Doctor Faustus

“Is to dispute well logic’s chiefest end?

Affords this art no greater miracle?

Then read no more, thou hast attain’d the end;

A greater subject fitteth Faustus’ wit.” 

Faustus believes he has reached the limits of logic and ordinary philosophy; he yearns for more. That he desires knowledge and power that exceeds the limits of human accomplishment reveals his arrogance.

“What doctrine call you this, Che sera sera,

‘What will be shall be?’ Divinity, adieu!”

Faustus protests this feeble advice from the Bible. He dismisses notions of divine fate, preferring beliefs that give him knowledge and power. There is a thread of irony here, since neither knowledge nor power can save Faustus from eternal damnation once he strikes his deal with the devil.

“A sound magician is a mighty god:

Here, Faustus, try thy brains to gain a deity.” 

Faustus finds what he most desires in the magical arts—witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy—which he hopes will grant him powers far beyond those of mortal men. However, in establishing that a magician is akin to a god and confirming that Faustus is merely human, these lines foreshadow the folly in his pursuit of such skills.

“Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our experience

Shall make all nations to canonise us.”

Magician Valdes assures Faustus that, with his and Cornelius’s help in the magical arts, all of them will reap enormous rewards of power and glory. This represents one of Marlowe’s jabs at Catholicism, as to canonize someone is to declare them a saint, and it would be heretical to bestow such an honor on men who strike deals with devils and practice dark magic.

“Faustus, begin thine incantations,

And try if devils will obey thy best,

Seeing thou hast pray’d and sacrific’d to them.”

Faustus conjures up the demon Mephistophilis, hoping to obtain power from him. That he prays to and makes sacrifices to devils demonstrates just how far Faustus has fallen from grace and into sin.

“For when we hear one rack the name of God,

Abjure the Scriptures and his Saviour Christ,

We fly in hope to get his glorious soul;

Nor will we come, unless he use such means

Whereby he is in danger to be damn’d […]” 

Mephistophilis explains to Faustus that, whenever the devil hears someone deny God, he sends his demons to try to collect that person’s soul.

“Go bear these tidings to great Lucifer:

Seeing Faustus hath incurr’d eternal death

By desperate thoughts against Jove’s deity,

Say he surrenders up to him his soul,

So he will spare him four and twenty years,

Letting him live in all voluptuousness;

Having thee ever to attend on me;

To give me whatsoever I shall ask,

To tell me whatsoever I demand,

To slay mine enemies, and aid my friends,

And always be obedient to my will.”

Faustus offers his soul to the devil in exchange for 24 years of ultimate power, glory, and pleasure, with Mephistophilis as his attendant. He does not pause to consider the cost such sizable demands will incur: his soul.

“WAG. Alas, poor slave! See how poverty jesteth in his nakedness! The villain is bare and out of service, and so hungry that I know he would give his soul to the devil for a shoulder of mutton, though it were blood-raw. CLOWN. How? My soul to the Devil for a shoulder of mutton, though ‘twere blood-raw! Not so, good friend. By’r Lady, I had need have it well roasted and good sauce to it, if I pay so dear.”

Faustus’s servant Wagner offers employment to a street clown, reckoning that the clown is so hungry that he’d sell his soul for raw meat. The clown, bantering, replies that at such a price, he’d insist the meat be well prepared. This back-and-forth recalls the play’s fundamental question about the price at which people might barter their souls.

“Why waverest thou? O, something soundeth in mine ears

‘Abjure this magic, turn to God again!’

Ay, and Faustus will turn to God again.

To God?—He loves thee not—

The God thou serv’st is thine own appetite,

Wherein is fix’d the love of Belzebub;

To him I’ll build an altar and a church,

And offer lukewarm blood of new-born babes.”

Faustus has second thoughts about selling his soul; he encourages himself with words of strong resolve, words that reveal the dark lengths to which he’s willing to go to feed his lust for knowledge and power, including worshipping not God but Belzebub, one of the princes of hell and the lord of gluttony.

“On these conditions following. First, that Faustus may be a spirit in form and substance. Secondly, that Mephistophilis. shall be his servant, and at his command. Thirdly, that Mephistophilis. shall do for him and bring him whatsoever [he desires]. Fourthly, that he shall be in his chamber or house invisible. Lastly, that he shall appear to the said John Faustus, at all times, in what form or shape soever he pleases. I, John Faustus, of Wittenberg, Doctor, by these presents do give both body and soul to Lucifer, Prince of the East, and his minister, Mephistophilis; and furthermore grant unto them, that twenty-four years being expired, the articles above written inviolate, full power to fetch or carry the said John Faustus, body and soul, flesh, blood, or goods, into their habitation wheresoever. By me, John Faustus.”

This is the complete agreement between Faustus and Lucifer, written in Faustus’s blood; it stipulates total obedience from Mephistophilis and enormous power, wealth, and pleasure to Faustus for 24 years, after which Faustus and his soul will become the property of the devil forever.

“We come to tell thee thou dost injure us;

Thou talkst of Christ contrary to thy promise;

Thou shouldst not think of God: think of the Devil”

Faust again has second thoughts and tries to repent, but Lucifer appears at once and warns him against breaking his vow. To distract Faustus and tempt him further into evildoing, the devil displays the Seven Deadly Sins and their delicious temptations.

“I am Envy, begotten of a chimney sweeper and an oyster-wife. I cannot read, and therefore wish all books were burnt. I am lean with seeing others eat. O that there would come a famine through all the world, that all might die, and I live alone! then thou should’st see how fat I would be.”

Each of the Seven Deadly Sins parades before Faustus to show him the various wicked ways in which he can behave during his 24 years of power and glory provided by the devil. Though he chides and dismisses many of the seven sins, Faustus is thrilled about the variety of bad deeds he can now commit under Lucifer’s protection.

“Monarch of hell, under whose black survey

Great potentates do kneel with awful fear,

Upon whose altars thousand souls do lie,

How am I vexed with these villains’ charms?

From Constantinople am I hither come

Only for pleasure of these damned slaves.” 

Even high-ranking demons have bad days. Mephistophilis, a prince of hell, is bound to Faustus as his servant by the terms of Faustus’s pact with Lucifer. Mephistophilis must appear at the behest of anyone who possesses Faustus’s book of spells. Stable boys Robin and Ralph, having gotten hold of one such book, suddenly have power over Mephistophilis. The demon gets his revenge by placing fireworks in the boys’ pants and later turning them into an ape and a dog.

“EMP. Farewell, Master Doctor; yet, ere you go,

Expect from me a bounteous reward.”

Faustus visits the courts of Europe and amazes the rulers with his magic; they reward him with money, land, and other riches. He entertains the Holy Roman Emperor by summoning Alexander the Great and conjuring antlers onto the head of a skeptical knight. With the emperor’s compliments in his ears and wealth added to his estates, Faustus has reached the height of his ambition to be gloriously famous.

“What art thou, Faustus, but a man condemn’d to die?

Thy fatal time doth draw to final end;

Despair doth drive distrust unto my thoughts:

Confound these passions with a quiet sleep:

Tush, Christ did call the thief upon the cross;

Then rest thee, Faustus, quiet in conceit.”

Nearing the end of his 24-year life of demonic pleasure, Faustus bemoans his upcoming fate in hell. He hopes that if he repents, God will take him back.

“Where art thou, Faustus? Wretch, what hast thou done?

Damn’d art thou, Faustus, damn’d; despair and die!

Hell calls for right, and with a roaring voice

Says ‘Faustus! come! thine hour is [almost] come!’

And Faustus [now] will come to do thee right.”

Despite the prayers of friends and angels, Faustus must prepare to accept his fate in hell. The contract that binds him to hell is too tight; he can’t unwrap it from his soul.

“Accursed Faustus, where is mercy now?

I do repent; and yet I do despair;

Hell strives with grace for conquest in my breast:

What shall I do to shun the snares of death?”

Near the end of his life, Faustus wants to be forgiven but doesn’t know how to get out of his bargain with the devil. Mephistophilis accuses him of treachery and threatens to tear him to pieces.

“Sweet Mephistophilis, entreat thy lord

To pardon my unjust presumption,

And with my blood again I will confirm

My former vow I made to Lucifer.”

Warned to keep his word, Faustus flip-flops back to the devil’s side. He slits his arm and writes, in blood on paper, a receipt for his soul.

“Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.” 

The “face that launch’d a thousand ships” is the most famous line in all of Marlowe’s works. Paris seduces supremely beautiful Helen away from her Greek husband, and the Greeks send an armada after her. Faustus also hates to see her—or at least the reproduction of her provided by Mephistophilis—depart, as her leaving means his time in hell must begin.

“I will be Paris, and for love of thee,

Instead of Troy, shall Wittenberg be sack’d;

And I will combat with weak Menelaus,

And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;

Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,

And then return to Helen for a kiss.” 

This passage extends the text’s allusion to Homer’s Iliad, which describes the war that erupted between the Trojans and the Achaeans after Paris seduced Helen, wife of Achaean King Menelaus of Sparta. Like Paris before him, Faustus promises to do whatever he can to retain her love, including defending her against an attack on Wittenberg, his beloved university, if she would just remain with him.

“And what wonders I have done, all Germany can witness, yea, the world; for which Faustus hath lost both Germany and the world, yea Heaven itself, Heaven, the seat of God, the throne of the blessed, the kingdom of joy; and must remain in hell for ever, hell, ah, hell, for ever!”

Unable to serenely face his imminent death and delivery to hell, Faustus bemoans his fate to his university friends. Now that all his fun has ended, now that it is too late to repent and alter his fate, he regrets the bargain he made with the devil.

“Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,

And then thou must be damn’d perpetually!

Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of Heaven,

That time may cease, and midnight never come;

Fair Nature’s eye, rise, rise again and make

Perpetual day; or let this hour be but

A year, a month, a week, a natural day,

That Faustus may repent and save his soul!”

The clock strikes 11, one hour before Faustus’s midnight date with the devil for all eternity. He wishes a miracle might occur to stop time and save him from his destiny, even if only for a short while.

“Ugly hell, gape not! come not, Lucifer!

I’ll burn my books!”

Demons arrive to take Faustus away to his eternal afterlife in hell. Even as he is dragged off, Faustus still tries to bargain, but it is too late.