Brain Pain discussion

This is our planned reading and discussion schedule for Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus (the play is also known as ‘The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus’).

Page numbers are from the Penguin edition of The Complete Plays. For other editions, Scene numbers should be the same.

There are two versions of the play – the 1604 “A” text and the later 1616 “B” text. The “B” text omits 36 lines and adds 676 new lines, which are believed to originate from someone other than Marlowe. For that reason, we are going to read the “A” text since it is believed to be closer to Marlowe’s original production of the play. Most editions of the play should contain an indication of which version is used, but if not, the “A” text is 1485 lines long. The “B” text is approximately 1/3 longer.


Week One – January 21, 2013

Prologue and Scenes 1 through 7 (p. 341 – 373)


Week Two – January 28, 2013

Chorus Two, Scenes 8 through 14, and the Epilogue (p. 373 – 395)

Conclusions and discussion of the play as a whole, and its relation to the 1587 chapbook.