English translation, published shortly after and expanded by its translator: the episodes come from it. The text has come down in two printed versions after its author's death, one in 1604 and the other in 1616, the second markedly longer; the first is now held to be closer to the original, and two writers were paid in 1602 for additions. The first performances gave rise to a legend still repeated forty years later: real devils were said to have appeared on the stage, to the terror of actors and audience alike.
Who it is for
A short play, divided into acts by modern editors, whose two early texts differ markedly; each edition indicates which one it follows.
Prizes and reception
The first dramatic version of the Faust legend; forgotten after the Restoration, the play returned to the stage only at the end of the nineteenth century.
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