Abstract
The unity of tone and purpose in Doctor Faustus is not unrelieved by change of manner and variety of incident. The comic scenes, written evidently with as little of labour as of relish, are for the most part scarcely more than transcripts, thrown into the form of dialogue, from a popular prose History of Doctor Faustus; and therefore should be set down as little to the discredit as to the credit of the poet. Few masterpieces of any age in any language can stand beside this tragic poem — it has hardly the structure of a play — for the qualities of terror and splendour, for intensity of purpose and sublimity of note.
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Jump, J. (1969). A. C. Swinburne. In: Jump, J. (eds) Marlowe. Casebook Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-89053-8_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-89053-8_18
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