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PlayRenaissance · c. 15922 min · 1 passageSteady

Doctor Faustus — The Bargain

Christopher Marlowe →

Marlowe's blank verse is so confident it sounds like a dare. Faustus has traded his soul for knowledge, and is now admiring the result out loud.

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The kiss
Allusion

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me with a kiss. Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!

Underlined words and phrases can be tapped for a note

Plain English

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships and burned the roofless towers of Troy? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. Her lips draw out my soul — look, there it goes.

That's the whole thing.

Read it again slowly — it gets better the second time.

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