Editing Christopher Marlowe (section)

==Chronology of dramatic works==

(Patrick Cheney's 2004 ''Cambridge Companion to Christopher Marlowe'' presents an alternative timeline based upon printing dates.){{sfnp|Cheney|2004b|p=5}}

===''Dido, Queen of Carthage'' ({{circa|1585}}–1587)===
[[File:Dido1594titlepage.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.70|Title page of the 1594 first edition of ''[[Dido, Queen of Carthage (play)|Dido, Queen of Carthage]]'']]

'''First official record''' 1594

'''First published''' 1594; posthumously

'''First recorded performance''' between 1587 and 1593 by the [[Children of the Chapel]], a company of boy actors in London.<ref>Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. ''The Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama.'' Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1973.</ref>

'''Significance''' This play is believed by many scholars to be the first play by Christopher Marlowe to be performed.

'''Attribution''' The title page attributes the play to Marlowe and [[Thomas Nashe]], yet some scholars question how much of a contribution Nashe made to the play.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Freebury-Jones|first1=Darren|last2=Dahl|first2=Marcus|date=1 June 2020|title=Searching for Thomas Nashe in Dido, Queen of Carthage|url=https://academic.oup.com/dsh/article/35/2/296/5370652|journal=Digital Scholarship in the Humanities|language=en|volume=35|issue=2|pages=296–306|doi=10.1093/llc/fqz008|issn=2055-7671|access-date=23 January 2021|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729115606/https://academic.oup.com/dsh/article/35/2/296/5370652|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lunney|first1=Ruth|last2=Craig|first2=Hugh|date=16 September 2020|title=Who Wrote Dido, Queen of Carthage?|url=https://journals.shu.ac.uk/index.php/Marlstud/article/view/92|journal=Journal of Marlowe Studies|language=en|volume=1|pages=1–31–1–31|doi=10.7190/jms.v1i0.92|issn=2516-421X|doi-access=free|access-date=23 January 2021|archive-date=22 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122151411/https://journals.shu.ac.uk/index.php/Marlstud/article/view/92|url-status=live}}</ref>

'''Evidence''' No manuscripts by Marlowe exist for this play.<ref name="Maguire">{{cite book |last1=Maguire |first1=Laurie E. |editor1-last=Cheney |editor1-first=Patrick |title=The Cambridge Champion of Christopher Marlowe |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780511999055 |page=44 |chapter=Marlovian texts and authorship}}</ref>

=== ''Tamburlaine, Part I'' ({{circa|1587}}); ''Part II'' ({{circa|1587}}–1588) ===

[[File:Tamburlaine title page.jpg|thumb|upright=0.70|Title page of the earliest published edition of ''[[Tamburlaine]]'' (1590)]]

'''First official record''' 1587, Part I

'''First published''' 1590, Parts I and II in one [[octavo]], [[London]]. No author named.<ref name="Chambers Vol. 3">{{cite book |last1=Chambers |first1=E. K. |title=The Elizabethan Stage. Vol. 3 |date=1923 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |page=421}}</ref>

'''First recorded performance''' 1587, Part I, by the [[Admiral's Men]], London.{{efn|Performing company is listed on the title page of the 1590 octavo. Henslowe's diary first lists Tamburlaine performances in 1593, so the original playhouse is unknown.<ref name="Brooke Tamburlaine">{{cite book |last1=Brooke |first1=C.F. Tucker |editor1-last=Brooke |editor1-first=C.F. Tucker |title=The Works of Christopher Marlowe |date=1910 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |pages=1–5 |edition=1964 Reprint |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015067093248&view=1up&seq=9 |access-date=27 May 2020 |chapter=Tamburlaine |archive-date=4 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904211125/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015067093248&view=1up&seq=9 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

'''Significance''' ''[[Tamburlaine]]'' is the first example of [[blank verse]] used in the [[drama|dramatic literature]] of the [[English renaissance theatre|Early Modern English theatre]].

'''Attribution''' Author name is missing from first printing in 1590. Attribution of this work by scholars to Marlowe is based upon comparison to his other verified works. Passages and character development in ''Tamburlane'' are similar to many other Marlowe works.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marlowe |first=Christopher |year=1971 |title=Tamburlaine |publisher=Ernst Benn Limited |location=London |editor=J.W. Harper}}</ref>

'''Evidence''' No manuscripts by Marlowe exist for this play.{{sfnp|Maguire|2004|p=44}} Parts I and II were entered into the Stationers' Register on 14 August 1590. The two parts were published together by the London printer, Richard Jones, in 1590; a second edition in 1592, and a third in 1597. The 1597 edition of the two parts were published separately in quarto by Edward White; part I in 1605, and part II in 1606.<ref name=":N"/><ref name="Chambers Vol. 3"/>

=== ''The Jew of Malta'' ({{circa|1589}}–1590) ===

[[File:Marlowe-jew-of-malta-titlepage 2.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.70|''[[The Jew of Malta]]'' title page from 1633 [[quarto]]]]

'''First official record''' 1592

'''First published''' 1592; earliest extant edition, 1633

'''First recorded performance''' 26 February 1592, by Lord Strange's acting company.{{sfnp|Cheney|2004b|p=11}}

'''Significance''' The performances of the play were a success and it remained popular for the next fifty years. This play helps to establish the strong theme of "anti-authoritarianism" that is found throughout Marlowe's works.

'''Evidence''' No manuscripts by Marlowe exist for this play.{{sfnp|Maguire|2004|p=44}} The play was entered in the [[Stationers' Register]] on 17 May 1594 but the earliest surviving printed edition is from 1633.

===''Doctor Faustus'' ({{circa|1588}}–1592)===

[[File:Marlowes-Doctor-Faustus-Frontispiece 1631.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.70|[[Book frontispiece|Frontispiece]] to a 1631 printing of ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]]'' showing Faustus conjuring Mephistophilis]]

'''First official record''' 1594–1597{{sfnp|Healy|2004|p=179}}

'''First published''' 1601, no [[extant literature|extant copy]]; first [[extant literature|extant copy]], 1604 (A text) [[quarto]]; 1616 (B text) [[quarto]].{{sfnp|Healy|2004|pp=xix, 179}}

'''First recorded performance''' 1594–1597; 24 revival performances occurred between these years by the [[Admiral's Men|Lord Admiral's Company]], [[The Rose (theatre)|Rose Theatre]], [[London]]; earlier performances probably occurred around 1589 by the same company.{{sfnp|Healy|2004|p=179}}

'''Significance''' This is the first dramatised version of the [[Faust]] legend of a scholar's dealing with the devil. Marlowe deviates from earlier versions of [[Deal with the Devil|"The Devil's Pact"]] significantly: Marlowe's protagonist is unable to "burn his books" or repent to a merciful God to have his contract annulled at the end of the play; he is carried off by demons; and, in the 1616 [[quarto]], his mangled corpse is found by the scholar characters.

'''Attribution''' The 'B text' was highly edited and censored, owing in part to the shifting theatre laws regarding religious words onstage during the seventeenth-century. Because it contains several additional scenes believed to be the additions of other playwrights, particularly [[Samuel Rowley]] and William Bird (''alias'' Borne), a recent edition attributes the authorship of both versions to "Christopher Marlowe and his collaborator and revisers." This recent edition has tried to establish that the 'A text' was assembled from Marlowe's work and another writer, with the 'B text' as a later revision.{{sfnp|Healy|2004|p=179}}<ref>"The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" ('A' Text) and ('B' Text) in David Bevington and Eric Rasmussen (eds.), Christopher Marlowe, ''Doctor Faustus and Other Plays, World's Classics'' (Oxford University Press, 1995).</ref>

'''Evidence''' No manuscripts by Marlowe exist for this play.{{sfnp|Maguire|2004|p=44}} The two earliest-printed [[extant literature|extant versions]] of the play, A and B, form a textual problem for scholars. Both were published after Marlowe's death and scholars disagree which text is more representative of Marlowe's original. Some editions are based on a combination of the two texts. Late-twentieth-century scholarly consensus identifies 'A text' as more representative because it contains irregular character names and [[idiosyncratic]] spelling, which are believed to reflect the author's handwritten manuscript or "[[foul papers]]". In comparison, 'B text' is highly edited with several additional scenes possibly written by other playwrights.{{sfnp|Healy|2004|pp=xix, 179}}

===''Edward the Second'' ({{circa|1592}})===

[[File:Edward2a.jpg|thumb|upright=0.70|Title page of the earliest published text of ''[[Edward II (play)|Edward II]]'' (1594)]]

'''First official record''' 1593{{sfnp|Cheney|2004a|p=xix}}

'''First published''' 1590; earliest extant edition 1594 [[octavo]]{{sfnp|Cheney|2004a|p=xix}}

'''First recorded performance''' 1592, performed by the Earl of Pembroke's Men.{{sfnp|Cheney|2004a|p=xix}}

'''Significance''' Considered by recent scholars as Marlowe's "most modern play" because of its probing treatment of the private life of a king and unflattering depiction of the power politics of the time.{{sfnp|Cartelli|2004|pp=158–159}} The 1594 editions of ''Edward II'' and of ''Dido'' are the first published plays with Marlowe's name appearing as the author.{{sfnp|Cheney|2004a|p=xix}}

'''Attribution''' Earliest extant edition of 1594.{{sfnp|Cheney|2004a|p=xix}}

'''Evidence''' The play was entered into the [[Stationers' Register]] on 6 July 1593, five weeks after Marlowe's death.{{sfnp|Cheney|2004a|p=xix}}

===''The Massacre at Paris'' ({{circa|1589}}–1593)===

{{multiple image |total_width=300 |align=right |direction=horizontal
|image1= Massacre-at-paris-marlowe.jpg |caption1=Title page to a rare extant printed copy of ''[[The Massacre at Paris]]'' by Christopher Marlowe; undated.
|image2= Handwriting-Marlowe-Massacre-1.JPG |caption2= Alleged [[Foul papers|foul sheet]] from Marlowe's writing of ''[[The Massacre at Paris]]'' (1593). Reproduced from [[Folger Shakespeare Library]] Ms.J.b.8. Recent scholars consider this manuscript part of a "reconstruction" by another hand.
}}

'''First official record '''{{circa|1593}}, alleged [[Foul papers|foul sheet]] by Marlowe of "Scene 19"; although authorship by Marlowe is contested by recent scholars, the manuscript is believed written while the play was first performed and with an unknown purpose.

'''First published''' undated, {{circa|1594}} or later, [[octavo]], London;<ref name="Brooke">{{cite book |last1=Brooke |first1=C.F. Tucker |editor1-last=Brooke |editor1-first=C.F. Tucker |title=The Works of Christopher Marlowe |date=1910 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |page=440 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015067093248&view=1up&seq=9 |chapter=The Massacre at Paris |access-date=11 June 2020 |archive-date=4 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904211125/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015067093248&view=1up&seq=9 |url-status=live }}</ref> while this is the most complete surviving text, it is near half the length of Marlowe's other works and possibly a reconstruction.{{sfnp|Maguire|2004|p=44}} The printer and publisher credit, "E.A. for Edward White," also appears on the 1605/06 printing of Marlowe's ''[[Tamburlaine]]''.<ref name="Brooke"/>

'''First recorded performance''' 26 January 1593, by [[Lord Strange's Men]], at Henslowe's [[The Rose (theatre)|Rose Theatre]], London, under the title ''The Tragedy of the Guise'';<ref name="Brooke"/> 1594, in the repertory of the [[Admiral's Men]].{{sfnp|Maguire|2004|p=44}}

'''Significance''' ''The Massacre at Paris'' is considered Marlowe's most dangerous play, as agitators in London seized on its theme to advocate the murders of refugees from the [[Spanish Netherlands|low countries]] of the [[Spanish Netherlands]], and it warns [[Elizabeth I]] of this possibility in its last scene.{{sfnp|Nicholl|1992|p=[https://archive.org/details/reckoningmurdero0000nich/page/41 41]|loc="Libels and Heresies"}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Hoenselaars|first=A. J. |title=Images of Englishmen and Foreigners in the Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |location=Madison, New Jersey |year=1992 |pages=78–79 |chapter=Englishmen abroad 1558–1603 |isbn=978-0-8386-3431-8}}</ref> It features the silent "English Agent", whom tradition has identified with Marlowe and his connexions to the secret service.{{sfnp|Wilson|2004|p=207}} Highest grossing play for [[Lord Strange's Men]] in 1593.<ref>From Henslowe's Diary. ''Cambridge Companion'', 2004, p. 199.</ref>

'''Attribution''' A 1593 loose manuscript sheet of the play, called a [[Foul papers|foul sheet]], is alleged to be by Marlowe and has been claimed by some scholars as the only extant play manuscript by the author. It could also provide an approximate date of composition for the play. When compared with the extant printed text and his other work, other scholars reject the attribution to Marlowe. The only surviving printed text of this play is possibly a [[Memorial reconstruction|reconstruction from memory]] of Marlowe's original performance text. Current scholarship notes that there are only 1147 lines in the play, half the amount of a typical play of the 1590s. Other evidence that the extant published text may not be Marlowe's original is the uneven style throughout, with two-dimensional characterisations, deteriorating verbal quality and repetitions of content.{{sfnp|Maguire|2004|pp=44–45}}

'''Evidence''' Never appeared in the Stationer's Register.{{sfnp|Deats|2004|p=199}}