Medieval beginnings of British theatre

• Sources:
– liturgy of Catholic Church; the Bible, Christian dogma
– folklore customs – Christian/pagan origin: e.g., Roman
mime play, carnivalesque Feast of Fools
• Easter trope Quem queritis – belongs to the oldest
liturgical tropes (parts of church service):
– "Quem queritis in sepulchro, o Christicolae?"
(Whom are you looking for, Christians?)
– "Jesum Nazarenum crucifixum, o coelicolae."
(The crucified Jesus from Nazareth, angels.)
– "Non est hic." (He is not here.)
– "Surrexit sicut praedixerat; ite, nuntiate quia surrexit."
(He has risen as he predicted; therefore, go and announce
that he has risen.)
– "Halleluja"
 The Miracle & Mystery Play – 1
• First important dramatic subgenre
which developed from liturgical
tropes; authors presumably clerics.
• "Miracle play": esp. plays dealing
with saints' miraculous lives
• "Mystery play": from Latin
ministere (holding divine service) –
dramatising biblical episodes,
esp. Adam and Eve, the Fall,
Kain and Abel, Noah's Flood,
Abraham and Isaac, King Herod,
Crucifixion, Ascension, Man on a Pageant Waggon
Last Judgement.
 Mystery Plays – 2
• Arranged in cycles (e.g., Chester cycle: 25 plays
from creation of mankind to Judgement Day) 
since 1311 staged together on Corpus Christi Day
or Whitsunday.
• Plays move out of church:
– no longer part of divine service; still: religious
instruction
– adopt popular vernacular of English
– staged by workers' guilds on two-storey 'pageants'
(i.e. wagons, but also the plays themselves)
 Pageant cycles – 1
II. Contents Of The Cycles
The following names of pageants comprising the Chester, York, and Towneley
cycles are listed below for the purpose of showing the full range and content
of the three cycles from which most of the pageants in this volume have been
taken. The pageants included in this volume are marked with an asterisk.
Chester
Banns.
1.       Fall of Lucifer (Tanners).
2.       Creation and Fall; Death of Abel (Drapers).
3.       *Noah's Flood (Water-leaders and Drawers in Dee).
4.       Lot; Abraham and Isaac (Barbers and Wax-chandlers).
5.       Balaam and his Ass (Cappers and Linen-drapers).
6.       Salutation and Nativity (Wrights and Slaters).
7.       Shepherds (Painters and Glaziers).
8.       Coming of the Three Kings (Vintners).
 Pageant cycles – 2
9.       Offering; Return of the Kings (Mercers).
10.     Slaughter of the Innocents (Goldsmiths).
11.     Purification (Blacksmiths).
12.     Temptation; Woman Taken in Adultery (Butchers).
13.     Lazarus (Glovers).
14.     Christ's Entry into Jerusalem (Corvisors).
15.     Betrayal of Christ (Bakers).
16.     Passion (Fletchers, Bowyers, Coopers, Stringers).
17.     Crucifixion (Ironmongers).
18.   *Harrowing of Hell (Cooks and Innkeepers).
19.     Resurrection (Skinners).
20.     Pilgrims to Emmaus (Saddlers).
21.     Ascension (Tailors).
22.     Descent of the Holy Spirit (Fishmongers).
23.     Ezechiel (Cloth-workers).
24.     Antichrist (Dyers).
25.     Judgment (Websters).
 Noah's Flood – 1
And first in some high place, or in the clouds if it may be, God
speaketh unto Noah standing without the Ark with all his family.
 

God. I, God, that all the world have wrought,

Heaven and earth, and all of nought from nothing
I see my people, in deed and thought,
Are set foully in sin.
My ghost shall not leng in man,
That through fleshly liking is my fone,
But till six score years be gone,
To look if they will blin.
Man that I made I will destroy,
Beast, worm, and fowl to fly;
For on earth they do me noy, harm
The folk that are thereon.
It harms me so heartfully, […]
 Noah's Flood – 2
Noah. Wife, come in! Why stands thou there?
Thou art ever froward, that dare I swear.
Come in, on God's half! Time it were,
For fear lest that we drown.
N's Wife. Yea, sir, set up your sail,
And row forth with evil hail,
For, without any fail,
I will not out of this town.
But I have my gossips every one, unless; friends
One foot further I will not gone; go
They shall not drown, by St John,
And I may save their life. if
They loved me full well, by Christ;
But thou wilt let them in thy chest,
Else row forth, Noah, whither thou list,
And get thee a new wife.
 Noah's Flood – 3
Noah. Shem, son, lo! thy mother is wrow: angry
Forsooth, such another I do not know.
Shem. Father, I shall fetch her in, I trow, think
Without any fail. [He goes to his mother.
Mother, my father after thee sent,
And bids thee into yonder ship wend. go
Look up and see the wind,
For we be ready to sail.
N's Wife. Son, go again to him, and say
I will not come therein to-day.
Noah. Come in, wife, in twenty devils way,
Or else stand there without.
Ham. Shall we all fetch her in?
Noah. Yea, sons, in Christ's blessing and mine;  with
I would you hied you betime,
For of this flood I am in doubt. afraid
 Noah's Flood – 4
Gossip. [To Wife] The flood comes
fleeting in full and fast, flowing
On every side it spreads full far;
For fear of drowning I am aghast;
Good gossip, let us draw near.
And let us drink ere we depart,
For oft-times we have done so;
For at a draught thou drink'st a quart,
And so will I do ere I go.
N's Wife. Here is a pottle of Malmsey, good and strong;
It will rejoice both heart and tongue;
Though Noah thinks us never so long,
Yet we will drink alike.
Japh. Mother, we pray you altogether––
For we are here your own childer––
Come into the ship for fear of the weather,
For his love that you bought!
 Noah's Flood – 5
 
N's Wife. That will I not, for all your call, bidding
But I have my gossips all.
Shem. In faith, mother, yet you shall,
Whether you will or nought.
Then she shall go.
Noah. Welcome, wife, into this boat.
N's Wife. And have thou that for thy note!

[She boxes him on the ear.]

(A.C. Cawley [ed.]. Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, pp. 37, 43f.)
 The Second Shepherds' Pageant
(Wakefield cycle) – 1
QU 8 [Scene VIII. The stable in Bethlehem]
1 Shep. Hail, comely and clean; hail, young child! pure
Hail, maker, as I mean, of a maiden so mild! born of
Thou hast waried, I ween, the warlock so wild: cursed
The false guiler of teen, now goes he beguiled.
Lo, he merries, is merry
Lo, he laughs, my sweeting!
A well fare meeting! very fortunate
I have holden my heting:
Have a bob of cherries. bunch
2 Shep. Hail, sovereign saviour, for thou hast us sought!
Hail, freely food and flower, that all thing
hast wrought! noble child
Hail, full of favour, that made all of nought!
Hail! I kneel and I cower. A bird have I brought
 The Second Shepherds' Pageant
(Wakefield cycle) – 2
To my bairn.
Hail, little tiny mop! moppet
Of our creed thou art crop;
I would drink on thy cop,
Little day-starn.
3 Shep. Hail, darling dear, full of Godhead!
I pray thee be near when that I have need.
Hail, sweet is thy cheer! My heart would bleed
To see thee sit here in so poor weed, clothing
With no pennies.
Hail! Put forth thy dall! hand
I bring thee but a ball:
Have and play thee withal,
And go to the tennis.
(A.C. Cawley [ed.]. Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, pp. 102 ff.)
 Morality Play – 1
• Mystery/miracle play: ceased in
second half of 16th century after
English Reformation; new kind
of play had announced itself
already before: Morality play.
• Focus on the fate of individual
human soul.
• Vices and Virtues allegorically
fighting for the possession/
salvation of the Soul, typically:
Everyman/Mankind/Humanum
Genus etc. Woodcut illustration from the title page
of the 1530 Everyman edition
 Morality Play – 2
• Tempted by Vice, Virtues intervene  regret,
conversion, penitence, mercy, salvation.
• Staged by professional and paid actors (runaway
monks?) in theatres-in-the-round (see next page) or
inns; no longer dependent on church holidays
•  Only in the last two decades of 16th century: social
status of actors increased  part of aristocratic
households, wearing their colours [Chamberlains
Men, King's Men etc.]).
 Morality Play – 3
• 'Closed' plot structure: form/content of morality plays
'pre-scribed' by Christian dogmas – characters, plot, space,
time, language follow authority-related theocratic world
image, e.g.:
• Everyman (late 15th century, best-known medieval
morality play): Everyman accounts for his life before
God, accompanied only by Good Deeds, strengthened by
Confession, Regret, Penitence, Charity  he is forgiven his
sins through God's grace.
• 16th century: 'closed' form/content slowly opened up 
reality, sensory experience, individuality, e.g.:
• The Interlude of the Nature of the Four Elements
(John Rastell)
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 1
• Natura Naturata, Studious Desire, Experience instruct Humanity
(spherical shape of Earth, elements and bodily fluids, Americas
etc.); Sensual Appetite, Ignorance tempt him: Natura Naturata
accepts that Humanity could not survive completely without
Sensual Appetite, but this must not become his sole purpose in
life.
• Inner conflict: empirical/inductive/scientific world image coexisting
with and complementing the dogmatic/ deductive/theocratic
scientia dei  late 15th/early 16th century: world er-fahren by
Columbus, Vespucci, Magellan, Cortez, Pizarro: world represented
in drama becomes more colourful and complex.
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 2
Hu. Why, sir, I say, what man be ye?
Sen. I am called Sensual Appetite,
All creatures in me delight;
I comfort the wits five,
The tasting, smelling, and hearing;
I refresh the sight and feeling
To all creatures alive.
For when the body waxeth hungry
For lack of food, or else thirsty,
Then with drinks pleasant
I restore him out of pain,
And oft refresh nature again
With delicate viand.
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 3
Sen. (ctd.) With pleasant sound of harmony
The hearing alway I satisfy,
I dare this well report;
The smelling with sweet odour,
And the sight with pleasant figure
And colours, I comfort;
The feeling, that is so pleasant,
Of every member, foot, or hand,
What pleasure therein can be
By the touching of soft and hard,
Of hot or cold, nought in regard,
Except it come by me.
Hu. Then I cannot see the contrary,
But ye are for me full necessary,
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 4
Hu. (ctd.) And right convenient.
Stu. Yea, sir, beware yet what ye do,
For if you forsake my company so,
Lord Nature will not be content.
Of him ye shall never learn good thing,
Nother virtue nor no other cunning,
This dare I well say.
Sen. Marry, avaunt, knave! I thee defy!
Did Nature forbid him my company?
What sayest thou thereto? Speak openly.
Hu. As for that I know well nay.
Sen. No, by God! I am right sure;
For he knoweth well no creature
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 5
Sen. (ctd.) Without me can live one day.
Hu. Sir, I pray you be content,
It is not utterly mine intent
Your company to exile;
But only to have communication,
And a pastime of recreation
With this man for a while.
Stu. Well for your pleasure I will depart.
Hu. Now go, knave, go! I beshrew thy heart!
The devil send thee forward!

(pp. 21 ff.)
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 6
• So far, the plot structure resembles more conservative medieval
morality plays: in Christian/ascetic understanding, Humanity falls
prey to deadly sins and loses his soul  dialogue gets livelier as
soon as Humanity takes the wrong path – to the tavern:

Hu. What thing is that, I thee pray?

Sen. Marry thus, canst thou tell us yet,
Wehre is any rose water to get?
Ta. Yea, that I can well purvey,
As good as ever you put to your nose,
For there is a false wench called Rose
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 7
Ta. (ctd.) Distilleth a quart every day.
Sen. By God! I would a pint of that
Were poured even upon thy pate
Before all this presence.
Ta. Yet I had liever she and I
Were both together secretly
In some corner in the spence;
For, by God, it is a pretty girl!
It is a world to see her whirl,
Dancing in a round;
O Lord God! how she will trip!
She will bounce it, she will whip,
Yet, clean above the ground! (p. 35)
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 8
• Taverner: wit especially versed in innuendo and word play 
carnivalesque/folkloristic element in mystery plays of 14th and
morality plays of 15th century: the serious and comical, the sublime
and farcical closely entwined
• Text deviates from the common structure of moralities – no
question of sin or repentance; instead discussion of empirical
knowledge:
Ex. Yes, that I can well prove,
For this ye know as well as I,
Ye see the North Star in the sky,
Mark well, ye shall unneth it spy,
That ever it doth remove.
But this I assure you, if you go
Northward an hundreth mile or two,
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 9
Ex. (ctd.) Ye shall think it riseth,
And how that it is near approached
The point over the top of your head,
Which is called your zenith.
Yet if ye go the other way,
Southward ten or twelve days' journey,
Ye shall then think anon
It descended, and come more nigh
The circle parting the earth and sky,
As ye look straight with your eye,
Which is called your horizon;
But ye may go southward so far,
That at the last that same star
Will seem so far down right,
Clear underneath your horizon,
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 10
Ex. (ctd.) That sight thereof can you have none,
The earth will stop your sight.
This proveth of necessity
That the earth must needs round be:
This conclusion doth it try.
  Hu. Now that is the properest conclusion
That ever I heard, for by reason
No man may it deny.
But, sir, if that a man sail far
Upon the sea, will then that star
Do there as on the ground?
Ex. Yea, doubtless, sail northward, rise it will,
And sail southward, it falleth still,
And that proveth the sea round. (pp. 38 f.)
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 11
• Experience's arguments are based on sensory
perception: empirical and inductive  indications of
paradigm shift in thinking: old structures are still
there, but challenged by new ones  literary
discourse reflects these shifts in exemplary ways).
• In the end, Humanity jollily faces Natura Naturata
without any sign of guilt or regret.
• Nature: defensive tone – admits "necessity" of
Sensual Appetite  Christian morality and dogmas
seem to have lost their absolute claim 
physical/sensual human needs are recognised
(as opposed to The Castle of Perseverance).
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 12
Nature
Well, Humanity, now I see plainly
That thou hast used much folly,
the while I have been absent.
Hu. Sir, I trust I have done nothing
That should be contrary to your pleasing,
Nor never was mine intent;
For I have followed the consel clear,
As ye me bade, of Studious Desire,
And for necessity among
Sometime Sensual Appetite's counsel,
For without him, ye know right well,
My life cannot endure long.
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 13
Nature
  Though it be for thee ful necessary
For thy comfort sometime to satisfy
Thy sensual appetite,
Yet it is not convenient for thee
To put therein thy felicity
And all thy whole delight;
For if thou wilt learn no science,
Nother by study nor experience,
I shall thee never advance;
But in the world thou shalt dure then,
Despised of every wise man,
Like this rude beast Ignorance.
[The original here ends imperfectly.] (p. 50)
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 14
• R. Williams' model of cultural change: emergent,
dominant, residual cultural tendencies)  literary
discourse reflects these shifts in exemplary ways).
• From an authority related to an experience-related world
picture
• Authority-related:
- God's wisdom
- the Bible
- descendant
- deductive concept of knowledge
- dogmatic
 John Rastell, The Interlude of the Nature
of the Four Elements – 15
• Experience-related:
- based on individual observation
- experiment
- sense perception
- inductive concept of knowledge
• The Great Discoveries: Columbus, Magellan, Cortez,
Pizzarro: the Americas, the Pacific Ocean on a western route
• The Renaissance (in England much later than in Italy)
• Forgrounding of the individual
• Humanism: embracing the liberal arts (instead of theological
doctrines)
• The emphasis on Greek/Latin Literature
Early English comedy: Gammer Gurton's Needle
• c. 1550/60 by a certain Mr S, resident of Christ's College,
Cambridge – university play.
• "Plot": searching the needle lost by Grandma Gurton; after
many comical incidents and complications, happily found in
the end – proves/disproves proverb ”it is not worth a needle"
 shows no influence of antique comedy; fuelled by local
comic (esp. carnivalesque) tradition  comedy for comedy's
sake: no didactic aim.
• Characters: from middle class and servants' estate; realistic
(Gammer Gurton, Diccon, Hodge, Master Bailey) and satirical
names (Doctor Rat, Dame Chat, Cock).
• Popular and realistic style:
– spoken in the vernacular
– lower comedy, concentrating on farce-like scenes with
anal and excremental eroticism
 Gammer Gurton's Needle – 1
Act I, Scene iii 
Tib
Gog's bread, Hodge, thou had a good turn thou wert not here this
while!
It had been better for some of us to have been hence a mile
My gammer is so out of course and frantic all at once,
That Cock, our boy, and I, poor wench, have felt it on our bones.
Hodge
What is the matter, say on, Tib, whereat she taketh so on?
Tib
She is undone, she saith, alas, her joy and life is gone.
If she hear not of some comfort, she is, faith, but dead;
Shall never come within her lips one inch of meat ne bread.
 Gammer Gurton's Needle – 2
Hodge
By'r Lady, cham not very glad to see her in this dump––
Chold a noble her stool hath fallen and she hath broke her rump!
Tib
Nay, and that were the worst, we would not greatly care,
For bursting of her huckle-bone or breaking of her chair;
But greater, greater is her grief, as, Hodge, we shall all feel.
 
Hodge
Gog's wounds, Tib, my gammer has never lost her nee'le?
Tib
Her nee'le!
Hodge Her nee'le?
 Gammer Gurton's Needle – 3
Tib
Her nee'le, by him that made me! It is true, Hodge,
I tell thee!
Hodge
Gog's sacrament, I would she had lost th'heart out of her belly!
The devil or else his dam, they ought her sure a shame!
How a murrain came this chance, say, Tib, unto our dame?
Tib
My gammer sat her downe on her pess and bad me reach thy
breeches,
And by and by––a vengeance on it!––or she had take two stitches
To clap a clout upon thine arse, by chance aside she leers,
And Gib, our cat, in the milk pan she spied, over head and ears.
'Ah, whore! Out, thief!' she cried aloud, and swapped the breeches
down;
 Gammer Gurton's Needle – 4
Tib (ctd.)
Up went her staff and out leapt Gib at doors into the town,
And since that time was never wight could set their eyes upon it.
Gog's malison chave, Cock and I, bid twenty times light on it!
Hodge
And is not then my breeches sewed up, tomorow that I should
wear?
Tib
No, in faith, Hodge, thy breeches lie for all this never the near.
Hodge
Now a vengeance light on all the sort, that better should have
kept it, […]
(William Stevenson [ed.]. Gammer Gurton's Needle, pp. 9-11)
 Gammer Gurton's Needle – 5
Act II
First a Song
  Back and side, go bare, go bare,
Both foot and hand go cold;
But Belly, God send thee good ale enough,
Whether it be new or old.
  I can not eat but little meat,
My stomach is not good;
But sure I think that I can drink
With him that wears a hood.
Though I go bare take ye no care,
I am nothing a-cold:
I stuff my skin so full within,
Of jolly good ale and old.
 Gammer Gurton's Needle – 6
Back and side, go bare, go bare,
Both foot and hand go cold;
But Belly, God send thee good ale enough,
Whether it be new or old.
I love no roast but a nut-brown toast
And a crab laid in the fire;
A little bread shall do me stead,
Much bread I not desire.
No frost nor snow, no wind I trow
Can hurt me if I would;
I am so wrapped and throughly lapped
Of jolly good ale and old.

Back and side, go bare, etc.

 Gammer Gurton's Needle – 7
And Tib my wife, that as her life
Loveth well good ale to seek,
Full oft drinks she till ye may see
The tears run down her cheeks.
Then doth she troll to me the bowl,
Even as a malt-worm should;
And saith, 'Sweetheart, I took my part
Of this jolly good ale and old'.
 
Back and side, go bare, etc.

Now let them drink till they nod and wink

Even as good fellows should do;
They shall not miss to have the bliss
 Gammer Gurton's Needle – 8

Good ale doth bring men to.

And all poor souls that have scoured bowls,
Or have them lustily trolled,
God save the lives of them and their wives,
Whether they be young or old.
  Back and side, go bare, etc.

(William Stevenson [ed.]. Gammer Gurton's Needle, pp. 18 f.)

Early English comedy: Ralph Roister Doister – 1

• Written c. 1552 by Nicholas Udall, first printed edition

from 1566/67.
• Udall: lecturer in Greek and Philosophy at Corpus Christi
College, Oxford; Eaton headmaster
•  Influences:
– Terence's Eunuchus (unsuccessful wooing) and Plautus'
Miles gloriosus (cowardly soldier)
– local dramatic tradition, esp. of morality plays and
interludes
Early English comedy: Ralph Roister Doister – 2

• Characters:
– virtuous lady Christian Custance (Constance) instead
of the Roman play's tolerant prostitute
– 'Christian Custance' and 'Gavin Goodluck' point to the
morality tradition, 'Merrygreek' to the Greek figure of
the parasite and to the role as jester.
– 'Tristram Trusty', 'Sim Suresby', 'Tibet Talkapace',
'Madge Mumblecrust', 'Annot Alyface': telling names
foregrounding individual character traits 
individualisation.
 Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy
O eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears;
O life, no life, but lively form of death;
O world, no world, but mass of public wrongs,
Confused and filled with murder and misdeeds.
O sacred heavens! If this unhallowed deed,
If this inhuman and barbarous attempt,
If this incomparable murder thus
Of mine, but now no more my son,
Shall unrevealed and unrevenged pass,
How should we term your dealings to be just,
If you unjustly deal with those that in your
Justice trust? (3. 2. 1-11)
Hieronymo does not just act out God's will,
but instead becomes the author of his own
destiny. Individual motives lead to various
intrigues, psychological forces are shown at
The Spanish Tragedy, 1633 title page play – Kyd dramatizes the power of human
(Columbia Rare Book and Manuscript Library) feelings, even insanity.
 Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy – 2
• Thomas Kyd (1558-1594). Only The Spanish Tragedy (written
sometime between 1583/84 and 1590/91) and his translation
of Tasso's Padre di famiglia have survived.
• Revenge plot (contemporary predilection for Senecan
revenge motif):
– villainous deed (esp. murder) set before the dramatic action
– ghost of the murdered demanding revenge
– protagonist delays revenge – retarding moment
– play within the play as part of the revenge plan
– death of the guilty party – climax of the action towards
the end of the play
– death of close relatives out of grief, or as a retribution for
the committed murders
 Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy – 3
• Pain expressed in a highly rhetorical and stylised way –
Senacan convention acceptable to Elizabethan audience;
various rhetorical devices (parallelism, anaphora, interior
rhyme, word play etc.) 
• 16th century: classical literature becomes most important
stylistic model, cf. esp John Lyly (Euphues, 1578/1580)
and Sir Philip Sidney (Arcadia, 1590).
• Hieronimo on the brink of insanity, a predecessor of
Hamlet: overwhelming power of feelings  last possible
stage of revaluation of individual human motivations in
16th-century English drama:
 Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy – 4
Act III, Scene ii
Enter HIERONIMO
HIERONIMO
O eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears;
O life, no life, but lively form of death;
O world, no world, but mass of public wrongs,
Confused and filled with murder and misdeeds!
O sacred heavens! if this unhallowed deed,
If this inhuman and barbarous attempt,
If this incomparable murder thus
Of mine, but now no more my son,
Shall unrevealed and unrevengéd pass,
How should we term your dealings to be just,
If you unjustly deal with those that in your justice trust? (pp. 52 f.)
 Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy – 5
• "And princes, now behold Hieronimo, / Author and actor
in this tragedy": Man becomes author of his own fate
(instead of acting out Providence's script) – changed
relation of the individual to universe/Creation, recognition
of human responsibility  human plans/intrigues at the
centre of history and drama: chaotically unordered reality,
no longer supervised by an absolute subject.
• Gruesome details: characteristic of revenge tragedy; great
demand for spectacular action, cf. also Shakespeare's King
Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and esp. Titus Andronicus.
•  Dramatic representation of primeval psychological forces:
for the first time in English drama taken seriously as part
of human existence.
 Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus
 
 Enlarged
detail of top
left hand
corner 
For cheap
conjurors'
tricks he
pawns his
soul – in
the end the
authority-
centred
world view
is restored.

Faustus is the representative of a new

Christopher Marlowe
http://www.marlowe-society.org / concept of reality, the Renaissance man, |
striving for absolute knowledge.
 Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus – 2

• Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593). Astonishing

literary achievement: esp. Tamburlaine the Great
(1587/88), The Jew of Malta (1590), Edward II
(1592), D. Faustus (1588 or 1593).
• Renaissance individual's curiosity/thirst for
knowledge dramatised for the first time; still
influenced by medieval morality play (good and evil
angel, seven deadly vices), antagonists Lucifer and
his disciple Mephostophilis; realistic (Wagner, Valdes,
Cornelius etc.) as well as comic characters from the
lower classes.
 Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus – 3
Scene 1
Enter FAUSTUS in his Study
FAUSTUS
Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin
To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess:
Having commenced, be a divine in show,
Yet level at the end of every art,
And live and die in Aristotle's works.
Sweet Analytics, 'tis thou hast ravished me:
Bene disserere est finis logices.
Is, to dispute well, logic's chiefest end?
Affords this art no greater miracle?
Then read no more, thou hast attained the end;
A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit.
Bid on kai me on farewell; Galen come:
Seeing, ubi desinit philosophus, ibi incipit medicus.
 Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus – 4
Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold,
And be eternized for some wondrous cure.
Summum bonum medicinae sanitas:
The end of physic is our body's health.
Why Faustus, hast thou not attained that end?
Is not thy common talk found aphorisms?
Are not thy bills hung up as monuments,
Whereby whole cities have escaped the plague,
And thousand desperate maladies been eased?
Yet art thou still but Faustus, and a man.
Couldst thou make men to live eternally,
Or, being dead, raise them to life again,
Then this profession were to be esteemed.
Physic farewell! Where is Justinian?
Si una eademque res legatur duobus,
Alter rem alter valorem rei, etc.
A pretty case of paltry legacies:
 Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus – 5
Exhereditare filium non potest pater nisi…
Such is the subject of the Institute,
And universal body of the law:
This study fits a mercenary drudge
Who aims at nothing but external trash!
Too servile and illiberal for me.
When all is done, divinity is best:
Jerome's Bible, Faustus, view it well:
Stipendium peccati mors est: ha! Stipendium, etc.
The reward of sin is death? That's hard.
Si peccasse negamus, fallimur, et nulla est in nobis veritas.
If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves, and there's no truth in us.
Why then belike we must sin,
And so consequently die.
Ay, we must die an everlasting death.
What doctrine call you this? Che sara, sara:
 Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus – 6
What will be, shall be! Divinity adieu!
These metaphysics of magicians,
And necromantic books are heavenly!
Lines, circles, schemes, letters and characters!
Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.
O what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honour, of omnipotence
Is promised to the studious artisan!
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command: emperors and kings
Are but obeyed in their several provinces,
Nor can they raise the wind, or rend the clouds;
But his dominion that exceeds in this
Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man:
A sound magician is a mighty god.
Here Faustus, try thy brains to gain a deity. pp. 6-9
 ChristopherMarlowe,
Christopher Marlowe, Dr
DrFaustus
Faustus––77
• Superbia (pride) and hubris;
Faustus turns his back on
God and conjures up the
Devil 
• He evokes Mephostophilis,
who serves Lucifer (once
one of the archangels –
damned for superbia); still
there are moments in which
Faustus begins to doubt.
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus. 2nd ed.
(London: The New Mermaids, 1989).
Early Prose: John Lyly, Euphues. The Anatomy of Wit
"Aye, but Euphues, hath she not heard also that the dry
touchwood is kindled with lime, that the greatest mushroom
growth in one night? That the fire quickly burneth the flax?
That love easily entreth into the sharp wit without resistance,
and is harbored there without repentance?"

"To love and to live well is not granted to Jupiter. Who so is

blinded with the caul of beauty discerneth no colour of
honesty. Did not Gyges cut Candaules a coat by his own
measure? Did not Paris, though he were a welcome guest to
Menelaus, serve his host a slippery prank?"

• 'Euphuistic style': excess of multiplied variation – en vogue for

several years; striking feature of Elizabethan rhetoric: amplification
(exaggerated, persuasive emphasis), esp. 
 Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia – 1

• Older, complete version c. 1577-80, incomplete

revision ('New Arcadia') 1582-84; new literary form:
blending pastoral romance and Heliodor’s heroic
romance – often described as forerunner of the
modern novel (esp. Richardson and Fielding).
• Five books/'acts': Pyrocles (Macedonian king's son)
and Musidorus (son of Thessalian Duchess) are
shipwrecked and land in Arcadia; they fall in love with
King Basilius' daughters Pamela and Philoclea, who
are in a shepherd's custody because of an oracle.
 Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia – 2
• [synopsis ctd.] The people rise against their king;
Pyrocles and Musidorus can stop the rebellion.
Before the couples can elope, Basilius drinks a potion
intended for Pyrocles and is taken for dead. The
Macedonian king sentences his son and nephew to
death; Basilius awakes in time, and the narration ends
with reconciliation and double marriage.
• King Basilius' abdication: reflects contemporary
nightmare scenario – Elizabeth I has not made
arrangements for a successor (motif still engages
Shakespeare).