Marlowe's mighty line; The prologue of Dr Faustus

Known as ‘Marlowe’s mighty line’ by Ben Johnson in praise of Marlowe’s great skill in play writing, the prologue of Dr Faustus exemplifies the beauty of Marlowe’s exquisite blank verse. Written in iambic pentameter the beat of the chorus’ words drums the opening into the audiences mind. You get the sense of the importance of what the chorus is trying to say with a rhythm that builds up to open the play.

The storyline sets the scene by telling exactly what the story is about; a convention known as topos in which the world as the stage is set before the audience. You learn of the main character, Dr Faustus, who’s ‘falling to a devilish exercise’ and is ‘glutted’ with learning more of black magic, allowing the audience to acknowledge that this is no ordinary play of a hero who fall’s into sin- in this case gluttony- but something far more darker making this a clear gothic text. Within the prologue you get the background of the main character as well as learning of the character’s traits; one that is ‘swoll’n with cunning of a self-conceit’, a character with a big ego. Already the morals are presenting through as we see a character committing sin and a fatal flaw; conventions of a traditional medieval morality play.

However what is interesting in the prologue is the line ‘intends our muse to daunt his heavenly verse’ in which Marlowe is not talking of the character, or the genre of the play, but of himself as the man who speaks to you as the audience. We learn from this line that Marlowe thought very highly of himself; he had his own ego. It is this cleverly crafted line that exemplifies the true nature of Marlowe’s great literary skill, and shows that he himself knows it. Marlowe is like a literary Michelangelo; a man who likes to put himself in his own work.

It is a cleverly crafted piece of text to open the play. There is the information that sets out the play, the rhythm that creates a setting beat that drives the audience on and a certain turn of words that captivates the reader in reading the other meaning of Marlowe's story.