Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus

     Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus

   The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, usually referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on German stories about the title character Faust, that was first performed sometime between 1588 and Marlowe's death in 1593. Two different versions of the play were published in the Jacobean era, several years later.

    The powerful effect of early productions of the play is indicated by the legends that quickly accrued around them—that actual devils once appeared on the stage during a performance, "to the great wonder of both the actors and spectators", a sight that was said to have driven some audience mad.

   Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus is generally considered his greatest. The play shares certain elements with its forebear, the medieval morality play: the opposing admonishments of good and bad angels; the characters of Lucifer and Mephostophilis; and the appearance of the Seven Deadly Sins. Yet it breaks with tradition in two important respects: in the sympathy evoked for the straying hero, and in the questions raised against the cosmic order of conventional Christian doctrine.