in Doctor Faustus — Marlowe, Christopher; Anonymous (?)
Metadata
Play
Doctor Faustus
Author
Marlowe, Christopher; Anonymous (?)
Year (catalogued)
1604
First performance
1592
Decade
1600s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Unknown
Speech prefix(es)
Chorus.
Words
388
Characters
2223
Typicality
0.44 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A07009
BritDrama no.
810
Cluster
Cluster 7 — Pedants, satyrs & Latin wit
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
NOt marching now in fields of Thracimene, Where Mars did mate the Carthaginians, Nor sporting in the dalliance of love, In courts of Kings where state is ouerturnd, Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds, Intends our Muse to daunt his heavenly verse: Only this (Gentlemen) we must perform, The form of Faustus Fortune's good or bade. To patient Judgements we appeal our plaude, And speak for Faustus in his infancy: Now is he born, his parents base of stock, In Germany, within a town called Rhod S: Of riper years to Wertenberg he went, Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up, So soon he profits in Divinity, The fruitful plot of Scholerisme graced, That shortly he was graced with Doctors name, Excelling all, whose sweet delight disputes In heavenly matters of Theology, Till suum lne with cunning of a S life conceit, His uva en wings did mount above his reach, And mell king heavens conspire his overthrow. For falling to a devilish exercise, And glut more with learning's golden gifts, He surffets upon cursed Negromancy Nothing so sweet as magic is to him Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss, And this the man that in his study sits. When Faustus had with pleasure taken the view Of rarest things, and royal courts of kings, He stayed his course, and so returned home, Where such as bear his absence, but with grief, I mean his friends and nearest companions, Did gratulate his safety with kind words, And in their conference of what befell, Touching his journey through the world and air, They put forth questions of Astrology, Which Faustus answered with such learned skill, As they admire and at his wit. Now is his fame spread forth in every land, Amongst the rest the Emperor is , Carolus the fifth, at whose palace now Faustus is feasted amongst his noble men. What there he did in trial of his art, I leave untold, your eyes shall see performed. Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, And burned is Apollo's Laurel bough, That sometime grew within this learned man: Faustus is gone, regard his hellish fallen, Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise, Only to wonder at unlawful things, whose deepness does entice such forward wits, To practice more than heavenly power permits.
Plot summary
Plot — Doctor Faustus
DrFaustls is dissatisfied with the limited rewards and power offered by traditional academic disciplines, including logic, medicine, law, and divinity, and instead turns to magic. He conjures up a devil, Mephistopheles. Partly confident that this act has already damned him, and partly out of disbelief in Hell, Faustus proposes a bargain: 24 years of guaranteed life and pleasure, with Mephistopheles as his servant, in exchange for his soul. Mephistopheles secures Lucifer’s agreement, and Faustus writes out a deed of gift in his own blood; Mephistopheles distracts him from his doubts with a show of Ganeinglaevils. Faustus’ first request is for a wife, but Mephistopheles brings him a cross-dressed devil and persuades him to embrace promiscuity rather than marriage. He discourses with Mephistopheles about astronomy, but the devil refuses to answer his theological questions. When Faustus seems ready to repent, DWGifEH arrives and distracts him with a show of Hi@§S@VenuDeadly Sins. Faustus journeys into space in a chariot drawn by dragons, to study astronomy at close quarters. He next ===== PAGE 422 ===== travels to Rome, where Mephistopheles makes him invisible. At a papal banquet, he snatches the Pope’s food and boxes his ears; the clerics take him for a ghost and attempt an exorcism. RObin steals one of Faustus’ magic books and attempts to impose his will on Rafe. He conjures up Mephistopheles, who is not pleased to be summoned all the way from Constantinople, and turns Robin into an ape. Faustus becomes famous, and the Emperor invites him to demonstrate his magic at court. He is mocked bya knight, who doubts his powers. After conjuring up the spirits of Alexanderithe!Great and his paramour to -the Emperor’s satisfaction, Faustus punishes the knight by giving him horns. On his way home, he sells his horse to @j@ealér, but tells him not to ride the animal through water. The horse-dealer ignores this injunction, and the horse turns into a bundle of hay in mid-stream, so that the dealer gets a. ducking. Attempting to wake Faustus to get his money back, the dealer pulls off his leg (which alarms him more than it does Faustus). Faustus also has Mephistopheles fetch out-of-season grapes from the other side of the world to satisfy HREUDUCHESSIORAMNAIE’s pregnancy craving. Back in Wittenberg, Faustus uses his magic to show Heleniof Troy to a group of his fellow scholars. An old man persuades him to repent, but Mephistopheles restores his allegiance to Lucifer with…