Mountfort took as his raw material Marlowe's great tragedy and for that reason "Dr. Faustus" may be to some extent thought of as a burlesque. The Restoration audience delighted in Marlowe's Faustus; the Elizabethan tragedy had been played in 1662, and there was a performance at the Duke's Theater in September, 1675. Edward Phillips wrote in his _Theatrum Poetarum_, that "of all that [Marlowe] hath written to the Stage his Dr. _Faustus_ hath made the greatest noise with its Devils and such like Tragical sport."[10] Here lies the suggestion that Mountfort was to take up, for as Borgman notes, Marlowe's tragedy has two distinct lines: the mighty verse which makes up the tragedy of an heroic overreacher, and a comic line of farcical _lazzi_. Mountfort has trimmed away the poetry of Marlowe and, for the most part, retained the farcical elements of the earlier play.[11] Mountfort keeps the compact with Mephostopholis, the appearance of good and bad angels, the visit of Lucifer and Beelzebub, the pageant of the seven deadly sins, the cheating of the horse-courser, the admonitions of the Old Man, the summoning of the spirits of Alexander and Darius, the tricking of Benvolio, the final moments of remorse before Faustus is dragged down to hell, and finally, the discovery of Faustus's limbs in his study. Mountfort's purpose, as Borgman notes, was not to convert an Elizabethan tragedy into a Restoration one, but to affix additional farcical materials to a work that already contained scenes of slapstick. Mountfort's unique contribution to his source was the introduction of the _commedia dell'arte_ figures which had become well-known to London theatergoers because of several visits to London by Italian actors since the Restoration. Probably, as Borgman notes (p. 36), the first Englishmen to play Scaramouche and Harlequin were Griffin and Haynes who had in 1677 appeared with the King's Company in Ravenscroft's _Scaramouch a Philosopher, Harlequin a School-Boy, Bravo, Merchant, and Magician_. When Aphra Behn's _The Emperor of the Moon_ appeared in March, 1687, Leigh played Scaramouche and Harlequin was taken by Jevon. It seems probable that in order that these two actors might have a further opportunity to appear as these popular characters, a place was found for Scaramouche and Harlequin in Mountfort's farce.