Textual Indeterminacy and Ideological Difference: The Case of "Doctor Faustus"

Here phers: is a in wish-fulfillment the bricked-off scenario attic of a for suburban Marlovian London editors cottage, and biograworkmen clearing the way for a car park discover a parcel of old manuscripts, among them several letters dating from the 1 590s and directed to "Christopher Marley" or "Marlowe." They are partly in code but decipherable, and turn out to contain passages detailing his duties as an intelligencer in Her Majesty's service. In the bundle are also several papers, apparently in the hand of Marlowe himself, elucidating such mysteries as the nature of his religious belief and the reasons for his brush with the Privy Council in 1593. There are also drafts of letters sent by Marlowe; one of them, dated later than the rest, hints at his fears of assassination, thus lending support to time-honored speculation that his violent death was not just the result of private feuding. Also in the packet are fair copies in the same hand of several of Marlowe's known works, among them Hero and Leander in the unfinished version of the first printed edition but including a note affirming the author's intent to leave it unfinished; among them also an autograph copy of The Tragicall Historie of Doctor Faustus in-