Marlowe's play, written in the 1590s, gave us the defining modern myth of a man who sells his soul for knowledge and power. Faustus signs his contract in blood, squanders his twenty-four years on trivial entertainments, and only at the final hour understands what he has lost. The final soliloquy, with its desperate cry for time to stop, remains one of the most powerful speeches in English drama. Marlowe was murdered at twenty-nine under mysterious circumstances, adding another layer of legend to his already legendary play.