Abstract
Shortly after signing his pact with the devil, Dr. Faustus requests that Mephistopheles provide him a wife. In Marlowe's version, he demands (perhaps recalling his St. Paul), “let me have a wife, the fairest maid in Germany, for I am wanton and lascivious and cannot live without a wife.” Mephistopheles first demurs, but finally gives in to Faustus's demand, providing him with a demon dressed as a woman. The experience proves unsatisfactory for Faustus, who declares, “A plague on her for a hot whore.” Mephistopheles replies that “marriage is but a ceremonial toy,” offering an assortment of courtesans instead (5. 138-50). The reference to “ceremonial toy” glosses a longer exchange in the 1587 Spiess Faustbuch and its 1592 translation into English,.
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