# The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> Christopher Marlowe. 33 speaking roles, 11,141 words, about 80 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-tragical-history-of-doctor-faustus
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**Faustus** has the most to say in The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus: about 574 lines and 5,162 words, 46.3% of the play. Doctor Faustus is Marlowe’s verse tragedy of a scholar who sells his soul for knowledge and power. Faustus holds nearly half of all the words, a huge solo load that includes long soliloquies, yet he is absent from 6 of the 16 scenes, several of them comic interludes. Mephistopheles is the next largest role, with about an eighth.

- Speaking roles: 33
- Scenes: 16
- Words: 11,141
- Speech time: 80 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Faustus | 574 | 5,162 | 46.3% | 36.9 | 10 |
| Mephistopheles | 162 | 1,292 | 11.6% | 9.2 | 7 |
| Wagner | 64 | 506 | 4.5% | 3.6 | 5 |
| Robin | 52 | 437 | 3.9% | 3.1 | 2 |
| Emperor | 44 | 401 | 3.6% | 2.9 | 1 |
| Clown | 47 | 400 | 3.6% | 2.9 | 1 |
| Horse-Courser | 46 | 389 | 3.5% | 2.8 | 1 |
| Chorus | 27 | 263 | 2.4% | 1.9 | 3 |
| First Scholar | 26 | 218 | 2% | 1.6 | 3 |
| Old Man | 23 | 212 | 1.9% | 1.5 | 2 |
| Lucifer | 20 | 174 | 1.6% | 1.2 | 1 |
| Valdes | 17 | 154 | 1.4% | 1.1 | 1 |
| Ralph | 19 | 144 | 1.3% | 1.0 | 2 |
| Second Scholar | 17 | 122 | 1.1% | 0.9 | 3 |
| Cornelius | 13 | 116 | 1% | 0.8 | 1 |
| Gluttony | 12 | 111 | 1% | 0.8 | 1 |
| Knight | 12 | 93 | 0.8% | 0.7 | 1 |
| Pope | 11 | 88 | 0.8% | 0.6 | 1 |
| Duchess | 10 | 85 | 0.8% | 0.6 | 1 |
| Good Angel | 10 | 77 | 0.7% | 0.6 | 3 |
| 1st Friar | 8 | 76 | 0.7% | 0.5 | 1 |
| Evil Angel | 10 | 76 | 0.7% | 0.5 | 3 |
| Duke | 9 | 73 | 0.7% | 0.5 | 1 |
| Pride | 8 | 73 | 0.7% | 0.5 | 1 |
| Envy | 7 | 68 | 0.6% | 0.5 | 1 |
| Wrath | 7 | 66 | 0.6% | 0.5 | 1 |
| Vintner | 8 | 58 | 0.5% | 0.4 | 1 |
| Covetousness | 5 | 49 | 0.4% | 0.4 | 1 |
| Third Scholar | 7 | 48 | 0.4% | 0.3 | 2 |
| Sloth | 5 | 47 | 0.4% | 0.3 | 1 |
| Lechery | 3 | 30 | 0.3% | 0.2 | 1 |
| Cardinal of Lorrain | 2 | 20 | 0.2% | 0.1 | 1 |
| First Friar | 1 | 7 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: 1 = Scene 1; 2 = Scene 2; 3 = Scene 3; 4 = Scene 4; 5 = Scene 5; 6 = Scene 6; 7 = Scene 7; 8 = Scene 8; 9 = Scene 9; 10 = Scene 10; 11 = Scene 11; 12 = Scene 12; 13 = Scene 13; 14 = Scene 14; 15 = Scene 15; 16 = Scene 16.

- **Faustus**: 1 (850), 3 (608), 5 (810), 6 (563), 7 (343), 10 (303), 11 (270), 12 (161), 14 (427), 16 (827)
- **Mephistopheles**: 3 (217), 5 (501), 6 (156), 7 (199), 9 (61), 11 (82), 14 (76)
- **Wagner**: 1 (3), 2 (193), 4 (234), 11 (10), 13 (66)
- **Robin**: 8 (222), 9 (215)
- **Emperor**: 10 (401)
- **Clown**: 4 (400)
- **Horse-Courser**: 11 (389)
- **Chorus**: 7 (78), 8 (129), 16 (56)
- **First Scholar**: 2 (69), 14 (96), 16 (53)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Faustus: “Ah, Faustus, Now hast thou but one bare hour to live, And then thou must be damned perpetually! Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of Heaven, That time may cease, and midnight never come; Fair Nature’s eye, rise, rise again and make Perpetual day; or let this hour be but A year, a month, a week, a natural day, That Faustus may repent and save his soul! O lente, lente, currite noctis equi! The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, The Devil will come, and Faustus must be damned. O, I’ll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down? See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament! One drop would save my soul—half a drop: ah, my Christ! Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ! Yet will I call on him: O spare me, Lucifer!— Where is it now? ’tis gone; and see where God Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows! Mountains and hills come, come and fall on me, And hide me from the heavy wrath of God! No! no! Then will I headlong run into the earth; Earth, gape! O no, it will not harbour me! You stars that reigned at my nativity, Whose influence hath allotted death and hell, Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist Into the entrails of yon labouring clouds, That, when you vomit forth into the air, My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths, So that my soul may but ascend to Heaven.” | Scene 16 | 462 | 47 |
| Faustus: “Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess; Having commenced, be a divine in show, Yet level at the end of every art, And live and die in Aristotle’s works. Sweet Analytics, ’tis thou hast ravished me, Bene disserere est finis logices. Is to dispute well logic’s chiefest end? Affords this art no greater miracle? Then read no more; thou hast attained that end; A greater subject fitteth Faustus’ wit: Bid on cai me on farewell; Galen come, Seeing, Ubi desinit Philosophus, ibi incipit Medicus; Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold, And be eternised for some wondrous cure. Summum bonum medicinae sanitas, The end of physic is our body’s health. Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end? Is not thy common talk found Aphorisms? Are not thy bills hung up as monuments, Whereby whole cities have escaped the plague, And thousand desperate maladies been eased? Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man. Couldst thou make men to live eternally, Or, being dead, raise them to life again, Then this profession were to be esteemed. Physic, farewell.—Where is Justinian?” | Scene 1 | 461 | 47 |
| Faustus: “How am I glutted with conceit of this! Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please, Resolve me of all ambiguities, Perform what desperate enterprise I will? I’ll have them fly to India for gold, Ransack the ocean for orient pearl, And search all corners of the newfound world For pleasant fruits and princely delicates; I’ll have them read me strange philosophy, And tell the secrets of all foreign kings; I’ll have them wall all Germany with brass, And make swift Rhine circle fair Wertenberg; I’ll have them fill the public schools with silk, Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad; I’ll levy soldiers with the coin they bring, And chase the Prince of Parma from our land, And reign sole king of all the provinces; Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp’s bridge, I’ll make my servile spirits to invent.” | Scene 1 | 296 | 30 |
| Faustus: “Now that the gloomy shadow of the earth Longing to view Orion’s drizzling look, Leaps from th’ antartic world unto the sky, And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath, Faustus, begin thine incantations, And try if devils will obey thy hest, Seeing thou hast prayed and sacrificed to them. Within this circle is Jehovah’s name, Forward and backward anagrammatized, The breviated names of holy saints, Figures of every adjunct to the Heavens, And characters of signs and erring stars, By which the spirits are enforced to rise: Then fear not, Faustus, but be resolute, And try the uttermost magic can perform.” | Scene 3 | 240 | 24 |
| Emperor: “Then, Doctor Faustus, mark what I shall say. As I was sometime solitary set Within my closet, sundry thoughts arose About the honour of mine ancestors, How they had won by prowess such exploits, Got such riches, subdued so many kingdoms As we that do succeed, or they that shall Hereafter possess our throne, shall (I fear me) ne’er attain to that degree Of high renown and great authority: Amongst which kings is Alexander the Great, Chief spectacle of the world’s preeminence, The bright shining of whose glorious acts Lightens the world with his reflecting beams, As when I hear but motion made of him It grieves my soul I never saw the man. If therefore thou by cunning of thine art, Canst raise this man from hollow vaults below, Where lies entombed this famous conqueror, And bring with him his beauteous paramour, Both in their right shapes, gesture, and attire They used to wear during their time of life, Thou shalt both satisfy my just desire, And give me cause to praise thee whilst I live.” | Scene 10 | 177 | 18 |
| Faustus: “Having now, my good Mephistopheles, Passed with delight the stately town of Trier, Environed round with airy mountaintops, With walls of flint, and deep-entrenched lakes, Not to be won by any conquering prince; From Paris next, coasting the realm of France, We saw the river Maine fall into Rhine, Whose banks are set with groves of fruitful vines; Then up to Naples, rich Campania, Whose buildings fair and gorgeous to the eye, The streets straight forth, and paved with finest brick, Quarter the town in four equivalents: There saw we learned Maro’s golden tomb, The way he cut, an English mile in length, Thorough a rock of stone, in one night’s space; From thence to Venice, Padua, and the rest, In one of which a sumptuous temple stands, That threats the stars with her aspiring top. Thus hitherto hath Faustus spent his time: But tell me now what resting-place is this? Hast thou, as erst I did command, Conducted me within the walls of Rome?” | Scene 7 | 165 | 17 |
| Faustus: “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. Her lips suck forth my soul; see, where it flies!— Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again. 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 sacked: And I will combat with weak Menelaus, And wear thy colours on my plumed crest: Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel, And then return to Helen for a kiss. Oh, thou art fairer than the evening air Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars; Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter When he appeared to hapless Semele: More lovely than the monarch of the sky In wanton Arethusa’s azured arms: And none but thou shalt be my paramour!” | Scene 14 | 156 | 16 |
| Horse-Courser: “Alas, alas! Doctor Fustian, quoth a? mass, Doctor Lopus was never such a doctor: has given me a purgation has purged me of forty dollars; I shall never see them more. But yet, like an ass as I was, I would not be ruled by him, for he bade me I should ride him into no water: now I, thinking my horse had had some rare quality that he would not have had me know of, I, like a venturous youth, rid him into the deep pond at the town’s end. I was no sooner in the middle of the pond, but my horse vanished away, and I sat upon a bottle of hay, never so near drowning in my life. But I’ll seek out my Doctor, and have my forty dollars again, or I’ll make it the dearest horse!—O, yonder is his snipper-snapper.—Do you hear? you, hey-pass, where’s your master?” | Scene 11 | 153 | 16 |
| Wagner: “Yes, sir, I will tell you: yet if you were not dunces, you would never ask me such a question; for is not he corpus naturale? and is not that mobile? then wherefore should you ask me such a question? But that I am by nature phlegmatic, slow to wrath, and prone to lechery (to love, I would say), it were not for you to come within forty foot of the place of execution, although I do not doubt to see you both hanged the next sessions. Thus having triumphed over you, I will set my countenance like a precisian, and begin to speak thus:—Truly, my dear brethren, my master is within at dinner, with Valdes and Cornelius, as this wine, if it could speak, would inform your worships; and so, the Lord bless you, preserve you, and keep you, my dear brethren, my dear brethren.” | Scene 2 | 147 | 15 |
| Faustus: “My heart’s so hardened I cannot repent. Scarce can I name salvation, faith, or heaven, But fearful echoes thunder in mine ears “Faustus, thou art damned!” Then swords, and knives, Poison, gun, halters, and envenomed steel Are laid before me to despatch myself, And long ere this I should have slain myself, Had not sweet pleasure conquered deep despair. Have not I made blind Homer sing to me Of Alexander’s love and Oenon’s death? And hath not he that built the walls of Thebes With ravishing sound of his melodious harp, Made music with my Mephistopheles? Why should I die then, or basely despair? I am resolved; Faustus shall ne’er repent— Come, Mephistopheles, let us dispute again, And argue of divine astrology. Tell me, are there many heavens above the moon? Are all celestial bodies but one globe, As is the substance of this centric earth?” | Scene 6 | 146 | 15 |

## Small roles that can be doubled

These pairs of small roles never speak in the same scene, so one actor could play both. Check entrances and silent appearances in your script before you cast it this way.

- Wagner and Robin
- Wagner and Emperor
- Wagner and Chorus
- Wagner and Old Man
- Wagner and Lucifer
- Wagner and Ralph
- Wagner and Gluttony
- Wagner and Knight
- Wagner and Pope
- Wagner and Duchess
- Wagner and 1st Friar
- Wagner and Duke

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus?

Faustus, with about 574 lines and 5,162 words, 46.3% of everything spoken in the play. Mephistopheles is next, with about 162 lines (11.6%).

### How long is The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus?

The full text has 11,141 spoken words, about 80 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus?

33 named roles speak in this edition, across 16 scenes. 24 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/christopher-marlowe/the-tragical-history-of-doctor-faustus) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).