The University Wits

The University Wits
Faustus Part I
Recap
Miracle Plays banned in 1572
demand for more plays
emergence of professional
companies of players
first theatres built by James Burbage
Elizabethan Theatres
several galleries and the pit => social
stratification
stage:
inner stage
main stage
balcony (upper stage)
no scenery, hardly any props, no curtain

but: elaborate costumes, fight scenes and
special effects
The University Wits

group of young poets, educated at Cambridge
or Oxford
Thomas Kyd, Robert Greene, George Peele,
Thomas Lodge, Thomas Nashe, Christopher
Marlowe
not a homogenous group => cliques and fights
bohemian lifestyle
Achievements
no more classical restrictions on tragedy
new types of plays
Revenge Tragedy
Tragedy of Character
Romantic Comedy
History Play
Court Comedy
blank verse
iambic pentameter
no rhymes
influence on prose
Nashe's "Unfortunate Traveller"
Pastoral Romances: Lodge's "Rosalynde"
Iambic Pentameter
meter = pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

Pentameter = 5 stresses per line
Iamb = xX (unstressed stressed)
keep in mind: different pronunciation!
Who will believe my verse in time to come?

who WILL beLIEVE my VERSE in TIME to COME
ways of cheating:
contractions: e'er
sneaking in an extra syllable: punishd
Romance
prose
elevated, ornate language
opposite of realistic novel
Pastoral Romance => idyllic rural life
imaginary lands, fantastic plot,
exciting scenes
Thomas Lodge: "Rosalynde" (1590)
Information?
Stationer's Register/Licensing Comission
Henslowe's Diary
business accounts of Phillip Henslowe, owner of
the Rose
lists of plays, performances, earnings, props,
names of actors
accounts in private diaries/by visitors to

London
John Lyly
King's School, Oxford
Euphues Or the Anatomy of Wit
main character as the ideal Elizabethan courtier
Euphusim: highly elaborate, artificial language
cf: Thomas Overbury's "Puritan"
Compaspe
first court comedy
about love triangle with Alexander the Great
written in Euphuistic style
Thomas Kyd
not a University graduate

friend of Marlowe's: room-mates
bohemian life, interest in occult, atheist
The Ur-Hamlet:
lost play
most probably Shakespeare's source
The Spanish Tragedy
first English revenge tragedy

based on Seneca
extremely popular => cruel
written in blank verse
Christopher Marlowe
born in 1564 King's School Cambridge
worked as secret agent
Plays
Tambourlaine the Great

Dido, Queen of Carthage
The Jew of Malta
The Massacre at Paris
Dr Faustus
Edward II
arrested together with Kyd for
heresy released
killed in tavern brawl (1593)
Dr Faustus
1592
source: translation of the "Faustbuch"
Structure
Prologue 19 scenes Epilogue

no division into acts
main plot and sub-plot
covers 24 years, different settings
two versions
A (1604) and B (1616)
both have unauthorised additions
The Marlowian Hero

first developed in Tamburlaine
hubris nemesis topos
arrogant hero: longs for forbidden
knowledge/power/divinity
ambitions lead to downfall and destruction
punishment by Fortune/God
Plot Outline I
Prologue:
Chorus introduces Faustus
born poor, put through university by rich relative, now
famous scholar
also alerts us to his arrogance and interest in magic
Scene I:
Faustus goes through all his books/subjects

eventually decides to study magic
calls servant (Wagner) to invite German magicians
visited by good and bad angles
Magicians come and agree to teach Faustus
Scene II
Scholars want to visit Faustus
Wagner tells them he's at dinner with
magicians
Scene III
Faustus conjures devil (Mephistopheles) and
tells him to come back dressed like friar
Faustus wants to command him, but
Mephistopheles obeys only Lucifer
Faustus asks him to go and talk to Lucifer
Scene IV
Wagner scares clown into serving him
Scene V
Faustus' self-searching soliloquy
visit of good and bad angels
Mephistopheles offers his services for 24
years in return for Faustus's soul
Faustus signs contract in his own blood
dumb show of devils
Faustus asks for wife => gets devils
asks for volumes of knowledge => gets only
one book
Significance
introduction of characters
Faustus:
hungry for power and knowledge turns
to magic
shows some hesitation and uncertainty
ambition overpowers piety
haughty and proud
Mephistopheles:
cunning devil serving Lucifer
fallen angel => torment
Subplot
comic contrast to main plot
farce for comic relief
to entertain the uneducated parts of
the audience
Debt to older forms of drama

dumb show of devils
allegorical characters: Good Angel /
Bad Angel

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The University Wits

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The University Wits

no scenery, hardly any props, no curtain

The University Wits

meter = pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

Who will believe my verse in time to come?

accounts in private diaries/by visitors to

not a University graduate

The Spanish Tragedy

first English revenge tragedy

Tambourlaine the Great

Prologue 19 scenes Epilogue

The Marlowian Hero

Faustus goes through all his books/subjects

Debt to older forms of drama

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