HE earliest known edition of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is that of 1604; there is a second edition with date of 1609, agreeing in almost every particular with the first; a third edition

with new scenes and many alterations, was published in 1616. The text here given is that of 1604, with some readings adopted from the edition of 1616, in general agreement with the texts of Dyce and Bullen. It is very doubtful if any of the additions in the edition of 1616 are by Marlowe ; Mr. Bullen thinks that some of them are. They are often ingenious, and sometimes they are improvements. They appear to be written by a clever and facile imitator of Marlowe's style. The comic additions are taken from the prose History of the damnable Life and deserved Death of Dr. John Faustus; the serious additions are closely moulded on Marlowe's early work. We know that in 1602 William Bride and Samuel Rowley received four pounds for making "adicyones" to Faustus. I have retained the excellent plan, introduced by Professor Ward and adopted by Mr. Bullen, of dividing the play into scenes only: it is a dramatic poem rather than a regular drama.

Vintner, Horse-Courser, Knight, Old Man, Scholars,

Friars, and Attendants.

DUCHESS of VANHOLT.

LUCIFER.

BELZEBUB.

MEPHISTOPHILIS.

Good Angel.

Evil Angel.

The Seven Deadly Sins.

Devils.

Spirits in the shape of ALEXANDER THE GREAT, of his Paramour, and of HELEN of TROY.

Chorus.

HORUS. Not marching now in fields of Trasymene,

Where Mars did mate1 the Carthagi

nians;

Nor sporting in the dalliance of
love,

In courts of kings where state is overturned;
Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,
Intends our Muse to vaunt his heavenly verse:
Only this, gentlemen,-we must perform
The form of Faustus' fortunes, good or bad;
To patient judgments we appeal our plaud,
And speak for Faustus in his infancy.
Now is he born, his parents base of stock,
In Germany, within a town called Rhodes ;"

Of riper years to Wertenberg he went,

1 Confound. The Carthaginians were, however, victorious at Lake Trasimenus.

2 Roda, in the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg.-Bullen.

Whereas his kinsmen1 chiefly brought him up.
So soon he profits in divinity,

The fruitful plot of scholarism graced,

That shortly he was graced with doctor's name,
Excelling all whose sweet delight disputes
In heavenly matters of theology;

Till swollen with cunning of a self-conceit,
His waxen wings did mount above his reach,
And, melting, Heavens conspired his overthrow;
For, falling to a devilish exercise,

And glutted now with learning's golden gifts,
He surfeits upon cursèd necromancy.
Nothing so sweet as magic is to him,
Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss.
And this the man that in his study sits!

[Exit.

SCENE I.

FAUSTUS discovered in his Study. 3

AUST. Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin

To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess;

Having commenced, be a divine in show,

Yet level at the end of every art,

And live and die in Aristotle's works.

1 Whereas, i.e. where. Perhaps "kinsmen man;" it is "uncle" in the prose History.

should be "kins

2 i.e. Knowledge. The word occurs throughout the play in the sense of knowledge or skill.

3 Dyce suggests that probably the Chorus, before going out, drew a curtain, and disclosed Faustus sitting in his study.

Sweet Analytics, 'tis thou hast ravished me,

Bene disserere est finis logices.

Is to dispute well logic's chiefest end?

Affords this art no greater miracle?

Then read no more, thou hast attained the end;

A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit:

Bid on cai me on1 farewell; Galen come,

Seeing Ubi desinit Philosophus ibi incipit Medicus;
Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold,

And be eternised for some wondrous cure.
Summum bonum medicine sanitas,

The end of physic is our body's health.

Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end?
Is not thy common talk found Aphorisms ??
Are not thy bills3 hung up as monuments,
Whereby whole cities have escaped the plague,
And thousand desperate maladies been eased?
Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man.
Couldst thou make men to live eternally,
Or, being dead, raise them to life again,
Then this profession were to be esteemed.
Physic, farewell.-Where is Justinian?

[Reads.

[Reads.

[Reads.

Si una eademque res legatur duobus, alter rem, aller

valorem rei, &c.

A pretty case of paltry legacies!

Ex hæreditare filium non potest pater nisi, &c.

[Reads.

1 This is Mr. Bullen's emendation. Ed. 1604 reads " Oncaymæon," by which Marlowe meant the Aristotelian v kal un ov (“being and not being "). The later 4tos. give (with various spelling)" Economy," which is nonsense.

2 Maxims of medical practice.

3 Prescriptions by which he had worked his cures. Professor Ward thinks the reference is rather to "the advertisements by which, as a migratory physician, he had been in the habit of announcing his advent, and perhaps his system of cures, and which were now hung up as monuments' in perpetuum."-Bullen.