The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Endnotes

Confound. The Carthaginians were, however, victorious at Lake Trasimenus. ↩
Roda, in the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg. —⁠Bullen ↩
Whereas, i.e. where. Perhaps “kinsmen” should be “kinsman;” it is “uncle” in the prose History. ↩
I.e. Knowledge. The word occurs throughout the play in the sense of knowledge or skill. ↩
Dyce suggests that probably the Chorus, before going out, drew a curtain, and disclosed Faustus sitting in his study. ↩
This is Mr. Bullen’s emendation. Ed. 1604 reads “Oncaymaeon,” by which Marlowe meant the Aristotelian ὅν καὶ μὴ ὅν (“being and not being”). The later quartos give (with various spelling) “Œconomy,” which is nonsense. ↩
Maxims of medical practice. ↩
Prescriptions by which he had worked his cures. Professor Ward thinks the reference is rather to “the advertisements by which, as a migratory physician, he had been in the habit of announcing his advent, and perhaps his system of cures, and which were now ‘hung up as monuments’ in perpetuum.” —⁠Bullen ↩
The old form of spelling for “sarà.” ↩
This refers to an incident at the blockade of Antwerp by the Prince of Parma in 1585, which is thus described in Grimestone’s Generall Historie of the Netherlands, p. 875, ed. 1609:⁠—“They of Antuerpe knowing that the bridge and the Stocadoes were finished, made a great shippe, to be a meanes to breake all this work of the prince of Parmaes; this great shippe was made of mason’s worke within, in the manner of a vaulted caue: vpon the hatches there were layed myll-stones, graue-stones, and others of great weight; and within the vault were many barrels of powder, ouer the which there were holes; and in them they had put matches, hanging at a thred, the which burning vntill they came vnto the thred, would fall into the powder, and so blow vp all. And for that they could not haue anyone in this shippe to conduct it, Lanckhaer, a sea captaine of the Hollanders, being then in Antuerpe, gaue them counsell to tye a great beame at the end of it, to make it to keepe a straight course in the middest of the streame. In this sort floated this shippe the fourth of Aprill, vntill that it came vnto the bridge; where (within a while after) the powder wrought his effect, with such violence, as the vessell, and all that was within it, and vpon it, flew in pieces, carrying away a part of the Stocado and of the bridge. The marquesse of Roubay Vicont of Gant, Gaspar of Robles lord of Billy, and the Seignior of Torchies, brother vnto the Seignior of Bours, with many others, were presently slaine; which were torne in pieces, and dispersed abroad, both vpon the land and vpon the water.” ↩
This is the famous Cornelius Agrippa. German (possibly meant for “Hermann”) Valdes is not known. Various improbable persons have been brought forward. In Scene II it is said “they two are infamous through the world.” I can only suggest that Marlowe may have meant Paracelsus. ↩
Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, vi 667. ↩
I.e. Cornelius Agrippa whom he is addressing, here spoken of as another person. “In Book I of his work De Occulta Philosophia, Agrippa gives directions for the operations of sciomancy.” —⁠Ward ↩
Troopers. Germ. Reiters. ↩
On the contrary, Laplanders are almost dwarfs. Marlowe falls into a similar error in Tamburlaine. ↩
Düntzer suggests that Marlowe refers to Pietro d’Abano, an Italian physician and alchemist who narrowly escaped burning by the Inquisition. He was born about 1250 and died about 1316, and wrote a work called Conciliator Differentiarum Philosophoruni et Medicorum. “Albanus” was changed by Mitford into “Albertus,” the schoolman, whose works were considered to possess magical properties. ↩
It has been suggested that the scene is before Faustus’s house, as Wagner presently speaks of his master being within at dinner. ↩
The scene is supposed to be a grove. See the conversation between Faustus and Valdes towards the end of Scene I. ↩
Bullen points out that the above four lines are repeated verbatim in the first scene of Taming of a Shrew 1594. ↩
I.e. Wandering. ↩
“Quid tu moraris?” preparatory to a weightier invocation, suggested by Mr. Fleay and Mr. Bullen, in place of “quod tumeraris.” ↩
In the prose History we read:⁠—“After Dr. Faustus had made his promise to the devill, in the morning betimes he called the spirit before him, and commanded him that he should alwayes come to him like a fryer after the order of Saint Francis, with a bell in his hand like Saint Anthony, and to ring it once or twice before he appeared, that he might know of his certaine coming.” ↩
I.e. Inform me. ↩
It is suggested by Dyce that the scene is probably a street. ↩
Beards cut to a sharp point (Fr. pic-d-devani). ↩
Dyce points out that these are the first words of W. Lily’s “Ad discipulos carmen de moribus.” ↩
A ranunculaceous plant (Delphinium staphisagria), still used for destroying lice. ↩
Knave’s Acre (Poultney Street) described by Strype as narrow, and chiefly inhabited by dealers in old goods and glass bottles. ↩
Wide breeches, trunk hose. ↩
“You” is of course the antecedent of “that.” —⁠Bullen ↩
The sixth chapter of the prose History is headed⁠—“How Dr. Faustus set his blood in a saucer on warme ashes and writ as followeth.” ↩
The words “he desires” are not in the old quartos. Dyce first pointed out that in the prose History of Dr. Faustus, the third article runs thus:⁠—“That Mephistopheles should bring him anything and do for him whatsoever”⁠—a later edition adding “he desired,” and another “he requireth.” ↩
Foolish. ↩
I.e. Sabaea, the Queen of Sheba. ↩
Repeating. ↩
The scene is supposed to be a room in Faustus’s house. ↩
I venture to relegate the meaningless line which follows: “And of his dam too,” for which no editor considers Marlowe responsible, to a footnote. ↩
An allusion to the medieval Carmen de Pulice, formerly ascribed to Ovid. —⁠Bullen ↩
A pair of rapiers worn in a single sheath, and used one in each hand. ↩
Refreshments taken between meals. ↩
Martlemas or Martinmas was the customary time for hanging up provisions, which had been previously salted, to dry. Our ancestors lived chiefly upon salted meat in the spring, owing to the winter-fed cattle not being fit for use. St. Martin’s day is November 11th. ↩
The March brewing was much esteemed in those days, as it is in Germany at the present time. ↩
All the quartos have “Lechery.” The change which was first proposed by Collier has been adopted by Dyce and other editors. ↩
In the edition of 1616 the speech of the Chorus is ingeniously expanded as follows:⁠—

Chor. Learned Faustus, To find the secrets of Astronomy
Graven in the book of Jove’s high firmament,
Did mount him up to scale Olympus’ top;
Where, sitting in a chariot burning bright,
Drawn by the strength of yoked dragons’ necks,
He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars,
The tropic zones, and quarters of the sky,
From the bright circle of the homed moon
Even to the height of Primum Mobile;
And, whirling round with this circumference,
Within the concave compass of the pole,
From east to west his dragons swiftly glide,
And in eight days did bring him home again.
Not long he stayed within his quiet house,
To rest his bones after his weary toil;
But new exploits do hale him out again:
And, mounted then upon a dragon’s back,
That with his wings did part the subtle air,
He now is gone to prove cosmography,
That measures coasts and kingdoms of the earth;
And, as I guess, will first arrive at Rome,
To see the Pope and manner of his court,
And take some part of holy Peter’s feast,
The which this day is highly solemnised.

This represents the revisers of the play at their best. ↩
The scene is the Pope’s Privy Chamber. ↩
Treves. ↩
Virgil was regarded as a magician in the Middle Ages. ↩
The prose History shows the “sumptuous temple” to be St. Mark’s at Venice. ↩
In the edition of 1616 the two following lines are added:⁠—

“Whose frame is paved with sundry coloured stones,
And rooft aloft with curious work in gold.”

The addition is an interesting example of the close fashion in which the revisers clung to the prose History wherein we read “how all the pavement was set with coloured stones, and all the rood or loft of the church double gilded over.” ↩
This may mean simply large cannons, or as Ward points out, cannon with double bores. Two cannons with triple bores were taken from the French at Malplaquet, and are now in the Woolwich Museum. ↩
Evidently obelisks are here meant, although the word “pyramides” was formerly applied to church spires. ↩
Written in half a dozen other forms⁠—Sennet, Senet, Synnet, Cynet, Signet and Signate. Nares defines it as “a particular set of notes on the trumpet or cornet, different from a flourish.” ↩
The scene is supposed to be an innyard. ↩
“Hippocrates, a medicated drink composed usually of red wine, but sometimes white, with the addition of sugar and spices.” —⁠Nares ↩
Tavern. ↩
It was a common practice among our ancestors to feed horses on bread. Nares quotes from Gervase Markham a recipe for making horse-loaves. —⁠Bullen ↩
Booty. ↩
The actor was at liberty to supply the abuse. Mr. Bullen mentions that in an old play, the Tryall of Chevalry (1605), the stage direction occurs, “Exit Clown, speaking anything. ↩
The scene is an apartment in the Emperor’s palace. Much of the text of this scene is closely borrowed from the prose History. ↩
The scene is “a fair and pleasant green,” presently alluded to by Faustus, and is supposed to change to a room in Faustus’s house where the latter falls asleep in his chair. ↩
Horse-dealer. ↩
Smooth. ↩
Dr. Lopez, physician to Queen Elizabeth. He was hanged in 1594 for having received a bribe from the court of Spain to poison the Queen; as Marlowe was dead before the doctor came into notoriety, he could hardly have written this. ↩
A juggler’s term, like “presto, fly!” Hence applied to the juggler himself. —⁠Bullen ↩
Hostelry. ↩
Anhalt in the Volksbuch, Anholt in the prose History. ↩
The scene is the Court of the Duke of Anhalt. ↩
Beholden. ↩
This and the following scene are inside Faustus’s house. ↩
This stage-direction is not in the early editions: it was suggested by Dyce. ↩
Shakespeare surely remembered this line when he wrote of Helen in Troilus and Cressida, ii 2:⁠—

“Why, she is a pearl
Whose price hath launched above a thousand ships.”

—⁠Bullen ↩
Dyce supposes the scene to be a room in the Old Man’s house, and Bullen “a room of Faustus’s house, whither the Old Man has come to exhort Faustus to repentance.” ↩
The scene is a room in Faustus’s house, ↩
“At si, quein malis. Cephalum complexa teoeres,
Clamares ‘lente currite noctis equi.’”

Ovid’s Amores, i 13, ll 39⁠–⁠40.

“By an exquisite touch of nature⁠—the brain involuntarily summoning words employed for other purposes in happier hours⁠—Faust cries aloud the line which Ovid whispered in Corinna’s arms.” —⁠J. A. Symonds ↩