Faustus is a great scholar, and so he also desires knowledge. He wants to know about matters that are not covered in the university. So, the second request that he makes of Mephastophilis is to satisfy his thirst for knowledge. The devil gives him three books (in Scene 5):
(lines 162-63)
All three of these books are associated with magic. The study of the stars also includes the study of astrology, and plants were used for magical potions. Faustus appears to have a genuine thirst for knowledge, but what he learns from Mephastophilis is actually nothing more than what he could have learned on his own, without the devil's help, without magic.
Later in the same scene (Scene 5), Faustus has a discussion with Mephastophilis about astronomy. Faustus asks Mephastophilis a number of questions, but the responses are merely the basic knowledge about stars and planets that were available to any scholar during the Elizabethan era. The student should remember that the Italian astronomer Galileo was born in the same year in which Marlowe and
Shakespeare were born, in 1564. Many advances in the sciences were made beside those advances in literature during the Renaissance.
Faustus then asks one question that
Mephastophilis refuses to answer. He asks, "Tell me who made the world?" (line 237). Of course, Mephastophilis cannot name God. In fact, just thinking about God frightens him.
Here again we see that another wish made by Faustus cannot be granted. Again, there is some irony here as well. Faustus wants more knowledge about creation, but he is trying to find that knowledge from a source that cannot discuss or even name the Creator. Once again, then, we find that magic cannot actually grant our wishes. Magic cannot accomplish what we hope it will accomplish.