Goethe constructed his masterpiece
largely by its help. English actors travelling abroad had brought back
the story to its native land of Germany, and in every town the bands of
strolling players sent Marlowe's great conception far and wide. In
England also the puppet play was extremely popular. The drama had moved
from the church to the market-place, and much of the Elizabethan drama
appeared in this quaint form, played by wooden figures upon diminutive
boards. To the modern mind nothing could be more incongruous than the
idea of a solemn drama forced to assume a guise so grotesque and
childish; but, according to Jusserand, much of the stage-work was
extremely ghastly, and no doubt it impressed the multitude. There is
even a story of some actors who had gone too far, and into the midst of
whose play the real devil suddenly descended with disastrous results. It
must, however, be allowed that even the serious plays were not without
an abundant element of grotesqueness. The occasion for Faustus' final
speech of despair, for instance, was the lowering and raising before his
eyes of two or three gilded arm-chairs, representing the thrones in
heaven upon which he would never sit.
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