Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1 Portable Library of Liberty

plays”), I select two pieces which underwent at their author's hands precisely the
same revision as I hold to have been given by Marlowe to Faustus. In Egerton MS.
1994 (preserved in” the British Museum) there is a play entitled Calisto, or the
Escapes of Jupiter, which I have elsewhere shown to be composed of scenes from
Heywood's Golden Age and Silver Age. A comparison of the text of the MS. with the
text of the quartos shows that the author when issuing the printed copy, revised his
work throughout, scene by scene, and line by line, correcting, rewriting, curtailing,
augmenting. This is the more remarkable in Heywood's case, for he was the most
prolific of all the old dramatists, and might well be supposed to have had little time
for correction. Again: in my edition of the works of John Day I have printed, along
with the text of the quarto, the readings of an early MS. copy of the Parliament of
Bees. In the MS., which gives the unrevised text, we find many passages that were
afterwards cancelled on revision, and the quarto on the other hand contains passages
not found in the MS.; while the variations in phrases and single words are very
numerous.
For information as to the origin and growth of the Faust-legend, I refer the reader to
the elaborate introductions by Professor Ward and the late Professor Wagner to their
editions of Faustus. The point for us to consider is where Marlowe obtained the
materials for his tragedy. In 1587 at Frankfort-on-the-Main appeared he first
connected account of the great conjurer, under he title of Historia von D. Johann
Fausten, dem meitbeschreyten Zauberer und Schwartzkunstler. Two reprints were
published in the same year, and three more editions followed in 1589. It was from this
book that Marlowe drew his materials; but it is probable that he used an English
translation, not the German original. The earliest translation yet discovered is dated
1592. It bears the following title:—The Historic of the damnable 'ife and deserved
death of Dr. John Faustus, Newly imprinted and in convenient places imperfect
matter amended: according to the true copie printed at Franckfort and translated into
English by P. F. Gent.
1
The words “Newly imprinted” show that there must have
been an edition prior to 1592. It should be remembered that the book was one of those
popular productions which ran the greatest risk of being thumbed out of existence. Of
the first edition of the German original only a single copy (preserved in the Imperial
Library at Vienna) is now known.
2
There is one strong piece of evidence to show that
Marlowe made use of an English translation. In scene v. the third article of the
contract signed by Faustus runs, “Shall do for him and bring for him whatsoever.”
Dyce pointed out that the curious text of this passage closely tallies with the text of
the corresponding passage in the prose tract. Dyce's quotations are from ed. 1648; he
Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1
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does not seem to have been aware of the existence of the 1592 edition, where the
article stands, “That Mephistophilis should bring him anything and do for him
whatsoever.”
1
This verbal coincidence is too striking to be merely accidental. It has
been suggested by Dr. Von der Velde that the English actors who performed at the
courts of Dresden and Berlin between 1585 and 1587 (as shown by Mr Albert Cohn in
his work on Shakespeare in Germany) brought with them on their return to England at
the end of 1587 the recently published Faustbuch. Professor Ward adds a further
suggestion, which deserves consideration. In the German original we have a Duke of