The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

By Christopher Marlowe.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Editor’s Note
4. Dramatis Personae
5. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
   1. Chorus
   2. Scene I
   3. Scene II
   4. Scene III
   5. Scene IV
   6. Scene V
   7. Scene VI
   8. Scene VII
   9. Scene VIII
   10. Scene IX
   11. Scene X
   12. Scene XI
   13. Scene XII
   14. Scene XIII
   15. Scene XIV
   16. Scene XV
   17. Scene XVI
6. Endnotes
7. Colophon
8. Uncopyright

Imprint

This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.

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Editor’s Note

The earliest known edition of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is that of 1604; there is a second edition with date of 1609, agreeing in almost every particular with the first; a third edition with new scenes and many alterations, was published in 1616. The text here given is that of 1604, with some readings adopted from the edition of 1616, in general agreement with the texts of Dyce and Bullen. It is very doubtful if any of the additions in the edition of 1616 are by Marlowe; Mr. Bullen thinks that some of them are. They are often ingenious, and sometimes they are improvements. They appear to be written by a clever and facile imitator of Marlowe’s style. The comic additions are taken from the prose History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Dr. John Faustus; the serious additions are closely moulded on Marlowe’s early work. We know that in 1602 William Bride and Samuel Rowley received four pounds for making “adicyones” to Faustus. I have retained the excellent plan, introduced by Professor Ward and adopted by Mr. Bullen, of dividing the play into scenes only: it is a dramatic poem rather than a regular drama.

—Havelock Ellis

Dramatis Personae

• The Pope

• Cardinal of Lorrain

• Emperor of Germany

• Duke of Vanholt

• Faustus

• Valdes, Friend to Faustus

• Cornelius, Friend to Faustus

• Wagner, Servant to Faustus

• Clown

• Robin

• Ralph

• Vintner, Horse-Courser, Knight, Old Man, Scholars, Friars, and Attendants

• Duchess Of Vanholt

• Lucifer

• Belzebub

• Mephistopheles

• Good Angel

• Evil Angel

• The Seven Deadly Sins

• Devils

• Spirits in the shapes of Alexander the Great, of his Paramour, and of Helen of Troy

• Chorus

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Chorus	Reads.
	Not marching now in fields of Thrasymene, Where Mars did mate1 the Carthaginians; Nor sporting in the dalliance of love, In courts of kings where state is overturned; Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds, Intends our Muse to vaunt her heavenly verse: Only this, gentlemen⁠—we must perform The form of Faustus’ fortunes, good or bad: To patient judgments we appeal our plaud, And speak for Faustus in his infancy. Now is he born, his parents base of stock, In Germany, within a town called Rhodes;2 Of riper years to Wertenberg he went, Whereas his kinsmen3 chiefly brought him up. So soon he profits in divinity, The fruitful plot of scholarism graced, That shortly he was graced with doctor’s name, Excelling all whose sweet delight disputes In heavenly matters of theology; Till swollen with cunning4 of a self-conceit, His waxen wings did mount above his reach, And, melting, heavens conspired his overthrow; For, falling to a devilish exercise, And glutted now with learning’s golden gifts, He surfeits upon cursed necromancy; Nothing so sweet as magic is to him, Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss. And this the man that in his study sits!
	Exit.

Scene I

	Faustus discovered5 in his study.
Faustus	Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess; Having commenced, be a divine in show, Yet level at the end of every art, And live and die in Aristotle’s works. Sweet Analytics, ’tis thou hast ravished me, Bene disserere est finis logices. Is to dispute well logic’s chiefest end? Affords this art no greater miracle? Then read no more; thou hast attained that end; A greater subject fitteth Faustus’ wit: Bid on cai me on6 farewell; Galen come, Seeing, Ubi desinit Philosophus, ibi incipit Medicus; Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold, And be eternised for some wondrous cure. Summum bonum medicinae sanitas, The end of physic is our body’s health. Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end? Is not thy common talk found Aphorisms?7 Are not thy bills8 hung up as monuments, Whereby whole cities have escaped the plague, And thousand desperate maladies been eased? Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man. Couldst thou make men to live eternally, Or, being dead, raise them to life again, Then this profession were to be esteemed. Physic, farewell.⁠—Where is Justinian?
	Reads.
	Si una eademque res legatur duobus, alter rem, alter valorem rei, etc. A pretty case of paltry legacies!
	Reads.
	Ex hoereditare filium non potest pater nisi, etc. Such is the subject of the Institute, And universal Body of the Law. This study fits a mercenary drudge, Who aims at nothing but external trash; Too servile and illiberal for me. When all is done, divinity is best; Jerome’s Bible, Faustus, view it well.
	Reads.
	Stipendium peccati mors est. Ha! Stipendium, etc. The reward of sin is death. That’s hard.
	Reads.
	Si peccasse negamus fallimur et nulla est in nobis veritas; If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,