Resources for Christopher Marlowe

Works

• Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe:  An excellent resource.  Includes the texts of all of Marlowe's known works, with textual variants, as well as additional resources for a textual study of Dr. Faustus.  (Perseus Project)

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General sites

• Luminarium:  Christopher Marlowe:  Probably the best Marlowe site on the web.  Includes access to Marlowe's works, critical essays and articles, an extensive links page, etc.
• The Magician, the Heretic, and the Playright:  Faustus, Marlowe, and the English Stage:  Part of the excellent Norton Topics Online:  Sixteenth Century page.  Click on the "Texts and Contexts" box for selections from related primary texts.  (W. W. Norton)
• Marlowe Society of America:  Valuable primarily for its archive of reviews of books on Marlowe.  (Purdue U.)

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Dr. Faustus:  Aids for Reading

• SparkNotes:  Dr. Faustus:  A beginner's guide to Dr. Faustus.  Includes biographical and historical background, a guide to characters, scene-by-scene summaries, etc.
• Structure of Dr. Faustus:  Outline-summary of the plot of Dr. Faustus.  (Linda Appleton, Abilene Christian U.)

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Dr. Faustus:  Sources and Textual Variants

• Dr. Faustus:  The Perseus text allows hyperlinked comparisons between the 1604 and 1616 editions and the English Faustbook.  (Perseus Project)
• Comparison of the A and B Texts of Dr. Faustus:  Side-by-side comparison of the closing scene from the play in the 1604 and 1616 printed editions of the play.  (Rebecca Bushnell, U. of Pennsylvania)
• Differences Between The A and B Texts of Doctor Faustus:  Brief commentary on the differences in tone and interpretation between the 1604 and 1616 editions of Dr. Faustus.  (Desmet, U. of Georgia)
• The English Faust Book:  The most direct source for Marlowe's Dr. Faustus.  An anonymous translation of Johann Spies' German account.  (Perseus Project)
• Faust Legends:  Summaries of a variety of Faust legends and episodes, primarily from Germany.  (D. L. Ashliman, U. of Pittsburgh)

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Dr. Faustus:  Interpretation and Commentary

• Late Renaissance Thought and the New Universe:  Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus:  Apparently lecture notes from a general education course in the math department at Dartmouth College.  Discusses the nature of the knowledge that Faustus seeks, and its place in intellectual history.  (Dartmouth C.)
• Lisa Hopkins, "'And shall I die, and this unconquered?': Marlowe's Inverted Colonialism":  Article on colonialism and "otherness"; focuses primarily on Tamburlaine, but with some interesting remarks on Dr. Faustus.  (Early Modern Literary Studies)
• Critics Gallery:  Dr. Faustus:  Brief critical remarks on Dr. Faustus by William Hazlitt (1820) and Irving Ribner (1962).  (Lawrence Danson, Princeton U.)
• Christopher Marlowe Literary Page:  Student project on Dr. Faustus.  Includes an interpretive summary of Scene I, some historical and biographical background material, a brief bibliography, etc.  (Houston Community C.)
• Renaissance Attitudes Towards Faustus as a Magician:  Student project on magic and the occult in Dr. Faustus.  Uses Renaissance background on the occult to generate brief interpretations of the play.  (Christy Desmet, U. of Georgia)
• Svetlana Babushkina, "Doctor Faustus: Retribution or Ruination?":  Student paper on Dr. Faustus as a tragedy of will and despair; discusses Faustus' misdirected attempt to construct selfhood as an artifact.  Negotiates between, and rejects, the traditional genres of medieval morality and classical tragedy.  Includes an Annotated Bibliography (1984-1998)  (Appalachian State U.)
• John Larson, "Selling His Soul to Make a Point":  Short student paper which argues that Dr. Faustus is a satire on Renaissance humanist ideals and aspirations.  (U. of Oregon)
• Jessica Natale, "The Damnation of Faustus' Fate Concerning Free Will and Personal Responsibility":  Student paper on Faustus' misuse of free will as rebellion and as denial of faith.  [The writing is often as confusing as the title, but it includes some interesting points.]  (Boston C.)
• Kaye Anfield, Faustus & Women:  Short student paper on Faustus and Helen.  Sees Faustus as striving for a destructive, purely human perfection, in defiance on of the divine.
• Dr. Faustus:  Student Presentations:  Three brief student responses to Dr. Faustus, focusing on the fascination of power, the significance of the phrase "consummatum est," and the use of the good and bad angels as agents of psychological ambiguity.  (Lawrence Danson, Princeton U.)
• Dr. Faustus & Edward II:  Student Presentations:  Two brief student responses to Dr. Faustus, focusing on the fascination with beauty and the notion of time.  (Lawrence Danson, Princeton U.)
• Dr. Faustus:  Threaded Discussion Archive:  Archive of an online student discussion on Dr. Faustus.  (Christy Desmet, U. of Georgia)

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"The Passionate Sheperd"

• Christopher Marlowe, "The Passionate Sheperd to His Love":  Text of the poem, with a link to Ralegh's answer.  (Harvard U.)
• Sir Walter Ralegh, "The Nymph's Reply to the Shephard":  Text of Ralegh's reply to Marlowe's poem.  (Harvard U.)
• Janice Greer, "The Poetry Contest: Sir Walter Ralegh, Christopher Marlowe and John Donne":  discusses Ralegh's ironic treatment of Marlowe's Renaissance tropes, and Donne's attempt to create "a wiser, more persuasive shepherd" in response to both poems.
• Janet Alejandro, "Comparison of The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd":  Student essay which discusses the contrasting uses of nature to represent beauty and mutability in the two poems.  (Virtual English)