Dr Faustus: The A- and B- texts (1604, 1616): A parallel-text edition

by David Bevington (Editor)

Dr Faustus, first published in 1604 long after Christopher Marlowe had died (in 1593) and then published in an expanded version in 1616, has long fascinated readers and scholars alike as one of the great puzzles in Renaissance English drama. Marlowe himself was highly controversial in his own day, and remains so today, as a daringly heterodox writer. The so-called A-text of 1604 is very short, with missing and misplaced scenes. Some passages are clearly not by Marlowe, but by some other dramatist commissioned by the theatre entrepreneur Philip Henslowe to supplement Marlowe's incomparable tragic writing with some comic horseplay. The B-text adds a considerable amount of material from the Faustbook, padding out the story with more raucous comedy to satisfy audience longings for more magical stunts. This edition uniquely presents the two texts in facing pages, making the reader aware of the changing tastes of audiences, the stage history of the play, and of just how intricate 'editing' a play can be.

With a concise and illuminating introduction, and relevant notes and images, this Revels Student Edition of the 'A' and 'B' texts of Dr Faustus will prove to be an enthralling document, and an excellent edition for student and theatre-goer alike.

Genres: School

204 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 21, 2016

About the author

David Bevington was an American literary scholar.

Reviews

[Olly · Rating 3 out of 5]

i feel like the author tried so hard to be an edgelord and then fell short

[Jenn Klee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My boy Faust let me down. He spent all this time considering all these major areas of rigorous study and rejects them because he's gonna be a sorcerer instead.



So I'm ready for some big shit to go down. Earthquakes, volcanoes, epic storms, Faustus on a mountain with wild hair and he waves his arms and two mountains smash together. You know...something amazing I guess...like this...



But instead....we get this:



My boy Faust you coulda been great. The greatest. Yah coulda been a contendah. Buuuuut no. You traded your soul for some cheap parlor tricks. His life of pleasure and dissipation and punking the pope is punctuated by occasional bouts of doubt that are easily remedied by a show at Hell's Playhouse.

But yeah finally Faust is like at the last minute of his granted years, I mean the bell's tolling, and he's begging for his soul's salvation but Satan like




Best joke: Mephistopheles shows up and Faustus says

"I charge thee to return, and change thy shape;
Thou art too ugly to attend on me:
Go, and return an old Franciscan friar;
That holy shape becomes a devil best."



Faustus is a wild ride start to finish and I'm sad I haven't read it till now. But man was it great and I can't believe this could be done in the time period it was done without utterly freaking out church people.