A

Faustus is therefore a parable of the impotent yearnings of the Middle Ages-its passionate aspiration, its conscience-stricken desire, its fettered curiosity amid the cramping limits of imperfect knowledge, and irrational dogmatism. The indestructible beauty of Greek art, whereof Helen was the emblem, became, through the discovery of classic poetry and sculpture, the possession of the modern world. Mediavalism took this Helen to wife, and their offspring, the Euphorion of Goethe's drama, is the spirit of the modern world.'

J. A. SYMONDS,

Renaissance in Italy, ii. p. 54.

HAD

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

PREFACE

Early Editions. The earliest extant edition of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus bears the following title page :-'The | Tragicall History of D. Faustus. | As it hath bene Acted by the Right | Hono-rable the Earle of Nottingham his seruants. Written by Ch. Marl. | London. | Printed by V. S. for Thomas Bushell. 1604.'

The only known copy of this edition is to be found among Malone's books in the Bodleian Library.

Similarly, the Hamburg Public Library possesses the only extant copy of the second edition, a reprint of the first, issued in 1609, 'imprinted at London by G. E. for John Wright, and are to be sold at Christ-church Gate.'

A third edition was in all probability published in 1611, but no copy has hitherto been discovered, although it is known that Heber possessed a copy of this issue.1 It would seem that the edition was a reprint of the earlier quarto of 1609.

The fourth edition, published in 1616, differs in many important respects from the former quartos: it contains entirely new scenes and episodes, as well as different recensions of scenes and passages. Its title-page is as follows:-'The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. | Written by Ch. Marl. | (Vignette.) | London, | Printed for John 1 Cp. Breymann, p. xi.

Wright, and are to be sold at his shop | with-out Newgate, | at the signe of the Bible, 1616.' A copy of this quarto is to be found in the British Museum. Quartos agreeing substantially with the text of this edition appeared in 1619, 1620, 1624, and 1631.

In 1663 a worthless edition was issued, 'with new additions, as it is now acted; with several new Scenes.'

The various quartos here enumerated may be divided into two main classes :-(i) the editions of 1604, 1609 (represented by A); (ii) the editions of 1616, 1619, etc. (represented by B); the editio princeps of each class is primarily referred to in the Notes and Glossary to present edition.

The Present Text. The play of Doctor Faustus, as here set forth, represents an attempt to blend the two versions of the quartos of 1604 and 1616; it follows neither the one text nor the other, but results from a 'contamination' of both. By the use of italic type for the passages borrowed from the 1616 edition, the editor has been able to differentiate the sources of the text. It cannot be hoped that the experiment has been wholly successful, but the present issue is perhaps more satisfactory than a mere reprint of any one of the quartos, with bulky appendices of the omitted or additional passages. Very little, if anything, of value has been lost in the present process; the one or two passages of worth belonging to the first edition, here replaced by the later text, will be found in the Notes at the end of the volume. The textual work has been greatly facilitated by Dr. Breymann's excellent parallel edition of the two versions (cp. Vollmöller's Englische Sprach- und Litteratur-Denkmale, No. 5).