Renaissance Theatre.
The Protestant Reformation in northern Europe put an end to most religious drama by the mid-16th century, and a new, dynamic secular drama developed in its place. The Renaissance began at different times in different areas of Europe and was a slow process of change rather than a sudden shift in ideas and values.
England
The English drama of the 16th cent. showed from the beginning that it would not be bound by classical rules. Many themes and ideas can be seen in the components of the Elizabethan drama. For example, many works were influenced by other works. Themes on revenge were seen and blood and killing was evidenced in many works by, for instance, Thomas Kyd 's Spanish Tragedy (c.1586). Marlowe’s works presented deeper meanings of questioning life.

Shakespeare, of course, stands as the supreme dramatist of the Renaissance period, equally skilful at writing tragedies, comedies, or chronicle plays. His great achievements include the perfection of a verse form and language that captures the spirit of ordinary speech and yet stand above it to give a special dignity to his characters and situations; a marvellous ability to unify plot, character, imagery, and verse movement. With the reign of James I the English drama began to decline until the closing of the theatres by the Puritans in 1642.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_drama Comedy in Elizabethan Drama:
The term "comedy" as applied to a division of the drama was not used in England until the Renaissance had brought a knowledge of the classical drama and theatre.
Though the term was new the thing was old. The comic spirit invaded the miracle plays at an early date; while there were many wandering entertainers who provided farce and clownage. Farce in written drama appears at the beginning of the sixteenth century in the plays of John Heywood; and by that time farcical comedy had nearly captured the morality.
"Ralph Roister Doister" (1566 (?), acted c. 1540) was written by Nicholas Udall, a schoolmaster, doubtless for performance by schoolboys. It is usually known as the first English comedy. It is an elaborate farce with a fair infusion (mixture) of English manners and fun.

Definition of Elizabethan era:

It is the period associated with Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558–1603) and is often considered to be the golden age in English history. It was the height of the English Renaissance and saw the florishing of English drama. This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre flourished and William Shakespeare and many others, composed plays that broke free of England's past style of plays and theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became the national mindset of all the people.
English Renaissance theatre derived from several medieval theatre traditions, such as the mystery plays that formed a part of religious festivals in England and other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages. The mystery plays were complex retellings of legends based on biblical themes, originally performed in churches but later becoming more linked to the secular celebrations that grew up around religious festivals. Other sources include the morality plays.
Background:
The drama before Shakespeare:

Throughout the Middle Ages the English drama, like that of other European countries, was mainly religious and didactic, its chief forms being the Miracle Plays, which presented in crude dialogue stories from the Bible and the lives of the saints, and the Moralities, which taught lessons for the guidance of life through the means of allegorical action and the personification different qualities like good and evil.

THE CHRONICLE HISTORY

Of the various forms which this drama took, the first to reach a culmination was the so-called Chronicle History. This is represented in The Harvard Classics by the “Edward II” of Marlowe, the greatest of the predecessors of Shakespeare; and Shakespeare himself produced some ten plays belonging to the type. These dramas reflect the interest the Elizabethans took in the heroic past of their country.

Genres:
Genres of the period included the history play, which depicted English or European history. Shakespeare’s plays about the lives of kings, such as Richard III and Henry V, belong to this category, as do Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and George Peele's Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First.
Tragedy was a popular genre. Marlowe's tragedies were exceptionally popular, such as Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta. The audiences particularly liked revenge dramas, such as Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy. John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi offers a parade (display) of bloody cruelties.
Comedies were common, too.
The first English tragedy was Gorboduc (1561?)

Senecan tragedies tend to include ideas of revenge, the supernatural, suicide, blood and gore.

The greatest master of Tragedy was Shakespeare, and in Tragedy he reached his greatest height. “Hamlet”, “King Lear”, and “Macbeth” are among his finest productions.

ELIZABETHAN COMEDY

Comedies of Shakespeare are far from superficial. Those written in the middle of his career, such as “As You Like It” and “Twelfth Night,” not only display with great skill many sides of human nature, but with indescribable lightness and grace introduce us to charming creations, speaking lines rich in poetry and sparkling with wit, and bring before our imaginations whole series of delightful scenes.

Elizabethan Drama
1. The audience members came from all walks of life: men and women, infants and adults. To enter the theatre, one penny was paid and the person was entitled to stand in the yard before the stage (and was referred to as grounding). An extra penny allowed them to sit in the first floor gallery and another penny another gallery higher. It is possible the amount of audience members reached into the thousands.
2. Actors: All female parts were played by males (young men before voices changed). Actors had to have a good memory, strong voices, ability to fence, dance, sing, and do slight of hand.

Objections to playhouses
In the meantime, respectable people and officers of the Church frequently made complaint of the growing number of play-actors and shows. They said that the plays were often lewd and profane, that play-actors were mostly vagrant, irresponsible, and immoral people; that taverns and disreputable houses were always found in the neighbourhood of the theatres, and that the theatre itself was a public danger in the way of spreading disease. The streets were overcrowded after performances; beggars and loafers infested the theatre section, crimes occurred in the crowd.
Comparison between an Elizabethan and an Athenian performance affords interesting contrasts and similarities. The Athenian festival was part of an important religious service, for which men of affairs gave their time and money. Every sort of government support was at its disposal, and manuscripts were piously preserved. All this was contrary to the practice of the Elizabethans, who tried to suppress the shows, lost many of their most precious manuscripts, and banished the plays to a place outside the city walls. In both countries, however, the audiences were made up of all classes of people who freely expressed their liking or disapproval. In each country the period of dramatic activity followed close upon the heels of great military and naval victories; and the plays of both countries reflect the civil and national pride
LIFE

*Christopher “Kit” Marlowe (1564-1593) born in Canterbury, was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era.

*The foremost Elizabethan tragedian next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his magnificent blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his own mysterious and untimely death.

*Marlowe attended The King's School, Canterbury (where a house is now named after him) and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge on a scholarship and received his bachelor of arts degree in 1584. In 1587 the university hesitated to award him his master's degree because of a rumor that he had converted to Roman Catholicism and intended to go to the English college at Rheims to prepare for the priesthood. However, his degree was awarded on schedule when the Privy Council intervened on his behalf, commending him for his "faithful dealing" and "good service" to the Queen.

*Marlowe has often been described as a brawler, a heretic, and a homosexual, "tobacco-user", and "counterfeiter".
*Marlowe is often alleged to have been a government spy.
WORKS

PLAYS:

Dido, Queen of Carthage c. 1583/4
Tamburlaine the Great Part I c. 1586/7
Tamburlaine the Great Part II c. 1587
The Jew of Malta c. 1589
Doctor Faustus c. 1589
Edward II c. 1592
The Massacre at Paris c. 1592
POETRY:
Translation of the First Book of Lucan c. 1582
Translation of Ovid’s Amores c. 1582
Hero and Leander c. 1593 (unfinished, completed by George Chapman)
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Doctor Faustus:
As a prologue, the Chorus tells us about the type of play Doctor Faustus is. It is not about war or courtly love, but rather about Faustus, who was born of lower class parents. This can be seen as a departure from the Medieval tradition; Faustus holds a lower status than kings and saints, but his story is still worth being told. It gives an introduction to his wisdom and abilities, most notably in divinity which he excels so tremendously that he is awarded a doctorate. During this opening, we also get our first clue to the source of Faustus' downfall. Faustus' tale is likened to that of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and fell to his death when the sun melted his waxen wings. This is indeed a hint to Faustus's end as well as bringing our attention to the idea of hubris (excessive pride) which is represented in the Icarus story.
Faustus comments that he has reached the end of every subject he has studied. He dismisses Logic as being a tool for arguing; Medicine as being unvalued unless it allowed raising the dead and immortality; Law as being petty (somethng cheap, unwrthy) and below him; Divinity as useless because he feels that all humans commit sin, and thus to have sins punishable by death complicates the logic of Divinity. He dismisses it as "What doctrine call you this? Que Sera Sera (What will be, shall be)".
He calls upon his servant Wagner to bring forth Valdes and Cornelius, two famous magicians. The good angel and the bad angel dispense their own perspective of his interest in Magic. Though Faustus is momentarily dissuaded, proclaiming "How am I glutted with conceit of this?", he is apparently won over by the possibilities Magic offers to him. Valdes declares that if Faustus devotes himself to Magic, he must vow not to study anything else and points out that great things are indeed possible with someone of Faustus' standing.
Faustus' absence is noted by two scholars who are less accomplished than Faustus himself. They request that Wagner reveal Faustus' present location, a request which Wagner haughtily denies. We can see Wagner as a person who thinks very highly of himself. The two scholars worry about Faustus falling deep into the art of Magic and leave to inform the head of the university.
Faustus summons a devil, under the presence of Lucifer and other devils although Faustus is unaware of it. After creating a circle and speaking an incantation, a devil named Mephistopheles appears before him. Faustus is unable to tolerate the hideous looks of the devil and commands it to change its form to that of a friar, a shape which "suits a demon best", an ironic statement used to mock religion. Faustus, in seeing the obedience of the devil (for changing form), takes pride in his skill. He tries to bind the devil to his service but is unable to because Mephostophilis already serves Lucifer, the prince of devils. Mephistopheles also reveals that it was not Faustus's power that summoned him but rather anyone that abjured the scriptures would result in the devil coming to claim one's soul.
Mephistopheles introduces the history of Lucifer and the other devils while indirectly telling Faustus that hell has no circumference and is more of a state of mind than a physical location. Faustus' inquiries into the nature of hell lead to Mephistopheles saying: "Oh, Faustus, leave these frivolous demands, which strikes a terror to my fainting soul".
The pact with Lucifer:
Using Mephistopheles as a messenger, Faustus strikes a deal with Lucifer: he is to be allotted twenty-four years of life on Earth, during which time he will have Mephistopheles as his personal servant. At the end he will give his soul over to Lucifer as payment and spend the rest of time as one damned to Hell. This deal is to be sealed in Faustus' own blood. Interestingly, at first his blood congeals (يتجلط), leading to second thoughts by Faustus. After cutting a second time, Faustus finds the congealed blood on his arm has formed a Latin inscription instructing him to run away. Despite the dramatic nature of this obvious divine intervention, Faustus disregards the inscription with the presumption that he is already damned by his actions thus far, therefore left with no place to flee to. Mephistopheles brings coals to break the wound open again, and thus Mephistopheles begins his servitude and Faustus his oath.
Wasting his skills:
Faustus begins by learning much about the sciences. He has an interesting debate with Mephostophilis regarding astronomy and the "nine spheres". Two angels, one good and one bad, appear to Faustus: the good angel urges him to repent and revoke (canel, draw) his oath to Lucifer. This is the largest fault of Faustus throughout the play: he is blind to his own salvation. Though he is told initially by Mephostophilis to "leave these frivolous demands," Faustus remains set on his soul's damnation.
Lucifer brings to Faustus the personification of the seven deadly sins. Faustus recognizes these as detestable, but ignores the echo of his own 'detestable' (damned) life.
From this point until the end of the play, Faustus does nothing worthwhile, having begun his pact with the attitude that he would be able to do anything. Faustus appears to scholars and warns them that he is damned and will not be long on the earth. He gives a speech about how he is damned and eventually seems to repent for his deeds. Mephostophilis comes to collect his soul, and Faustus' dismembered body is found by his friends and colleagues.
Damnation or salvation:
The text leaves Faustus' final confrontation with Mephostophilis offstage, and his final fate ambiguous. The scene following begins with Faustus' friends discovering his body parts strewn about the stage: from this they conclude that Faustus was damned. However, his friends decide to give him a due burial, a religious ceremony that hints at salvation. It should be noted that the discovery of the body parts is a scene present only in the later 'B text' of the play -- the earlier version of the play, in offering no direct evidence of Faustus' fate, is more ambiguous.
There is a mention of Helen in Doctro Faustus. In Greek mythology, better known as Helen of Sparta later Helen of Troy, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta and sister of Castor, Polydeuces and Clytemnestra. Her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War. Helen was described by Christopher Marlowe as having "the face that launched a thousand ships."
Themes of the play:

1. How can the play be examined according to what you previously studied about morality plays (Everyman)? Compare and Contrast?

2. Religious conflict in Elizabethan period is being introduced in the play.

3. Renaissance man and his power-seeking attempts.

4. There are some comic scenes which focus on humiliating the Pope.

5. The characterization of Dr. Faustus?

6. The major conflicts of the play: conventional, limited, religious knowledge vs. super-human knowledge, experience, and exploration of what's beyond the ordinary – authority vs. individualism – moral simplicity vs. moral complexity –salvation vs. damnation – medieval values vs. Renaissance spirit.

7. Criticism of religious authority/tyranny in the form of the papacy and the Catholic Church. (The Reformation that resulted in Protestantism).

Doctor Faustus Analysis

Faustus’ fortune, in short, teaches us to adhere to traditional Christian behaviour rather than to practice the unlawful things that exceptional minds give themselves to. This is a simple moral. Faustus is always referred to as the Renaissance man
Damnation or salvation:
The text leaves Faustus' final confrontation with Mephistopheles offstage, and his final fate ambiguous. The scene following begins with Faustus' friends discovering his body parts strewn about the stage: from this they conclude that Faustus was damned. However, his friends decide to give him a due burial, a religious ceremony that hints at salvation.
The Prologue

It introduces the story of Faust, the German scholar.

ACT 1

Scene One:

From the very beginning, Faustus is in conflict whether he should pursue that knowledge, or remain a normal scholar.

What does that represent? Renaissance man and his desire to explore?

Good Angel and Bad Angel. Their representation? (Moralities) Conflict of opinion. Revolution of the self.

The presence of the bad and good angels. What does it represent?

The two magicians come to him because he asked to meet them and they agree on teaching him.

Scene Two:

Two scholars ask about Faustus and they know that he is dining with the two magicians in which the scholars express fear.

Scene Three:

He practices magic to bring the devils

Mephostophilis appears and we know how devils come (when the name of God is being tortured)

The devil explains to Faustus their nature, how they are doomed.

Mephostophilis is clever in seducing Faustus. What does he represent? What is hell and what it was once for Lucifer?

At the end of the scene, Faustus waits for Mephostophilis’ return.

Scene Four:

A discussion between Wagner and Robin (the clown)

Act Two

Scene One:

Faustus is in conflict with his decisions; this is followed by the appearance of the two Angels who attempt to persuade him.

Faustus’ questions never stop about life, God, and the devils.

Faustus agrees to cut his arm, give his own blood as an oath to Lucifer. What does that represent?

Mephostophilis is shown as deceiving Faustus.

The idea of hell is presented to Faustus in which he is pleased to be in hell (p. 23)

Mephostophilis gives Faustus a book to read.

Act Two:

Faustus appears again confused, cursing Mephostophilis. And then appear the two Angels urging him.

Do we see any influence on Faustus from the Angels?

He believes repentance will not be accepted thus decides to be what he is, a sinful to the grace of God.

Faustus asks many questions which is another a reflection of the Renaissance man who has many concerns and questions unanswered.

When a mention of God is part of the answer, Mephostophilis refuses to say it (p. 27).

Then Faustus is angry because Mephostophilis does not mention the name of God and curses him. Then we have another moment of Good and Bad Angels coming to him.

Lucifer appears as a result of Faustus continuous calling for God.

Faustus denies repentance again, and is introduced to the seven deadly sins.

Faustus is happy and delighted to see all of them.

Lucifer urges Faustus to keep reading the book? Why? To stay away from God.

The march of the Seven Deadly Sins: the pleasure of extra-ordinary experience – the world of temptation and of sins as an opposite to the world of God and His Grace.

Scene Three:

Robin, Dick, and the clown

Act Three

The chorus speaks about Faustus and his adventures

Scene One:

Faustus explores the universe—the globe, the skies, and the seas.

Mephostophilis takes Faustus in a trip to many places, one of which is Rome. We understand that Bruno was the emperor’s nominee for the papal throne while the Pope is the one who is dominant. Mephostophilis and Faustus disguise to make troubles.

Hatred for Catholicism and the Pope.

How is the Pope presented? What is his personality?

The Pope is shown as a tyrant, arrogant, and power-hungry.

Scene Two:

Faustus practices magic where he becomes invisible and continues to trouble the Pope.

Scene Three:

Robin, the clown, Dick

Act Four

The chorus describes Faustus and how others welcome him in many places

Scene One:
Scene Two:

Charles, the German Emperor welcomes Faustus who entertains him with conjuring moments which make the Emperor astonished and delighted.
Charles is proud of what Faustus did:
This deed of thine in setting Bruno free
From his and our professed enemy,
Shall add more excellence unto thine art p. 50

Scene Three, Four, Five, Six:

Benvolio, Martino, Frederick, and soldiers

In page 61 Faustus returns to the moments of regret and begins to realize the mistake he is doing.
Scene Seven:

Faustus is being hosted by the Duke and Dutchess of Vanholt. He asks them what they please and with the help of Mephostophilis he brings them what they desire. He also entertains the Duke by doing mischief to others.

Act Five

Scene One:

The end is approaching as seen in this scene.

The approach of the old man is significant in that his aims is similar to the good angel in dissuading and warning Faustus.

We are presented to the powerfulness of the old man whom Mephistopheles cannot touch because of his faith. Compare Faustus and the old man?

Faustus repents but he is warned by the devils. He is desperate of repenting and we see evidence of his losing faith in line 80.

Faustus asks to see Helen of Troy and we are introduced to one of Marlowe’s most well-known lines. She is a delusion through which Faustus temporarily forgets reality.

Scene Two:

The devils gather to take Faustus soul and are prepared to expand their kingdom

Faustus is in melancholy. He is grieved and afraid of his destiny.

42-55 How would you look at Faustus in these moments

57-62 is he desperate? Is there any hope for salvation?

Faustus blames the devils for what he has become and contrary to what he says, they are rejoiced for his damnation.

The good and bad angel appear for the last time in a final reminder of what Faustus did throughout the play.

What is the role of destiny or fate? (Can we argue that given Faustus character—created not to find satisfaction in ordinary life—he was destined to seek the devils to expand his horizons?) Is he entirely responsible for his actions, or were there forces working against him? Did he destroy himself, or was he trapped?

The problem is not that Faustus will go to hell? How? P. 81

Scene Three:

First the scholars want to give Faustus’ limbs due burial, after all he was a learned man with great skills and wits.

The chorus speaks about how dangerous it is to practice more than what heaven limitations allow people to practice.

In general, do you feel sorry for Faustus?