"From god astraye went": William Forrest's Contra-Reformation "Legend of Theophilus"

Abstract:

This is a study of William Forrest's "Legend of Theophilus." In the history of devil-compact literature, Theophilus was the ur-Faustus, the preeminent example all across medieval Europe of the foolish man who, for worldly gain, abandoned his soul to the devil. Finished on 27 October 1572, Forrest's version of this tale is a rare example of an English Theophilus legend written in the aftermath of the Reformation rather than in advance of it. This novel context permits Forrest to treat the legend as a critique of Reformation and a defense of Catholic devotion, particularly to the Virgin Mary. Furthermore, as an Elizabethan study in damnation and redemption, Forrest's poem is comparable to Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, though the two are products of fundamentally different religious milieus. This study ends by reading Forrest's atypical Elizabethan poem alongside Marlowe's more quintessentially Elizabethan play in order to draw out what is most distinctive about both works and the divine economies that animate them.