(1897, T. D.), W. A. Neilson (1911, C. E. D.), J. S. Farmer (1914, S. F. T.).—Dissertations: G. Herzfeld, Zu M.'s Dr. F. (1905, Jahrbuch, xli. 206); H. R. O. De Vries, Die Überlieferung und Entstehungsgeschichte von M.'s Dr. F. (1909); K. R. Schröder, Textverhältnisse und Entstehungsgeschichte von M.'s F. (1909); R. Rohde, Zu M.'s D. F. (1913, Morsbach-Festschrift); P. Simpson, The 1604 Text of M.'s D. F. (1921, Essays and Studies, vii); with much earlier literature summarized in Ward's edition, to which also (1887, ed. 2) Fleay's excursus on The Date and Authorship of Dr. F. was contributed.
he Admiral's men played 'Docter ffostose' for Henslowe twenty-four times from 2 Oct. 1594 to Oct. 1597 (Henslowe, ii. 168). Their 1598 inventories include 'j dragon in fostes' (Henslowe Papers, 118). Alleyn (q.v.) played the title-rôle. The entry printed by Collier from Henslowe's Diary of a payment to Dekker on 20 Dec. 1597 'for adycyons to ffostus' is a forgery (Warner, 159; Greg, Henslowe, i. xxxix), but Henslowe did pay £4 to William Bird and Samuel Rowley 'for ther adicyones in doctor fostes' on 22 Nov. 1602 (Henslowe, i. 172). Probably, therefore, the Admiral's revived the play about 1602-3. These additions are doubtless the comic passages which appear for the first time in the 1616 text, although that may also contain fragments of the original text omitted from the 1,485 lines of 1604. The source of the play seems to be the German Faustbuch (1587) through the English History of Dr. Johann Faustus, of which an edition earlier than the extant 1592 one is conjectured. A probable date is 1588-9. On 28 Feb. 1589 'a ballad of the life and deathe of Doctor Faustus the great Cungerer' was entered on S. R. (Arber, ii. 516). There are apparent imitations of the play in Taming of A Shrew (q.v.).
The reference in The Black Book (vide infra) can hardly be taken as evidence that the original production was at the Theatre.
Greg (Henslowe, ii. 168) gives some support to the view of Fleay (Ward, clxvii) that Marlowe is only responsible for part even of the 1604 text, and that the rest, including the comic matter, may have been contributed by Dekker. But he doubts whether Dekker worked upon the play before the date of a revision in 1594, for which there is some evidence, such as an allusion in xi. 46 to Dr. Lopez. Fleay thought Dekker to have been also an original collaborator, which his age hardly permits.
The play seems to have formed part of the English repertories in Germany in 1608 and 1626 (Herz, 66, 74).
It became the centre of a curious mythos, which was used to point a moral against the stage (cf. ch. viii). Of this there are several versions:
(a) 1604. T. M. The Black Book (Bullen, Middleton, viii. 13), 'Hee had a head of hayre like one of my Diuells in Dr. Faustus when the old Theater crackt and frighted the audience.'
(b) 1633. Prynne, Histriomastix, f. 556, 'The visible apparition of the Devill on the stage at the Belsavage Play-house, in Queen Elizabeths dayes (to the great amazement both of the actors and spectators) while they were there prophanely playing the History of Faustus (the
