The tragicall history of Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe

PRIMARY SOURCE: Doctor Faustus (perf. 1592-3)
Context

• Publication: A short version that Thomas Bushell published in 1604 combines Marlowe's tragic scenes "with the farcical contributions of a collaborator" (Bevington 249) Signatures: A-F⁴ (-F4); Stationer’s Register: Entered 7 January 1601. EEBO link. A longer version was published by Henslowe in 1616.
• Scholarship: Marlowe is the object of study as a freethinker, and the play is open to orthodox and subversive readings. Faustus is both a damned fool and a profoundly learned thinker: caught at the frustrating imperfections of human knowledge on questions of the gods. A humanist reading finds Faustus genuinely at a loss for will, namely, the will for repentance.
• Why I'm reading it: The canon, the history of science, Johann Fust, book history, illustration.

Content

• Form: Prologue (by Chorus), five Acts, and an Epilogue. Soliloquies in blank verse.
• Genre: Tragedy; performed by the Admiral's Men.
• Plot: Faustus dismisses the three fields of knowledge and instead summons two scholars to teach him the dark arts. He summons a demon, and despite warnings from a Good Angel and divine intercession, sells his soul to Lucifer to have the service of Mephistopheles for 24 years.
• Other notes:
• Notable characters: Faustus, who begins with a desire to do everything, but who gives up both on power and on his salvation; Wagner, who serves Faustus; Mephistopheles, who serves as intercessor between Faustus and Lucifer; the Clowns Rafe and Robin, who try to steal Faustus' power, but are tortured by Mephistopheles; the Seven Deadly Sins.
• Faustus dismisses the liberal arts as obsolete (medicine), mercenary (law), and fatalist (theology).

(NB: Written with anthology notes.)

Bevington, David M, Lars Engle, Katharine E. Maus, and Eric Rasmussen. English Renaissance Drama: A Norton Anthology. New York: W.W. Norton, 2002. Print.