The Reputation of Christopher Marlozce. 385 



The 1663 quarto of Doctor Fausfus, 'Printed with New Addi- 

 tions as it is now Acted. With several New Scenes,' bears the 

 words 'Written by Ch. Mar.' and testifies to some remaining inter- 

 est among the vulgar ; but the text is terribly mutilated, and the 

 additions conceived in a spirit of the rankest bufifoonery. The 

 most interesting thing about these additions is the brief digest of 

 part of the plot of the Jczu of Malta, reported in some thirty lines 

 to the Sultan of Babylon (signature D2). The text here printed 

 is what Pepys saw acted. May 26, 1662 (ed. Mynors Bright ii. p. 

 250) : — 'by water to my brother's, and thence to take my wife to 

 the Redd Bull, where we saw Dr. Faustus, but so wretchedly and 

 poorly done, that we were sick of it, and the worse because by a 

 former resolution it is to he the last play we are to see till 

 Michaelmas.' 



The effect of this last of all the ]\Iarlowe quartos appears to 

 have been nil, in so far as Marlowe's reputation is concerned. 

 Allusions to Doctor Faustus and, more rarely, to Mephistophilis 

 occur during the Commonwealth*' and after the Restoration, but 

 it is evident from them that ]\Iarlowe had been supplanted as the 

 source of knowledge Ijy chapbooks and puppet-shows. Usually 

 Mephistophilis becomes simply 'the Devil,' and in course of time 

 Faustus degenerates into 'Doctor Foster.'** Edmund Prestwich's 

 poem, A>i Ale-match,^'' clearly has the chapbook narrative in mind. 

 A tavern-keeper lends a group of tipplers 



A boy-like Mcphostophilcs to attend 'em 

 Whom they keep in perpetuall motion, still 

 Emploid either to empty, or to fill ... . 

 By this time they had made more Ale away 

 Than would have serv'd Faitsfiis to 's load of hay. 



Other allusions are of the vaguest kind. A poem called 'Upon 

 Lutestrings Cat-eaten' in the Musaruiii Deliciae of Sir John Mennis 

 and James Smith (1656) mentions 



" Allusions found in plays printed during the Commonwealth period, but 

 composed and acted earlier, have been quoted in the previous section. 



*'C/. Defoe, The History of the Devil, Pt. II, ch. vii (ed. 1727, p. 286) : 

 'No doubt the Dcz'il and Dr. Faustus were very intimate ; I should rob you 

 of a very significant *Proverb, if I should so much as doubt it. 



* As great as the Devil and Doctor Faustus. Vulg. Dr. Foster.' 

 **In poems appended to his translation of Seneca's Hippolytus (1651). 

 Quoted by Tille, p. 985 f. 



