Chorus speaks: We are outside a house in Württemberg, Anno Domini Fifteen-hundred and Ninety-two. Mummers herald the holiday.***Image is a Black Holetaken from the Hubble telescope.Music excerpt is Paganini’s Vieuxtemps Violin Concertos, Violin concerto No. 5 in A minor, Op 37 - II. Adagio.Viktoria Mullova withNeville Marriner, Academy St.Martin In The Fields

Faustbook: A Narrative Poem in the Manner of Five Acts

Faustbook Act 1 Scene 1

This narrative poem in the manner of a five-act play (with excursus) was inspired by research I had done for teaching Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. I read it first when I was fourteen, finding in particular the count-down to death at midnight, like an execution, terrifying and poignant. His play incomplete, his fallen philosopher also unfinished, tantalized me then, and had recurred for my imagination in my maturity.The poem therefore has an adolescent attitude, but it is an old man’s ideas.***You may purchase a copy from Amazon.comHere!***Advisory: students of the Faustian legends will recognize the authentic elements of its tradition: that it affronts Catholic Christianity with mawkish slander; that Faustus doubts his religion; that Mephistophiles is a sensualist; that evil and good struggle and often evil prevails; that conscience contends and is confused. These are the original themes. Offense is not intended. Neither is the tale censored.

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Faustbook: A Narrative Poem in the Manner of Five Acts