Actes and Monuments (selections) by John Foxe

PRIMARY SOURCE: Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church (1563-70)
Context

• Publication: Naturally, this is deveolped at length by Evenden & Freeman. EEBO link 1. EEBO link 2.
• Scholarship: Scholarship on Actes and Monuments largely considers Foxe as a Protestant propagandist, his political connections, and the development of a Protestant iconography.
• Why I'm reading it: Illustrations! The Canon, history of religion.

Content

• Form: Illustrated prose.
• Genre: Protestant history. Martyrology.
• Conceit:
• 1. "Dedication to Queen Elizabeth I"
     Foxe compares Elizabeth to Constantine and himself to Eusebius as an analogy to elicit Elizabeth's support for this martyrology.
  2. "The Miraculous Preservation of the Lady Elizabeth"
     Foxe narrates the seizure, transport, trials, and imprisonment of Elizabeth following the Wyatt rebellion. Elizabeth is imprisoned around Palm Sunday, transferred on Trinity Sunday, and sent to Woodstock until the death of Mary. Foxe ventures an interesting side-narrative to exhibit the unloyal nature of a metonymic Catholic merchant.
  3. "From the Life of William Tyndale"
     
     
  4. "The Burning of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley"
     
     
  5. "The Examination and Execution of Alice Driver and Alexander Gouch"
     
     
  6. "The Hairbreadth escape and Exile of the Duchess of Suffolk"
     
     
  7. "The Deliverance of Catherine Parr from Court Intrigue"
     
     
• Other notes:

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.