At the beginning of the play a single actor walks out on stage and speaks directly to the audience. This actor is the Chorus. During the Classical Age of Greece, the chorus was actually a group of actors who would sing or chant lines that often summarized the story of the play or perhaps even offer comments upon the action. By the Renaissance the chorus has become a single actor, but he serves a similar purpose to the chorus of the Classical Age. William Shakespeare, Thomas Kyd, and Christopher Marlowe, among other playwrights, included a chorus in several of their plays.
The Prologue to Faustus contains two parts. The first six lines inform us what the play is not about. This may seem strange to the modern reader.
But there is a reason for it.
The subject ("our Muse") and the verb ("intends") of the first six lines can be found in the sixth line. We might loosely revise this as follows:
Marlowe's Muse inspired him to write proudly ("to vaunt") in poetry about …
The first five lines then complete the rest of this sentence. The reader should note the negatives, though ("not" and "nor"):
So, Marlowe will not be writing about any of these three topics. Marlowe's topic will be much different.
The reason why Marlowe begins this way concerns the definition of tragedy, the form of drama that he is writing. Simply defined, a tragedy is a play where (1) the protagonist is a figure of high estate (usually a king or prince) and (2) the protagonist experiences a fall from power and prestige. Often, tragedies would include the topics of war, love, and heroic action. Playwrights considered these as fit or proper subject matter for a tragedy. Marlowe is, therefore, telling us that his play is going to be different. It may be a tragedy, but it will not be about a king and his fall from power.
Marlowe's central figure is a scholar. Given the traditional definition of this type of work, Marlowe's play would not even be considered a tragedy. Faustus is not in a high enough position and is not politically powerful enough to fall. Marlowe is experimenting with the definition of tragedy here. Even Shakespeare's protagonists in his tragedies (Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, and Julius Caesar) are kings or other figures of national importance. The fall of the king or a prince affects the entire nation.
But what happens when a scholar falls? Such a loss is not a matter that concerns an entire nation.
However, during the Renaissance, scholarship was important. Attaining intellectual brilliance defined the great men of the age. On the one hand, it may seem that Marlowe is praising the scholar by linking him with the kings and princes of the past. Of course, Marlowe was a scholar himself. On the other hand, Marlowe may be criticizing the scholar whose quest for knowledge and desire for greatness brings him ruin and shame.
The rest of the Prologue, though, clearly reveals Marlowe's view (or theme).
The remainder of the Prologue (1) summarizes the events prior to when the action of the play itself begins. It also (2) describes the personality of Faustus. The play begins with Faustus, still a young man, having received his doctoral degree from the University of Wittenberg (in Germany) and deciding what career to pursue. The Prologue notes that Faustus excelled over all others (line 18) during his exams to earn his doctorate. Faustus is, then, the greatest of scholars; and because of this, he has become proud. The Prologue describes Faustus in several negative terms: "swollen with cunning" (line 20), full of "self conceit" (line 20), and "glutted" (line 24). Faustus is just too full of pride, and the Prologue uses the mythological allusion to Icarus to describe what will happen to him. In Greek mythology Icarus is a young man who is in prison with his father. In order to escape, Icarus and his father make giant wings out of wax and bird feathers. Icarus flies out of the prison, but he becomes so excited and proud of himself that he flies too close to the sun. The wings melt, and Icarus falls to his death. The story serves as a warning to anyone who becomes too proud and thinks he can ignore the advice of others. It is a warning to anyone who feels he is above (superior to) all others. Faustus is a Renaissance version of Icarus. He soars too high (intellectually), and so he falls.
The importance of choice is also suggested in the Prologue. Faustus is an individual who can choose from a wide variety of occupations and pursuits. He is educated enough and brilliant enough to be successful in any field. However, he chooses magic (line 26) as his chief pursuit. Magic, here, means black magic. It is the magic associated with the devil. Thus, Faustus is actually choosing evil as his pursuit. He is choosing the devil over God.