Doctor Faustus: A 1604-Version Edition

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly Edition - Good Choice for English Majors
Review: I highly recommend Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus: a 1604-version edited by Michael Keefer. I am reviewing the first edition (1991) published by Broadview Press.

Dr. Keefer, co-winner of the 1987 Nelson Prize of the Renaissance Society of America, has been commended for his knowledge of Dr. Faustus. However, his extensive introduction, especially the discussion on textual criticism, is not easy reading and perhaps may be most useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

Marlowe's Doctor Faustus exists in two distinct editions (1604 and 1616) that differ by more than 600 lines. Keefer argues that "for all its deficiencies the earlier text represents a relatively more authentic version". Some readings from the 1616 version were incorporated into this edition where parallel text in the 1604 edition was clearly deficient.

The detailed introduction is over 90 pages; the 1604 play is another 90 pages. Keefer also supplemented the play with four appendices (more than 100 pages) - scenes from the 1616 version that deviate from the earlier version, excerpts from Marlowe's source The History of the damnable life and deserved death of Doctor John Faustus, and the writings of Henricus Agrippa, a magician, and Jean Calvin, a theologian. The last two authors were not actual sources for Marlowe, but their writings help define the intellectual context in which Marlowe created his play, Dr. Faustus.

Keefer's explanatory footnotes are extensive and helpful. At the end of each act Keefer also provides detailed notes on variations between the 1604 and 1616 texts.

The extensively modified scenes from the 1616 version (in the appendix) were especially interesting. I was surprised by the substantial changes and additions. I clearly gained greater appreciation for the difficulty in reconstructing an authentic version of Doctor Faustus.

The excerpts from The History of the damnable life and deserved death of Doctor John Faustus clearly illustrate Marlowe's indebtedness to this source, possibly his only source. Much of this account of the life of the actual Doctor Faustus is fabrication, as Keefer discusses in his introduction. The pact with the devil, an attendant spirit, powers of flight, the devouring of hay, a detachable leg, and an affair with Helen of Troy were embellishments added to the legend of Doctor Faustus in the first fifty years after his death.

In creating this remarkable play based on fact and legend, Christopher Marlowe has ensured that world will long remember this rather insignificant German scholar, a mythic character that continues to resonate with audiences centuries later.

Rating:
Summary: Who doesn't want eternal damnation?
Review: I loved this book, although there were some slow points that lowered the rate, and it was just a wee bit too moral for me (also known as Christina Faust, also known as High Priestess of The Elder Gods). But I loved it, anyway. Faust is just so cool. This story makes soul-dealing really fashionable (which probably wasn't what Mr Marlowe meant in the first place). In fact, if I hadn't read it at the impressionable age of eleven, I would surely just be another bored small-town student today, instead of having infinite power over all shattered souls in this insane swirl of chaos that is Azathoths realm.