The Oxford Dictionary of Plays

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Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus (The tragicall history of the horrible life and Death of Doctor Ffaustus)

Author: Christopher Marlowe (and others)

First Performance: c.1588, London

Published: 1604 (‘A’ text), 1616 (‘B’ text)

Genre: Trag. in 1 act; blank verse and prose

Setting: Wertenberg (= Wittenberg), Germany, and other locations in Europe, early 16th c.

Cast: 30m, 2f, extras

The learned Doctor Faustus, dissatisfied with his academic learning, decides to devote himself to the study of magic. He summons up the evil spirit Mephistophilis, insisting that he appear in the form of a Franciscan friar. Faust offers a pact to Mephistophilis, that if the latter serve him for 24 years, the devil may have his soul when he dies. After a comic scene in which Wagner, Faust's servant, and a Clown summon two devils,...

[The entire page is 548 words long]

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