Marlowe's <em>Doctor Faustus</em> and the French Translation of the <em>Faustbuch</em>

Abstract

This article proposes that the French translation of the German _Faustbuch_ by Pierre-Victor Palma Cayet, which demonstrably antedates its first attested publication in 1598, may have served as a supplementary source of Christopher Marlowe's tragedy, whose generally acknowledged roots lie in an English version by a certain 'P.F.'. The hypothesis is supported by comparative analysis of a number of passages which shed light on the conflicting theological notions at issue within the tragedy, most centrally the opposition between the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination and the traditional Christian emphasis on the exercise of free will. The former is very much line with the English translation, which also stresses the magician's moral corruption, whereas that of Palma-Cayet more faithfully reflects the Lutheran outlook of the German original. This duality also bears on the tendency of the so-called 'B-text', which almost certainly results from post-Marlovian revision, to develop medieval stage practices, such as the display of hell and the opposing influences of the Good and Evil Angels, in contradistinction to the systematic elimination of references to angels and saints that characterizes the English version.