Christopher Marlowe's DOCTOR FAUSTUS

taken from an essay with Edward II that was lookiing into Marlowe's materials

Date of publishing/publishing conditions

written 1592, first performed around 1594 (Marlowe died 1593)

shorter 1604 A text - text short for ren play, 1485 lines long. came to be regarded as abbreviation, a bad quarto?

expanded 1616 B text - includes additional scenes and material of debated authorship - B text gained renewed scholarly interest, regarding comic elements and thematic significance. additions and revisions attributed to Samuel Rowley and William Borne.

Bevington et al - late 16th C England - affluence bc of expanding international trade

‘a nation newly alive to the pleasures of affluence and newly aware of opportunities for acquiring it’ 2002

WHat is the general influence of materialism over Doctor Faustus?

power of materialist ownership contrasts transcendent anti-materialism of God. in DF God and Heaven are immaterial - material confinement of mortal life is an extension of hell.

Stockard - Faustus viewing everything around him including his own soul through a logic of commodification and possession

2012 - “Characteristic materialism”

Quote - F first appearance showing his motivations as economic, desiring gold as a material power to secure his legacy

“Be a physician, Faustus. Heap up Gold,/ and be eternised for some wondrous cure” 1.1

Quote - F making his soul a possession (2.1)

“Is not thy soul thine own?” - trades for “honour and wealth”

repetitive “mine” and “me”

What does Stockard connect Faustus’ obsession w money to

his inability to repent

existence of “unmerited free gift” cannot survive his “market logic” -2012

Faustus viewing Christs blood in incremental amounts - hoping that imbibing these small amounts would eventually lead to full ownership

“one drop … half a drop” 5.2 - lead to “Ah, my christ” 5.2

Notion christs blood “ransomed” damned soul 5.2 - lexis of commodification

Give examples of the numerical language in the ending monologue - ideas around time

Interrupted by striking of the watch and passing of time

Faustus obsessively recounts the time spent suffering in hell - “a thousand years,/ a hundred thousand.” 5.2

Time and Hell - endlessness avoids the structure of measurable units through which Faustus lives his life

“no end is limited to damnéd souls” 5.2.104

Who accused Marlowe of foregery and counterfeiting - Preedy

2014 - Richard Baines accuses Marlowe of counterfeiting french crowns

In an exchange between whom are french crowns a significant currency

farcical exchange between Wagner and Robin A1 S4

Robin suggests crowns are ‘as good … as many English counters’ - parodoies Faustus’ binding to Mephistopheles - Wagner attempts and fails to bind Robin in similar terms.

physical interplay of characters trying to return coins bathetically offsets the power and sinister nature of previous scenes binding - exchange w Meph borders on metaphysical whereas exchange of Wagner and Robin emphasises the absence of monetary value, destabilising Faustus’ notion that success is measured by the procurement of Gold.

What is the body threatened by that makes it an interesting focus in terms of thing theory - Bill Brown

2001 - its ‘semantic reducibility’ to a material

What does the evil angel threaten Faustus with

“if thou repent, devils shall tear thee in pieces” 2.3

How is the soul exchange between Faustus and Mephistopheles literalised into a material exchange - ironically suggests Faustus’ materialiy even as he strives for immateriality.

“a deed of gift with thine own blood” 2.1

How would the process of making artefacts out of body parts be received by the audience

Less unusual - human hair used for embroidery and bracelet making (cf. Donne)

BUT also polemically catholic interest in relics - would expect Faustus to reject given his hatred of the Pope.

WHat is written on Faustus, showing his body become text, foregrounding his materiality and making it inescapable.

“homo fuge” 2.1

Which figure contrasts Faustus’ materiality?

Helen’s immateriality - ease with which the devil takes on and put off her body.

How is writing figured as a material act in Faustus

F describing the shape of the incantatory book with “jehovah’s name” in a “circle” 1.3 - visuality of text enacts mysterious nature of incantation - link to homo fuge.

How are books used in multiple contradictory ways

Robin’s use of book raises Mephistopheles despite his inability to understand it 3.2.

Materials as conduits of knowledge, temptation, power.

Reference to threat of violent objects against the body - vulnerability of the body to intrusion of other objects.

Faustus’ suicidal catalogue “poison, guns, halters, and envenomed steel” 2.3

What contrasts between diff types of objects are established in Doctor Faustus

contrasts between real object and hallucinated theatrical object

What source figure inspired Mephistopheles

the vice figure from medieval morality plays - likeable character - tehre to lead protags to hell but also funny and playfyl

When is the access to immaterial God dispelled in DF

once it is revealed that he “profits in divinity” - epilogue

materialism prevents access to salvation but is also an inescapable element of the societies Marlowe explores

Alongside Helen, how esle do the devils play with embodiment

7 deadly sins not embodied