The Reputation of Christopher Morloive. 377 



pliancJy playing the History of Faustus (the truth of which I have heard 

 from many now aUve, who well remember it . . .'"^ 



Allusions to Faustus and Mephistophilis are excessively common 

 in literature previous to the Restoration, and even in later plays f'^ 

 but they usually imply even less actual knowledge of Marlowe 

 than do the references to Tamburlaiiie. One passage, indeed, in 

 the second scene of the second act of The Two Merry Milke-Maids 

 (1620),*'^ shows a definite, though erroneous, recollection of certain 

 scenes of Doctor Faustus: 

 Dor(igenc). I hope he did not spend his time so ill 



In the Vniuersitie at IVittcmbcrg, 



But he ha's learnt so much Philosophic, 



To tame those headstrong Passions. 

 Inl(ia). You may pray rather he ha's not spent his time 



As Faustus did, and many that are there. 



In Negromancie, so to performe the Taske 



You haue layd on him. 

 Dor. Alas poore Wench, do'st thou beleeue there can be such an Art? 

 lul. Why, haue we it not recorded, Faustus did 



Fetch Bruno's Wife, Duchesse of Saxonie, 



In the dead time of Winter, Grapes she long'd for? 

 Dor. Such a Report there goes, but I hold fabulous. 



Some lines in the poem of The Time's Whistle, by 'R. C. Gent.' 

 {ca. 1614),"^ remember the tragic conception of Marlowe's 

 Faustus: 



^^ Histrio-Mastix, Act. 6, sc. 19 (ed. 1633, fol. 556). The same story is 

 reported from Germany. Meissner {Die englischen Kouwedianten in 

 Ocsterreich, p. 91) cites the words of Grimmelshausen's Simpticissimus: 

 'Was agiret, spielet und sihet man doch lieber, als die Historiam des ver- 

 ruchten Ertzzauberers, Doctor Johannis Fausti, darum, dass ein Hauffen 

 Teuffel darinnen allezeit eingefiihret, und in allerhand abscheulichen 

 Gebarden vorgestellet werden. Da doch bekannt, wie schon so manchermal 

 bey solchen teufflischen Masqueradentjinzen und Fausti-Comodien sich aus 

 Verhjingniis Gottes auch rechte Teuffel unter denen so verstellten mit einge- 

 funden und man nicht gewusst, wo dieser Vierde, oder Siebende, oder 

 Zwolffte (wie in verschiedenen Begebenheiten geschehen, dass einer zuviel 

 gewesen) herkommen.' 



"" See below, p. 383 ff. An allusion to 'the yrreverent doctor Fawstus, or 

 some such grave patron of great play' in Sir John Harington's Treatise on 

 Playe (ca. 1595; Tille p. 85) and two epigrams Tn Faustum' by Sir John 

 Davies seem directed at some contemporary nicknamed Faustus. 



*^ By J. C (umber?). Sig. F4^ and Gi. The 1620 quarto is reproduced in 

 the Tudor Facsimile Texts series. 



''^Ed. J. M. Cowper, Early English Text Society, vol. 48 (Tille, p. 135). 



