SOURCE: "Introduction," in their Doctor Faustus A- and B-Texts (1604, 1616): Christopher Marlowe and His Collaborator and Revisers, Manchester University Press, 1993, pp. 1-15, 42-48, 62-77.

In the following excerpt from the introduction to their edition of Doctor Faustus, Bevington and Rasmussen survey the controversies surrounding the A- and B-texts, as well as assessing the evidence for the date, the sources, the staging, and the authorship of the play.

Gi; date =~ Sdate

Among the myriad uncertainties about Doctor Faustus, the first is the question of when it was written and initially performed. Two dates vie for our attention, one c. 1588-9 and one c. 1592. The matter is of consequence to our view of Marlowe's career as a dramatist, for, despite their general proximity, these dates nearly span the productive career of this precocious and seemingly doomed young artist. Did Marlowe write Doctor Faustus shortly after his great success with the two...