What is the role, function,
purpose of knowledge
in Dr. Faustus?
Humanism
“a view of life that displaces God and puts man at
the centre of life” (Rivers 125).
“secularization of learning” (128).
“an educational movement ...with two
complementary aims: to recover the moral
values of classical life, and to imitate the
language and style of the classics” (125).
Eloquence and wisdom are brought together.
Signs of humanism
• Return to Greek and Latin classical works (“the
New Learning”)
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Ovid
Virgil
Homer
Plato
By the early 16th century, these authors and others had
been “recovered” after being “lost”
in the medieval period.
Some of Marlowe’s classical references
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Icarus (Chorus 21)
Musaeus (1.1.115)
Jason and the Argonauts (1.1.130)
Apollo (1.1.141)
The Odyssey (1.5.151)
Virgil (2.2.113)
Homer (2.1.26)
Amphion (2.1.30)
Ovid (2.1.106; 5.2.130)
Pluto and Hecate (3.3.21)
Actaeon (4.2.49)
Helen of Troy (5.1.13)
Arethusa (5.1.112)
Main Tenets of Humanism
A. Imitation
B. Pragmatism
C. Duty
“The reward of sin is death”
(Romans 6.23).
(Dr. Faustus 1.1.40)
“If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves, and there
is no truth in us” (1 John 1.8).
(Dr. Faustus 1.1.42-43)
Faustus’ conclusion?
“Why then, belike, we must sin,
And so consequently die.
Ay, we must die, an everlasting death.
What doctrine call you this? Che sera,
sera” (1.1.44-8).
“The reward of sin is death:
but eternal life is the gift of
God though Jesus Christ
our Lord” (Romans 6.23-4).
“The reward of sin is death:
but eternal life is the gift of
God though Jesus Christ
our Lord” (Romans 6.23-4).
Calvin used this passage to prove
that “salvation is entirely God’s
decision” (Sinfield 355).
“If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves, and there
is no truth in us.
(1 John 1.8).
(Dr. Faustus 1.1.42-43)
“If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in
us.
If we acknowledge our sins he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned we make him a
liar and his Word is not in us. ”
(1 John 1.8-10).
(Dr. Faustus 1.1.42-43)
“If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us.
If we acknowledge our sins he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and
his Word is not in us. ”
(1 John 1.8-10).
(Dr Faustus 1.1.42-43)
Tyndale used this passage to show that God decides
whether to accept our confession/ repentance as
genuine or not.
Mephostophilis:
“’Twas I that, when thou wer’t i’ the way to
heaven,
Dammed up thy passage; when thou took’st
the book
To view the scriptures, then I turned the leaves
And led thine eye” (5.2.81-4)
When was Faustus damned?
When was it too late to repent?
When was Faustus damned?
When was it too late to repent?
Why did Marlowe make it so
difficult to tell?
When was Faustus damned?
When was it too late to
repent?
Why did Marlowe make it so
difficult to tell?
What, then, is Marlowe’s take
on humanism, the
Reformation, and Faustus?
The Baines’ Note (1592)
• “affirmeth that Moyses was but a Jugler”
• “the first beginning of Religioun was only to keep
men in awe”
• “Christ was a bastard and his mother dishonest”
• “Christ deserved better to Dy than Barrrabas and
that the Jews made a good Choise”
• “That all protestants are Hypocriticall asses”
• “That St. John the Evangelist was bedfellow to
Christ”
• “That all they that love not Tobacco & Boies
were fooles”
• “he perswades men to Atheism willing them not
to be afeard of bugbeares and hobgoblins”