Medieval Literature
Power as a Corrupting Influence
Once Faustus actually gains the practically limitless power that he so desires, however, his horizons seem to narrow. Everything is possible to him, but his ambition is somehow sapped. Instead of the grand designs that he contemplates early on, he contents himself with performing conjuring tricks for kings and noblemen and takes a strange delight in using his magic to play practical jokes on simple folks. It is not that power has corrupted Faustus by making him evil: indeed, Faustus's behavior after he sells his soul hardly rises to the level of true wickedness. Rather, gaining absolute power corrupts Faustus by making him mediocre and by transforming his boundless ambition into a meaningless delight in petty celebrity.
Practical Jokes
Once he gains his awesome powers, Faustus does not use them to do great deeds. Instead, he delights in playing tricks on people: he makes horns sprout from the knight's head and sells the horse-courser an enchanted horse. Such magical practical jokes seem to be Faustus's chief amusement, and Marlowe uses them to illustrate Faustus's decline from a great, prideful scholar into a bored, mediocre magician with no higher ambition than to have a laugh at the expense of a collection of simpletons.
hefty fine if
guilds did not participate
green man archetype
our relationship with nature
Went Tyler
overthrow the entire system
assertion
people could rule themselves
Christopher Marlowe
playwright, spy, gay, atheist
Cantebury Tales
put us in the mind of the characters - people in society all characters are at odds with one another - to show rivalries in society
Lesson of Peasant's Revolt
showed ordinary people can get together to lead in politics and their own life
find his neck twisted (keeps twisting back)
sign of his pact with the devil
plays began to be repressed in
the 16th century
Faustus knows what he has done and
the day he will die.
French
the literature and language of the court
Feast of Corpus Christi
thursday after Trinity sunday
questioning Eucharist
too far
George Faust
trickster magician
puppet theater
was not subject to censorship
The First Three Husbands
"Good" husbands, according to the Wife of Bath, because they were rich and old. She could order them around, use sex to get what she wanted, and trick them into believing lies.
Backlash of Revolt
- 500 massacred . leaders executed or pardoned (if silenced) . hundreds more killed
Whitney, Geoffrey
- A Choice of Emblems . morality poems with pictures that can be used in reference
Peasant's Revolt of 1381
- Smith's Field - Oppression from King Richard II . Impact so shocking that nobles there on played down it's significance
The Green Man
- a pagan nature spirit - symbolic of man's reliance on and union with nature - under-lying life force - the renewed cycle of growth each spring
Lollardism
- encouraged individuals to think about theology - may have later inspired Protestantism
Thomas Baker
- organized deputation from surrounding villages
Rhines - Northern Empire
- restore England to Roman Catholicism - Catholics persecuted in England (turns out Marlowe was a spy for Queen Elizabeth there)
Wife of Bath
- secular woman's POV - contrary of sexuality norms
Marlowe and Shakespeare
- the only contemporary writer to whom Shakespeare alludes - they must have known each other - maybe they collaborated together - both attacked in book and angry about this . Shakespeare Venus and Donus . Marlowe Hinder and Leander
Christopher Marlowe got a hold of Dr. Faustus.
- usually man repents because love of God - in Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, that love is not there
Marlowe stabbed in the eye by English spies
- was this an assassination or just a fight? - may have been in debt
The Man of Law
A successful lawyer commissioned by the king. He upholds justice in matters large and small and knows every statute of England's law by heart.
Field of the Cloth of Gold
. Cardinal Wolsey triumphed and arranged meeting between Henry the 8th and Francis the 1st . 15 days of banqueting and dining to show how rich the other person is . Henry decides he doesn't want an alliance with the French . WAR
Faustus challenges authority
. Drinking . Monks . Inkeepers
The Mixed Passions
. Fear . Hope . Despair . Courage . Anger
Where Green Man appears
. Islam . Christianity . Sumeria . Egypt . Tibet . India . Aztec . Rome
Dowland's First Book of Songs (1600)
. Starts with a letter to Sir George Carry of the Carter Knight Order .Talks about meeting the duke of Brunswick. States he had a wonderful time in Germany
The Simple Passions
. Wonder . Astonishment . Esteem . Scorn . Veneration . Disdain . Love . Hate . Desire . Joy . Sorrow
15 June
. showdown with rebels . plan to fight back . tyler bleeding to death after being stabbed, then executed
John Wycliffe
. studied philosophy at Oxford . became a clergy man . outspoken against the excess of clergy and aristocracy versus the plight of peasantry
Questioning the authority of the Church and the Ways of Society
. wealth of Church . how individual should achieve salvation
The Third and Last Book of Songs
.Dedication to John Souch Efquire
A Pilgrim's Solace (1612)
.Dedication to Lord Walden .Much longer letter to the reader
Dowland's Second Book of Songs (1600)
.writes to the ladies at court that he is currently at the court of another prince .Writes another letter to the common reader to assure them how hard he worked in amassing and publishing the pieces
Chronological Order of York Mystery cycle
1. the creation and fall of lucifer 2. the creation of the 5th day 3. the creation of adam and eve 4. adam and eve in eden 5. the fall of man 6. expulsion from england 7. sacrifice of cain and abel 8. builders of the ark 9. noah and his wife 10. abraham and issach 11. departure of israelites from egypt, crossing the red sea 12. annunciation and visitation 13. joseph's trouble aout mary 14. journey to bethlehem 15. the annunciation of the shepherds
Benvolio
A German nobleman at the emperor's court. The knight is skeptical of Faustus's power, and Faustus makes antlers sprout from his head to teach him a lesson. The knight is further developed and known as Benvolio in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus; Benvolio seeks revenge on Faustus and plans to murder him.
Duke of Vanholt
A German nobleman whom Faustus visits.
Bruno
A candidate for the papacy, supported by the emperor. Bruno is captured by the pope and freed by Faustus. Bruno appears only in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus.
The Narrator
A character called Geoffrey Chaucer. We should be wary of accepting his words and opinions as Chaucer's own. In the General Prologue, the narrator presents himself as a gregarious and naïve character. Later on, the Host accuses him of being silent and sullen. The narrator writes down his impressions of the pilgrims from memory. What he chooses to remember about the characters tells us as much about the narrator's own prejudices as it does about the characters themselves.
Chorus
A character who stands outside the story, providing narration and commentary. The Chorus was customary in Greek tragedy.
The Pardoner
A charlatan, who "officially" forgives people's sins for a price. Pardoners granted papal indulgences—reprieves from penance in exchange for charitable donations to the Church. Many pardoners, including this one, collected profits for themselves. Chaucer's Pardoner excels in fraud, carrying a bag full of fake relics. For example, he claims to have the veil of the Virgin Mary. The Pardoner has long, greasy, yellow hair and is beardless. These characteristics were associated with shiftiness and gender ambiguity in Chaucer's time. The Pardoner also has a gift for singing and preaching whenever he finds himself inside a church.
The Manciple
A clever fellow. A manciple was in charge of getting provisions for a college or court. Despite his lack of education, the Manciple is smarter than the 30 lawyers he feeds.
Clown
A clown who becomes Wagner's servant. The clown's antics provide comic relief; he is a ridiculous character, and his absurd behavior initially contrasts with Faustus's grandeur. As the play goes on, though, Faustus's behavior comes to resemble that of the clown.
Mephastophilis
A devil whom Faustus summons with his initial magical experiments. Mephastophilis's motivations are ambiguous: on the one hand, his oft-expressed goal is to catch Faustus's soul and carry it off to hell; on the other hand, he actively attempts to dissuade Faustus from making a deal with Lucifer by warning him about the horrors of hell. Mephastophilis is ultimately as tragic a figure as Faustus, with his moving, regretful accounts of what the devils have lost in their eternal separation from God and his repeated reflections on the pain that comes with damnation.
Sir Thopas
A frivolous young knight who sets off in search of an elf-queen. Driven by adolescent sexual urges and dreams of an elf-queen, Thopas seeks out a magical land where he might find such a queen. When he finally finds a faerie country, a huge man named Sir Elephant thwarts his quest. Sir Thopas returns the next day to battle for the elf-queen, but before the listeners hear the outcome, the Host interrupts the meandering story.
Theseus
A great conqueror and the duke of Athens in the Knight's Tale. The most powerful ruler in the story, he is often called upon to make the final judgment, but he listens to others' pleas for help.
The Guildsmen
A hatmaker, carpenter, weaver, clothing dyer, and a tapestry maker. The Guildsmen appear as a unit. English guilds were a combination of labor unions and social fraternities: Craftsmen of similar occupations joined together to increase their bargaining power and live communally. All five Guildsmen are clad in the livery of their brotherhood.
Horse-courser
A horse-trader who buys a horse from Faustus, which vanishes after the horse-courser rides it into the water, leading him to seek revenge.
The Franklin
A man of leisure. The word franklin means "free man." In Chaucer's society, a franklin was neither a vassal serving a lord nor a member of the nobility. This particular franklin is a connoisseur of food and wine—so much so that his table remains laid and ready for food all day.
The Monk
A monk given to corporeal pleasures. Most monks of the Middle Ages lived in monasteries according to the Rule of Saint Benedict, which demanded that they devote their lives to "work and prayer." This Monk cares little for the Rule; his devotion is to hunting and eating. He is large, loud, and well clad in hunting boots and furs.
The Prioress
A nun who heads a convent. Described as modest and quiet, this Prioress aspires to have exquisite taste. Her table manners are dainty, she knows French (though not the French of the court), she dresses well, and she is charitable and compassionate.
Nicholas
A poor astronomy student in the Miller's Tale. Nicholas boards with an elderly carpenter, John, and the carpenter's too-young wife, Alison. Nicholas dupes John and sleeps with Alison right under John's nose, but Absalom, the foppish parish clerk, gets Nicholas in the end.
The Clerk
A poor student of philosophy. Having spent his money on books and learning rather than on fine clothes, the clerk is threadbare and wan. He speaks little, but when he does, his words are wise and full of moral virtue.
The Fourth Husband
A reveler who had a mistress. The Wife of Bath says comparatively little about him. She loved him and had fun singing and dancing with him, but she tried her best to make him jealous. She fell in love with her fifth husband, Jankyn, while she was still married to her fourth.
The Wife of Bath
A seamstress by occupation and an "expert on marriage." The Wife of Bath has been married five times and had many other affairs in her youth, making her well practiced in the art of love. She presents herself as someone who loves marriage and sex, but, from what we see of her, she also takes pleasure in rich attire, talking, and arguing. She is deaf in one ear and has a gap between her front teeth, which was considered attractive in Chaucer's time. She has traveled on pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times and elsewhere in Europe as well. Bath is an English town on the Avon River, not the name of this woman's husband.
The Reeve
A shrewd steward of a manor. This reeve's lord never loses so much as a ram to the other employees, and the vassals under his command are kept in line. However, he steals from his master.
Evil Angel
A spirit that serves as the counterpart to the good angel and provides Faustus with reasons not to repent for sins against God. The evil angel represents the evil half of Faustus's conscience.
Good Angel
A spirit that urges Faustus to repent for his pact with Lucifer and return to God. Along with the old man and the bad angel, the good angel represents, in many ways, Faustus's conscience and divided will between good and evil.
The Physician
A talented doctor with expertise in diagnosing the causes and finding cures for most maladies. Though the Physician keeps himself in perfect physical health, the narrator calls into question the Physician's spiritual health: He rarely consults the Bible and has an unhealthy love of financial gain.
The Merchant
A trader in furs and cloth, mostly from Flanders. The merchant is part of a powerful and wealthy class in Chaucer's society.
The Old Man
A very old man whom the Three Rioters encounter. The old man's body is completely covered except for his face. Before the old man tells the Rioters where they can find Death, one of the Rioters rashly demands to know why the old man is still alive. The old man answers that he is doomed to walk the earth for eternity. He has been interpreted as Death itself; as Cain, punished for fratricide by walking the earth forever; and as the Wandering Jew, a man doomed to roam the world, through the ages, without rest because he refused to let Jesus rest at his house when Jesus proceeded to his crucifixion.
The Shipman
A well-traveled and well-tanned veteran sailor. The Shipman has seen every bay and river in England, as well as exotic ports in Spain and Carthage. He is a bit of a rascal, known for stealing wine while the ship's captain sleeps.
The Nun's Priest
Also not described in the General Prologue. His story of Chanticleer, however, is well crafted and suggests that he is a witty, self-effacing preacher.
Old Man
An enigmatic figure who appears in the final scene. The old man urges Faustus to repent and to ask God for mercy. He seems to replace the good and evil angels, who, in the first scene, try to influence Faustus's behavior.
The Friar
An example of the unscrupulous friars of Chaucer's time. Roaming priests with no ties to a monastery, friars were great objects of criticism in Chaucer's time. Always ready to befriend young women or rich men who might need his services, the friar actively administers the sacraments in his town, especially those of marriage and confession. However, Chaucer's worldly Friar has taken to accepting bribes.
The Summoner
An official who brings persons accused of violating Church law to ecclesiastical court. This Summoner is a lecherous man whose face is scarred by leprosy. He gets drunk frequently, is irritable, and is not particularly qualified for his position. He spouts the few words of Latin he knows in an attempt to sound educated.
The Fox
An orange fox, interpreted by some as an allegorical figure for the devil. The Fox catches Chanticleer the rooster through flattery. Eventually, Chanticleer outwits the Fox by encouraging him to boast of his deceit to his pursuers. When the fox opens his mouth, Chanticleer escapes.
Rafe
An ostler, and a friend of Robin. Rafe appears as Dick (Robin's friend and a clown) in B-text editions of Doctor Faustus
Robin
An ostler, or innkeeper, who, like the clown, provides a comic contrast to Faustus. Robin and his friend Rafe learn some basic conjuring, demonstrating that even the least scholarly can possess skill in magic. Marlowe includes Robin and Rafe to illustrate Faustus's degradation as he submits to simple trickery such as theirs.
Arthur's Knight
Arthur's young knight who rapes a maiden, and, to avoid the punishment of death, is sent by the queen on a quest to learn about submission to women. Once he does so, and shows that he has learned his lesson by letting his old ugly wife make a decision, she rewards him by becoming beautiful and submissive.
Blood
Blood plays multiple symbolic roles in the play. When Faustus signs away his soul, he signs in blood, symbolizing the permanent and supernatural nature of this pact. His blood congeals on the page, however, symbolizing, perhaps, his own body's revolt against what he intends to do. Meanwhile, Christ's blood, which Faustus says he sees running across the sky during his terrible last night, symbolizes the sacrifice that Jesus, according to Christian belief, made on the cross; this sacrifice opened the way for humankind to repent its sins and be saved. Faustus, of course, in his proud folly, fails to take this path to salvation.
Green Man evolved from
Cernunnos, Pan and Dionysus Or a male counterpart to Gaia
Pertelote
Chanticleer's favorite wife in the Nun's Priest's Tale. She is his equal in looks, manners, and talent. When Chanticleer dreams of the fox, he awakens Pertelote in the middle of the night, begging for an interpretation, but she will have none of it, calling him foolish. When the fox takes Chanticleer away, she mourns him in classical Greek fashion, burning herself and wailing.
The Importance of Company
Company was a leveling concept—an idea created by the working classes that gave them more power and took away some of the nobility's power and tyranny. The company of pilgrims on the way to Canterbury is not a typical example of a tightly networked company, although the five Guildsmen do represent this kind of fraternal union. The pilgrims come from different parts of society—the court, the Church, villages, the feudal manor system. To prevent discord, the pilgrims create an informal company, united by their jobs as storytellers, and by the food and drink the host provides. As far as class distinctions are concerned, they do form a company in the sense that none of them belongs to the nobility, and most have working professions, whether that work be sewing and marriage (the Wife of Bath), entertaining visitors with gourmet food (the Franklin), or tilling the earth (the Plowman).
The Pervasiveness of Courtly Love
Courtly love motifs first appear in The Canterbury Tales with the description of the Squire in the General Prologue. The Squire's role in society is exactly that of his father the Knight, except for his lower status, but the Squire is very different from his father in that he incorporates the ideals of courtly love into his interpretation of his own role. Indeed, the Squire is practically a parody of the traditional courtly lover. The description of the Squire establishes a pattern that runs throughout the General Prologue, and The Canterbury Tales: characters whose roles are defined by their religious or economic functions integrate the cultural ideals of courtly love into their dress, their behavior, and the tales they tell, in order to give a slightly different twist to their roles. Another such character is the Prioress, a nun who sports a "Love Conquers All" brooch.
Morality plays were on the decline.
Dr. Faustus - a figure to carry on the tradition.
Sin, Redemption, and Damnation
Each time, Faustus decides to remain loyal to hell rather than seek heaven. In the Christian framework, this turning away from God condemns him to spend an eternity in hell. Only at the end of his life does Faustus desire to repent, and, in the final scene, he cries out to Christ to redeem him. But it is too late for him to repent. In creating this moment in which Faustus is still alive but incapable of being redeemed, Marlowe steps outside the Christian worldview in order to maximize the dramatic power of the final scene. Having inhabited a Christian world for the entire play, Faustus spends his final moments in a slightly different universe, where redemption is no longer possible and where certain sins cannot be forgiven.
chapbook
Early form of a novel - Includes useful advice on practical matters - Story on the life of the magician Faustus
CHarles Le Brun
Enumeration of the Passions
Fabliaux
Fabliaux were comical and often grotesque stories in which the characters most often succeed by means of their sharp wits. Such stories were popular in France and Italy in the fourteenth century. Frequently, the plot turns or climaxes around the most grotesque feature in the story, usually a bodily noise or function. The Miller's Tale is a prime experiment with this motif: Nicholas cleverly tricks the carpenter into spending the night in his barn so that Nicholas can sleep with the carpenter's wife; the finale occurs when Nicholas farts in Absolon's face, only to be burned with a hot poker on his rear end. In the Summoner's Tale, a wealthy man bequeaths a corrupt friar an enormous fart, which the friar divides twelve ways among his brethren. This demonstrates another invention around this motif—that of wittily expanding a grotesque image in an unconventional way. In the case of the Summoner's Tale, the image is of flatulence, but the tale excels in discussing the division of the fart in a highly intellectual (and quite hilarious) manner.
The Divided Nature of Man
Faustus is constantly undecided about whether he should repent and return to God or continue to follow his pact with Lucifer. His internal struggle goes on throughout the play, as part of him of wants to do good and serve God, but part of him (the dominant part, it seems) lusts after the power that Mephastophilis promises. The good angel and the evil angel, both of whom appear at Faustus's shoulder in order to urge him in different directions, symbolize this struggle. While these angels may be intended as an actual pair of supernatural beings, they clearly represent Faustus's divided will, which compels Faustus to commit to Mephastophilis but also to question this commitment continually.
The reward of sin is death? That's hard. Si peccasse negamus, fallimur, et nulla est in nobis veritas. If we say that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves, and there's no truth in us. Why then belike we must sin, And so consequently die. Ay, we must die an everlasting death. What doctrine call you this? Che sarà, sarà: What will be, shall be! Divinity, adieu! These metaphysics of magicians, And necromantic books are heavenly! (1.40-50)
Faustus speaks these lines near the end of his opening soliloquy. In this speech, he considers various fields of study one by one, beginning with logic and proceeding through medicine and law. Seeking the highest form of knowledge, he arrives at theology and opens the Bible to the New Testament, where he quotes from Romans and the first book of John. He reads that "[t]he reward of sin is death," and that "[i]f we say we that we have no sin, / We deceive ourselves, and there's no truth in us." The logic of these quotations—everyone sins, and sin leads to death—makes it seem as though Christianity can promise only death, which leads Faustus to give in to the fatalistic "What will be, shall be! Divinity, adieu!" However, Faustus neglects to read the very next line in John, which states, "If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). By ignoring this passage, Faustus ignores the possibility of redemption, just as he ignores it throughout the play. Faustus has blind spots; he sees what he wants to see rather than what is really there. This blindness is apparent in the very next line of his speech: having turned his back on heaven, he pretends that "[t]hese metaphysics of magicians, / And necromantic books are heavenly." He thus inverts the cosmos, making black magic "heavenly" and religion the source of "everlasting death."
The Scholars
Faustus's colleagues at the University of Wittenberg. Loyal to Faustus, the scholars appear at the beginning and end of the play to express dismay at the turn Faustus's studies have taken, to marvel at his achievements, and then to hear his agonized confession of his pact with Lucifer.
Wagner
Faustus's servant. Wagner uses his master's books to learn how to summon devils and work magic.
Martino and Frederick
Friends of Benvolio who reluctantly join his attempt to kill Faustus. Martino and Frederick appear only in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus.
Faustus's Rejection of Ancient Authorities
In scene 1, Faustus goes through a list of the major fields of human knowledge—logic, medicine, law, and theology—and cites for each an ancient authority (Aristotle, Galen, Justinian, and Jerome's Bible, respectively). He then rejects all of these figures in favor of magic. This rejection symbolizes Faustus's break with the medieval world, which prized authority above all else, in favor of a more modern spirit of free inquiry, in which experimentation and innovation trump the assertions of Greek philosophers and the Bible.
Clothing
In the General Prologue, the description of garments, in addition to the narrator's own shaky recollections, helps to define each character. In a sense, the clothes symbolize what lies beneath the surface of each personality. The Physician's love of wealth reveals itself most clearly to us in the rich silk and fur of his gown. The Squire's youthful vanity is symbolized by the excessive floral brocade on his tunic. The Merchant's forked beard could symbolize his duplicity, at which Chaucer only hints.
Lollards followed
John Wycliffe
Marlowe's Tumbelain Part 1 + 2
Marlowe's first popular play
York Mystery Cycle ( York Corpus Christi Plays)
Middle English cycle of 48 plays covering sacred history from creation to the last judgement
Late 1381
Militia raised in Kent
Death and Rebirth
New life springs out of human remains
The Second Nun
Not described in the General Prologue. She tells a saint's life for her tale.
Palamon
One of the two imprisoned Theban soldier heroes in the Knight's Tale. Brave, strong, and sworn to everlasting friendship with his cousin Arcite, Palamon falls in love with the fair maiden Emily, which brings him into conflict with Arcite. Though he loses the tournament against Arcite, he gets Emily in the end.
The Corruption of the Church
Overall, the narrator seems to harbor much more hostility for the ecclesiastical officials (the Summoner and the Pardoner) than he does for the clerics. For example, the Monk and the Pardoner possess several traits in common, but the narrator presents them in very different ways. The narrator remembers the shiny baldness of the Monk's head, which suggests that the Monk may have ridden without a hood, but the narrator uses the fact that the Pardoner rides without a hood as proof of his shallow character. The Monk and the Pardoner both give their own opinions of themselves to the narrator—the narrator affirms the Monk's words by repeating them, and his own response, but the narrator mocks the Pardoner for his opinion of himself.
Physiognomy
Physiognomy was a science that judged a person's temperament and character based on his or her anatomy. Physiognomy plays a significant role in Chaucer's descriptions of the pilgrims in the General Prologue. The most exaggerated facial features are those of the peasants. The Miller represents the stereotypical peasant physiognomy most clearly: round and ruddy, with a wart on his nose, the Miller appears rough and therefore suited to rough, simple work. The Pardoner's glaring eyes and limp hair illustrate his fraudulence.
The Pope
The head of the Roman Catholic Church and a powerful political figure in the Europe of Faustus's day. The pope serves as both a source of amusement for the play's Protestant audience and a symbol of the religious faith that Faustus has rejected.
Sir Elephant
Sir Thopas's foe. Sir Elephant refuses Sir Thopas access to the elf-queen, the object of Thopas's dreams. He dismisses Thopas as a "pissant."
An Apology to John Wycliffe (1608)
States that Wycliffe understands the importance of scripture and the hypocrisy of ignoring it - the reason for the Church of England.
The Miller
Stout and brawny, with a wart on his nose and a big mouth, both literally and figuratively. He threatens the Host's notion of propriety when he drunkenly insists on telling the second tale. Indeed, the Miller seems to enjoy overturning all conventions: He ruins the Host's carefully planned storytelling order, he rips doors off hinges, and he tells a tale that is somewhat blasphemous, ridiculing religious and scholarly clerks, carpenters, and women.
Blood of the Poll Tax Traders
Subdury and Robert Hales executed
1348
The Black Death . Village communities destroyed . Punishment by God? . Increases consumer power of peasantry
Springtime
The Canterbury Tales opens in April, at the height of spring. The birds are chirping, the flowers blossoming, and people long in their hearts to go on pilgrimages, which combine travel, vacation, and spiritual renewal. The springtime symbolizes rebirth and fresh beginnings, and is thus appropriate for the beginning of Chaucer's text. Springtime also evokes erotic love, as evidenced by the moment when Palamon first sees Emelye gathering fresh flowers to make garlands in honor of May. The Squire, too, participates in this symbolism. His devotion to courtly love is compared to the freshness of the month of May.
Chaucer
The Father of English Literature
The Cook
The Guildsmen's cook. The Narrator gives little detail about him, but he does mention a crusty sore on the Cook's leg.
The Squire
The Knight's son and apprentice. The Squire is curly-haired, youthfully handsome, and loves dancing and courting.
The Plowman
The Parson's brother and an equally good-hearted man. A member of the peasant class, he pays his tithes to the Church and leads a good Christian life.
Jankyn
The Wife of Bath's fifth husband. Jankyn was a twenty-year-old former student, with whom the Wife was madly in love. His stories of wicked wives frustrated her so much that one night she ripped a page out of his book, only to receive a deafening smack on her ear in return.
The Good and the Evil Angel
The angels appear at Faustus's shoulder early on in the play—the good angel urging him to repent and serve God, the evil angel urging him to follow his lust for power and serve Lucifer. The two symbolize his divided will, part of which wants to do good and part of which is sunk in sin.
John
The dim-witted carpenter to whom Alison is married and with whom Nicholas boards. John is jealous and possessive of his wife. He constantly berates Nicholas for looking into God's "pryvetee" ("private parts"), but when Nicholas offers John the chance to share his knowledge, John quickly accepts. He gullibly believes Nicholas's pronouncement that a second flood is coming, which allows Nicholas to sleep with John's wife.
The Knight
The first pilgrim Chaucer describes in the General Prologue and the teller of the first tale. The Knight represents the ideal of a medieval Christian man-at-arms. He has participated in no less than 15 of the great crusades of his era. Brave, experienced, and prudent, the narrator greatly admires him.
Chanticleer
The heroic rooster of the Nun's Priest's Tale. Chanticleer has seven hen-wives and is the most handsome cock in the barnyard. One day, he has a prophetic dream of a fox that will carry him away. Chanticleer is also a bit vain about his clear and accurate crowing voice, and he unwittingly allows a fox to flatter him out of his liberty.
The Host
The leader of the group. The Host is large, loud, and merry, though he possesses a quick temper. He mediates and facilitates the flow of the pilgrims' tales. His title of "host" may be a pun, suggesting both an innkeeper and the Eucharist, or Holy Host.
Absalom
The local parish clerk in the Miller's Tale. Absalom is a little bit foolish and more than a little bit vain. He wears red stockings underneath his floor-length church gown, and his leather shoes are decorated like the fanciful stained-glass windows in a cathedral. He curls his hair, uses breath fresheners, and fancies Alison.
Emperor Charles V
The most powerful monarch in Europe, whose court Faustus visits.
The Parson
The only devout churchman in the company. The Parson lives in poverty but is rich in holy thoughts and deeds. The pastor of a sizable town, he preaches the Gospel and makes sure to practice what he preaches. He's everything that the Monk, Friar, and Pardoner aren't.
The Conflict Between Medieval and Renaissance Values
The play's attitude toward the clash between medieval and Renaissance values is ambiguous. Marlowe seems hostile toward the ambitions of Faustus, and, as Dawkins notes, he keeps his tragic hero squarely in the medieval world, where eternal damnation is the price of human pride. Yet Marlowe himself was no pious traditionalist, and it is tempting to see in Faustus—as many readers have—a hero of the new modern world, a world free of God, religion, and the limits that these imposed on humanity. Faustus may pay a medieval price, this reading suggests, but his successors will go further than he and suffer less, as we have in modern times. On the other hand, the disappointment and mediocrity that follow Faustus's pact with the devil, as he descends from grand ambitions to petty conjuring tricks, might suggest a contrasting interpretation. Marlowe may be suggesting that the new, modern spirit, though ambitious and glittering, will lead only to a Faustian dead end.
Lucifer
The prince of devils, the ruler of hell, and Mephastophilis's master.
Faustus
The protagonist. Faustus is a brilliant sixteenth-century scholar from Wittenberg, Germany, whose ambition for knowledge, wealth, and worldly might makes him willing to pay the ultimate price—his soul—to Lucifer in exchange for supernatural powers. Faustus's initial tragic grandeur is diminished by the fact that he never seems completely sure of the decision to forfeit his soul and constantly wavers about whether or not to repent. His ambition is admirable and initially awesome, yet he ultimately lacks a certain inner strength. He is unable to embrace his dark path wholeheartedly but is also unwilling to admit his mistake.
Romance
The romance, a tale about knights and ladies incorporating courtly love themes, was a popular literary genre in fourteenth-century literature. The genre included tales of knights rescuing maidens, embarking on quests, and forming bonds with other knights and rulers (kings and queens). In particular, the romances about King Arthur, his queen, Guinevere, and his society of "knights of the round table" were very popular in England. In The Canterbury Tales, the Knight's Tale incorporates romantic elements in an ancient classical setting, which is a somewhat unusual time and place to set a romance. The Wife of Bath's Tale is framed by Arthurian romance, with an unnamed knight of the round table as its unlikely hero, but the tale itself becomes a proto-feminist's moral instruction for domestic behavior. The Miller's Tale ridicules the traditional elements of romance by transforming the love between a young wooer and a willing maiden into a boisterous and violent romp.
The Yeoman
The servant who accompanies the Knight and the Squire. The Narrator mentions that the Yeoman's dress and weapons suggest he may be a forester.
Alison
The sexy young woman married to the carpenter in the Miller's Tale. She is bright and sweet like a small bird. She also dresses in a tantalizing style: her clothes are embroidered inside and outside, and she laces her boots high. She willingly goes to bed with Nicholas, but she has only harsh words and obscenities for Absalom.
Emily
The sister to Hippolyta, Theseus's domesticated Amazon queen in the Knight's Tale. Fair-haired and glowing, we first see Emily as Palamon does, through a window. Though she is the object of both Palamon's and Arcite's desire, she would rather spend her life unmarried and childless. Nevertheless, when Arcite wins the tournament, she readily pledges herself to him.
Magic and the Supernatural
The supernatural pervades Doctor Faustus, appearing everywhere in the story. Angels and devils flit about, magic spells are cast, dragons pull chariots (albeit offstage), and even fools like the two ostlers, Robin and Rafe, can learn enough magic to summon demons. Still, it is worth noting that nothing terribly significant is accomplished through magic. Faustus plays tricks on people, conjures up grapes, and explores the cosmos on a dragon, but he does not fundamentally reshape the world. The magic power that Mephastophilis grants him is more like a toy than an awesome, earth-shaking ability. Furthermore, the real drama of the play, despite all the supernatural frills and pyrotechnics, takes place within Faustus's vacillating mind and soul, as he first sells his soul to Lucifer and then considers repenting. In this sense, the magic is almost incidental to the real story of Faustus's struggle with himself, which Marlowe intended not as a fantastical battle but rather as a realistic portrait of a human being with a will divided between good and evil.
Arcite
The sworn brother to Palamon. Arcite, imprisoned with Palamon in the tower in the Knight's Tale, falls equally head-over-heels in love with Emily. Arcite gets released from the tower early and wins Emily's hand in a tournament, but he then dies when a divinely fated earthquake causes his horse to throw him.
The Three Rioters
The three protagonists of the Pardoner's Tale. All three indulge in and represent the vices against which the Pardoner has railed in his Prologue: Gluttony, Drunkeness, Gambling, and Swearing. These traits define the three and eventually lead to their downfall. The Rioters at first appear like personified vices, but it is their belief that a personified concept—in this case, Death—is a real person that becomes the root cause of their undoing.
Science is progressing against
Theological teaching
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne, And smale fowles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open ye (So priketh hem nature in hir corages), Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages. (General Prologue, 1-12)
These are the opening lines with which the narrator begins the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales. The imagery in this opening passage is of spring's renewal and rebirth. April's sweet showers have penetrated the dry earth of March, hydrating the roots, which in turn coax flowers out of the ground. The constellation Taurus is in the sky; Zephyr, the warm, gentle west wind, has breathed life into the fields; and the birds chirp merrily. The verbs used to describe Nature's actions—piercing (2), engendering (4), inspiring (5), and pricking (11)—conjure up images of conception. The natural world's reawakening aligns with the narrator's similarly "inspired" poetic sensibility. The classical (Latin and Ancient Greek) authors that Chaucer emulated and wanted to surpass would always begin their epic narrative poems by invoking a muse, or female goddess, to inspire them, quite literally to talk or breathe a story into them. Most of them begin "Sing in me, O muse," about a particular subject. Chaucer too begins with a moment of inspiration, but in this case it is the natural inspiration of the earth readying itself for spring rather than a supernatural being filling the poet's body with her voice. After the long sleep of winter, people begin to stir, feeling the need to "goon on pilgrimages," or to travel to a site where one worships a saint's relics as a means of spiritual cleansing and renewal. Since winter ice and snow made traveling long distances almost impossible (this was an age not only before automobiles but also before adequately developed horse-drawn carriages), the need to get up, stretch one's legs, and see the world outside the window must have been great. Pilgrimages combined spring vacations with religious purification. The landscape in this passage also clearly situates the text in England. This is not a classical landscape like the Troy of Homer's Iliad, nor is it an entirely fictionalized space like the cool groves and rocky cliffs of imaginary Arcadia from pastoral poetry and romances. Chaucer's landscape is also accessible to all types of people, but especially those who inhabit the countryside, since Chaucer speaks of budding flowers, growing crops, and singing birds.
Ah Faustus, Now hast thou but one bare hour to live, And then thou must be damned perpetually. . . . The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned. O I'll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down? See, see where Christ's blood streams in the firmament! One drop would save my soul, half a drop: ah my Christ— Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ; Yet will I call on him—O spare me, Lucifer! . . . Earth, gape! O no, it will not harbor me. You stars that reigned at my nativity, Whose influence hath allotted death and hell, Now draw up Faustus like a foggy mist Into the entrails of yon laboring cloud, That when you vomit forth into the air My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths, So that my soul may but ascend to heaven. . . . O God, if thou wilt not have mercy on my soul, . . . Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years, A hundred thousand, and at last be saved. . . . Cursed be the parents that engendered me: No, Faustus, curse thy self, curse Lucifer, That hath deprived thee of the joys of heaven. . . . My God, my God, look not so fierce on me! . . . Ugly hell gape not! Come not, Lucifer! I'll burn my books—ah, Mephastophilis! (13.57-113)
These lines come from Faustus's final speech, just before the devils take him down to hell. It is easily the most dramatic moment in the play, and Marlowe uses some of his finest rhetoric to create an unforgettable portrait of the mind of a man about to carried off to a horrific doom. Faustus goes from one idea to another, desperately seeking a way out. But no escape is available, and he ends by reaching an understanding of his own guilt: "No, Faustus, curse thy self, curse Lucifer, / That hath deprived thee of the joys of heaven." This final speech raises the question of why Faustus does not repent earlier and, more importantly, why his desperate cries to Christ for mercy are not heard. In a truly Christian framework, Faustus would be allowed a chance at redemption even at the very end. But Marlowe's play ultimately proves more tragic than Christian, and so there comes a point beyond which Faustus can no longer be saved. He is damned, in other words, while he is still alive. Faustus's last line aptly expresses the play's representation of a clash between Renaissance and medieval values. "I'll burn my books," Faustus cries as the devils come for him, suggesting, for the first time since scene 2, when his slide into mediocrity begins, that his pact with Lucifer is about gaining limitless knowledge, an ambition that the Renaissance spirit celebrated but that medieval Christianity denounced as an expression of sinful human pride. As he is carried off to hell, Faustus seems to give in to the Christian worldview, denouncing, in a desperate attempt to save himself, the quest for knowledge that has defined most of his life.
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss: Her lips sucks forth my soul, see where it flies! Come Helen, come, give me my soul again. Here will I dwell, for heaven be in these lips, And all is dross that is not Helena! (12.81-87)
These lines come from a speech that Faustus makes as he nears the end of his life and begins to realize the terrible nature of the bargain he has made. Despite his sense of foreboding, Faustus enjoys his powers, as the delight he takes in conjuring up Helen makes clear. While the speech marks a return to the eloquence that he shows early in the play, Faustus continues to display the same blind spots and wishful thinking that characterize his behavior throughout the drama. At the beginning of the play, he dismisses religious transcendence in favor of magic; now, after squandering his powers in petty, self-indulgent behavior, he looks for transcendence in a woman, one who may be an illusion and not even real flesh and blood. He seeks heavenly grace in Helen's lips, which can, at best, offer only earthly pleasure. "[M]ake me immortal with a kiss," he cries, even as he continues to keep his back turned to his only hope for escaping damnation—namely, repentance.
Aegeus
Theseus's father. Egeus gives Theseus the advice that helps him convince Palamon and Emily to end their mourning of Arcite and get married.
MEPHASTOPHILIS.: Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed In one self-place; for where we are is hell, And where hell is, there must we ever be. . . . All places shall be hell that is not heaven. FAUSTUS: Come, I think hell's a fable. MEPHASTOPHILISS.: Ay, think so still, till experience change thy mind. . . . FAUSTUS: Think'st thou that Faustus is so fond to imagine That after this life there is any pain? Tush, these are trifles and mere old wives' tales. (5.120-135)
This exchange again shows Mephastophilis warning Faustus about the horrors of hell. This time, though, their exchange is less significant for what Mephastophilis says about hell than for Faustus's response to him. Why anyone would make a pact with the devil is one of the most vexing questions surrounding Doctor Faustus, and here we see part of Marlowe's explanation. We are constantly given indications that Faustus doesn't really understand what he is doing. He is a secular Renaissance man, so disdainful of traditional religion that he believes hell to be a "fable" even when he is conversing with a devil. Of course, such a belief is difficult to maintain when one is trafficking in the supernatural, but Faustus has a fallback position. Faustus takes Mephastophilis's assertion that hell will be "[a]ll places ... that is not heaven" to mean that hell will just be a continuation of life on earth. He fails to understand the difference between him and Mephastophilis: unlike Mephastophilis, who has lost heaven permanently, Faustus, despite his pact with Lucifer, is not yet damned and still has the possibility of repentance. He cannot yet understand the torture against which Mephastophilis warns him, and imagines, fatally, that he already knows the worst of what hell will be.
MEPHASTOPHILIS: Why this is hell, nor am I out of it. Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of God, And tasted the eternal joys of heaven, Am not tormented with ten thousand hells In being deprived of everlasting bliss? O Faustus, leave these frivolous demands, Which strike a terror to my fainting soul. FAUSTUS: What, is great Mephastophilis so passionate For being deprivèd of the joys of heaven? Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitude, And scorn those joys thou never shalt possess. (3.76-86)
This exchange shows Faustus at his most willfully blind, as he listens to Mephastophilis describe how awful hell is for him even as a devil, and as he then proceeds to dismiss Mephastophilis's words blithely, urging him to have "manly fortitude." But the dialogue also shows Mephastophilis in a peculiar light. We know that he is committed to Faustus's damnation—he has appeared to Faustus because of his hope that Faustus will renounce God and swear allegiance to Lucifer. Yet here Mephastophilis seems to be urging Faustus against selling his soul, telling him to "leave these frivolous demands, / Which strike a terror to my fainting soul." There is a parallel between the experience of Mephastophilis and that of Faustus. Just as Faustus now is, Mephastophilis was once prideful and rebelled against God; like Faustus, he is damned forever for his sin. Perhaps because of this connection, Mephastophilis cannot accept Faustus's cheerful dismissal of hell in the name of "manly fortitude." He knows all too well the terrible reality, and this knowledge drives him, in spite of himself, to warn Faustus away from his t-errible course.
The Firste Moevere of the cause above, Whan he first made the faire cheyne of love, Greet was th'effect, and heigh was his entente. . . . For with that faire cheyne of love he bond The fyr, the eyr, the water, and the lond In certeyn boundes, that they may nat flee. (The Knight's Tale, 2987-2993)
This passage is from the conclusion of the Knight's Tale, as Duke Theseus explains why Emelye must marry the knight Palamon. Theseus bases his argument on concepts drawn from the fifth-century A.D. Roman philosopher Boethius, whose ideas appealed to medieval Christians because he combined Plato's theory of an ideal world with Christian teachings of a moral universe. Chaucer took it upon himself to translate and provide a commentary for Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy. Chaucer's translation, a long prose text, is informally known as his Boece. The "Firste Moevere" (first mover) is the Aristotelian notion of God. The story the Knight tells takes place long before Christ. Although medieval Christians could not condemn classical writers and philosophers, since much of Virgil's poetry and Plato's philosophy formed the basis for Christian literature, they had difficulty imagining a time before people believed in Christ. Chaucer (or the Knight) has carefully given Theseus a pagan notion of God that nevertheless resonates with Christianity. Having a supreme ancient Greek or Roman god would be idolatrous and therefore immoral (although the gods appear as lesser entities in the second half of the tale), because, according to medieval Christians, there was only one god and that god was the Trinity. The "faire cheyne of love" is a medieval view of cosmology, or the natural order of things. It is the idea that every thing has its place in the hierarchy of the world, from the smallest flea to the hand of God. The fifty lines or so that follow this passage contain ideas that are taken almost word for word from Chaucer's Boece. Theseus argues that Emelye's overly long mourning threatens to disrupt the great chain of love, and that the only way to maintain the chain's balance is for her to marry Palamon and be happy.
Thus swyved was this carpenteris wyf, For al his kepyng and his jalousye; And Absolon hath kist hir nether ye; And Nicholas is scalded in the towte. This tale is doon, and God save al the rowte! (The Miller's Tale, 3850-3854)
This passage, the rhyming conclusion to the Miller's Tale, neatly resolves the story by offering a reckoning of accounts. Everyone in the story has learned his or her lesson and gotten the physical punishment he or she deserves. The carpenter's wife, Alisoun, was "swyved," or possessed in bed by another man, in this case, Nicholas. John, the ignorant and jealous carpenter, has been made a cuckold, despite his watchful and possessive eye. Absolon, the foolish and foppish parish clerk, has kissed Alisoun's behind, fair punishment for evading his clerical duties. Nicholas, the smart-alecky student who cheated on the carpenter with Alisoun, has been burned on his bottom with a red-hot poker as payback for farting in Absolon's face. Still, the distribution of punishments is not entirely equal. John is dealt the worst lot—he ends up with a broken arm and the whole town believing he has gone insane. Alisoun's "swyving" is a double punishment for John, while Alisoun herself escapes unscathed.
King richard hid in the
Tower of London
Valdes and Cornelius
Two friends of Faustus, both magicians, who teach him the art of black magic.
12 June 1381
Two peasant armies gaining on London Rebels took control of London King Richard promises to end serfdom
people fascinated by the idea of
aliens and wanted to know more about the Devil
pay homage to the Green Man
and life and fresh crops will return to soil each spring
allies
begging poor friars
defying God's providence
blasphemy to authority
Chaucer's Life
born into a wealthy family soldier captured by the French diplomatic missions by King studied at London School of Law influenced by Dante for Cantebury Tales mentored and financed by John of Gaunt for political books
Netherlands
epicenter of religious war in Europe
financing Church
financing French (mortal enemy)
Wycliffe's Bible
first full English translation of the Scriptures
Chaucer was a Lollard
influenced by friends
No reason to suggest that
the plays arose out of dissatisfaction with clerical control
