Marlowe

1
Marlowes Doctor FaustusDay One

• ENGL 203
• Dr. Fike

2
Comments on Response Papers

• Do not leave your response papers until the last
  possible minute.
• Focus Say more about less material.
• Focus critical question doable paper.
• Example of a good focus the Pardoner and the
  Host.
• Example of a good critical question Why is the
  Host so angry at the Pardoner?
• A thesis is just one sentence it contains and is
  about the focused topic.
• Underline your thesis.
• If something is in the thesis, the body of the
  paper must support it.
• Do not underline or italicize your title.
• Do not begin with all previous thought (Since
  the beginning of time).
• Do not summarize the plot.
• Do not start a paragraph with a fact about an
  event or with a quotation.
• Do not use contractions.
• Do not set off quotations that consist of 3 or
  fewer lines of poetry. Use / to mark line breaks
  instead. Be sure to put a space on either side
  of the /.
• Write about literature in present tense.
• Citations Give the least information that the
  reader needs to find the source of your material.
  For example, if the author and work are in a
  signal phrase, do not put them in the citation.
• Works Cited lists have one and do it right.

3
W.C. List

• Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales.
• New York Penguin Putnam Inc, 2003.
• What is wrong with this entry?

4
Correct Version

• Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales.
• Trans. Nevill Coghill. New York
• Penguin, 2003. Print.

5
Arrange This Information into a Correct Entry

• A poem called The Wanderer, which appears in
  Frank Kermode and John Hollanders The Oxford
  Anthology of English Literature.
• The poem appears in the first of two volumes on
  pages 100-04.
• The anthology was published in New York by Oxford
  University Press in 1973.

6
Correct Version

• The Wanderer. The Oxford Anthology of
• English Literature. Ed. Frank Kermode
• and John Hollander. Vol. 1. New York
• Oxford UP, 1973. 100-04. Print.

7
Review

• What is the relationship between anti-feminist
  literature and the Wifes Prologue?
• How does courtly love inform her Tale?
• What aspects of medieval dogma does she overturn?
  
• What sign systems does the Pardoner subvert? Key
  term?
• How does he relate to the characters in his
  Tale?
• What important aspect of periodicity relates to
  the setting of the Pardoners Tale?
• Evaluate the claim that the Pardoner shows signs
  of a spiritual life.

8
Renaissance Handout

• http//faculty.winthrop.edu/fikem/Courses/ENGL202
  03/20320Renaissance20Handout.htm
• You may want to use this document instead of the
  next part of the slide show.
• Todays slide show combines information on the
  Renaissance, key concepts, and an introduction to
  Marlowes play.

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The Renaissance

• Renaissance From rinascita (Italian rebirth). 
  Therefore, the Renaissance an _________
  rebirth. 
• Also called the _________ Modern Period.
• Dates
• In Italy  1420-1600.
• In England it arrived later
• Either 1485-1660 (Henry VII-the accession of
  Charles II)
• Or 1509-1660 (Henry VIII-Charles II)

10
Characteristics

• Attempts to free the individual from two medieval
  institutions medieval habits of mind gave way to
  newer attitudes, beliefs, disciplines.
• Feudalism
• The Church
• Medieval view  Life should be lived for the
  future.
• Renaissance view  emphasis on the here and now
  openness to classical antiquity.

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Cosmology  Ptolemy to Copernicus

• Geocentric vs. heliocentric.
• Donne's The First Anniversary." ?

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Confusion Resulted

• And new philosophy calls all in doubt
• The element of fire is quite put out
• The sun is lost, and th'earth, and no man's wit
• Can well direct him where to look for it.
• And freely men confess that this world's spent,
• When in the planets, and the firmament
• They seek so many new then see that this
• Is crumbled out again to his atomies.            
            Tiny particles
• 'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone
• All just supply, and all relation
• Prince, subject, father, son, are things forgot,
• For every man alone thinks he hath got
• To be a phoenix, and that then can be
• None of that kind, of which he is, but he.
• --lines 107-20

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The Protestant Reformation

• Martin Luther published his 95 theses in 1517.
• John Calvin published his Institutes of the
  Christian Religion in 1532.
• The role of King Henry VIII in 1535 declared
  himself Supreme Head of the Church of England.
  In other words, he broke with the Roman Catholic
  Church.
• Church of England, via media

14
Succession

• King Edward VI (1547-1553)
• Queen Mary (1553-1558) Bloody Mary
• Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603)

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Key Details

• The Marian Persecution
• John Foxes Acts and Monuments
• 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada
• Edmund Spensers The Faerie Queene, Book I
  anti-Catholicism Prince Arthurs defeat of the
  giant Orgoglio may echo the English navys defeat
  of the Armada.

16
Humanism

• Definition the influence of Mediterranean
  learning on European thinkers.
• Valued ancient texts for their own sake, not for
  their usefulness to Christianity.
• Classical study, not religion, was now considered
  the highest expression of human values and the
  best way to develop a free and responsible
  individual.  Opposed the medieval tendency to
  denature ancient learningi.e., to treat it
  allegorically.

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What Humanists Believe

• Not the secular humanists whom we talk about
  today humanists were Christians.
• They believed in optimism and anthropocentrism
• Rejected the doctrine of original sin, stressing
  instead mans innate ethical sense and ability to
  improve himself.
• Means of doing this
• Education
• Reason
• Free inquiry
• Greatest English humanist Thomas More, author
  of Utopia.

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Qtd. from Wikipedia

• The crisis of Renaissance humanism came with the
  trial of Galileo, which forced the choice between
  basing the authority of one's beliefs on one's
  observations, or upon religious teaching. The
  trial made the contradictions between humanism
  and traditional religion visibly apparent to all,
  and humanism was branded a dangerous doctrine.
• Renaissance humanists believed that the liberal
  arts (music, art, grammar, rhetoric, oratory,
  history, poetry, using classical texts, and the
  studies of all of the above) should be practiced
  by all levels of wealth. They also approved of
  self, human worth and individual dignity.
• Noteworthy humanists scholars from this period
  include the Dutch theologist Erasmus, the English
  author Thomas More, the French writer Francois
  Rabelais, and the Italian scholar Giovanni Pico
  della Mirandola.

19
Transition

• Foxe The public side of the ars moriendi
  tradition.
• Spenser and Marlowe The private side of the
  tradition.
• Note The ars moriendi does not originate in the
  Renaissance.

20
The Ars Moriendi Tradition

• In the late 15th to early 18th centuries many
  treatises were published in England on the
  subject of dying well.
• The dying person, or moriens, is a central figure
  in a psychomachia (soul struggle)
• Demons tempt him with unbelief, pride,
  impatience, avarice, and despair.
• (Here avarice refers to an inappropriate
  attachment not only to things but also to
  people.)
• But angels, saints, and good counselors tell him
  that Christ, who has saved far greater sinners,
  will save him too.

21
Psychomachia Soul Struggle

• The contest for the dying persons soul centers
  on deeds in life
• Demons remind him of his wicked deeds
• Angels/saints/good counselors cite scripture and
  the Fathers to affirm Gods mercy and forgiveness.

22
Example from The Faerie Queene

• I.ix.46
• Why then doest thou, ô man of sin, desireTo
  draw thy dayes forth to their last degree?Is not
  the measure of thy sinfull hireHigh heaped vp
  with huge iniquitie,Against the day of wrath, to
  burden thee?Is not enough, that to this Ladie
  mildeThou falsed hast thy faith with
  periurie,And sold thy selfe to serue Duessa
  vilde,With whom in all abuse thou hast thy selfe
  defilde?

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Other Facts

• The moriens may see the crucified Christ on the
  cross.
• Ars moriendi merged with ars vivendi in order
  to die well, you must live well the best
  preparation for a holy death is a righteous life.

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Example

• Live rightly, die, die I listened.
• --Conrad, Heart of Darkness
• What word does Kurtz not get to say?

25
Woodcuts from Ars Moriendi Book

• The devils temptation to despair
  http//userpage.fu-berlin.de/aeimhof/am3.htm
• The angels good inspiration against despair
  http//userpage.fu-berlin.de/aeimhof/am4.htm

26

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Latin Scrolls

• Behold your sins
• Middle left Behold your sins
• Middle you have perjured yourself
• Upper right you have fornicated
• Lower right you have lived avariciously
• Lower middle you have killed.
• The document in the upper left is a list of the
  dying mans sins.

28
                                                
                    lt agt

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Latin Scrolls

• Angel By no means despair.
• Demon There is no victory for me.

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Details

• Re. Saul of Tarsus I reckon the Lord knew that
  the only way to make a Christian out of that one
  was to knock him off his horse (Flannery
  OConnor, The Habit of Being 354-55).
• Today you will be with me in paradise (Luke
  23-43).
• Mary Magdalen is frequently portrayed carrying a
  jar of precious spikenard oil for annointing the
  body of Christ (http//altreligion.about.com/libr
  ary/davinci/bl_davincicode2.htm). See Mark 143
  and John 123 and 5.

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Magdalene

• The mix-up was made official by Pope Gregory the
  Great in 591 She whom Luke calls the sinful
  woman, whom John calls Mary of Bethany, we
  believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils
  were ejected according to Mark, Gregory declared
  in a sermon. That position became church
  teaching, although it was not adopted by
  Orthodoxy or Protestantism when each later split
  from Catholicism.
• Sourcehttp//www.danbrown.com/media/morenews/time
  .html

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Deathbed Psychomachia

• The demons say, Youre damned. The good guys
  say, Youre saved. And the presence of Saul,
  the thief, Peter, and Mary Magdalene (not a whore
  but declared to be one by Pope Gregory)four of
  the great pardoned sinners in the New
  Testamentreminds the moriens that if THEY can be
  saved, his own salvation is nothing to worry
  about. Thus the image depicts despair
  successfully resisted.

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Application to Doctor Faustus

• Group work Apply each of the deathbed
  temptations from the ars moriendi tradition to
  Doctor Faustuss situation. Do one per group
• Unbelief
• Pride
• Impatience
• Avarice
• Despair

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Possible Answers

• Unbelief He believes in God but does not
  BELIEVE God.
• Pride Academic pride F believes that he is
  too far gone to be saved. Hubris. Same quality
  as Lucifer and Icarus. Great Chain of Being
  (next slide).
• Impatience F is impatient with conventional
  academic knowledge however, he wants time to
  slow down just before his death.
• Avarice Guilty of both kinds F loves the
  things of the world and is improperly attached to
  the feminine.
• Despair Loss of hope. Two kinds of hell pain
  the pain of the senses and the pain of damnation
  (despair). Hell is both a physical place and a
  state of mind.

35
Great Chain of Being

• http//www.stanford.edu/class/engl174b/chain.html
• Everything in creation is in a hierarchy (cf.
  Ulyssess speech in Shakespeares Troilus and
  Cressida)
• God
• Angels
• Manrational soul (reason)
• Animalssensitive soul (sensation, passion)
• Plantsvegetable soul (growth, reproduction)
• Rocks
• Satan
• Types of soul http//spider.georgetowncollege.ed
  u/english/allen/miltreas.htm
• Note re. man, animals, plants man has sensitive
  and vegetable functions, but plants have only
  vegetable souls.

36
Other Connections

• Consider the reference to the thief on the cross
  (page 886/386) from the ars moriendi tradition in
  relation to Faustus's certainty that he is
  damned  is he or isn't he?
• See the Old Man's speech, especially the two
  lines beginning "Yet, yet" for a connection to
  the ars moriendi tradition (892/392).    

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Further ApplicationDoctor Faustus Chart

• http//faculty.winthrop.edu/fikem/Courses/ENGL202
  03/20320Marlowe20Chart.htm

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Answers

• Temptations
• Unbelief vs. faith
• Pride vs. humility
• Impatience vs. patience
• Avarice vs. charity
• Despair vs. hope
• Bad friends vs. faithful colleagues
• Mephostophilis vs. Old Man
• Bad Angel vs. Good Angel
• Justice vs. grace, mercy, forgiveness
• Vice, parlor tricks vs. virtue, good works
• Terrible death vs. peaceful death
• Eternal torment in hell vs. salvation in heaven
• Lucifer vs. Christ

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Questions for Next Time and Response Papers

• What is Faustus saying in his opening speech?
• What is the order of events?
• What is the role of delight and/or of habit in
  Faustuss damnation?
• What warnings does Faustus receive?
• How is Faustus cheated? What point follows?
• How do Faustuss achievements measure up to his
  intentions? What points follow?
• Why did Marlowe include Wagner, Robin, and Dick?
  Is the middle of the play irrelevant?
• Why does Marlowe include all the allusions to
  Helen of Troy?
• What is up with Faustuss weird comment on page
  897/397?
• Expect to spend our next class period discussing
  these questions in small groups and as a whole
  class. Today has been to lecture as next time
  will be to discussion/student participation.

40
What is Faustus saying in his opening speech?

• He is going through a catalog of academic
  subjects, stating that each one no longer
  satisfies his thirst for knowledge.
• Analytics
• Medicine
• Law
• Theology
• He concludes that magic is the proper object of
  his study, for it will bring a world of profit
  and delight, / Of power, of honour, of
  omnipotence, as well as universal command, even
  power over nature.

41
Put these events in the correct order.

• The disintegration of power
• The challenge to religious power
• The contract
• The reckoning
• The decision

42
What is the order of events?

• Here is the proper order of events
• The decision
• The contract
• The challenge to religious power
• The disintegration of power
• The reckoning

43
What is the role of delight and/or of habit in
Faustuss damnation?

• Whenever Faustus waivers in his commitment to the
  contract with the devil, Mephostophilis brings
  him things that delight the senses.
• Delight is thus a really negative thing in this
  play, versus the sort of positive delight that
  Sidney mentions (as we will see next time).
• Best example The pageant of the seven deadly
  sins. However, the word delight repeats
  multiple times. Each time, it signals that M is
  using pleasure to keep F from thinking about
  salvation.

44
What warnings does Faustus receive?

• These are the main ones
• Good angel (851/351)
• Jehovahs name anagrammatized (855/355).
• Mephostophilis warns him about hell
  (856-57/356-57).
• Fs blood congeals (860/360)
• Consummatum est (860/369)
• Homo fuge (860/369)
• The Old Man cautions F about habit on 892/392
  If sin by custom grow not into nature.

45
How is Faustus cheated? What point follows?

• Read the contract on 861/361. M does not hold up
  his end of the bargain
• He denies Fs request for a wife, calling
  marriage a ceremonial toy (862/362). Liar
  marriage is an institution ordained by God.
  Instead, M provides courtesans (prostitutes).
• Asked who made the world, M refuses to answer
  (865/365).
• Points
• The contract has been voided. No one is damned
  by contract anyway.
• Therefore, Fs damnation is tragic, not just.
• His reason lets him down (a critique of
  humanisms emphasis on reason?).
• This is hamartia in the original sense of the
  term mistake or error in judgment.

46
How do Faustuss achievements measure up to his
intentions? What points follow?

• His original intention is have M help him slay
  mine enemies and aid my friends (857/357).
• Instead he plays tricks on people, which Wagner,
  Robin, and Dick parody.
• He never kills anyone. He does survey the
  universe from a dragons back. He does entertain
  his friends. He is eloquent. He has a
  conscience. Is he thus worthy of our pity? Do
  we like him?
• He has the resources to surpass Alexander the
  Great but does not therefore, conjuring
  Alexander is ironicit is a mere parlor trick.

47
Why did Marlowe include Wagner, Robin, and Dick?
Is the middle of the play irrelevant?

• The first part shows Fs determination to make a
  pact with the devil. The middle part has F using
  his magic to perform nonsensical pranks. The
  final part finds him awaiting the end of his life
  when he will be carried off to eternal damnation.
  This three-part structure reflects that of the
  Faust Book (1587).
• The middle part of the play charts Fs decline,
  his affirmation of bad habits of act and thought.
  It shows his moral deterioration. You dont get
  to heaven or hell by contract you have to
  deserve one or the other. Signing the contract
  is an error, not a fatal act. The plays middle
  section is necessary to justify Fs fate.
• Being a moral clown becomes a habit for F, and
  all the pranks illustrate the dark side of
  paying it forward I screw you you screw
  someone else. Note that a pattern is observable
  Devil ? Meph ? Faustus ? Wagner ? Robin ? Dick
  each affects the character directly to his right.

48
Why does Marlowe include all the allusions to
Helen of Troy?

• She will make him immortal in hell.
• F is the modern Troy in terms of being sacked.
• This is not Helen it is a demon made up to look
  like her. She/it sucks forth his spirit on
  893/393 (some kind of bodily intercourse with a
  demon) in much the same way as his 24-year run
  has debased him.
• Her presence here signifies indulgence in
  appetiteanother example of delight. Fs
  dalliance is like going to a brothel right before
  you die rather than setting your spiritual house
  in orderincredibly inappropriate.
• She is the final measure of Fs habitual action
  and state of mind. He is not damned until he
  ignores the Old Mans advice this signifies his
  inability to turn to God.

49
What is up with Faustuss weird comment on page
897/397?

• Re lines 155ff. Right after F mentions that
  Christs blood streams in the firmament (it is
  available, he thinks, to everyone but him very
  prideful!), he sounds like a classical man
  espousing mere fate. And in a strange
  juxtaposition of thoughts, he appeals for
  salvation to the very fate that he says damned
  him in the first place (You stars that reigned
  at my nativity, / Whose influence hath allotted
  death and hell).
• Clouds is the most interesting word here
  because it echoes Fs mention of them on 851/351
  (Nor can they raise the wind or rend the
  clouds) as well as the Choruss earlier remark
  on 868/368 (He views the clouds, the planets,
  and the stars). See also the Popes mention of
  clouds on 872/372. In other words, the natural
  world, which has been the object of his attention
  during the twenty-four years, is now his only
  hope of release from damnation.
• So although the reference to the thief (886/386)
  suggests that grace may be embraced even at the
  last moment, a pattern of wrong living and
  particularly a state of despair render F unable
  to make the right choice when it really counts.
  Hell strives with grace for conquest in his
  breast (892/392), and hell wins.
  END