Study Guide to Faustus and Other Works by Christopher Marlowe

Intelligent Education

• Publisher: Influence Publishers
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781645420651
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Studienhilfen
• Subtopic: Studienführer

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Christopher Marlowe, the foremost Elizabethian tragedian of his day. Titles in this study guide include Faustus, Tamburlaine, Jew of Malta, and Edward II. As Shakespeare’s most important predecessor and influencer of English drama, Marlowe’s plays are most known for the use of blank verse and their overreaching protagonists. Moreover, Marlowe took the humanist literary discussion of sexuality further than his contemporaries, setting the stage for the Elizabethian period’s later years of erotic poetry. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Marlowe’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

 

Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564, the year of Shakespeare’s birth, in the city of Canterbury. Records indicate that Marlowe was baptized on the twenty-sixth day of February. Marlowe’s family was a prosperous one, and his father was a member of the Shoemaker’s Guild. Before he was fifteen years old, Christopher Marlowe entered the King’s School, Canterbury on a scholarship, and slightly less than two years later he went to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. As a recipient of an Archbishop Matthew Parker Scholarship to Cambridge, it was expected that Marlowe would take holy orders and enter the clergy.

Marlowe took his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1584 and by 1587 it was acknowledged that he had earned the Master of Arts degree; however, the university authorities refused to grant the Master’s degree. The Queen’s Privy Council intervened to deny a report that Marlowe had gone beyond the seas to Rheims, and the Council went on to state “Because it was not her Majesty’s pleasure that any one employed as he had been in matters touching the benefit of his Country should be defamed by those that are ignorant in th’ affairs he went about.” The University withdrew its refusal and granted the degree to Marlowe. The University’s initial refusal undoubtedly stemmed from a suspicion that Marlowe had converted to Roman Catholicism, for Rheims was at the time a center for English Catholics and for political disaffection. This suspicion may well have been heightened by Marlowe’s refusal to take orders in the Anglican Church. At any rate the interference by the government in Marlowe’s behalf in the degree matter and the Privy Council’s document clearly indicate that Marlowe was engaged on a mission of some political importance. Though the exact nature of the mission is unknown, Marlowe may at this time have had some connection with the elaborate espionage network that Elizabeth had operating abroad to maintain a close watch on Catholic activities.

LITERARY CAREER

Christopher Marlowe’s literary career spans the period 1587-1593, six years in which he was to establish himself as a major poet and dramatist. His first dramatic association seems to have been with the Lord Admiral’s Men, a dramatic company, which produced his play Tamburlaine, which brought to the English popular stage a superman hero motivated by the “thirst of reign and sweetness of a crown.” This play was such a popular success that Marlowe wrote a sequel titled Tamburlaine, Part II: both plays were printed together in 1590. Lord Strange’s Men produced Marlowe’s next two plays, The Jew of Malta and The Massacre at Paris. The Jew of Malta may be dated between 1589 and 1593. Lord Pembroke’s Men produced Edward II which was probably written in 1591 or 1592. The same company probably produced Doctor Faustus which was written in late 1592 or early in 1593. Marlowe’s other works include Dido Queen of Carthage, a play based closely on Virgil’s Aeneid. Dido may have been written during Marlowe’s Cambridge days. While a student of Cambridge, Marlowe translated the Amores of Ovid and the first book of Lucan’s Pharsalia. He is also the author of a lengthy narrative poem Hero and Leander which was completed by Marlowe’s friend and fellow poet-dramatist George Chapman. Hero and Leander, together with Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis and his The Rape of Lucrece, are outstanding examples of a type of erotic poetry which became fashionable in the later years of the Elizabethan period.

THE BRADLEY AFFAIR

In September 1589, Marlowe and a friend named Thomas Watson were involved in a sword-fight in which Watson killed a man named William Bradley, who was the son of an innkeeper. It seems that Bradley had cause to suspect Watson because he had asked the authorities for “sureties” (assurances) of the peace against Watson. The upshot of the affair was the Marlowe and Bradley were acquitted after stays of one week and five months respectively in Newgate Prison. It was the judgment of the authorities that Watson, who fatally stabbed Bradley, had acted in self-defense. The episode is important because it marks the beginning of Marlowe’s involvement with legal authorities and opens the dramatic series of events which led to his mysterious murder in a tavern brawl in 1593.

MARLOWE AND CHARGES OF ATHEISM

Biographies of Marlowe have often taken an excessively romantic view of his career by emphasizing his “free-thinking spirit”. A view of Marlowe as a rebellious Renaissance spirit thrusting against the shackles of accepted belief and authority is largely biographical fiction, the product of biographers with a regard for invention. Much of this view is also caused by a too close identification of Marlowe the man with the dramatic supermen who are his tragic heroes-Faustus and Tamburlaine for example. Atheism in the Renaissance meant an active hostility to God and religion; it identified many types of skeptical or naturalistic thinking. Marlowe was first charged with atheism by Robert Greene in Perimedes the Blacksmith (1588), and again in Groats-worth of Wit (1592) which was written shortly before Greene’s death. Greene, like Marlowe, was an important dramatist of the time and among his works are Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay; James the Fourth; and George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield. The charges of atheism against Marlowe played an important part in the final events of his turbulent life.

MARLOWE’S DEATH

On May 12, 1593 Thomas Kyd, dramatist and author of The Spanish Tragedy (1590), was arrested and charged with atheism. Kyd was suspected of being involved in political disorder. His quarters were searched and he was put to the torture. Papers of an heretical type were found in Kyd’s quarters, and Kyd claimed that the documents belonged to Marlowe, who had shared his quarters in the year 1591. After Marlowe’s death in 1593, Kyd wrote two letters to the Lord Keeper, Sir John Puckering, in which he repeated in detail his charges against Marlowe. Kyd said that Marlowe had refused holy orders in the Anglican church and had practiced atheism to such an extent as “to jest at the divine scriptures, gibe at prayers, and strive in argument to frustrate and confute what has been spoken or written by prophets and such holy men.” Kyd also connected Marlowe with a “school of atheism” or “school of night,” whose members included: Thomas Harriott, a mathematician; George Chapman, the dramatist and poet; Sir Walter Raleigh, an important court figure as well as a leading intellectual of the day; and the poets Matthew Roydon and William Warner.

Thomas Kyd, however, was not the only one to come forward at this time with charges of atheism against Marlowe. A certain Richard Baines, shortly before Marlowe’s death, informed the Queen’s Privy Council of a lecture that Marlowe had delivered wherein Marlowe uttered such atheistical blasphemies as: “That the first beginning of Religion was only to keep men in awe,” and “That Christ was a bastard and his mother dishonest.” No matter how unreliable Baines might be, the cumulative weight of the evidence points to the fact that Marlowe had the reputation among his contemporaries of being a religious skeptic and of being unorthodox in his philosophical beliefs.

On May 18, 1593 the Queen’s Privy Council issued a warrant for Marlowe’s arrest; on May 20, 1593 Marlowe was back in London and was ordered to be in daily attendance upon the Council. Ten days later Marlowe was invited to dinner at Deptford, a short distance from London, at a tavern owned by a widow named Eleanor Bull. Ingram Frizer and Nicholas Skeres, boh swindlers, and Raymond Poley, a double-spy, were present with Marlowe at this dinner. All of these men were connected with an espionage ring run by Walsingham. After a day-long drinking bout, an argument erupted over the reckoning, or bill. When Marlowe attacked Frizer, Frizer retaliated and stabbed Marlowe above the right eye. Marlowe died instantly. This at least was the “official” version, for it seems that Marlowe may well have been lured to a planned assassination. Perhaps something in connection with the espionage activities of Sir Thomas Walsingham may have contributed to Marlowe’s death.

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS OF HIS DEATH

Contemporary accounts of Marlowe’s death viewed it as an example of divine providence punishing a blaspheming atheist. Thomas Beard in his Theatre of God’s Judgements (1597) charged Marlowe with being an atheist, a poet of scurrility, a blasphemer whose death revealed the justice of God punishing heinous sin. Francis Meres in Palladis Tamia (1598) used the Beard account and repeated charges of epicureanism and atheism against Marlowe. Meres added that Marlowe had been killed by a serving-man who was a love-rival. William Vaughn in Golden Grove (1600) provided some factual material by mentioning Deptford and a man named Ingram. Yet this account, too, mentioned Marlowe’s atheism. One strongly suspects that the inaccuracies of these contemporary accounts could well be attributed to a deliberate plot against Marlowe. Marlowe’s murderers were all pardoned, and this further builds the suspicion that Marlowe was the victim of an official government intrigue against his life. But the exact cause of why Marlowe was murdered remains a mystery.

SUMMARY OF THE IMPORTANT FACTS OF MARLOWE’S LIFE

1. Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564, the year of William Shakespeare’s birth.
2. Marlowe was educated at Cambridge and was involved in difficulties there with the authorities with regard to the granting of his Master of Arts degree in 1587. It seems that Marlowe refused to take holy orders and that he was suspected of “converting” to Roman Catholicism. However, the government authorities intervened in Marlowe’s behalf, and the degree was granted. Marlowe, at this time, undoubtedly was active in some form of government service.
3. From 1587 to 1593 Marlowe wrote and produced his plays. He established himself as a major dramatist with Tamburlaine, Parts I and II, The Jew of Malta, Edward the Second, and Doctor Faustus.
4. Marlowe’s death involved considerable intrigue. He was killed on May 30, 1593 in a tavern brawl which may well have been part of a deliberate plot to assassinate Marlowe.
5. Marlowe died at the age of twenty-nine, and it is interesting to note that at this time Shakespeare was just beginning his dramatic career. In many particulars Marlowe gave to the English popular theater the foundation upon which Shakespeare was to build.

DOCTOR FAUSTUS

DETAILED SUMMARY

DRAMATIC CHARACTERS

The Chorus: introduces the action and serves to comment at the end of the play.

Doctors Faustus: The learned professor who undertakes the study of magic.

Wagner: Doctor Faustus’s servant.

Valdes and Cornelius: Both are friends of Faustus and know the secrets of magic.

Three Scholars: They are learned men of the University of Wittenberg.

An Old Man: He offers advice to Faustus late in the play.

The Pope: He is tricked by Faustus’s magic.

Raymond, King Of Hungary: Member of the Pope’s party.

Bruno: The anti-Pope who is rescued at Rome by Faustus.

Two Cardinals, Archbishop Of Rheims, and Cardinal Of Lorraine: These figures appear at Rome when Faustus and Mephistophilis play pranks against the Pope.

Charles, Emperor Of Germany: Entertains Faustus in gratitude for the help given to Bruno.

Martino, Frederick, and Benvolio: These three gentlemen of the court of Charles are victims of Faustus's magic.

Duke Of Anholt: Faustus shows him an enchanted castle in the air.

Clown: Taken into Wagner’s service by magic.

Robin: A stableman who pursues magic.

Dick: An ally to Robin’s conjuring.

A Horse-Courser: He is duped by Faustus into buying a horse which turns into a bundle of hay.

Hostess: Faustus strikes her dumb when she asks him to pay his bill at the tavern.

Good Angel and Bad Angel: They advise Faustus and contend for his soul.

Mephistophilis: A devil who assists Faustus.

Lucifer: Prince of devils to whom Faustus sells his soul.

Beelzebub: A devil who is second to Lucifer in command.

The Seven Deadly Sins: Personifications of sins.

Alexander The Great) His Paramour ) All of these are spirits who are conjured up during Darius ) the play. Helen ) Two Cupids )

Other Characters: Duke Of Saxony, A Knight, Bishops, Monks, Friars, Soldiers, Evil Angel, Ralph, A Vintner, A Carter, Devils.

ACT I

Faustus sits in his study meditating on the various courses of study that he might pursue. Already he is learned doctor of the University of Wittenberg, and now he rejects such traditional and orthodox studies as philosophy, law, medicine, and theology. Faustus desires to be free and human learning, he believes, is empty when compared to necromancy, or black magic. Although his Good Angel counsels Faustus to give up his plan to study necromancy Faustus persists in his design and heeds the urgings of the Bad Angel. Valdes and Cornelius, Faustus’s friends, also urge him to pursue magic, and Faustus resolves that “This night I’ll conjure, though I die therefore.” Wagner, Faustus’s servant, meets two scholars who are acquainted with Faustus, and when Wagner tells them that his master is dining with Valdes and Cornelius, the scholars express fear and rush off to tell the Rector of the University in the hope that there might yet be something that could be done to reclaim Faustus.

Faustus begins his magical career by conjuring up Mephistophilis from hell. Mephistophilis so frightens Faustus that he commands the demon to leave and to return dressed as a Franciscan friar. Mephistophilis does this and then answers Faustus’s questions about hell and Lucifer. Faustus agrees to a bargain wherein he sells his soul to Lucifer for twenty-four years of voluptuous worldly pleasure with Mephistophilis for his servant.

The last scene of Act I presents a parody of the Faustus-Mephistophilis conjuring scene. Wagner, who has learned the ways of his master, tries to enlist a Clown in his service. When the Clown expresses reluctance, Wagner conjures two devils named Banio and Belcher who frighten the Clown to accept service.

ACT II

Faustus again is seen sitting alone in his study, and he now thinks upon the significance of his bargain. His soul is in turmoil, and, though something seems to call him back from his damned course, Faustus proclaims his love for B...