Dr Faustus: the A-text - Softcover

Wortham, C. J.; Marlowe, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0855642327 ISBN 13: 9780855642327

Publisher: University of Western Australia Press, 1985

Synopsis

On 30th May 1593 Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in a tavern brawl after a dispute about the 'recknynge'. He was 29. His best known play, Doctor Faustus, was probably first performed in 1590 or 1591, but the first extant edition was not to appear until 1604. It was published again in 1616 in an expanded version now thought to have been debased by the extensive commissioned additions of two contemporary hack writers. Almost all subsequent editions have followed the second or 1616 edition, the B-text, or have attempted an inconsistent synthesis of the two. This new edition, however, conforms to the findings of the most recent Marlowe scholarship, and is based upon the shorter 1604 edition, or A-text, which is now generally agreed to be much closer to Marlowe's original draft.

About this title

From the Publisher:

This is a full cast production with sound effects and original music produced at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre.

Length is approximately 2 hours.

From the Back Cover:

One of the most durable myths in Western culture, the story of Faust tells of a learned German doctor who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Early enactments of Faust's damnation were often the raffish fare of clowns and low comedians. But the young Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) recognized in the story of Faust's temptation and fall the elements of tragedy.
In his epic treatment of the Faust legend, Marlowe retains much of the rich phantasmagoria of its origins. There are florid visions of an enraged Lucifer, dueling angels, the Seven Deadly Sins, Faustus tormenting the Pope, and his summoning of the spirit of Alexander the Great. But the playwright created equally powerful scenes that invest the work with tragic dignity, among them the doomed man's calling upon Christ to save him and his ultimate rejection of salvation for the embrace of Helen of Troy.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Western Australia Press
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0855642327
• ISBN 13: 9780855642327
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 159
• Editor: Ormerod D. A.