Write a text commentary of this fragment from Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Pay close
attention to poetic structure and language (include your own scansion of the text).
(1000-1500 words).
Grade percentage: 25%
Deadline: Sept. 4 th
Dr. Faustus (Act V, sc. I)
Re-enter HELEN.
FAUSTUS. Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships, 1
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium—
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.—
[Kisses her.]
Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!—
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again. 5
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
I will be Paris, and for love of thee,
Instead of Troy, shall Wertenberg be sack'd;
And I will combat with weak Menelaus, 10
And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;
Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,
And then return to Helen for a kiss.
O, thou art fairer than the evening air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars; 15
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appear'd to hapless Semele;
More lovely than the monarch of the sky
In wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms;
And none but thou shalt be my paramour! 20
[topless— i.e. not exceeded in height by any
Ilium— another name for the city of Troy
