Christopher Marlowe's Poems Christopher Marlowe

(Patrick Cheney's 2004 Cambridge Companion to Christopher Marlowe presents an alternative timeline based upon printing dates.)[94]

Dido, Queen of Carthage (c. 1585–1587)

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.[95]

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.[96][97]

Evidence No manuscripts by Marlowe exist for this play.[98]

Tamburlaine, Part I (c. 1587); Part II (c. 1587–1588)

First official record 1587, Part I

First published 1590, Parts I and II in one octavo, London. No author named.[99]

First recorded performance 1587, Part I, by the Admiral's Men, London.[k]

Significance Tamburlaine is the first example of blank verse used in the dramatic literature of the 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.[101]

Evidence No manuscripts by Marlowe exist for this play.[102] 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.[86][99]

The Jew of Malta (c. 1589–1590)

First official record 1592

First published 1592; earliest extant edition, 1633

First recorded performance 26 February 1592, by Lord Strange's acting company.[103]

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.[102] The play was entered in the Stationers' Register on 17 May 1594 but the earliest surviving printed edition is from 1633.

Doctor Faustus (c. 1588–1592)

First official record 1594–1597[104]

First published 1601, no extant copy; first extant copy, 1604 (A text) quarto; 1616 (B text) quarto.[105]

First recorded performance 1594–1597; 24 revival performances occurred between these years by the Lord Admiral's Company, Rose Theatre, London; earlier performances probably occurred around 1589 by the same company.[104]

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 "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.[104][106]

Evidence No manuscripts by Marlowe exist for this play.[102] The two earliest-printed 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.[105]

Edward the Second (c. 1592)

First official record 1593[107]

First published 1590; earliest extant edition 1594 octavo[107]

First recorded performance 1592, performed by the Earl of Pembroke's Men.[107]

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.[108] The 1594 editions of Edward II and of Dido are the first published plays with Marlowe's name appearing as the author.[107]

Attribution Earliest extant edition of 1594.[107]

Evidence The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 6 July 1593, five weeks after Marlowe's death.[107]

The Massacre at Paris (c. 1589–1593)

First official record c. 1593, alleged 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, c. 1594 or later, octavo, London;[109] while this is the most complete surviving text, it is near half the length of Marlowe's other works and possibly a reconstruction.[102] The printer and publisher credit, "E.A. for Edward White," also appears on the 1605/06 printing of Marlowe's Tamburlaine.[109]

First recorded performance 26 Jan 1593, by Lord Strange's Men, at Henslowe's Rose Theatre, London, under the title The Tragedy of the Guise;[109] 1594, in the repertory of the Admiral's Men.[102]

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 low countries of the Spanish Netherlands, and it warns Elizabeth I of this possibility in its last scene.[110][111] It features the silent "English Agent", whom tradition has identified with Marlowe and his connexions to the secret service.[112] Highest grossing play for Lord Strange's Men in 1593.[113]

Attribution A 1593 loose manuscript sheet of the play, called a 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 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.[114]

Evidence Never appeared in the Stationer's Register.[115]