The Tragical History of DOCTOR FAUSTUS

Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), English playwright and poet, considered the first great English dramatist and the most important Elizabethan dramatist before William Shakespeare, although his entire activity as a playwright lasted only six years. Earlier playwrights had concentrated on comedy; Marlowe worked on tragedy and advanced it considerably as a dramatic medium. His masterpiece is The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.
Born in Canterbury on February 6, 1564, the son of a shoemaker, Marlowe was educated at the University of Cambridge. Going to London, he associated himself with the Admiral's Men, a company of actors for whom he wrote most of his plays. He was reputedly a secret agent for the government and numbered some prominent men, including Sir Walter Raleigh, among his friends, but he led an adventurous and dissolute life and held unorthodox religious views. In 1593 he was denounced as a heretic; before any action could be taken against him, in May of that year he was stabbed to death in a tavern brawl at Deptford over payment of a dinner bill.
By revealing the possibilities for strength and variety of expression in blank verse, Marlowe helped to establish the verse form as the predominant form in English drama. He wrote four principal plays: the heroic dramatic epic Tamburlaine the Great, Part I (1587), about the 14th-century Mongol conqueror; The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1588?), one of the earliest dramatizations of the Faust legend; the tragedy The Jew of Malta (1589?); and Edward II (1592?), which was one of the earliest successful English historical dramas and a model for Shakespeare's Richard II and Richard III. In each of these dramas one forceful protagonist with a single overriding passion dominates. Marlowe was also the author of two lesser plays: Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage, completed by the English dramatist Thomas Nashe (1594); and Massacre at Paris (1600). Some authorities believe Marlowe also wrote parts of several of Shakespeare's plays. Each of Marlowe's important plays has as a central character a passionate man doomed to destruction by an inordinate desire for power. The plays are further characterized by beautiful, sonorous language and emotional vitality, which is, however, at times unrestrained to the point of bombast.
As a poet Marlowe is known for “The Passionate Shepherd” (1599), which contains the lyric “Come Live with Me and Be My Love.” Marlowe's mythological love poem, Hero and Leander, was unfinished at his death; it was completed by George Chapman and published in 1598. Marlowe also translated works of the ancient Latin poets Lucan and Ovid.
In The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1589?), scholar and magician Faustus sells his soul to the demon Mephistopheles in return for magical power and scientific knowledge. Although English dramatist Christopher Marlowe incorporated elements of the medieval morality play, in which good and evil vie for the human soul, Faustus’s thirst for knowledge is more characteristic of Renaissance concerns. In the following scene, which contains one of the most famous questions in the history of theater (“Was this the face that launched a thousand ships…?”), Faustus conjures the legendary beauty Helen of Troy. He seals his doom when he kisses Helen, actually a demon in human form.
Source: Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation.




The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Christopher Marlowe

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will all alone the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
And all the craggy mountains yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee bed of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers and kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair-lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw of ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat,
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each morning;
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618), English adventurer and writer, who was prominent at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, and became an explorer of the Americas.
Born at Hayes Barton in Devonshire, Raleigh attended the University of Oxford for a time, served in the French religious wars on the Huguenot side, and later studied law in London, where he became familiar with both court life and the intellectual community.
In 1578 Raleigh sailed to America with his half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a voyage that may have stimulated his plan to found an English empire there. In 1585, Raleigh sponsored the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. The colony failed, as did another one in 1587. His explorations in South America fared little better; his search in 1595 in what is now Guyana for El Dorado, the city of gold, achieved no practical success.
Raleigh first came to Queen Elizabeth's attention through his work in Ireland, where he went in 1580 to help suppress a rebellion. He used his Irish experiences to pose as an expert on Irish affairs in London, and became the queen's favorite. He was soon knighted, and became one of the most powerful figures in England.
Raleigh temporarily fell from the queen's favor when she discovered in 1592 that he had secretly married one of her maids of honor. His eventual return to power in the last years of Elizabeth was short-lived; her successor, James I, disliked Raleigh. In 1603 he was accused of plotting against the king and was convicted and sentenced to death. King James, however, commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, and Raleigh was sent to the Tower of London, where he remained for the next 13 years. During his imprisonment he completed the first volume of his History of the World (1614), which, with his other works—several poems, The Last Fight of the Revenge (1591), and The Discovery of Guiana (1596)—gave him an important place among Elizabethan intellectuals. He became a hero to the heir to the throne, Prince Henry, who tried to secure Raleigh's release from prison. Prince Henry's death in 1612 so frustrated Raleigh that he proposed to give King James a fortune in gold if the king would allow him to return to Guiana. James agreed on the condition that no offense be given the Spanish. The expedition in 1616 was a disaster. In Guiana, Raleigh sent his son and an aide to search for El Dorado. They attacked a Spanish settlement, and his son was killed. Raleigh returned to England, where King James invoked the death sentence of 1603; Raleigh was beheaded on October 29, 1618.
Source: Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005

The Nymph’s Reply To the Shepherd
by Sir Walter Raleigh

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be my love.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb
The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields.
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy bed of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle , and thy posies
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten;
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and by thy love.

“The Passionate Shepherd to his Love” is one of the most famous examples of pastoral poetry. A pastoral poem is a lyric poem that celebrates the beauty and pleasures of country life. Pastoral poetry often makes use of a number of conventions. The speaker in a pastoral poem is frequently a shepherd. He either addresses or speaks about a shepherdess or other country maiden with whom he is in love. The world of nature is idealized. The goodness and happiness of life in harmony with such a world is valued above all else.

TEXT CHECK
Identify what is being described or referred by the following statements
1. An English poet and dramatist who is considered as the major influence of William Shakespeare.
2-3 . The two best works of Marlowe.
1. In the poem “The passionate Shepherd to his Love” , the word prove means___________.
2. This word means “complicated songs for several voices.
3. This word means “ a dress or a gown or a skirt.”
4. This word means “young boys”.
5. It means a building where the sheep is housed in winter.
6. It refers to the nightingale.
7. The favorite of Queen Elizabeth I.
8. He was stabbed to death in tavern.