Was this the face that launched a thousand ships? Dr. Faustus famously asks of Helen of Troy when he conjures her at the suggestion of his students in this major work, written in 1588. A master scholar, Faust, dissatisfied by the limitations of book learning, seeks higher knowledge through black magic, which leads to a private audience with Mephostophilis, Satan`s courier. Faust agrees to sell his soul to the devil in return for 24 years of Mephostophilis`s bidding. With the dark compact sealed, the play presents the conflict between Renaissance man`s drive for knowledge and God`s ultimate mystery. There is a long textual history of the character Faustus in literature, manifesting in particular as source material for Marlowe in a 1587 Frankfurt piece which describes an apparently actual Dr. Faustus, practitioner of the blackest arts.