DOCTOR FAUSTUS’ LITERARY

AND HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND.

Faiza Shahid 47
Rubab Hashmi – 48
Umaima Akram – 49
Saad Nagi – 50
 Doctor Faustus’ Literary and Historical Background
Since the concept of Devil is reckoned, stories have been written and told about people who
have tried to sell him their souls. Most famous and lasting of them is the story of Doctor Faust – a
bored but brilliant German magician who summons Mephistopheles, the Devil’s ward, and sells him
his soul in exchange of all worldly knowledge.

Interestingly, this tale is not completely fiction; Doctor Faust was a real person. According to
historian Francis Bacon, the real Faust was born in Germany around 1466. In 1483, the precocious
young man enrolled at the University of Heidelberg where he graduated in 1487 at the tender age of
21 with a Masters in Philosophy. That was the minimum age to acquire that degree and it was the
highest degree that could possibly be earned. By 1490, he became adept as a soothsayer and
became an astrology pandit. According to a business card found, he was known as the chief of
necromancers, a palmist, diviner with earth and fire, and also knew the art of divination with water.

He used many names over the years but by 1513, he turned to Latin to pick his name and
started calling him Georg Faustus; Faustus is Latin for ‘lucky’ or ‘fortunate’. As his reputation grew,
the number of his devious enemies also increased. One of his rival magicians published a book of
letters accusing Faustus of sodomy, pederasty and dealing in the dark arts. Two important points
should be noted here. One, this was the only time during Faustus’ lifetime that he was linked with
occult. Astrology was an accepted science but occult and dark arts were considered as taboo. And
two, that rival magician was himself trying to duck accusations of dealing in occult and illicit magical
practices. So, there’s a possibility that he was trying to divert attention away from himself and onto
to Faustus as a mean of displacing blame.

The last reference to living Faustus can be traced back to 1536; he was doing horoscopes for
a patron at the age of 70 years. There’s no authentic source to know when he died, where he died or
where he was buried.

In 1537, a book was published by a follower of Martin Luther which contains several
conversations that Luther supposedly had with the author. One of these conversations says that
Faustus was known as the brother-in-law to the devil. In Wittenberg, Germany – Luther’s hometown
-a follower of Luther named Philip Melanchthon used to preach that Faust was a magician who was
closely allied with the devil. All the tales and legends grew from there. In 1585, Herman Vidcon –
another follower of Luther – published an account of Faust’s life in which the pact with the Devil
was, for the first time, actually mentioned. The time duration of 24 years was also mentioned, the
period that the contract was supposed to last.

As Faustus lived during medieval age but had more of humanistic approach towards life –
wanting more and more – many people argue that his tragedy was his price he paid for his
renunciation. R.M Dawkins, a British archaeologist, mentions Faustus’ character as,

“Faustus is a Renaissance man who had to pay the medieval price for being one”.

In 1587, the Tragic Life and Deserving Death of Doctor John Faustus was written
anonymously and was published as a warning to good Christians to avoid dark arts and any
involvement with the Devil. It was a highly fictionalized version ignoring established facts. This book
was translated to English in 1592, and it’s probable that it was this book that Marlowe based his play
on – written sometime between 1592 and 1593. A reference to an earlier edition in English is also
found as far back as 1589. This reference comes in the goods found belonging to a deceased Oxford
scholar, Mathew Packard, who passed away at the age of 21. The 1592 edition also mentions on the
title page that it is amended, supporting the notion that it was basically the second edition. But as an
established fact, we consider the 1592 edition as the earliest one having a definitive copy. After that,
two texts, a and b, were published in 1604 and 1616 respectively.

Faustus in Christopher Marlowe’s play:

According to Marlowe in his play, Faustus was born in Rhodes, Germany. He spent most of
his life in Wittenberg seeking knowledge and earning degrees in different disciplines. The more he
gained knowledge, the more he felt dissatisfied. He was a Master in theology, law, and medicine.

• As a medical doctor, after achieving great success and renown, he felt the only
challenge left now is immortality.
• As a lawyer, Faustus concluded that this field was nothing but a money-making
scheme.
• As a theologist, he came to an understanding that it only leads to a blind alley with
dogmatic beliefs.

Driven by his desire to gain more and more knowledge and, of course, power, he was
attracted towards necromancy and eventually decided to make a pact/deal with Lucifier. Harold
Bloom, an American literary critic and a professor at Yale University, says,

“Faustus wants to reach a certain level of greatness and to assume Godhead”.

Another critic, Arnold Schmidt, who is PhD Professor of English refers to Doctor Faustus as,

“Most people have wanted something so badly that, in moments of desperation, they
imagined they would do anything to have it.”

About the Author:

Marlowe was a son of shoemaker, born in Canterbury. He was educated at Kings’ School,
Canterbury, and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Most of his life in shrouded in ambiguity and
mystery. Historians disagree on about everything about him; whether he was an atheist or Catholic,
whether he was heretic or a spy. In May 1593, he was arrested, supposedly, for blasphemy and he
was taken before the Privy Council. Ten days later, he was murdered.

Was he killed in a bar brawl or was he assassinated? What were his religious beliefs or what
were his political leanings? We may never know. However, the established fact in most literature is
that his religious and political views were not constant throughout his life; and that he was killed in
an inn by Frizer. This is the event which was referred by Shakespeare as a Great Reckoning in a Little
Room. He was 29 years old at that time.

In the book The Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in
English Renaissance Drama by Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, it is quoted:

"No Elizabethan play outside the Shakespeare canon has raised more controversy than
Doctor Faustus. There is no agreement concerning the nature of the text and the date of
composition... and the centrality of the Faust legend in the history of Western world precludes any
definitive agreement on the interpretation of the play...”

As a writer, he surely was ahead of his time. His writings are still relevant to today’s world.
Not only did he reflect the doubts and uncertainties of his own time in a manner which we today can
find particularly meaningful, but only in the last fifty years have either the man or his works come to
be seen for what they really were. Quoting Michael Drayton,

“Marlowe, bathed in a Thespian springs,

Had in him those brave translunary things

That our first poets had: his raptures were

All air and fire, which made his verses clear:

For that fine madness still he did retain,

Which rightly should possess a poet’s brain.”