# Endnotes explained — The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

> Chapter companion for The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.

## What happens

This chapter provides extensive endnotes and textual annotations for Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, clarifying historical references, textual variants, and allusions within the play. It includes explanations of classical and medieval sources, corrections to the quarto editions, and contextual background on figures like Cornelius Agrippa and events such as the Antwerp blockade.

## Themes in this chapter

### Ambition and the Pursuit of Knowledge

The endnotes clarify references to Faustus's pursuit of forbidden knowledge, such as the Aristotelian concept of 'being and not being' and Agrippa's occult philosophy.

### The Medieval Worldview

Annotations on medieval beliefs about magic, Virgil as a magician, and the Carmen de Pulice reflect the medieval context of the play.

## Character check-ins

### Doctor Faustus

Referenced throughout the endnotes in relation to textual emendations, historical sources, and stage directions.

### Mephistopheles

Mentioned in notes about the spirit's appearance as a friar and the pact signing.

### Wagner

Noted in a stage direction regarding Faustus being within at dinner.

### Valdes

Referenced in a note about the historical identity of Valdes and Cornelius Agrippa.

### Cornelius

Mentioned in the same note as Valdes, with speculation on Marlowe's possible meaning.

### Chorus

Referenced in a note about the Chorus drawing a curtain to reveal Faustus in his study.

### Old Man

Mentioned in a stage direction note about the scene being a room in the Old Man's house.

### Helen of Troy

Referenced in a note comparing Marlowe's line to Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.

## Key lines

> Oncaymaeon, by which Marlowe meant the Aristotelian ὅν καὶ μὴ ὅν ('being and not being').

Marlowe used the term 'Oncaymaeon' to refer to the Aristotelian concept of being and non-being.

_Textual correction from the 1604 quarto._

> After Dr. Faustus had made his promise to the devill, in the morning betimes he called the spirit before him, and commanded him that he should alwayes come to him like a fryer after the order of Saint Francis.

After Faustus made his pact, he commanded the spirit to always appear as a Franciscan friar.

_Source from the prose History of Dr. Faustus._

> At si, quein malis. Cephalum complexa teoeres, Clamares 'lente currite noctis equi.'

Ovid's line from Amores, used by Faustus in his final hour, meaning 'Slowly run, horses of the night.'

_Classical allusion in Faustus's final soliloquy._

## Links

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