The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (chrome ebook reader .TXT) 📕

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The scene is supposed to be a grove. See the conversation between Faustus and Valdes towards the end of Scene I. ↩

Bullen points out that the above four lines are repeated verbatim in the first scene of Taming of a Shrew 1594. ↩

I.e. Wandering. ↩

“Quid tu moraris?” preparatory to a weightier invocation, suggested by Mr. Fleay and Mr. Bullen, in place of “quod tumeraris.” ↩

In the prose History we read:⁠—“After Dr. Faustus had made his promise to the devill, in the morning betimes he called the spirit before him, and commanded him that he should alwayes come to him like a fryer after the order of Saint Francis, with a bell in his hand like Saint Anthony, and to ring it once or twice before he appeared, that he might know of his certaine coming.” ↩

I.e. Inform me. ↩

It is suggested by Dyce that the scene is probably a street. ↩

Beards cut to a sharp point (Fr. pic-d-devani). ↩

Dyce points out that these are the first words of W. Lily’s “Ad discipulos carmen de moribus.” ↩

A ranunculaceous plant (Delphinium staphisagria), still used for destroying lice. ↩

Knave’s Acre (Poultney Street) described by Strype as narrow, and chiefly inhabited by dealers in old goods and glass bottles. ↩

Wide breeches, trunk hose. ↩

“You” is of course the antecedent of “that.” —⁠Bullen ↩

The sixth chapter of the prose History is headed⁠—“How Dr. Faustus set his blood in a saucer on warme ashes and writ as followeth.” ↩

The words “he desires” are not in the old quartos. Dyce first pointed out that in the prose History of Dr. Faustus, the third article runs thus:⁠—“That Mephistopheles should bring him anything and do for him whatsoever”⁠—a later edition adding “he desired,” and another “he requireth.” ↩

Foolish. ↩

I.e. Sabaea, the Queen of Sheba. ↩

Repeating. ↩

The scene is supposed to be a room in Faustus’s house. ↩

I venture to relegate the meaningless line which follows: “And of his dam too,” for which no editor considers Marlowe responsible, to a footnote. ↩

An allusion to the medieval Carmen de Pulice, formerly ascribed to Ovid. —⁠Bullen ↩

A pair of rapiers worn in a single sheath, and used one in each hand. ↩

Refreshments taken between meals. ↩

Martlemas or Martinmas was the customary time for hanging up provisions, which had been previously salted, to dry. Our ancestors lived chiefly upon salted meat in the spring, owing to the winter-fed cattle not being fit for use. St. Martin’s day is November 11th. ↩

The March brewing was much esteemed in those days, as it is in Germany at the present time. ↩

All the quartos have “Lechery.” The change which was first proposed by Collier has been adopted by Dyce and other editors. ↩

In the edition of 1616 the speech of the Chorus is ingeniously expanded as follows:⁠—

Chor. Learned Faustus, To find the secrets of Astronomy
Graven in the book of Jove’s high firmament,
Did mount him up to scale Olympus’ top;
Where, sitting in a chariot burning bright,
Drawn by the strength of yoked dragons’ necks,
He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars,
The tropic zones, and quarters of the sky,
From the bright circle of the homed moon
Even to the height of Primum Mobile;
And, whirling round with this circumference,
Within the concave compass of the pole,
From east to west his dragons swiftly glide,
And in eight days did bring him home again.
Not long he stayed within his quiet house,
To rest his bones after his weary toil;
But new exploits do hale him out again:
And, mounted then upon a dragon’s back,
That with his wings did part the subtle air,
He now is gone to prove cosmography,
That measures coasts and kingdoms of the earth;
And, as I guess, will first arrive at Rome,
To see the Pope and manner of his court,
And take some part of holy Peter’s feast,
The which this day is highly solemnised.

This represents the revisers of the play at their best. ↩

The scene is the Pope’s Privy Chamber. ↩

Treves. ↩

Virgil was regarded as a magician in the Middle Ages. ↩

The prose History shows the “sumptuous temple” to be St. Mark’s at Venice. ↩

In the edition of 1616 the two following lines are added:⁠—

“Whose frame is paved with sundry coloured stones,
And rooft aloft with curious work in gold.”

The addition is an interesting example of the close fashion in which the revisers clung to the prose History wherein we read “how all the pavement was set with coloured stones, and all the rood or loft of the church double gilded over.” ↩

This may mean simply large cannons, or as Ward points out, cannon with double bores. Two cannons with triple bores were taken from the French at Malplaquet, and are now in the Woolwich Museum. ↩

Evidently obelisks are here meant, although the word “pyramides” was formerly applied to church spires. ↩

Written in half a dozen other forms⁠—Sennet, Senet, Synnet, Cynet, Signet and Signate. Nares defines it as “a particular set of notes on the trumpet or cornet, different from a flourish.” ↩

The scene is supposed to be an inn-yard. ↩

“Hippocrates, a medicated drink composed usually of red wine, but sometimes white, with the addition