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FROM DOCTOR FAUSTUS

John Faust or Faustus (the first syllable rhymes

with house) was a traveling German magician who

died about 1540. After his death he became a leg-

endary figure and the subject of various pam-

phlets that described his remarkable tricks—all

attributed to a pact he had made with the Devil.

Marlowe transformed this folklore figure into an

ambitious professor at Wittenberg University who

has mastered all the academic subjects—law, phi-

losophy, theology. medicine—and now, as the play

opens, is bored by all of them. His vast knowledge

has not given him any real power in the world Faustus Gloats

Faustus. How am I glutted with conceit° of this!Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,

Resolve me of all ambiguities.°

Perform what desperate enterprise I will?

I‘ll have them fly to India for gold,‘Ransack the ocean for orient° pearl,

And search all corners of the new-found world

For pleasant fruits and princely delicates.°

I’ll have them read me strange philosophyAnd tell the secrets of all foreign kings;

I’ll have them wall all Germany with brassAnd make swift Rhine circle fair Wittenberg.

I'll have them fill the public schools" with silkWherewith the students shall be bravely clad.

I’ll levy soldiers with the coin they bringAnd chase the Prince of Parma° from our land

And reign sole king of all the provinces.Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war

Than was the fiery keel° at Antwerp's bridge

I’ll make my servile spirits to invent.

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Faustus has inner conflicts and twinges ofconscience after mak-

ing his pact with the Devil. Throughout the play Marlowe rep-resents these contrary feelings by showing a good angel

quarreling with a bad angel over Faustus's soul. The point of

these scenes is that repentance is always open to Faustus, how-

ever much he may feel that what he has done is unforgivable.

He can always break his agreement with the Devil, but as the

years pass it becomes progressively more dfificult for him to do

so. The audience would recognize that Faustus is gradually fall-ing into the sinful state ofdespair, which prevents him from truly

repenting.

The Conflict Within Faustus

[Enter FAUSTUS in his study]

Faustus. Now Faustus must thou needs be damned,

And canst thou not be saved.

What boots 性。 then to think on God or heaven?

Away with such vain fancies. and despair;

Despair in God, and trust in BeolZebub.0

Now go not backward; Faustus. be resolute.

Why waver‘st thou? 0h, something soundeth in mine

car:

‘Abjure this magic; turn to God again.’

Ay, and Faustus will turn to God again!

To God? He loves thee not.IO

outside the University. To obtain further knowl-

edge, for which he has an insatiable thirst, he has

decided to sell his soul to the Devil. In a soliloquy

(a solo speech) near the beginning of the play he

enumerates the great projects he will undertake

during the next twenty-four years, before the

Devil claims his soul.

Marlowe’s audience believed in Satan as firmly

as they believed in God. If good people could wor-

ship and receive help from God, so could bad

people devote themselves to the Devil and receive

his assistance.

. conceit: imagination.

3. ambiguities: problems, puzzles.

6. orient: lustrous.

8. delicates: delicacies.

13. public schools: preparatory schools.

16. Prince of Parma: the leader of the

Spanish forces occupying the \.’etherlands.

l9 fiery keel: a buming ship used to destroy

a blockade made of ships.

三 what boots it: what IS the pomt.

5 Beelzebub: one of the chief demons

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Before Faustus made his pact, he had grandiose projects andplans to benefit himself and his fellow countrymen. But as itturns out he cannot use the knowledge and power he obtainsfrom the Devilfor good purposes; the Devil shows him only howto do tricks and stunts, to make things materialize and disappear.With the help of Mephistophilis he flies to far—off places, butthese journeys accomplish nothing, and over the years he be-comes lazy, self-indulgent, and pleasure-loving. He finally asksMephistophilis to produce Helen of Troy, whom a committee ofWittenberg scholars has pronounced the most beautfiul womanwho ever lived. (Marlowe assumed that everybody had heard ofthis g0rgeous adventuress. When Paris, the Trojan prince. stoleHelen away from her Greek husband Menelaus, it started the

war described in Homer’s Iliad.) And so Mephistophilis conjures

up Helen. Whoever plays this role on the stage must be very

attractive, but needs no acting skill, since she says nothing: only

God can make a realperson; the Devil makes dummies.

Wherein is fixed the love of Beelzebub.

To him I‘ll build an altar and a church,

And offer lukewarm blood of new—born babes.

[Enter the TWO ANGELS.]

Bad Angel. Go forward, Faustus. in that famous art.°

Good Angel. Sweet Faustus, leave that execrable art.

Faustus. Contrition, prayer, repentance—what of these?

Good Angel. Oh, they are means to bring thee unto heaven.

Bad Angel. Rather illusions, fruits of lunacy,

That make men foolish that do use them most.

Good Angel. Sweet Faustus, think of heaven and heavenly

things.

Bad Angel. No Faustus; think of honor and wealth.

[Exeunt ANGELS_]

Faustus. Wealth? Why. the signory" of Emden° shall bemine.

When Mephistophilis° shall stand by me,What power can hurt me? Faustus, thou art safe.Cast no more doubts. Mephistophilis,‘ comeAnd bring glad tidings from great Lucifer.°Is’t not midnight? Come, Mephistophilis.

Helen of Troy

Faustus. Was this the face that launched a thousand ships

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. [She kisses him.]

228 The Renaissance

15. art: black magic.

richEmden: adomain.23. signory:

trading city.

24. Mephistophilis: a chief demon who is

Faustus’s constant companion.

27. Lucifer: the name, meaning “Light-bearer," by which Satan was known beforehe rebelled against God and was exiled fromHeaven.

2. Ilium: Troy.

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Her lips suck forth my soul. See where it flies!Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,And all is dross that is not Helena.I will be Paris, and for love of thee

Instead of Troy shall Wittenberg be sacked;And I will combat with weak Menelaus°

And wear thy colors on my plume‘d crest.

Yea, I will wound Achilles° in the heel

And then return to Helen for a kiss.

Oh, thou art fairer than the evening’s air,Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.Brighter art thou than flaming JupiterWhen he appeared to hapless Semele.°

Faustus Pays His Debt

[The clock strikes eleven.]

Faustus. Ah Faustus,

Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,

And then thou must be damned perpetually.

Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,

That time may cease and midnight never come.

Fair nature‘s eye, rise, rise again, and make

Perpetual day; or let this hour be but

A year, a month, a week, a natural day,’

That Faustus may repent and save his soul.

0 lente, lente currz'le noctis equi.’°

The stars move still; time runs; the clock will strike;

The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned.

Oh, I‘ll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down?

See, see, where Christ’s bloodc streams in the firma-

mentl°

One drop would save my soul, half a drOp! Ah, my

Christ.l

Rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!

Yet will I call on him. Oh, spare me, Lucifer!

Where is it now? ’Tis gone. And see where God

Stretcheth out his arm and bends his ireful brows.

Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me,

And hide me from the heavy wrath of God.

No, no!

Then will I headlong run into the earth.

Earth, gape! Oh no, it will not harbor me!

You stars that reigned at my nativity,o

Whose influence hath allotted death and hell,

Now draw up Faustus like a foggy mist

Into the entrails of yon laboring cloud,

That when you vomit forth into the air,

1

10. Menelaus (men's-labs),

12. Achilles (a-kil’e'z): the Greek hero of theIliad. whom Paris wounds invulnerable spot, the heel.

his only

17. Semele: Semele‘s son by Jupiter (Zeus)was Dionysus.

10. “0 lenle . . . equi": “Ye horses of thenight, run slowly, Oh slowly!” This line isfrom one of Ovid‘s poems.

14. Christ’s blood: shed on the cross. tosave humanity from damnation.mentzsky.

25. nativity: bir'th.

firma-

Christopher Marlowe 229

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My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths,So that my soul may but ascend to heaven.

[The watch strikes.]

Ah. half the hour is past; ‘twill all be past anon.

Oh, God,

If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul.

Yet for Christ’s sake. whose blood hath ransomed me,

Impose some end to my incessant pain.

Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years.

A hundred thousand. and at last be saved.

Oh, no end is limited to damned souls.

Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul?

Or why is this immortal that thou hast?

Ah, Pythagoras' metempsychosis.° were that true,

This soul should fly from me and I be changed

Into some brutish beast. All beasts are happy,

For, when they die

Their souls are soon dissolved in elements.

But mine must live still° to be plagued in hell.

Cursed be the parents that engendered me!

No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer .

That hath deprived thee of the joys of heaven.

[The clock strikes twelve]

Oh, it strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,

Or Lucifer will bear thee quick° to hell.

Oh, soul, be changed to little water—drops.

And fall into the ocean, ne‘er be found!

[Thunder, and enter the DEVILS]

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, Mephistophilis!

[FAL‘STL’S and DEVILS Exeunt.]

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42. Pythagoras‘ metempsychosis: the doc-

trine of the transmigration of souls afterdeath, taught by the Greek philosopher andmathematician Pythagoras.

47. still: forever.

52, quick: alive.

4. As Faustus waits for the devil to come fetch his soul,

how does he try to escape his damnation? Whom does

he blame for his predicament?

What does Dr. Faustus plan to do With his new powers?

When the good angel and the bad angel vie for Faus-

tus's soul, how does each attempt to persuade Faus-

tus? To whom does Faustus finally pledge allegiance?

What happens when Faustus kisses Helen of Troy?

230 The Renaissance

interpreting Meanings5. Does Faustus seek power and knowledge for admirable

purposes? What evidence in the drama lets the audi-

ence infer Faustus's purposes?