Dr Faustus Act 1 Scene 1

[Danny Hosford]

Thislatin phrase means "A father cannot disinherit his son unless..." However, notice again that Faustus interrupts the reading in order to offer his opinion. This suggests that Faustus believes that he is more intelligent than the authorities that he has studied.

This Latin phrase means, "If something is bequeathed to two persons, one shall have the thing itself, the other something of equal value." Notice that Faustus ends this phrase with an "etc," suggesting that he does not finish reading the passage but rather trails off before he gives his comments on it.

Faustus finds medicine problematic because it does not offer him enough power. He could not use it to raise the dead from their graves or give everlasting life to his patients. These are two powers that Marlowe's Early Modern audience would have recognized as powers unique to Jesus Christ. This implicit comparison shows that Faustus envisions himself with godlike power.

This Latin phrase means "the purpose of medicine is the body's health." Notice that before he states this, Faustus considers medicine for its ability to make him rich and give him a famous legacy (if he discovers a wondrous cure). The juxtaposition of Faustus's perception of medicine and the purpose he reads on his medical textbook demonstrates Faustus's vanity, greed, and arrogance.

This Latin phrase means "where the philosopher leaves off the physician begins." Galen was the ancient authority on medicine and his theories were the foundation of Early Modern medicine. Having dismissed philosophy as below his level of wit, Faustus begins to contemplate pursuing medicine.

Analytics is the title of Aristotle's treatise on logic. This phrase in Latin means "to carry on a debate well is the end or purpose of logic." Notice that Faustus kind of misses the point of this phrase when he translates it to mean, "arguing is the point of logic" when Aristotle is instead talking about debating, discussion fueled by opposing positions.

Notice that Faustus recognizes the danger in his actions. He mentions the death that comes with engaging in necromancy and decides that power is more important to him. This end to Scene 1 simultaneously foreshadows Faustus's tragic end and demonstrates the character's careless vanity.

Pietro d'Abano was a 13th century alchemist. Alchemy was the medieval practice of trying to transform matter, specifically valueless stones like granite into precious materials like gold. It was a seemingly mysterious process in which people were thought to magically create something out of nothing.

Roger Bacon was a Franciscan friar, philosopher, and a scientist in the 13th century. He is now remembered for his use of empirical science and Aristotle's scientific method, however, in the Early Modern period, he was thought to be a wizard who engaged in black magic.

The Delphian Oracle was the most powerful and famous priest in ancient Greece who was able to communicate with the gods. This oracle originated to worship Gaea the goddess of the earth. But it soon passed to Apollo. The site of the oracle became one of the most famous shrines to Apollo in the summer and Dionysus in the winter when Apollo was absent.

Here, Valdas compares Prince Philip of Spain's treasury, rich with silver and gold from the New World, to the Greek myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece. Jason and his band of Argonauts went on a quest to find the Golden Fleece because it was a symbol of authority and kingship. King Pelias sent Jason to find it so that he could claim rightful kingship to the throne of Iolcus and was only able to complete his mission with the help of Medea.

Almain rutters are German horsemen. Valdes's list of similes here demonstrates the physical nature of all of his fantasies. he cannot conceptualize the power he seeks without comparisons to power in the physical world.

In the Catholic tradition, canonization was the formal recognition of a martyr or holy person as a saint. Here Valdes claims that Faustus's excellent wit and learning of necromancy will canonize them in many nations, even though necromancy was seen as extremely sacrilegious. Notice how religion and dark magic are conflated and mixed in this play.

Cornelius could be an allusion to Cornelius Agrippa, a German author who wrote The Vanity and Uncertainty of Arts and Sciences. He was believed to have the power to call shades or shadows back from the dead.

Agrippa was a Roman statesman and close advisor of Octavian. He is remembered for his military prowess in battles against Antony and Cleopatra, and the renovation of Rome. He repaired the aqueducts, and provided public services for every social class. He also created multiple baths, porticoes, and the Pantheon.

By ravished Faustus means "transported in spirit with strong emotion; captivated. However, this word also means carried or dragged away by force, raped, and violated. The double meaning of this word is interesting because it highlights the tension between Faustus's expectations and the reality of his involvement with magic: he believes that he is being enriched and livened with the practice of necromancy, when in fact these actions will cause him to be forcibly dragged to hell.

These are Faustus's friends who are already practitioners of magic. Like all of the other characters in this play, except for Mephistophilis, Valdes and Cornelius appear in one scene and disappear for the rest of the play.

The Good Angel and the Bad Angel appear to Faustus throughout this play and represent a literary trope called psychomachia. Psychomachia is the embodiment of the battle over one's soul: generally a "Good Angel" that represents Christianity battles a "Bad Angel" that represents Paganism. Generally the angels stand on opposing sides of the character experiencing the crisis and offer the character arguments to resolve his crisis.

Jove is the Roman god also known as Jupiter. He was the god of the sky and father of all of the gods, much like Zeus in the Greek tradition. Notice that the Evil Angel invokes Pagan imagery, then considered sacrilegious, to convince Faustus to keep going.

These are the qualities that Faustus was looking for and did not find in his consideration of other professions. Notice that all of these traits are condemned as sinful in the Christian tradition. This established Faustus as the anti-Christian hero, very different from the main characters of other plays at this time.

After dismissing all legitimate forms of study and profession, Faustus picks up necromancy books and decides that they are "heavenly." Faustus rhetorically replaces theology and church practices with dark magic.

This Latin phrase means "If we claim not to have sinned, we are liars and there is no truth in us." In the Christian tradition, the idea of Original Sin holds that all men are marked with the sins of Adam and Eve, who defied God in the Garden of Eden. Thus, men must accept Christ in order to be redeemed from their cursed birth. Thus claiming one has no sin is inherently a lie because men are inherently sinners.

Justinian I was the Byzantine Emperor from 482-565. In his Institutiones, Justinian proposed a complete revision of Roman law known as the Corpus Juris Civilis, which is the basis for modern day civil law. In turning to Justinian, Faustus begins to contemplate the law.

Peter asked me to do a 12 scene summary/synopsis for the artists for our show. While I did not do a synopsis for pages 20-25, I have the rest of the show summarized. I hope this will help those who are confused by the language Stein uses within this show. Page numbers are based off of the revised script Peter released which you can find here: link.

The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on German stories about the title character Faust. It was probably written in 1592 or 1593, shortly before Marlowe's death. Two different versions of the play were published in the Jacobean era several years later.[2]

The Admiral's Men performed the play 24 times in the three years between October 1594 and October 1597. On 22 November 1602, the diary of Philip Henslowe recorded a 4 payment to Samuel Rowley and William Bird for additions to the play, which suggests a revival soon after that date.[3]

The powerful effect of the early productions is indicated by the legends that quickly accrued around them. In Histriomastix, his 1632 polemic against the drama, William Prynne records the tale that actual devils once appeared on the stage during a performance of Faustus, "to the great amazement of both the actors and spectators". Some people were allegedly driven mad, "distracted with that fearful sight." John Aubrey recorded a related legend, that Edward Alleyn, lead actor of The Admiral's Men, devoted his later years to charitable endeavours, like the founding of Alleyn's College, in direct response to this incident.[3]

Given its source in the Historia von D. Johann Fausten, published as a chapbook in Germany in 1587, and the fact that the earliest known translation of the latter work into English was in 1592, the play was probably written in 1592 or 1593.[4] It may have been entered into the Stationers' Register on 18 December 1592, though the records are confused and appear to indicate a conflict over the rights to the play. A subsequent Stationers' Register entry, dated 7 January 1601, assigns the play to the bookseller Thomas Bushell (variant written forms: Busshell or Bushnell),[5] the publisher of the 1604 first edition. Bushell transferred his rights to the play to John Wright on 13 September 1610.[6][7]

The 1604 version was once believed to be closer to the play as originally performed in Marlowe's lifetime, simply because it was older. By the 1940s, after influential studies by Leo Kirschbaum[9] and W. W. Greg,[10] the 1604 version came to be regarded as an abbreviation and the 1616 version as Marlowe's original fuller version. Kirschbaum and Greg considered the A-text a "bad quarto", and thought that the B-text was linked to Marlowe himself. Since then scholarship has swung the other way, most scholars now considering the A-text more authoritative, even if "abbreviated and corrupt", according to Charles Nicholl.[11]

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