Additions and alterations were made by the minor playwright and actor Samuel Rowley and by William Borne (or Birde), and possibly by Marlowe himself.

The 1616 quarto, published by John Wright, the enlarged and altered text usually called the B text.

The text is short for an English Renaissance play, only 1485 lines long. It is merely a direct reprint of the 1604 text. A second edition (A2) of first version was printed by George Eld for John Wright in 1609. The title page attributes the play to 'Ch.

The 1604 quarto, printed by Valentine Simmes for Thomas Law this is usually called the A text.

Bushnell transferred his rights to the play to John Wright on 13 September 1610. A subsequent Stationers' Register entry, dated 7 January 1601, assigns the play to the bookseller Thomas Bushnell, the publisher of the 1604 first edition.

It may have been entered into the Stationers' Register on 18 December 1592, though the records are confused and appear to indicate a conflict over the rights to the play. Johann Fausten, published as a chapbook in Germany in 1587, and the fact that the earliest known translation of the latter work into English was in 1592, the play was probably written in 1592 or 1593. Some people were allegedly driven mad, 'distracted with that fearful sight.' John Aubrey recorded a related legend, that Edward Alleyn, lead actor of The Admiral's Men, devoted his later years to charitable endeavours, like the founding of Alleyn's College, in direct response to this incident. In Histriomastix, his 1632 polemic against the drama, William Prynne records the tale that actual devils once appeared on the stage during a performance of Faustus, 'to the great amazement of both the actors and spectators'. The powerful effect of the early productions is indicated by the legends that quickly accrued around them. On 22 November 1602, the diary of Philip Henslowe recorded a £4 payment to Samuel Rowley and William Bird for additions to the play, which suggests a revival soon after that date. The Admiral's Men performed 24 times in the three years between October 1594 and October 1597. Two different versions of the play were published in the Jacobean era several years later. It was probably written in 1592 or 1593, shortly before Marlowe's death. The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on German stories about the title character Faust.

The spelling 'Histoy' is agreed to be a typographical error. Frontispiece to a 1620 printing of Doctor Faustus showing Faustus conjuring Mephistophilis.

Dr faustus b text