Dr. Faustus [antikvár]

Note On receiving his M.A. from the University of Cambridge in 1587, Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) had already written parts I and II of his play Tamburlane the Great. Bringing fame to its author, and a new style to tragic theater, Tamburlane was the beginning of a brilliant, unfortunately brief, career. Marlowe's plays were to prove original in their earnest portrayal of single personalities who were deeply flawed, often criminal, but still somehow heroic. In the six years of his life remaining after 1587, Marlowe wrote The Tragicall History ofD. Faustus (1604; all dates are those of publication). The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward II, King of England (1594) and The Famous Tragedy of the Rich jew of Malta (1633), as well as other plays. He also wrote a small body of nondramatic verse, most notably Hero and Leander (1598). Marlowe was stabbed and killed in an altercation in 1593. Dr. Faustus, perhaps Marlowe's most well-known play, takes its protagonist from the German Faustbuch (1587), which was based on the life of an actual German astronomer and necromancer who died about 1540. Rumored to have exchanged his soul for supernatural powers, he entered German folklore as the consummate naughty trickster, usually indulging in callow mischief. In Marlowe's play, however, he is transformed somewhat, and possesses a certain tragic distinction, though in no way is he exculpated from his crimes. Marlowe is also credited with transforming the English blank verse line, giving it a vigor and range of expression that was to prove a strong influence on his contemporaries, including William Shakespeare. The text of the present edition is based upon the First Quarto (1604), which is the earliest extant edition. Words appearing in brackets reflect the textual reconstructions of the previous editor. Dr. William Allan Neilson.