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Shuvadip Das posted an Question
September 24, 2021 • 07:06 am 30 points
  • UGC NET
  • English

What is about the a text and the b text of the play doctor faustus by marlowe?

What is about the A text and the B text of the play Doctor Faustus by Marlowe?

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  • Sapare bhavani bai Best Answer

    Doctor Faustus was first performed around 1588, and first published in 1604, in a version usually called the A-text. The revised edition which appeared in 1616 and 1631 is known as the B-text. Critics have debated which of these is more ‘authentic’, since both texts were printed long after Marlowe’s death in 1593. Most scholars now agree that the A-text is probably nearer to the lost ‘original’ written by Marlowe and a collaborator. The B-text is probably a later version revised in 1602 by two other writers – William Byrde and Samuel Rowley – at the request of Philip Henslowe, a theatrical entrepreneur. The B-text is significantly longer and different in important ways. Satirical scenes where Faustus plays havoc with the Pope are developed, as if to give Protestants under James I more chances to laugh at Catholics. There are also additions to the comic and slapstick scenes. The B-text emphasises Faustus’s suffering in Hell with his limbs ‘All torn asunder’, making it more conventional in religious terms. Faustus’s cry at the end of the A-text, ‘Ah Mephistopheles’, makes his death seem more ambiguous

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