PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION FOR the present edition a considerable part of the Introduction has been rewritten, while many of the Notes have been expanded or recast. The widespread interest which has of late years been taken in the play of Doctor Faustus must be my apology for the extent of these changes. An Index to the Notes has likewise been added. In preparing this edition I have been aided by many friends and critics; and I may truly say that in this instance the terms have been convertible. The late Professor Wagner, instead of resenting a 'rival' edition, inserted in vol. ii of the Anglia (1879) an elaborate review of my book which has been of genuine use to it. Still greater is my debt to Mr. Fleay, whose new Life of Shakespeare will, in my opinion, before long be acknowledged as one of the most important works on the history of the Elizabethan drama which this age has produced. He has not only allowed me to publish, as appendices to my Introduction, his own researches and conclusions concerning the date and authorship of the plays here reprinted; but he has also generously furnished me with a series of comments on my first edition, which have enabled me to correct it in numerous points. The kindness and the learning of my friends, Professors Adamson and Toller, proved to have been very far from exhausted by my former large drafts upon them. To Dr. Furnivall and Professors Dowden and Palgrave I owe some valuable hints. Lastly, I have to thank Mr. C. H. Herford, both for valuable information, and for the opportunity of perusing before publication his most interesting and thorough Studies on the Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 1886). Since the date of my first edition Mr. Bullen has enriched our libraries with a standard edition of Marlowe, which I have of course largely used. Several recent publications (chiefly German) in connexion with the two plays, and with Doctor Faustus in particular, are mentioned where I have laid them under contribution ; I may however express my special obligations to Mr. L. Proescholdt's careful collation of the unique copy of the 1604 quarto of Doctor Faustus in the Bodleian (Anglia, vol. iii, 1880). Professor T. S. Baynes was good enough to oblige me with the loan of the quarto of 1655 of Friar Bacon; and Mr. W. Heinemann to send me a copy of his Essay towards a Bibliography of Doctor Faustus (1884). I may add that my references to 'Nares' are to the 1867 edition, with additions by J. O. Halliwell [-Phillips] and Thos. Wright. September 18, 1886. A. W. W. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION It may be well to state that this edition was undertaken before I became aware that my distinguished friend, Professor Wilhelm Wagner of Hamburg, had in the press an edition of Doctor Faustus, which has since been published by Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. Of this excellent edition the plan differs in several respects from that of my own; but it would have been a poor compliment to the labours of Professor Wagner not to make such use of them as I could. The special feature of his edition is the Critical Commentary on the Text, which has been of the greatest service to myself. The courtesy of the authorities at the Bodleian, to whom I return my sincere thanks, has however enabled me to supplement Professor Wagner's labours on this head, by means of a personal inspection of the unique copy of the 1604 edition of Doctor Faustus in that Library. I have also to thank Mr. T. H. Ward, Tutor of Brasenose, and several of my colleagues and friends at Manchester, for information as to various matters on which I consulted them in connexion with the Notes to my edition. I am under special obligations to Professor R. Adamson and Mr. T. N. Toller, upon whose learning and kindness I have largely drawn. Mr. Toller was good enough to read through the whole of the proofsheets of this edition; and much of whatever value it may prove to possess will be due to his suggestions. THE OWENS COLLEGE, MANCHESTER, A. W. W. CONTENTS APPENDIX B (BY F. G. FLEAY), On the Date of THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS |