The Early Date of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus

Abstract

Christopher Marlowe was responsible for the first significant literary transformation of the German Faust Book of 1587. Thus, a propagandistic pamphlet about a demonic magician became genuine dramatic literature. The focus of the present article is a short period when this major transformation took place. Because the first edition of the English Faust Book has been lost, it is difficult to reconstruct when and how Marlowe completed his Faustus. But evidence of a significant combination of mistakes in the first printing of the English Faust Book, the text of Marlowe’s stage play, and the contemporary Faustus ballad make it possible to reconstruct and date Marlowe’s masterpiece in the period of 1588 or early 1589.