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Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus provides an especially interesting example of some of the ways that electronic publication expands the opportunities for scholarly research while increasing access to the play's various editions.

Doctor Faustus From the title page of the 1616 edition

In producing this version of Doctor Faustus, we have revised W. W. Greg's 1950 parallel text edition of the two extant versions of Doctor Faustus, the 1604 A text and the 1616 B text. Also included here is the primary source for Doctor Faustus, entitledThe English Faust Book and translated from German in 1592 by P. F. Gent. This site allows users with diverse interests and differing degrees of familiarity with Renaissance literature to examine these texts and the intricate relationships between them. Electronic publication makes it possible to view this information in various ways; through its multiple hypertextual links,this site provides immediate access to modernized spelling and punctuation, glossary definitions of terms, scholarly notes, and, in time, will display textual variants in printing. Especially interesting here is the display of the relationships between each version of Doctor Faustus and between the plays and their source.

• How to View Doctor Faustus
• What this electronic Doctor Faustus offers
  • Modernizations
  • Glosses and Textual Variants
  • Links Between Different Versions of Doctor Faustus
  • Links With the Source Text: The English Faust Book
• We welcome comments.

"Select Text"
• To select the original 1604 A text, the original 1616 B text or the original 1592 English Faust Book, click on "original" to the right of the names of each text.

• To select the version of the A text, the B text or The English Faust Book with modernizations in spelling and punctuation, click-on "modernized" to the right of the names of each text.

"View With"
• To view modernizations in spelling and punctuation alongside the original version of any of these three texts, click on "modernizations." The original spelling and punctuation that has been modernized will appear highlighted within the text you have selected. Click on these links and the modernizations will appear to the right of the original text.

• To view the original spelling and punctuation alongside a modernized version, click on "original" in the "View With" portion of the table. Again, modernizations will appear highlighted in the modernized text that you have selected. Click on these links and view the original spellings and punctuation that appear to the right of the text you have selected.