The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
Iohn Wright · Public domain · source
Title	The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
Author	Christopher Marlowe
Genre	Tragedy
Language	English
First performance	c. 1592–1593
First publication	1604 (A-text); 1616 (B-text)

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe dramatizing the tale of a scholar who makes a pact with the devil, drawing on a long European tradition of Faustian legend linked to Johann Georg Faust, Johannes Faustus, and continental occult narratives such as the Historia von D. Johann Fausten. The play engages with Renaissance debates exemplified by figures like Giordano Bruno, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Desiderius Erasmus while intersecting with contemporaneous institutions such as Cambridge University, Oxford University, and the Elizabethan stage. Its publication history involves the Stationers' Register, competing quartos, and theatrical practices associated with companies like the Lord Admiral's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

Introduction

Marlowe's drama condenses sources from Johann Georg Faust narratives, medieval miracle plays preserved in archives like the British Library, and humanist scholarship influenced by Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, and Paracelsus. The work premiered amid the cultural milieu shaped by Elizabeth I, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and intellectual tensions between proponents of Aristotle and emergent Copernicus-inspired thought. The play's proto‑heroic figure echoes classical models such as Oedipus and Prometheus while reflecting early modern anxieties heightened by events like the Spanish Armada and the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

Authorship and Textual History

Attribution to Christopher Marlowe rests on contemporary testimony from figures including Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, and commentary in the Stationers' Register; debates have involved scholars associated with F. S. Boas, A. C. Bradley, and the Cambridge University Press. Two principal printed versions, the 1604 "A-text" and the 1616 "B-text", survive alongside manuscript citations in collections such as the Middle Temple archives and entries in the Register of the Stationers' Company. Editorial histories produced by Edward Arber, G. Blakemore Evans, and later by the Oxford University Press reflect variant lines, additions, and stage directions tied to companies like the Pembroke's Men and venues such as the Rose Theatre and the Globe Theatre.

Plot Summary

The protagonist, Doctor Faustus, is introduced as a scholar from contexts comparable to Wittenberg, negotiating with the demon Mephistopheles and invoking diabolic patrons like Lucifer and allegorical figures from Dante Alighieri and John Milton. Faustus signs a pact mediated by a sanguine document witnessed by personages echoing Tycho Brahe and references to Hermeticism and Renaissance magic associated with names like Cornelius Agrippa and John Dee. Over twenty-four years Faustus experiences episodes involving figures akin to Helen of Troy, interactions that recall Ovid's metamorphoses, and scenes of comic relief featuring characters reminiscent of those in plays by Ben Jonson and Thomas Dekker; his final act evokes classical tragic catharsis traced back to Sophocles and Seneca.

Themes and Interpretation

Central themes include hubris and ambition linked to precedents such as Prometheus Bound and debates about free will and predestination discussed by theologians like John Calvin and Jacobus Arminius. The play interrogates learned pursuits associated with Renaissance humanism, cosmological change invoked by Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, and moral economies shaped by the Protestant Reformation and controversies involving Martin Luther. Interpretations have mobilized critical approaches from scholars in the traditions of New Historicism, Marxist criticism associated with Georg Lukács, psychoanalytic readings drawing on Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, and poststructuralist analyses following Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida.

Performance History

Early performances are linked to companies like the Lord Admiral's Men and venues such as the Rose Theatre; later stagings involved the King's Men, revivals at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and continental productions in cities like Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. Notable twentieth-century productions featured directors and actors including Edward Gordon Craig, John Gielgud, Orson Welles, Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, and companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Adaptations and reinterpretations have appeared in film and radio by producers connected to BBC Radio, filmmakers influenced by Ingmar Bergman and Fritz Lang, and avant-garde stagings associated with Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski.

Critical Reception and Legacy

Critics from the Jacobean period to the present—ranging from contemporaries like William Hazlitt and Samuel Taylor Coleridge to modern scholars such as Harold Bloom, Helen Gardner, and Stephen Greenblatt—have debated Marlowe's theological stance and dramatic technique. The play influenced later representations of Faustian bargains across literature and music, including works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, and composers like Hector Berlioz and Charles Gounod, and resonated in political and philosophical discourse involving Friedrich Nietzsche and Thomas Mann. Its legacy persistently informs studies in departments at institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge, and remains central to curricula in English literature and early modern studies programs.

Category:Plays by Christopher Marlowe Category:English Renaissance plays