Thursday, July 06, 2006

Dr. Faustus

For my fellow literary addicts, if you have not read Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, I highly recommend it. I just read it for an independent study class. It is a relaitvely short, a play, and if you ever sauntered down the hallways of the old JKHB at BYU, there was a lovely painting of Dr. Faustus before he is whipped down to Hell, hanging there.
From Dr. Faustus we get the first real-documented/modern-ish reference to "selling your soul to the devil," and this is where we get the "little angel and devil on your shoulder" bit. When the devil and angel are on Dr. Faustus' shoulder, I could not help and picture instead the little angel and devil from The Emperor's New Groove. And there are some classic heaven and hell lines in it, that i didn't know started with Faustus!

Anyway, it was written in 1604, and worth a looking into, I feel a little more culturally literate~ now if you will. LOL.

Here is a line or two you might recognize:

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 sould, see where it flies!
Here will I dwell, for heaven be in these lips,
ANd all is dross that is not Helena!
I will be Paris, and for love of thee,
Instead of Troy shall Wittenberg be sacked;
And I will combat with weak Menelaus,
And wear they colors on my plumed crest:
Yea, I will would Achilles in the heel,
And then return to Helen for a kiss.

[12.80-92].

3 comments:

Panini said...

I had to read that last semester and I LOVE it! It was totally exciting and blew me away to be reading original prose that became common expressions--and a forgotten source.

Unknown said...

Yeah! We very seldom like the same peices of literature! ;)

Panini said...

hope your essay rocked yesterday--I'm back from Logan ey-yi-i