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Chapter 1 - The devil's in the archive: Ovidian physics and Doctor Faustus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2011

Kristen Poole
Kristen Poole
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
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Summary

We may not staye heere within the limites of our owne reason, which is not able to reach vnto, or to comprehend what way Deuils should be able to haue such operations. We may not I say measure their nimblenes, & power, & subtilties in working, by our owne vnderstanding or capacitie.

George Gifford, A Discourse of the Subtill Practises of Deuilles by VVitches and Sorcerers (1587), sig. C1r

matters of the devil

The problem is, how can we take the devil seriously?

That is to say, how can “we” — reasoning, skeptical, worldly individuals, skilled in analysis, prejudiced against superstition — approach Satan, reeking of brimston, wreaking havoc with people's lives? How can we write a history of experiencing the devil without sterilizing or rationalizing the demonic? How can we look back through that period we have called The Enlightenment and study the devil's earlier dark participation in the world without bringing an innate mistrust of the tales we read and a latent condescension towards the people who tell them? How can we really study a devil we don't think is real?

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Supernatural Environments in Shakespeare's England
Spaces of Demonism, Divinity, and Drama
 , pp. 25 - 57
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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