The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Abstract

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (the play’s first printed title) was written by Christopher Marlowe (1564–93) and an unnamed collaborator, perhaps the dramatist Henry Porter. There is general scholarly agreement that the serious and tragic scenes (the Prologue, 1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 2.3, the Act 3 and 4 Choruses, and 5.1 to the close of the play) are Marlowe’s; the remaining comic scenes are the work of his collaborator. Porter was associated with the Lord Admiral’s Men, who gave the first recorded performances of the tragedy at the Rose Theatre in 1594 with Edward Alleyn in the role of Faustus, two years after the first known production there of Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy. There is some evidence to suggest that Doctor Faustus was written in 1588/9 and its earliest performances given at the Belsavage Theatre, London, though a number of scholars argue for a later date of composition in 1592.