‘See, See, Where Christ’s Blood Streams in the Firmament’: Marlowe’s Recollection of a Corpus Christi Doomsday Pageant

Abstract

In his agonized final hour Marlowe’s Faustus, anticipating eternal punishment, contemplates throwing himself upon God’s mercy—only to relinquish hope, in the conviction that God’s disposition towards him is wrathful. Indeed, his conviction seems (to say the least) plausible, given that a demon tears at his flesh as he speaks: