Rebel and pioneer though he was, Marlow was yet a product of his own age. The introduction of the Good and Bad Angels, of the minor devils, and of the Seven Deadly Sins in Faustus links him with the drama of the later middle ages. Faustuss inexhaustible thirst for knowledge, his worship of beauty, his passion for the classics, his skepticism, his interest in sorcery and magic, his admiration for Machiavelli and for super-human ambition and will in pursuit of ideas of beauty or power, or whatever they may be, prove the author to be a man of Renaissance.
Faustus appears as a man of the Renaissance in the very opening scene when, rejecting the traditional subjects of study, he turns to magic and considers the varied uses to which he can put his magic skill after he has acquired it. He contemplated the world of profit and delight of power, of honor, of omnipotence which he hopes to enjoy as a magician. In dwelling upon the advantages which will acquire to him by the exercise of his magic power, he shows his ardent curiosity, his desire for wealth and luxury, his nationalism, and his longing for power. These were precisely the qualities of Renaissance, which was the age of discovery.
A number of allusions in the first scene of Act 1 maintain our sense of the enlarged out look and extended horizons of that great period of English history. Faustus desires gold from the east India, pearls from depth of sea, pleasant fruits and princely delicacies from America. There was much in this scene to inflame the hearts of English audiences who must have heartily approved of Festuss intention to chase away the prince of Parma from Netherlands. Thus Faustuss dream of power included much that had a strong appeal for the English people including Marlow himself.
Faustus certainly embodies the new enquiring and aspiring spirit of the age of the renaissance. Marlow expresses in this play both his fervent sympathy with that new sprit and ultimately, awed and pitiful recognition of the danger into which it could lead those who were dominated by it. The danger is clearly seen in Faustuss last soliloquy in which Faustus offers to burn is books. No doubt that these books are chiefly books of magic, but we are surely reminded of this exclamation to scholar earlier in this scene: o, would I have ever seen Wittenberg, never read book. Thus we get the impression that Faustus attributed his downfall, partly at least, to his learning.
Doctor Faustus although without specific Italian sources, owes its audacity of thought and temper to Renaissance Italy, and treats with a comparable reach of mind, questioned that troubled Italian thinkers. To get some impression of the Renaissance quality of Doctor Faustus, it is enough to read three Italian works Tetrarchs On His Own Ignorance, Lorenzo Vallas Dialogue on free Will, and Pico della Mrandollas Oration on the Dignity of Man, Petrarch reconciles a Renaissance delight in life and learning with an Augustinian recognition of the limitations of man and a devotion to eloquence with a devotion to dogma. Vallas elegant argument illuminates is theme but leaves its paradoxes as teasing as it finds them adding a stringent warning against pursuing moral questions too far. Picpo vindicates the magus who weds earth to heaven and lower things to the endowments and powers of higher things.
But the Italian who most often anticipates the dynamic and mysterious qualities of Marlowes intellectual vision is Marsilio Ficino. Ficino shares Marlowes awareness of the sanctity and torment of desire by a natural instinct every souls strives in a continuous effort both to know all truths by the intellect and to enjoy all things by the will. Through its striving the soul reaches out towards harmony with the cosmic order and by the exercise of the four furors (religious, rites, prophecy and love) man can enjoy the most beneficent influences from the stars and planets.
Doctor Faustus is not only the first major Elizabethan tragedy, but the first to explore the tragic possibilities of the direct clash between the Renaissance compulsions and the Hebraic Christian tradition. Tumburlaine symbolizes the outward thrust of the Renaissance, but in Doctor Faustus Marlow turned the focus inward he depicted the human soul as the tragic battle field and wrote the first Christian tragedy.
The legend of Faustus was believed to be a terrible and ennobling example, and a warning to all Christians to avoid the profits of science, pleasure, and ambition which had led to Faustuss damnation. But it has to be noted that the entire Renaissance valued is represented in what the devil has to offer and one is left wondering whether it is the religious life or the worldly life that is more attractive. All that the Good Angel warns Faustus against reading the book of magic because it will bring Gods heavy wrath upon his head, and asks him to think of heaven. To this the evil angel replies: no Faustus think of honor and wealth. At another point in the play the evil angel urges Faustus to go forward in the famous art of magic and to become a lord and commander of the earth. There can be no doubt that the devil here represents the natural ideal of the renaissance by appealing to the vague but healthy ambitious of a young soul which wishes to launch itself upon the wide world. No wonderer that Faustus a child of the Renaissance, cannot resist the devils suggestion. We like him for his love of life for his trust in nature, for his enthusiasm for beauty. In a word Marlows Faustus is a martyr to ever thing that the Renaissance valued power, curious knowledge, and enterprise, wealth and beauty. The play shows Marlows own passion for these Renaissance values.
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