Dr Faustus: Pacts with the Devil

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb steps into the electrifying world of Elizabethan theatre to unravel the dark allure of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, a work that would forever change English drama. Together with Professor Emma Smith, she decodes the Renaissance masterpiece that dared to humanize the devil and challenge religious orthodoxy. How did Dr. Faustus become a cultural phenomenon that still echoes through history via Mary Shelley, John Grisham and James Bond?

Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Alice Smith, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb.
0:02.6	If you'd like not just the Tudors ad-free to get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:10.5	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries,
0:16.0	including my own recent two-part series, A World Torn Apart, The Dissolution of the Monastries, and enjoy a new release every week.
0:25.2	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:29.9	This episode of Not Just the Tudors is brought to you by Audible, because there's more to imagine when you listen.
0:36.8	As a historian, I love stumbling across hidden stories from the past, and Audible lets because there's more to imagine when you listen. As a historian, I love stumbling
0:38.1	across hidden stories from the past, and Audible lets me do just that. My latest discovery?
0:43.7	Hidden Histories with Nova Reed, a remarkable series exploring the unsung black women who shaped history.
0:50.5	In one episode, Nova takes a look at the hidden histories of disobedient women, the resistance of nameless enslaved women who stood up for themselves through small but mighty acts of protest.
1:01.3	With Audible, there's always something new to learn, whether through best-selling books, thought-provoking podcasts or immersive audio dramas.
1:09.5	And the best part, your first audiobook is on Audible.
1:13.1	Listen on Audible now. Subscription required. See audible.combe.combe.
1:20.8	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome to not just the Tudors from HistoryHit.
1:26.4	The podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs,
1:31.1	from Holbein to the Huguenose, from Shakespeare to Samarise.
1:35.6	Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft.
1:39.9	Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.
1:52.0	On the 2nd of October 1594, a group of men and women bustled into the Rose Theatre on London's South Bank, eager to escape their lives for a few hours.
2:03.1	Within the walls, they would hear the tale of a man who, for the price of his soul, bargained with
2:08.0	the devil for 24 years of knowledge, power and pleasure. As the man's desire turns to regret
2:15.3	and teased with the possibility of redemption,
	...

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