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CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

EDITED BY

C. F. TUCKER BROOKE

B.LITT. OXON.; INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH IN YALE UNIVERSITY

OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1910

12

HENRY FROWDE, M.A.

PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK

TORONTO AND MELBOURNE

PREFACE

THIS volume is designed to furnish the student and the general reader with a serviceable edition of Marlowe's accepted writings. The text reproduces faithfully, it is believed, that of the most reliable version of each work, except as regards punctuation and capitalization. In the latter particulars it appears inconsistent with the requirements of conscientious editing to retain such errors as are due to the carelessness of the original compositor or to the limitations of the printer's fount used, but in making these necessary minor changes the text has in no sense been 'modernized'. Unmeaning irregularities in punctuation. and in the use of capitals have been normalized, where the comfort of the enlightened reader seemed absolutely to demand it, but always in accordance with Elizabethan rather than Victorian principles. In many cases intelligibility clearly required the substitution of a full stop for a probably accidental comma, or the reverse; and it appeared unnecessary that the reader should be annoyed by such occasional, irregular spellings as tamburlaine' and 'zenocrate', merely because the printer of the first edition of the play in question was presumably insufficiently provided with capital T's and Z's. No attempt has been made to introduce the modern symmetry and logical consistency in capitalization and pointing. Semicolons appear only in the rare cases where they are found in the old editions; the present-day distinctions between the uses of

1

1 Every such deviation from the original has, however, been carefully noted by the editor and will be listed in the forthcoming editio major in an Appendix for the benefit of those who may wish to study the vagaries of Elizabethan typography. The matter does not in any way concern the appreciation of Marlowe.

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