Doctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe · 1594
A scholar sells his soul to the devil for twenty-four years of power and knowledge, then wastes them on party tricks. Marlowe wrote the greatest play in English before Shakespeare got going. The final soliloquy, as Faustus watches the clock run out, is the most agonizing countdown in theater.
The case against
Magnificent at both ends, hollow in the middle. Between the bargain and the final hour, Faustus spends infernal power on pranks: boxing the Pope's ears, conjuring grapes, gulling a horse dealer. Much of that clowning probably is not even Marlowe's, and the two surviving texts disagree about what the play is. Twenty minutes of greatness wrapped around an hour of filler.
Drama · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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