First performed in England in 1594 after the playwright’s death the year before, Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus remained unpublished until the seventeenth century, the first known edition appearing in 1604. By this time Elizabeth I was deceased, succeeded by James VI of Scotland, under whose reign the “Golden Age” of Elizabethan literature continued to thrive. Political and religious turmoil was also afoot as the hostilities between Catholics and Protestants continued to rage across Europe. The drama of the time reflected this internal, spiritual struggle, and Doctor Faustus was no exception. Based on a German scholar and magician, Marlowe’s Faustus is the personification of renaissance ambition: religiously dissatisfied and determined to seek out knowledge. He sells his soul to the devil in exchange for twenty-four years of knowledge, giving him “whatsoever [he] shall ask” (scene 3, line 95). Implored on more than one occasion by more than one character......

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Title: Doctor Faustus
Approximate Word Count: 690
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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