ed wizards as Merlin, Albertus Magnus, and Roger Bacon. These stories were now retold with Faust as the central character:
They were crudely narrated and supplemented with clumsy humor at the expense of Faust's victims. It was less the stories themselves and more the author's graphic and unflinching descriptions of hell and the state of his hero's mind which inspired unquestioning belief among readers (Hawkins).
The Faustbuch was translated and distributed throughout Europe, and an English prose translation from 1592 was the probable inspiration for Marlowe's play "which, for the first time, invested the Faust legend with a tragic dignity, although, in spite of magnificent scenes of dramatic poetry . . . Marlowe's Doctor Faustus retained much of the clowning and comic buffoonery of the source text" (Hawkins).
The character of Doctor Faustus reflects the view of the historical figure and the image that would be continued in other versions of the legend. He is a learned scholar and theol
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