’The sweet fruition of an earthly crown’: Elemental mastery and ecophobia in Tamburlaine the Great and Doctor Faustus

Although the elements have been exploited for human ends in early modern discursive practices, they have so saturated social and cultural life that writers of the period could not avoid mentioning elemental formations. Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Part I and Part II (1587) and Doctor Faustus (1592) are significant representatives of early modern English drama that highlight the inter-relationships between the human body and the elements. This study examines elemental agency, to show how the agential capacity of the four classical elements unveils ecophobic treatment; and how the ecophobic strain in the human psyche is reflected in Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine and Doctor Faustus.